InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "I am wild"

. (mareas) wrote in rooms,
@ 2015-09-11 02:19:00

Entry tags:

!marvel comics, *log, bucky barnes, clementine murphy, penny ross, pepper potts, tony stark

[Triage for the billionaire]
Who: Clem, Penny, Pepper, Bucky (+ not!dead Tony Stark)
What: Checking Tony's non-vital vitals
Where: Graham & Shane's old place
When: Recentish
Warnings/Rating: Don't think so

Clementine, she wasn't sure of any damn thing.

Seemed like the week since most her folk went missing was filled with other folks needing her for things. This way and that, and this time it was some man that looked dead, but that apparently weren't dead at all, which just sounded 'bout as insane as a thing could sound. She wasn't real sure where it ranked alongside zombies and men burning pyres made of womenfolk, but she was real sure it wasn't natural any. Another thing was for damn certain, and that was it being true; James, he wouldn't know what a joke was if it was strapped to his backside. So, Clementine, she reckoned there really was some man with real quiet vitals, nearly dead, and maybe hanging on thready.

She put Penny on standby, but she thought better of it some by the time she got to the Queens duplex that Penny still called home. Best just have the other woman, seeing as being an EMT was real good for emergencies, but this felt like it was going to be a whole lot more than stitching someone and getting them transported in her bus. She wasn't even driving the damn ambulance. She was still in the truck she kept borrowing from work, and she climbed out hungover and tired. She could text Penny right then, before even going into the side of the duplex now sitting empty, but she must've been feeling like a real glutton for punishment, because she let herself on in first.

Lights off, but it was clear Penny was still paying for power and water, since the place was cool as could be. Messy, like folks just up and went for a walk some, and not like they were gone forever. Baby things scattered all over, dishes in the sink, and throws rumpled on the couch. It felt froze, the duplex, which was two bedrooms and open doors. Simple, clear menfolks lived there messy, and only the baby things all scattered seeming wrong for the bachelor pad.

Jeans and a white t-shirt, rumpled from driving long, she crouched, and she rubbed the edge of a baby blanket left lying. Her fingers clutched the soft fabric slow like syrup, and then she forced herself on into the kitchen to make a pot of coffee. Place felt like echoes, but the coffee burbled quick, and she sat herself down with the cup and texted Penny, telling her to come on over. Long as no one touched anything, Clementine reckoned she could get through this without weeping or tossing a coffee cup in anyone's face.

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mareas
2015-09-17 11:10 pm UTC (link)

Clementine, she was crouched next to that couch, listening. Wasn't anything anyone said that made this clear any. Not a damn thing, and she glanced up at Penny with a look that said as much. She did her checking again, vitals and all the things she knew weren't going to be different any. She listened to the redhead talk about unhappiness, and she reckoned there wasn't a whole lot of anything that was useful coming from this.

When she stood, it was James she talked to. Wasn't that she didn't respect the redhead, but it was James that Clementine knew real well, and it was James that Clementine had let bring this man here.

"Honey, this man, he ain't normal dead. He ain't living, so don't go getting your hopes up, but he ain't doing what dead bodies do." She reckoned James might know that. She didn't know a whole lot about her sometimes roommate's past, but she knew he and Matt shared a real affinity for fighting the world, and she reckoned dead folks came with that affinity. "Could be something about him, his body, we don't understand, maybe that thing in his chest has some residual electricity keeping him from going to pieces. Could be something to do with this damn hotel. Could be something to do with what he took. We could do some tests, see if his blood comes up strange, check for any brain activity." Wouldn't hurt any, and Clementine reckoned Penny could draw some blood easy, and it wouldn't be anything to get a lab to do some testing and scanning.

She moved closer to James, voice lower, like the man on the couch might hear. And who the heck knew if the damn man on the couch could hear them. Clementine, she sure didn't have a damn clue. "He might wake up. He might not. Right now, seems more like a coma without vitals than anything else, unless he starts showing signs of decomposition. But we should get him on some fluids, even if he ain't dehydrating, and on some sustenance. Probably should do the regular things to keep from bed sores and clots." Here she did look up. She glanced at Penny, looking for reinforcement some, and then at the other woman, looking for a solution. "But we need somewhere to get him settled. Somewhere with some good medical beds and supplies. I reckon he's got money, and there might be a house or facility can get set up for it?"

But, and this came from too many ambulance rides and practicality. "Reckon give him a week or two, let's take a look at the brain function and blood. If there's no change, then we go from there."

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propatria
2015-09-18 01:19 am UTC (link)

What Clem had to say only backed up what Bucky had already thought, but hadn't dared think seriously about. If Tony wasn't still alive, he certainly wasn't dead in the way he should be.

Her recommendations, fluids, treating him like a comatose patient in a hospital, those all made sense. He nodded to her. She was right. They could run tests, then, and see what happened next. If he stayed the way he was now, it would be a sure sign that something was going on, even if it wasn't life, necessarily.

But was Pepper up for it? He turned toward her. She was the one with the access to funds and facilities. "Is there a place he can go? Safe," he added, though it should have gone without saying. Private. As secret as possible. He kept his tone even, his voice quiet. She was already upset - there was no need to make that worse, but he didn't want to get her hopes up, either. Stark, he looked dead. Just because a few things weren't happening the way they should didn't mean that wasn't still true.

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deployed
2015-09-18 06:41 pm UTC (link)

Six months ago Penny would have said no, there wasn't anything in the world that could have done what appeared to be happening here. But six months ago wasn't now. And in that time she'd seen and heard things that made even less sense than all of this, and she wasn't about to let this stump her. She didn't purport to be some kinda genius, but she wasn't an idiot. She could run tests, she could figure this out. She didn't know how that thing in his chest worked, but maybe it needed a jump start. Maybe whatever he took was some kind of something to keep him ticking until it got one. Maybe he was dead and was just vain enough to want to keep looking good for all eternity. Maybe he wasn't dead and was just really fucking sleepy. Her mind was turning while Clementine was speaking.

"I'll get you a list of what we'd need for the testing, and the care, if that's the route you want to go." She didn't have high hopes, but people deserved answers. Too many times she'd seen people without closure. But everyone was different, and it wasn't her decision to make, and she wasn't dumb enough to promise anything, but tests, at least testing the pill bottle for traces of something, testing Stark. It was something.

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saltedand
2015-09-18 07:32 pm UTC (link)

Hope didn't need much to flicker and it showed, lighting up the sober planes of Pepper's face. A coma was a cliff-edge away from death, but it wasn't death, it wasn't final. Her mind - the very back of it, the place used to absorb the facts scattered in between the flippant patter of the man alive - abruptly stopped stuttering on the necessary requirements for after and set-to on facilities. Yes, yes she could find somewhere to go. Pepper looked now at the blond woman, the first one with an accent she recognized now.

"Thank you. We can get somewhere set up within a couple hours." And gratitude filled her voice, something to do, something that wasn't standing around wondering how to break it to JARVIS that he had outlived his creator.

"There are safe houses." They'd been set up, back after Tony had disappeared the first time. Scattered around the country, and other countries. Places stocked with safe-rooms and doors that closed heavily on threats. But Tony hadn't seen this one coming to close the door on -- or perhaps he had and opened the door to it.

Pepper looked at both women, wrung her hands. "Thank you. You were in the Tower, weren't you?" She looked at Clementine directly. "You helped then. Thank you, for helping us. Helping him."

And practical help was something to seize on. "What would you need? I can make calls, get things moving if I know what you need." The last, to Penny.

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mareas
2015-09-19 04:36 am UTC (link)

Had Clementine known what this woman was thinking, she would have spoke up loud and quick, because this wasn't just a coma, and it was nearer dead than that. It wasn't that Clementine didn't think hoping was important but, like anyone who'd spent time with trauma patients, she knew well enough how bad false hoping could be.

But the woman, she was talking about safehouses and getting places it set, and that was all that really mattered any. "We can sit with him here until you got a place set. James, you go on get anything needs getting." Like she had a place to go telling James what to do, but his lack of talking much lent itself to that kind of thing. "I was in the Tower, and you don't got to go thanking. James is a real good friend, even if he don't talk a whole lot. You go on now."

Clementine she gave Tony one lingering look, and she left Penny to wrap up answering questions. She went to make herself a fresh pot of coffee, and she was hoping maybe Graham had left something stronger in the cupboard, seeing as she reckoned she and Peggy would need it once this was all damn said and done.

And if she scooped and picked up that baby blanket she'd been smoothing down earlier, well, might be no one would notice.

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deployed
2015-09-19 06:34 am UTC (link)

Penny didn't stop Pepper in her tracks of hope but she recognized it on her face clear as anything, she'd seen it dozens of times before. They'd have a talk about expectations later. She didn't know what to expect, probably nothing good. But she was going to err on the cautious side until she had more to go on than poking at the man lying on her cousin's couch. She started writing and listing things out loud. They'd have a lot to get, but it didn't seem like any of it was going to be a problem, so she just kept right on. Watching Clementine leave the room out of the corner of her eye, checking in on her just the same as she checked in on everyone.

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