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Tweak says, "Justin is a big boy."

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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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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