InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "Baby it's cold outside"

Rae Alghren (prettydeadly) wrote in immune_ic,
@ 2011-11-28 22:51:00

Entry tags:

# 2011 [11] november, rae

WHO: Rae and Jude. Brief appearance from NPC!Andreas.
WHAT: Initial meetings.
WHEN: Backdated to 11/22-ish? To when Rae was still in the infirmary.
WHERE: The Liberty Island infirmary.
RATING: Low
STATUS: In progress.

Simply put, Rae Alghren was a lousy sick person. She hated being locked up like this… she hated situations where she wasn't in control of her own life. Really, when push came to shove, she was in control. She could easily get up and walk out of that infirmary, but the risk would be much greater than the reward here. If she did, if she got up and walked out of the room, she risked getting everyone outside sick and for more than the obvious reasons, that just wouldn't do.

Of course, that didn't change the fact that she couldn't remember the last time that she'd been this bored.

Eli and her father both visited her from time to time, of course. Those visits, the company, they were the only things keeping her from dipping completely from sanity into madness. But the fact of the matter was, as much as she loved the company, as much as she appreciated the two of them taking time out of their day to come and see her while she recovered, she didn't want them to stay too long. The longer they stayed, the longer they were exposed to her, the likelier they were to catch this cold-flu-pneumonia plague and that just wasn't okay with her. So, her boredom was halfway self-inflicted, but what else was she to do?

She turned to her father, who was sitting in the chair across the room, not saying anything. The past month had been murder—pun not intended—on what was formerly a strong bond between father and daughter. It was like losing her mother had taken any and all happiness from her father's life, and no matter what Rae did, she couldn't fix it.

Even now, while he sat there, she could see devastation and resentment on his face and as much as she wished it wasn't true, she knew that part of it was directed at her. He resented her for being able to feign normalcy, for being able to pretend that she'd moved on from her mother's death. Nothing was farther from the truth, but given the way life was now, the way life was, she had to be strong. And it hurt her that he didn't understand that.

He'd been there for two hours now, and he'd spent the past half hour sitting in that chair reading a magazine. The company-without-company deal wasn't helping. If anything, it was making things worse.

Making a conscious effort not to cough while speaking, because that would only worry him, Rae spoke to her father. "Daddy, why don't you just go?" she asked, hoping that her tone held less bite than she felt. "I'm fine, really. Eli brought me a couple books and I've got my phone to check my email on that intranet thing… I'll be okay, I promise."

Andreas looked at Rae sternly, like he was going to fight her, and she immediately felt guilty, but spoke up again, still making a conscious effort not to cough. "Really, daddy. I promise. I'm already getting better and the longer you just sit here, the longer you're exposed to this plague-whatever, and I can't have you getting sick because of me…" she rambled. "I'll be okay. They're taking care of me."

At first, it looked like Andreas wasn't going to listen, and Rae frowned. But eventually, he did. He stood from the seat and walked across the room, pressing a kiss to his daughter's feverish forehead. "You start feeling any worse at all, even if it's just a cough, you message me, okay? I'll be back here as quickly as I can."

She nodded. "I will."

He turned around, walking toward the curtain that served as her door, and Rae watched him walk away, surprised when he turned around to look at her. He looked as though he was going to say something, but it seemed that he thought better of it and as quick as she recalled seeing him move, he hurried out of the room. With him gone, Rae felt a split second of sad emotion about to bubble over, but pushed it back, steeling herself and resolving to be strong.

Instead, she turned to the bedside table and gathered one of the books Eli had brought her, When You Are Engulfed in Flames by David Sedaris, and started to read.

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whoistheknife
2011-11-29 03:07 pm UTC (link)

He eased into the room, only to put the folded socks on her side table. "You feeling okay?" Jude's head cocked with concern before he could stop it. The response to soothe was instinctual. Had Rae been his daughter, he would have had no problem crouching beside her bed and cupping one hand over her forehead. Sick kids sucked. Sick teenagers did too, and Rae was close enough to one in appearance that he wasn't quite sure what to do with all of the concern that being in the infirmary, looking at her alone and turning to a book for company, dragged out of him. Judging by the books on her table, she'd had a visitor. He took that as a good sign, one that if she kicked his ass out, he could look back on and not be worried about her being taken care of.

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prettydeadly
2011-11-29 07:16 pm UTC (link)

The book was funny. Of course it was. Rae would have expected no less from Elliot, than to bring her a funny book. Laughter was the best medicine, she firmly believed that, and she spent the next little while chuckling on and off about little comments here and there.

"Given enough time, I guess anything can look good. All it has to do is survive." Rae stared at that sentence for a minute. The appropriateness was astounding. Of course, she wasn't planning on dying here… it would take a lot more than a cold-flu-pneumonia-plague to kill her, after all. But it wasn't just appropriate to her. The rest of the world… it could survive. And because it survived, the new normal would start to look normal, and normal would look good. She smiled to herself, bad mood quashed… at least a little bit. For now. Just my a simple quite, a simple sentence.

She was about to flip the page when she heard a little bit of rustling at the curtain that partitioned her "room." She wasn't sure what she expected, but the first thought that sprang to mind was that it was her father, returning already from his rushed departure because he was worried. She prepared a hurried "please just go" speech, just in case.

However, it wasn't her father.

As a matter of fact, it wasn't Eli or Sarah or anyone else she knew. Arching an eyebrow, Rae looked at the stranger in surprise. It wasn't like she kept herself, her name, who she was hidden. And she had broadcast on the intranet that she fell off a boat in November, so it wasn't like no one knew that she was in here. It was just a surprise… having a stranger, particularly an older stranger, for that matter, visiting her.

To be honest, she wasn't sure what to think of that. A stranger, visiting her while she was fighting back as hard as she could against an illness that could easily kill a weaker person in the world they lived in.

A stranger, who saw fit to call her "kiddo," apparently. Was he a friend of her father's? As horrible as it sounded, Rae didn't know her father to really have any friends… at least not any that he kept after Carnegie fell. Still, it seemed the logical conclusion, considering how guarded and close-to-the-vest everyone kept their lives nowadays. She was quiet for a second, trying to think of the right way to respond. "I'm Rae," she introduced herself in return, hating the way her voice sounded… all haggard and throaty, like she was Kermit the Frog's long-lost, chain-smoking cousin. "But I guess you knew that," she added, still a little bit suspicious of his presence. They were strangers, aside from a post on the intranet that only Laney and that Stone lady had commented on. Unless he was a friend of her father's.

If he was a friend of her father's, though, why hadn't she heard about him? Or at least been made aware of his existence?

His next comment dissuaded that thought. He was essentially a stranger, who'd heard about her dive session on the intranet and was what, altruistic enough to bring her a pair of pink slipper-sock things and a blanket? In today's world… that didn't make any sense. Most everyone (she said most everyone, because she knew of a few people off the top of her head who weren't that way) were only out for themselves.

And yet, here was a relative stranger, who decidedly couldn't be a friend of her father's, bringing her "get well" type gifts.

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prettydeadly
2011-11-29 07:17 pm UTC (link)

"Slipper-socks," she offered the proper word, still a little suspicious, but hoping that it didn't show too clearly in her tone. "Oh… thanks." Her gratitude was genuine, at least. "I haven't seen these since I was a teenager," she mused. She always got a new pair every year from Grandma and Grandpa Nichols, in their giant gift baskets. "And the blanket, too… thank you. Hospital blankets are sort of…" she searched for the word, "ineffective."

He asked her how she was feeling and she pondered the answer carefully. Rae had never been afraid of strangers. Besides, if this guy was a creep, all she had to do was call out, right? Her voice may not have worked well, but she had at least enough power to do that. And he had brought her gifts. She figured that at least warranted an explanation. "I'm… alive?" was all she said at first. "Feeling a bit like death warmed over, but alive. And I'll make it. I haven't survived this long to let a cold-flu-pneumonia-plague thing take me."

And she meant that.

She paused, biting her lip and then looking up at the man. "I don't mean to be rude… but do I know you? Or did you just, like… hear about my adventure?" she asked. "I don't recognize the name Jude."

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whoistheknife
2011-12-02 03:53 am UTC (link)

"Slipper-socks," he repeated, grateful. The relief flooded onto his face once the word clicked in his brain. With the mystery solved, he could move on with his life- because otherwise, he would have been trying to remember it all day.

Rae's name was fairly apt. Her gratitude was bright living thing: a sunny spot in an otherwise dull, cold, and dreary infirmary. Places like this, without people like her, were nothing but muted surfaces and clinical detachment.

"I hate to break it to you," Jude said with a growing smile. "But you're not exactly ready to apply for your AARP card." To hear her say 'teenager' like it was eons ago made him smile, because the girl was edging twenty-five at the most. He'd been there too, having written off too much of his youth because his eyes were pointed solely forward. He wasn't trying to deny her life experiences, but it was strange to hear her talk like she was a grizzled war vet- even though she was one, just by being Immune.

When she thanked him for the blanket, he started unfolding it from his arm. When it was fully undraped, he put it over her legs, careful not to touch her and not to hover. He was closer to her legs than he was her torso when he let the blanket fall where it may. He resisted the instinctual urge to tuck it beneath her legs, because wow, inappropriate. "Ineffective is a good word... very accurate. I don't know why doctors seem to believe that sleeping underneath of drafty tablecloths is conducive to healing."

He backed up a step after the blanket was cast.

"You have quite the spirit." He meant it, even if he was feeling a weird disconnect. For a second, reality felt incredibly far away. It was like Jude wasn't sure who he was talking to, because knew it wasn't entirely Rae. Sure, it was Rae in the hospital bed, but he distinctly felt like he was talking about someone he actually knew. Looking at Rae was like looking at a photograph, but Jude wasn't sure if the picture was of someone he knew, or one of someone he just wanted to remember. "Alive is good. Death warmed over is better than death served cold." Despite the macabre wording, his tone was light.

"Oh no- we haven't met. There's no reason for you to recognize my name, either. I keep mostly to the Library." He casually offers his hand for an introductory shake. "I get injured and haunt hospital wards pretty professionally. I know how much it sucks to be here, and when I read about your 'adventure', I wanted to make sure that you were okay."

If anyone was being rude, it was Jude. He was charging into this girl's life, through her infirmary curtain, and hovering when she was clearly unsure who he was, or what his motives were. Rae was nothing but polite. "It's weird and probably creepy, but I promise it's just that I couldn't stop worrying about you. I kept talking myself in and out of coming here, but hypothermia is serious business. Especially in the winter."

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prettydeadly
2011-12-02 06:00 am UTC (link)

With a laugh, Rae watched the reaction that spread across his face and looked at the fuzzy pink things, reaching a hand out to gather them and hold onto them for a second. She'd always liked fuzzy things. The smile she wore then was genuine, if a little reserved. She'd put them on later. For now, she just deposited her book back onto the table and placed them on top of it.

Yet again, she laughed. "No, maybe not ready for an AARP card, but I deserve every year I've got." Her tone was light, like it was a joke, but the statement itself was true enough. She felt like she'd earned every year, for the past five years especially, and just because she looked younger than she was, and just because she was young period didn't mean that she should be begrudged those years. "Don't worry, though. I won't be getting fitted for orthopedic shoes any time soon," she joked.

Rae was surprised to see the blanket draped over her legs, but her smile didn't fade. She simply quirked an intrigued eyebrow and then looked up at the man again. "Thank you," she repeated, putting her hands on the top of the blanket and pulling it up a little bit. She wasn't terribly cold, not really, but she knew that she needed warmth more than most people did now. "This was a nice gesture."

She meant all of it; the blanket, the slipper socks, the unexpected company… as someone who thrived on people and their reactions to her, this was a welcome distraction from just being here by herself. And even though the guy was a stranger and she didn't know him from a hole in the ground, he'd quite obviously gone through a lot of trouble to get these things for her. Slipper socks and insulated blankets weren't as easily obtained as they used to be, after all.

"Because drafty tablecloths used to be cheaper than insulated blankets and old habits are hard to break," Rae deadpanned, but it wasn't too long before a smirk played across her face. "Actually, I think it has more to do with allergies, but I like my first answer better."

Rae always heard that. That she had spirit and spunk. It was genuinely one of the greatest compliments that someone could give a girl like her. People with spirit, spunk or however you chose to put it were always the ones who saw things like this through. Seeing as that was exactly what she wanted to do, she always took it as the utmost compliment. "Losing your spirit is the first step to losing yourself," she said seriously. Her mother had always said that to her and she smiled sullenly at the memory. "Yes, I would much rather be death warmed over than death served cold right now. I think I've had enough cold for two lifetimes. When this whole thing is over I'm moving to Mercury."

He mostly kept to the library. Which meant that he was quite a ways away from his usual haunt. She extended her hand to shake his. "This is a long way to come to check on a stranger," she said, her tone holding no bite and her smile grateful. "Have a seat," she added, gesturing to either chair in the room.

To a less confident person, it probably would have been creepy. But Rae really wasn't bothered by it. She'd heard stranger things, and she shrugged off his concern, shaking her head no. "Not creepy. Well, not really," she added jokingly, with a light chuckle to punctuate. "I'm glad people are worrying… which sounds worse than I meant it to, but… what I really meant was like, it's nice to know that people care."

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