Who:Shepard and Barry What:Visiting a friend in medical I think he lives there? When:Holy shitballs batman, this was back in the reaper plot Where:Medical Warnings:Depressing talk etc Status:Complete
Since Barry heard Shepard had been injured, he refused to stay in his own side of medical. His mood had bottomed out and he hit the close button on his tablet. Alex had shown up so Kara would have someone to talk to-that was good, but he couldn’t help but to feel bad things he didn’t want to so it was better just to end things as they were. He slipped into the area where they were holding Shepard and gave her a once over to make sure she was still breathing. He’d done that since she’d shown up much to the other doctors dismay of likely getting in the way when doing so. He didn’t touch anything, he knew better than that-but he did stick around.
This hour was no different, he pulled up a chair this time and watched. Shepard reminded him of the way he thought a mother might. Watching her lying there was difficult, but he refused to leave her now. He was able to be on his feet again, so small improvements. His own injuries looked like scratches in comparison to the woman in the bed. He didn’t know how she’d make it through, his own had hurt like a bitch and healed the normal way-he wasn’t sure Shepard had any sort of super healing like he did either to make the process faster. Most people didn’t.
He watched until he felt his eyes closing slightly, his cheek resting on his fist as he leaned in the chair a bit.
The sound of the hospital, even somewhat dated as these ones were, was becoming more and more familiar to Shepard. This was the second time in, what, three months, that she’d been forced into medical. Being fair to herself where she could, Adeleis would at least admit the first time was different...or was it? Both instances now were at the hands of Reapers and, in a roundabout way, Harbinger himself. It had, after all, been that damnable flagship that had struck her with his main gun while she’d been on her way to the CItadel. This time it had been the legions of his nightmare troops. This time it had been during a mad dash in and out of his insides…
This time Adeleis Shepard, with the help of the people she’d met here on Knowhere, had blown that asshole straight to hell. She even vaguely recalled, as people had carted her off the TARDIS, someone in the group promising her that she was going to be okay, telling her that they’d done it, that the mission had been a success. Even with the lack of Medi-gel giving her much more pain than she was used to dealing with, even with days of hard fighting under her belt that had led to a serious case of exhaustion, Shepard would call everything worth it for news like that. They’d barely managed to get her treated and set in a bed before she’d dropped into a deep sleep…
She’d even managed not to have a nightmare for the first time in who knew how long.
However there were some old habits a soldier picked up, like sleeping lightly with another presence in the room, that hadn’t left her. Even with the cocktail of drugs and painkillers they had her on, things that probably should have kept her unconscious for much longer, Shepard felt her eyelids twitch and flutter open to the sound of rhythmic beeping.
She recognized where she was at least, recognized that trying to move too much was a bad idea. Still she tried to shift, grunting a little when she wanted to get the pillows up underneath her so she could look around a little better. It...it didn’t really work. It was enough that she could get a look though, could blink her eyes a few times to wipe the blurry haze of meds and fatigue from her eyes, it was enough to…
Oh.
She felt her heart sink in her chest when she saw who was sitting there. Poor Barry. She thought. She didn’t know him as well as she might have liked, but what little she did know, with how he’d responded to the news that she was going
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<b>Who:</b>Shepard and Barry <b>What:</b>Visiting a friend in medical <s>I think he lives there?</s> <b>When:</b>Holy shitballs batman, this was back in the reaper plot <b>Where:</b>Medical <b>Warnings:</b>Depressing talk etc <b>Status:</b>Complete
<lj-cut text="he refused to stay in his own side of medical.."> Since Barry heard Shepard had been injured, he refused to stay in his own side of medical. His mood had bottomed out and he hit the close button on his tablet. Alex had shown up so Kara would have someone to talk to-that was good, but he couldn’t help but to feel bad things he didn’t want to so it was better just to end things as they were. He slipped into the area where they were holding Shepard and gave her a once over to make sure she was still breathing. He’d done that since she’d shown up much to the other doctors dismay of likely getting in the way when doing so. He didn’t touch anything, he knew better than that-but he did stick around.
This hour was no different, he pulled up a chair this time and watched. Shepard reminded him of the way he thought a mother might. Watching her lying there was difficult, but he refused to leave her now. He was able to be on his feet again, so small improvements. His own injuries looked like scratches in comparison to the woman in the bed. He didn’t know how she’d make it through, his own had hurt like a bitch and healed the normal way-he wasn’t sure Shepard had any sort of super healing like he did either to make the process faster. Most people didn’t.
He watched until he felt his eyes closing slightly, his cheek resting on his fist as he leaned in the chair a bit.
<hr>
The sound of the hospital, even somewhat dated as these ones were, was becoming more and more familiar to Shepard. This was the second time in, what, three months, that she’d been <i>forced</i> into medical. Being fair to herself where she could, Adeleis would at least admit the first time was different...or was it? <i>Both</i> instances now were at the hands of Reapers and, in a roundabout way, Harbinger himself. It had, after all, been that damnable flagship that had struck her with his main gun while she’d been on her way to the CItadel. This time it had been the legions of his nightmare troops. This time it had been during a mad dash in and out of his insides…
This time Adeleis Shepard, with the help of the people she’d met here on Knowhere, had blown that asshole straight to hell. She even vaguely recalled, as people had carted her off the TARDIS, someone in the group promising her that she was going to be okay, telling her that they’d done it, that the mission had been a success. Even with the lack of Medi-gel giving her much more pain than she was used to dealing with, even with days of hard fighting under her belt that had led to a serious case of exhaustion, Shepard would call everything worth it for news like that. They’d barely managed to get her treated and set in a bed before she’d dropped into a deep sleep…
She’d even managed not to have a nightmare for the first time in who knew how long.
However there were some old habits a soldier picked up, like sleeping lightly with another presence in the room, that hadn’t left her. Even with the cocktail of drugs and painkillers they had her on, things that probably <i>should</i> have kept her unconscious for much longer, Shepard felt her eyelids twitch and flutter open to the sound of rhythmic beeping.
She recognized where she was at least, recognized that trying to move <i>too</i> much was a bad idea. Still she tried to shift, grunting a little when she wanted to get the pillows up underneath her so she could look around a little better. It...it didn’t really work. It was enough that she could get a look though, could blink her eyes a few times to wipe the blurry haze of meds and fatigue from her eyes, it was enough to…
Oh.
She felt her heart sink in her chest when she saw who was sitting there. <i>Poor Barry</i>. She thought. She didn’t know him as well as she might have liked, but what little she did know, with how he’d responded to the news that she was going <i<inside</i> a Reaper? She could only imagine how he’d taken the news of what had happened. She couldn’t quite tell what he was doing from her position but, if she had to guess? Well…
“<i>Hey you.</i>” She instantly hated how weak and foggy her voice sounded and she pressed her hands against the bed in another vain attempt to try and sit up a little better. “<i>You come to keep an eye on me? If I didn’t know you were getting married…</i>” She smiled weakly in his direction, still not quite aware his eyes were closed. “<i>I might think you were starting to get a little sweet on me</i>.”
Even lying in a hospital bed, sore and broken, she’d make a joke to try and make someone else feel better -- because that, at the end of the day, was who Shepard was.
<hr>
There was a likely chance he shouldn’t have been up, but his own injury was mostly healed so he really didn’t see much of a problem with it. The only real leftover factor was the physical exhaustion he still felt due to not having a high enough calorie intake. The injury itself no longer was at risk of tearing open at this point, so he felt fine to be wandering around medical a bit more. He would just hope Cait felt the same way if he was caught. She was stern sometimes, but she cared so he didn’t mind.
The sleep state he’d fallen into was a light one, when Shepard shifted he heard it. He hadn’t quite gotten a chance to drift further off yet but it was something. He was at least getting a little sleep here and there?
That strained tone caused him to stand and move closer so she didn’t have to try to sit up if she didn’t feel like it. A faint smirk crept into his features at that comment. “Hard not to with that hospital gown and all.” He found a small spot to sit that didn’t look like it would hurt her if he did. Jason was right, hospital beds were damn small. “You’d think how often I’m here I could upgrade us to a suite or something.” Trying for humor, but it was a little off. He was tired of his friends ending up in hospital beds. Tired of looking down at them and wondering how the hell humans healed when they did it so slowly.
<hr>
There was an honest laugh that came out of her then, the kind that hurt but just couldn’t be helped and was broken up with a faint wince. Damn it. Pain, for Shepard and she assumed so many others currently in her state, was a very annoying thing. Still, she was a practiced hand at this kind of thing, of shoving off her own worries to deal with those she thought needed her attention more. It was why and how, in spite of it all, she offered a weak smile at Barry when he sat down on the bed.
“<i>You think they’ll let me wear it to the ball?</i>” She joined him in the humor, touching on a timeless reference even though Shepard never would have thought of herself as anything even close to Cinderella. “I hear there’s supposed to be a Prince there and everything.” She was slowly finding her voice again, settling into something that didn’t sound so raspy and hoarse. “Bet you he’s probably some stuffy shirted asshole though, and he probably doesn’t make pizza deliveries…” She let her voice trail some then, trying to shift again and this time carefully managing to get herself at least <i>somewhat</i> close to sitting upright.
The way things shifted was troubling. Things were obviously broken and loose somewhere in her chest. It was a pain Shepard was at least familiar with though and one she could tuck off into the corners of her mind -- so long as she didn’t try to do anything stupid like get up and out of this hospital bed.
“You think maybe they’ll let us go halves?” She joined his joke, because neither one of them was a stranger here. Between headaches, nightmares, and now the two times she’d been carted in probably close to death’s door, Shepard honestly thought she should have gotten her name just written on the frame by now.
But there were important questions now, things that stripped some of the levity from her tired expression and replaced it with a raw seriousness.
“You okay?” Because that needed to be asked. “I know that probably wasn’t an easy thing for you to see or go through…” She even fumbled a hand weakly against the blankets, trying to find a way to reach out to him, even if it was only to meekly pat his hand with the pads of her fingers. “Bet you did a helluva a job out there though -- you been making sure to give yourself enough credit?” She already knew the answer, but there was that best-as-she-could-muster <i>Commander’s gaze</i> that tried to impart how little of his downplaying she was going to hear.
<hr> “I doubt it. Knowing you you’d probably have a weapon in there somewhere and they wouldn’t let you in in the first place.” He didn’t know her that well either, but the way she’d taken command of things she didn’t talk like a person who went into something unarmed. Unlike him. Barry didn’t carry any physical weapons when he fought. He used his head and the speed force that powered him to fight his battles, but he was starting to come to terms with the fact that guns and stuff were necessary in space. Aliens and various other creatures that decided to attack them recently didn’t seem to enjoy listening to reason. Barry disliked loss of life on either side, but if it had to be them or his friends he’d pick his friends every time.
“Princes don’t even eat pizza, so that wouldn’t surprise me. They eat pretentious rich people food like finger sandwiches and would never be seen with Mcdonald’s or it’d be the end of them anyway.” Talking about food made Barry realize he actually hadn’t eaten that day aside from necessary IV bags to maintain calorie intake.
“Duno. But they ought to.” Barry was becoming a familiar face around medical, mainly because Caitlin was his friend even if he wasn’t just injured. Literally the only bright side of being in medical this long had been the fact that he got to see her a bit more when he wasn’t sleeping.
“You’re asking me? You’re the one all..” He traild off as he looked at the equipment she was hooked up to and closed his eyes for a moment trying to regain his bearings. When she reached out, he met her half way and took her hand gently. “Took some shrapnel headed for a civilian on the fourth day. Most of it got out in the field, but not all of it. Ended up back here….I should have done more.”
<hr>
“You…” She coughed a little, but she waved her hand immediately after to say she was alright. “You might be onto something there Barry. Last time I...wore a dress somewhere there absolutely was a gun hidden somewhere.” She chuckled at the end of it, remembering the adventure with Kasumi. She gave herself a moment to catch her breath, to push through the fog of nostalgia and bring herself back to the present. Slowly but surely, she’d build upon that, bring herself as much to being the good soldier as she could be in her current position and state. It was as much reflex as anything at this point with the muscle memory of her mind demanding she keep her eyes forward and at least try to keep up the appearance that she was <i>okay</i> if nothing else.
“Must be why I always thought Princes were boring.” She offered. “Can’t trust anyone who doesn’t trust a Big Mac or a slice of pepperoni pie.” She played along with the little joke, largely because it was true. Adeleis knew how to put on a dress uniform the same as she did a dress. She knew how to be a woman in the more <i>traditional and boring</i> senses of the word, she just wasn’t usually interested. It didn’t mean she wouldn’t in the cases where the situation called for it, that she didn’t know how to be prim and proper. You didn’t get as far as she did in life without it. At the same time however, Shepard had never been shy about spouting off when some overbearing, high collared, stuffy shirted, bureaucrat tried to tell her something she didn’t like and telling them exactly where to stick it either. Especially when it came to Big Macs.
“All what?” She waved a hand down at herself with her free hand.. “This?” And her demeanor shifted all at once. She <i>knew</i> it was bad. She <i>knew</i> it <i>looked</i> bad. She knew it hurt even if she couldn’t feel it. Shepard was no stranger to injuries over her life, hell she’d been in a state damn near this exact one when she’d first showed up in Knowhere. “Looks worse than it is. Promise.” She paused for a moment, deciding against adding <i>’and it sure beats dead’</i>, because that just seemed a little too morbid of a joke for the young man who couldn’t even call out her look for what it was. “Hurts like a sonofabitch, but Mercy’s real good with her hands.” She missed Omni-gel like hell, but...well. Humor. She was going to go with humor.
At least until Barry finished the story. Then she just squeezed his hand softly.
“What, you want to take the whole building instead?” She started off light, like she might have one of the Private’s under her charge when he’d come to her all upset because he hadn’t done enough during a fight. After a second though, her eyes lifted up to meet his and all that gruff and soldiery demeanor was left to wash from her. “Barry. You took shrapnel saving lives. You can’t beat yourself up because you didn’t do more.” She squeezed his hand again. “That’s like me saying I should get out of this hospital bed and head down to the planet because…” Even the idea made her pause, made her swallow a thick knot in her throat. “...because there might be Reapers down on the planet.”
“Tell me, what would you tell me if I told you that’s what I should be doing right now?”
<hr>
Barry winced at the sound of that cough. It didn’t sound like an okay cough to him, he was half tempted to go look at her chart assuming he could find it to see for himself, but he didn’t want to leave her until he felt her grip his hand and he stayed put. “Called it.” He offered a faint smile, but wondered distantly how the hell people put up with healing this slow. Jason said it was because they had to, but Barry had never experienced it before now. Before his powers decided to do the wacky and not work properly. He listened to her talk, it was soothing on his frayed nerves and he got to thinking maybe this visit was also a little selfish on his part. Even watching her talk about frivolous things like princes and hamburgers was better than the latter. Barry had experienced <i>so much</i> of the latter recently that he didn’t think he could take it if something more permanent had happened to her.
“Think at some point I promised you one of the two after this. I guess you might have earned them.” He was trying to match humor, but with Jason, Francis and Shepard all in the medbay together, it was hard for him to maintain. He shook his head slightly at her protests, a bit of a frown creeping into his face. He still felt like he could have done more. He could have done something to block those reapers from showing up at all if he’d been more on top of his powers, as it was he was going in half already. “My powers aren’t working right.” He admitted. “I know what this feels like.” He gave a slight laugh of disbelief the more she kept trying to insist that she was fine. “I don’t know how you can sit up like this.” He’d nearly gone into shock doing it with Caitlin, but he still maintained <i>some</i> rapid healing ability or he’d probably have crashed more. He worried Shepard would, he worried about how long she’d be there in that kind of pain. Watching her with all those things attached made him feel like a powerless kid all over again.
When she gripped his hand again he was brought back to the present and looked at the floor as if it was suddenly very interesting. “That it’s insane. There were too many to go back alone.” He then looked over at her with a bit of exasperation.
<hr>
“That’s why I do it you know…” Her voice trailed as she tried to keep the humor up. She’d seen the way his gaze dropped to the floor and she was trying to lift it with something less serious. “Some people like getting medals, some people think it’s because scars and abs are sexy, me? I’m just in it for the pizza, Veteran’s day discounts, and secret sauce.” She smiled at him, giving his hand another gentle squeeze (it was the best she could muster) and waiting until he’d acknowledged it before she’d even attempt to carry on with what she had to say next.
“You’re damn right it’s insane, the same as it is for you to think going back out there and something worse happening to you because you didn’t do enough. You got hit pulling your weight, you ended up right where a lot of other people did doing the same thing you were doing. You did enough Barry because it’s <i>over</i> now.” She wasn’t sure how much she believed it, that the Reapers were in any way gone for good, but there it was all the same. They’d blown three of them straight to hell, including Harbinger. It might not have been a winning of the war, but it was a hell of a lot better first battle than Shepard had back home. The planet wasn’t even fully decimated thanks to the heroes of Knowhere and...and well that was a win.
“Especially if your powers aren’t working right?” She even took the time to lower her voice when she said it, out of respect for his privacy more than anything. “Barry if I’d have known that, wounded or not, I would have marched up here and strapped you to a damn bed myself.” It was a <i>little</i> harsh, but Adeleis was nothing if not protective of the people who mattered to her. It wasn’t a long list, at least not if she limited it to the people of Knowhere, but Barry was certainly on it.
“You can’t keep doing this to yourself.” She added softly. “I know, I know, look who’s talking, Commander in a hospital bed, but I mean it. You try and do everything and one day you’re not going to be able to come take care of my ass while I sit around and…” She sucked a hard breath in through her teeth while she stubbornly pushed herself up on her elbows. He might not have understood how she did it, but the facts were simple: Adeleis Shepard sat up because she didn’t stay down, because she was damn stubborn, because she was the type of woman who agreed that there was always more to do -- she was just smart enough to know you had to spread it around. “Heal up like a slow person…” She gave him another smile. “And then where would I be huh? Who’s gonna come sit in my hospital room with me, sleeping to make sure I have good company when I wake up? Or who am I gonna go for runs with around here?” She gave his hand another squeeze.
“Everybody did their part Barry, including you, and that’s why we’re all sitting here right now and not out there still fighting Reapers.” She did her best to look him right in the eye. “And I want you to promise me, once you get this powers situation of yours sorted out, you’re taking at least two days off. I don’t care what you do. I don’t care where you go but it better be relaxing, it better make you smile, and you better let yourself just sit down and enjoy it...you earned it.” A slight pause. “Don’t make me call it an order either.” If she could have reached, she would have ruffled his hair, but instead she just offered him another weak smile while her free hand gave a press to the button in her hand that would ease some of the pain.
<hr>
She was ridiculous. He was supposed to be visiting her, and she was the one trying to cheer him up. Some visitor he was turning out to be. “You’re supposed to be resting and I’m here going on about this.” He shook his head with forced amusement. Barry had been tired before he showed up, this space head wasn’t helping things. He’d been carrying the weight of the world for a long time now, it was only adding up and up. “Guess we’re both ridiculous.” He mused as he watched her struggle to sit up with a sort of pity. He couldn’t help it, it looked like it hurt like hell. He’d been through pain, but 90% of the time he hadn’t had to heal like a slow person until now. Now he really knew what being vulnerable and in this position felt like, and he didn’t envy her. He was supposed to be in bed himself, but at this point Caitlin knew that wasn’t happening anymore. He’d compromised for doing things while sitting.
Giving her a small smirk he shook his head. “Someone slow and boring probably.” He commented about the running. “I didn’t tell you before, but I reached mach 7 recently.” Barry had far surpassed Reverse Flash and his ridiculous expectations. Most people couldn’t even comprehend that, he was faster than sound itself but he sobered slightly at her comment about his powers and shook his head. “I wasn’t going to sit out. Powers or not.” He glanced down at his hand for a moment. “I think it has to do with calories, but I can’t keep up on just regular food anymore.” That battle had taken a lot out of him, regular food didn’t even fill up his reserve slightly. “I should have healed already, but I’m not.” He paused with a frown as he glanced toward the machine she was hooked up to idly.
“Giving me orders there?” He gave her a slight teasing smirk, it changed to a slightly exasperated one moments later. “ I’m not really sure what I’d do with that time, but if you say so.” What would he even have done with it on Earth? He wasn’t really sure. The Flash didn’t get vacation days.
<hr>
“Resting’s one of the few things in life I’m notoriously bad at.” Weak and wounded as she was, it was nevertheless true. She would have belly crawled through that Reaper and blown it up herself if she’d had to, that was just her way. She was a soldier, a fighter, at the end of the day, Shepard wasn’t even sure she knew <i>how</i> to lay down anymore. It hadn’t been an option, short of when it had been demanded of her, and it honestly wouldn’t have occurred to her even if it had been. “Not being ridiculous is a close second though.” She offered at the end of it, trying to put on another smile to help ease whatever tension she could from how Barry was feeling.
She was fine. She was <i>going</i> to be fine. At least physically, but Adeleis had no intentions of bringing up the other side of that coin now.
“Mach Seven huh?” She made sure not to raise her voice out of respect for his privacy. “Well, look at you. Helping to stop two alien invasions and you’re picking up speed along the way?” At least, since he’d said ‘<i>reached</i>’, that’s what she was assuming. “Good for you Barry. Heck, you keep this up and we won’t even need ships to get down to Earth, next time we’ll just have you run there.”
And like Barry, the humor left her tone in the moment that came after.
“No one’s going to ask you to sit out Barry.” She certainly wasn’t. If someone had told Adeleis Shepard to sit on the sidelines, she told them, in no uncertain terms, exactly what they could do with that idea. “Just don’t try and do more than you can. You’ve got to rest, heal up, and make sure you’re good to go before you try and get back out there.” It was the same advice she’d have given anyone under her charge, or even if she just cared about them. You didn’t have to sit out, but you had to make sure you were going to do more good than just get people hurt. It’d been no different than when...well...she didn’t really want to go that far back right now and, with the help of the medicine, that wasn’t a hard thing to dodge.
“If that’s what it takes.” She let the humor return with the commentary about orders. “As for what to do with it? Find a hobby, take up knitting, or fly fishing. Something nice, and slow, and boring. You spend your whole life going that fast Barry, and you just might miss a lot of the important stuff.”