fix what's broken
Characters: Kasper, Cal, Reece, Brady Setting: Medical
"Well, isn't that just fucking wonderful," Brady muttered when vomit dripped from Kasper's mouth, shaking his head. He snorted at the other man's grumbling. "She's a fucking psycho. Bitch is just an easily accessible word." It was no skin off his back if the guy wanted to carry Kasper down there, but he wasn't going to let him do it on his own. He already knew just how unstable Kasper was, and as tough as the guy - and he just realized that he'd been one of the guys in the kitchen this morning, what was his name? Oh well, not important - but as tough as the guy looked, he was sure Kasper's unpredictability would be able to give him a run for his money. "Sure thing," he said simply, moving over to help lift her up in an easier way for Reece to carry her.
Reece got one arm along her back, her arm across his shoulders and the other under her legs. It got even more puke on his shirt, but what did it matter at this point? He’d be tossing everything in the laundry at this point. “Call her what you want, something’s wrong.” Which, while Reece would never admit it, made him anxious. The last time he’d watched someone half conscious cough up something it was blood and it was his friend with a couple bullet holes in him.
Kasper’s head rolled slightly at the movement which helped bring sight back to her eyes. “What the fuck,” she said in a whisper, her words partly slurred. Her head felt so light she thought all the air possible in her had escaped. She clutched the fabric of Reece’s shirt slightly, “Who’re....” she turned her head and caught sight of Brady. “Don’t fucking touch me. I don’t feel like dying by your hands today, shit head....”
Brady was pretty sure that was pointing out the fucking obvious, and he just gave Reece a long look at that. “Ya think?” he said dryly. He’d known it yesterday, and he really wished the fuckheads in charge would’ve put two brain cells together to do something about the ticking time bomb in their midst. He rolled his eyes at Kasper when she spoke to him. “I’m not fucking touching you, and I don’t feel like killing you today,” he pointed out, shaking his head at her. “C’mon, let’s get her down there. I’ll get the fucking doors and shit,” he said, heading in the direction of the cafeteria.
Reece shifted her in his arms when she came to, holding on to her as she clutched him. “Reece,” he told her and let Brady put space between them. “He’ll stay there. He’s just trying to keep you from trying to kill me.”
The longer Kasper held on to the fabric, the more she noticed her hand was surging in pain. She winced and gave a small sigh. She let go of him and felt lose all sense of balance for a moment. “Where are you taking me?” she asked, her memories jumbled up. There were things coming and going, but every fractured part was only slowly coming together. Much of it didn’t make sense. “Did I get that stupid bitch?”
Brady wasn’t so far away that he couldn’t hear what they were saying, and he had to smirk at Reece’s answer of what he was doing with them. It was pretty accurate. Still, when Kasper asked her questions, he glanced over his shoulder and said, “Yeah, you got her. Banged yourself up in the process, so we’re getting you to the doc to get you squared away.” Though as soon as he spoke, he worried that mention of a doctor might send her into a rage again, so he turned fully to make sure he would be able to help restrain her should that happen.
“What he said,” Reece said. “Though ‘getting the bitch’ wasn’t right. You mauled her. When you’re not unconscious and puking you can tell me what the hell she did to you.” And he could maybe get an apology for the claw marks on his arms.
Kasper still couldn’t quite comprehend what was going on. She tried to make sense of what they were both saying and especially why Brady would even bother to stick around. Then there was that that whole statement of mauling the bitch. Kasper’s thoughts worked hard, the lights in the cafeteria practically blinding her as they moved. She moved her head closer to Reece’s ear and simply whispered, “Blood for blood.”
As they reached the cafeteria, Brady opened the door and held it there for Reece to carry Kasper through. He opted not to say anything more for the moment as he crossed to the elevator and pushed the button. Blood for blood made absolutely no sense, but he had to figure it had something to do with wherever she’d gone in her head. When the doors dinged open, he let them in first before following and pushing the button to take them down to the basement level.
“Not quite,” Reece said, shaking his head. More like a completely uneven fight between a girl and someone off her rocker. He followed after Brady, getting them into the elevator without any issues, thankfully. All he could hope for was that she didn’t lose it while they were stuck in a small space with this guy who seemed keen on swearing at her.
Kasper sort of just went with what came, remaining lost in her own head. As they moved into the elevator, she turned her head slightly and gave Brady a dark look. Something in her mind seemed to swell. Both times she had been faced with something beyond her control he had managed to find himself there in one way or another. She wanted to jump off of Reece’s support and bite him in the first place she could. Tear him apart. Something, anything.... but instead she remained quiet and simply turned her head away again.
It was a situation riddled with tension, but Brady wasn’t letting it get to him, letting that dark look just roll off him like it was nothing. He didn’t have anything to say to either of them, though he fully planned to take the doc aside and have a quick word with him before letting him at the psycho. So when the elevator doors opened again, he led the way out of them and over to the clinic. Crossing to the man that was there, he said, “You the doc?” He was hoping for a chance to give the doc a rundown of things without Kasper hearing.
“Yeah, Cal,” was all Cal could manage before he saw beyond Brady, before he got a proper look at Kasper being brought in. He’d had a polite smile on his face and a small heap of papers in front of him, busywork really, but it was forgotten as the others arrived. “What the hell’s this?” he asked quickly, hopping from his seat and moving to intercept them just past the door, mentally taking in as much as he could about Kasper’s current state.
Reece followed Brady into the clinic, surprised it was even there considering he hadn’t been there before. “She got in a fight,” he said. “Sort of had a fit then passed out and puked...so you tell us. And where I should put her,” he said nodding towards the exam rooms thinking that was probably the best idea.
Cal nodded to the centralized table in the main space , already moving to start grabbing the basics he’d need to assess the situation. “Right here,” he told Reece as he worked, “And what fight? With who? Gimme as much rundown as you can, guys.” There was way too much unknown, starting with just who she even was. Cal had seen her in passing, sure; it was hard to miss someone who looked like Kasper. Still, that didn’t shed much light on the moment at hand.
Kasper’s eyes focused on the changing scenery. She narrowed her eyes to try and focus and found herself looking over to the man who was supposed to be some sort of doctor. It was hard for her to pay attention to who everyone was if she never actually had a reason to remember them. Evidently she would remember him from now on. “I’m fine,” she said, slipping away from Reece and stumbling backwards a bit. In reality, she was starting to feel better. It was a little unnerving that she had managed to work her body up so much that she actually passed out... it made her feel at the mercy of those around her and that was definitely out of Kasper’s comfort zone.
When Kasper said she was fine, Brady ignored the doc’s questions and moved over to him, glancing back to give Reece a pointed look that said ‘Don’t let her make a break for it.’ When he reached Cal, he spoke in quick, hushed tones that wouldn’t carry to Kasper and Reece. “She’s not fine. She’s had some kind of psychotic break. I don’t know what caused her attack today, but yesterday she was doing a pretty damn good job of trying to get me to kill her, even screamed at me to. Beyond whatever physical damage she did to herself, she’s got some mental issues that need addressed, and I don’t know if anyone’s gonna be able to get her back down here.” It was the best way he could sum it up for the doctor, and he just hoped Cal would be able to do more than the asshats who ran this place had.
When she slipped away Reece didn't let her get far, on hand still hooked along her back and guiding her back towards him and back towards the table. “You are not fine. And neither is the girl you attacked. Sit.”
Well shit. This was a lot to try and get in front of all at once, from the relative strangers to the problem itself to Reece trying to help. Cal recognized that for what it was, but if Kasper was already violent and disoriented? Commands probably weren’t the best approach. “Okay, everybody stay cool,” he stressed first, moving towards Kasper and Reece and gesturing towards the exam table. “Miss, I’m hopin’ you are fine, but I’d like to see it for m’self. Think you could hop up and sit for a sec?” he requested, looking back to Brady a moment later. “And who else was mixed up in this? They okay, or should I get a look at them too?”
Recce’s little order hit a strong nerve with Kasper. She whipped her head over in his direction and scowled, a tangled web of impulses fighting with each other. It was probably his saving grace that Cal interjected. Her attention shifted almost immediately. A small gleaming pride shone through Kasper’s expression. “I hope they’re hurtin,” she said, still a little frazzled in her thoughts. She had yet to come to the realization that what she had did was entirely not right, nor what she would have ever done in the right frame of mind. Yet the right frame of mind was so far from anything Kasper knew how to be that it was almost a waste to consider what she would have done.
She might have scowled at him, but Reece held his ground and just stared at her, waiting to see what happened. When Cal told them to calm down he didn’t say anything else, eyes still on Kasper even if she turned to Cal. “The girl who brought Ryan down to the stocks,” he answered, not realizing that Cal was talking to Brady.
Brady mentally cursed Reece for ordering Kasper to sit, but then Cal was smoothing things over, and the calm and easygoing manner with which he did so raised his confidence in the man’s ability to handle the situation. There was no way in hell he was leaving the room, though, because he didn’t trust Kasper not to freak out on the guy, and he felt inexplicably responsible for making sure she didn’t do more damage right now. “She’s with Jason and the guy with wild hair and tatts,” Brady elaborated, hoping that Cal would know who he was talking about. He rather trusted Jason to be able to handle that situation, which was why he’d suggested he go help with the other girl in the first place.
“Leandro,” Cal confirmed with a smart little nod, moving over to Kasper. He was deliberate in his poise and movement, keeping himself non-threatening and giving a slight nod for the other two men to give him what room they could. Plenty of cues in Kasper were saying that she wasn’t quite up to speed in the moment, that whatever episode she’d had still had her reeling, and the last thing this situation needed was to aggravate it again.
“Okay miss,” he went on eventually, “You mind lettin’ me get a good look at your eyes? I’d like to check your pupils ‘fore I start buryin’ you with questions.” Maybe it was a little too kind right now, but that was just Cal; he couldn’t badger someone who was so out of sorts, couldn’t risk the idea of making it worse. Plus, in close? He could get a chance to smell her breath, and maybe catch a hint of alcohol if there was any to be found, which’d make sense of what Cal guessed was a dribble of vomit on her cheek.
The corner of Kasper’s mouth twitched. The spool of her memories began to wrap together and a strong vision of what had happened in the courtyard came to light. She heard Wren’s voice echo through her head and blinking twice to flush herself of the shaking vision of the girl blurring, Kasper could do nothing but comply. She moved over to the exam table and placed one hand on it, stopping in her tracks. Why had that twig-bitch gotten in her face? Kasper’s brow knitted as she turned around, now facing Cal. She leaned to one side and gave a glance between Reece and Brady. “Make them leave,” she said sternly, her thoughts piecing together a horrible realization. There was a deep undertone that warned them there would be consequences if they didn’t do just that and leave.
Reece raised an eyebrow looking at the doc then holding up his arms to show the scratches as a warning. “Only if you want Doc.”
Brady looked between the other three, debating which would make Kasper the bigger threat - if they stayed or if they left. “We can leave the room, but we’ll be waiting just outside the door,” he added to Reece’s words, willing to compromise a little bit, but not so much that they wouldn’t be able to respond quickly if Kasper did try to attack to good doctor.
Looking back over his shoulder, Cal gave a slight nod to Reece and Brady. He didn’t seem worried over the possibility of things going bad, but in truth? He wouldn’t mind the insurance policy they offered. It had happened once or twice in his residency; the situations where you needed a nurse or orderly to help restrain a patient, and Cal wasn’t looking to repeat those times. “Appreciated, fellas,” was all he actually said before looking back to Kasper, just waiting to hear the door shut before he tried anything more.
Kasper turned her back away from them again and climbed on to the examination table. She was lost in her own thoughts, somewhere between guilt and an I told you so. Though, she wasn’t quite sure what she had told. “I feel fine now,” she said, “Just wasted a lot of air.”
Truth be told she was rather roughed up. The damage done by the mirror... her wall... the ground... and now Wren’s face. She was almost sure something was broken. Even so, she simply stuck to her words and used her less busted up hand to wipe the leftovers of the vomit from her face.
Reece watched her for a moment more then shrugged starting after Brady. He wasn’t sure he wanted to wait around, especially since she seemed calmer, but who knew right? And he’d hate to see Cal get roughed up because they weren’t there.
Leaving the room was pretty much the last thing Brady wanted to do, but he was pretty much convinced that the best chances of Kasper getting the meds she needed were if they didn’t piss her off by sticking around in the room. And so, with a nod toward Reece he headed out of the clinic, leaning against the wall just next to the doorway.
Moving to shut the door after them, Cal was surprisingly subtle in how he eased it shut without actually closing the door entirely. If things went bad, he needed help immediately, not help that was trying to get past a keypad. “How you feel and how you are don’t always line up,” he said first, moving back to the examination table. “Brain’s a fickle bastard like that, releasin’ chemicals to get us through bad spots or keep us on our feet. It overcompensates like you wouldn’t believe sometimes,” Cal explained with a little chuckle.
He wasn’t grabbing gloves just yet, trying to keep this more personal and less clinical for as long as possible as he raised his light and aimed it at Kasper’s eyes. “Follow along? An’ fill me in on what went down, if you’d be so kind,” he requested, using the vision test as a chance to study her.
Kasper cringed at first. This guy was awfully chilled out, a little too chilled out, she thought. It was somehow unnerving but Kasper fidgeted to ignore the feeling. “I just got confused,” she said partly in defense, though it was entirely the truth. “That twig bi-” she cut herself off, “That girl, she just... I got so mad fast. It’s what I do.” Now she was feeling the guilt that was tucked away inside of her. “She shouldn’t have got in my face like that and said those things,” her breaths got a little sharper, “She should know better. People should know better!”
The more Kasper talked, the more anxious she got. By that point she was turning her better hand into a fist against the table, her sore hand struggling to do the same with great difficulty. The light in her eyes definitely wasn’t helping as she blinked several times, turning her head finally as she finished speaking.
Clicking the light off, Cal’s lips were pursed into a thin line of concern at everything Kasper was sharing. At least her vision wasn’t impaired, though that was a small mercy indeed. “Keep your focus over here,” Cal instructed, voice gentle but somehow threaded with a note of guidance in response to her erraticism. “Don’t go dwellin’ on what set you off, no need to relive it so soon after it hit the first time, yeah?” Which, he realized, was a very real concern to have if the old tracks on Kasper’s arm were anything to go off of.
“Yeah, maybe folks oughta know better, and not just with you either,” he agreed with another easy nod, angling to look at one side of Kasper’s head. It looked... tender, like maybe there’d been some impact in the fight or her removal and transport. “But we can’t expect to know it all right out the gate, can we? Gotta... gotta anticipate things going wrong at some point,” he went on, holding a hand out to Kasper. “That’s why I got this clinic, girl. Anticipating,” Cal joked with a flicker of a grin that flooded with momentary warmth. “You mind if I take a look at that hand? Looks like it belongs on a prizefighter. And... how long since you stopped usin’?”
Kasper just let the guy talk, trying to listen but it all seemed so bland. Maybe her head still wasn’t with it, but at least she still understood what was being said to her. She made a small scoff at his joke then extended out her hand to him. There was a long, drawn out pause she made while thinking about his question. “Using?” she echoed, “That depends.” She could barely remember a time she wasn’t using.
“Had to stop the heroin and meth when they locked me up, maybe ten months ago,” she explained, a grin forming, “But you know, they have a way in jail to get things. If you’re willing to trade, it’s easy to get a rail goin’. Three days since it stopped snowing in paradise, darlin.”
There was a moment there where Cal felt his guts knot up, a sick return to an old realization: this was the kind of person he’d been trying to help before his career ended. The addicts, the unstable prisoners, they were so much easier to feel good for helping when you didn’t land here, when the closest you got was a group therapy session. And even then? There were times, and there were unrepentant prisoners...
“Three days,” he repeated with another nod, gentle and careful as he took Kasper’s hand and started to uncurl each finger, one by one, watching her face for any pain. “If you had to stop when you got locked up, you already know that the DTs are gonna get a lot worse over the next week,” Cal went on as he examined her, looking down long enough to see scars on Kasper’s wrist. Shitty icing on a fucked-up cake, he thought bitterly for a moment. Suicidal, bipolar, and an addict? Yeah. “Got any plan for that? Or you just gonna keep rollin’ like this for as long as you can? Cuz me personally, I like bein’ able to do things like, y’know, deal a deck of cards, clap, and not get sent back to normal prison. Right now, you can’t do two of those things,” he pointed out with a wider grin, nodding down at Kasper’s hand. “No need to go for the hat trick.”
“Shit,” Kasper said, turning her head and laughing a bit to herself. “Lotsa things I can’t do anyway.” In all that time she had been listening, she had been trying hard not to cry out in pain from the sudden realization that her fingers were absolutely toasted for the time being. Her face twisted a bit, looking back at him, “Haven’t needed a plan since my boy died,” she admitted, shifting in her seat, “But I’ll tell ya what, doc... Why don’t you write me up my last prescription for antipsychotics, patch up these meat bags of mine, shut the fuck up, and I’ll go away for a few days while they kick back in.” It wasn’t his fault she was feeling rather irritated now. Old bruises beneath her surface still hurt, and it was always a bad time when Kasper thought about Jamie. She was doing him a favor by opting out of talking about things.
For a moment, it might’ve seemed like Cal was going for it. He nodded easily at her words, feeling one finger click stubbornly in what was probably a minor fracture, then let go of Kasper’s hand and turned to his supplies, all the while nodding that easy tempo of his. Doing what she asked... it was why Cal had left traditional medical work. That ‘patch them up and get them out’ mentality had never sat right, not even when he was staring down a hardcase like Kasper.
So, when he turned back to her, dragging his chair from his desk and sitting at a lower level? It may have seemed promising, all the way up through Cal opening a swab package and starting to dab the scrapes and cuts from Kasper’s fight with her mirror with a mild antiseptic that’d help with the swelling. “Tell me about him,” was what ruined that idea; four simple words voiced with genuine curiosity as Cal started to unroll a gauze wrap, carefully lining it up to treat her hand. “Your boy, that is. What was his name?” Cal asked, glancing up at her as he started to work.
Happy to have silence, Kasper kept her gaze down at her hands while he worked. She had felt her stomach go upside down when he finally spat out those words. “Fuck you!” she growled, baring her teeth and feeling betrayed by her own sense of security.
“His name’s Jamie,” she finally answered, refusing to speak as if he was simply a part of the past. If he was expecting more though, Kasper wasn’t about to give up anything else without a fight. His name though, it deserved respect to be known. He wasn’t a faceless corpse that just faded out of existence. He was her own flesh and blood. A boy with his own smile, his own laughter... his own breaths of life. A life that was taken from him.
A breath escaped from her lips as she thought about it. Kasper was tougher than nails and she did a great job keeping her guilt and pain tucked away inside of her for so long that all that anger had practically become its own living being.
“Just give me what I need and be done with it,” she followed, a sincere warning in her words.
Sighing softly as he worked to bind up Kasper’s hand, Cal gave a little shake of his head. “Nothin’s that simple, don’t think you need me sayin’ so to realize it either,” he told her, pleased with himself for not flinching at Kasper’s outburst. He’d felt his spine tighten up with her sharp words, but Cal was doing his best to keep it even and professional. “Which isn’t me sayin’ I’m not gonna help, but hear me out here,” he disclaimed with a glance up to her eyes, “Now, I’m gonna guess that this scrap you got into is gonna merit another round of punishments from the folks in charge. And to me, that’s not right. So if you’re game? I’d like to try askin’ them to remand you to me for a sit-down once a day for a lil’ while, a week or whatever. I think listenin’ to me jaw on and on’s probably a touch worse than the stocks, but it never hurts to make the offer.”
Cal chuckled softly at himself, head shaking as he finished and withdrew, releasing Kasper’s hand. “Whether you’re down with that or not, and whether they’re gonna let it happen? I’m not givin’ you a scrip,” he warned, “Antipsychotics are some powerful shit even when they’re already matched with the patient properly, you know? And hell, girl, you told me yourself that you ain’t clean yet. So if you want ‘em, come down twice a day and I’ll dispense ‘em for you. No need to visit, just say ‘cut the shit and give me my dose, Cal’. That part’s good with me no matter what else you decide.” He hopped up then, fixing Kasper with a resolute expression that made it clear that he wasn’t budging on this. “Sit tight one more sec, I’ll grab you a cold pack for whatever you did to your head there,” Cal added, moving for his supplies and silently hoping that this wasn’t when she decided to jump him.
She hated when people were bearable. It struck her cords in a way that left her cranking her neck a bit as he spoke. Then there was that whole issue about punishment. Kasper never really gave two shits about what happened to her. Yet when it came down to it things there was a definite problem with the fact other people were getting hurt. She would never have admitted that she cared but... “Whatever,” she said first, “You can stick me with a needle every week for all I care, but there’s no chance in hell I’ll be coming out of my room for the next day. Probably safer for everyone.”
Her eyes shifted to the door, her expression shifting somewhere between annoyed and worried. “Fuck, that chick wasn’t the first of this either,” she admitted, “That guy, Brady...” Kasper threw back her hair, “I know he’s got his problem. I knew it then and I know it now, so I used it against myself. Maybe you should ask them to lock me away for a day too. Might be better no one comes looking for me.. or I don’t go looking for them.” Not that she was concerned about being hunted by pitchforks but... it was probably better for everyone she stayed low.
Listening as he grabbed the cold pack, Cal took his time to pop open his carrying kit and parse out a few painkillers; mild ones that’d give Kasper a stomach ache at best if she tried overdoing them. “I’m not gonna do that,” he said first, moving back over and offering the pack. “I did a lot of work with cons before I got locked up myself, and somethin’ I noticed was that lockin’ people away seldom does ‘em any favors. Solitary breaks people.”
Cal slipped back into his seat, shaking his head at the ideas she was proposing one after another. “You want some time removed from the risks up there? I got three open beds down here,” he offered intently, “‘Course, that still leaves you stuck with me, I spend most of my days down here. But in any case, I’m not gonna buy into the idea that you cancel out self-destructive behavior by isolating yourself from it. That doesn’t change the behavior, it only removes the opportunity to act on it, and when you get the chance to?” He laughed softly again, head shaking. “Ten times worse than what came before it. I...” he trailed, frowning a moment before offering over the little bag with a few pills in the bottom of it. “Ibuprofen for the pain, that’s the tablets. Round ones are anti-inflammatory, for any swelling in your hand,” Cal said instead, leaving whatever he’d been saying unfinished.
Kasper wasn’t at all buying much of what he was saying. It was only out of a pure stubbornness that she shrugged it all off while taking the bag from him. “I’ll come here,” she answered, “Just don’t make me talk about anything I don’t damn well want to.” Her hand still hurt but at least there was a relief beginning to come over it. "And as long as you give me those psycho pills, you shouldn’t see me down here for any other reason. Kept me sane for six long years once,” she laughed a bit, “Wasn’t as fun but....” The times were definitely better, but she wasn’t about to admit that. She grinned instead, trying to brush off the intensity of what had happened. “I promise I won't kick these back with a stiff drink, doc.”
“Those aren’t the ones I’m worried about,” Cal told her with a grin of his own, watching Kasper for a moment before he set the cold pack next to her and hopped back up, moving back to his supply space. “Hang loose one more sec, grab yourself a glass of water even,” he said, keeping his body in front of the security pad as Cal punched in the code and stepped in. He already had a good mental picture of the full space, so it didn’t take long before he re-emerged, heading over to offer one larger, oval tablet to Kasper in the palm of his hand. “Mood stabilizer, this one’s the one you don’t go drinkin’ with,” Cal explained, “Hope you won’t take offense at me askin’ you to take it now. And from here, we’ll figure out what’s gonna work best to keep you evened out.”
Kasper rose her brow and took the tablet from him. She expected nothing less than his request and slid off the table. “Sure thing, boss,” she simply said, the faint sound of a child's laugh tugging at at the back of her mind. There was a pause before she threw it in her mouth, moving a few steps around the room as if Cal wasn’t even there anymore. Damn, she thought. She’d definitely created a new pile of shit. Then she swallowed hard, feeling her throat push the tablet down. The painkillers could wait, she figured, for a time when her adrenaline had entirely subsided and the aches really began.
“You’re free to hang ‘round here if you think it’s better for you tonight,” he said first, “If not, I’m gonna ask the boys to head back up with you, and I’ll see you tomorrow. Cool?” Watching her move around the room, Cal stepped to intercept her after the swallow, dropping his jaw open in an unspoken request to see that she’d actually swallowed the pill. He figured Kasper was probably used to that by now, but there was no need to add insult to injury by saying as much.
Hanging around some place so clean? No way. Kasper simply scoffed both at the suggestion and his silent request to check her mouth. She opened her mouth wide, sticking her tongue out and wiggling it slowly with a bit of a laugh. “I think I’ll head home,” she said, drawing back her tongue. Home, for all it was worth. “I’ll come by tomorrow though, yeah... but maybe you should take a good look at that other girl or somethin’.”
She let out a tiny sigh and then scratched her head with the better hand, eyeing the room quickly. “Mind if I have that?” she asked, pointing to a roll of surgical tape, “Just incase... nothing weird, I promise.”
Just watching for a moment, Cal eventually nodded and cracked a smile, arms folding across his chest. “Go for it,” he answered with a nod, leaning against one counter’s edge. “And I’ll catch you tomorrow. You feel sore or anythin’ before then, send a message,” Cal added with a nod to the terminals in the clinic, “I do make housecalls. Otherwise, tomorrow sounds good. Grab breakfast ‘fore you head down, I don’t dig on food in here. Makes it hard to patch someone up when you’re pickin’ crumbs outta a laceration.” He chuckled then, nodding towards the door to let Kasper know she was free to leave. Cal himself, though? He wasn’t going anywhere tonight; there was suddenly a lot more work to start on.
Moving towards the table with the tape, Kasper snatched it up like scraps off a plate and shoved it in her left pocket. “Thanks,” she said simply, biting on to the inside of one cheek and then like a tornado, zipped on out of there, opening the door to find the same two guys who’d brought her there in the first place still standing around. She exhaled a strong breath and then reached into her pocket, pulling out a red lighter. “Which one of you’s got a smoke for me?” she asked, stretching out her less patched up hand and trying hard not to let her fingers tremble.
Reece had been mimicking Brady’s movements, leaning against a wall, admiring the puke on his shirt he’d have to wash later today. When she came out he glanced up, eyeing the bandage then fished in the pockets of his shorts and pulled out a slightly dented package of cigarettes. He tapped it so that one would be out and held it out to her. “All better?”
It didn’t bother Brady one bit to stand there in silence as they waited to ensure Kasper didn’t cause any more trouble, and when she did come back out, he just rolled his eyes at her question. As Reece offered her a smoke, Brady moved to poke his head back into the clinic. “All good?” he asked Cal, wanting to hear it from someone he might actually believe.
“All good,” came the reply from inside the clinic, albeit faintly muffled from where Cal was working back in the supply room. He had a long list of possible medications to work through, rough equations to try and work out for possible pharmacology with Kasper, but... “Hey Reece!” Cal yelled, heading over to the door quickly, “That other girl from the fight, how bad is she? They gonna need me upstairs?”
Kasper’s hand did a good job of hiding the tremble all the way up to the point where she took the offered smoke and placed it in her mouth. The cigarette wobbled in all sorts of directions, and her hand had a difficult time lighting it with the flame of her lighter. “Fuck,” she swore under her breath. She wasn't at all afraid of what was going to happen, or what other people in the place were thinking... wanting to do with her. There was an immense, inescapable fear of what was to come after the stabilizers started to work. She was afraid of having to feel normal again, of having to weed through all kinds of bullshit that she let happen not only in the last three days but in the last handful of years.
As Brady moved by her, she followed him with her eyes. Her first instinct was to call him a prick, but somehow, she failed to follow through with any sense to her thoughts. The simple wash of nicotine through her body eased her thoroughly instead, rolling her shoulders and closing her eyes as she exhaled the smoke.
Reece was reaching for his own lighter to help her get the cigarette lit, eyes trained on her shaking hand until she got it. Why he had some surge in him to keep an eye on her he had no idea, maybe it was how she’d gone from trying to kick him in the balls to half dead in his arms and something clicked. When Cal called out to him he glanced up, watching the doc for a moment then looking at Brady. “Not sure. I didn’t get a look at her really. Had my hands full.” He nodded towards Kasper slightly then took a step back, seeing if she’d follow him.
Poking his head out for a moment, Cal nodded to Reece, watching all three of them head away. “Soon as I can, I’ll head upstairs and see if I can’t find out,” he told the lot of them. “But past that, if anything else is up? You know where to find me.”
Brady took the answer at face value, having no reason just yet to distrust the doc, and so he simply nodded and stepped away from the clinic. “And I’m out,” he said to Reece with a nod. “See ya around.” There was no way he was gonna stick around Kasper now that she wasn’t a raving lunatic, and so he was going to head back to his room like he’d originally intended.
Opening her eyes, Kasper caught the nod Reece gave her and took a side step as Brady moved away. “Mind walking me to my room, puke boy?” she asked, intending not to make fun of the fact that she had vomited on him, but rather to try and make light of it. “Don’t think my fists can take another fight.” Truthfully, she was sure someone would want to pick a fight with her after how fast and easy she took out that twig bitch. The mental notion caused her to click her tongue at herself before sucking in the sweet taste of tobacco again.
“Provided you call me something else, then yeah sure,” Reece told her, taking a few steps with her, hand hovering over her lower back but not touching it yet. The last thing he needed was her freaking out on him.
“I’ll call you whatever you’d like,” Kasper simply replied.