Characters of a Minor Sort (jesschars) wrote in btvsal, @ 2010-07-18 15:37:00 |
|
|||
Current mood: | confused |
Why Did She Ask Him to Come?
Who: Gabriel, Raph, and Kayla
Where: LAGH
When: Tuesday, July 13th, Afternoon
It had been almost a week since Kayla had been woken up from her medically induced coma; Dr. Portman had kept her a little longer than necessary to assess as to whether she’d suffered any brain injuries. At first, it seemed like her memory may have been affected, but after a few days, that had passed. Now, his concern was hand-eye coordination and physical fitness. She’d come into the hospital with a fractured vertebrae… or, so the first body scans said, the several that proceeded it showed no damage at all. Either the machine had malfunctioned the first time around, or she healed remarkably fast. He chose to believe the former.
Today, however, was the day for Kayla to leave and while her brother had come to pick her up, she’d asked him to call someone for her, because she wanted him to pick her up. Confused, Raph did as he was told and dialed the number of some guy named ‘Gabriel’, honestly wondering what that was about...
Gabriel had been on pins and needles the whole time that Kayla was in the hospital. What he hadn't told her before was that he had lost a potential Slayer a while back because she had been careless during a patrol of her own. He had blamed himself for fear that he had not trained her well enough. If he had, she would still be here. He was relieved when he had been told that she had come out of her coma. He had waited patiently for her to call, since he had not wanted to intrude upon her time with her family, as he had seen her brother there once when he stopped by while she was still in her coma. When the phone rang, he had assumed it was her. "Hello?"
"Hello," Raph replied, keeping his tone perfectly neutral. He didn’t know who this guy was, after all, or how important he may have been to Kayla. So he wasn’t going to be hostile just yet. "Is this Gabriel Burgess?"
He didn't recognize the voice right away, which made him worry that maybe Kayla had a relapse of some sort. "Yes, this is he," he said. "May I ask who is speaking?"
"This is Raph Barnes, Kayla’s brother," the young man supplied politely. "Kayla's … asked me to call and see if you're able to pick her up from the hospital today." He was a little hurt that she didn’t seem to want him, but… maybe there was a reason for that.
"Did she?" He was honestly a little amazed to her that. "I'm a little surprised to hear that. Is she ready to leave the hospital?" He had honestly assumed that she would want to spend this time with her family and NOT with her Watcher.
"She is. I’m … Well, the doctors have done all they can. Now it’s up to her to pick up where she left off, I guess," Raph replied with a shrug. "I don’t understand why. I didn’t ask. But she wants you."
"I'm not too sure I understand why she wants me, either," Gabriel admitted. "I'll be at the hospital shortly. Are you there with her now?" Maybe they should talk as well.
"Yeah, I’m just outside her room." Raph turned to look into said room and quietly watched his sister move about. She looked a little… awkward. Like a foal leaning to walk.
"I'll be there in a bit," Gabriel said, hanging up the phone and heading outside to his car. Shortly, he was at the hospital and heading toward Kayla's room. When he saw Raph standing outside, he stopped. "Are you Raph?"
"That’s right," the teenager replied, giving Gabriel a small neutral smile before offering the older man his hand. "Gabriel, right?"
"Yes, I am Gabriel," he said to Raph. "How is she doing?" he asked. He wasn't completely sure if the hospital should be letting her out yet, even though he completely understood Slayer healing.
"She’s… better than I anticipated," Raph admitted, crossing his arms over his chest. Of course, he’d been told to expect the worst, so… "The doctors said something about spinal damage when she first got in, but… I doubt she’d be walking around if that were the case." He nibbled his lip thoughtfully, "She was always strong, though. Even if she never believed it." He looked to Gabriel, then, with a burning question in his blue eyes.
"I had the feeling that she wouldn't end up suffering spinal damage," Gabriel admitted. Of course, he had complete knowledge about Slayer healing. He noticed the questioning look in Raph's eyes, but he wasn't sure how to answer it, exactly.
"Well, that makes one of us," Raph murmured, before glancing into his sister’s room. She seemed to be having difficulty lacing up her shoes. He looked to Gabriel again, "Who are you, exactly… that she wants you here? Are you one of her teachers?"
Well, that was one way of putting it. "Yes, I am one of her teachers," he said to Raph. "Did they give any instructions for her to follow for her to go home. Anything like prescriptions or anything?"
"Oh, um. Yeah. You’ll have to go to the pharmacy on the way out." He’d let Kayla get into the details, if she wanted to. He sincerely doubted that she would take one of the prescribed medications, but… she’d surprised him before.
Gabriel nodded. "I'll make sure that she at least goes by the pharmacy and gets the medication," he said with a slight smirk, knowing that it would probably be a cold day in hell before she would be willing to take that stuff.
"Thanks," Raph replied with a brief nod. That’s all he could really ask for, anyway. "I guess I’ll get out of your hair. If you… need me for anything, I’m just a phone call away."
Gabriel nodded. "I'll be sure to give you a call if anything comes up," he said to Raph. He still wasn't completely sure why Kayla wanted him and not her brother to help her get home, but OK.
Raph nodded again and without another word, turned and walked away.
"So… that’s my brother," Kayla murmured from the doorway, giving Gabriel a faint smile. She looked a little… frail around the edges, pale and still finding her feet, but happy to see him. Even if her smile didn’t quite reach her eyes.
Gabriel nodded. "That he is," he said to her. "How are you feeling?" And, what he couldn't quite ask, why did she want him to be here instead of being with her brother, but he couldn't quite say that out loud.
"Sore," she replied, leading him into her room to collect her things. She stopped mid-action and sat on the edge of the bed, looking up at him with those big blue eyes and admitting: "Scared."
He walked into the room with her, feeling a tiny bit uncomfortable in the situation. He wasn't good in social situations. They just weren't exactly his forte. Plus, this situation would have been uncomfortable even if he were a social butterfly. "Scared?" he questioned. "Why scared?"
"…I was asleep when it happened. I remember coming home and falling asleep on the couch and…" She sighed, starting to tense up a bit. "I couldn’t tell Raph, or my girlfriend. They wouldn’t understand." There. That was why she asked for him, specifically. "I’m scared that if I close my eyes for a second, that he could finish the job. And I am so sick of being the victim. Of carrying all of these scars."
Well. That did explain it a bit. She needed someone that she could talk to about this. It was part of what he was here for, after all. "We...the Watchers, we're working on figuring out just what this thing is that is attacking people in their sleep. I hate to ask this, because I don't want you to have to relive it, but what do you remember about it? Anything could be of help."
She looked down, then. "He… I didn’t remember at first, but… he moved around like he was in his element. He knew things. …What I was afraid of. He used that against me." She didn’t want to tell him the specifics there, so she kept it purposely vague. "I remember… he told me his name." She looked up at him, surprised that she did remember… "Abaddon."
He actually pulled out a small notebook and wrote down everything that she said. "Abaddon...that's something to go on," he mused outloud. It was as good of a start as they'd had so far, anyway. "If you have the ability to gain entrance into someone's dreams, it would be easy to learn about them. Their wants, their fears...it's access that no one who would use it against a person should have."
She sighed and stood, collecting her ‘travel bag’ with ease, before motioning to the exit. She didn’t want to cry in front of him. "No, it’s not. Gabriel, what I said about being a victim… I wasn’t lying. I want to train harder, be better… I want to be able to sleep at night, knowing he’s gone. I am tired of being so breakable." As she said it, she couldn’t quite look him in the eyes.
"Then train harder we shall," Gabriel said to her with a slight nod. He started to walk out with her to the exit. "We can work in extra training sessions if that is what you would like." Only someone not completely human could be so calm right now, huh? "Anything that you want, I will do for you."
"Thank you," she replied, looking up at him with a faint smile. Right now, all she needed was to go to the pharmacy and head home. Another thing that she’d neglected to mention to him? She’d been having mild seizures since she’d woken up…
"You're welcome," he said to her. He'd probably have a minor fit, which would be interesting to watch on someone who showed so little emotion usually, if he found out she was having seizures. "Let's go by the pharmacy and get you home then."
That was another reason as to why he was there. That despite how socially awkward he could be, he was also straight to the point. Kayla found that oddly comforting.
Straight and to the point was all that he knew how to be, frankly. He had no other way to be. Well, he didn't know how to be any other way anyway.