What if I bleed, What if I break; [Open to anyone in Medbay]

[letmelive]

Claire had somehow managed to sleep through quite a lot in the last day and a half. Maybe she would've woken up sooner if she'd had any idea of what was going on around her, but whether it was the drugs or overall fatigue from blood loss and the energy it had taken to keep awake until shed been put under, she slept through the night and most of the day. She came close to waking up a few times, stirring in her sleep or voices pulling her up from her dreams, but she'd slip under again before fully waking.

After a while, she just couldn't sleep anymore, however. She wasn't particularly quick in the waking aspect, of course. She was aware first that she wasn't in her "bed" in the precinct almost immediately. Her stomach felt oddly numb, and slowly she blinked her eyes open, staring up at the ceiling above her, a look of slightly disoriented confusion passing over her face. One hand moved to her stomach, and she felt the bandage there, remembering.

I got shot. The thought was a little disturbingly calm. She briefly considered sitting up to get a better look around her, but there was a dull ache underneath the numbness, and she decided she was pretty good in the position she was currently in, for the moment. She did turn her head, though, when she caught movement in her peripheral vision.

Comments

[letmelive]

"Nah," Claire replied, settling back against her pillow and folding her hands over her stomach. "I'm pretty numb right now." She imagined she'd be sore in a little while, but right now it wasn't too bad. She looked over at him, tilting her head slightly before speaking again.

"Thanks for your help down there, by the way."

[craaazyisland]

"Oh, nah. Of course," Steve brushed off the thanks, though couldn't wipe the grin off his face. He felt like he had more to say to that but saying it would only make him look stupid, so he left it at that.

He folded his arms up behind his head and leaned against the wall. "You really outdid me this time. I only got shot in the arm before. Let's call it a truce from now on, okay?"

[letmelive]

Claire laughed a little at that, wincing as the movement caused the dull ache she could feel coming back as the numbness started to wear off.

"Okay, sounds good to me. I'm really not in a hurry to get shot again."

[craaazyisland]

"Well, good," he said, faking a tone of authority.

And then awkward silence. Steve's apparent favorite conversational tool. "So," he said after a moment. "They made me leave earlier but now that you're up, is there anything I can get you?"

[letmelive]

She shook her head, reaching her arms behind her and arbitrarily straightening out her pillow.

"Unless you can smuggle me a book or something, not really."

[craaazyisland]

"Hey, I can do that," he offered immediately. "I'm bored out of my mind here. Just tell me what kind you want and I'll go get you a stack."

[letmelive]

"I meant that more as I don't think you can," Claire replied, smiling a little. "The only paper books I know of around here are probably in the Vatican, and I'm not really huge on theology." She shifted a bit, shrugging her shoulders.

"Everything's in the Media Library, and you might be able to download stuff to the omnicomms but I'm not really sure how." Claire didn't even really pretend she was an expert with electronics.

[craaazyisland]

Steve looked like he had thoroughly not expected that answer. Man, this ship got stranger and stranger the longer he was here.

"Oh," he said, a little disappointed. He made a mental note to figure out how to do that so next time he could actually get Claire something to read. "Sorry... I guess you're stuck with my witty conversation. So how about that weather?"

[letmelive]

"We have weather?" She arched her eyebrows, looking mock-surprised. Of course, they were on a space ship, so it wasn't like there was weather, beyond whatever was faked in the city.

[craaazyisland]

"Yeah," Steve replied, "A hundred percent chance of black space outside. They should give me an official position as a forecaster around here."

He reached up and rubbed his eyes wearily-- hadn't been sleeping real well since the whole incident happened. The precinct was alight with activity and he was too worried about Claire to tune it out anyway. He'd just been staying out of the way back in the little office charged as his room.

"It's a mess down there," he muttered.

[letmelive]

Claire frowned a little at what Steve said, folding her hands over her stomach and rolling her eyes towards the ceiling.

"Yeah? I'm not surprised." Everything had been a serious mess when she'd been down there, and from what she'd gathered from Leon things were still pretty dicey.

[craaazyisland]

"I don't even understand what happened, really, but the precinct's been full of people," he told her. "Security people and people who just want to know what's going on... And there's all kinds of rumors about mutiny and stuff. It's getting pretty ugly."

Steve frowned slightly. "I heard it was all just fake anyway, so the fight was for nothing."

[letmelive]

Claire sighed, smoothing her hands now over the sheet, as if she were trying to keep herself occupied with things to do.

"Not all for nothing," she replied. She still wasn't particularly enthused by what had happened, but things had sort of worked out. "The yeerk got out alive, and Sam Winchester and most of the people who were trying to kill it are all locked up."

[craaazyisland]

"But people got hurt and could have even died," he pointed out. "All over something fake. Because somebody thought they were being clever and smarter than they really were." There was a surprising amount of venom in his words.

Of course, Steve actually had no idea it had been partially Leon's idea to pull the whole bait-and-switch with the yeerkball, which was probably a good thing at this point. He didn't need to know it was Leon to obviously despise the idea altogether.

"It's just stupid," he muttered. "It's lucky nobody got killed."

[letmelive]

With the distaste Steve was expressing for the idea, it didn't even occur to Claire that he didn't already know Leon had been in on the plan. She knew full well Steve didn't have much love for the older man.

"It is lucky no one got killed," she admitted, her eyes drifting to her covered stomach. "It's hard to imagine the situation going well no matter what the circumstances, though."

[craaazyisland]

Though he really was trying to get along with Leon. By avoiding him completely.

"Yeah," he lamented, folding his arms and leaning back against the wall. "Something's always bound to go wrong. People are stupid."

With his daily dose of disaffected teenage misanthropy taken care of, he smiled a little crookedly at Claire. "I'm just glad you weren't hurt worse." He miraculously left unspoken the sentiment that he wouldn't have known what to do, particularly if Claire had been so injured she died right there on the street.

[letmelive]

Claire looked back over at Steve, smiling a little at him, although it didn't quite touch her eyes like her smiles usually did. It quickly turned into a curious expression as something that had occurred to her initially but had been pushed aside by everything else stirred up again.

"What were you doing down there, anyway?"

[craaazyisland]

"Going back to the precinct." Steve spent his days mostly wandering around. The ship was huge and it always seemed like there was more to look at. "I just finished, uh... eating," he said, with air-quotes, "and then I wanted to see what all the commotion was about."

Which was stupid of him, he knew full and well. "It's good I was there to help, but- I probably should have just left. If I got shot..."

[letmelive]

She exhaled, nodding slowly at that.

"Would've just made things even worse. But at least you didn't, right?" She offered him another smile, this one a little more genuine. She was glad he had been there to help her, of course, but she was even more glad they didn't have to worry about him spreading his infection.

[craaazyisland]

"Yeah." Steve nodded, barely quirking up the corner of his lip after a second or two. "At least there's that."

He hadn't been worried about that at all, of course. Watching Claire get hurt had wiped everything else out of his concern almost instantly. Though he was doubly glad he hadn't been hurt for the fact that out of everybody there, she would have been the one infected first.

"I guess everything really can get worse if you think about it too much." Or if you're carrying a deadly blood born mutagen. "That's what they call optimism."

[letmelive]

"Just try not to think about it too much," she replied, frowning a little at him. "Everything's fine, now." Well, not completely fine, but she knew Leon had learned something from this whole situation, and he didn't make a habit out of making the same mistakes twice.

[craaazyisland]

He smirked and shook his head, looking up at the ceiling. "I'm not," he assured her, "Trust me. If you think too hard you go crazy."

[letmelive]

Claire exhaled a dry laugh at that, nodding her head before leaning it back to stare up at the ceiling.

"That's definitely true."

[craaazyisland]

Steve seemed lost in thought for a moment, no doubt trying not to think too hard as per his own advice.

"Have your daughter and, uh, Leon been by lately?" he asked after a moment. It was kind of a strange tone of voice, more wary than curious.

[letmelive]

Claire frowned a little at the ceiling, blinking before turning her head to look at Steve.

"Leon was here when I woke up, and Sherry came by a little later."