Alexander Pierce III knows your (darkestfears) wrote in doorslogs, @ 2012-06-08 18:03:00 |
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Entry tags: | scarecrow, stephanie brown |
Who: The brothers Pierce
What: Aftermath from the Bat beatdown at Arkham
Where: Hospital -> Nick's townhome
When: Directly after the Arkham log
Warnings/Rating: None
Alex was quiet when they returned to Nick’s, unusually so for him because Alex was never quiet. He always had something to say, something to comment on, but this time, he was quiet, forehead pressed against the glass of the car window, his freshly casted wrist resting in his lap. His arm was still healing from when it had been broken, and with the combination of the newly broken wrist, he was a sight for sore eyes. Bruises still coloured his skin, deep purples and blues that hadn’t begun to fade, and there was something very off about the man.
To say Nick was worried would be the understatement of the century. It was the second time in the month that Alex wound up in the hospital, mysterious injuries littering his body. As he pulled into his assigned parking spot just outside of his townhouse, he glanced at his twin through his rearview mirror. Alex couldn’t have been quieter during their drive from the hospital to home, and that alone made Nick purse his lips. “Now, I don’t know if they gave you food while you were there, but I know that hospital food is notorious for being atrocious.” He tried to give Alex a smile, a shaky little twitch of the lips. “I can try my hand at making dinner, but I would rather not have to bring you right back to the hospital.”
During the ride, Alex had gone somewhere in his own mind, thoughts reeling back to Arkham, to the encounter Crane had had with the woman and the suited man and everything that had come from it. Judging by the purse of his lips, he wasn’t enjoying the trip down memory lane, and was actually grateful for the sound of Nick’s voice rousing him from his own thoughts. Lifting his head from where it had pressed against the window, Alex straightened, turning his attention back towards Nick and offering him a faint smile in return. “We can order in. I’ll pay,” Alex said in return, none of the usual banter present as he reached for the crutches that sat beside him in the seat, already moving to extricate himself from the back of the car. “Something Chinese, maybe. Sweet and sour. Something edible. I”ll-” Alex paused, half out of the car, his brow furrowing down. “You can choose.”
Nick shook his head. “You don’t have to,” he said of paying, knowing the argument might be moot even in Alex’s condition. He was the older twin, Alex was, but Nick always liked to take care of him too. Felt obligated, even when the twins couldn’t always see eye-to-eye. But Nick knew Alex was stubborn about letting his younger twin care for him. He waited a moment, let Alex finish talking before scrambling out of the car and around the front to help Alex out of the car. He took the crutches from his brother and reached out a hand. “Chinese.” He smiled and nodded. “You’ve got it, man. Will a couple of beers interfere with the pain medication they gave you? I think I have a few in the fridge.”
The help was appreciated, and Alex reached out with his good hand to meet Nick’s pulling himself up and out of the vehicle, balancing precariously on one foot before reaching for the crutches to tuck beneath his arms. “It’ll interfere and just make me fall asleep faster. Not necessarily a bad thing,” he said, cracking half a smile as he crutched several steps away, turning and pushing the door shut. It was a difficult thing, broken hand and foot, but he managed somehow, heavily favouring the broken wrist during the entire thing. He knew that Nick wanted to help, to do something to take care of him, but pride made it hard for Alex to be able to accept, especially when he couldn’t even tell his brother properly what had happened.
Nick only just resisted the urge to lean forward to close the door, though his fingers twitched and his body swayed forward in betrayal. If given the opportunity (or, really, if born with the force and strength his twin had), he might have thrown Alex into a wheelchair and forced him to rest. But he knew his brother too well, and he knew himself too well. Alex wouldn’t stand for it, and Nick could never actually do it. So instead, he stepped away to give the other man some room to move around. “You can take my bed as long as you’re here. The sofa pulls out, so it doesn’t matter very much at all. Did they say how long you should rest? Because you should be resting.” He did a once over and frowned. “That was some fall, Alex.” His voice gave away that he didn’t really believe it was a fall at all.
“I can take the couch, Nick. You keep your bed. Please.” Alex gave him a long look before he moved towards the building, his pace slow but he managed to keep himself moving. He could hear the worry in his brother’s voice, and while he understood its source, Alex knew there was nothing that could be said that would alleviate any of it. “The doctor recommended a week off before I’m moving around too much,” Alex said, pausing at the door because that he could not manage on his own. He half turned towards Nick, head canted to the side. “It was a fall. I tripped over a fucking bat.” The word was spat out as though it tasted bad, and for a moment there, it wasn’t Alex talking, not with that tone or that inflection, but as soon as it had been said, he was back to himself, backing up slightly to give Nick room to get at the door.
Nick kept the painstakingly slow pace with his brother for the most part, only drifting behind a few times incase Alex fell backwards, until he rushed forward to open the door, pulling out the keys as he moved ahead of his twin. “Take the bed,” he insisted as the key turned inside the lock and the door opened. “Since you’re not going to allow me to take care of you.” The look he shot Alex was mildly chiding and a little bemused, as if they had gone through the same routine time and time again. He stepped over the threshold, then to the side to allow his brother entry into the house. “A bat?” he asked, a little curious and really incredulously. “Forgive me, but I don’t remember you picking up sports recently. Where did this all happen?”
“Not like a baseball bat,” Alex said as he eased his way over the threshold, leaning against the wall to rest for a moment, the pace and the injuries starting to catch up to him, to drag him down. “A bat. With wings. I fucking hate bats.” The words were snapped out as he looked towards his brother, studying him for a long moment before he looked away, shaking his head. “Sorry. I’m just- It’s late. I’m irritable. I need my pain meds before I rip something off this body.”
Nick furrowed his eyebrows because it being the animal instead of the inanimate object hardly explained things at all, but he knew better than to push Alex at the moment. “It’s fine,” he said softly, trying to relax his face and keep the confused concern from his voice. “C’mon, let’s get you to the couch, and we’ll get you your pills.” Before Alex could protest, Nick slipped his arm underneath the arm with the broken wrist to support his brother, taking the crutch out and into his free hand. “Thought about telling Mom and Dad about this one? At least you’ve got a good excuse.”
He wanted to argue, to resist the help that Nick offered him, but he was simply too tired to do anything but comply as the crutch was taken from his hands, his weight on Nick as they made their way towards the couch. Alex didn’t say anything again until he was seated, pulling his leg up to elevate the casted ankle, slacks bunched up around his knee where the cast ended. “You’re not telling Mom and Dad about this,” Alex said as he looked up towards Nick, and there was something hard in his gaze at that point. “But we need to talk about something Nick. With all my...” His what? His illegal activities? Crane’s activities through the door? “...bad luck as of late, I wanted to ask you something.”
Nick couldn’t help the huff that escaped him at Alex’s answer. It was a worried, unhappy little noise. Of course he wouldn’t want to tell their parents, and Nick wouldn’t tell them either, even as much as he wanted to let them know. He shook his head in disapproval and was about to bring himself to argue when Alex continued. He didn’t like the look in Alex’s eyes, but nodded, lips pursed. A million different thoughts went through his head as he moved to sit on a chair nearby. “Of course, man. What is it? Shoot.” His hands folded in his lap while one of his legs jiggled nervously.
Alex waited until he had dug his pills from his pocket, swallowing two of them dry, listening as his brother settled into one of the nearby chairs. Alex glanced over towards him, his expression softening slightly before his chin dropped towards his chest. “If anything happens to me,” Alex started, his brow furrowing down, looking at his hand, fingers curled in slightly towards his palm. “Everything goes to you. Because there’s no one else I trust like I do you, Nick.” He glanced up then, turning his head slightly to the side to look towards him, tired, drained.
That Alex admitted he trusted no one else more than him, Nick knew that was big, and he couldn’t help the appreciative smile. “But nothing is going to happen to you, Alex,” he said assuredly, forcing a reassuring smile even as his brain was wracked with an overwhelming panic. Because the way things were turning out, something could happen to him. Something happened to Dani, and Nick was certain it wasn’t just a random crime. That it had to do with this hotel they all seemed to be involved with. “We don’t even have to worry about anything like that.” Nick would try his best to make sure of that.
“No, nothing is going to happen to me,” Alex said, but there was a certain uncertainty to his voice. With everything that was happening, the dangerous path he had started down with everything that was going on with Wren, to Crane’s antics, a long life was no longer completely assured. If he burned out, Alex would do it in a spectacular manner, but he didn’t want to leave his brother picking up the shattered pieces with no plan to go by. “But isn’t it better to be prepared than not? We’re nearly 30, Nicky. Wills and the such are things we need to be figuring out.” His gaze dropped to his lap, rubbing his good hand over his leg with a long sigh before he shifted and pulled his wallet out of his pocket, tossing it towards his twin. “Go order something. I don’t care what. I just need a good meal in me at this point.”
Nick, who never did really well with confrontation or negative thoughts or bad things, wanted nothing less than to discuss this. The thought that something horrible could happen to his brother made him a little sick to his stomach and had him chewing the inside of his cheek raw with worry. “You say it like we’re on our way to our deathbeds next week, man.” What the hell had Alex all wound up like this? It couldn’t be anything good, and it had to be something serious. Nick knew his brother would never stress over something unless it was a real threat. And that...well, that concerned Nick most of all. He caught the wallet after a quick fumble and flashed Alex a small smile. “Gotcha.” He stood for a moment, as if to say something else, but in the end turned to the kitchen to order dinner. They’d have time to worry about all that stuff later, he figured. Now he just wanted to make sure his twin was as comfortable as possible.