Who: Gwen and Joe When: After hospital hours Where: Hospital Why: Joe is bored and so is Gwen Ratings/Status: Complete/None
After her texting with Joe, Gwen knew a damsel in distress when she heard one. The thought alone did make her laugh. She did make sure to pick up chinese food because no one likes hospital food. Once his room window came to view, Gwen would glance to see if she would spot Joe anywhere. Once he came into her view, she would come to smile. That window coming to slid open as she jumped inside. Once inside, she had noticed his roommate was fast asleep. Lucky for him.
“Hey. Brought chinese food.” She replied a she took that food out her bag and held that brown bag in the air for him to see. Her bag placed off to the side as she came to grab at his tray and pull it towards them. “This has not been a good few weeks for you, huh.” She said as she remembered him saying something about his fridge exploding or something along those lines.
She knew something had blown up in his and his brothers place
***.
Little known fact about Joe Hardy, he wasn’t too fond of hospitals. Not that many people were, but Joe especially didn’t like them. There was something about the sterile looking halls, the extra shiny floors and the over all smell that had always made the little hairs on the back of his neck prickle.
He understood the necessity of hospitals. When Frank had started vomiting blood at dinner earlier that week, Joe’s first instinct had been to get his brother to the closest emergency room as soon as possible. He’d been thankful that when he also inevitably fell to the highly contagious disease that he’d done so while in the ER’s waiting room. He couldn’t have imagined going through the onslought of various symptoms at his apartment. He was fairly convinced had he not brought them to the hospital, either he or Frank would have died.
Now that the symptoms had mostly passed - no more blood leaking from his tear ducts, no more vomiting blood or convulsions. The hospital staff wanted to keep both the brothers another day or so for observation and Joe hadn’t quite gained enough of his strength back to be released. He’d been deemed as no longer being contagious and had been moved to a room with another, older man. That didn’t change the fact that nights in this place were creepy.
Joe appreciated that Gwen wanted to come see him, and that she was going to do so after visiting hours were over. He pushed himself up in his bed when she appeared in his room. He didn’t exactly look his best: his complexion was sallow and he looked a little gaunt, but the smile he gave her was bright. “Hi,” he said softly, so not to to disturb the man in the other bed. “You’re a sight for sore eyes.” And she brought chinese food? “That smells amazing.”
***
Even though he did look a little sickly, Gwen didn’t mind. She came to place the food between them. “How are you holding up handsome?” She said as she came to take a seat at the little empty spot next to him on the bed. Hospitals weren’t ideal looking or smelling, but they did the job. Still she came to smile brightly at that man. “You know this whole damsel in distress is a good look for you.” She replied teasing lightly.
***
“Better than I was when I got here,” Joe answered. Gwen was right, hospital food was not Joe’s favorite and the smell of the chinese take-out was compelling. Joe reached for it eagerly. “Hopefully they’ll let me and Frank out tomorrow, butcha know, this whole Dream Bleedover thing is bullshit, Gwen. Why do people stay here?”
He broke open a set of the chopsticks and hesitated before digging into the take out container. The doctors had told him he wasn’t contagious anymore, but he still didn’t want to run the risk of passing anything on to Gwen by sharing food. He glanced up at her and chuckled faintly, “please, let’s not give this place any ideas of routinely putting me in these shitty situations.”
***
“I don’t know… You’re kinda cute all distressed and what not.” Gwen said teasing as she took her own chopsticks and ate out her own container at this point. When he mentioned the bleeding over and why people stayed she thought for a moment. “Well.. I think it’s this place in general. Once you move here and get on the networks you start the dreams, just because you move doesn’t mean the dreams will stop.”
Gwen wasn’t sure but she did enjoy her dreams for the most part. “Why you thinking of leaving me?” SHe teased as she lightly brushed her shoulder against his and smiled. Only to eat at her food once more. This place had its share of people with crazy dreams and a few people did leave. “One of my friends left. He was a big part of my dreams too.” She replied as she came to look at Joe. “And you know what, that’s what hurts the most. Not the dreams. The connections you make with people, and then to have them just up and leave is what hurts.”
She replied as she went back to eating her food, a slight saden look on her features for the moment.
***
Joe had no idea why he and Frank continued to live here. Their dreams weren’t all that bad, sure, especially compared to some Dreams Joe had heard about on the Network. His Dreams just hit a little too close to home on occasion and made him think of things he rather not. But this bleedover...fighting the Empire, rifts from various other dimensions tearing open willy nilly and dumping out demon and hell spawn. Yeah, alright, Joe would admit that some of that had been kind of fun. He could handle the stuff he could actually physically fight. It was the stuff he couldn’t fight that he struggled with. Like his brother falling so deathly ill he had to be rushed to the emergency room.
Joe sighed. “No, I don’t think I’m going anywhere,” he said. “I can’t leave Frank here all by himself.” Seeing that Gwen had dug into a separate container, Joe started in on the one in his hands. After eating institution food for the past several days, the Chinese take-out may as well have been gourmet.
In the dim light from the bedside table, Joe noted the sad look on Gwen’s face. He hadn’t thought about it, but she was right. It had been easy to meet people since he’d moved here - once he was at a place in which he wanted to meet people. Connecting over the insanity of the Dreams had brought him a handful of close friends very quickly.
“I’m sorry about your friend,” he said earnestly. “That must be hard for you. No one else on the network Dreams the same thing you do?”
***
“Not the exact same but some have different versions or we have certain people linked in dreams. From what I can tell my dreams are from Earth 65. No one else seems to be from that Earth.” She replied with a light shrug. “The dreams are intense, but if you have friends to help you deal with it, it’s not so bad. Im lucky to have Kitty and now you.” She replied with a slight nudge to his shoulder with her own. Once he came to look at her, Gwen held a smile on her features as she brushed her blonde hair from her face and came to eat at her food. “Well, hopefully they let you and your brother go home, If you want I’ll give you guys a lift?” She asked with a kinked up brow.
*** “Earth 65?” Joe lifted a brow. He knew that Gwen’s Dreams took place in a different dimension, she had explained all that to him - which had struck him as weird since he’d been told that all their Dreams came from different lives in different places. Apparently there were different dimensions within the different dimensions of Gwen’s Dreams. It was like Inception all up in this bitch. “No offense, Gwen, but that’s not a very creative name. Not that scientists are all that creative when it comes to naming shit,” he smirked at her and nudged her shoulder back with his.
“I drove us here,” he went on, going back to his food. “So, my car’s in the lot. It probably needs to be detailed since I’m pretty sure Frank may have missed the bucket a couple of times.” He wrinkled his nose up in distaste. “Stefan said he’d give us a ride if we need it.” He tilted his head a little bit, “who’s Kitty?”
***
Gwen laughed lightly as he made fun of the world she was from in her dreams. Soon he asked who Kitty was and a bright smile came along her features. “She’s a really good friend I made when I moved here.” She added with a firm nod. “She’s the one who told me about the dreams in the first place and helped prep me for them, I guess.” She replied thinking about the first day her and Kitty meet. It was something but Gwen wouldn’t change it.
“I met a few people here but not many to actually call a friend. Except for you and Kitty. Peter was in that group but he’s the one who left.” She said with a slight shrug of her shoulders for the moment. “Who’s Stefan?” Gwen asked in return.
***
Joe kind of wished he’d had met someone like that to help him prepare for the Dreams. Not that he didn’t appreciate what Zatana had told him. She had taken the time to meet with him and had more or less told him kind of what to expect. The rest Joe had figured out alongside of Frank. However, where Frank found it fascinating, Joe wanted no business of it. At least he had Frank though. Joe wasn’t sure how he’d have handled this without his brother.
“Stefan is a friend of mine,” he said. “He works at the garage with me. He actually helped get me the job. He’s…” Joe paused for a moment hesitating then decided to just be out with it. It wasn’t as though Stefan’s state of being was any kind of secret, “a vampire,” he said with a shrug. “Good guy.”
***
When he mentioned that his friend was a vampire Gwen made a light face. “Had bad dreams about vampires, but if you say he’s cool that’s good. We all need friends here.” She replied with a smile on her features. “Does Frank dream the same as you?” She asked, unsure if she had asked him that before.
That chinese food being plucked out from time to time as she took a sip of her water that was from her bag and placed an unopened one by Joe to have as well.
***
“Stefan’s a good guy,” Joe confirmed with a nod. He understood that vampires were not often portrayed in the greatest of lights and it was likely that at some point Gwen may have had a bad run-in with them. Her Dreams had the potential to incorporate anything, after all, being they involved multiple versions of Earth.
And speaking of the dreams, “Yup,” Joe nodded, “Frank and I Dream of the same stuff. Sometimes he’s one or two Dreams ahead of me and I tend to repeat Dreams a few times here and there. But, yeah, he’s in my Dreams and I’m in his and it’s always the same thing: two teen detectives against the world.”
***
“Oh how cute.” She repelied pinching Joes cheeks playfully at that point. “I’m a teenager in my dreams too. Which is just weird.” She said with a light laugh escaping her lips as she sipped her drink and glanced over to Joe. “Are you feeling alright?” She asked making sure he was feeling okay and she was forcing him to do anything he wasn’t up to do. Blue hues came to glance in his direction as she tilted her head. Causing some strands to fall over her features as she waited for an answer from him.
Gwen was like this., always making sure her friends were okay before her own needs. Which is why she was always getting into trouble in her dreams it would seem. But she didn’t mind. She had a small handful of friends and making sure they were fine was something that came natural to her here.
***
“Right?” Joe nodded. “I mean, we are literally seventeen and eighteen years old out saving the world from fucking terrorists!” There was a noise on the other side of the privacy curtain to Joe’s left. He glanced at it and held his breath, half expecting his roommate to start barking out demands about who was there and these were past visiting hours and kids today, etc. Fortunately it appeared as though the older man was just shifting in his sleep since no other noises could be heard.
To be safe, though, Joe lowered his voice again, “the really weird part is that our Dreams - Frank and mine - take place over a few decades. Like when we first started dreaming we were in the late 1920’s. The more recent dreams seem to take place in the early to mid 90’s, back before cellphones were a thing.” Which was too bad since a lot of the trouble the two of them got into could have been avoided with a simple call, text, or Google search.
He gave Gwen a tired smile when she asked him how he was feeling. “I’m alright,” he assured her. “The sickness took a lot out of me and I’m still getting my strength back, but don’t worry. I’ll be fine. I’m a tough S.O.B.” He had nearly finished his container of food and set it down on the little table next to him. “How are you? How’s the ankle?”
***
When he came to ask about her ankle, Gwen lifted her leg to show the light bruising on it. “It’s actually getting better.” She replied with a bright smile towards him for the moment. “Don’t worry I’ll be able to swing around with you again in another two weeks.” She replied adding a soft laughter from her lips. “Still your dreams have to be interesting ti live in those times.” She replied with another smile along her features.
“Mine, I travel to different Earth’s and fight crazy bad guys or escape for some girl time with the best-friends.” She added with another laughter as she finished her box and placed the empty box in the trash can along with his. “You know, I had fun on that date.” She replied smiling over at him.
***
Joe looked at Gwen’s ankle critically. He’d been afraid it would hinder her in her nightly patrol. What if something happened and she injured it all over again? Or broke it? It did seem to be getting better, though, and that pleased Joe. “I’m looking forward to it,” he grinned at her. “I had a lot of fun last time.”
“Yeah, kinda,” Joe admitted thoughtfully. “The twenties were interesting. The fifties too. Sometimes it felt as though we were in some kind of film noir, except minus the smoke and narration. This latest batch though, I’m not liking them quite as much. I mean, they’re exciting and just as much shit goes down, but there’s...I don’t know...kind of a tonal shift to them. It’s hard to explain.”
He tilted his head a little as Gwen described going from Earth to Earth. It sounded fascinating and Joe wondered just how many variations of Earth could there be? He supposed the possibilities were endless. Then he smiled, “yeah, I’m glad you had fun. I did too. We should do it again. As soon as they let me out of here, that is. Maybe we could get dinner, give that ankle of yours a rest.”
***
Gwen laughed as he described the different eras. “Sure, dinner sounds good to me.” She replied with a smile along her features. She was glad no one had come to check on him or his roommate for the moment. Still she did wondered why that was. But she wasn’t going to jinx anything ruining their sneaky chinese take out night. She laughed to herself at the thought for the moment.
“So you know I have to ask. Why no girlfriend?” She asked with a kinked brow and a smile along her features. It had been bugging her since they first talked. He was handsome, funny, so what was the problem with him?
***
Her question took Joe off guard. His smile faltered and lessened, but didn’t completely die. His eyes, however, seemed to dim a little, taking on a hint of sadness. “I was engaged not long ago,” he started. “The girl - Iola - she passed away shortly after I proposed. I guess...I don’t know...I don’t want to make any kind of commitment again.” He cleared his throat uncomfortably and reached for his bottle of water. “That’s kind of all I want to say about it…”
He looked back at Gwen sitting next to him. He wanted to change the subject back to something. He glanced up at the clock on the wall and frowned a little. The hour was getting late. There would be a shift change with the nurses soon. “The nurses are going to start their rounds pretty soon,” he said.
***
When he told Gwen what had happened, she frowned a little. “Than I won’t ask again.” She replied assuring him she wouldn’t make him think about it ever again when it came to their conversations. When he glanced to the clock, she did the same. Only to make a light face. “Buu.” She replied with a smile as she looked over to Joe for the moment.
“Let me know if they release you and your brother tomorrow, and we’ll do something as a welcome home thing for you two.” She added with a light smile as she came to grab at the food and dispose of it to show no evidence of their late night meal.
***
Relieved that Gwen wasn’t going to press him for any details, or harp on him for not opening up, or, worse, telling him he was a terrible person for dating at all. Another smile was turned Gwen’s way. “Yeah, I’ll let you know. A welcome home thing would be fun, I’m sure Frank would like it too. I know he’s going about as crazy as I am being stuck here.”
He gave her hand a squeeze after she’d deposited the evidence of the smuggled food. “Thanks for coming, Gwen,” he said. “You made my night.”
***
When he squeezed her hand, she simply smiled at him. “Anytime” She replied as she came to move towards that window and push it open as she felt the cool air from the night. “Text me.” She replied as she came to shoot that webbing from her wrist and swing out that window.