Finn Haynes (finnigan_h) wrote in shadows_rpg, @ 2018-01-13 21:35:00 |
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Entry tags: | #september 2017 |
Who: Dominik and Fin
What: A Revelation for Fin
Where: Mercy Hospital
When: Lunchish - Monday, September 25.
Status: Complete.
The nurse had recommended he get up and stretch his legs, and Dominik was more than happy to follow these orders. She told him to take it slow, and call for assistance if he couldn’t make it back to his room. Absolutely under no circumstances was he supposed to leave the hospital at anytime, blah, blah blah.
Of course he wasn’t going to leave the hospital. Where was he going to go in a hospital gown and those bright yellow socks? He at least made sure it was snapped up all the way so his boxer-brief clad ass wasn’t hanging out for the world to see. The nurses already giggled at everything he said- even things that weren’t funny. He’d come to the conclusion that girls were strange.
He’d heard Fin was here from Darren, and across the hall no less. He knew what happened, but he decided silence was better than berating him for doing something to endanger his life. He did consider him a friend, even if the man was afraid of him for some odd reason.
He made the short trek that took him longer than it should have, leaning on his I.V. pole as he shuffled over to the room across the hall. He was covered in bruises, a bandage over his right brow and one covering the back of his head. He still ached all over but this was better than sitting in bed. He’d been through his own ordeal at the hands of his own aunt. Being shoved down a flight of stairs was not his idea of a fun Sunday.
Dom paused in the doorway, his knuckles barely grazing the door as he knocked. He offered a smile instead of a ‘hello’, his mouth was dry and the morphine was pleasantly coursing through him. He vaguely remembered that the nurse said he could take a walk after the medicine had run its course. He swayed on his feet, wondering why the ground looked like it was getting closer.
After 72 hours in hospital Fin was getting stir crazy, he just wanted to get out of here and back to something familiar and less sterile, but until all the departments opened back up after the weekend and had gotten through the more critical cases it was a waiting game for Fin. His attending doctor had wanted some final tests to make sure that there were no lasting effects from the near drowning and hypothermia he had suffered on Friday morning.
During Fin’s time stuck in the hospital he had visitors, some days there were more but thankfully on Sunday he only had a few which gave him more time to himself to sit and think. Darren had dropped in to say a quick hello and also mentioned that Dominik was in hospital too, Fin didn’t know the details but he was a bit pleased that Darren spent most of the day with the witch and left him to his own devices. He had also found out that power was still off in the town so had told his employees to stay at home, there was no use opening Books and Beers when nothing would work. He doubted many other stores would be open that day but he was glad that there wasn’t any perishable things in the store that needed to be frozen or kept refrigerated, the only issue would be ice but that was neither here nor there. As Sunday turned into Monday and the fog continued Fin gave his employees another day off, keep them off the road and safe at home. He’d sort out the store when he was discharged and could make it to the store.
Now, now he was waiting for the doctors to get a break from the new admissions in order to run his final tests before they’d let him go, so Fin was enjoying the quietness and filled in his time waiting by working through a ‘Find-A-Word’ book.
He heard the soft knock on the open door and looked up to see Dominik standing there looking like hell and leaning a bit too much on the I.V stand. “Dominik…” He said softly, getting off the bed he walked over, offering an arm to lead the brunette to a chair. “Sit down before you fall down. Are you sure you should be up and about?” There was concern in Fin’s voice, he didn’t know the extent of Domink’s injuries, other than he had taken a nasty fall and looked like he’d gone ten rounds with Mike Tyson.
“Mmm, nah. I can do it,” but Fin had already offered an arm. He was quicker than Dom’s reaction time, but that wasn’t saying much. He missed a lot of things right now. Once he was seated, he let go of his stand to wrap his arms around himself. It was better than scratching his arms open again because the morphine made him itch like crazy.
He stared for a moment, his eyes wholly unfocused. He wanted to talk but he couldn’t find the words. He closed his eyes for a moment, hoping that would help the world stop spinning.
“That man, keeps wandering up and down the hall. He’s attached to your ring,” the brunette told him, “he’s upset with you and he’s talking to me, and talking, and talking. Jesus he doesn’t stop. I’ll write you a letter when my hands stop shaking.”
He pressed the heel of his hand into his eye, rubbing away the ache as he stared at Fin with just the one, “I meant to swing by earlier, but, shit happens. You’re getting out?”
It almost sounded as if they were in jail. Dominik felt like he was chained to his room, if the nurse came looking- he’d probably be in quite a bit of trouble. Whoops. He smiled, maybe for the first time around him. An honest to God smile, all those pearly whites and dimples. He was starting to shake again, having skipped breakfast save for rather chewy piece of bacon. He didn’t want to know what was for dinner.
“Everything check out okay?”
Fin watched as Dom all but curled up in the hard plastic chair and started rambling. He actually got up to look when it was mentioned a man was wandering up and down the hall, but it was empty. “Dominik, no one’s out there.” Then his ring was mentioned, looking down at the gold band on his right hand he then looked back at the brunette who was now saying that this man was talking and wouldn’t stop. It had to be the drugs talking, right?
Pulling up the second chair Fin sat down near Dominik. “Yeah I’m getting out. Just gotta do some final checks before I get the all clear. What about you? Darren said you were here but I didn’t want to disturb the two of you by coming across to say hi and when he wasn’t around you were out like a light.” Though what do you say to someone who’s battered, bruised and high as a kite on painkillers?
When Dominik smiled again Fin smiled back, until he saw the other man start to shake all over, not just his hands. “You’re not okay… have they set this too high?” He asked, standing up to look at the IV stand and wondering if the nurses had put the dose too high which was why Dom was acting the way he was. He could turn the dose down, having seen it done countless times before but he didn’t want to risk it if Dom was in real pain. “Should I get the nurse?”
Fin was honestly concerned, he didn’t want anything to happen to the brunette, then the thought hit him, what if it wasn’t drugs doing this, what if someone had stuck a curse on the witch. “Dominik… look at me.” He knelt down and gently held Dominik’s face between his
hands. ‘This isn’t magic is it?”
"Doc wanted me comfortable. It works."
Even if he was lost in a haze.
Dom flinched at the touch, still unsure of anyone's intentions. Trust was not the word of the day. Without it being said, he knew Fin wouldn't hurt him but he was wary about anyone that approached.
"Curse?" he asked, confusion twisting his features. The only enemy he had was the woman he called family, and she was out for blood. This had been pinned on her and rightfully so. She wouldn't- but she would. His thought process was woefully lacking, but there was a brief flicker of recognition behind those eyes, "I don't feel any different."
He just felt numb.
"I don't want to talk about it," he thought aloud, "I came in to check on you, not this-" Dom continued to shake as he sat there, his eyes downcast, "I can't think. Just take care of yourself, I'm glad you're up on your feet again."
He spied that ghost again, the man that looked an awful lot like Fin. He sighed, waving him off when he kept repeating himself. The dead tended to be a broken record and he had little patience at the moment, "he's glad too."
There was comfortable and there was drugged to the eyeballs and Dom fell into the second category, though not everyone reacted well to strong painkillers.
When Dom flinched at his touch Fin moved his hands, though his touch was light he didn't know what injuries might be hiding user the skin. “Good… no one deserves a curse.” Well there was but he didn't want to dwell on it, at least Dom's injuries were physical and he'd heal, Fin knew his own mental issues would take longer and he really wasn't looking forward to having to sit down with someone and talk about it.
“You don't have to talk about it, or anything you don't have to. I'm the last person who would do that, I've had enough of that shit since Friday.” He just wished he could do something to help Dom who sat shaking like a leaf.
He saw Dom wave his hand at nothing as if to dismiss someone. With the history of this hospital it was no wonder ghosts wandered the corridors but could Dom actually see them or was it the drugs? “Who’s glad? Dom… what does the man speaking to you look like?” Fin asked softly, still leaning forward in his chair, afraid Dom would fall off the chair at any moment.
"Like you," came the reply. Dominik abruptly stopped shaking, focusing on the man in front of him. It was one hell of a change. He didn't appear to be himself, his hands grasping at Fin's arms like he needed a lifeline, "twice now, you were almost mine."
"It wasn't meant to be, but third time's a charm."
Dom inhaled sharply like the breath had been taken from him, when he opened his eyes again the world was the same blurry mess. As he exhaled, his breath came out in a fog as if the temperature dropped in the room, but it wasn't quite that cold. He looked dazed, but perhaps it was the medication.
"Can you help me back to my room? I shouldn't have gotten up, I can't even stand on my own without collapsing," the witch looked terrified, but he wouldn't speak of the cause if Fin asked. There was a boy. He was stronger than most spirits. He took over without his permission and it wasn't right. Not a thing about him was right. "Do yourself a favor and stay out of the water," death was not the worst that could happen.
He started to stand, but gave up about halfway, clutching hard at the I.V. stand.
Fin jumped a bit when Dom grabbed his arms, the witch's words hitting him hard, he always had a suspicion that someone - his father - was keeping an eye on him from the other side but to be told it was true shook him. He hadn't told anyone about his father, it was known to most people that he had died when Fin was three but no one, not even his mother knew that Fin believed that his spirit was still around.
But that wasn't all, ‘twice now, you were almost mine’ and the change in Dominik’s behavior, the breath like a fog - this definitely wasn't a drug induced hallucination, it was if the witch was possessed by some force, a benevolent force that made even Dom looked scared.
Getting up he moved beside Dominik, putting an arm around the man and helping him to his feet, holding on so Dom could lean his weight on him. “Yeah… let's get you back to bed.” Trying not to think about the warning the witch had just given him, Fin wouldn't be going near the harbour or beach for a long time to come.
Dominik was dead weight, his feet dragging along the floor as he let Fin take most of that 6’2 frame. The morphine did nothing for the chill the passed over him again, the spirit was relentless and he didn’t have the strength left to fight it off. It was best if he left the room, and kept (mostly) to himself for the day. He couldn’t help the nurses that would check on him, he just prayed he was in a better state of mind so they didn’t sent him to the mad house.
“I’m sorry,” he breathed out, his teeth chattered from the cold. The temperature in the room was a stark contrast to his body. “Don’t go near the water,” he explained again, hoping he’d get his point across, “Please. Stay away for your own well-being. Nothing is worth what he has in store.”
“Mr. Zaharia! What are you doing out of bed?”
Dom’s demeanor changed, despite the fact that he was a human Popsicle at the moment. His smile melted through that frozen expression, “looking for friends.”
“I’ll take him,” the woman said to Fin, “You should be resting, not carrying around- You are freezing.” She gasped, touching Dominik’s arm. Why was he so cold? She looped an arm around his other side, letting Dom lean his weight onto her. She’d been carrying unruly, giant patients for years. “Thank you Mr. Haynes, if you’d like to visit- feel free to do so, but please don’t let him out of bed again. He has a concussion.”
“I'll stay away, I promise.” Fin said softly as he helped Dom out of the room and got three quarters of the way across the hall. The other man might have several inches of height advantage but Fin wasn't exactly weak and didn't find it overly difficult to move Dom's dead weight.
He smiled when Dominik told the nurse he was looking for friends. “I don't mind, there's only so many books one can read before one starts craving human company.” Letting go of the witch to let the nurse take over Fin followed them into the room, wanting to make sure Dom was alright.
When the nurse managed to get Dominik back into the bed Fin stood beside the brunette, placing a gentle hand on Dominik’s cold forehead. “Thank you Dom… tell Dad I miss him.” He whispered as he pressed a quick kiss to Dom's cheek.
Dominik paused when Fin kissed his cheek, turning to look at him as his nurse tucked his sheets in tight enough to be considered restraints. He complained about it, but let her do what she needed to do that made her feel better. As soon as she turned back, he toed at the blankets to get them off of him. He was cold, but the sensation was horrible.
Fin’s father had approached him again, prompting him to tell Fin a lot more, but Dominik came out with, “He misses you and he said you’ve grown into a wonderful young man.”
“If you bring me paper and a pad, I can get more of this down for you,” because his teeth wouldn’t stop chattering and he couldn’t stop shaking. He could manage to write something at least.
Fin smiled as Dominik kicked the tightened sheets away, he had a similar feeling on Friday when they covered him in a pile of blankets to try to raise his body temperature. It took a while but he warmed up and was back to normal by the evening.
“Relax Dominik.” Fin said softly. “I'll get a pen and some paper but it's been thirty years, whatever he wants can wait a day or so til you're feeling better. “ He didn't want to do anything that might cause Dom harm or impede his recovery. “Can I get you anything while I'm here? Blankets? Some soup to warm you up or steal some Jell-O cups from the trolley?”
"You'd steal Jell-O cups?" he asked in what he thought was a whisper but apparently the old battleaxe nurse had heard and she went right back to tucking the blankets around him.
"Kick those down again and I'm sewing them to your gown, Mr. Zaharia. He's had plenty of gelatin cups for the day, he needs good solid food. You'll have Ham for dinner and I want you to eat all of it," she gave him a look that sent another shiver down his spine. He believed her threats. He really didn't want to wear bedding around.
He frowned, sinking into that entirely too comfortable mattress, "she's trying to kill me," he mouthed to Fin, "bring me paper and a pen. I can manage."
“I missed out on mine on Friday so I think I’m owed back cups.” Fin said with a smile as the nurse tucked the blankets in around Dominik, again. The old battleaxe nurse made Fin want to laugh, she really was an old school nurse who didn’t take crap from anyone.
When she stepped away from the bed Fin got a look at her nametag. “Nurse Thomas isn’t so bad, just be glad it’s not my mother! She wouldn’t sew the blankets to your gown, she’d sew you in the bed and ban you from having any Jell-O cups at all.” And he wouldn’t put it past his mother, although she rarely worked on the ward now she was a tough nurse, cut from the same cloth as the nurse tending to Dominik.
“I’ll keep an eye on him, make sure he stays in bed and doesn’t try to kick the blankets off again.” Fin said to the nurse, she really should be continuing her rounds and not fussing over a stubborn patient. “If the doctors’ are looking for me tell them I’m in here.” He added, they’d be coming sooner or later to do some final tests before he could be released and Fin would rather spend that time with some company than alone in his room again. “I’ll be right back.” Fin quickly ducked across the hall and grabbed the small overnight bag that Brad had packed with clothes, toiletries, a few books and a notebook and pen before returning to Dominik’s room and handing the notebook and pen over. “We’ll be fine Nurse Thomas.” He gave her his best smile.
Dom took the paper and uncapped the pen, waiting for the nurse to leave the room before he held up his free arm for Fin’s father to take control of. The process was strange, but not so much as the ghost writing his aunt forced him to do for group seances. He didn’t read it as his hand moved across the paper seemingly on its own accord, his attention instead, focused on Fin.
“She isn’t so bad,” she just mothered him and he couldn’t stand being mothered. His own mother did enough of it while she was here- so much so that she was wrapping herself around him like another blanket while he was trying to sleep- singing something she thought was soothing into his ear. It irritated him for some reason, the song about Dominique the saint, his namesake.
He looked down at the page of writing, not taking in the words, but flipping it over to the next page when he was prompted. “He has a lot to say, evidently.”
Fin had sat down in the chair next to Dominik’s bed once the nurse had left, he watched as words appeared on the paper in a handwriting he knew wasn’t Dom’s own, well from what he could tell from the lists and checks that the witch had written for him over the years.
“It’s their job, well maybe not to that extent but they do it because they like caring for others.” He knew he wouldn’t have done any good as a nurse, he wasn’t overly friendly and although he owned and ran a bookstore Fin wasn’t an overly sociable person. “Must be some satisfaction in it or there wouldn’t be older nurses like Mrs Taylor.”
Fin sat transfixed, he had known Dominik for years, served him hundreds of times and knew a bit about his history but this - the talking to the dead and even writing for them was something new to him, sure he had heard of mediums who communicate with the deceased but had never visited one despite wanting to, what Dominik was doing was unlike anything he had seen. “I was told he was quite the chatterbox. I can’t remember him though, I was only three when he died and if it wasn’t for photos and getting told what he was like I wouldn’t have known him at all.” Fin said softly, wishing that he had grown up with his father in his life, well a living father at least.
Maybe when Dom was feeling better he’d ask a bit more about the.witch’s abilities, if he could sense anyone who passed or just select ones and if the old thing of ‘something that belonged to them’ helped, if Dominik couldn’t sense Danny’s spirit then it gave him more hope that the man he cared so much about was still alive, but he wouldn’t be pushing that, not until Dom was well and truly better, out of hospital and not doped to the eyeballs on opiods. “Thank you for this… really. I hope when he gets out what he needs to say that you can get some peace and quiet and maybe get some sleep.” He offered a small smile. “And if you want me to go out and smuggle you back a burger or something for dinner to save you from hospital food just say so.”
“That’s kind, but you don’t have to. Darren said he’d bring something,” though he’d probably sleep through the visit. He was tired in the evenings. When the scribbling stopped, he handed the notepad over to Fin with some semblance of a smile, “I didn’t read it. This is yours and yours alone. You don’t have to share it with anyone.”
“Maybe another time.” Fin said in regards to smuggling in some food. Taking the notepad and pen back he put it in his lap. “Thank you Dominik, I'll read it when I get home and won't be interrupted. Guess I can't really say ‘alone’ if he's always there.”
It felt reassuring in some ways to know it wasn't just a dream, that those times he had felt some presence around him wasn't just his imagination. Fin just hoped that his spiritual follower gave him some alone time because getting caught by your parents is bad enough without having one watching you all the time. “I'll let you rest. If you need anything let me know.” He stood up, smiling warmly at Dom. “I'll drop by when the fog clears, hopefully you're feeling a bit better by then. And thank you, again.”