2019-08-05 - Sick DaysGone Sideways

When Iggy called in sick, Finch worried. With the way luck had been running, any mishap, illness, or accident was worrisome. But she got through her shift at Out on a Limb, only nearly getting killed by one tree falling in her direction. After, she went home, cleaned herself up, and found Gran had made a care package for Ignacio. And so she arrives at the door of Raf’s apartment, with a soft-sided insulated lunch bag over one shoulder.

She’s dressed for comfort, considering that he is likely laid up. She’s in yoga pants and a lime green tee that has a bird on it and the words, “If I was a bird, I know who I’d shit on.” She knocks and waits, shifting her weight from foot to foot nervously. She’s never been here before and she’s not sure what to expect if his brother answers. Does he even know about her?

Ignacio has been home since Raf picked him up at about 9:30 this morning when his co-worker called Raf to come get his sorry ass from being smoosh-face down on the floor after --ODing on painkillers-- mis-estimating his meds. There. That's the sstory he's sticking to.

Thankfully he has Raf to call in sick for his shift at noon that he swore he was going to make (which did not happen), and finally slept off being a mess until about 7pm. his phoen buzzed a while back to which he texted Finch back with: Naw, everything's fine. You worry too much 🙂

When the door has a knock on it Patient Zero in his Gryffendor pajama pants calls to Raf, tired he mumbles what can be translated into English as: "That... should be Finch. She said she was droppin by. If the rat's with her don't yell at Ms. Mags. She's sensitive." His hand rubs his face thankful for the shower earlier. Reluctant, but willing and body screaming at him, he sits up and reaches over for the nearest thing: his grey Mets t-shirt that is soft enough to at least be 14 years old and pull it on over himself.

Raf has spent the day looking after his brother, being short on students meaning he has the time at the moment. Though he's not thrilled about it. He's maintaining that teetering balance between compassionate care and mild disapproval that only someone who cares can really manage. He's at least been making sure his brother is eating and drinking. He himself has been up and about since he picked up Iggy, dressed in his usual jeans and a grey tee with some faded logo that might have been a college. His response to Iggy also comes out in Spanish. "Can't roll your ass off the couch yet?" Once again, that delicate balance between sympathetic and annoyed.

The elder deSantos brother opens the door, his eyes settling right on Finch before moving aside to motion her in. "I'm going to warn you. He looks like he got run over by a bull that crapped on him on on its way past." One corner of his mouth is quirked into a small smile at his own humor.

The green-haired girl gives Rafael a faint smile and nod. “You must be his brother, Raf, right?” Finch asks. She glances past him inside and murmurs, “How bad is he? I didn’t get any details from him, just the usual ‘I’m fine don’t worry about me’ crap he throws out to avoid a discussion.”

Ignacio bemoans, "El suelo sigue siendo lavaaaaaa." He pushes himself to a sit slowly as the world starts to spin off axis. Fuck. NOpe.

Nope nope nope....
one more try? And nope.

He got a shirt on and that was a mammoth effort. He at least propped himself up at an angle and his pupils no longer are constricted into being pinheads. The clamminess has mostly subsided and his hair has definiately seen better days. The faint smile pulls at the side of his face. "Gracias, hermano." He rubs his face looking to put on a more 'peopling' presentation and murmurs, "Not wrong about the damn bull though." The hand comes up like a naked Muppet over the couch vaguely pointing, "Finch, Raf. Raf, Finch."

"Polla." Come Raf's retort to Iggy as his nods confirms Finch's guess as to who he is. "Come on in. Coffee?" It must not be too bad, Raf doesn't seem overly worried and he knows exactly where Raf is in his recovery. "I'd keep your voice low, unless you want him to get a headache, then scream away." The smile creeps back onto his lips as he turns and heads towards the kitchen, flipping off Iggy as he walks by to get coffee for himself and Finch if she happens to take him up on his offer.

”Actually my Gran made him some chicken noodle soup and cookies,” Finch explains, raising the lunch bag in one hand. “So if you have a bowl and a spoon for him, that’d be great. I’ll take the coffee though, for sure.” She steps inside and glances around curiously, while making her way towards the couch. She leans on the back of it to look down at him with a smirk. “Hey,” she greets.

Ignacio is still squinting away daylight, consciousness, and the Kodo Drummers playing a tune in the back of his head. He's not so far gone he can't murmur, "Love you too, Lavawalker." Squinting up to Finch he offers a tired smile murmuring, "He said I'm his favourite brother." He has the decency to look a little guilty though it might be to earn the pity points enough to cash in for the prize of: please don't yell! "Missed you. Sorry bout work."

Raf is still close enough to hear before slipping into the kitchen. "You're my only brother." And then he vanishes past the opening into the galley kitchen where he can be heard fumbling around for a few moments. He comes out with a spoon and a bowl, setting it down in front of Iggy with an exaggerated flourish, before going back for the coffee. "Cream? Sugar? Jack Daniels?" HE squints. "I don't think we have the third one."

“I like my coffee how I like people’s misconceptons of me. Light and sweet,” Finch retorts back to Raf. She rounds the couch and sets the bag on the coffee table, thanking the other man for the bowl and spoon. She unzips the bag and out comes a thermos, which she opens to pour soup into the dish. It’s homemade and smells great, so clearly Dove made it and not Finch. She also sets out a container of tollhouse cookies. "So. what did you do to yourself, Ig? Are you gonna tell me or am I gonna have to figure it out myself?"

Ignacio murmurs, "Yeah, well I'm not too proud to win by default." At the Jack Daniels Iggy points blindly... nope. The finger moves to point 'there-ish' "Got Cap. Above the microwave." He watches Finch and shrugs, "Meds fucked with me. Lost balance and took a spill. I mean I'm fine. I'm not dying and have no love for Polka music. I'm fine, really." Hands find the edges of things and he shoves himself to a willful sit. "Some mornings are rougher than others. Trust me, was not on my morning agenda."

"None for you, not until those.. meds.. are out of your system." Raf pours two cups of coffee, adding milk to one and milk and sugar to the other. It's good he's mostly out of view, the way his lips press together at Iggy's explanation. He sighs and shakes his head, finally emerging with the two cups of caffeinated goodness one for him and the other being set in front of Finch. "You two want to be left alone?"

Finch picks up the bowl and spoon, scoops up some soup, blows on it, and offers it to Ignacio, like a mom with a sick little boy. One brow arches at his explanation. “What meds are those? You might need to get a different one that doesn’t have dizziness as a side effect.”

She smiles at Raf as he returns. “No need. Clearly we won’t be making out in his current condition. And he’s only told me a little about you. What brought you to Gray Harbor?” she asks.

Ignacio just eyes the soup. He looks around and asks, "Where'd MIss Mags go?" Okay he's not 4 on the floor yet. He make a face to Raf murmuring, "It was the fuckin Oxycodone. It usuelaly doesn't do this shit. Just too close together." He looks to his brother with the look of Are you at least going to tell her, because I wanna know. "Yeah why did you move to this crazy little haunted town?" Looking to Finch he adds, "No offense."

Raf looks at the pair over his coffee mug as he takes a seat and shrugs. "A need to start over and get away from my old demons." His gaze seems to settle a little bit on Iggy with that comment, though his expression is soft. "It's a good way to let old problems go, a way to start clean." He smirks. "I didn't know it was a crazy haunted little town when I picked it."

“None taken, being as I’m both haunted and likely to go crazy,” Finch murmurs with a slight shrug. “Eat your soup. Mags is home. Don’t want to risk her til I’m sure that weird run of bad luck is over.” The soup spoon is waved about in front of Ignacio as she makes airplane noises. “Open the hanger.....”

She looks over her shoulder at Raf. “Did that work? Or did you find a whole new slew of them here?” she asks with a faint grimace.

Ignacio warms that endearing, lopsided smile to both of them that makes him more difficult to actually slap and promises Finch, "Naaaah. You can haunt me. I don't mind good company." Then the airplane noises and the can't help but joke looking mock aghast, "Here? in front of my brother?" Yeah he's feeling better than this morning by far. Still he eats the damn soup looking to his brother with some honest apology. "Wasn't tryin to make it difficult. Just tryin to manage, man. Lo siento." Hey the apology is genuine until there's more woup. Then there's soup. He takes another bite. "You know, Raf, that weird shit... She sees it too."

"Hermano, I've seen you naked, it's not that impressive." Raf can't help but take a little wind out of his brother's sails. It's practically his filial duty. The cocky smirk probably doesn't help all that much, but he lightly shakes his head and waves off Iggy's apology. "Family."

He eyes Finch for a moment and shrugs again. "There are demons here, sure, but they're not my demons. So already I'm feeling better. Besides, I think I have a pretty good reason to stay, at least for now."

Finch frowns at Ignacio’s words. “You don’t need to overmedicate Ig. Just call me and I can do something to make it hurt less for a while at least. I’m your own personal prescription for nerve blocks.” She hands him the bowl and spoon to eat now, and picks up her coffee for a sip.

She almost chokes on it at the naked comment. She thumps herself in the chest with a fist as she coughs out. “Yeah well, the ones here can be particularly dangerous. So keep your wits about you.”

Ignacio winces but doesn't look too harmed, "Ooh ouch. Point to Raf." Yeah one doesn't take offense, just award points , and wait to return fire. She wasn't wrong and he adds, "It was 7:30. I'm not gonna... bug you and say hey come back in at 7:30. It was just an accident."
One that he totally failed to pay attention to out of fucking habit.

He looks to Finch and while he's tired and still making excuses to not put people out (Note how this plan epicly failed) he grins, "He found himself a Hottie McHotterson." He looks back to Raf curious, "You ever see any holes that go through to teh Other Side? Cause Itzhak fell through a hole onto a unicorn gal and ahd to fix her head before he came back." Yeah he's telling this story terribly.

"Yeah, well." Raf smiles a bit but also shrugs at the mention of said Hottie. "I like this one, so keeping my fingers crossed." His face goes a bit blank however at the mention of holes. "Yes, not that I've fallen through though." He shakes his head and takes a long slow sip of coffee.

After a moment he sighs and gets to his feet, "I need to go check on something, you two don't do anything I wouldn't." He takes his coffee with him further back into the apartment.

OOC: It's about crash time for me. Don't want to hold you up.

“Nice meeting you, Raf,” Finch calls after him. She sips her coffee and eyes Ignacio. “I don’t care how early it is. Just call me ok? It’s better than this,” she notes, gesturing at his current state. “Issues with pain killers is kind of a thing at the moment, you know? Like serious problem.”

Ignacio nods to his brother and looks to Finch . She's worried. It's exactly what he aimed to avoid. "I only look like a sorry sunnovabitch cuase I need a shower... again... Really I'm alright. Who's more resilient than me, hmm? I mean it. " His hand finds her knee to give it a squeeze and stay parked there. "I can't help the shit that keeps me together has side effects. I wrote teh company a strongly worded letter urgin em t'try harder."

“You’re so full of shit I’m surprised I couldn’t smell you from the hallway,” Finch quips at him. “Let me take a look. I can at least fix some of the symptoms.” She moves to settle herself facing him, in that manner he knows she does before she does her whole healing thing.

Ignacio eyes her, quinty vision and all. He pulls his hands up and away to his chest as if this magically defends his honor some how. "You treat me like it ain't my nae on the damn bottle." He actually looks a bit wounded by this. There's only so much of a shield he's got right now. He doesn't fight it so much as stay resigned looking at her with an earnest look, "You brought me soup. I'm not dying. Don't try to fix this and feel all out of sorts. That... will make me feel worse. You don't deserve that. I told you I'm a mess. Sometimes my life is messy."

“Don’t make me bring over the five billion news articles on the opiod prescription epidemic,” Finch threatens. “You build up a tolerance to your meds, Ig. Then you take more to get to the same level of relief, which eventually winds up in an overdose and you being dead. It’s not your fault AT ALL. It’s a real thing happening all over.”

When has she ever listened when told not to heal someone? Never. That’s right. The strands of silvery spirit seep from her fingertips into his skin, mapping the pathways of his body and finding the trouble spots. Respiratory issues, let’s relax the alveoli, then the bronchioles open more, as do the bronchus. Breathing becomes easier. Then the dizziness, resetting the endolymph levels in the semicircular canals of the vestibular apparatus in his ears. Then the part of the brain that controls all of that, which the opioids act on, is healed.

Ignacio winces as things get put back to the natural order. Eyelashes clump together; his hand grabbing her wrist. His neurons on fire abating like a hissing kettle calming down with an inrush of air into his lungs now that it doesn't feel like somehting crushing his chest and- AAAHHH hell!! He grabs the trashcan scrambling past her. This is not the most glorious moment in his life. He murmurs in Spanish something he'll pay dearly for later murmuring Fuck, it burns!

He winces and leaves his one hand on her wrist.

Finch winces as her wrist is grabbed. But she seems amused at the vomiting. Serves him right for being such a pigheaded jerk about taking care of himself properly. Her free hand rubs his back as he ralphs, gently. She starts singing. Hilariously, it’s “Soft Kitty” from The Big Bang Theory.

Ignacio just holds on until the ride comes to a complete stop. Life's mean. He really does deserve this; reality slapping him in the face a bit. When it's done he works to push himself to a stand; the first really in hours. He murmurs, "You really just Big Bang me?" His pop culture is on point, even with the post-healing disorientation. It's something absurd to focus on; that return to normal. He murmurs a 'scuse me, and heads to the bathroom.

It's minutes later after cleaning himself up that he wanders in, still with a bit of a limp as a result of limited function more than anything else right now.

“Hey, my mom never sang to me, it’s the only lullabye I know, suck it up,” Finch retorts with a gentle smile. She watches him go and only when his back is turned, does the real concern and worry cross her face.

When he comes back out, she’s curled in a corner of the couch sipping her coffee and dipping a cookie into it. “You look a like you’re feeling way better,” she notes.

Ignacio slouched against the hallway and watched Finch for the moment and offers, "Well who can feel bad with this view?" Yeah, it's cheesy, but cheesy with panache still counts. Even if he can get her to grin and roll her eyes he can consider it a win. He walks over to the corner of the couch and sprawls back on the couch dropping his head in her lap. "Shit, had I know that I'd a offered to do that. Besides, I think I owe ya... and I owe you a pretty big thanks for dealing with my broke ass." He sighs muttering, "November's gonna be fun, but November is not now."

Finch grins at him. “Yeah, you are a lucky bastard. I’m such a catch,” she murmurs. When his head drops into her lap she sets her coffee down to run her fingers through his hair gently. “Seriously though. If you need the pain reduced, just ask me when it happens. You have got to be careful with those meds, Ig. I just found you, I’d rather not lose you to something that stupid and mundane.”

Ignacio looks up and honestly agrees, "You are, and... it's weird cool, but I like where it's goin so far and you can keep up with my brother pickin on me. It's good. He can use the company." He fishes her hand from his hair, smooches it and puts it back. Looking up at her he watches her face memorizing it. "I know it hurts when you do that shit. I don't lie that part, but I know tellin you not to is useless."He fishes for her other hand and asks, "Stay and have dinner with us?"

Finch smiles at the kiss to her hand, and bends to kiss his forehead gently. "It doesn't hurt. Some of the worse injuries it tires me out. I think it's because it's intricate work and I have to direct it with a lot of focus. It's like performing a 4 hour surgery in 40 seconds or something like that."

The offer of dinner has her nodding. "Love to. Can your brother cook too? Because if so, I may just eat here all the time. And bring Gran along." She chuckles and resumes stroking his hair.

Ignacio grabs the remote and lounges, spilled and lucky as hell. "Hermano, get in here. Help pick a movie or I'm marketing you watch Joy Luck Club... again. " the mischief had at least starated to surface again. "You should bring her. Abuelita can hang. And yeah, Raf can cook. Shit I should tell him he's cooking and invite Tobin over and not tell him. Play some games." His free hand finds her fingers before flipping the TV top hoops movie profile. "No picking on my movie choices either. "

Telling her not to pick on him? “You do realize who you’re talking to, right? But I’ll muffle the sarcastic comments for today since you don’t feel good.” Finch grins at him and settles in for the movie, and to just be with him. It’s strangely comfortable, despite being so out of her normal life. This connection means something.