Agent Carolina (agentcarolina) wrote in madisonvalley, @ 2019-04-23 06:18:00 |
|
|||
Entry tags: | !closed, !log, ~2019 april, ~25 points, ~~agent carolina (agentcarolina), ~~agent washington (freelancerwash), ~~agent york (freelanceryork) |
Who: Carolina/Wash/York
What: Returning to Madison Valley
When: Late Monday night (or really early Tuesday Morning, your pick)
Where: Their house
Warnings: Probably talk of injuries/PTSD/torture
Status: closed/started in gdoc continued in comments
Carolina was far too familiar with the hospital on Chorus anymore. She’d never been a good patient but this time she wasn’t the patient. Locus had managed to get Wash to Chorus where Doctor Gray had saved his life but he wasn’t undamaged. It had been several months and Wash had been allowed to leave the hospital to continue his recovery but they still had to come back often for Doctor Gray to check him over.
The Reds and Blues had left to get pizza after defeating Temple then had disappeared and no one was sure where they were but Carolina had people looking for them. She should go look into it herself but she didn’t want to leave Wash.
Wash was in a good mood today. Trying to tell her jokes and stories from the past and just knowing he was in a good mood let her laugh at them even though he was terrible at delivering a punchline. That wasn’t the injuries, that was just Wash. It let her ignore the persistent tremor in his right hand and arm.
When they were on their way out of the hospital and thankfully away from its smells of antiseptics and medicines they passed out of a door into another world instead of the streets of Chorus. It took a few minutes for the change to catch up to Carolina’s brain. They were back in Madison Valley.
She wasn’t wearing armor but she had a communicator on her. Hopefully the receivers at the house would pick up the signal. “York? Come in.”
***
York was running himself a little ragged ever since he'd woken up to an empty bed. She hadn't been gone long at first because the bed was still warm, but when she didn't come back and the text messages bounced, it was cause for concern. It would have been uncool but not so bad if Wash were still there, but he wasn't either. He had to wait it out on his own, put on a brave face and take care of everyone while they waited. It was not an easy thing to do, but he did it and work was distracting enough to make it slightly better.
Another day in the books, spent working and watching another horrible zombie movie with Charlie. York was trying to physically exhaust himself because sleeping without Carolina wasn't easy. He'd finally run out of things to do around the house. The dishes were done, the floors swept, and it was too late to vacuum. He'd taken a shower and put on his pjs before he climbed into bed. Not that he was tired anymore.
He just laid there, staring at the ceiling, when he heard Carolina's voice from the receiver in his comms. He'd kept his helmet on the nightstand just in case. "Carolina?" The relief he felt was palpable. "Where are you? Wash? Is he with you?"
***
Wash didn’t do well when they changed things up quickly and you couldn’t get more of a quick change than adding in a whole new set of memories when you changed from one world to another. It spiked the pain in his head as he looked around the street they’d landed on.
“Carolina?” They weren’t supposed to be here. He was in the hospital, they’d just seen Emily Gray. Hadn’t they? “Why would you ask for York?”
***
Carolina let out a sigh of relief to hear York’s voice on the radio but she could tell from the crease between Wash’s brows that he had a headache and she was confusing him. There wasn’t much she could do about that at the moment.
“We’re both here. We’re back. We’re coming home but it was a rough trip.” She didn’t know how to warn York without Wash hearing what she said.
***
York had already sat up but now he was moving. "I'll meet you halfway." There wasn't any disagreeing. "I'll bring the car, pick you guys up." He needed to see her, see them both, and he barely remembered to put his flip flops on so he wasn't walking out to the car barefoot. He kept his helmet with him so that he could continue talking to Carolina.
"Are you both alright?" That was important information to know right off the bat. He could get the full story later, but he needed to make sure they were okay. The sound of the various doors closing behind him and then the car starting said he was on his way.
"Delta, find them. Get me directions." He wasn't usually so short with his AI but he was already pulling out of the driveway.
Turn left at the corner, Delta replied, not taking offense to the tone. Carolina would be able to hear Delta as well. ETA is five minutes.
That was too long. York put his foot on the peddle and sped up, breaking all sorts of traffic laws in the process.
***
“That sounds like York. And Delta.” Wash frowned and rubbed his head with his left hand. The right one tended to be harder to control and he hated the reminder that he was still recuperating. “Carolina, I thought we were going to my apartment?” He was out of the hospital but they’d given him an apartment to use that was close to it so he could make all his appointments.
But he remembered another apartment. Maybe that was where they were going?
***
“We’re both ready to go home.” She put her hand on Wash’s arm to get his attention. “Not the apartment. The house. We’re back in Madison Valley and Tucker, Charlie and Link are there too.” Carolina hoped that the names would spark his memories and this time they did. There was recognition on his face which she was glad to see.
Church, York and Delta might be a longer conversation since they were all dead even if Wash recognized York and Delta’s voices. She got them walking toward home figuring that York would be breaking the sound barrier to get to them but she still wanted to see him as soon as possible.
***
York could hear Carolina's side of the conversation with Wash and it was confusing to him, but there wasn't time for that. Delta helped him navigate until he was pulling off to the wrong side of the road to stop next to them. "Carolina!" There was no way she'd missed his arrival, but still. He got out of the car and went to grab both of them except he noticed that Wash wasn't quite...himself.
So he stopped short thought he was still within arm's reach. "Are you guys okay?" Bioscans indicate that Agent Washington has sustained serious injuries for which he has received medical treatment, Delta said in the back of his mind. York's eyes widened fractionally but otherwise he waited for an answer.
****
Wash now sported a scar on both sides of his neck where the bullet had gone through it and since he’d been in recovery and not able to train he’d lost some of his muscle mass making him look older. That and the white that was starting to show up in his dark blonde hair didn’t help.
“York?” The confused frown deepened for a minute because York was dead. Wash had seen it and scavenged his armor. But with another stab of pain through his head memories of York came back to him and he smiled. “Hey York. Good to see you.”
***
“We’re fine. Getting over a nasty fight.” She still had a hand on Wash’s arm until he remembered York then she pulled York into a hug. “We’ll be fine.” She hoped.
“Is everyone else still here?” It would be good to see Tucker since she had no idea where he was back home right now. She had no doubt he was all right, actually with all of them out there together she was more worried about whoever they were running into right now.
***
So that was the scar their future kid had spoken of. York couldn't look away from Wash, even as Carolina hugged him. He did return the hug though, held her tightly and wasn't too keen on letting go. "Yea, everyone's still here. Missing you but it's been a few days. Not too bad, all things considered." It could've been worse. They could've been gone a lot longer. York was exceptionally glad that they hadn't been, even if this might be worse.
They'd get through it though. Together.
"We've made it out of a couple of bad scrapes. We'll get through this one, too." York had said it to Wash when the other man had confided in him and he'd say it as many times as he needed to. "You guys can fill me in later though. Are you hungry?" He had no idea what they'd been about to do or if it had even been night time when they had left wherever they'd left from.
***
“I could eat.” Wash usually ate after his appointments but they hadn’t gone to his apartment they’d come here. And Carolina and York were hugging, it was like seeing two different times at the same time. With and without York dead. “Or maybe I should like down, my head is killing me.”
He did remember York telling him they’d get through anything and they’d be here for him. Wash still believed that It was just hard to concentrate on with the way his head was thumping.
***
Wash did tend to eat after his appointments but he also tended to nap after them. It seemed to depend on how much Doctor Gray tested out his memory and put him through his paces. Carolina just wanted to keep holding on to York but she made herself let go and tucked her hair back behind her ears. “Why don’t we just get home and figure it out from there.”
Taking care of Wash was a weird mix of being helpful and keeping your distance so he didn’t get mad at you. It would be easier to tell York what had happened if Wash decided to lay down and stay out of the way.
***
York glanced at Carolina. Wash felt a little all over the place. This was definitely going to take some getting used to but he was confident that they would figure it out. They had the right people in the house to hopefully mitigate the worst of it, or at least be the kind of support he needed to find his new normal.
"We've got both of those things at home, so into the car you go, alright?" He moved over to the driver's side and opened the back door for whichever of them wanted to sit in the back. Delta, have Charlie heat up the leftovers from dinner, alright? But make sure she goes back to bed to give us some space. York didn't want Wash to get overwhelmed and coming back here meant an influx of memories that were probably going to be hard enough to deal with already.
It'd be ready by the time they got home so that way if Wash did want to eat, he could do it right away or else just lay down and eat another time. "Everyone's pretty much asleep so it'll be quiet at the house." That was probably for the better, too.
***
Wash went ahead and got in the back because with the headache all he really wanted to do was stop moving and close his eyes. It took him a couple of tries to get his foot high enough to get in the door so by the time he got in and leaned back he was closing his eyes to deal with the fact he was irritated that he couldn't just do something as easily as he knew he could.
He also didn't want to see Carolina watching him. She'd been great helping out while he recovered but she'd get that look on her face when he got stuck and he'd get pissed off at her. He just couldn't help himself and he was too tired to fight.
***
Carolina had turned around when he had trouble getting his foot in so she wouldn't be tempted to get in there to help and also because there had been more than a few rousing fights lately about both 'babying' him and her 'look' which she still wasn't quite sure which one she had on her face that made him so mad so she wasn't taking any chances.
"Glad they're asleep. I need a little time to let my head adjust to being here again I think." Tucker wasn't from far enough along to remember Wash getting shot, that would be good. "I might actually just stay in bed tomorrow."
***