I Want to Help Who: Avery and Eily When: Late afternoon Where: Hospital cafeteria
After a less than pleasant introduction to Lochlan’s auction date, Avery was in the hospital cafeteria, pushing some food around on a plate, much like she had done that morning while waiting to see her brother. Eventually she would have to go home, probably before dark, and she was already thinking a shower and bed sounded really good, as long as she didn’t have to talk to Darcy beforehand. She was already in a foul mood and Avery knew Darcy would only make it worse. Sighing, Avery began to push her peas together in a straight line, making a silly pattern without really thinking about it, her cheek resting on her palm and a frown on her face.
Eily knew she needed to put something in her stomach, even if her body really felt like it was going to violently reject anything she attempted to eat. Still, she knew she had to give it a shot, at any rate. So, she went to the cafeteria. Spotting Avery, she watched her for a long moment, then drew in a breath and let it out in a rush, walking over. "Hey." she greeted.
Looking up abruptly from her food, Avery straightened a bit in her chair when she saw it was Eily. Her cousin didn't look distraught or anything, so she relaxed a little, trying not to brace herself for bad news. "Hey. Want some mushy peas?" Avery asked, motioning toward her messy plate with her fork.
Eily wrinkled her nose slightly. "...think I'll skip those, thanks." she said, sitting down across from Avery. "How're you holding up?" she asked. Considering she knew how close Avery and Lochlan were, she figured Avery would be freaking out.
Avery shrugged and pushed the peas around once more before setting her fork down. "I'm fine, I guess..." She trailed off and lifted her gaze from her plate to Eily. It was one thing to be brave in front of her brother, but Eily had to know how Avery was really feeling. "They're going to be okay, right?"
Nodding, Eily held eye contact, to help drive that point home. "They're going to be okay." she promised. Even if something else was wrong other than just the injuries. She knew that. They were both going through something she didn't understand. That no one understood. But she wasn't talking about that right now because it would only make Avery worry more. So, Eily would just take on full responsibility for worrying about it. "They'll pull through. The doctors all say that they're healing up really well."
Avery nodded, although she couldn't help but wonder what would have happened if they hadn't pulled through. What if Patrick had been hurt worse? What if Lochlan had died? What if, what if, what if. It wasn't healthy to dwell on those thoughts, but Avery couldn't seem to shake them no matter how hard she tried. "I thought the dome was supposed to be safe," she muttered, lowering her gaze back to her plate. "Bats biting people, and wolves and crap. How does that even happen in here?"
"I thought so too." Eily said, voice distant. Because she was feeling the same way. Ma had insisted they do the Dome thing and they had. It was meant to be safe, with life getting back to whatever normal was going to pass for these days, and that was that. Only apparently not. "I don't know. I wish I had answers for you." she said, genuinely sorry she didn't.
Avery looked at Eily then, managing a small smile. “I don’t...it’s okay. You don’t need to have any answers. Just kind of a wondering out loud thing.” She really couldn’t expect anyone to know what the hell was going on lately. The unknown was just a bit scary, sometimes. “Lochlan told me I had to listen to you,” she added, her smile widening a touch, simply because her conversation with her brother still amused her. “Threatened to use me as a virgin sacrifice to the wolves if I gave you a hard time.”
Eily laughed a little, smiling at that. "I am so not surprised that conversation happened." she admitted. "You going to listen?" she asked. "Though honestly, right now...I think it's just keep our heads down, not go out at night if we don't have to, and take care of the guys."
“Don’t I always listen to what Lochlan tells me to do?” Avery countered, still grinning because they both know the answer to that one. In this particular case, however, Avery had no intentions of pushing Eily’s buttons for any reason. This wasn’t exactly the right circumstances for it, and Avery knew she was just as worried about Lochlan and Patrick as Avery was. “Is he going to stay with you?” Avery asked, her smile slipping. “He can’t keep sleeping at the bar. It’s stupid, and if he’s hurt... he could stay with me, but Darcy would probably drive him crazy.”
"Don't worry, I already chewed his ass out over sleeping at the bar." Eily admitted. "So, that ought to mean at least for a while he'll be at my place. At least until he decides to be stubborn again, but I'm guessing it'll be a while before that kicks in." she said. Eily watched Avery's eyes. "He'll get taken care of. I promise."
Even if Avery gave Eily a hard time every now and then, she was still grateful that Eily never backed down from trying to keep Lochlan in check. Her brother was so flaky sometimes and it bothered Avery that he floated between Eily’s couch and the bar so often, unable to settle in one place. “Thanks,” Avery said, her tone quiet now before she glanced off to look at nothing in particular. “I’m glad he listens to you, at least. Sort of. If I tried to take care of him, he’d just make jokes, like he hadn’t just died or something.” She was glad she could make him laugh earlier, to lighten his mood some, but that didn’t change the fact that he had been seriously hurt, and Avery had simply buried the thought that Lochlan could have died. It was just something that was inconceivable to her, because if it ever happened... Avery had no idea what she would do.
"He doesn't listen to me, so much as he knows better than to fight too hard." Eily said with a teasing tone. "And he wouldn't let you take care of him because he's the big brother. It's his job to take care of you." she added. "And he isn't allowed to die. He knows that."
"He's the big brother but I think he needs taking care of more than I do," Avery countered with a tiny smile. "I'll help though, when they let him out of here. Uh, cook for him and stuff when you can't, or don't want to. I'm guessing it'll take him awhile to heal up and get better, so..." Avery wasn't the most responsible O'Reilly herself, but for Lochlan she would at least try. "How's Patrick, anyway? He seemed grouchy." Which was understandable, but still.
"How about you worry about things like school, and visiting, and I'll take care of the other stuff? I'm going to be taking care of Patrick too, so, that's where my times' gonna be spent. Nursing people back to health." Eily told her. "Patrick's always grouchy. But he'll be okay."
Avery bit the inside of her lip before she shrugged. “I want to be able to help too, Eily. I mean, I could do something to help out.” Lochlan was her brother, after all, and she didn’t want to just pop in to make him laugh and then leave again. School was the last thing she wanted to worry about. She barely gave it much thought when Lochlan was healthy.
"And you will--by spending time with him. Coming by, and I want you to do the same with Patrick." she said. Eily planned on doing the heavy lifting, but that didn't mean other things didn't play just as important a role.
Of course that would be all Eily would want her to do. Visit for awhile and leave. Let her do everything else. It made Avery feel like Eily didn't think she was capable of doing anything else. Never mind that Avery wasn't sure what she could do, but that wasn't exactly the point. She was never going to be useful, or helpful, if no one gave her a chance to try. "Okay." Avery pushed back from the table and stood, picking up the tray of food to toss out. "I'm gonna go see Lochlan again then go home to take a shower and stuff."
Eily nodded. "Take your cousin with you?" she suggested. "I...right now I want to know where everyone is all the time if I can. Just...til this blows over." she said, not wanting Avery to think she was going to go into lockdown mode forever.
Huffing out a frustrated breath, Avery stared down at Eily, trying not to look annoyed but not really succeeding. “Darcy? She’s not going to come with me if she doesn’t want to, and I don’t feel like listening to her bitch the rest of the day. If you want her to go home, you should tell her yourself.” Yeah, Darcy was the last person Avery felt like dealing with at that moment.
Eily gave Avery a Look. "I don't give a shit if you two can't get along for five minutes." she snapped. "What I give a shit about is you two remaining alive. And that means sticking together for now. So suck it up, princess, and do it. You can be bitchy about it later. Just not right now, when Lochlan and Patrick are crawling back from death's door."
Eily's tone had Avery tensing defensively, and she stared hard at her cousin in response. Darcy hated Avery and she never tried to hide it. Most days she could handle it just fine, but today, Avery was exhausted and scared, and worried and she didn't want to deal with Darcy on top of it just because Eily didn't want her around. "Don't call me that," Avery whispered, ignoring the way her throat closed up around her words. Turning away, Avery walked with purposeful steps toward the bin to dump her trash and put her tray away. She would ask Darcy if she wanted to go home for awhile, but if Darcy said no, Avery was leaving anyway. She wasn't in the mood to fight with anyone else that day.
Eily knew she hadn't handled that super well, but she just--needed the teenagers to be a little more mature than they were being. She didn't know how well she could deal with getting Patrick and Lochlan back up to speed and play guardian to two very defiant girls at the same time. Obviously, the answer to that was 'not well'. Sighing, she got up to leave herself, hoping that they did the right thing.