2020-01-22 - A Very Kelly Casualty

Bullshit. Bullshit happened in the best damn interactive full-length feature in a long ass time. Joey promised Nicole this day would come where something bad was going to happen and luck runs thin and sometimes the other guy has a lucky shot... or an amalgamation of Gilligan's Island dramatic persona that explode with concussive force and you have to front up and slap the shit out of it.

And sometimes these things get you flayed at high speeds protecting your frenemy. Mama said there's be days like this, but mama's also a ghost. How one takes this should be up for debate. Even thugs have people and tonight he's damn fortunate Byron and Lilith are around like the Old Guard does.

Nicole was at home, in bed after a long day of work when she got the text from Byron. She rushed out the door and to the hospital as fast as she could; which means... she looks like she was in bed and ran out the door as fast as she could. She has sneakers on her feet, no socks, pink, gray, and white plaid pajama pants, a black hoodie and who knows what under, and her winter jacket, unzipped. Hair is in an unbrushed messy ponytail, but she doesn't care. What she cares about is somewhere in this hospital laying on a bed.

Byron had told her where to find them, and pointed her in the direction of Joey before excusing himself for a moment. She went straight there, and lord help anyone that tries to stop her as she walks into the room and up to Joey's bedside, eyes full of caution, jaw tight as she waits to see what she is about to see in regard to his condition.

Joey is not a mummy but has seen better days. He also doesn't have an excessive amount of machines there out of the normHe's been asleep but has definiately seen better days. Thanks to some good first response he doesn't look like a dead fish. The gauze is fun. That's the look that never goes out of style if one has aspirations to become a low budget mummy.

There's a few reasons Joey Kelly isn't looking a little better quite yet. People saw the state of him and immediately called an ambulance which arrived from right nearby. Lilith doesn't like to heal people in a crowd or commotion because while she has the power to do it, it's not as second nature to her as items or destruction are. That and there's consequences that add up that she has to weigh. But using a significant amount of ability and capability turns out as non-negotiable risk when it comes to this twin and Byron can probably tell that. She also hasn't done anything in the hospital yet, planning to save it and wait until he's in a room and drugged and stabilized and checked in. Then she can just bolt and hope no one noticed. Solid plans, see.

But on stepping out to text the shop while Byron is on the phone, she sees Nicole's face on the way in and gives her a little smile in passing to hang out and give the pair of them, or at least the woman a little time to process and be thankful about the overall-one-piece thing, even if it is a miserable mummy piece at the moment. To Byron, between his calls, she murmurs, "... haven't been here since the seal. Before we leave, I'm going to... you know. Will you loan your body to me to proxy focus work? Been a while since a real nasty fix." Her lips twitch, "And I like to touch you."

Then, she turns to look through the door to ease in and see the state of Nicole now, yet stays near the doorway, "... he'll be better off, I think, by the time I leave. I don't like to jank around with people in crowds. Or in here, really, but if I time it in the lull and bolt afterwards, it's... you know. Not my weird problem for paperwork, anyway." Her voice is quiet with pipe up.

Sighing, Nicole looks down at Joey as she steps closer to the bed. Seeing him all wrapped up like this sets a crease in her brow as she reaches up to brush some of his hair off his forehead. "Oh... Joey..." She seems relieved that there are not extra machines in here. That's a good sign, even if he is asleep. -He is just asleep, right? If it were a coma, there'd be machines- go the thoughts in her head as she reaches back for a chair to drag over closer. She goes to set her purse down, then realized in that moment that she did not grab her purse on her way out, but her backpack. Oops. It's a momentary thought that does not delay her from reaching for his hand, inspecting it for injury before resting her own on his.

Looking up at the sound of Lilith's voice, Nicole offers her a small smile. "Thanks, Lil... can you tell me what happened?" She looks back to Joey. "Like, if you can." Byron did say it was a dream, but, maybe that part didn't register with Nicole. She only read "Joey. Hospital." and that was enough.

Joey beeps. Really the machines quietly do their thing and according to them he's tore up from the floor up but his vitals are all fantastically normal. Well, normal for a regular person. The truth is his blood pressure is down from where it's been sitting all week but 'tax time for Felix' does these things. hey it is something.

"We were all in the theater for a movie. But Mad Max didn't start, something else did and... you know, it went all change and strange." Lilith explains to Nicole after blowing out a sigh and stepping to lean against the door frame of the room while Byron finishes up a call out in the hallway. She folds one of her arms across her midsection while standing at lean, one of her heels worn with skinny jeans absently and intermittently tick-ticking against the floor with idle foot motion when talking, "It turned into an arena with uh. Us all seated on a balcony with strange creatures and this monster that Byron and I have seen in action before..." She pauses, brows knitting down some, "It was pulled into the arena floor as a contender for two people to face. Joey, naturally, volunteered, as did the Captain."

Lilith leaves out most of the terribly weird details about what the monster was made of, she leaves that for Joey if he's inclined after waking because some oddities are just strange to say aloud during times of levity, "It used explosive things and he got a really bad impact shot that hit and threw him, among other issues. But he rallied up just as the Captain took a final shot, head rattled it or something with his fists before going down for good and helping to take it down with him. At least, I think that's how it went..." Another pause, "It's hard to stand still and watch when you know what a huge terrible thing is capable of doing, but he's... him."

Nicole listens to Lilith as she watches Joey's motionless self. She has slipped one hand beneath his while caressing the top of his hand with her other. She turns at one point, asking Lilith, "arena... like, what, Gladiators or something?" Captain. "Oh, Ruiz? Is he okay?" When she continues to talk about Joey fighting, as he does, would, she looks back to the man and nods. "He is him... You and Byron were unhurt?"

Whether he's on the phone or not, Byron's not exactly thrilled to overhear Lilith mention that she is planning on her using her powers to try and heal Joey after he was admitted into the hospital. "I'll need to call you back." He tells the person on the other line, before his phone is slipped back into his pocket and he steps into the room proper. "He has a chart." Though Byron's not sure just how extensive the doctors were when looking over Kelly after his was admitted in.

Then there's the whole thing about how angry They are when Healers, well, heal people. Out of everyone, it's the Healers who are the ones more often targeted. Still, he stands over Joey's bed, looking the guy over for a quiet moment.

"We weren't hurt. Only the tributes or volunteers were able to fight. The rest of us were mere observers."

Lilith nods and gestures to what Byron says before moving deeper into the room once he's off of the phone and back inside, too, "Very much like weird gladiator sport. He was probably actually having a good time before he got... decommissioned." The woman's hands go into her pockets and she doesn't bother with the charts while looking at Joey's prone form with a mix of distance in her eyes and general fixated focus. Her lashes bat and move and her head tilts off to one side as if she's familiarizing herself with something, or soaking in the details with planning.

After a look at Nicole, she steps to pull on Byron by the hand, wandering with step right in against his body like they're going to kiss, suddenly. But that's not quite what happens. Once in close, she murmurs with explanation, "I'm going to do something. He might wake up, it's good you're here for this. Keep a hand at his hair when and if he starts to stir. He might even wake up bragging about being champ." There's a slant of Lilith's lips in smile before she turns her face away from Joey and stands bedside, nuzzling her nose and forehead in against Byron's chest to close her eyes and listen to his pulse.

And while there, she murmurs to Byron, hands at his sides to splay atop his shirt at either side of ribcage while attuning and preparing to work on presumably Joey somehow, like that. Eventually, Lilith places a pair of little brushing kisses there where she's nuzzled at his shirt.

Nicole looks up again when Byron enters and speaks. 'He has a chart', he says, and the expression on Nicole's face very much reads, 'I'm a hairdresser, not a doctor, Byron!'. She just blinks at him a little. "I am glad neither of you were hurt."

Nodding to Lilith, Nicole says, "I am sure he was. He misses fighting sometimes, craves it in between." She leans in and kisses his hand, one of the pair that are capable of so much damage. "At his hair?" she asks, glancing towards Lilith again. She doesn't argue though, just rises from the chair and moves so that one hand can go back to playing with the hair at his forehead while she continues to hold his hand.

Well, when Byron mentioned that Joey had a chart, he really meant that the doctors know what's wrong with him, if something miraculously happens ad he heals, they'll know that too. In fact, he does come out to say, "You know that the insurance and billing gets fucked up whenever people are magically healed in the hospital? I'm surprised that they don't keep a look out for that stuff, especially the doctors 'in the know'." Look, he knows business and protocol shit. If something is already on someone's chart, the doctors need to scramble to figure out what the hell happened with it.

But Lilith's gonna do it anyway. Taking in one of his deep annoyed breaths, his eyes flicker to the door in the case a nurse or doctor walks in. He quiets down to allow Lilith to use him as a tool in order to heal someone else. He's not completely used to it by now, only having had it done a few times, but all that he really needs to do is stand here while she listens to his pulse and trace a magical finger over his body, this time, against the softness of his gray striped sweater, as if his own body were some anatomical chart to be used.

His eyes lower to observe her first, before turning to watch Joey and see if there's any reaction from there.

Joey sleeps. The gesture from Lilith is not wasted. While he doesn't wake up from fatigue and his body worn out from being beat to shit by a thousand tiny fragments the pallid colors evens out and subsides. The dark circles recede, and the res in his skin looks less angry. He doesn't, and likely never will. If Joey looks angry it's a sign he's healthy. The hand in Nicole's which is inevitably the one also with the IV and not the one that beat the ever-spongy crap out of Gilligan squeezes hers in a faint reflex. His eyes stay closed but there's a murmur from him for Byron of all people "... But insurance dunno that." This is his contribution.

"They might. I don't know. I'd alter the ink on his chart but I can't read or write doctor speak and it's Joey. He's going to be plenty beat up still. I'm not taking everything, just the ones I can't walk away from." Lilith murmurs, fanning her fingers up to spread and turn back and forth over Byron's chest. Then, looking up, she puts her hand to the side of his head, avoiding mussing the hair, which may be the focus that has some Kelly wit coming over from bedwards with that head bandage on to obscure.

Looking back over her shoulder, she breathes hard with exhale, then smiles some before letting her hands drift away from Byron's sweater, "Nicole's here with him. We can sneak out now while he rests anyway and he'll be fine enough to fast talk or threaten to punch someone about a chart mix up, I'm sure. Because... it's Joey."

"Insurance, sure." Byron says, though he's not even sure Joey can hear him, "But the DOCTORS know that. But the again, maybe I like having things properly documented in my line of work." Looking around the hospital, especially after what Lilith pipes up, "All I know is I'm glad I'm not working here. There's far too many things going on that can't be explained and all of it needs to be documented."

He doesn't look overly amused by this whole chart mixup, but he will roll his eyes at all of them. "Let's go. Let them get their rest and alone time. And hope they don't throw him out and bar us from ever setting foot into this place again. Especially with your track records."