Keegan (_keegan_) wrote in btvsal, @ 2011-01-26 22:53:00 |
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Entry tags: | catherine baclanova, fransisco ortiz, ~keegan lockwood |
Wrong Place At The Right Time
Who: Catherine, and introducing Keegan, with an appearance by Frank
Where: The Streets of L.A. then LAGH
When: Monday, Very Early Morning, January 24
"Looking for some company, Mister." Keegan asked of the guy who wandered on by her as she leaned back against the brick wall of a random building. When the guy seemed to slow in his step the teen pushed off from the wall to bridge the brief distance between them with a couple steps. "Fifty for half an hour." Keegan quoted her price when she reached the guy only to recoil in horror when the guy made a slow, awkward turn to face her. As the guy with the disfigured face reached out as if to grab for the teen, Keegan back-stepped and then turned in an attempt to flee. Which wasn't exactly a good thing for the girl as in her attempt to get away from the man, Keegan stepped off the walk and into the street in the direct path of a pair oncoming headlights. All she found herself doing was stare wide eyed at the oncoming vehicle like a deer caught up in the path of headlights.
It was way too late for Catherine to be driving, but she'd had a very long night out with some friends after a night of patrolling, and she just hadn't felt up to doing the walking when she met them at Avarice, so she had driven. Catherine didn't drive very often for a reason: mainly because she sucked at it. Apparently none of her coordination went toward a driving skill. She had seen the girl coming, but couldn't *quite* stop quick enough, although her reflexes managed to help it so that she didn't completely slam into the poor girl, turning her insides into a gel. It was more of a hard push than a slam. Worried, Catherine put the car into park and ran out of the car to the girl she had just hit. "Oh god, are you alright?" she asked, bending down to check on her.
One moment Keegan was staring down dual headlights, the next she found herself laying on her backside, and more then slightly dazed by the impact. "I'm fine... that guy... he." Keegan rambled a bit while trying unsuccessfully to get herself to a standing position. Her attempt to get to her feet only served in the teen falling back to the pavement on her ass.
Catherine was trying to look the girl over when she looked over where the girl was indicating. Seeing the man coming slowly toward them, she realized quickly that something was up. "Come on and get in my car," she said to her. "I think we need to get out of here," she said just as another one came out of another alley.
"His face... " Keegan glanced back to where she had seen the guy and when she noted his approach the teen tried standing again, this time grabbing for Catherine to keep from falling back to the pavement.
Catherine held onto the girl as she helped her to the passenger side of her car. Normally she'd fight these guys, but right now she had a wounded person with her. She was more important than a good fight.
Keegan moved with a limp toward the vehicle with assistance from the other girl. Once seated in the passenger seat, Keegan began feeling the repercussions of being struck by a car. Her leg hurt, her wrist hurt and she could barely move it, and her head throbbed so that the teen tipped her head back against the seat and closed her eyes to try and shut out the pain.
"How are you feeling?" Catherine asked as she jumped into the driver's seat. "Do you need to go to the hospital?" She almost hoped not, although it was just as much 'how do I explain how I hit someone with my car' as much as 'how do I explain what she was running from.' She could also call one of the doctor people that helped the Slayers now.
"Like I was hit by a car." Keegan managed to say with a slight grimace. The second question was answered with a bit more seriousness after the teen took a brief moment to take everything into consideration. "I think so." Not that Keegan was really wanting to be anywhere near a hospital, but being taken there would open a door for the girl. Something that Keegan thought would never happen.
Good point, Catherine thought to herself in Russian. (Her thoughts, no matter how good her English had gotten, continued to be in Russian.) "OK, I'm going to call ahead so that they'll be ready for us," Catherine said as she put the car into drive and, after doing a quick U-turn, started to head toward the hospital. She fished her phone out of her purse and put a call through to someone on Dr. Carly's team so that he would be there waiting when they got to the hospital, so she wouldn't have to wait in the waiting room at all, or answer pesky questions.
The teen became silent then as the throb in her head dulled slightly. It wasn't until her rescuer was pulling into the lot of the hospital that Keegan slowly let her eyes open again. Hopefully too many questions wouldn't be ask and all the doctors would do would be to check her out and then let her leave of her own accord.
She had the feeling that the girl in her passenger seat would not want a lot of people fussing over her. Luckily Catherine had a prior arrangement, yes? "A doctor friend of mine is going to look at you," Catherine said as she pulled up to LAGH. "His name is Dr. Ortiz and he's very good at discretion, if that's what you want."
To get as far away from L.A. as possible was what Keegan was wanting, but as long as the doc didn't question her too personally, Keegan figured she could get medical treatment and then when actual morning swung around she could disappear before Terrell learned what happened and tracked her to the hospital. "That's cool." The girl said in a voice just above a whisper when Catherine pulled up to the hospital's emergency entrance.
Once she pulled up and parked her car, Catherine got out and slowly helped Keegan to the entrance to the hospital.
Frank had already been on duty when he got the call, and, after a quick talk with Carly, was able to meet Catherine and her friend at the door, no questions asked. Luckily, it was late enough that no one cared why some random girl was being whisked right through emergency and into a hospital room. Once they were in one, Frank started to look over and take in her injuries. "So, can you tell me what happened?" he asked.
"Got struck by a car, Doc." Keegan told the man with a smile in a semi flirtatious manner as was a habit she had grown into. "Wasn't watching where I was going." If most the guys that approached her or that she herself approached were as good looking as Doc Ortiz, Keegan might not have hated the life she had been coerced into. Maybe. Or not. The drugs she had taken early were still in her system and aided in the way Keegan acted.
Frank actually was able to recognize that Keegan was high on something, but that wasn't quite as important as getting her bandaged up right now. "I see," he said, casting a glance over to Catherine. "Did you see what happened?"
"Yes," Catherine said to him. "She was being chased by something when she ran out in front of my car. I tried to stop, but wasn't able to come to a complete stop in time."
"That guy's face was really messed up." Keegan commented. To the teen who tried grabbing her was just a guy with a disfigured face that freaked her out. To even suggest that he was something other then human would have had Keegan thinking the person themselves was on drugs or something.
Frank arched an eyebrow at Catherine, who met his look, but otherwise kept to doctoring up Keegan's wounds. "I believe you have a fractured knee and a sprained wrist," he said after bandaging her wounds and looking her over. "We'll need to do an X-Ray to be sure of that, though. I think you also may have a light concussion.
Catherine looked at the girl. "Do you have anywhere to stay?" she asked.
Keegan was hesitant on answering Catherine. If she told the young woman she did there might be questions on how to get in touch with her parents or guardian. If she answered no, then that might only bring further question from the woman and doctor.
"Yeah," she answered after a beat. And while technically Keegan did have a place to stay it wasn't somewhere she intended on going back to if at all possible. Maybe after getting patched up, and maybe scoring some drugs, she could slip out before Terrell heard of what happened and found her.
Catherine arched an eyebrow at her. Obviously this girl either didn't have a place to stay, or she didn't want to go back to it. "No one is going to call your parents or anything." Keegan would not have been the first runaway that she had ever met in LA, after all. "Now, do you really have a place to stay?"
"I can find a place." Keegan replied a bit defensively not liking the fact that she was admitting to have been living on the streets. That kind of knowledge, in the teen's view, tended to change a person opinion about people like her. Like they were beneath those that actually had a family and home to live in.
Luckily, for Keegan, that wasn't really the case with Catherine. "If you want, you can spend the night with me," she said to Keegan. "You know, since I did kind of run you over and everything." Least she can do and all. "No catch or anything."
"There's always a catch or angle. No one does something for nothing." Keegan voiced in return. "You can just show how sorry you are for the almost running me over thing with a handful of cash. I'm sure I could find a decent place to crash with it."
"If you think I'm trying to sleep with you, trust me when I say that you're not my type," Catherine said bluntly. "And I'm not giving you cash. I brought you to the emergency room instead of just leaving you out there with your injuries, after all. Now, do you want to take the place to crash or not?"
"I'm not most peoples "type", yet they still come looking for me and others who work the streets to get what their wives, husbands, other halves, etc. won't put out for." Keegan let out just as bluntly, though once the words fell out the teen was wishing she could retract them back.
"Fine," the teen finally relented with a brief glance to Doc Ortiz with her sight then resettling on Catherine. "One night, no strings." Now if that little verbal arrangement would hold once Catherine got Keegan to wherever the woman lived still remained to be seen in the teen's view.
"One thing: you touch my boyfriend I break your neck," Catherine pointed out sternly, even with the shocked doctor standing near her. "Anything else, Dr. Ortiz?" she asked him.
"Other than advising psychiatric treatment?" he asked. "Stay off your leg as much as you can and basically...don't do anything until you heal up some. You're lucky that she was able to stop as much as she could." These two had Frank scratching his head in figuring out what to say. He was relieved that Remmie wasn't violent or a hooker, honestly.
Well that certainly came through loud and clear, and judging by the look on the woman's face, Keegan knew she was being dead serious with her words. It also garnered a bit of respect for Catherine from the teen. "I kind of like my neck in its original unbroken state." Keegan said with a faint smile back to the woman.
"Gotcha Doc." Keegan smiled friendly like to the man out of habit. The teen then moved to slid down from the examining table.