[OPEN] Post-earthquake LCUH catch-all

[healspec]

Who: If you have even the flimsiest of excuses to be at LCUH, you are more than welcome here.
When: The week of the 12/3 earthquake
Where: Locke City University Hospital
What: This is a catch-all post for threads at LCUH. Hospital staff, volunteers, patients, visitors, whatever--if you want to do a thread at the hospital, here you go. NOTE: this is party-style, I'm more interested in giving people a place to thread than in threading w/everyone at the hospital myself.


[In the wake of the earthquake, LCU hospital is organized chaos. Staff may find themselves suddenly working odd hours, or ridiculous overtime shifts. The ER especially is swamped, with EMTs rushing earthquake victims in with startling regularity. Hopefully you're not there for anything non-life-threatening because you'll be waiting for hours.]

[Tuesday night is obviously the worst, with activity waning back toward normal as the week goes on. But fewer incoming patients doesn't mean all the old ones are getting released. Expect patients to get assigned beds in whatever unit has one available, which means they might end up overnight in a completely different section of the hospital than they'd expect. ER is so crowded they have beds in the hallways, and they're doing everything they can to get patients transferred elsewhere as quickly as possible.]

Comments

[peacefulwinter]

I'm glad. I w-would feel bad if I'd... left him alone too long. And he's learned w-well... I'm proud of him. [She nuzzles the plushie, still grinning.]

[Her mood diminishes a little as she thinks back to the last 24 hours.] I'm... well, I'm in pain, I c-can't walk, and I'm p-pretty sure they're going to throw me off the student council. I just... don't know what I threw it all away for.

[argents]

It wasn't an easy wait. [ He smiles some, glad at least a little good came from it. ] That was smart, giving him your phone like that.

[ Facing forward again, he expression smooths back over, save some tension in his eyes. ]

Still, I would've been happier if it wasn't necessary at all... but I can't exactly change that now. You wouldn't have backed down either way, would you?

[peacefulwinter]

I had a feeling it... would be important. And even then... Rikka trusted him. I'll g-give him the benefit of the doubt.

[She shakes her head.]

Th-there's nothing... you could have done. I'd have d-done it anyway. It was... important.

[argents]

I know, I know. It's not easy to just swallow something like that though, the fact that you got arrested. People haven't come back from that, Winter.

[ Which is really the crux of the matter. No matter what he logically knows, it doesn't magically just make him stop being concerned. They can't just keep lucking out forever. Rather than shifting the blame to her, however, his inflection makes it obvious that he thinks he's the one who should be doing more. ]

What happened, anyway? I heard that it was Mr. Locke.

[peacefulwinter]

[She was starting to feel okay with things, trying not to think too hard about it. And then he had to go and remind her. "People haven't come back," he says... She shivers, and her mood drops; when she speaks again, after a moment, her voice is quiet. She hates it.]

I... I know. I k-know it's dangerous, and that next time I won't... be so lucky. I'm in danger... all the t-time, now. All because I c-can't let things go... but that's j-just how I am, I guess. Giving up everything... e-even my safety, because I wanted to do the right thing. I'm r-really a piece of work.

[She knows she shouldn't think like that - it's hardly her fault that the raid came the way it did, and she can hardly change the way she is. But that's how the cards fell.]

The running theory... is that Mr. Locke or-organized a drug bust, but when it was executed... something went wrong. Innocent people were set up. There... were m-mistakes. I st-still don't know what I... fought so hard for.

[argents]

In the end, we're all just trying to do what we think is right. Or the best that we can. You, Mr. Locke. Even if all we can do is fight — [ A pause. He's heard this before, in his memories. ] ...an endless war. [ In truth, he's still wound up, and can't free the exhale he feels caught somewhere in his chest. It's only made worse by the sudden meaning he finds in words once spoken to him, a whole world away. Tensely, he flexes his fingers, still refusing to give into something that bleak. ] But we don't exist in a vacuum, either.

[ And that's about as much of a scolding as he has the heart to give right now, when there were still people arriving on stretchers, and nursing ducking this way and that with tired eyes. ]

How bad is it? Your ankle.

[peacefulwinter]

I'm n-not... someone that wants to fight. I just want to live in peace, and protect the p-people that are important to me. Is... that so wrong of me? [She sighs heavily, shaking her head.] Never m-mind. I'll... have to do some thinking later.

[Gingerly shifting her leg with a sharp hiss and a tear coming to her eye, Winter takes another look at her ankle; it's swollen up pretty badly, and it's presently an angry shade of purple. She frowns when she sees it.]

I t-think... it's broken. I fell wrong on it, and... mmn, this hurts.

[argents]

[ It's not really a conversation he wants to get into either, because he doesn't think she's wrong. Not one bit. But they had to consider at what expense this was happening at, whether they fought or not. Slumping back in his seat, he looks at the ceiling for a long moment. Right now, he doesn't really want to think about any of it. Living in peace, protecting everyone... ]

Yeah, me too.

[ What recalls his attention is the noise she makes, and his brow pinches when he sees the ugly color of her skin around her ankle. ]

Be careful about putting pressure on it! ...That's a lot worse than I thought.

[ The corners of his lips turn, and he sits up to look around. There was no way she was going to get in anytime soon, but sitting here forever with her in so much pain wasn't an option either. He spots a small team of nurses making their way through the ER, doling out the bare basics to keep it from dissolving into a mess. Bandages, alcohol pads, water. Without any hesitation, Banagher gets up out of his seat. ]

Hang on a second.

[peacefulwinter]

[Now that she's actually looking at it rather than having a brief crisis of alignment, Winter is rapidly observing that her ankle really hurts, and her original plan of telling him she'd be okay is completely ignored. She does manage to get out a little bit of a mitigating comment:]

D-don't go ov-overboard! Ah...!

[argents]

[ As it is, he has to physically make himself not turn back around, but sitting there worrying was going to do her about as much good as it'd so him. So he cuts around a few seats to have a back-and-forth with some of the nurses. Though he normally might've felt bad for essentially refusing to budge until they handed over something other than an assurance that they'd be by, he's as stubborn as he is understanding. Sometimes, he just runs out of patience.

So when he returns, it's with a paper cup of over-the-counter painkillers, and just enough water to get them down. ]

You're not allergic, right? [ A quiet enough statement as he ducks back into the seat next to her, offering the twin cups. ] Here you go, bottom's up. It's probably not going to do a lot, but it's better than trying to bear this without anything at all.

[peacefulwinter]

[She's starting to wonder how she put up with it this long; everything from her knee down was starting to feel like fire, and she's having to bite her lip to keep from screaming, which would either hurry the nurses along to her, or get her escorted out. She didn't want to take the chance at the moment. But a long, low murmur of pain makes it out of her as Banagher returns. Her hand shakes a little as she reaches for the first cup; with a hiss and a sharp breath, she forces herself to focus, and knocks the pills back quickly, following it with the cup of water shortly after. The two are not-so-gingerly set down, and she forces herself to look at him and school her expression into something that doesn't show as much of what she's feeling, though she's still screaming on the inside.]

Not allergic-! I'll... I'll take it over n-nothing! [After another moment's fight for control:] T-thanks.

[argents]

[ It's clear now that her adrenaline reserves were quickly drying up. Soon, there'd be nothing left but pain, and nothing left for him to do to try and help. He's finding it tough to look her in the eye, knowing that, but she's trying, so he will too. Somewhere, he knows that she probably wouldn't want his sympathy anyway, when all was said and done. ]

All we can do now is wait.

[ Laying his arm across the armrests of the chairs between them, he extends an open hand. ]

[peacefulwinter]

[Not really, no.] I... really don't th-think it's going to be that easy...!

[She doesn't know what to do with her hands. Or her leg. Or her mouth, because she doesn't want to scream in here. So the offered hand gives her one less things to think about, and she takes it without a second thought. She isn't processing the secondary meaning just now. She's also really wishing those painkillers would have kicked in by now.]