trans_9 | Recovery

Jamie sighs internally. Here we go. Still, he obligingly goes over to let Katara take a look at the wounds. Except for the one finger, everything seems to be healing up nicely on its own. Even that finger's doing well - it'll just take a wee bit longer than the others.

"Aye, I know ye don't like seeing me like this, Katara. But...ye saw how I was when I was in Contagion. If I'd not hurt myself, I would have not gone to Medbay to start with, and I would have hurt other people in the crew. I wanted to hurt other people, verra badly. I would have hurt ye if I could have gotten out."

Well, tried to. He doubts he would have gotten very far before he was tackled, tentacled and tranquilized. His point still stands, however.

Katara saw Jamie's reaction to her mothering, and part of her really couldn't blame him. The other part remembered Cassie, Alex's attack and Luna getting repodded. She always considered Jamie one of her closer male friends, and something happening to him was not a thought she wanted in her head.

"I know," she said. "I could see it in your eyes, actually: there was none of your warmth there. I don't mean to go overboard, but I'm still getting used to the whole 'crazy stuff happens and you can't do a thing about it' situations. If I can at least attempt to do something that'll make a difference, at least I won't feel so helpless."

She brought some water to the finger, and it healed up rather quickly: the wound was relatively minor, after all. "What have you been up to, Jamie? I haven't see you in awhile."

"Now, look, Katara," Jamie starts as he notices her start to bring the water out to heal him. But by then, it's too late, and he looks...well, less than grateful for a moment. It's his fault, though, for not saying anything to her. And what she just said about not wanting to feel so helpless made sense, so he can't be too upset with her.

He rubs the place where the nick used to be a little regretfully. "I should have warned ye, Katara. I'd not wanted that healed." He glances up at her with a rueful expression. "Thank ye, though."

He is grateful for one part of it - he can tuck his thumbs behind the belt that holds up his sporran without it hurting now. He promptly goes and does that. There's something new on his wrists - some sort of devices that weren't there before.

"Aye, well...I'm not sure where to start, really."

"You didn't want it healed?" Katara said, and now she looked a little confused. "But why? I figured you wouldn't want to have that wound. I'm sorry if I did something wrong."

She suddenly noticed the devices, and more specifically, the hesitation in Jamie's voice.

"Start where you want. I'm all ears."

Catching the glance at his wrists, Jamie decides to start...in a completely different place. "No, ye don't have to be sorry," he says in an attempt to reassure her. "It's...och, how to explain it?"

He purses his lips for a moment, thinking, then ahs softly. "I gave myself that wound when I was ill, as ye might have figured out. It was when I first started getting sick. I knew something was wrong, but I don't get sick very often, so I wasn't sure what it was. I felt angry, though, and I wanted to fight even then. I stopped myself, but..."

It was at the cost of the skin on his hand. He shrugs. "I thought, maybe, if it turned into a scar, I could look at it and remind myself I don't want to be like that ever again."

Katara had about a million retorts for this, as she was mostly against self mutilation even if it had a good reason, but the fighter in her understood what he meant. Actually, when you got right down to it, it was less of a macho thing and more of a reminder to keep a moral compass in this place. She didn't think it was likely someone like Jamie could ever go off the deep end, but who knew, really? She could see his point.

"I didn't know. Then again Jamie, I never thought of you as somebody who was quick to anger. Think about it: even if you did that, with what passed to those people in the city, would it have really stopped you? There are things we can control, and some we can't. If you could stop yourself from succumbing to a virus like that with the scar, you're a pretty strong person, but I think you need most of you uninjured. You never know when a REAL injury is going to come at you, one that can't be healed."

Which made her quietly think of Hiccup and Stoick from before. She hoped they were both ok.

He studies his now-healed hand while he thinks about her words. Katara's got a good point. Jamie's silent for a moment, then admits quietly, "It didn't stop it forever."

It stopped him from hurting Kaylee, though - and he feels justified for doing what he did. He'd never forgive himself if he had lost control with her right there.

He can also see her point about being whole when you never know what the ship is going to throw at you next. Still, he knows Katara's been hurt, and that protectiveness he feels towards his friends extends to making sure they don't over-strain themselves when it's not strictly necessary.

"Aye, maybe so. But, Katara, I don't like the idea of you fixing something small like that when ye clearly are in no shape to be fixing anything. Ye should be resting, aye?"

"It's hard to know what would stop something like that for good. I can admire what you're doing, but I'm sure you know by now that I like to make sure that the people I care about don't have any lasting scars if I can help it. I already know someone who's like that."

If only Zuko remembered the things they shared: one of the worst things about what Stacy had done.

Katara laughed and shook her head. "Jamie, if this was a really bad injury, I wouldn't have done it. I already yelled at my friend Matt for getting injured unnecessarily. I'd be a bit of a hypocrite overtaxing myself. Trust me, I'm fine."

Just ignore the blush coming to her face.

Sorry, Katara, but he's not quite buying that. "Oh, aye? Then why are ye turning beet red, Katara?"

He unhooks his thumbs and reaches over to rest his hand on top of Katara's and says earnestly, "Look, I may not be able to tell completely if someone's not being completely truthful. I've not got that type of power."

Interesting phrasing, that. "I do know something's up, though. Ye don't have to tell me what's wrong if ye don't want to, but you're my friend. Ye have to know I'm going to worry about ye."

"No, I'm being serious about that!" Katara said, trying to look determined: she actually was. "I mean yes, Alex punched me a bit, but I've been training and his limbs aren't exactly super strong, you know. If anything, I got really hurt when I was training with overlord Zetta...and I got healed pretty quickly afterward."

But she did owe him a reason for the blush. "Sorry, I was just thinking about Matt a moment we had a pretty awkward moment that lead to an even worse one, and I still don't really know what to think about it."

Jamie had been about to say something completely different, but that name causes him to do a double-take. He winds up asking, "Alex was the one who attacked ye?"

Not knowing about Alex's shadow powers, he has a hard time believing that Alex could attack anyone...just as he has a hard time believing that Zetta actually could train people. "Zetta? Och, what are ye going and training with him for?" Jamie asks, a note of disbelief in his voice. "Wouldn't he spend the entire time going on about how great he is and nyah-hah-haing a lot?"

Apparently he's met the Overlord in question. As for Matt... "Well, have ye talked to him about it?"

Edited 2010-10-25 05:35 (UTC)

"It was his powers," Katara said, taking a moment to see how her black eye was healing: so far, pretty well. "Normally Alex wouldn't hurt anyone, but we both lost someone pretty amazing, and it wound up making him a little unstable for a bit. Alex is a friend of mine, so of course I tried to help him. It turned out not to work out so well for me."

Katara snickered. "He does do that a lot, right? I'm glad I'm not the only one who noticed! He agreed to give the Outsiders a more advanced simulation in the Sensorium, to help us maintain vigilance the next time we fight an Ohm. It was pretty intense actually: the safety's were off, and it was taking down a dragon. There was another girl there fighting too, looked about ten, but she was...well, vicious with a capital V. She'd been there longer, and even though we both got hurt, she refused a healer. You'll know her when you meet her: purple hair, strange suit, kind of vulgar."

Here, she shook her head, looking noticeably deflated. "Well, I think we both felt something, and then GLADOS decides to bring back his girlfriend, someone who's a friend of mine. Neither of us really know what to say to each other now. We never did anything, its just I never felt anything like that for anyone but Aang. Having this happen was just..."

There weren't words for how awkward this was for her, actually. She felt like she was betraying her friend even thinking about it, not to mention Aang's memory.

"His...what?" Jamie gapes at Katara for a moment before recovering his wits. "I've talked to Alex, but I had no idea." Of course, why would Alex mention it to Jamie? He barely knows the lad, after all. And given what he's seen of Alex's general personality, it would likely take him time to trust someone enough to let them know about it...so Jamie nods understandingly. "Aye, well. At least ye were there to help him. He's alright, though?"

He listens to the description of the fight with interest, although his brows arch a bit as she mentions the young girl. "She sounds...interesting." It's said in that way that one might have when you aren't sure how you feel about it, but are trying to at least be tactful. Jamie will simply reserve his real judgment until he actually meets her.

When Katara deflates like that, however, he squeezes her hand comfortingly. His voice softens a little as he says, "If you've not done anything, there's nothing to be ashamed of. Ye can like more than one person, aye? It's when ye let it get in the way of your friendship that it becomes a problem."

She sighed. "I knew vaguely about it, but I never saw it in action until then, at least in that way. Alex just let himself go: Luna had been so kind to him, and she had started to loosen the chains around him, so to speak. Alex is a very shaky person, and it was like Luna stabilized him somehow. When she was repodded, it hurt him so much: it was like Stacy had taken all of that away from him."

She shook her head. "I've seen some strong little girls, even some magical ones on this ship, but never ones that jumped in and caused bloodshed like that. The way she was dressed, you'd have thought she was some kind of superhero, but I've never known them to act like that."

Well, that horrible Big Zero woman might, but she was SO far from being a superhero it wasn't funny.

She sighed. "I keep telling myself that, but its hard Jamie. It's taken me a long time to really think of anyone like that, let alone actually want to follow through. He's, like, everything I like in a guy and more, and at first I just thought it was just a little minor crush. Girls can get that with older guys, it happens all the time. Then when he got injured because he was protecting someone, I realized I wasn't just looking at him casually like some friend. It was...I don't know. In some way, it was really nice."

"Aye, I know what ye mean." It's a simple statement, but it covers everything they were talking about. From Alex - who Jamie would agree is a shaky person, to never seeing little girls acting like superheroes, and finally to Katara's feelings about Will being nice.

He's quiet for a moment, then says softly, "Ye think you'll never move on, and then one day, there's someone else there. Someone ye could love, maybe. But they're with someone else, and even though ye care for them, ye know they won't be yours. It hurts a little, but...keep the friendship if ye can, Katara. At least that way ye won't lose them forever."

Katara sighed. "We haven't even talked about it yet. I'm trying to get over the whole thing, but it feels so awkward, and he' so..." She shook her head. "Never mind. I'm sorry to bother you with this. I know its just a girl problem, and you probably have girl issues of your own."

She's thinking of Kaylee, of course.

Jamie had been thinking of Kaylee as well - surprise, surprise - but when Katara mentions girl issues, he snorts rather inelegantly.

"Girl issues? What are ye on about, Katara? I've not got any girl issues. There'd have to be a girl for that to happen." No matter his feelings about Kaylee, he knows she's with Dean - and therefore off limits as anything other than a friend.

"And don't ye go getting any ideas about fixing me up with anyone," he adds, before Katara can interject. "I'm just fine on my own, thank ye."

"Oh please," Katara said dismissively. "You have girl issues no matter what you say. I'm your friend but I'm still a girl and not blind. I know issues when I see them. I also know guys aren't going to talk about it as freely either. Sometimes they're lucky that way."

She laughed. "I don't have the energy for that even if I wanted to. Besides, I'd be a hypocrite to try it. It would be like saying you can't do it on your own. I know you could: there's a lot of great in you, Jamie McCrimmon."

He was a good guy, honestly, as long as girls weren't stupid enough to overlook it. She could see that much.

"I do not," Jamie insists, although the slightly annoyed face he's making to accompany it is a rather closer indicator of the truth there.

"I've not got time to worry much about it, at any rate. I may be a wee bit busier than I was before, aye?" There's a glance given to the morphers on his wrists again. He should probably explain those, he thinks. It's also a good excuse to not talk about his girl issues. Katara's right - he's not willing to talk about that freely. So, morphers it is.

"Did Billy tell ye about what he found in the Command Center recently?"

Oh, she knew better, but she also knew that I'm really not going to tell you look on Jamie's face, and he was fairly stubborn when it came to things like that: best not to press it.

She did see something on his wrist, but now that she got better look, she knew what it was all right: hadn't she seen Billy wear it so many times, and hadn't she seen what it could do?

"Wait a minute...yes, I remember him mentioning that," she said, and she put two and two together. "He's forming the rangers, isn't he?! He found more morphers!"

Billy's is different stylistically, but it's no real surprise that Katara's still able to figure it out, especially since it does seem that it was mentioned.

If Katara hadn't known, Jamie might have changed his mind and decided it was best to not say anything more about the subject right then - and gone on to other things. Since Katara's guessed, however, it doesn't seem that it would do any harm for him to admit it, and he nods.

"Aye, I think so." He glances over to make sure there's no-one else nearby. "It's not completely set yet, though."

Oh, there was a lot that she and Billy talked about now, and even without the talk, she'd still seen Billy as Blue Ranger before (she didn't care what anyone said, she thought he looked cool).

"Not set yet?' Now she was curious. If it was a project for Billy, a way for him to bring back his rangers, she would try to help in anyway that she could. "What's the problem? Are you guys lacking something?"

It's hard, apparently, to keep up a secret identity on Stacy. It seems like half the ship's seen Billy as the Blue Ranger at this point. But Jamie's not worried about that part. His concern has to do more with what he says next.

"Well, not everyone's accepted yet, aye? From what I gather, there was a wee fight in the city and he had to give them out to the others so they could help." He shrugs briefly. "For all I know, they may not really want to be Rangers."

"Who wouldn't want to be a ranger though?" Katara asked. That just seemed silly. With all the perks of being a ranger, not to mention what you'd be able to do! Some of us don't have powers to do things like that. Besides, I think you'd look good in tights."

She was only half joking, of course. Besides, there was no such thing as a plaid ranger, right?"

Jamie shrugs a little. "I suppose there's plenty of people who wouldn't. Personally I'd say you'd be daft to turn it down, but they've got to make their own choices."

However, he does makes a small face when Katara says he'd look good in tights. Much like when someone calls his kilt a skirt, Jamie feels the need to make the outfit sound more...well, manly, for lack of a better word. "It's armor, aye? Not tights."

Just armor that happens to look like spandex. And no, there is no such thing as a plaid ranger, but...

"It's very red, though."

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject