Hell Beckons (shiftingplates) wrote in commandhq, @ 2018-04-01 00:09:00 |
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Aidan had never considered himself as much of a team player; could say that was a little too much kumbaya around the campfire thing for him and he hadn't exactly thad the best of introductions to the world. As it stood, the only time he got to experience his powers was in training situations, so when Evan offered to run a simulation with him, he said yes. Of course, by the time they were an hour or so in, Aidan was beginning to show the first telltale signs of fractured bones in his hands and arms along with tears in the muscles in his legs that kept him on his feet. At first he insisted on pushing through the pain but Evan had called time when it was clear that the younger man was suffering, much to Aidan's ire. It didn't matter though; Evan had to do what was right for Aidan and not what he wanted because if he did that, Aidan was at serious risk of being injured beyond all repair. The handler wrapped an arm around the younger man's waist and lifted his arm until it was draped around his neck, using his own strength to walk Aidan in the direction of the infirmary. "I'm fine," Aidan argued. "Kid," Evan responded with a look, "Even if you could bullshit me - which you can't - it's obvious you're not okay." Aidan snorted. "Like you care." "I do, actually," Evan returned easily enough, unphased by Aidan's attitude. "Just because you choose not to recognise the sentiment doesn't mean it's insincere." Cue an eyeroll which also seemed to just wash off Evan's back: you didn't become a marine without knowing how to roll with the punches and let this kind of shit go. Medical was usually bustling; the clinic was busy with people coming and going not just for injuries but for their appointments with the psychiatrists and also for their general health checkups. Avery loathed the days that she had to go and see someone for her own health once-over. Last time had been before the new Doctor arrived and she’d just finished healing someone so she was drained. He hadn’t understood how her powers worked and talked over her when she was trying to explain, but he ended up sending a message to Lucas, chastising him for allowing someone to work when they were sick. She wished she could have been a fly on the wall for the conversation Lucas had had with the Doctor. He had been exceedingly nice to her the next time they’d been on the same shift. She hadn’t seen much of Garrett, the new doctor, save for the fact that he was in a wheelchair, but he seemed nice enough from what she’d heard and, of course, what she’d seen in her state as a perpetual lurker on the network. Dragged out of her thoughts by the sound of someone arguing and the rampant heartbeat that had started echoing in her ears like the Jumanji drums, Avery poked her head out of the door of her small office to see Evan - the new handler with whom she had had very little interaction - half carrying, half supporting Aidan. “Jesus,” she exclaimed, already feeling her skin beginning to tingle as her powers activated. “What the hell happened?” She moved out of her room to flag them down and indicated that Evan should get Aidan onto the bed. “Here- sit him down- Jesus, Aidan-” She knew who the other super was, even if he didn’t know her. She made it her business to know as much as she could about her fellow Limbo inhabitants, even if she was too shy outside of a medical setting to get to know them. “You wanna tell me what happened?” she asked, eyes flicking between Aidan and Evan, waiting for one of them to speak as she clasped her hands together as much as the urge to reach out and just start helping him already was unbearable. “My powers hate me?” Aidan supplied unhelpfully as Evan got him sat down on the nearby bed Evan simply gave him a look and proceeded to fold his arms across his chest and turned his attention to Avery. “We were doing a training simulation,” he explained. “His powers have a backlash effect.” “He has a name,” Aidan remarked sourly. Honestly this kid, Evan simply inhaled and exhaled, reminding himself that he was the adult here and no matter how annoying members of his team might be he needed to remain calm and collected. “Aidan, right?” Avery asked, looking at Aidan first, then at Ethan. “Thank you, Handler Kingfisher-” she was formal with the other Handlers, it was just Lucas that had the misfortune of dealing with Avery’s more sarcastic nature. “-I can take it from here.” She took a breath and wheeled her chair over to beside the bed, waving a hand to indicate that Aidan should lie back, following it with a request. “Lie down for me? Please?” Evan knew that Avery was more than capable so when she assured him that she had it under control he nodded his head. “Alright, but let me know how he is and if you need anything then don’t hesitate to ask.” Aidan eyed her request for him to lie back before he just gave in, grumbling the whole way because this really wasn’t necessary. This wasn’t even all that bad, not like some of the beatings his dad had given him. “It’s not a big deal,” he persisted. “Will do,” Avery promised, “I’ll drop you a note on the network once he’s on his way back to his room. But we’re good without supervision, aren’t we Aidan?” Sometimes it was easier to talk to people without their handlers around. “And not a big deal my ass. I’ve got a unique ability to tell when something is or isn’t a big deal. This is a big deal.” Evan gave a short nod in response to Avery’s promise before he left his agent in Avery’s very capable hands. “It’s not like I need supervision right now,” he muttered with a shrug of his shoulders as his bracelet was blinking once again. “Can’t do shit with my powers.” And when he did do shit he wound up hurting himself. What kind of twisted logic was that? Avery wrinkled her nose, pushing the door shut behind Evan as Aidan grumped on the bed about having his powers turned off. “You’d think that,” she told him, “but I’m not a very good fighter. And it takes me literally weeks to recover from any kind of bruise.” She settled on a chair beside the bed, the thump-thump of his heart overwhelming in her ears, like she imagined the bass in a club would sound, a rhythm she could feel echoed in her chest. “From the looks of things, though, when you use them they kinda mess you up?” she asked, flexing her fingers and continuing to resist the way her body was screaming at her to get on with it, already. “I’m Avery, by the way, don’t think we’ve properly met. Just… you got dumped in my office so y’know, figure I should introduce myself before I get on with the whole… thing.” If looks could in fact kill then the one being directed at Avery right now would have stopped her dead in her tracks. Was it not obvious that his powers messed him up? That was why Evan had dragged his ass here in the first place. “Honestly never even knew you existed,” Aidan shared as he watched the way her hands flexed. “So, hi, I guess.” Wait, thing? What thing? “What exactly are you going to do?” At the time, Avery just seemed to let the witheringly ‘duh’ look roll off her back as if she wasn’t impacted by it. That being said, later on that night she’d end up in Theo’s room, her arms wrapped around his pillow and asking him to explain why some young upstart was being so mean to her when all she wanted to do was help him. She knew what he’d say: Avery, you can’t let their bad attitude get to you. You’re doing these assholes a favour. “Yeah, I’m pretty good at just hiding in the background,” she admitted with a half smile, “Been here since I was eighteen, so I know where all the best hiding places are.” She paused, frowning at herself. “That sounded less weird in my head. Anyway- it’s nice to meet you properly. I’ve seen you on the network. I don’t tend to talk much on it.” She arched an eyebrow. “What do you mean what thing?” she asked, “I- oh. I’m a healer. That’s my- that’s my role here.” She tipped her head, flexing her fingers again. “So Evan’s brought you in here for healing.” After hesitating for a moment, Avery put her hands on the edge of the bed. “You okay with that? It doesn’t hurt.” Aidan wasn’t sure how to feel about this whole magical healing thing especially as he was used to healing up the old fashioned way. Slow and painfully. “I guess,” he muttered warily as he didn’t trust a lot of people but Evan didn’t strike him as the type to do much without purpose. “Do I need to do anything?” Avery shook her head, “No, nothing,” she reassured, taking a deep breath in and flexing her fingers. Once he was settled, she tilted her head and offered a small smile. She could see - and hear - that he was hurt significantly and therefore she would be feeling the aftermath for a long time. She wet her lower lip and then reached out, pressing one hand on Aidan’s wrist, the other on his upper arm and she closed her eyes. Her power activated immediately, causing her arms to glow which passed down her forearms and then into her hands, the power diffusing into Aidan’s skin with a soft warmth. Her eyes squeezed tighter as she healed his injuries, the fractured bones - including old injuries that had healed wrong in other parts of his body other than his arms - started healing, torn and twisted muscles repairing themselves, twisting together, broken blood vessels repairing. Though, as she kept her hands on him, her own arms started showing faint bruises. Aidan was apprehensive to say the least especially as he’d never really had a lot of help in his life and what help he did have resulted in his being taken to a youth facility then ultimately joining the Wraith programme. He was weirded out by the glow however weirded turned into something more visceral like a true case of ‘what the fuck?’ as the longer Avery held onto him the more bruises formed on her skin. The healing process was painful but nowhere near as painful as getting the injuries had been and he knew a little something about pain and how to manage it. And in what could only be described as a moment of madness or disassociation from who he was on a day to day basis Aidan opened his mouth and spoke, “You okay?” Avery offered him a grateful smile not realising the it was quite the honour to be asked about her wellbeing. “Yeah,” she muttered, her voice tight as the pain started wracking through her. She was glad, though, that the more life-threatening wounds just seemed to be absorbed and not replicated. She wasn’t sure how she’d handle bleeding out every time someone was brought in with a really serious injury. Her powers were slowly deactivating themselves, having pushed through his body, fixing badly healed ribs, a cheekbone that had been fractured multiple times and a jawbone that had been broken more than once. She felt the injuries seeping through her, the ache in her face from badly healed injuries along with the fresher ones that had her very glad she was sat down. Drawing in a shaky breath, her hands slowly removed themselves from where they had latched around Aidan, powers seemingly satisfied there was nothing else that needed healing. She felt light-headed and tearful, it hurt, much more than healing a bruised sternum or bruised kidney. “You’re all done. F-Feel better?” she asked, trying not to let the vocal waver she could feel in her throat be audible. Aidan did feel remarkably better, much better, but he didn’t think it was worth all of the obvious trauma now written across Avery’s skin like inked words on paper. Did people know what healing did to her? If so then they were fucked up for letting her do it. “Yeah, I’m uh, good,” he affirmed with a nod of his head before he turned to face her as she sagged back into the chair. “You need me to get you anything or anyone?” Avery carefully - and gingerly - lifted a hand to rub at her face, pushing her hair back behind her ear. She just needed to breathe through it and she would be okay. But she wasn’t completely sure that her legs were going to support her if she moved, so she’d just wheel herself over to her desk and message Theo to come get her and take her back to his room. “No thanks, Aidan,” she murmured. “I’ll be okay. It’ll… it’ll fade. Always does.” She offered him a small, wry smile and just leaned back in the chair. “Pretty sure you’re all healed up now, though. You- uh- had some old injuries too. Stuff that didn’t heal right. They’re all fixed.” She touched her cheekbone absently with bruised fingers. Aidan’s hands gripped and flexed around the edge of the bed when she mentioned old injuries and he merely lifted his shoulders in what he hoped looked like an unaffected shrug. “You do stupid shit when you’re younger.” And that was the only explanation he was willing to give about those because his past was exactly that his past and nobody needed to know about it. “So, what happens now?” “I guess if you grow up outside the Regiment there’s a lot of scope for stupid shit,” Avery said, not about to pry into his past. It wasn’t her business but the way his hands tightened around the edge of the bed told Avery it was a little more than just stupid shit. But it wasn’t her business. At his next question, she just lifted her shoulders. “You can go?” she asked, “If you’re feeling alright and you’re all healed, you can just leave. I gotta do some paperwork and let Evan know you’re okay. But you don’t gotta stick around.” Aidan was relieved to hear that he could leave but at the same time he was still more than a little concerned for Avery because not to beat around bush she looked and sounded like shit. “And you’re gonna be okay?” He was an ass sure and he hated a lot of things about the Regiment but he wasn’t a huge enough of an ass not to show concern when warranted. Somewhat disturbingly, perhaps, there weren’t many people who checked in with Avery to make sure that she was alright after she had healed them. Many took it for granted and often the injuries were not as visible, so even if she looked rough people didn’t think to ask. Theo knew what it did to her, so did Hector, and so the former at least always did his best to make sure that she never had to heal him. And Lucas did his best to protect her from the more careless agents. “I’ll be fine,” she said, clearly surprised that he’d asked her again if she was alright. “It’ll be gone in an hour or so.” Aidan nodded his head and slipped off the bed as it seemed she was certain and confident in the fact that she would be okay. “Alright, if you’re sure. And uh, thanks.” Awkward thank you was awkward but it wasn’t often that Aidan felt genuine gratitude. He rubbed a hand through his hair and began towards the door, pausing only slightly to look over his shoulder at Avery. “I’ll see you around, Avery.” |