Leon Orcot (under_arrest) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2018-04-25 17:17:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, jessica moore, leon orcot |
Who: Leon Orcot, Jessica Moore and NPC!Chris Orcot
What: Leon and Chris bring Jessica a burger in the hospital
When: Early March
Where: The hospital
Ratings/Warning: Low/noneish, dream injuries
Status: Complete
Leon had been taken aback when Moore had given him the news about Jess, and for a moment his mind protested at the thought of Jessica lying in the hospital after someone, or something, had attacked her in her bed.
There wasn’t much he could do about it while he was at work. He had murderers to bring to justice, though he had been distracted for most of the workday as he thought about her. He’d spent some time in hospitals - he’d been injured often enough in the course of his work, and so had his father - and he knew the general quality of hospital food. So after work, he picked up Chris and a double bacon cheeseburger, stuffed them in Chris’s backpack, and made his way to the hospital. It wasn’t difficult to discover which room Jess was held in, and he knocked on the door, wondering if she’d be awake.
***
Jess had spent most of the day dozing (or pretending too when the questions about her ‘assailant’ and their appearance got to be too much) but she’d just finished talking to her mom on the phone when she heard that knock on her door. “Come on in,” she called, assuming that it was one of the hospital staff coming to check on her again. It wasn’t her favorite part of being in the hospital but they were just doing their job and had been pretty good so far about helping her stay modest. Even when having to check the covering on her wound. Although they hadn’t been all that receptive to her suggestion of bringing her some pizza or something for dinner in place of something for the cafeteria. To hell with whether it was approved fare or not. She’d almost died thanks to getting impaled in the dreams, you’d think that would give her a little leeway from the staff. But she hadn’t exactly told them that’s what had happened. She was pretty sure the official story was the one about someone breaking into her house and attacking her while she slept.
She grinned as Leon and Chris stepped through the door. “Hey. I’m guessing Dad told everyone what happened?”
***
Leon frowned a little when he say Jess. She really didn’t look good, and he looked down at Chris to see how his little brother was handling it. His expression was solemn, but at least he didn’t look like he was disturbed by the sight of Jess in a hospital bed. At least her wound was covered, so there was that at least.
“Yeah,” he said, going to sit in one of the seats next to the bed. Chris took the other one and pulled his backpack onto his lap so he could open it. “How’re you feeling?”
***
Jess sat up a little straighter as the guys made themselves comfortable in the chairs, wincing a little as it pulled at her stomach and she breathed out slowly as she made herself comfortable, pulling the blankets up a little higher. “I’ve been better. This was not the wake up I wanted today. Or the way I wanted to get time off from work.” She said trying to keep her voice mostly upbeat for Chris. There was no hiding that things were bad but that didn’t mean she had to clue him in to exactly how bad it was. About the emergency surgery or the fallout from that. She needed to tell her parents about that before her friends. “I’d be even better if they’d let me get pizza or something for dinner. You’d think injuries like mine would earn you a little leeway in the way of not having to eat horrible hospital food right?”
***
“We’re going to find the guy,” Leon promised her. Half the police force was riled up already. Leon wouldn’t be on the case, which he was grateful for as most of his victims were dead, but he was just as eager as almost anyone else to get the guy in cuffs.
Leon grinned widely when she mentioned wanting pizza. “We’re way ahead of you,” he said, nodding to Chris who pulled the bacon cheeseburger and fries out of his backpack. Maybe it wasn’t exactly pizza, but Leon knew that it was one of the best burgers in Irvine; he’d gotten it from one of his favourite burger joints.
***
“You are my heroes. Seriously.” Jess said with a grin as she took the food Chris held out to her. “You wouldn’t happen to have brought drinks by any chance right? Because if not - maybe Chris could take my wallet and go get us some from the vending machine?” She added, trying to catch Leon’s gaze and hoping he’d realize she had something she needed to tell him that she didn’t really want Chris to know about. It was bad enough him thinking someone had broken into her house and attacked her. She didn’t want him knowing that she was in here because of a dream where she got attacked.
***
“I’m not going to go snooping around for your wallet,” Leon grumbled, fishing his own out of his pocket. The hell kind of guy would he be if he let some girl in a hospital bed pay for his soda? “Get me a Coke and something for yourself,” he said, handing over a few ones to his brother. “What do you want?” The last he directed toward Jess.
***
“Did I say snooping? I was going to tell you where mom put it when she came by this morning. To let me know she was going to take the animals to her and dad’s.” Jess said, shaking her head at her friend. “Coke. I’m not stressing calories. I promise I won’t attack your fries Chris.” She said, waiting until he was gone from the room to look back at Leon.
“I couldn’t tell the officers who got here first the truth about my injuries. How I got them and who did it. There wasn’t an intruder - I woke up from a dream. And if that son of a bitch Brody ever shows up here I’m going to make him pay.” She said a little bit of the venom she felt thinking about the man who’d attacked, who’d murdered, her in the dreams leaking into her voice. “I didn’t want to say anything in front of Chris but there’s noone for them to catch and punish for this.”
***
Leon crossed his arms over his chest, his face growing more grave as she went on. He’d seen the work of the dreams first hand the first time when Alex had woken up half-drowned, but he hadn’t seen anything like this before. There was someone to catch and punish for this: whoever was behind the Network and all the craziness that it brought with it. But now police resources would be spent trying to track down some guy who didn’t exist outside of Jess’s dreams, when they could be spent trying to figure out who had caused all this shit in the first place.
And if it wasn’t for the Agency keeping things quiet, the police would know that there was no one to arrest for Jess’s assault. His fingernails dug into his biceps in an attempt to not punch something - no doubt he’d get kicked out in a hurry if he started getting violent.
“I’m sorry Jess,” he said after a moment, his voice taut. “I wish there was something I could do that would let you see justice get served here.”
***
Jess felt guilty for the fact that she knew that the lie she’d had to tell was wasting police resources and time but she hadn’t had a choice. “I wish I hadn’t had to lie about what happened. But there was no choice. Other than wasting more time and resources by having to go through a psych evaluation and everything else.” She said quietly.
“I just...this whole thing is such bullshit. The dreams. All of it.”
***
Leon glowered for a couple more moments before exhaling, forcing the tension out of his shoulders. Sure, he could be pissed off about the dreams and sit and stew in how pissed off it made him that falling asleep could do this to Jess, could possibly do this to Alex someday, or he could actually try and be there for Jess.
“I’m sorry, Jess,” he said. “It really is just a load of bullshit. I guess I’m glad it wasn’t worse.”
***
Jess wasn’t telling him the worst of it, what the doctors had told her after the surgery. That was something she wasn’t ready to share with anyone just yet. If ever. “I really owe the emt’s something for getting there as fast as they did. And should probably think about getting a roommate so that I’m not there by myself anymore.” She said, unwrapping her burger and taking a bite.
***
“EMT’s are pretty great,” Leon said, a touch of pride in his voice. He didn’t think that Alex had been the one to get to Jess, but he was still fond of the profession as a whole thanks to his boyfriend. “A roommate wouldn’t be a bad idea. With dreams like yours, you really shouldn’t be alone.”
***
Jess noticed the way his voice change at that comment and she raised one eyebrow as she bit into her burger, grinning around it at Chris as he came back in with drinks. “I’ll think about it. The roommate thing. It’s going to depend a lot on if I can find someone that Whit is comfortable with because it’s his house too. And he doesn’t trust very many people.” She said. “And I’m really hoping that this is the only time something like this will happen.”
***
“Thanks bud,” Leon said as Chris handed him the Coke. Then Chris went over to Jessica to give her hers as well. “We’re both hoping that this is the only time this happens to you too,” he told Jessica, referring to himself and his little brother. “You’ll let me know if you need anything? I’m not so good at screening roommates,” Leon had never had one himself. He knew himself well enough to know that he wouldn’t get along well with anyone he lived with, “but I can at least run a criminal record check or something.” It wasn’t exactly within the rules to do background checks on people for personal reasons, but every now and then Leon would bend that particular rule.
***
Jess gave Chris a quick one armed hug as she took her drink. “Thanks.” She said after swallowing her bite. “I promise - I don’t plan on making this a habit. The food from the cafeteria is horrible. And I’m pretty sure you two would get tired of bringing me dinner that was actually edible. Or burgers this good.”
“I think I’m going to use Leo and Whit to screen them. I’m pretty sure animals are supposed to be good judges of people. But a background check could come in handy and I’d be a lot more comfortable asking you than my dad. At least you’ll be a slightly more objective than him.”
***
“You’d better not make this a habit,” Leon said. He didn’t like to admit it, but he really had been worried when he’d learned that Jessica was in the hospital. Though he didn’t mind bringing her food. Showing affection through gifts of food was just something he did.
“You sound like D,” he grumbled. D always seemed to trust animal’s opinions more than he did people’s. He was a weird guy. “Don’t forget to trust your own intuition too, you know?”
***
Jess laughed a little at his grumbling. “I won’t. I promise. If I even get the slightest off vibe from someone - I walk away from them as a possible roommate.” She assured him.