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 Posted: Wed Aug 23, 2023 6:09 pm
Though she hadn't the energy to put up with a convoluted medical system and records requisition process, Kaðlín knew she could not put it off for long. It was true, those records were kept for a count of six years, according to the internet, and she did not want to test this fact for longevity. There was far more than that riding on the decision, for the longer she spent without answers for what happened to her friend, the less likely she was in ever solving the mystery.
She did not like visiting the hospital. She found the building cavernous, confusing, and poorly populated with signs. Though she had no interest in talking to the receptionist, she understood that she had to, and introduced herself and her intentions long enough to get a visitor badge that she had to stick to the front of her t-shirt. It created an awkward crease in the fabric, pulling it out to the side where her top was normally loose and flowing around her waist.
Despite prompting, the receptionist did not give instructions on how to reach the floor where her friend last stayed. The only response she received was you should remember, as if her intentions were doubted by a stranger. She bit back her response. now wasn't the time.
She took the stairs because she found it easier to keep moving. She didn't want to listen to banter of employees on the elevator, or meet someone whose loved one was dying, or run into a delivery person who somehow thought she worked there. The stairs were easier, quieter, more isolated. She could listen to her own footsteps echo while her mind wandered concerning what she should expect.
The floor she needed was the ICU. It took five flights of stairs to get there. She arrived a little out of breath, but she would regain it soon after. She asked for her friend's last nurse at the intercom and was turned away, being informed that the nurse was now staffing at the PCU.
She asked where the PCU was. She didn't know what PCU stood for. It was on the opposite end of the same floor. She could walk to the nurse's station there.
Well enough, she guessed. It about matched the care and courtesy she received at the front desk. Off she went, then, down the waxed hardwood floors and past the beige painted walls toward another hospital unit that looked exactly the same as the rest.
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Posted: Thu Aug 24, 2023 7:06 pm
There were things about this that were awful. Most of the time, when people died to their mortal enemies, their was no aftermath for them. They didn't have to think about it, to sit in the shame of their loss to what was, frankly, a stupid oversight, while staring for hours at the gray-speckled hospital ceiling. Brielle got to do that, though, and to deal with the existential thoughts on top of that, about what this even meant, about what had even happened. Worst of all was knowing what this had done to her loved ones. She couldn't shake the vision of Anser's pale, wide eyed face, of the girl kneeling in a pool of her blood. She could still feel Octavian shuddering and sobbing against her body, his tears against her skin. And yet somehow, almost worse than all of that were the things about this that were simply annoying. There was the pain, of course, that she was reminded of whenever she moved. There was the hard bed, the nurses interrupting her sleep, the food. If someone handed her another applesauce cup, she was liable to go a bit feral. Which, she might have already been despite her best efforts to be cordial and accept treatment before she gave any of her loved ones even farther heart attacks. Being stuck in a bed did that, and while visitors helped when they were around, even Tavi had to eat. When a nurse told her she could go to the hall, she took advantage of that, even if it meant jostling her wounds and having to pull the IV pole behind her. The wheels were squeaky, and Brielle moved slowly, but eventually she'd exchanged her view of one set of beig walls for another. At least there seemed to be a person here. Brielle raised a hand, polite as always even if she could only get it about halfway up before wincing. "Hello," she said, wondering what kind of luck she'd need to have found someone talkative. She could use the distraction.
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Posted: Fri Aug 25, 2023 5:06 pm
Kaðlín wasn't certain where to go. There weren't any signs pointing toward a nursing station; all she faced were rows of closed doors and some 90 degree turns. A little further down, it looked like a machine was built into or against the wall, and someone with a cart stood in front of it.
She watched them distantly while she zoned out, thinking of what to say or do if she wandered her way to a nurse's station. Were visitors allowed to approach nurses? She hoped so; if someone needed help and they weren't able to call for it themselves, then wouldn't it be up to their visitor to get help for them? The thought felt a little hollow, but —
"Hm?" She looked to her left at the sound of a voice. She was looking at another young woman with pastel green hair and bruises under her eyes. With the way she was sort of hunched in her approach, she looked like she was in pain, but the flowing hospital gowns left very little to be discerned about where or how bad it was. It wasn't like she knew much about the bags they hung from the pole she was holding onto, either — just that they ran into her veins via a long tube. But even for how she seemed pretty hurt, Kaðlín had heard it was a good thing for patients to be up and about. It kept them active. It kept them hopeful, too.
Aileen wasn't getting any less dead. Her medical records weren't getting expunged in the next twenty minutes. Kaðlín figured she had time to spare, especially if the girl didn't have anyone else to talk to right now. Hospitals seemed like lonely places when one was stuck in them.
"Hi," she tried again, this time with a faint smile. She stood toward the side in case the girl was passing through; she hadn't realized that she had been standing in the middle of the road before that moment. "Are you doing okay? Do you need any help?"
She didn't want to push help on someone who didn't need it. People had pride, even when they were injured or maimed.
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Posted: Tue Aug 29, 2023 5:50 pm
Help? It seemed a strange question, although perhaps she should have expected it. The fact that she'd slept most of the past week didn't do much to change the fact that she was ghost-white, with the sunken cheeks, or the even more obvious part where she was clinging to a small rack of medical devices just to keep herself upright. She could accept the concern, although it wasn't like she needed walked back to her room. "I'm-" all right seemed like a bit of a stretch, so instead she said, "Fine. Bored more than anything." She smiled, and even managed something of a lighthearted tone. Every day, that was getting easier. "We're allowed to walk a bit." It was a good thing. Just the tiny bit of movement was making a big difference. "Are you looking for something?" she asked, because it wasn't like people just came to the hospital to wander the halls. "I don't have anything better to look at than the fire map on the wall. I might be able to point you in the right direction." Although the map only covered this floor. Beyond that, the hospital was a maze.
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Posted: Thu Aug 31, 2023 5:33 pm
Kaðlín hadn't thought much about what it would be like to stay in a hospital. She never had to, and most of the visits she paid were short and centered on the person's well-being rather than their boredom. She didn't recall much else in the room to entertain someone besides a television, and she wasn't interested in much programming when she could be spending her time outside. Only having a TV to pass the time would make a hospital very dull indeed.
The girl didn't look too good, but she must have been doing alright if she could walk around. She hadn't seen many patients using the hallways like that. She was curious what happened to her, but maybe it was too nosy to ask outright?
"Oh," she replied as she remembered why she was there. "I was looking for the nurse's station. I have to collect some records. Could you show me where that's at?" She hadn't seen any signs for it, and if the girl was here long enough, she was bound to have figured out where the nurses were coming from. Maybe she'd already passed it by doing laps.
"And," she paused to rummage around in her tote, "if you're bored, I've got a book you can have. It's a difficult subject, but it helped me get lost in someone else's headspace. Most people use sci-fi and fantasy novels for that, though." She showed the book to the stranger, the dustcover yellow with harried writing filling the entire front. The Man Who Couldn't Stop, it said, by someone named David Adam. "I can drop it off in your room if you want it?" She wasn't going to push it on her, nor was she expecting someone with an IV pole to carry a book with them.
"I'm Kaðlín, by the way. I answer to anything close to it."
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Posted: Sat Sep 02, 2023 7:12 pm
The nurse's station was easy enough. Even if Brielle hadn't been staring at the maps, she'd certainly been listening for footsteps outside of her door as the nurses went to rooms and back again. Any snippets of conversation were more interesting than anything the TV had to offer. She'd heard a decent amount about a divorce and custody battle a few hours ago, while some nurses walked back to the station. "It's this way," she said, and then started walking down the hall with slow, heavy steps, in the direction that Kaðlín had already been going. The IV pole rattled a bit, and the wheels squeak squeak squeaked behind her. It took a few seconds to accept that she wasn't going very quickly, and that a stranger shouldn't be expected to keep her pace. Her feet, at least, were all right for the moment, but everything else was enough to make up for it. She nodded ahead. "You almost made it," she told her. "It's right around the corner." "And if you wanted to let me borrow the book, that would be lovely," she said. OCD, she spotted towards the bottom of the cover, and while it looked a bit different in style from the plays she tended to read, plenty of them tackled troubled souls. Not that specific condition, though. It was interesting that learning about obsession might snap her out of her own headspace. "Do you like psychology?" she asked. "I don't know much about it." Which, perhaps was a problem, because there were those who thought she should worry about her own mental health.
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Posted: Sun Sep 03, 2023 7:07 am
The pace didn't bother her. She was lucky to run into someone who knew how to navigate the floor, and if anything, the pace let her look around a while and observe the paintings they decided to hang on the floor. It was remarkable, to her, the number of paintings gifted to the hospital either by a high school or some kind of professional organization. She didn't know what to think about that.
Right around the corner was plenty of direction to get where she would eventually need to be. "Thank you," she intoned sincerely, for a patient really didn't need to go out of her way to do that for Kaðlín.
"Of course." She paused, then added, "Is there somewhere I can drop it off for you?" Usually there were restrictions placed on how much people could lift after getting hurt or having surgery, and additional restrictions on how high they could lift their arms or what activities they could do. She didn't presume to know any of that by just looking at the other girl. But, health stuff was important to keep secret, so she understood that she might not be able to tell Kaðlín her name or where to drop it off. Belatedly, she added, "I could leave it with the nurses to bring to you later?" That might be better.
Everything she knew about medical came from being involved with people who had unfortunate brushes with it, and even that seemed so paltry and insufficient when faced with the aftermath of someone's passing. If she let herself think about it too much, Kaðlín started to feel quite lost.
"Sometimes," she explained about the subject of psychology. Her attention went to the IV pole, where the other girl was holding onto it. "I like reading the stuff that takes me out of my own head." Things she knew she didn't have. Things she knew that no one else in her life had, though that circle of people had gotten smaller.
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Posted: Sun Sep 03, 2023 6:17 pm
Her cheeks began to flush against her white cheeks even from this tiny amount of exertion, but luckily for the two of them, the corner wasn't very far away at all. At that point, the nurse's station became glaringly obvious, with its ring shaped desk and the computers, and a few people in scrubs standing around. She nodded, then, and stopped walking. She'd catch a few breaths before she made her way back. "The nurses can bring it to me," she said, since that seemed easier than trying to make her try to find Brielle's room on top of everything else. "My name's Brielle Gallo." Had she said that already? Her head still wasn't completely clear. Either way, any book that could get her out of her own thoughts for a while was good enough for her to try. "Thanks again," she said, remembering at least her manners as she started to squeak her way back to her room. "It was nice to meet you."
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Posted: Mon Sep 04, 2023 8:18 am
"Okay, I'll let them know." She tried to smile, then. She wanted to smile, but it felt like the thought of smiling didn't have enough strength to reach her lips. She nodded instead.
"It was nice to meet you, too." She waved as Brielle turned to leave, already looking exerted from wandering the hospital halls. That had to be difficult. Being in a hospital and trying to make it through the days had to have been a test of willpower, given that they were so often dull and the patients were limited by the things that happened to them. If nothing else, by meeting Brielle, she learned to be glad for the fact that her friend had been in a coma during her visit. It spared her the doldrums of staring up at the ceiling, or walking around the hospital halls as the highlight of one's day.
It was time to get what she came for, though. She stepped up to the nurse's station, book in hand, and waited quietly for one of the nurses to approach her. They were busy, after all.
She could wait.
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