Marina Scherbatskaya (scherbatskaya) wrote in remains_rpg, @ 2016-05-23 12:06:00 |
|
|||
Entry tags: | # 2019 [05] may, marina scherbatskaya, theodore greenling |
Who: Marina and TJ
Where: TJ's RV
What: Marina's first official task as a prospect is to take care of her sick sponsor
When: May 7th, afternoon
When Vic had been laid up in bed, the first time he injured his shoulder, they'd joked about how she needed a candy striper costume if she was going to keep playing nurse to him. Well, he'd healed up before Marina ever found one but later when they'd been out in the city together, she raided some sorority houses' closets and found a sexy nurse costume. It wasn't like she wanted Vic to get hurt again and give her a reason to wear it, but she grabbed it anyway, thinking she could wear it for a laugh some time. Apparently, that time had come. She was supposed to be starting her prospecting, but she hadn't counted on her first job to be taking care of a sick TJ. Even still, she dressed in the ridiculous sexy nurse dress just because she could and it was actually funny as hell, then loaded up a bag full of water bottles, half a packet of matzo crackers they'd had in their pantry, and a plastic pail for good measures, before making her way over to his RV. She knocked twice, announcing her presence, then opened the door to step in. "How you holding up, champ?" She asked, her nose wrinkling at the smell. TJ was feeling miserable, if he was being honest. Sick wasn't something he got easily, not even when he'd been a kid, so being hit so suddenly with nausea and everything else, he felt like he'd been run over by a truck. It was hot enough there without him running a fever, and every time his body convulsed in an attempt to get anything in his stomach out of it, he felt like he was getting sweatier. It was not pleasant. Which was how he ended up pretty much stripped down to his underwear, sitting on the floor and looking like shit. His head lolled to the side when he heard the knock on his door, looking over to it as it opened and he thought maybe he was hallucinating. It took him a moment to realize he wasn't, and he gave a tired huff of a laugh as he shook his head. "Not too great," he managed in response, bringing a hand up to rub over his face. "Steal that from someone at the medical center? Lookin' might official." “They gave it to me when I finished medical school,” Marina replied flatly before giving him a smirk. He looked like hell, and even though the last thing she wanted was to hold his hair while he puked, she was glad that someone was here to check on him -- even if that person had to be her. Kneeling down next to him on the floor, then sitting back on her heels, she took out a bottle of water and held it out to him. “Are you still throwing up?” "Did they?" TJ asked, raising an eyebrow with a tired grin. "Hand you a diploma and that. What a great combination." He patted the spot next to him on the floor when she moved to kneel down, pushing his discarded shirt out of the way. Even the thought of drinking that water was enough to make his stomach turn, but he also knew he was dehydrated and needed to try. It was a frustrating place to be. "Yep," he replied with a grimace as he took the bottle from her, slowly twisting off the lid and making himself take a small sip. It lasted for about five seconds before he was leaning over to the bucket beside him, body heaving as what little had managed to get to his stomach came back up. "Fuck..." There wasn’t anything Marina could do but watch TJ empty his stomach, but once he resurfaced from the bucket, she held out a tattered washcloth for him to wipe his mouth, which he took gratefully. “I think we’ll have to wait until you’re done puking before I rock your world,” she teased, clearly not meaning it. TJ wasn’t the kind of man who messed around with the camp bitches, and even when Vic had her flirting with TJ just to antagonize him during his prospecting phase, he’d never been the least bit tempted. He was certainly different than most of the men here at the Dog Park, but Marina really wasn’t one to judge. “As irresistible as I am right now, I know it’s hard not to,” he replied dryly, rolling his eyes and twisting the lid back onto the bottle of water that was clearly not going to do much for him. “Try to contain yourself.” “If I must,” Marina said in a faux-crushed sort of way before moving to stand once more. She took a few steps to the nearest window, then pulled up at it until it opened. “Think you can drag yourself back into bed while I work on airing the place out?” She asked, then added, “The smell can’t be helping to settle your stomach.” TJ pushed against the floor to get himself started to stand, wobbling briefly as he got to his feet. He hadn’t been dizzy before he’d sat down, but he certainly was then. Thankfully, there wasn’t much distance between where he was and his bed, and he made it there without incident, sitting on the edge at first before settling back onto it with a groan. “It’s too damn hot.” Marina moved around the small space, opening the other widows, then returned to TJ’s side, outstretching a hand and putting it on his forehead. Though her hands were generally cold, even she could tell that he was burning up. But until TJ could keep down water, she wasn’t going to give him any medicine. Their supplies were already limited enough and they couldn’t afford for their precious pills to be vomited up. Another washcloth was pulled out of Marina’s handy dandy medical bag and she wetted it before placing it on TJ’s forehead. His eyes closed as soon as it met his skin, and he brought up a hand to touch it before letting it drop to his side again. “Feels like we’re in the fucking stone age when the best I can do is put a cold towel on your head. You know Noa is sick, too, right? Did you see her yesterday? Maybe you caught it from her or she got it from you.” “Don’t think they had sexy nurses in the stone age,” he mumbled, his brow furrowing as he thought back to the previous day. “Noa? No, don’t think so.” TJ opened his eyes a little to look up at Marina, tilting his head to be able to see her a bit better. Hopefully someone knew that, but if Marina did that meant most like Vic was in the loop, which was a reassurance. “Someone over there with her?” Marina shook her head. “You know how she is… all solitary and self-sufficient. Don’t think I didn’t offer her my services though,” she smirked. At least Noa had promised to text her if she needed anything, so it was something. It wasn’t that he didn’t appreciate Marina being there, but in times like that it made him miss his wife even more. He much preferred her being his nurse than anyone else, even when she was mad at him. The fuzziness in his head from the fever and dizziness certainly wasn’t helping him not think about that, not when he was sick and having an actual nurse would have been great. “What a shit way to start prospecting, yeah?” Reaching up, she adjusted the rag a bit on his forehead, before setting her hands in her lap and looking at him rather helplessly. She didn’t have a natural maternal instinct or that innate sense of what to do to comfort a person, so watching TJ clearly suffering, she just didn’t know what to do besides sit there. “Don’t mind. Besides, I thought the point was to make me do the worst stuff around camp. I’d say your projectile act is pretty bad,” she teased. “Don’t worry. You’ll feel better soon and there will still be lots of time for all that fun you promised.” TJ managed a raspy chuckle, shifting a little in an attempt to get more comfortable. It didn’t work, but he wasn’t sure much would. It was hard to feel any was comfortable when his body felt out of his control - too hot, rejecting everything, an obnoxious layer of sweat lingering on his skin. A cold shower might have felt nice, if not for requiring being upright, along with so much else that wasn’t going to happen. Everything was out of his control. “Well you did say you wouldn’t hold back my hair while I puke,” he mused. “So far so good with that. This had better pass soon, or I won’t live up to my middle name. Wouldn’t want to disappoint.” “I only meant that if you got wasted and made yourself puke. At that point you’d just deserve to suffer but as far as I can tell, this isn’t your fault. As your prospect, I’m at your disposal,” she said with a conceding shrug. It seemed like TJ was too sick to do anything truly sadistic to her right now, and honestly she did want to see him feel better, so she didn’t mind jumping through a few hoops for that. She just wasn’t sure where to start. “You’re all sweaty and gross. Do you want me to go find you a fan? Give you a sponge bath? What do you think will make you feel better?” TJ would have been helpless to come up with anything if she hadn’t given him options. His mind wasn’t firing on all cylinders and the only real idea for how to feel better was to stop feeling like he did, which wasn’t a real help. A fan would have been good, but might have taken time to find and he was more interested in immediate relief. “Sponge bath,” he replied, reaching up to turn the cloth on his forehead over, get a new, cooler side against his skin. “Would be nice.” This was seriously the makings of some low-budget porno film, except for the fact that TJ was legitimately sick and she would not be pulling his boxer shorts down to ‘clean’ anything. God, how did she get herself into situations like this? After filling a clean bucket with water and finding another towel, she wetted it then squeezed the water out before beginning to dab at his skin, starting at his neck.“If you think you’re going to hurl, give me some warning, okay?” "I won't puke on you," TJ promised, his head lolling to the side to make it easier for her to dab at his neck. It seemed like such a small thing, but having any bit of him not feel like it was covered in sticky hot sweat was a relief, so even that first little bit of his neck getting cleaned off felt amazing in comparison. "No one else is sick, right? Just me and Noa?" “Not too sure,” Marina answered, continuing to dab at his neck then moved down to his chest. TJ gave a huff of breath in response, because her answer not being 'no' wasn't consoling. Despite that she knew for a fact that a few others seemed to be sick as well, it wasn’t something TJ needed to be worrying about right now. It wasn’t like he could do anything to help anyone, especially with the state he was in, so it was probably for the best if he just focused on getting rest and getting better. “You need to try drinking water again. You ready?” TJ opened an eye to look up at her, the thought of trying to put anything in his body already making his stomach lurch. Still, he knew she was right, and there was only one way to know if it would stay down. Slowly, he propped himself up on his elbows and held out a hand to take the water bottle from her. "As I'll ever be, I guess." It was a tiny sip, barely enough to test the waters so to speak. After a few seconds of seeming fine, he took a regular sized sip, glad for the brief moment or so of the taste of sick being out of his mouth. That was all he got, though, before he felt his stomach turn, and his arm shot out automatically toward Marina to move her away from him as he leaned over the side of the bed and vomited into the bucket there. Marina landed haphazardly at the end of the bed, a questioning look in her eyes until she realized just what was happening. Again. She had to hand it to him -- he was a very considerate sick person. The moment passed, and though it was probably the last thing he wanted, she held out water again. “Rinse out your mouth,” she instructed, her head shaking slightly as she smiled. “Got a little cocky there, didn’t you? I guess it was better than nothing. Let’s finish up this sponge bath then you’ll try again, but with smaller sips.” Taking the water bottle from her with a grunt, TJ did as he was told, swishing it around in his mouth before spitting it out into the bucket. At least his mouth didn't feel as grimy and coated in bitterness, but his throat burned. "I wasn't trying to be, I was hopeful," he mumbled, rolling over onto his back again and bringing his hand up to rub over his face. "All I want is to drink some water. This shouldn't be so hard." After rewetting the towel for his forehead, Marina went back to the task of giving TJ a sponge bath, looking at him sympathetically. If the doctors hadn’t gotten themselves house arrest, she was sure they would have been able to give TJ some kind of IV with liquids in it but alas. People survived this shit long before modern medicine, and they would continue to long after if humanity managed to outlive this apocalypse bullshit. “Do you still feel like you’re burning up? Your skin feels a little cooler I think,” she said, fingertips resting against the skin of his thigh. But maybe fever didn’t reach the legs. Again, she could not emphasize enough how little she knew about medicine. TJ laid still, eyes closed, as the sponge moved over his skin, glad for the little relief that came with it. Anything to help him feel less drenched in sweat and like it was holding all the heat in his body was helpful. It was frustrating, beyond anything else, that he couldn't do anything about it. Frustrating to him in general, and then also that he was stuck there unable to go about his normal business, which impacted more than just him. "Still hot, but not as bad?" he offered, his eyes opening slightly to look up at her. "It helped, thanks." “It’s a start,” Marina said, doing her best to give him a hopeful smile. “So, not that I didn’t enjoy the sponge bath, maybe even more than you because I got to touch you all over,” she smirked, “But we seriously need to get some water in you. How’s your stomach feeling?” "Right, because I'm so incredibly sexy with my puking all over the place," TJ said dryly, absently swatting at her hand to get it away from where she was touching his thigh. He adjusted the cloth on his forehead as he considered the question, because his stomach felt fine but it also had before and still turned when the water hit it. "I can try, again." “I’m not looking at your face,” Marina continued smirking but pulled her hand the rest of the way back to retrieve the water. TJ rolled his eyes, letting out a slow exhale as she got the water, trying not to let his mind make it bad before it happened. She really should stop teasing him, especially since he was so damn sick, but it was just too much fun. And that was his middle name, wasn’t it? “If you hurl again, maybe you can try sleeping for a while. That always helps me when I’m sick,” she said, holding out the water to him. "Maybe now I'll be able to," he replied, propping himself up on an elbow to be able to take the water from her. "Tried earlier but I couldn't - too hot." That and the inability to get comfortable thanks to his stomach churning and lurching without much warning. He took a slow, small sip of water and held it in his mouth a moment before swallowing, closing his eyes and hoping for the best. That only worked until he considered taking a second sip, and his body seemed to rebel against the thought. Barely anything was coming up, but anything that managed to make it to his stomach did, and TJ was left turned over the side of the bed dry heaving for a good few moments after it stopped being productive. He swore under his breath once it stopped, rinsing out his mouth with the water before falling onto his back again with a groan. "You don't have to stay, Marina." The more times he puked the worse Marina felt for him. As much as she was teasing, flirting and giving him shit, she did want him to get better. The whole caregiving was just so foreign, it was easier to troll her way through. “Well, as your prospect, you get to order me around. If you really want me to leave, then I will. But I don't see any other sexy nurses banging on your door to take care of you.” The thing was, TJ didn't think there was anything Marina could do for him beyond what she'd already done. He was miserable, and if she stayed she would be miserable too, and he didn't really feel like subjecting anyone to that - prospect or not. Nevermind that the only sexy nurse he really wanted to see was the one he was married to, and it was a bit too much to think like that when he was feeling so shitty in the first place. "How about," he started, trying to think it through as best he could with a mind that wasn't firing on all cylinders, "I'm going to try and sleep. No point in you staying for that, but you can come back in a few hours to see if I'm still this fucked or I can actually keep something down?" “I guess I could agree to that,” Marina said, reaching down to take out another bottle of water and a clean towel from her bag to set it besides TJ’s bed. “In case you wake up before I come back. Promise me you'll text if you need anything?” "I'll text if I need anything," TJ agreed, watching where she set everything so he didn't have to think much if he needed it. He was already feeling drowsy, but his body being exhausted probably didn't help. "Thanks, Marina." Time was probably the best medicine for him right now, so she nodded and moved over towards the door, leaning against the door frame. “Get some rest. I'll be back in a few hours,” Marina said, then gave the RV one last look to make sure she hadn't forgotten anything before making her exit. |