Home Again [Open to visitors but try not to all flood in]

[staturity]

It had been so long since Cassie had so much as seen an actual bed that it was hard not to close her eyes and fall asleep the moment she lay down in the Medbay. But there was still a lot to do first. For the long-term she was going to need several surgeries to fix the scars down her left side but for now the priority was to get her stabilized. So she was hooked up to an IV drip- oh, she remembered how those felt. And poked and prodded a little bit more before being left on her own.

She could rest now, but there was a lot to catch up on.

And probably a lot to explain.

Comments

The Explanation

[staturity]

"So," Cassie started. "You're all probably wondering just what the hell happened?"

[nothawkingbird.livejournal.com]

Kate was standing nearby, and nodded, "Well, for one thing, how did you survive? I thought there wasn't enough time to get away from the explosion?"

[staturity]

"There wasn't." Cassie made as if to nod but that was easier said than done when the your head and neck weren't fused together on one side. "At least, not the way you're thinking. I couldn't run or grow in time to escape it but there was one way out." Cassie took a deep breath, remembering what those last few moments before the explosion were like. "If I could go to smaller than microscopic, to subatomic or beyond... I thought getting to that size in time would be the biggest problem." She paused to grin at the unintended pun. "But that was just the beginning..."

Now that she had started talking she couldn't stop.

[staturity]

There was only one way out of this. She just never expected it to work. And when she woke, she wished it hadn't.

Before Cassie became aware of anything, even the fact that she was still alive, there was the pain. There were no words to describe the agony. For a moment she thought she was on fire until she opened her eyes. There were burns all down her left side, she could even see edges of peeled skin sticking up on her left cheek. Every time her heart beat she could feel the blood pulsing through her veins, pressing up against the tissue in her burnt flesh. And through it all there was the constant, sharp, burning pain.

HELP ME! PLEASE GOD, HELP ME! While she yelled mentally she couldn't help but cry out loud as well, only able to give a guttural scream. HELP ME!

She didn't know how long it was before she realized her comm ring was gone, it had fallen off during the rapid shrinking process. Even the plantsuit hadn't shrunk all the way with her and what hadn't been burnt off hung loosely off her body. She grabbed at it and pulled it over her side, shrieking at the contact but it had to be done. The plantsuit would speed up healing and prevent bacteria from getting in. Logically, she knew it couldn't possibly stop the pain any time soon but the thought that it might was the only thing keeping her sane.

They're looking for you. They're looking for you. They have to be looking for you. They'll find you. They'll find you. It'll be over soon. It'll stop soon. It'll stop soon. You just have to wait.

She kept fighting to stay awake. She needed to focus. She needed to grow again but she couldn't. She was too weak. The pain was too much... the pain...

She lost her senses and passed out again.

Cassie kept drifting into and out of what could not be called consciousness so much as a vague awareness of her own continued existence. When she heard someone- no, it was more than one person- approach. She thought she was saved. She thought that even when they grabbed her roughly be both arms- included the burned one- and pulled her onto her feet. They dragged her along with them. She kept stumbling. The pain was unbearable. She tried to ask them to stop or slow down but when she opened her mouth all she could do was scream. They hit her on the right side of her head for that. That was when she realized something was seriously wrong.

By the time she opened her eyes she didn't find herself on Stacy but on an entirely different ship altogether. What was this? Had she shrunk so fast she actually traveled to the microverse? Was that even possible on Stacy?

She couldn't remember what happened in the hours and even days after that but she had a vague impression of what had happened. Somehow, despite her wounds, she had managed to keep her head together. She learned about the Helmacrons, of their dimunitive stature, and their raging Napoleon Complex. So she decided to show them just why she was called Stature. They were terrified right until the moment they discovered she couldn't break through the ship walls. That was when they got pissed. Somehow Cassie managed to convince them that she was a scientist and could give them the ability to grow, not only themselves but their ship, so they could conquer this strange being called Stacy and the other creatures. She could help them but only if they helped her.

Visitors

[staturity]

The first thing anyone would notice was that Cassie was not the same. There were scars on her left side extending down from her head. Some of her hair was gone- as was her ear- replaced by scar tissue. Her arm was still covered so they couldn't see the damage there. It was tucked close against her chest- trapped in that position by the contracture scars. At least the open wounds on her face had been bandaged.

Cassie herself didn't seem to mind too much. She was just happy to be back.

But between her protective father and (ex?) boyfriend, good luck catching her alone.

Re: Visitors

[iselldrugstothecommunity]

"Holy cow, they really did a number on you. You're halfway to Freddy Krueger." Howard hasn't had to see an actual patient yet - the Med Bay's been quiet, so almost all of his training has been in the Sensoriums. He stayed out of the way for all the actual mending, but now he figures it's as good a time as any to keep an eye on things and see the Med Bay in an actual working setting. "You need me to get you anything? Painkillers?"

Re: Visitors

[staturity]

"Gee, thanks." Cassie replied dryly. "No, I think I'm good. They gave me something for the pain." She paused. "Actually there is something... Do you have a mirror?"

Re: Visitors

[iselldrugstothecommunity]

Bedside manner isn't his strong suit. "I can get you one. You sure you want it, though? I mean, you're still healing, you look worse now than you'll look in a few weeks." And she looks pretty bad now. Not like Howard hasn't seen worse, but Cassie's actually alive and not reanimated.

[sum1yourownsize.livejournal.com]

Darn right Scott is protective. He just got his baby girl back. He's not really planning on letting her out of his sight for a while.

He's seated in a chair at her bedside, flipping through a book he found recently.

[staturity]

"We've got a lot to catch up on." Cassie started. "How long has it been since you woke up here?"

[sum1yourownsize.livejournal.com]

"A month." Scott shut his book and dropped it to the floor. "Lay back against the pillows, honey. You need to conserve your strength." He would never stop being parental with her.

Re: Visitors

[livestoannoy]

Marco hadn't stuck around to wait for the explanations. He might have gone on the mission, but he was under no illusions - he wasn't at all close to Cassie. In fact, before her death they hadn't exactly been getting along. He figured that she'd much rather hang with just her family and friends rather than That Guy She Argued With Over The Comms, so he'd quietly slipped out.

A few days later though, after the initial rush of visitors had calmed down, Marco returned to the med bay. "So, how's being back in the land of the living again?" he remarked as he sidled in. "And man, I hope you're gonna get cable in here, or you're gonna be bored as hell."

Re: Visitors

[staturity]

"I've always been in the land of the living." Though there were times she wondered. "And I don't plan on staying here 24/7. First chance I get I'm stretching her legs. Even if I have to make that chance." Which considering she was being watched like a hawk by not just one but two people- that would take some skill.

Re: Visitors

[livestoannoy]

"Could've fooled us," Marco sank into one of the nearby chairs. "And if you want, I could try telling them that there's a three headed monkey down the hallway," he said 'helpfully'. "That'll be sure to distract them."

Re: Visitors

[metalwebhead.livejournal.com]

Peter could really sympathize with Cassie. It had caught him off-guard that she had been missing, more or less thought to have died. It was a little more surprising to see her in the condition she was in. Then again, he had been there and done that... except it was with Morlun, not bombs.

"Man, the stories we could trade." Peter uttered.

Re: Visitors

[staturity]

And Spider-Man was visiting her.

Sweeeeeet.

"I bet you've got some good ones."

Re: Visitors

[metalwebhead.livejournal.com]

He couldn't help but chuckle. He probably did.

"Yeah, the stories I could tell..." he said, smirking a bit. "You doing alright, though?"

[chosenfamily]

With any luck, Sam had managed to stop in with only one of the protective guys around. Most of the crew knew about Schmuz's part in everything and that would hardly make this any easier.

On the other hand, Schmuz had made no bones about the fact that he needed to see the girl and know that she was alive and the extent of the injures. Even when Sam told him that it would end up looking creepy because Sam didn't actually know her.

They argued all the way to the med bay, Sam stopping at the doorway and looking pretty torn before clearing his throat. "Uh...hi."

< Sam, even I know that's lame. >

< Stop picking up Dean's slang. >

[staturity]

Sam Winchester? O.K., she hadn't expected he would drop by.

"Hey."

Easy Cass, this wasn't the Sam who accidentally got you shot... right?

"Uh, you're not the Sam Winchester who tried to kill that yeerk, are you?"

[chosenfamily]

Sam snorted, shaking his head. "No. No, I'm not. But whatever he did to you, I'm sorry. I don't know a lot about the guy, but...well, I'm not him."

He was still pretty convinced that the other version of him that had been on the ship had gone a bit crazy. But, brain damage could do that to a guy.

"Near as I can tell, that one went back into the pods around the zombie invasion." He shrugged.

Re: Visitors

[vision-ya.livejournal.com]

Jonas quietly (sneakily) supervised a few of Cassie's visitors as they spoke to her, on the off-chance one of them said anything in particularly poor taste. Or...or something.

All right, if he was being completely truthful, it was because he was still reveling in the fact that she was alive and too cowardly to tell her what he knew would cause her to send him away. He was trying to refresh his memories of the sound of her voice in happiness before he doomed himself to forever more only hearing it tinged with outrage and disgust.

Eventually, though, he knew he had to tell her. And while a prompt confession would not ameliorate her rage at all, a tardy revelation would only inflame it further. So at a break in her stream of visitors, Jonas took the seat next to her bed.

"[How are you feeling? Do you need anything?]"

Re: Visitors

[staturity]

"Yeah, actually." Cassie took a deep breath. She'd imagine how this conversation would go so many times- in so many different ways. She'd practiced everything she could possibly say in every possible tone and inflection. But it was hard to remember just what she wanted to say, not when she felt so nervous. "I know we weren't really on the best of terms when I uh- when everything happened."

[cow-abunga.livejournal.com]

"...You do not look good is definitely an understatement here." Cowabunga said, entering the room apprehensively.

[staturity]

"So I've noticed." The comments on her appearance were really starting to bug her. It hadn't mattered that much while she was a prisoner but now...

"But it's good to see you."

[cow-abunga.livejournal.com]

"If it makes you feel any better, I've seen worse?" He replied, before sighing.

"Look. This is my fault. I should've realized from the beginning we needed to remove the ignition sources at the start, and if I had, this wouldn'tve happened. I'm sorry. Beyond sorry, and if you need anything, anything at all, I'll help. I know it can't make up for my mistake, but I want to try anyways."