The Tomb Raider (lara) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2018-07-25 14:10:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, bo dennis, lara croft |
Who: Lara and Bo
What: Lara wakes up with a fresh impalement wound
When: Recent
Where: Croft Manor
Status: Complete
Rating: PG-13 for blood and wound care because who needs hospitals amiright?
There was only so much that Lara could take. She was single-mindedly determined to find her father, which was an obsession that could get her killed. And it nearly had. First the wreck, then Mathias and whoever his masters were. Then her mad dash to escape, the all too familiar fall through the forest and then hitting the ground. Killing a man when she’d come to, and it was somehow more brutal than she could have imagined.
She awoke with a gasp and a scream, a piece of wood sticking out of her stomach on the opposite side of her old scar.
Bo was sleeping easier of late. There’d been no dreams to speak of, and things had been going better between her and Lara after Lara had stabbed her. But even so, things didn’t always stay good. It was how Orange County worked. Invasions or other sorts of crazy happened to ruin things, or dreams happened. For a change, it wasn’t Bo’s dreams.
She woke with a start when Lara screamed. “Lara?” She asked as she flipped the light on and looked at her wife. “Holy shit,” she said as she saw the piece of wood sticking out of Lara. That was definitely bad. “What do you need me to do?” Because she doubted a doctor would help overly much at the moment, at least not until the piece of wood was taken care of.
Lara’s night shirt was already soaked with blood, and Lara stared down at the wood with a groggy, disbelieving expression. She seemed to shake herself out of it, “Help me to the bathroom. Did it go all the way through?”
That version of her wasn’t at all prepared for this sort of thing, but Lara had dreamed enough to be calm in this situation.
That she had to even be calm in this situation was a disturbing thing. “Fucking Yamatai. DIfferent this time, but still the same.”
Nodding, Bo slid out of bed and moved over to help Lara up. She was careful about it, not wanting to jar Lara more than necessary. “No, it didn’t.” She picked Lara up in her arms, careful about it, and carried her into the bathroom. She set her down in the tub.
“Yamatai again?” Bo asked, frowning a bit. That definitely wasn’t good, especially knowing what Yamatai had done the first time around. “Towel, needle and thread, right?” She asked about the wound. Also probably alcohol to help with the pain.
“Yamatai,” Lara confirmed, letting out a relieved sigh. “I … that me, she believes my father is alive, and on the island. So she chartered a ship to take her there. It.. went about as you’d expect. Mathias was there, only he wasn’t marooned. He was with Trinity, searching for Himiko’s tomb, I imagine. I managed to escape.”
She leaned back in the tub and nodded. “Something for the infection too.”
“You think your father’s alive and on Yamatai?” Okay that was a new one. But even as Lara talked, she didn’t let it distract her from getting the medical supplies needed. “I’m glad you were able to escape, though.”
Bo quickly ran and grabbed a bottle of alcohol, then came back and grabbed a towel, needle, thread and disinfectant before she went back to Lara’s side. “Alright, here, for the pain,” she said offering over the bottle of alcohol. “I’ll pull the wood out when you’re ready.”
“That’s where he went last.” Lara didn’t even know Sam there. That felt different, a little wrong and she couldn’t place why. Maybe that was the problem.
She cut off her nightshirt, dumping some of the alcohol over the wound before grabbing onto the wood. The pain jolted through her again just at the contact and the burning of the alcohol. “Fuck I hate this part…”
She yanked.
That seemed...way wrong, but Bo wasn’t about to say anything on that front. It clearly wasn’t easy, and it was a new set of dreams for her wife to be traumatized by. That was the downside to being Lara Croft, there were many adaptations of her life. Bo just hoped she only had the one adaptation of her own life. They certainly didn’t need both of them dreaming about various traumas forever.
Bo was going to pull the wood out, but then Lara did so. So instead she readied the towel, and once the wood was out, Bo put pressure on the wound. “Sorry,” she apologized as she did her best to slow the bleeding. First it was slowing the bleeding, then it would be closing the wound.
Really, what adaptation was this? Lara wasn’t aware of any, but she knew how the OC worked; she wouldn’t be aware of it until she finished dreaming. It was a unique kind of frustration that only Dreamers understood, and not all of them at that.
Once her scream died down, she leaned heavily against Bo. This was less bloody than the other puncture wound. She probably should go to hospital but she didn’t want to. They just… needed to clean the wound carefully before sewing it up.
“I really can’t see straight. Either it’s been too long or that hurt more than the last time.”
Did she really sound that calm? She had Bo. Bo could help. Lara had to remind herself she didn’t have to do this alone.
The scream hurt, knowing how much in pain Lara was, but Bo kept applying the pressure. When Lara leaned against her, she wrapped one arm around her shoulders, giving her comfort while her other hand kept the pressure applied to the wound.
“It’s alright, just try to relax. I’m right here, and I’ll help dress the wound. Just don’t try to get up until your vision clears, okay?” Bo wouldn’t insist on going to the hospital unless Lara’s vision didn’t clear up or the wound was worse than she initially thought. Though at least this one wasn’t a through-and-through the way the rebar had been.
After a minute, she carefully pulled the towel back to check the wound, then she pressed the towel back against it. “Alright, another minute and I’ll start disinfecting the wound and seeing how bad it really is.”
Having no plans to get up any time soon, Lara kept her eyes closed. Her voice was light as she focused on something besides the sharp throbbing in her side. “Important question. You dig scars, right?”
She tried to remember what organs were in that general area.
Bo had to smile gently. “Yes, I dig scars. Don’t worry about that.” She checked the wound again. Okay, now she could start cleaning it. She grabbed a washcloth, wet it, then she started to gently clean the blood away from around the wound. “Once the wound is cleaned and closed, I’ll even kiss it better.”
Lara’s hands gripped the edge of the tub. No matter how gentle her wife was, it still stung but at least she didn’t whimper. This part… not so bad.
The stitches, that was going to be bad.
Bo knew how painful this could be. After all, Lara had to stitch her up once before her healing powers had kicked in. And that had been a stab wound from a knife, something much larger than the wound she was currently tending to. Even so, Bo knew the stitches were going to be bad.
With the blood cleaned away, Bo grabbed the disinfectant. “Okay, this...is probably going to hurt a lot.” Probably not as much as the stitches would, but it would still sting a hell of a lot. So with the warning given, she started using the disinfectant on the wound to clean it out thoroughly before stitching it shut.
Lara cursed vividly and unlady like, grimacing as the alcohol burned at her wound. God knew what had gotten pushed in there, or had transferred with the wood itself. Lara didn’t want to even think about that. “If I get… sepsis again...I am going to lose my mind.”
That language Lara used was indeed colorful, but Bo didn’t say anything about it. She was focused on cleaning the wound out. “Don’t worry, I’m going to keep cleaning this until it doesn’t react. I don’t want you to get sepsis either, and I definitely don’t want you to lose your mind.” So Bo kept cleaning the wound, making sure that it was thoroughly cleaned before she’d sew it up.
“Good.” this was going to be fun. Lara groaned and hissed, trying to keep it in enough that it didn’t bother Bo too much. She wondered if fire would have been better, or at least less painful. Probably not, as her old scar ached at the memory. At least thinking about that distracted her from the current pain.
So did thinking about the dream.
Once Bo was certain there was no infection that was going to happen, she handed Lara the bottle of alcohol. “You may want to drink this while I get the needle ready.” Alcohol helped numb things, right? At least that’s what Lara had told her the time she’d stitched her up. With the bottle handed over, Bo grabbed the needle and threaded it, then sterilized the needle. “Alright, ready when you are,” she said.
Stitching Lara was going to be painful for both of them. Bo had never stitched anyone up before, but she knew the basic principle of it. And, well, she’d made sure no infection would happen, so that was a point in her favor, right? Right.
Lara took a swig, then another. Then she was read, and she nodded at Bo as she braced herself for the pain of the needle. The initial prick was bad enough, but the feeling of it moving through her body and the thread and everything was actually worse, at least for her.
Mostly because it dragged on. Through gritted teeth, she muttered, “I should have just had you cauterize it.”
Now, Bo knew how to sew, her mother had taught her, though Bo had never taken it up as a hobby. So that at least helped her in stitching Lara up. She was careful, but moved as fast as she could, knowing that it was agonizing to her wife. “The thought crossed my mind, but it might’ve taken longer to get something hot enough to cauterize the wound.”
It seemed like an eternity, and Bo hadn’t realized how much she was holding her breath while stitching Lara up, but finally she was finished and cut the thread with her teeth. “Okay, it’s done. You can relax now.” And it was sewn rather well, so hopefully it would heal well.
“That, and it makes for an ugly scar,” Lara admitted. A good stitching was preferable. She wondered how she’d handle it in the dreams. She had an arrow, but no way to start a fire and she couldn’t be sure she’d find something there. She worried about Lu Ren too. He was clearly attracted to her but she felt like more of a sibling/friend feeling for him.
Setting the needle aside, Bo grabbed the disinfectant again to give the now-closed wound another going over for good measure. “Hopefully this will do the trick. And I think we’re even on sewing each other up,” she commented. “Is this your only new wound?” She just wanted to be sure that there wasn’t something on Lara’s back that needed attention.
“I don’t know. It’s the biggest one. I probably have other scratches and cuts. I did fall through a forest canopy and my head feels like someone hit me with a shovel.”
Which, they kind of had. “I feel like I should be freaking out.”
“Do you want some aspirin for your head?” Bo was also worried about a possible concussion. How many concussions had Lara even had? “If you sit up, I can at least tend to your other scratches and cuts, make sure those don’t get infected either.”
“You just….want to get me naked,” Lara murmured, sitting up anyway. “Might as well throw out that nightshirt.”
She took another, longer, drink from the bottle, and debated just getting really, really drunk. The more she thought about it, the more she wanted to.
“Maybe, but I’m more concerned about you not getting an infection right now.” Unlike Bo, Lara didn’t have healing powers that would save her from basically everything. Bo could even save herself from death so long as she wasn’t decapitated and had enough bodily function to chi-suck. But Lara was still human, and Bo was determined to take care of her. She carefully helped Lara out of her nightshirt, or what was left of it, then she set about checking her torso for any wounds.
The scratches and cuts she found, she disinfected. “Is there anything I can do for you, to help with the aftermath of your dream?” Bo wasn’t going to ask if Lara was mentally alright because she clearly wasn’t given she was dreaming of Yamatai again. Even if it was a different version, it would still drag up issues she had related to the first time she dreamt of Yamatai. Not to mention the issues with her father.
Lara didn’t always feel very human, and though she liked to think she was over it, there were still moments where she felt like her humanity had slipped through her grasp. Time with Bo kept her perspective, but when she was alone, that was the time that such thoughts came out.
“Can you get me my phone? What time is it in Tokyo?” Lara asked, trying to remember if Sam was still visiting her parents as last she told her or if she was elsewhere.
She just wanted to hear her voice, even if she was nowhere to be found in those dreams. It wasn’t like she could hear her father’s voice, though… it was honestly painful to think about.
“Yeah, of course,” Bo responded as she finished tended to Lara’s minor injuries and ensured none of them would get infected. “Though off the top of my head, I have no idea what time it is in Japan. I don’t even know what time it is here,” she said as she got up to go get Lara’s phone. When she got to the phone, she picked it up, then frowned a little in confusion at the camcorder and some sort of puzzle box thing?
Dream gifts, no doubt. And possibly not ones Lara wanted to see at the moment. So she’d instead tell her about them but not bring them to her just yet. Bo did stop and get Lara some clean clothes to change into, however.
“Here,” she said, coming back with the phone and clothes. She handed the phone over. “I also brought you some clean clothes to change into, if you wanted. I’ll take care of the sheets.” She paused a moment. “And I think you got a couple things from your dreams. A camcorder and some sort of weird-looking box thing?”
Lara had gotten out of the tub, though she hadn’t been able to move from the edge of it. She paled noticeably. “That’s…. In my dreams, I discovered my father’s secret research lair. He left a camcorder for me, with a recording…The puzzle box was how I discovered the entrance.”
Bo frowned a little. “I’m sorry. Do you want me to put them somewhere or just leave them?” She just wanted to do whatever would be easier for Lara. “Are they what led you to Yamatai?” She asked, putting two and two together. Hopefully they made four in this case.
“Leave them, I’ll look at them later,” Lara replied, torn between wanting to see her father and wanting to not think about it even a little bit. The latter one out, for now. She nodded, “He wanted me to destroy all his research. But it...was the only way to find him.”
“And you chose to find him.” Bo couldn’t blame Lara for that. After all, look at the trouble she’d gotten herself into looking for her biological parents in the dreams. And potentially in this life as well. Bo couldn’t help but to think that looking to see if she had a half-sister here would invoke her father’s wrath. But she wasn’t going to worry about that right now.
“I hope that you do find him. Or at least find closure. You deserve that.” Though Bo hoped that Lara wouldn’t have to go and kill hundreds of people on Yamatai in the process this time around.
“...Yeah. But knowing how these things go, that might have been a terrible mistake. At least this version of the Endurance only had the captain and me, no one else. And he survived the wreck. I hope he survived my escape, too. “
She sounded uncertain of that, and she wondered if he existed somewhere out there.
Bo looked at Lara for a moment before she set her hand on her wife’s shoulder and squeezed it reassuringly. “It may not seem like much, but take your pluses where you can. If he survived the wreck, he probably survived your escape as well. He sounds like the kind of person who’s hard to kill. Just like you are.” She would reminded Lara of that fact as often as was needed. After all, Lara was hard to kill for many reasons. And she hadn’t survived because of some fluke or chance. She had skills and knowledge that had helped her survive when many other people, Bo included, wouldn’t have survived.
“I just met him, but he seems like he’d make a good friend. We have something in common - he lost his father when I lost mine. They went to Yamatai.” Lara grimaced, feeling some level of guilt over that. She’d kind of guilt tripped him into going.
“Having something in common is a good start to forming a friendship with someone. But maybe both of you can find answers on Yamatai.” Though Bo didn’t think much good would come from Yamatai considering she knew what it had done to Lara the first time around. Though given the fact Lara hadn’t mentioned Sam at all, maybe that was a good thing. Perhaps this version of Yamatai would be a little less traumatic than the first version.
But Bo did tend to hope for the best. “But no matter what happens in your dreams, I’m here for you when you need me.” Bo couldn’t give Lara her father back, but she could be a shoulder for her if she needed it. Or a medic.
Less traumatic was something Lara hoped for too, but hopes were often false ones. She reached for Bo’s hand, squeezing it and bypassing any and all of the bullshit she was feeling just then. To condense it all down to what really mattered just then, “I love you.”
Even if hope tended to be false more often than not, Bo was always hopeful. She had always been one to hope for the best and for things to work out for the best. She tended to be disappointed often.
She squeezed Lara’s hand back. “I love you, too.”