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Second times the charm

He was beginning to wonder if perhaps he had a target painted on his back. First the Sahara; broken ribs, broken weapon, the bugs, the coma, the quarantine. He'd only really just recovered when this newest disaster had struck the island itself. There had been a lot of injuries over all, not just his, but Zeke was feeling particularly bitter about it all.

The cut on his forehead had needed a few stitches, but he wasn't concerned with them. A few days and they'd be gone, he probably wouldn't even have a scar to show for it.

It was the burns that really bothered him. Second and third degree burns over his chest, his left collarbone, and his left arm and shoulder. They started low on his abdomen and crawled along his left side, up along the bottom of his neck, and over the majority of his left arm. That's what had taken the brunt of the damage, it's what hurt the worst, and it would be there that he'd see the lingering evidence of this night. Even with the help of his weapon. (He could hear her again. She'd come back to him when they were treating the burns. At first he'd though he was imagining her, a product of the pain, or the painkillers. But she'd persisted, murmuring to him, whispering softly through his mind with adoration and soothing comforts. never again, she'd promised. Never again would she leave him. Never again would they be apart. It would have been sappy as ******** before he'd lost her, now it was a comfort.)

She was whispering now. He wasn't sure if it was because she couldn't speak louder yet, or if it was for his benefit. There was a gauze pad taped to his forehead, and bandages were wrapped around his torso and left arm. He looked like a loop-sided mummy, from the waist up.

At the very least, he wasn't going to have to be there long this time. A few days, tops, and he'd be released.

S'mores

He wasn't sleeping, not exactly, but he hadn't really been awake either. The painkillers they had coming through the drip in his arm we strong. They left him in a bit of a haze. Enough of one that Lagertha's voice alone murmuring through his head was enough to keep him occupied. Eventually the novelty of that would wear off, but for the moment he would savor it.

It had been three months since his weapon had been broken and gone silent. He'd started to wonder if she'd ever recover enough to fill that void she'd left in his mind, or for him to summon. The one time he'd tried had been damn near the worst pain he'd ever felt.

Well... Now he had a wider margin for comparison. The initial break had been worst, of course, and the fire was rolling in at a close second.

Tommy's voice seemed to come out of nowhere. Zeke blinked, head turning slowly to take in the trainee moving towards him. "Well?" He was half a zombie, well didn't seem like it should apply. All the same his voice was mild, and if he didn't smile, he didn't frown either. "You stuck here, too?"

Delivery girl

They had him on enough painkillers to appreciate the outfit, but miss the the subtle haunted look that seemed to linger in her eyes. At first. "Aw, hey princess." A lazy grin, teeth flashing in the fluorescents over head. "You are always welcome in my quarters." Wherever those quarters happened to be at the time.

Maybe the infirmary should jut start reserving a bed for him, he seemed to be spending and awful lot of time there lately...

Largertha made a noise, not finding that thought very amusing. She was still upset to have found him in his current state as the long sleep.

"Come here." It wasn't the book he'd wanted, not really. Sure, he'd read it later, but it had been a means to get her there, and though it had taken him a moment to remember that through the drug induced haze, once he did he'd notice that tightness around her eyes.

Delivery girl

His hand found her hip as she moved to sink down on the bed side him, but he'd have to let her go to take the book. The other hand worked, and with painkillers it didn't hurt too much, but he'd rather not do any further damage to that arm. So he gave her side an affectionate pinch before taking the book from her. "Thank you."

As for how he was feeling? Zeke chuckled, he couldn't help himself. A mix of ironic, self-deprecating humor, and painkillers. "Oh, you know. I can't really feel anything at the moment, so there's that."

He brushed the back of his fingertips along her arm, watching them, before looking up at her face. "How about you?"

delivery girl

Harley gave a playful yelp at the pinch, just a small noise, on habit alone. She then swat his hand away with a small tsk, like bad boy! But nothing more than that. He took the book from her, and she looked him over, unsurprised to find the bandages and everything else; she had been given a selfie, of course. She knew what to expect. Still, it was different to actually see it.

"Well, that's probably good, then?" Harley laughed a little bit, and scooted closer to him, trying to avoid sitting too close, or on him in case she caught his bandages. "Hopefully Lagertha will take care of the rest." She nodded, and leaned close. "Hey, Laggy? Glad you're awake ~ Take good care of our boy now, yeah?" When it came to how she was doing though, she offered a small shrug.

"I'm alright! Worried about you, and McPurple, and Smutbot, and Ollie, and the rest of my boys." She brushed her fingers along the bandages on his chest, barely touching him. "You boys just can't stay safe, you know?"

Delivery girl

"Better than feeling it, I suppose." Having spent a few hours feeling it, he was happy for the pain killers. Burns hurt like nothing else. They didn't just sting, they ached, and throbbed, and that hurt penetrated down to the bone. "She says she's working on it." Zeke grinned up at her as she leaned in closer, and his uninjured hand came up to run a curl of her bright hair between his fingers.

She wasn't leaning in for him though. Zeke chuckled at the valkryie's rather pleased, boastful response. "Say's she's trying, but I can't seem to stay out of trouble." To this he would offer a snort. "To be fair, it's not like I go looking for it." Neither time had Zeke been rushing in foolishly. Foolish just wasn't how he operated.

"I'll be fine," he assured her, brushing her cheek with his knuckles before letting his hand lower, large fingers circling her wrist as she played with his bandages. "It's harder on you when we're the ones getting hurt, but I'd rather it was us." Well. He'd rather neither of them got hurt, but if it was a choice. He didn't know the others well, and didn't really care to. "Than you."

Delivery girl

He made an affronted noise though his teeth. "Well, if I saw them coming I sure as s**t would." They kept catching him by surprise. Wrong place, wrong time. Zeke was half convinced he was simply unlucky at this point. It didn't exactly help matters, but it put an ironic sort of spin on it that made the whole thing just slightly more bearable. "And don't encourage her. She gives me enough grief." Laggy snorted in amusement.

The world around him was all soft edges, but Harley stayed in focus. He frowned up at her, a little more thoughtfully than what would have been normal, as worked through the haze of his mind to reason that out. She had a point. A very good point. Except... "I don't intend on dying anytime soon." He didn't intend on getting hurt, either, but that was neither here nor there. That didn't exactly solve her dilemma though.

Smoothing his thumb along the inside of her wrist he brought her hand up so he could lay his lips against her knuckles.

Delivery girl

When she drew her fingers free and leaned in closer he touched her chin, thumb smoothing in a light brush against the edge of her jaw as he returned tat soft kiss. He couldn't do that with anyone else. He wasn't affectionate like this with anyone else, because he didn't have that sort of a relationship with anyone else. Paige came close, she was his best friend, but beyond one kiss their interactions were all fairly platonic. Ever got the heat, he got the casual touching, but Harley was the most familiar with his cuddly side.

Zeke just liked physical contact.

"You're lucky you haven't yet." He didn't want to see her here if their places were switched. But. "But if you do, I'll take care of you." He offered a lazy smirk with the declaration, tucked a curl behind one of her ears. "S'my job, after all." Or at least would be, once they had him on rotation again.