Orrie likes arrows (sagittal) wrote in musingslogs, @ 2011-05-27 22:19:00 |
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Entry tags: | green arrow, lady, mark sloan, watson |
Who: Valerie, Mathias, Jonathan and Orin
What: House call, Morgenstern style
Where: Aubade
When: Backdated: Immediately after this
Warnings: None
Orin’s apartment was unconventional, and all the windows and sunlight did that morning accentuate how not okay Valerie looked lying in the bed. He’d been hovering over her bed for the past half hour, not even changing out of the mostly-dry clothes from the boat. He smelled like the ocean, and he looked like hell, skin too white in spots and still shivering as he stood there and waited. He wanted coffee. Hell, he wanted something stronger than coffee, but that would require leaving the room and going downstairs, and he wasn’t about to do that. He was, he found, unbelievably thankful to have family in town just then. Jonathan and Mathias both knew about his damn boat going down, about the three years he’d been missing in hell. He wouldn’t have to lie to them about why he was a damn wreck, and that went a long way to making him feel better. Sure, they didn’t know exactly what he’d done to survive on the island, but they knew there was an island - that counted for something.
Mathias loved his family, but ever since his return from his service in the war he was admittedly a bit more distant from them. Despite that, when a member was in trouble, Mathias liked to believe that he was reliable enough to show up and help as much as he could in any given situation.
Mathias didn’t bother knocking on Orin’s door when he reached his cousin’s apartment, and he opened it with the hand that wasn’t occupied. The bag he was carrying in the opposite fist was a small one, filled with simple things such as rubbing alcohol and gauze, but it was enough to clean up anything that he felt he would run into from a spill into the water. He closed the door loudly behind him to announce his presence in the apartment, and he said aloud to the empty room, “Orin, it’s me.” He glanced around the place before making his way to the only open door, and when he finally walked in he stopped and stood in the doorway.
Orin looked like hell. He was pale and almost sickly, but Mathias wasn’t going to state that outright. So, instead, he walked over to the bed and sat on its edge, setting his bag down and looking at the woman closely. She didn’t look good either, and it was oddly fitting in comparison with how weak Orin looked hovering over her. He finally glanced over at his cousin before speaking. “You smell like seaweed. Have you even changed?” He frowned, his tone softening. “Go clean yourself up, Orin, I can keep an eye on her.” He doubted that the man would listen, but he would have been a terrible cousin if he didn’t at least try.
Valerie had plans for when she’d gotten back to the apartment. She didn’t have a stash of gold here at Orin’s, because she’d just used it the previous week and she hadn’t quite gotten to the point of replenishing. There was more hidden under the floor at her old apartment, so as soon as Orin went to sleep or went off to... wherever, she would get a cab out there. However, by the time they were back in the apartment, Valerie was too tired to think about getting a cab, even if Orin wasn’t right there every time she opened her eyes. She had decided, in a drifting kind of way, to go in the morning, and then she’d gone back to a shallow, dreamless sleep, punctuated only by Orin’s voice and sudden waking moments when she couldn’t catch her breath.
It wasn’t long after Mathias arrived that Jonathan made his own entrance, an easy jaunt just floors above his own domicile. He came prepared, as Mathias had, with a small duffel bag which contained a makeshift pharmacy and clinic in its depths. Never be unprepared. That was a lesson he had learned early in life.
The smell of salt and everything that lived in the ocean was the trail Jonathan followed to where Orin and his lady were, and for a moment, he just looked them over. It had been a while since he’d seen Orin, and the man sitting and keeping vigil at the lady’s side was a far cry from what he remembered as his cousin. His brother, on the other hand, well... He’d recognize him anywhere. Sighing, Jonathan dropped his bag on the floor, arms folding over his chest. “And here I was thinking it was just the lady that needed help. Mathias is right. You look like hell.” Blunt, to the point, no other way to be. But when he laid a hand against Valerie’s forehead, he was nothing but gentle, brow furrowing slightly. “Dare I ask how long you two were in the drink?” he asked, already taking charge and pulling his duffel closer, pulling out his stethoscope and pressure cuff. Surgeon he may have been, but that didn’t excuse remembering the basics.
“Hell if I know,” Orin said honestly, clapping a hand on Jonathan’s shoulder as he passed him. He was following Mathias’ orders, because Mathias’ had always been the responsible type one listened to, even when Orin was a snot nosed kid of eight joining a strange family. He glanced back at the bed. “Just, make sure she’s okay. She hates that damn boat, and I insisted on going out,” he said. Halfheartedly, he pointed a finger at Jonathan. “Hands off,” he said, managing to tease slightly before walking out of the room and grabbing clothing. He disappeared into the bathroom, and he re-emerged a minute later, still smelling of salt water, despite the clean clothing - no shower. “Well?” he asked impatiently, skin still a little too cold, eyes haunted.
Mathias had tried to smile at his brother when the man entered the room, as he always tried to smile at his family, but even he knew that it looked horribly forced, so he quickly stopped. His eyes watched Orin closely, as if making sure the man was going to listen and get changed, so when he came out of the bathroom reeking of salt water with clean clothes, Mathias accepted that it was as good as what he was going to get.
Mathias’s attention narrowed in on Val and when he touched her cheek with the back of his hand, he felt the familiar tingle that usually happened when his ability kicked itself into gear. He ignored it, and his voice got a bit louder as he spoke her name. "Val, come on, you have to stay awake." She seemed coherent, slipping in and out of sleep, which was to be expected of someone who was suffering from hypothermia, but letting her body shut off at a time like this was one of the worst things they could do. "Orin, if you could make something hot for her to drink that would help a lot. Do you have a heating blanket?" He didn't wait for an answer as he looked at his older brother. Mathias would never admit it aloud but he always took Jonathan's opinions to heart. Not only was he an older brother, but he was a surgeon, and despite his laid back womanizing personality, Mathias thought the man was brilliant.
"Do you have a thermometer with you? Just so we can try to see how bad it is, hot chocolate isn't going to do much of she's bordering freezing to death..." Mathias glanced back down at the woman, before feeling the fabric at the bottom of her shirt. "Are these the clothes you fell in with? Val? Did you hit anything in your fall?" Although Orin had already told him that she was only suffering from hypothermia, he wanted to keep the woman talking. The longer she spoke, the longer she stayed awake. "We're going to have to keep her warm somehow." He paused, and he tried to keep himself from glancing at Jonathan. In any other situation he would have probably made a comment about keeping her warm, and Jonathan could have responded with something even funnier, and Orin would chase them from his home with a baseball bat... But now wasn't one of those times.
Orin’s voice appeared to have multiplied, and the deep tenor hums penetrated Valerie’s blank cotton dreams and brought her into something like waking, gray and confused. Her eyes came open for several seconds before she reacted to the alien faces, not with fear, but with confusion carried over from sleep and annoyance at the imposition. “Who the hell are you?” The protest would have had more punch if she’d had more voice to give to it. She tried to sit up, but it didn’t work out as she’d hoped, and her shoulder slumped back down in the pillow. She hadn’t changed, so she was still wrapped up in a thick towel and one of Orin’s loose shirts from somewhere. She turned her head and caught sight of the stethoscope hovering over her. She’d woken up to a lot worse faces, but she knew where she was (the scent of the bed was familiar) and she sure as hell didn’t know either of the two men immediately in sight. “Get away from me. I’m fine.” She waved a hand to ward off the touch to her face, and then winced, because that was the sprained one. They’d wrapped it up to keep it immobile for the most part.
“Afraid I can’t do that, beautiful,” Jonathan said without missing a beat, “because I doubt my cousin here would have asked me up if you were fine. Something to think about.” The process of taking her blood pressure was paused for just a moment as he dug a thermometer out of his bag and passed it over to Mathias. “If you behave, there’s a lollipop in it for you.” And then he was all business, ignoring her protests, both verbal and physical, as he unwrapped the towel from around her slightly, just enough to get to her arm to wrap the cuff around it. While he inflated the cuff, stethoscope in his ears to listen for the pulse, Jonathan glanced over towards Orin, wondering for a moment when the man had gotten replaced with a ghost.
“If you’re not going to shower, sit down. You look about ready to fall over,” he chided him, and then his attention was back on Valerie, the beat of her heart, the low pressure from the dial. By the time he was unwrapping the cuff and setting it to the side, his brow was furrowed down in concern. “Electric blanket’d be great if you have one.” Swinging the stethoscope back around his neck, Jonathan got up to his feet, clapping Mathias on the shoulder briefly, a murmur to him as he rose. “Her blood pressure’s pretty low. This would be much easier in a hospital.”
Leaving Mathias to see to Valerie for the moment, Jonathan crossed over towards Orin. “Come on. Let’s you and I get her something hot to drink and some blankets. She’s gonna be just fine. All right?” He levelled Orin with a look, a combination of seriousness and confidence.
Orin didn’t like anything that was happening in the room. His expression went from concerned, to really damn concerned, and he nodded at Jonathan, but held a hand out for him to wait a second. He walked to the bed, close enough for Valerie to see and hear him, and he looked down at her. “Val, Mathias is my cousin. You let him play doctor, or I’m dragging your ass right to the damn hospital,” he said, which was hardly soothing, but which was very, very Orin. He glanced at Mathias, letting him see the importance of this in his expression, and then he turned back to join Jonathan.
Jonathan’s condescension just pissed Valerie off. Orin called her Val but no one else did, and she shot a glare at Mathias just in case he didn’t pick up on how much she didn’t like it. You didn’t need to use a stethoscope to see her heart rate picking up as much as she was able, and she made a more concentrated effort to sit up and fight off the reaching hands. She picked up her good arm and pushed away at them weakly, arguing with short pauses for her to gasp some air to continue. This didn’t seem to allay her anger. “Don’t need... a hospital... or doctors. Don’t touch me.” The attempt on the bedding and the towel received a sound of inarticulate rage, and she probably would have hit Jonathan if she’d had the strength to do it. She wasn’t as cold anymore, but rather hot, maybe a fever setting in, or maybe the fit of temper. “Fix it... myself. Get away.” Her look at Orin was at first resentment and then real alarm as he turned away, with a very small undercurrent of fear that she was managing to hold off just fine right up until that point.
"Oh no, hospitals are evil." Mathias muttered it to Jonathan, his voice dripping in sarcasm, when his brother said that Valerie should have been in one. He caught the glare that the woman gave to him and he glared directly back at her, ignoring her protests at first until he finally let his hands fall in frustration. "Calm down, you'd think I was trying to amputate your arm with the way you're acting." There was no soft tone in his voice when he spoke, and he stared at the woman in annoyance. It would have been easier if he knew her but he didn't, so her protests only stabbed at Mathias' nerves. "I'm just taking your pulse, breathe or you'll just upset yourself more. My name is Mathias, I'm Orin's cousin." He repeated Orin's introduction, as if she didn't hear it the first time, and he began to wrap a blanket around her shoulders.
Mathias had no idea why people were so against doctors, but he saw it too often. Tell someone that they needed a hangnail removed, they would panic as if you just announced that they needed open heart surgery. His eyes moved to the woman's arm and he swore under his breath... Orin didn't mention that. He turned his head, calling over his shoulder, "Jon, her arm is hurt. I'd check it but I have a feeling that Orin should help." He looked back at Valerie in annoyance when he continued aloud, "I think she might bite me if I try to touch it."
Mathias’ annoyance was only growing but he took a deep breath, trying to calm his short temper. The poor woman woke up with two strange men wrapping her in blankets, she was probably confused, and his tone was most likely only making things worse. He tried again, his voice softer. "I'm just trying to help you. Can I please see your arm so I can make sure it's wrapped properly?" he paused before explaining, "If it's off at all the bone could heal wrong and you'll have to break it all over again to fix. If it's broken, that is." It was hard to tell under the wrapping, but he hoped it was only a sprain. Or nothing at all.
“Sprain,” Valerie managed after a shallow breath. “Not... dying.” Another shallow breath, but she just wasn’t getting enough oxygen to argue and struggle both. The paramedics had fixed her well enough. She didn’t need doctors. The fever was building in the back of her neck and it scared her to think about it. She just wanted these men to go away, and leave her alone, so she could fix the rest of it. She knew very well they weren’t going to be able to do anything to help her, and she didn’t want them fussing over her--they might find out what was really wrong with her. “Leave me alone! Orin!” It was a gasp. He could just make them leave, both of them.
Orin had just reached the stairs with Jonathan. It was slow going, and he was worried about what his cousin was about to say. He knew Jonathan, and he hadn’t liked that damn look, not anymore than he’d liked him using pet names with the woman who was no longer his fiancee and who he had no real claim over. He groaned, and he stopped mid-stairs and ran a hand over his face and turned to the eldest Morgenstern, the one who’d always picked him and Adam up and wiped the snot off their faces. “Don’t you go giving me that look-” he started, but then Valerie called out, and she sounded ornery as hell. “Damn woman,” he said, and he raised his voice loud enough to be heard. “LET HIM TAKE CARE OF YOU, WOMAN!” His life was quiet once, dammit.
Valerie pressed her lips together at the scolding, feeling angry at him for abandoning her when this was all his fault. She turned her head away from the door, attempting to turn a cold shoulder to Mathias and his attempts to touch her.
Mathias had to put effort into not laughing at Orin's sudden demand, and he cleared his throat to stare at Valerie and wait for her to listen. Of course, she didn't, and Mathias found himself doing the breathing exercise his therapist showed him to calm down before he stared at her with daggers in his eyes. "Listen. I want to leave you alone. REALLY I do. But if I let you die, Orin will be mad at me. And come the holidays things would end up being awkward. I'm not willing to let that happen because you're afraid of a damn stethoscope." Mathias stared at her longer, trying to decide if what he said was acceptable, until he realized that he didn't really give a damn and he reached out to touch the back of her neck.
"Seeing as you'll only stab me with my thermometer if I tried to take your temperature, let's assume you have a fever, shall we? So how do you want to handle this, ibuprofen? Or would you rather us take you're route and let you burn up? And die? Because that could happen if you don't stop acting like I'm trying to poison you."
Mathias’ attention turned to her arm. "And even if it's sprained it still needs to be set right. Let me see your arm." Worse case scenario, she would have said no, and Mathias could leave the room, raid his cousin’s liquor collection, and ask the man if he was right in the head for calling him over here in the first place. "I really AM a doctor. The several years of study and practice were just a formality, but I think I could help if you let me."
Valerie wasn’t scared of Mathias or his stupid stethoscope. He had the Morgenstern good looks and he probably got whatever he wanted between his face and the M.D., and Valerie wasn’t in the mood to be manipulated. He did a lot of talking, however, and she got to listening just because she was trying to catch her breath again to tell him to go away. She turned her head to look at him, all sullen resentment in the hollows of her eyes. Valerie usually had a healthy shimmer to her skin, and the current flushed pallor was as much a contrast as anything. He was right about the fever, which would only get worse the longer she went without. “Thank you,” she said, as coldly as possible. “Not sick. Go away.” She offered him the wrist just to make him go away.
Orin had heard Mathias’ valiant attempts to get Valerie to cooperate, and even feeling like hell it gave him a bit of pleasure to see someone else having the kind of trouble with the woman that he had on a near constant basis. He sighed at Jonathan, clasped his cousin on the shoulder and turned back up the stairs. For all his bravado, Orin had always looked up to Mathias and Jonathan, if for entirely different reasons, and he felt better just having them in the apartment, even if they did make him feel lost and eight years old again. He walked into the room (if it could be called walking), and he looked at Valerie as he asked the question. “Well, she dying anytime soon?” And it was an indication of just how much he trusted these two men that he could ask the question with a grin on his face.
Mathias was pleased to see her offer her wrist and he took it with a gentle hand before she changed her mind, gingerly unwrapping the swollen joint. "I'm sure you're fine but Orin is worried. Let's both put him at ease, shall we?" His tone was softer now that she complied to him, and a bit more official as he studied her wrist when it was finally unwrapped. "Ouch... Alright, let's put this in a proper binding to give it some support, and then I promise I'll leave you alone. After we get you warmed up, obviously."
It was then that Orin entered the room, and Mathias shot him a glare similar to the one that Valerie shot him when he left in the first place. "She's fine. And cooperating. NOW. No thanks to you." He sighed, but there was a hint of drama in it, and it was obvious that he was just trying to give his cousin a hard time. "Remember that time I made you eat sand in the park next to our old house? I'm glad I did that now." He said it casually as he began to rewrap the woman's wrist, pulling two long plastic splints from his bag and setting them up for her properly so she didn't sleep on it wrong. The moment he finished he removed his hands for her, not hesitating to wrap her in another blanket. "It's going to feel like you're getting very warm but your body is still below an acceptable temperature, it's just trying to catch up. Stay in these blankets." He seemed a bit relieved before saying to his cousin, "She's going to be fine. She might spike a bad fever and get some chills, but she won't need serious medical attention past some soup and bad soap operas unless she spikes to 102, or around there. Don't let it get past that before calling Jonathan or I."
Mathias finally took the moment for some family honesty. "You smell like shit, Orin. She's acceptable and suffering from Hypothermia so it's alright, but you're healthy enough to get up and walk around." He tried not to smile. "As a doctor I would advise you to bathe after taking a dive into a freezing ocean." He doubted Orin fell in on purpose. But it amused him anyway.The smell, at least. Not the freezing ocean part. His tone became a bit more serious, however, when he gestured to the end of the bed. "Really though, sit, I want to make sure you're alright."
Valerie pretended that her wrist didn’t bother her, and she was willing to let Mathias treat it because it distracted him from whatever else he thought was wrong with her. (Nothing.) She made a sound of disgruntled protest when he piled more blankets on, because she was hot and she didn’t want any more blankets. Again, she didn’t have the breath to complain, or do much more than shift from side to side. This was so stupid. She just wanted to go home and she’d be fine.
Orin dropped heavily into a chair, and he gave Mathias a look was amazingly smug for how shit he felt. “You were trying to kill me because I was going to be a damn sight prettier than you,” he told his cousin with fond gruffness. He glanced at Valerie one more time, and then he leaned his head against the back of the seat and closed his eyes obligingly. “This is how a good patient behaves,” he said, obviously for Valerie’s benefit. “And don’t let Jon try anything when I’m not looking.”
“Really, where did the lot of you get such bad opinions about me,” Jonathan said as he rejoined the group, leaving the doctoring to Mathais since he seemed so chipper about it all. His bag was there, open with anything his brother might need to assist him. Dropping into a chair near Orin, he leaned forward, elbows on his knees, hands clasped together. “Besides, it’s pretty obvious who got the pretty-gene in this family.” A waggle of his eyebrows to punctuate the statement and he laughed at himself, glancing over towards Valerie. “Is she always so charming? Just curious.”
"Yes, Jon, we all know I'm good looking, you don't have to sit there and harp on it." He smirked a bit and carefully looked at Orin, trying to tell if he also had some secret sprain just waiting to be found. "And she's not that bad once she listens." At his words he turned to look at the woman with a softer expression. "How are you feeling Valerie?" She had a lot of temper, but as long as she was still talking, she was awake and doing well.
Valerie did not like being the topic of discussion when she couldn’t take part herself, though (in a peripheral way) she was surprised at how relaxed Orin was around his “kin.” What she wanted was to curl up and sleep until they all went away, but experience told her the fever was only going to get worse over the next few hours and she didn’t want them around to figure that out. She probably would end up in the hospital, regardless of what they said to reassure her. She took in a very slow breath that rasped and said, clearly, “I want to go home.”
“You are home,” Orin barked from the chair, and oh, yes, it was a bark. There was no teasing in it, no easy joking for his cousins, and there was clearly more going on in the room than he was saying. “And you’re not moving out of that damn bed until you’re better.” He didn’t even bother giving Jonathan and Mathias an apologetic look. They could lecture his ass later. He was sure they would, might as well give them something to talk about. He pointed at Jonathan. “Save that damn lecture.” As the eldest Morgenstern, Jonathan always thought he knew best. Sometimes he did, but there wasn’t any point in reinforcing that particular belief.
Valerie’s eyes immediately filled up with tears, which looked very strange on her given what hell she gave everyone when she didn’t get what she wanted. Rather than wasting what little breath she had arguing, she rolled over under the heap of blankets and put her back to all of them.
A brow arched on Jonathan’s face, but he didn’t say a word at the look Orin gave him, instead holding his hands up in a gesture of defeat. Instead, he got back up to his feet and moved over towards Valerie, hardly caring if she wanted attention or no. Crouching down, he settled himself on the balls of his feet, not touching, not even approaching. “You know,” he started in a conspiratorial tone, “the sooner you give in and relax, the sooner you’ll start feeling better. Keep up with the fighting, and you’ll just wear yourself out more than you already are, and then it’ll be doctor’s orders to visit the hospital.” He paused, leaning towards her slightly, just enough to give her a larger taste of his voice. “Unless there’s something you’re not telling us. You can’t possibly enjoy being feverish and miserable.”
Valerie refused to respond. They weren’t listening. She turned her head a little farther away into the pillow and ignored Jonathan’s condescending attempts to get her cooperation. Infuriating man. He was even worse than Orin.
The tone that Orin used with the woman didn't surprise Mathias, but her sudden tears did. Well well, what did we have here? He cocked an eyebrow, the fact that there was much more tension in the room than he previously thought dawned on him, but he kept silent. With his track record of one night stands and failed relationships, Mathias hardly had room to talk. He allowed Jonathan to take over with Valerie, but he was tempted to tell his brother not to waste his time.
Mathias stayed silent, and instead gave Orin a look. "Yeah, no, brilliant idea Orin, this is exactly what your blood pressure needs." He started to rub disinfectant on a few cuts and scrapes on his cousin’s arm, saying calmly, "Breathe, cousin. You're not in much better shape than she is."
Orin breathed, though he looked annoyed while he was doing it. “I’m not old enough to have blood pressure problems,” he said, but he humored Mathias, even while he watched Valerie turn deeper into the pillow. “Woman, can you quit being damned impossible for five minutes?” he asked, muttering something about women and this was why he didn’t date under his breath. He just wanted to go shoot a damn arrow through something, which is what he was going to do as soon as his damn, well-meaning family left. Even if he had called them, which he was ignoring just then.
At her lack of response, Jonathan gave a roll of his eyes and got back up to his feet, not the sort to play games with the unwilling. It was at that moment that his pocket gave a buzz, causing him to fish out his pager, peering at it for a long moment. “Duty calls. If she or you start dying, give me a call. I prescribe rest, fluids, and good behaviour. And if her fever doesn’t break,” he said, crooking a thumb at the blonde, “then get her to the hospital. Brain damage ain’t pretty, though it might make her more pleasant to be around.” His lips twisted into a smirk and he gestured to his bag. “Matty, should I leave that?”
“Mathias will be going with you,” Orin said, waving Mathias away from him after a few moments of obligingly playing doctor. “I’ll call you both if she doesn’t get better, or if I feel inclined to kill her,” he assured them, standing and glancing over at Valerie. “Thanks for coming over. Next time, Cristal and women who don’t require medical attention,” he promised.
"Damn right I'll be going with him." Mathias muttered it under his breath when Valerie failed to accept Jonathan's help, and he stood with a grunt after grabbing his bag. He had left his cane at home and now his leg was starting to hurt again... Damn his leg. "And no, Orin, you can call me if she's seriously sick. If you're about to kill her, keep me out of it." He cracked a soft smile when he said it and he nodded at his cousin’s promise. "I'll hold you to that. Call me if you aren't feeling well either." He gave the man a look that said 'or I'll kill you' before finally turning to walk out the room. "Come on, Jonathan." He said it aloud, before muttering quietly for his brother to hear, "I need a drink."