Go to Sleep, This Won't Hurt a Bit

[in-venting.livejournal.com]

Sherry had gone to the media library for some relaxation. Sure, other people ran off to the sensoriums, but Sherry liked reading. It relaxed her, even if the pages weren't paper, and she found something calming in the series of words on paper. Besides, her mother wouldn't be going anywhere anytime soon, and Sherry was tired. Purplish smudges from too many hours trying to stay awake decorated the skin under her eyes. She had lost some sleep over Claire, and knew she'd fallen asleep awkwardly over a chair in a way that had probably looked uncomfortable.

She hadn't been, but that was beside the point. Sherry removed her headband and put it beside her, fluffing her hair and combing it out with her fingers. She was thinking too much, and that wasn't relaxing at all. She returned to her book of short stories and blinked at the screen.

May 16. I am ill, decidedly! I was so well last month! I am feverish, horribly feverish, or rather I am in a state of feverish enervation, which makes my mind suffer as much as my body. I have, continually, that horrible sensation of some impending danger, that apprehension of some coming misfortune, or of approaching death; that presentiment which is, no doubt, an attack of some illness which is still unknown, which germinates in the flesh and in the blood.

Sherry looked down at the screen in sympathy. Guy de Maupassant, I know exactly how you felt. She continued reading The Horla, but soon, her eyes drifted closed and she slumped over, her cheek pressed against her omnicomm.

The last words she read still repeated slowly in her mind, She was already half asleep on a reclining chair, overcome with fatigue.

Comments

[toariversodeep.livejournal.com]

Roxie likes to read as well--even if many of the books she's familiar with would be quite strange to someone from another world. Still, that just means she has more new material, and so she's been coming to the Media Library every so often and locking herself into a pod for a few hours to pore through material.

Something draws her to Sherry... something she wouldn't be able to describe to others well even if she tried. Kind of halfway between a smell and a sound, almost, and familiar--almost everyone has their own little traces, to her senses, but it's normally faint enough to get lost at more than a few feet. But the strangeness that follows Sherry is stronger, and in the quiet calm of the mostly-empty Media Library Roxie follows it along almost unconsciously.

With the lights of the pod Sherry is in dimmed--Stacy really is quite conscientious sometimes--Roxie stands over her, glasses glinting cruelly with what scraps of light they can catch.

[in-venting.livejournal.com]

Sherry was, unfortunately, somewhat of a deep sleeper. She didn't hear Roxie approach her pod, didn't hear the pod open. From her odd, slumped position, Sherry straightened out her legs and rubbed her face against her arm, clearly comfortable.

[toariversodeep.livejournal.com]

Roxie leans in a little closer. With Sherry asleep, the faint keening of whatever drew her attention in the first case is a little clearer. Her lips move in private half-mumbles as she tilts, reaching to nudge Sherry's side lightly.

[in-venting.livejournal.com]

Sherry laughed a little in her sleep and tiredly batted at the hand, still unknowing. She rolled on to her stomach and sighed deeply, mumbling nonsense not directly at Roxie, but rather, to whomever it was she was dreaming of.

[toariversodeep.livejournal.com]

Roxie moves to follow Sherry's shifting, staring-listening at the other girl's side. She nudges again, as her glasses once again catch the light, and with her mouth parted slightly her glasses and teeth shining against the dim light make her seem nearly demonic.

[in-venting.livejournal.com]

It was the constant nudging that finally drew Sherry from her sleep, and with an irritated groan she opened her eyes.

...And her sleep addled brain panicked, so the rest of Sherry's body followed suit, backing her up into the corner of the pod, like a little crab. It was hard to look suitably frightened as she felt, because she kept yawning. "What! What are you doing poking people that are trying to sleep?!"

[toariversodeep.livejournal.com]

"... sorry," Roxie says, and her head tilts a little, breaking the glare on her glasses. "You seemed very asleep."

[in-venting.livejournal.com]

"Well, I was," Sherry replied crossly, pursing her lips at her friend. Then she paused and looked at her surroundings. It wasn't her room in the precinct, and it wasn't her spot in the medbay.

"...When did I fall asleep in the media library?" Sherry shook her head to derail that train of thought and went back to the subject at hand. Roxie being creepy and poking her. "What were you doing anyway?"

[toariversodeep.livejournal.com]

Roxie points at Sherry's middle.

"There's something in you," she says, quite bluntly.

[in-venting.livejournal.com]

"No kidding," Sherry returned and crossed her arms. "They're called 'internal organs.'"

[toariversodeep.livejournal.com]

"No," Roxie says, with a very serious look, and starts fumbling around in the pockets of her jacket. "Something else. I could sense it earlier, but I thought it might have just been a disease." She pulls out a stethoscope crested with disturbingly serpentine engraved-silver patterns and an ivory-white chest piece.

[in-venting.livejournal.com]

"There isn't anything in me," Sherry replied defensively, and mentally railed at herself for backing into a corner. Could she escape Roxie? Probably. If she could get past her and her weird stethoscope. She would run for the precinct, and since Roxie had the approximate speed of a turtle anyway, Sherry would easily get away. "And if there was, then someone would've said something already." Of course they would have, it hadn't crossed her mind that someone would keep something as important as information about her health away from her.

Well, there had been that situation in Raccoon City, where she'd gotten ill, but that had no bearing here, and she'd been given a shot that made her almost immediately better. Besides, that had been weeks ago. If anything was still wrong, someone would've pulled her aside. "You just keep you stethoscope to yourself, Roxie. I'm not going to play 'Doctor' with you."

[toariversodeep.livejournal.com]

"I can sense--infections," Roxie said, like she was almost going to say something else, and she fiddles with the stethoscope between her fingers. It slides back and forth with almost the grace of an actual snake. "I don't want somebody walking around with something that could be dangerous, but I'm not sure what you have." Her glasses are glare-free; her concern shows through in her expression, pushing aside some of her usual poker face.

Medbay

[in-venting.livejournal.com]

For the second time that day, Sherry entered the medbay. Only this time, she wasn't there to see Claire (who, it appeared, was entertaining her acquaintance - that was, the really annoying, red-haired Steve). Unfortunately, the walk from one level to another meant that Sherry had been having thoughts of escape the whole time. It wasn't that she hated doctors - everyone had to do something to help others - but rather, she hated hospitals. Of any kind. Terrestrial or spacebound.

"Well," she started, looking around at the varied staff as they worked. "Everyone seems busy. I'll, ah, come back later." She told Roxie and turned on her heels to leave.

Re: Medbay

[toariversodeep.livejournal.com]

"Wait," Roxie says, shooting a hand out in Sherry's way. The way she switches so instantly between moving slowly and moving much quicker is kind of alarming—what other little things about her might be part of the facade?

"I'm sure we can find someone." She speaks up a little louder. "Hello? Anyone free for a minute?"

Re: Medbay

[in-venting.livejournal.com]

"Shhhhh!" Sherry half-wailed. "People are sleeping!" What she really meant, was (aside from "ROXIEWHYAREYOUSOFASTSTAYATTURTLESPEED!") STOP TRYING TO GET SOMEONE'S ATTENTION, I'M REALLY FINE. REALLY.

Re: Medbay

[likeselevators.livejournal.com]

Lam had been practicing with the surgical gloves for the twenty-millionth time, when she heard a call. It was easy enough to strip her hands of the gloves and pad out to look for the source of the voice. And that turned out to be two of the girls in their compliment. Her eyes flicked over both of them for a moment and her expression softened slightly.

"Well, not everyone is asleep." She tilted her chin slightly. "What can I help you with?"

Re: Medbay

[toariversodeep.livejournal.com]

"There's something in her that shouldn't be," Roxie says, and points over at Sherry, gesturing at her abdomen. "But she doesn't trust me to try and figure out what it is."

Way to be blunt, weird little girl.

Re: Medbay

[in-venting.livejournal.com]

"I'm telling you, I'm fine. There isn't any reason for me to be here, and if there was, my parents would've already done so." Sherry replied to her friend crossly and looked up at Lam apologetically.

"But, if it will keep her quiet if I just get... whatever it is that gets done here, then I will." Sherry's frown deepened.

Re: Medbay

[likeselevators.livejournal.com]

"Hop up on a bed and we'll see what the scan comes up with," Lam murmured after a moment of thoughtful contemplation. "I've got nothing better to do tonight." Her flash of a smile was warm and brightened her features.

"This will probably only take a few moments and I promise I won't poke and prod," she said, her voice smooth as she moved across the space to pat a bed.

Re: Medbay

[toariversodeep.livejournal.com]

Roxie relaxes a little—not that it's much of a change in her demeanor—as Lam goes along with it, and moves to stand next to the bed the woman is indicating, looking back and forth between her and Sherry.

Re: Medbay

[in-venting.livejournal.com]

Sherry shot a look at Roxie, The things I do for friendship, but padded over to the bed indicated and hopped up on it. She crossed her arms and continued to frown.

It wouldn't be so bad. Maybe. The woman had promised to not poke, prod, or generally make her uncomfortable. "Okay."

Re: Medbay

[likeselevators.livejournal.com]

Lam flicked her fingers over a control pad and waited a few second before accessing the scanning instruments. There was a flash of light and a soft hum as they activated. Lam watched the building image complete and studied it for abnormalities, her lips pursed thoughtfully.

Re: Medbay

[toariversodeep.livejournal.com]

One of Roxie's feet taps lightly against the floor, and her arms are folded across her chest. The rest of her seems pretty patient, though.

Re: Medbay

[in-venting.livejournal.com]

Sherry lay uncomfortably in the bed and watched Lam's face cautiously. She didn't fidget, exactly, unless one counted the flex of her fingers against the bed.

"Is there something wrong?" She wasn't sure she liked that look.