InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "I'm doodling"

amanda campbell 🦉 annabeth chase (wisdomsdaughter) wrote in thedoorway,
@ 2012-12-03 07:44:00

Entry tags:

!log, annabeth chase, luke castellan

WHO: Annabeth & Luke.
WHERE: the Hospital.
WHEN: Friday, November 30th.
WHAT: Annabeth checks in on Luke following the shooting.
RATING: Low.
STATUS: log; complete.

Annabeth had been the first to the hospital after she’d seen Thalia’s message on the network. She hadn’t bothered responding. She’d simply called Thalia on her way out the door, pulling her shoes on as she went. She hurried to Luke’s room to grab his laptop and a few other things before flagging down a taxi outside the building.

After she arrived at the hospital, she introduced herself as Luke’s sister and was directed to the waiting room- he was in surgery. She prowled the room with an intense fury, pestering any nurse and doctor that would speak to her for updates. At some point a few of the others had shown up. Percy. Rachel and Piper. She vaguely remembered speaking with them. She was sure she snapped at Percy more than once. She didn’t mean it, of course. But she was on edge, and worry was making her testy.

Unable to stand just waiting there any longer, Annabeth stalked off to the cafeteria. She bought herself a hot chocolate and forced herself to sit and drink it slowly, just to give herself something else to concentrate on. She stayed there until Percy came to tell her that Luke was out of surgery and could have visitors. Thalia had been in with him at first, and no one had wanted to disturb them. Even if they had, they would have had to cross Annabeth, and her expression said she was in no mood to be messed with.

Annabeth noted that Thalia had been crying when she finally left Luke’s room. She gave the other girl a look that clearly said We’ll talk later. After the others cleared off, she knocked lightly on Luke’s door before she poked her head inside. “Luke?”

It was evident from the red rim to his eyes that Luke hadn’t escape the conversation without tears either. When he saw Annabeth come in, though, he quickly put a smile together. It was a weak, shaky smile, but it was there. Luke’s head was all swimmy from the general anesthesia, but he had himself together enough to know that he’d promised not to hurt Annabeth ever again, and that he wasn’t about to stop holding to that now. That meant getting himself together and not going to pieces for the second time in one night.

“Hey, Bethie,” he said, and his voice was just as weak and shaky as his smile was. “Should’ve known you’d think to bring the computer already. Thanks.”

When Annabeth saw his pale face with those red rimmed eyes and that shaky smile, she had to stop herself from throwing her arms around him. Gods, if he had died... She stamped the thought out almost the second that it popped into her mind. He’d already been through enough tonight. He didn’t need her sobbing all over him too. Tonight she’d look after him. And so she smiled back. “Of course I did,” she walked over to the side of the bed and kissed his cheek before she sat down. “Your computer, some clean clothes, and a Snickers bar for when the nurses aren’t looking.” She pulled the messenger bag that contained all of said items off her shoulder and set it down gently next to her. Gray eyes bored into his. “How are you feeling? And if you say fine, I’m taking back that Snickers.”

Luke was a well-known sucker for a Snickers. Between that and the capital-L Look Annabeth was giving him, he didn’t have much option but to be honest. Besides, he mostly tried to be honest with people these days. There was plenty he didn’t talk about if he could avoid it, but he wasn’t going to lie if he could avoid it either. It was all part of that “taking a different path” thing he was working so hard at.

“Well, there’s no real physical pain right now, because I haven’t been out from under the general anesthesia all that long,” he said. “I’m awake enough to talk, but I sure couldn’t drive a car. Did Thalia tell you what happened?”

She nodded along. Good. No pain was good. He’d be in enough of that later on during the rest of his recovery. “Only a little.” Thalia had been pretty frantic when Annabeth had called her earlier. “You two were at the bodega when someone tried to rob the place.” She shot a look at his injured arm. “And the obvious, of course. That you were shot.” She eyed him critically, as if trying to solve a riddle. “What were you two doing there together? I thought you weren’t talking.”

“We weren’t,” Luke answered tiredly. Between the physical and the emotional trauma of the evening, he was pretty well worn out. “We just happened to be there at the same time. I was finding some late dinner, she was--I don’t know. Getting a Kit-Kat bar, I think. But it was just coincidence.”

Of course, now apparently they were talking. Or they were sort of talking. Or maybe she hated him slightly less. Truth be told, Luke wasn’t really sure. He just knew that they’d finally managed to have a conversation that didn’t end with him getting punched in the face.

“Oh.” A slight flicker of disappointment flashed across her face, but she quickly tried to hide it. She’d hoped that maybe the two of them had been together because they were trying to work things out. Maybe it was stupid of her to hold out hope that things could ever be fixed between the three of them again, but there would always be a part of her that would. “She tried to charge in and take care of everything herself, didn’t she?”

“Gosh, it’s like you know her or something,” Luke dryly replied. “Yeah. Just about got herself shot in the back.”

Remembering it made him feel a little queasy. Even hazy with medication, Luke could see Thalia’s face clear as day, and the thief raising his gun behind her. If Luke had been even a second slower, that shot might have gone through Thalia instead. It might even have killed her. She might not like him very much anymore, but Luke still loved her. The idea of a world without her in it was just as horrible as it had always been.

Annabeth gave him a wry smile, but it softened into a more genuine look. “And you pushed her out of the way.” She wasn’t asking. She knew. The look on his face, Thalia’s reaction to everything, it was the only scenario that made sense.

“Don’t tell anybody, please?” Luke requested with a quiet sigh. “I don’t want anybody thinking that I think I’m some kind of hero or something.”

If the word got out, then there would be speculation that he’d done it just to get attention, or to try to win Thalia over again, and Luke didn’t want any of that. He just didn’t want Thalia to get hurt. He didn’t want anyone else to be hurt because of him ever again. It was just as well if no one else knew exactly what happened. Telling people that he got caught in the crossfire in the robbery would explain everything just as well, and it was more or less true anyway.

She pressed her lips together and shook her head. “I won’t.” She knew and she understood what it all meant. Everyone else could draw their own conclusions. “I’m just glad you’re both okay.” She could tell he was drained and she should probably let him be. But Annabeth could be her own worst enemy sometimes. Her drive to understand everything, combined with her personal history with Luke and Thalia meant that she had to ask the question that wouldn’t stop buzzing in the back of her mind. “You two did talk, though? Before I came in?”

“Yeah.” Luke sighed softly, his eyes closing over the all too fresh memory. “I kinda fell apart on her with a bunch of ‘trying to explain the past’ stuff. I hate doing that, because it always sounds like I’m trying to excuse it all, but once she asked I just couldn’t shut myself up.”

It was only partly a hazard of the medication, Luke knew. Try though he might to be calm and reasonable, the truth was that he was still a very emotionally-driven person. He wasn’t going to lose it and try to destroy the world again, but he still wasn’t very good at holding his feelings in. That went double for the really strong feelings of guilt and remorse and pain that clung to the memories of the few years before his death.

“You’re not making excuses, Luke. You’ve owned up to everything. I see that you still carry it with you every day. You just wanted her to understand.” She paused for a moment, and chewed on her lip. “It was something she needed to hear. There’s too much history between all three of us for you two to just avoid each other.”

“Yeah.”

The reply was reluctant and weary. Luke closed his eyes, because the physical and emotional effort of keeping them open was a little too much just then.

“I’ve gotta send some emails,” he said. The signal was clear: let’s not talk about this anymore. “Need to let the staff know what’s going on and that I’m basically okay and that the Monday meeting is still happening.” He opened his eyes again to look at Annabeth, quietly hopeful. “You mind sticking around while I get that done?”

Annabeth didn’t want to drop it, but she conceded anyway. Now wasn’t the time. Barring anymore freak bodega robberies, they were all safe enough here and there would be time enough to talk these things through later. She nodded and reached down to pull his laptop out of her bag. She handed it over to him with a smile. “I’m not going anywhere.”