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 Posted: Fri Jul 31, 2009 9:25 pm
You know, breaking into hospitals probably isn’t a good idea.
Shut up. I don’t want to hear it.
And the nurse will be here any second—
I’ll hide.
Quinn had his elbows on his knees and his chin in his hands, staring at the sleeping Seamus.
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Posted: Fri Jul 31, 2009 9:57 pm
Bright and early, right on time, Valeriu stood before the doors of the ICU ward.
Last night had been - had been eventful. Tepin had gone home with him, right then and there; he'd insisted she leave a note for her mother, at least.
But in truth, he hadn't wanted to go home alone. Sydni was at Bobby's house in an impromptu sleepover, and he'd called and apologized and explained as best he could, and Bobby's mother had been more than kind about it.
He knew it would be devastating even before he walked in the door. But to see the damage he'd caused to his beloved house - and Canster, that little shadow that Quinn loved, stayed huddled in the midst of it, looking at them with widened spaces for eyes.
It was hard to doubt that the creature was alive, now. But it'd been a heavy sacrifice to make. It would've been fine, if - if Seamus and Murphy just hadn't gotten caught in the cross-fire. He could fix the damage here; and he did, that night.
The hardest part was the living room, where the blood soaked the carpet. He didn't bother to usher Tepin up the stairs and out of sight, just got right down on his knees and started cleaning until the sobs wracked his body once more and he'd curled over the spot.
But somehow, they got through it. Come morning, most things had been cleaned up, sewn, fixed and repaired - the pipes would take a little extra effort today, and the closet door needed to be entirely replaced along with a few floorboards, and he had to get a new tub-- but the bedrooms had been left safe with the doors shut.
And now, at exactly eight o'clock, he'd come to face the person he'd hurt. He'd asked, Tepin - to come in later, to get herself moved back in. Because he'd needed to do this on his own.
The hospital smell burned his nose until he couldn't use it, but he was glad for it; there was enough death and blood here that he didn't need to smell it. He hesitated, opened the patient door, and looked inside; for a minute, he thought he'd seen something, heard something, but the man on the bed took up all of his attention. A few slow steps, and he was by Seamus' bedside, inspecting with a vague sort of horror the wounds that had been inflicted, cleaned up now and more ghastly int he daylight.
He sat heavily down in the chair placed by the bedside, somber.
"I'm sorry, Seamus."
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Posted: Fri Jul 31, 2009 10:07 pm
Quinn almost leapt out of his bathtub. That didn't sound like a nurse. It was...Different. The steps were heavier. He stepped out of the bathroom, eyes dark and shadowed with lack of sleep.
"Damn right," Quinn said, hovering behind Vale, after taking silent steps up to him. "I'm sorry, too. And the ******** who did this is gonna be the sorriest of all. When I see him and he sees the floor in his ******** face." Quinn leaned against the chair he had been using next to Seamus's bed, hands clenched against the top of it and knuckles white.
"What...What happened, Vale? Have you heard?" He lifted a leg and pushed the chait back so he could sit down. He sat heavily, making a loud thunk. "Tell me. Please. So I can ******** them up."
What? What the hell is this? Tears were beginning to form at his eyes, and he wiped them away from heavy eyelids.
"I just-- Maybe if I hadn't-- He would have been okay. He would have had the energy to get away from whatever a*****e attacked him. If I hadn't been a selfish d**k." He shoved his eyes against the heels of his palms, and grunted.
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Posted: Fri Jul 31, 2009 10:25 pm
The apparition that was Quinn startled him - he'd barely heard, and stared in confusion at the rainbow-colored man accompanying him in this little white room.
"V'hat are you--" he started, and then stopped, taking in Quinn's haggard appearance. Something clicked; a growing suspicion and wonderment as he looked at Quinn, and looked at how Quinn looked at Seamus.
Oh.
Oh.
It looks like they both - they both had a lot to talk about with each other.
He frowned, and leaned back in his chair, and sighed heavily and couldn't quite tear his eyes off Seamus for more than another glance at Quinn. A glance that spoke of guilt and regret.
"Quinn," his eyebrows furrowed in pain as he looked at the gouged man lying on the bed in a pharmaceutical-induced coma. "It v'as - it v'as nothing you did."
"It v'as me, Quinn," he admitted, and his shoulders sank under the weight of those words. "I did it. I did something stupid and rash, and I thought no one v'as around in case something bad happened. Sydni v'as at the babysitter's, the house v'as empty--" He ran a palm across his face. "But the Carnegies have a magical knack for being in the v'rong place at the v'rong time."
He gazed at the stained bandages; the nurses would have to change those soon, and it would be hell for Seamus. Especially the marks on his face - a chunk taken out of his nose and ear and running to the corner of his lips. The eye had just barely been missed, but a knife-like cut sat on the rise of his cheekbone, neatly stitched.
"I attacked Murphy, and Seamus stopped me. V'oke me out of it." He looked at the gauze wrapped around the too-pale chest. Those vertical lines, digging deep, from the center right down to his naval, were leaving similarly-shaped red marks soaking through all that white. "If he hadn't - if he hadn't been holding that frying pan--"
Valeriu didn't want to think about it. It was too horrifying; he knew his claws could punch through the ribcage like it was a piece of wood.
"It's my fault."
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Posted: Fri Jul 31, 2009 10:40 pm
"And if it is," Quinn paused, "You didn't do it on purpose. So I don't need to ******** you up. I hope you learned your lesson, and don't be an a*****e to your best friends again, please." He smiled like a toy, fake, but "Almost Realistic!". He felt like using his kung-fu action grip to knowledge fifty percent of the battle on someone's face.
But there was no one to direct his anger towards. He refused to do it to Vale, couldn't direct it at Seamus, obviously. He was just angry. He tried to convince himself it had something to do with the fact that he hadn't slept for many, many hours. <********, Vale, I haven't been home since like, ten o'clock last night. I don't even know why I'm here. I just...I need to fix it. I need to make him better. And I don't know how the hell to do that." He rubbed his thumb absentmindedly on Seamus's hand. "I can't do that. And that annoys the hell out of me."
"Just tell me, Vale," He looked up from the spot on the wall he had been staring at, and turned his gaze to Vale, "What did you do? What were you doing? What would make you...do this to him?" He tried to keep his voice down, but anger started creeping into it as he reached the last sentence.
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Posted: Fri Jul 31, 2009 10:56 pm
Valeriu was pretty steadfastly not looking at Quinn, more concerned with keeping watch over the stuttering rise and fall of Seamus' chest. Even in sleep he was probably riddled with pain. Each breath would pull on those stitches - from stomach or chest, there was no alternative.
Quinn's diatribe was - was interesting. Interesting to listen to. Interesting to watch how protective he was of Seamus. Who had made it pretty clear to Valeriu exactly how much he hated the rainbow-godling's guts.
He hesitated to tell Quinn, but - but Quinn wanted to know.
In his hand, he produced the shadow - Canster, the only unique shadow he now had, and set it on the bed with a shaking hand.
"It v'as rash," he murmured, and listened to the beeping of the machines. "Tepin had left - and I v'as determined to do something right," he admitted, bitterly. "I v'anted so badly to fulfill my promise to you, that I did the first and riskiest thing I could think of. And it ruined me. I v'as so hungry, and I couldn't control my powers anymore."
He leaned back into the chair, and rubbed at the red around his eyes.
"I don't remember much. Murphy filled me in. I got lost - sort of. Feral. I just remember being very, very hungry," his words got quieter. "They veren't supposed to be there. No one v'as."
He was supposed to be alone.
His ears pricked up at a distinctly unhappy and near-silent groan; Seamus, somewhere in his haze of drugs and pain, probably knew they were being idiots.
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Posted: Fri Jul 31, 2009 11:14 pm
"Canster!" His eyes brightened immediately, and he reached the hand that wasn't attached to Seamus's to let the little shadow crawl up onto him. It snuggled up against his neck, wrapping around him into a little necklace with eyeholes on the diamond-shaped shadow gem in the center.
"So, you did it for me." He said it flatly, and blankly. "Seamus is in here, because I was selfish and wanted to keep him." He motioned to Canster. "You were doing it for me, and you got this for it." Quinn's jaw was set, and his face was tense, but not easily read.
When Seamus groaned lightly, he looked at the man's face, and sighed. Canster's eye holes looked up at Quinn, worried.
"You got yourself, and Seamus, and Murphy, into this mess, because of me." He rubbed at his eyes with his ********, Vale, I--" His eyes were already refilling with that damn water, and he didn't even bother to wipe it away.
"I love you," he said it almost spitefully. Directed at whatever had caused it. Not Vale, not Quinn, but whatever was actually behind it. It was the first time he had said it, and it couldn't have been worse timing. "But it's not worth it. We just ******** each other up. You didn't owe this to me. You just...You just thought you did. I made you think you did." The tears were streaming down, heavily now.
"I don't know what I mean. By any of that. I have no idea." His other hand had made its way to Seamus's, too, and both hands were holding onto the one, Quinn glaring at the floor.
"I'm sorry. For this. For making you do this."
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Posted: Fri Jul 31, 2009 11:26 pm
"Bullshit, Quinn," Valeriu growled, for the first time, giving the other a severe scowl. "It had nothing to do v'ith you. Nothing. I v'ould have found another v'ay to do something stupid. It's not about you. You even start thinking that, and I v'ill get so ******** angry that you v'ill get a matching bed in this hospital."
He quit the growl, sinking down in the chair, frown lessening.
"Look," he sighed, and this was as good a time as ever. Seamus wouldn't mind - Seamus was dead to the world right now. "It happened because I -- because Tepin left. Because I ******** up v'ithout her."
He was trying to say it, trying to explain to Quinn, scrambling.
"I need her, Quinn," he finally decided, giving the other a serious look. "I rely on her. A lot. I care for her -- a lot," he emphasized. "I care for you, too. Just as much. But," he looked back to the bed, brow furrowed. "You know it. I know it. V'e are not meant to be like that. It doesn't v'ork."
It hadn't really worked; even their first kiss had been nothing but pain and misunderstanding.
"I v'ould like," he muttered, and it was embarrassing to say, "I v'ould very much like for us -- Quinn, you are my friend. As important to me as this man upon this bed," he gestured to Seamus. "I think...I think v'e v'ork better as friends. I v'ant us to be friends. I don't v'ant to lose you just because v'e don't make a good couple."
He really - really wanted to underscore this. Sure, it would be awkward; the sexual tension would be there, but would lessen. He just didn't want Quinn to hate him again.
"Plus," he added, more knowingly, and for once Valeriu was not quite so oblivious, "I think you've already moved on, too."
He glanced at Seamus, remembered exactly how much the man had ranted and raved and railed against Quinn's offenses.
"Good luck v'ith that," he wished, solemnly, as if it was Quinn's funeral.
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Posted: Sat Aug 01, 2009 7:46 am
Quinn nodded, but silently had doubts. Vale wouldn't have done this without encouragement.
"Oh." He stated plainly, mind obviously on other things. It took a moment, but he finally responded. "I...see." He looked over at Vale, his brow furrowed, but not angry. "That's...That's fine, I guess. Doesn't that make you technically a *****, though?" He smiled, the first real one all night. It was weak, but it was there.
His hands jerked back from Seamus's. "What? No. What are you talking about? You don't know anything Vale. Shut up." He rolled his eyes. "Honestly. Psh. Seamus? Whatever."
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Posted: Sat Aug 01, 2009 10:57 am
"Didn't that technically make you a *****?" he growled right back. "Who grew first, hm? Besides, I'm only eleven," he added, then stopped, realized, ears pricking up, "Oh. V'ait. I turned twelve."
He had, hadn't he? Just a little over a week ago. His birthday - he hadn't even remembered. And last year he hadn't even had access to a calendar; so he'd just picked a random day around what he thought was the right time, and ate roasted bananas and fish.
He looked plainly at Quinn, and at Seamus, but didn't push the matter.
"You should go home and get some sleep," he advised, "Believe you me, he v'ill have plenty of people looking after him all day today."
The entire Carnegie family. Normal families failed to understand the sheer numbers that the Carnegie name represented. He'd caught a glimpse of their family reunion - the entire street had been blocked off, and the twins had been trapped in the bosom of a rather large lady who might have been one of their aunts, or grand-aunts.
"But," he looked at Seamus again, how pale and skinny and too breakable that he'd been for all his tough and kind demeanor, "I am very glad you kept v'atch during the night."
Valeriu had been terrified - that something would go wrong. That stable, but critical would turn to flatlining in a single moment.
"Thank you."
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Posted: Sat Aug 01, 2009 9:01 pm
"Psh. I was only a ***** for, like, three days." He smiled a bit, then looked back at Seamus.
He rubbed at his legs like they were cold, and nodded. "I will...I will go home." He nodded.
"But, the minute, the second," he paused, "The millisecond something goes wrong, you'd better be at my door banging to wake me up. And I mean that." He stood up, and then suddenly dived at Vale in the chair to hug him, quickly, pulling back and snaking away from him just as quickly.
"I guess I'll see you later." He turned towards the door, and hung his head. It would be a long walk back home.
"The Nanosecond," He stressed.
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Posted: Sat Aug 01, 2009 9:44 pm
Hugs. He'd been getting a lot of them, lately. It was strange - Quinn wasn't the hugging type. Embarrassed, he appreciated it nonetheless.
"The microsecond," he swore with utmost sincerity, a wan smile drawing across his face. "V'alk home safely, da?"
It was time to settle in for the long wait, and hope Seamus awoke soon.
He sighed.
If only these chairs were comfier.
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