trans_9 | I've got a disease, deep inside me [totally open]

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I've got a disease, deep inside me [totally open]

[ooc: Rather than spam the boards with posts for my characters, this thread takes place a few days after everything quiets down in the medbay. If your character wants to speak to either Luis or Steve, this is the place. I won't have the two of them respond to each other (I'm not quite that tasteless), so let me know who you've come a-callin' for. Alternate thread title: I Can't Believe It's Not Muncest.]

In an isolated bed near the back of the medbay, a teenage boy lay restrained. Anyone who'd caught a glimpse of Steve on the day of the incident would have said he looked much better, but he still looked like hell-- bloodless, clammy skin misted with a thin sheen of sweat, veins standing out dark and purple, a facial expression that read he had been sleeping for quite a while and could stand to sleep for quite a while longer. His right shoulder was tightly bandaged, as was his left hand, and a loose bandage had been wrapped around his head to cover his left eye. His hands were still strapped down to the bed and an IV was feeding into his arm, but it looked like the energy and the color were slowly returning to the skinny redhead.

Now if only it wasn't so goddamn boring in here.

There wasn't even the comfort of constant conversation. Dr. Sera kept busy looking out for the injured all over the medbay, and didn't seem much for talk anyway. Any time he didn't spend hunched over the laboratory equipment in the back of the room he spent sort of muttering to himself, staring at charts, or making thinly veiled passes at the female visitors to the medbay. He did have the decency not to hit on the injured.

Still, his brain was fully entrenched in Science Mode and anybody who needed to speak to him would need to flag him down.

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"Like that's my fault," Steve said a bit sourly. He paused and thought better of the comment, though-- or at least, he paused and thought better of his tone.

He shrugged his shoulders. "It's not a big deal. I mean, he's your friend, after all." Or whatever he was. Her friend. "I don't even know him." Or like him. "So I don't really care what he thinks about me." Because he's an asshole. "It is what it is."

Steve had wondered if he'd be hearing from Leon about the incident with his daughter and the Tyrant. He didn't actually care if he did or not, since he'd rather not talk to Leon anyway. But he wasn't going to be very surprised if he didn't.

Claire opened her mouth a few times to say something, but each time managed to think better of it and shut herself up again. She was irritated by this back and forth Steve and Leon seemed to have while barely having anything to do with one-another, but she realized there was absolutely nothing she could do about it. She knew it was likely mostly her fault, since Steve happened to be harboring a huge crush on her, and Leon was... well.

She mentally sighed, before physically shrugging her shoulders, trying not to roll her eyes.

"Mmhm."

Her lack of a response made him nervous. Really nervous. Steve could feel a knot tying up in his chest that felt like he'd swallowed a package of lead weights and they'd gotten stuck there. He was starting to recognize the chest pains that were a symptom of the virus, so he was sure these were just plain old regular nerves.

But why? You know why. God, you're an idiot. Just change the subject. Don't say anything else! "Hey, Claire," he said quietly, for the sake of breaking the awkward silence. "You guys have a kid together, but are you two-" No! Not that! Anything but that!

"I'm just..." he said almost mechanically. "I'm just wondering."

She was leaning back in her chair a little further when he started down that path of conversation, and it was lucky she wasn't pushing the legs up because she probably would've fallen over backwards. As it was, she frowned a little, looking vaguely uncomfortable.

The last time they'd had this conversation, she'd given him a very (according to Leon) overzealous "no." Now, of course... She could lie about it, of course, but sooner or later she was going to have to make Steve realize she was never going to feel the way he did for her.

"That's... really complicated, Steve." She finally replied. It felt cheap, but it was true.

"Oh." Smooth answer. Steve was watching her out of the corner of his unbandaged eye, carefully tracking every expression she made. What in the hell was he doing? He was going to regret asking that. Claire would wonder why he cared so much. And well... she might not wonder, because if the blurry memories Steve had of the moment he died told him anything, Claire already knew he--

Time to change the subject.

He actually did a fairly admirable job of trying to recover from that, trying to veer conversation away towards something else. It wasn't a big deal. "Sorry," he said softly, forcing an awkward, sheepish smile (it was the smile that was forced... definitely not the awkward.) "I guess it's none of my business."

"I can understand your curiosity," she answered automatically, before mentally hitting herself. She cleared her throat, looking off to the side. "It's just kind of something even I'm not really clear on, right now." It was on her list of things to do, of course, but she was kind of waiting out all the aftermath stuff, before she went confronting Leon. Part of her would just rather avoid the whole thing as long as possible, too.

It was almost a smooth recovery. The only thing that might have given him away was the brief and unmistakable expression of abject shock and borderline horror that crossed Steve's face when Claire said she "understood his curiosity."

It was stuck there for a few telltale seconds before Steve turned away himself, pretending there was something interesting off to his left and away from her. "I hate it when things get complicated," he said. And that was true. This right here was complicated as hell.

Claire was mentally slapping herself so hard right now. She managed to keep it all internal, however, and sat up a little, clearing her throat.

"Um yeah," she agreed, trying not to look uneasy. She pushed herself to the edge of her chair, exhaling almost silently.

"I should probably get going and give you a chance to rest. You're still looking a little pale."

Steve was still refusing to look at her, scanning the same old walls and instruments and machines off to the left that he'd been looking at for two straight days now. God, this was so awkward. He wanted to say something to fix it, but there was no way he'd let himself dig the hole even deeper. What could he say to fix it, anyway? "Well, if he's so much trouble, you could always give me another shot?" "Good luck with Leon, Claire, you know I'm always here if you need to talk about it?" "I'm glad I met you, I love you, Claire?" What kind of an idiot says shit like that?

And then she gave him a line to use. Thank god. "Heh... Claire, I'm a redhead. I'm always pale," Steve said, smiling. The smile gave him the courage to look back at her.

She looked a little surprised at the crack, but smiled, before chuckling a little and standing, reaching out to ruffle his hair up.

"Point taken. You still need your rest, though."

He flinched a bit when she ruffled his hair, though not out of any nerves regarding her touching him. He was worried she was going to loosen up the bandage that was covering up his eye.

The bandage stayed on and Steve relaxed a little more, looking up at her with that awkward smile again. "I think I'm just about rested out. But I guess you're right," he admitted.

There was a brief pause. "Will you come back again later? It's lonely in here."

Claire looked at Steve curiously for a moment before nodding her head.

"Yeah, 'course I will." There wasn't any doubt in her mind that she'd visit again, so she was kind of surprised he thought she might not. "I've got some stuff I've gotta take care of, but I'll be back when I can, all right?"

Steve felt dumb for even asking but hey, then again, he always felt dumb when he was talking to Claire. She had a way of making his brain shut off and his mouth move in overdrive. He sighed a little bit (in relief?) when she answered, then nodded his head in response. "Good," he said simply. "Thanks."

That seemed like he was finished, but he looked like he had more to say, or like he was trying to decide something. "... I'm sorry, Claire," he added a moment later. "For all this."

She looked at him for a moment with a soft look on her face, before smiling and reaching to gently squeeze one of his hands in hers, again.

"It's okay."

He shook his head that no, it wasn't, but didn't say anything, just squeezing her hand back and refusing to look her in the eye.

Claire stared at him for a moment before leaning forward and carefully wrapping an arm around him, trying to avoid his injuries. She didn't really know what else to do for him.

"I'll be back later, okay?" She said quietly, before pulling away.

Steve wished his hands were free, but there was nothing to be done about that. Looking over Claire's shoulder, he took a deep breath and closed his eyes, trying to steel himself up.

"Okay," he said evenly. "And I'm gonna look better by then too. Just watch." His voice took on a teasing tone and he smiled. "I'll probably be out of here and jogging around the obs deck by tomorrow morning."

She smiled again at that, stroking her hand back over his hair gently the way she often did for Sherry. It's a very maternal gesture.

"Just don't push yourself, okay? I want you better, but you've got to give your body time to catch up."

He didn't quite know what to feel about that gesture. It was... nice, though it did make him feel like there was a vise clenching around his stomach.

"I won't," he promised. "Dr. Sera said they're not taking the restraints off until everything looks norm..." Whoops. Cut himself off. "Er. But you know, he also said that they're giving me Sherry's antibodies. And they look like they're making it go dormant, really slowly."

"That's good. I'm glad it's working." She was truthfully very relieved. She didn't know what exactly they'd do if Sherry's antibodies weren't doing the trick. She sighed, patting his arm again.

"Okay, I'm gonna get going." She'd really been lingering long enough.

"Okay. See you later, Claire," he said, nodding his head in lieu of being able to wave or something.

"Hey... and bring me a magazine or something when you come back?" he added jokingly.

Claire smirked at him, turning to leave.

"I'll see what I can do," she replied, before heading towards the exit with a little departing wave.

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I've got a disease, deep inside me [totally open]

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