Characters: Daryn & Matty Setting: The Clinic Summary: Daryn is spacey and Matty overthinks his thoughts Rating: low
Although the initial chaos of the explosion and collapse had subsided, people were still in need of treatment and displaced from the Facility Hospital. Daryn had opened up the clinic to all in need of help, and although she was beginning to become exhausted, she still showed up to help heal anyone who needed it. For the moment, things were quiet and Daryn took the chance to try to regroup. In pain and distracted by near constant flashbacks, Daryn stared into the near empty supply closet. She was supposed to be making a list of things they needed to replenish, but instead she was just zoned out.
Now that everyone was out of the Facility, Matty was throwing himself into whatever else he could do to help, which was the clinic. Sure, his body still ached from helping at the site and he wanted nothing more than to sleep for a year. He did look forward to going home with Thursday and crashing. Sometimes Thursday still rubbed his wings, as he did that first night, and that was utterly heaven. Working at the clinic, Matty kept his wings hidden. It ached them not to be able to stretch out but he caused more trouble with them out.
He grinned at the patient he was talking to and realised he didn’t have any gauze. It was a minor wound, which was why he was taking care of it and not someone with real training, but he knew what he needed. He excused himself and headed to the supply closet where he found Daryn.
He smiled to her and said, “I totally feel like I need to make a closet joke here but that’s in such bad taste, I probably shouldn’t.”
When Matty first approached, Daryn didn’t even turn to acknowledge him, which was unusual for her. When she finally did look to him, a few too many silent moments had passed. Too long to play it off like she hadn’t heard him. But that wasn’t the problem anyway, she did hear what he said. Smiling weakly, she shrugged a little. Not in bad taste. Besides, we can use all the humor we can get around here. Without thinking, without even really realizing that she’d known why he was at the closet, she handed him a package of gauze. She was totally on autopilot. Is everything going alright out there?
Matty didn’t do well with silence. He did even less well with awkward silence. Silence usually meant that he needed to fill it up with someone. He just didn’t really know what to fill it up with so he didn’t do anything. He stood there, wishing he could turn invisible like Thursday and just back away from the situation.
He thanked her for the gauze and said, “Um, yup! Totally fine. Just a bit of a boo boo but I got it covered. You okay? Being in the closet and all? Or do you want to hide here? I can go? I don’t need to be here. I’m going to go. Okay?” He took an awkward step back.
Taking a deep breath, Daryn ran her fingers back through her hair and offered Matty another tired smile. Sorry about that. I’m fine. I didn’t mean to make you feel uncomfortable.
“I’m not!” Matty said too quickly. Wait. She was a telepath. She could read his mind. Which meant she could totally tell that he was thinking about disappearing because he didn’t know how to do awkward. Which meant she could read these thoughts. Which meant she knew everything he was thinking. Undo! Undo!
“You seem spacey. You sure you’re okay?” Matty asked.
Indeed Daryn did read his thoughts, and frowned at herself in the process. Trying to pull it together, she turned to face him and smiled lightly again. Yes. Just a little distracted. I need to be better at focusing. Or maybe it was unfocusing?
“Um, okay,” Matty said. He hesitated. He didn’t know what to say. Or what not to say. Or if he should go. He should go. He had gauze. That was a check in the check box. He smiled quickly and said, “I’m going to go… do that thing now.” He took another awkward step away.
Sighing, Daryn just nodded once again. Trying to put him at ease wasn’t working and she really didn’t blame him for that. Alright. If you need any help, just let me know. She turned back to the closet again, but this time she was more focused, going over the list and marking off what they were short of.
Matty hopped back to the front and finished with the patient. He wished her the best and then he hopped back to where Daryn was. He hesitated then said, “I may be bothering you and I’m sorry. I just want to make sure you’re okay. You seem spacey. And maybe spacey is fine. I just want to make sure that you’re okay. You’re okay, right?”
When Matty returned, Daryn was seated at the makeshift desk with a cold cup of coffee, going over a few files. She glanced up to him when he spoke and offered another small smile. You’re not bothering me. It’s nice of you to check in on me. I’m just distracted today, I suppose I’m just tired and preoccupied since the explosion. How are you doing?
Matty smiled and nodded, “Ohmygod. I know. I’ve been so tired too. Thursday too. We just-” WAIT. Do not tell her that you just sort of fall into bed together. She probably does not want to hear that! WAIT. Did she read that? Hear that? Can she see his thoughts? Thinking of naked Thursday. Oh god. Stop. Keep talking, “fall asleep as soon as we get home. There is so much to do out here though that we keep going because we have to, you know? So many people need help.”
Daryn watched Matty in amusement but said nothing about the thoughts he was so worried about her overhearing. Its so nice to see everyone really joining together to help each other out. It reminds us of the good in people, something that was too easy to forget around here at times.
Matty nodded and said, “It was sort of amazing with everyone at the Facility. I mean, everyone was helping, no matter what their ability. It was cool to see everyone come together. Even if everyone still sort of hates us for something I don’t even know why. But. Yeah. That part was something.”
She nodded, trying not to frown. She knew getting people to change their minds about mutants was going to take more than them pitching in to help. But that wasn’t why everyone had joined together anyway. It’s pretty quiet for now. Why don’t you go home and get some rest? You’ve earned it. If I need any help, I will let you know.
“You sure?” Matty asked. He wanted to stretch his wings. Keeping them hidden as it was wasn’t the best for them after so much use. Even if he didn’t fly, he needed them out. He rolled his shoulder and nodded, “Hollar really loud if you need anything. I’ll be here in a hop and a skip and a jump.” Or whatever that saying was.
I’m sure. Thank you, for everything. It seemed like most people had already come in for healing, or had minor injuries, so Daryn was sure she could handle things on her own for a few hours. Hopefully she could keep it together during that time too.