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Tweak says, "OpenID for the win!"

Josh Foley (fatedtouch) wrote in tensor,
@ 2011-06-01 01:33:00

Entry tags:

josh_foley, kevin_ford

Kevin
The beeping was what he noticed first. A slow, high pitched 'Boop, Boop, Boop' that was incredibly annoying. He was accustomed enough to the sounds of hospitals that he knew what it was and how to turn it off, but was also aware it only made that sound when attached to someone. He listened to it for a while, trying to read the patient's stats and not liking what he was concluding.

It wasn't until he tried to move that he realized he couldn't. Nothing would obey him. His eyes didn't open, his lips didn't part, his head didn't roll and his fingers didn't twitch. The only thing that did respond was the pitch of the machine that was suddenly blaring 'Beep, Beep, Beep' in an urgent, even more annoying tone.

It was about then Josh made the connection. The machine was attached to HIM. Which meant he was in the HOSPITAL. Something that was supposedly impossible.

The panic followed almost directly after the realization. Why was he in the hospital?! What'd happened?! Where was he?! And more importantly, where were Kevin and Julian?! Were they hurt too? Were they even still alive?! What was happening?! The questions swirled faster, lumped closer together until Josh's brain was only processing: Hospital. Kevin and Julian missing. HOSPITAL. The 'DEETDEETDEET' of the machine gave way to a screeching 'EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE'

Josh felt the pressure rising and braced himself as it exploded in all directions. And suddenly he could move. His whole body rocked with the start, eyes flying open at the same time as he gasped, back dropping into the bed. His free hand gripped the material beneath him like a vice as his left heel slid against the bed. His body weak and half of it weighed down so heavily he didn't even shift.

And then it hit him. A WAVE of pain that had his chest seizing, and his nerves on fire. His throat was dry and he swallowed to the feel of tubes. Suddenly surrounded by people, he tried to pull at his power and ended up feeling his head explode. He barely felt the blood slide down, but he tasted it as it dripped into his mouth.

Hands gently but firmly pushed him down. Voices, muffled and far away shouted at him. And then his body got tired and he felt heavy and slow, and the pain bled away.

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fatedtouch
2011-06-02 08:47 pm UTC (link)

"Just take it slow," the nurse encouraged, as Josh's mouth opened. "I know you're thirsty, Josh, but you know how these things work...That's right. Good job." She eased him up when he dropped back, taking quick, shallow breaths and replaced his pillow with one that would better support his upright state.

"Follow for me?" She held up her silver pen and moved it from one side to the other, watching him track it. Josh was aware he was failing the test, but he was too tired to really care. "All right. I'm just going to go have a chat with Dr. Reyes and then I'll be back, and we'll see about the rest. She'll be so happy to see you awake."

With a gentle pat to his uninjured arm, she turned to smile at Kevin. "Take care of him for us," she said, before leaving.

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_touchless_
2011-06-02 08:57 pm UTC (link)

Kevin tipped the glass up and held it steady while Josh took a couple of careful swallows, then set it back on the bedside table as the nurse took over again. He wanted to do something more, but knew there really wasn't anything he could do other than be there, so he held Josh's hand, since the nurse didn't seem to need it for anything, and watched and waited.

"Yeah. Yeah, I...I will," he answered without looking away from Josh. He hadn't once so far. Once she was gone he reached up to carefully brush lank hair back from Josh's face and smiled at him. "Took your time, didn't you?" he tried to tease, but it probably would have worked better if his voice had been steady and his eyes weren't so wet.

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	fatedtouch 2011-06-02 09:03 pm UTC (link)
	"Wh-..." He made a frustrated sound. Eyes closing as he swallowed. His brow furrowed as he tried to make all the connections work in the proper order. "Wh-...Wh-at...Hhhh-ap-pened?" (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

_touchless_
2011-06-02 09:13 pm UTC (link)

"Some kid...at the Smithsonian. He just...exploded." He watched Josh carefully, wondering if he should offer water again. The nurse hadn't said he couldn't, but he should probably explain first. "He, um...he took half the mall and some of the buildings with him." He leaned against the edge of the bed and stroked his thumb carefully over Josh's collar bone. "You were in one of them."

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	fatedtouch 2011-06-02 09:17 pm UTC (link)
	Josh made pained sound as his shoulders hunched. Brow furrowing, he tried to look down, but his head was so incredibly heavy, he couldn't even lift it. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	_touchless_ 2011-06-02 09:42 pm UTC (link)
	Kevin moved his hand away, in case it was the touch that had Josh's shoulders hunching. "They don't know why you haven't managed to heal yourself properly," he explained quietly as he caught the way Josh's eyes, at least, tried to travel down his own body. "But you've started now, the rest'll come." (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

fatedtouch
2011-06-02 10:17 pm UTC (link)

He lifted his left arm, which wobbled slightly, but obeyed. His hand slid from Kevin's and he reached for his head, missing by several inches, fingers dropping into the pillow. Trying again yielded the same results, so he just tracked his fingers over the material until he met bandages. He followed them around, before looking to the blur that was his boyfriend.

"Did I...?" he asked, unaware the sentence was incomplete.

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_touchless_
2011-06-02 10:29 pm UTC (link)

Kevin let Josh go reluctantly, and watched in concern as he waved his hand around. He wasn't quite sure what he was trying to accomplish or he'd have been tempted to just take Josh's hand again and put it where he wanted it, but by the time he'd figured that out Josh was inching his hand along the bandages to his head.

"Did you what?" he asked, resting a hand carefully on Josh's forearm as he met his unfocused gaze.

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fatedtouch
2011-06-02 10:34 pm UTC (link)

His hand dropped to his chest, which brought it in contact with his other hand. Josh was relieved to discover he could feel the touch from both. He smoothed his hand over it, then frowned. A cast. His arm was in a cast. He tracked the cast as far as he could manage, then did his best to follow his breastbone (in a swaying line) up to his throat. Sure enough, the jut of his collarbone on the right side was disproportionate.

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_touchless_
2011-06-02 10:53 pm UTC (link)

Kevin watched Josh's slow efforts at assessing his condition.

"You caved your head in," he told him quietly, steady enough that you wouldn't think he'd spent most of the last almost two weeks terrified that he'd die. "Pretty much shattered your right shoulderblade, broke your collar bone, did a number on your arm." All things Josh had already taken note of, all related in a remarkably steady, calm voice. "Your pelvis is broken too, on the right side, and pinned together."

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	fatedtouch 2011-06-02 10:56 pm UTC (link)
	"My head..." he mumbled, reaching for it again. He tried to compensate this time and ended up crashing his knuckles into his forehead. He didn't seem to notice though, as his arm flagged to the left, just missing Kevin's face by a hair. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

_touchless_
2011-06-02 11:04 pm UTC (link)

He'd been watching Josh's face more than his hand, and when it swung out toward him he nearly didn't notice until it was right there. He threw himself back with a panicked cry, his chair going over backwards with the force of it, and grunted in shock and pain as his head hit the floor and agony lanced through his chest and gut and his mangled leg.

He couldn't breathe or move for it for a long moment, the fear as much as the pain, and he laid there, flat on his back and leg propped at a weird angle on the toppled chair as he tried to collect himself.

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	fatedtouch 2011-06-02 11:16 pm UTC (link)
	"Kevin!" he cried, when the blur disappeared, accompanying a thudding sound. And then there were people in the room, and someone was gently pushing him back down. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

_touchless_
2011-06-02 11:27 pm UTC (link)

He was trying - and failing - to push himself up by the time the door opened, and he flinched violently, grunting in pain again as a nurse and one of the orderlies reached down for him.

"I'm sorry," he mumbled when he'd settled enough to let them get careful grips on his arms. He stopped speaking when they started to lever him up, though, the pain of the motion too much to get words past no matter how careful they were being as they talked him through getting up off the floor. By the time they righted the chair and let him fall back into it again he was breathing in shallow pants and sweat was running down his face.

"What happened?" the nurse asked, encouraging him to lean back as much as possible in the chair and lifting his shirt with gloved hands to press gently along the angry pink scar of his surgical incision.

"Just...he...he-" Kevin looked past him to Josh, still having trouble speaking past the pain. "His hand...near my face and...I fell," he explained brokenly.

"You should lay down," the nurse suggested, and he shook his head violently, then stopped when he felt vaguely dizzy.

"No," he protested, pushing back to a more upright position with a sharp hiss of pain and reaching for Josh again, even to just get a hand on his leg or something. "It's...I'm fine."

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	fatedtouch 2011-06-02 11:33 pm UTC (link)
	"Josh, keep still!" Josh recognized the voice - he spent enough time around the man. It didn't stop him though, and there was a muted curse, before he took Josh's free arm and pressed his hand to warm material. "There. That's him. Now calm down." Josh's hand clutched the material and gave a little tug. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	_touchless_ 2011-06-02 11:37 pm UTC (link)
	"I'm sorry," he mumbled again, letting his head drop to the edge of the bed - well out of range of Josh's hand this time - as he turned his arm and slid his hand until it closed around Josh's again. "I should...shouldn't have been...so close." Talking still hurt like hell around the renewed pulsing in his gut. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

fatedtouch
2011-06-02 11:43 pm UTC (link)

The man heaved a sigh. "What are we going to do with you two?" he mumbled.

Josh's eyes squeezed shut as he was suddenly blinded. "Oh good, you can see." He turned his head to no avail as a moment later his eyelids were pried open on one side and the light flashed again. "Light sensitivity, huh?" The light shut off. Josh relaxed, only to tense again when his other eye was forced open and peered into. Tears welled, and slipped down his cheeks.

"Healers make the worst patients," his assailant chirped good naturedly.

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	_touchless_ 2011-06-03 01:40 am UTC (link)
	"I'm sorry," Kevin repeated at the admonishment. He was shaking slightly in reaction to the fear as much as the pain of the fall. He didn't move, though, just laid there slumped over the edge of Josh's bed and holding tight to his hand, watching as the doctor pried at Josh's watering eyes. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	fatedtouch 2011-06-03 02:11 am UTC (link)
	"Your boyfriend's an impossible patient," the doctor said to Josh, as he looked over his chart. "Kevin, can we borrow that arm for a minute?" (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

_touchless_
2011-06-03 02:20 am UTC (link)

Kevin squeezed Josh's hand again and lifted his head enough to give him what he hoped was a reassuring smile before letting go. He was more than a little terrified, though, that mention of his 'boyfriend' would make Josh realize that Julian wasn't there. He didn't have any real illusions that his presence would cut it once he realized that Julian wasn't just absent, but injured as well.

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fatedtouch
2011-06-03 02:26 am UTC (link)

"Thank you. Okay, Josh. You know the drill. Finger to nose, try not to poke an eye."

Josh's arm bent at the elbow, and on the first try, missed his face completely. "Again." He tried to move his right arm. "Only the left, Josh. Use the left one only, please." His second try had him skimming his cheek. "Again." His third had his arm going right over his head. "Again." His fourth landed an ear.

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	_touchless_ 2011-06-03 02:35 am UTC (link)
	Kevin watched, torn between relieved and terrified that Josh didn't even seem to have registered Julian's absence. Combined with his obvious inability to do something as simple as touch his nose it was making his gut go tight with renewed fear. He shifted his grip to Josh's leg and held tight, afraid to distract him by talking. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

fatedtouch
2011-06-03 02:53 am UTC (link)

"Thank you, Josh." He walked around Kevin to the other side of the bed and took a stack of cards from his newly arrived assistant.

"Hey man, you're awake!"

"Harrison, we're conducting an exam."

The teen shuffled but didn't say anything more.

"Josh, can you tell me what letter is on this card?"

Josh squinted, but all he saw was a white blur with some black swirls. He shook his head. "How about this one?" He tried to push himself up, and ended up not moving anywhere - fatigue, lack of exercise and the weight of a cast more than he could combat. He shook his head.

"Okay. What color is this?"

Josh bit his lip. "...Blue?"

"And this?"

"Green."

"And this?"

"...Red?"

"Count to ten please."

"One. Two. Three. Four...F-five. Six. S-seven. Eight...Nine. T-en."

"Now backwards."

"Nine-T-ten. Nine. Seven...Eight. Seven...Six?" His brow furrowed in distress.

"Take your time."

"Six...Seven."

"No, Josh. Backwards."

"Sssix...Five. Four...Three. Two. One."

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	_touchless_ 2011-06-03 03:05 am UTC (link)
	Kevin continued to watch, confused and silent and increasingly frightened. Josh was awake, he was supposed to be better. His grip on Josh's leg went tighter with each wrong answer, and by the time Josh was failing miserably at counting backwards he was holding his breath. Going slightly lightheaded with the effort to somehow will him to get it right. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	fatedtouch 2011-06-03 03:44 am UTC (link)
	"Kevin?" The doctor waited until he was looking at him. "Will you please hold onto something else while we finish? It is very important that we know what Josh's reactions to stimuli are, and your actions could influence his answers." (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)