trans_9 | left me a beautiful disaster; [opeeeeeeen]

Entry tags:

left me a beautiful disaster; [opeeeeeeen]

After everything had been sorted out with Steve, there had been a small matter of Claire's injuries. Which turned out to not be so small, when the possibility that she could be infected since she'd been burned by Steve's blood cropped up. So she'd been cleaned up, patched up, poked, and then stuck in a bubble in Contagion for observation.

She hated being down here, but it was an entirely different experience when you were stuck on the other side of the bubble. At least it gave her a lot of time to think about what had happened, and quietly guilt herself about all the people injured and the few that had been potentially infected, like her.

Not to say that she wouldn't talk to anyone else, were they to show up and talk to her.

[ooc: obvs open to anyone who got locked up in contagion too, or visitors, or if people want to visit other ~~lab rats~~ detainees and ignore claire, that's cool too, just leave a note so i know what's up :Db]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Claire smiled a little at that, standing and walking over towards the barrier separating her from her brother.

"What would you have done if you'd gone with me? Gotten bled on instead?"

"Well, then at least you'd have some company in there with you," he teased her. Though they'd likely be locked up next door to each other if that was the case.

"I'm glad you're not any worse for wear. When I heard you were hurt I... might have gone a bit nuts."

She grimaced, tilting her head to the side and crossing her arms.

"You didn't break anything, did you? Or anyone?" Really as far as she was concerned her injuries were severely minor. She had enough bumps and bruises that she was nothing short of colorful, but the worst of her injuries had really been the whack on the head she'd taken, and accompanying gash. Oh and the burn on her arm but she was pretty sure she'd had worse. Just those hadn't been potentially laced with T-Veronica.

"No, I didn't. I was good," he assured her with a crooked little smile. "But I did make them call me the second I was clear to come see you." There was a small chair nearby the outside of the bubble. Chris pulled it up to the bubble's surface and had a seat. On it was set a small bag.

"Oh yeah, and I brought you some of your things." He picked up the bag and looked around for the door he could slip it through to be sterilized before Claire could reach it. "I've been quarantined a time or two in my life and I seem to remember it was pretty boring."

Claire actually grinned at that, gesturing at the door where he'd need to stick things, before moving over.

"Thank God. I was contemplating chewing my own arm off just to have something to do."

He shoved the bag in through the little door and there was a vacuuming noise as the items were all sterilized, then accessible on her side. "Reminds me of the time you were sick over winter break, back in middle school," he said.

"Though we weren't worried about tentacles with the stomach flu," he added, in a tone of voice that suggested Chris was very worried about tentacles at the moment.

"Chris, I'm fine," Claire sighed, pulling the bag out and then heading back over to her cot and sitting down. She shook her head, pulling her legs up underneath her.

"I got a shot of the suppressant just on the off chance that I did get infected. I'm not going to sprout tentacles, or turn green, or go crazy and start singing about kings and their bitchy queens."

"You can't be too careful," Chris replied. "And if you'd been infected you would have shown symptoms by now anyway."

He had a seat on the chair and leaned back, letting out a sigh of his own. It wasn't just something to reassure himself-- it was the truth. So it was probably safe to start gearing himself down from "wound-up big brother" mode.

"So... How are you otherwise? Aside from the bumps and bruises, I mean."

She frowned a little, looking down at her lap and shrugging a shoulder. She reached up to rub the back of her neck, before speaking.

"I'm better than I would've been if I'd had to put Steve down, but I'm not great."

Chris frowned as well, scooting his chair a little closer to the bubble.

"Do you wanna talk about it?" he asked. "I know how hard it was for you last time." Just the fact they could talk about this in terms of "last time" was too screwed up for words.

Claire sighed, tilting her head and not really saying anything for a moment, picking at the leg of her pants.

"I feel like I messed up, here. If I'd been ready to shoot him the second something went wrong, instead of worrying about stressing him out, all the people who got hurt... Wouldn't have been." She sighed again, still not looking up. "But on the other hand, I would've failed Steve if I'd given up on him."

Chris was quiet for a moment, mulling over what she said. "Sometimes there's no right decision," he said. "Even if things work out, you keep on wondering if you could have done better if only you did something different."

"But you were in a tough spot. It's impossible for anybody else to judge you on that one."

Claire wasn't really concerned with what other people were thinking of her. She was truly only concerned with how she felt on the matter. And while she was extremely happy that she had saved Steve for good, she also felt guilty that people were hurt. That Leon was hurt.

She didn't say that, though, and sighed after a long stretch of silence nodding her head.

"Yeah, you're probably right."

"Try not to blame yourself, okay?" he offered. He'd been there many times before, and he was terrible at taking his own advice, but Jill and even Sheva had repeated it to him so often he knew it had to be right.

"People got hurt, but... nobody got killed. If you hadn't stepped in, there might have been a full-scale outbreak. And if you hadn't stepped in at all, I know at least one person who'd be dead now."

She was absolutely going to blame herself and no one could convince her to stop. However, she just nodded again at Chris's words, even smiling a little as she finally looked up at him.

"Yeah, I know. And I'm making it out worse than it is, I'm sure. I didn't really get a good headcount on everyone who got hurt, I got dragged in here pretty quickly." She sighed, shaking her head and absently running her fingers through her bangs. "I should just be happy that things turned out relatively well, considering the circumstances."

"I can think of a lot of ways things could have gone worse." They had once, after all. It still tore Chris up to remember how haunted Claire had been in the months after Antarctica.

"Anyway," he said, "You saved a lot of lives, and I think you did the right thing. I'm proud of you."

Claire had a feeling that no matter what she did, Chris would always be proud of her. Still, it was kind of nice to hear.

"Thank you, Chris. I really appreciate that." It made whatever consequences her actions had a little bit easier to consider, knowing her brother, at least, was on her side.

"Of course," he said. "I'm here for you no matter what you need. Even if it's just bringing you things to keep you from dying of boredom."

She smiled, finally reaching to open the bag and see what Chris had brought down for her. She looked relieved to see the book she'd been picking through during her bouts of insomnia, as well as her video player.

"Well, definitely appreciated. Being forced to sit still for two days is going to kill me as it is."

"Don't worry, I know exactly how it is," he laughed, leaning forward on his knees to watch her dig through the bag. "Just give me a call if you think of anything else you want. And I'll come down and visit whenever I have a chance to."

"Just think about what a waste it'd be if you let a little boredom take you out after all you've been through."

She chuckled, fishing out a bouncy ball from the bottom of the bag and nodded.

"It'd be pretty lame. But probably exactly what's needed to take anyone who leads an exciting life out." Which was at least half the reason why she always harassed Chris about his smoking.

Chris had faced down mutated horrors several times the size of semi trucks and won. The prospect of lung cancer was not nearly as scary.

"I don't know about you, but I could go for a little less excitement for a while. Doesn't seem to be in the cards, though."

He paused.

"You think we could manage to play cards with you in there?"

She furrowed her brow briefly before smirking and tilting her head to the side.

"Probably not without one of us cheating."

"How's that any different than normal?" he teased, raising an eyebrow.

His smile faded a little bit a moment later, and he seemed hesitant to ask the next question. "How's Leon? I heard he got thrown around a bit too."

Claire's smile faded at that too and she shook her head a little, looking down again.

"He's tough. He'll be fine."

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