2020-01-28 - In the Wake of the Crash

Wherever our heroes happen to be on the evening in question, be it at home, or out, the next door they open, or corner they turn, they find themselves somewhere vastly different than where they had intended to be going. Fluorescent lights flicker overhead, illuminating white walls scuffed here and there with use and passage of time. Linoleum floors are a drab grey flecked with black. And a large number 3 is painted on the wall. There's a scent of antiseptic, and that smell, the smell that anyone who has ever been in a hospital would know. All around there is a rush of noise, and people run to and fro.

Patients are being wheeled in through the emergency entrance and into a triage room. There is blood everywhere, and the sounds of sobbing, and pain, and medical personnel calling out to one another in the chaos. Instruments beep and readouts glow in digital numbers and flickering lights. The gist of the conversation is that there was an accident, some terrible accident.

For several seconds August just stands there. He'd been--what had he been doing? Oh, right, about to prep dinner. Except now, he's here, and it's looming large in his mind, and there's blood, and...

He swallows. Is it real? Maybe. Maybe not. No, it can't be, he was at Eleanor's, making dinner. So this is more bullshit.

"Can't you assholes cut a guy some slack," he mutters under his breath.

Finch was out feeding the chickens, and she went back into the garage through the side door to put the feed bucket away, and found herself in a hospital instead. The petite, dark-haired woman blinks where she stands, and staggers back a foot or two at the sudden assault of unfamiliar minds on her newly developing Mental abilities, combined with her Spirit Sense that can feel all those injuries. She presses her back to the wall in the hallway, staring at the number 3, wide-eyed, until she hears a familiar voice muttering. "R-Roen?" she squeaks out.

Bean blinks, she frowns as she finds herself suddenly in a hospital - this was strange, she did not glimmer, not even a little. The sudden transformation causes her to blink and blink again.. there was an accident? well she was . a vet tech. not a human doctor or nurse. She touches the walls to see if they are real.

There's a notable difference for Ignacio that in a dream he's not on crutches because he just doesn't identify himself with them. The other part of that is being a dream it all seems normal right? The limp is there though pulling him along. Look he just wanted to get to the bathroom and... this won't do.

He looks and his eyes go wide. He doesn't do hospitals, but also? He checks himself, he's not the patient so this is... manageable. Deep breath. Alright. He looks for some sign of familiarity, a marker, something. He looks to Bean ambling up to her looking concerned because all he can think is if he's okay he hopes it's not Finch or family that's hurt. There's that moment where ice water hits his spine and he asks her, "I'm sorry, I don't know... Have you see a woman around here? This big, maybe pink?" And then he picks her up on the radar, turns and is all at once relieved hearing and seeing her crossing that distance. "Pajarito." He crosses the distance to hug her tight taking the small moment of reprieve. "Jefe, who's hurt?"

The walls are indeed very solid when Bean reaches out to touch them. So is the orderly that bumps into her, jostling her into the wall as he rushes by with a gurney, a woman on it, covered save for her face, twisted in agony, and one spindly hand that reaches out to try to catch at Ben's sleeve as she goes by, wheeled off down the hall.

"I'm sorry, Sir, but I'm going to have to ask you to go to the waiting room," a woman with her hair pulled back into a severe bun with a chart in one hand says to August at his words. Then to Finch she says, "Please ma'am, the waiting room? We need to clear this hall." Because there are more coming in than there is room for in the emergency room, and gurneys are starting to line the hallway as well, making it incredibly close quarters. The smell in the air is nearly overpowering. Blood, metal, maybe fire? Definitely the smell of tar, and burned hair. It is foul, to say the least.

The little reunion for Ignacio is short-lived because once again the stern woman seems to be trying to usher them out of the hall and into a nearby waiting room.

August holds out a hand to Finch. "Hey, it's okay. I mean--it's not, but, we're here." We including Ignacio, and August leaves it to him to get Finch sorted. He blinks at Bean, staring at her. No Glimmer, none at all. But she's not behaving like he'd expect a Dream construct to. So...

"Everyone," he answers Ignacio, tone absent. He nods at the nurse and gestures, trying to help herd Ignacio and Finch the hell away from all of this. Maybe the waiting room will be cleaner, less coated in death?

He looks over his shoulder at Bean, nods at the waiting room. "Come on, miss," he says. "You don't wanna stay in here."

Finch gives the woman with the chart a dirty look and opens her mouth to spout something rude, no doubt, but Ignacio being there, and in one piece, quiets that retort. She moves to wrap her one arm around the handsome Spaniard, the other reaching to take August's hand. "What happened? What kind of accident? Who's hurt?" Because if they are here, it must be someone they know, right?

The woman looks stressed, trying to shut down all the pained emotions crying out in the place. She's not good at this yet, not good at not being open on all wavelengths to the feelings of those nearby.

Bean looks a little dazed as she touched the walls and then looked to the woman that tried to grab her, and she startles "woah"... she turns around and then is faced with Igancio asking her about a woman.... she blinks and blinks... no words for him. But thats ok! he seems to have found who he was seeking, wait... they all know one another? The redhead turns and looks a bit shaken "waiting room?" she nods "it smells bad..." she shivers as she wonders if maybe a friend of hers had gotten into a crash.. she looks like a lost lamb and as August speaks to her she nods and ambles after him.

Ignacio hugs her head and presses a kiss to it, but his eyes look past August down the hall. So many people. He knows the smell of tar and fire from racing. He also knows he's in a hospital and they have people for this. He gives Finch a tug. Quietly he murmurs, "C'mon. we make a terrible speed bump." Looking to Bean, there's the faint look of distress he's working on burying and he makes the attempt to sound causal. It's what needs to be done but this takes him way back. "It um... kinda smells like there was a car accident. Big one." That might be him projecting, but sometimes he's got a gut feeling about things. He points the direction he's following August and shuttling Finch to , "Think it's... over here." He pauses and asks, "Why are we here? Are we hurt? Did someone-" And his thought runs from him. 1...2...Finch... "Where's Itzhak?" Now he's concerned if there's a reason 3 of them are there at all at least and now he wants answers.

The waiting room is crowded with people and there is nowhere to sit. Everywhere, there are people crying, and looking stricken. Some of them are injured as well, but with scrapes, bruises, and mostly minor injuries that have been triaged out to wait while the truly life threatening wounds are being attended to. The chaos just outside in the hall continues and there are shouts and constant motion going on. In the waiting room, there is an almost palpable thickness to the air, a heaviness that makes it hard to breathe.

A woman comes in, a younger blonde who approaches the group and asks, "I'm looking for a member of the bird family. Is there a bird here?" She glances down at her note and says, "A .. pigeon? Or chicken? Maybe a canary?"

August is trying very hard, very hard, not to dive in and start healing people. He's not supposed to do that. He repeats it to himself, over and over. "What happened?" he thinks to ask someone. Maybe he forgot. Did he forget?

And where was Itzhak? And Eleanor? And...

He glances at the woman, then Finch. He's saying 'not Dove' over and over in his mind.

Finch lets August and Ignacio push and pull her towards the waiting room as she looks around with a bewildered expression. "I dunno where Itzhak is, why hasn't my father texted to let us know what happened? I mean he'd know, right? He's a cop." And if there was an accident the surly de la Vega would likely have been blowing their phones up seeing if his newfound kid was all right.

As the woman calls out for the bird family, Finch's eyes go wider and she raises a hand. "Celaeno? I'm Finch Celaeno?" Her heart stops in her chest. The only other member of the bird family in town is her Gran, Dove.

Bean looks over to finch as she calls out that she is of the bird family, she frowns and moves over to one of the more injured people awaiting the doctors, "Um hi.... I am ... Bean... um... I think.... I can help at least slow that down?" she says to someone struggling with there wound care.

He's supposed to have the level head. Okay he's been failing at it since they were snowed in and it weighs on him. Holding his breath he assures FInch, "He knows we were at home. He knows, Inch. He just... knows these things." Did he have a conversation with him across the city to tell him they were safe? He must have. Was Capitan alright? Mierda! Swallowing he looks around to the crying people and closes his eyes standing still and he says to the nurse "That, um, that's us." He looks to Bean and holds his breath waiting for the nurse.

"Finch, yes, maybe that was it. Miss Celaeno, would you come with me, please?" The blonde woman then turns and heads out of the waiting room without waiting for an answer, and strides out into the chaos of the hall once more, turning and heading down past that large 3 on the wall, and toward a bank of elevators.

Bean has no trouble at all helping some of the people with their wound care, and the people look grateful for being helped, thanking her profusely. But then that means that others in the waiting room begin to crowd around her, asking her if she would help them, or look at their relative, or perhaps find them a bandage, or some aspirin, or...

August watches the people crowd around Bean, offers a hand. He's reminded of a Dream that was wildly different than this, and somehow just the same. "Come on," he says. He intends to follow the blonde woman who's asked for Finch, and HIPAA can suck it.

Finch swallows hard. There are two blood relatives in this town, and she's terrified to see either of them in a hospital. Her hands begin to shake and she unintentionally throws out her emotional distress to those in physical contact with her, August and Ignacio. Blood begins to dribble from her nose. Like father, like daughter. She looks to them, then moves to follow the nurse, swiping the blood off on the sleeve of her jacket.

Bean is surrounded, she gasps as she is crowded "No I am not actually a nurse I... no.. I.. cant give medicine, no..... no... please...." she ambles as she answers questions and tries to look up for help. August hand once again is there and she takes it ... "you sir are my hero".. she says as she stands and moves to follow him

Ignacio isn't walking off without his other half and tries, all he canto reach out and try to put the calm back into FInch's world. That feeling of not being alone. The feeling of grabbing the wheel, and that? That's hard feeing her like this, raw hurting and not being able to tell her it's fine . It's alright because he doesn't know that. All he can think is Don't be Abuelita. He walks with Finch with purpose. He pauses and curls his hand in a ball pressing it to his lips. Findmiddlefindmiddlefindmiddle And trying to reach into that place that seems distant in the din, the chaos of the room keeping away at his senses he pushes back like a cold rush of air to balm the chaos and bring... not calm but a resigned peace for now so strange hands stop cloying at Bean in desperation. He looks to her and offers with sympathy, "It's not you. They don't have much to hold onto. It's... a trust." Turning his legs, not long and not agile, pull to keep up with Finch on the move.

The little blonde moves with surprising speed through the chaos, while the others are jostled, stopped by gurneys being wheeled through, and patients being wheeled by in wheelchairs. It is a struggle to keep up with the woman, who steps into the elevator when it arrives and fortunately seems to be holding the door for them.

Bean finds it difficult to follow August until that calm seems to descend over the waiting room and then she is able to slip free easily as all the people seem to return to their seats to wait. Which does nothing to still the craziness of the hall, but at least Bean is able to get away without being pulled into the masses of those fearing, despairing, and aching in the waiting room.

August swallows down bile as he tries to keep them all together. Stay together. He doesn't mean to broadcast the emotion at everyone, but no doubt some of his building anxiety bleeds through. He grips Finch's shoulder reassuringly, but it's as much for him as her. He's trying not to rattle apart. He gets into the elevator last, insisting everyone else go in first. And still he doesn't reach out with the shaping Art to heal anyone. Refuses to, stubbornly, telling himself this can't be right, something is wrong, it'll all make sense in a minute and the doctors have it All Under Control.

Finch knows this can't be easy for either August or Ignacio, as they both have had terrible experiences in hospitals, and the resulting trauma has made them both wary of such places. She makes it to the elevator, shouldering her way through people, her anger and frustration building as she grits her teeth against the rising panic inside of her.

Bean dose not know these people, but.... August has saved her twice now from being lost in chaos ... she follows him as well as she can, quietly for the moment. And ... scared

Ignacio keeps telling himself They're not here for me and right now we are okay... everyone needs to be... okay. He doesn't even mind Beth there or seem to register anything other than trying to focus super hard. The room. Finch's distress. August's PTSD, his own PTSD, and Bean sharing their dismay at not being able to do something. Anything.

These poor fucking people.

The downside to being a strong empath is having that acute personal connection and feeling it first hand. Being a mentalist has not helped this any. He gets to the elevator last murmuring lo siento to the people in the hall. Hands up like 'I got nothin, man. Wish I did.' He passes August to step in reaching out with a hand to give his arm a squeeze. He looks up to the woman with the strangle-bun and offers genuinely, "Thank you. Can you tell us what's happened? All the people in the hall?" he looks to Bean pausing as his hand fishes for Finch's, "You okay?" Looking up in the elevator he takes the briefest moment of respite before offering to the new person no longer being grabbed, "C'mon. Maybe we can find who you came for too."

"There was a major accident downtown," the blonde woman says once they are in the elevator and begin to ascend, the floor numbers ticking by strangely. They are all odd numbers, no even numbered floors. When they reach 17, the elevator stops and the doors open. "There was a drag race, and then a truck was hit, and it exploded, and then there was a pileup. It was terrible. It's all over the news." She walks down to the nurse's station and then says "I've brought the little bird for the bird woman. Can you show them to her room?" She then turns back to the group and says, "Nancy will tell you which room it is."

She then turns and heads back toward the elevator.

At the nurse's station, Nancy, a kindly looking woman in her fifties with graying dark hair and glasses pulls up the information and says, "Room 1702, right down there, on the right. Second door. The number is on it. Visiting hours are almost over, though, so you'll only have a few minutes."

"A drag race," August echoes. No, of course Itzhak wouldn't do that, drag race on a public street in winter, with the weather like this. Would he?

Eleanor would be at work still, right? Or already home? Not driving back. And de la Vega, well, he'd be managing the response...

He looks around for a TV as they head towards Dove's room (it has to be Dove, doesn't it?). As long as she's alive, August and Finch can take care of it. But they need to know about anyone else. And he feels guilty, almost on the spot, for not healing anyone downstairs but being ready to heal Dove at the drop of a hat. Glancing about for a TV is a nice distraction, then. No Silver Honda Element, no Black Cherry Corvette. No Silver Honda Element, no Black Cherry Corvette. No Silver Honda Element, no Black Cherry Corvette...

Finch's brow furrows. Little bird and bird woman are not in any way how hospital staff refer to patients. Names or numbers only. She watches the blonde head off and gives Nancy a look. That looks says, if this is someone I love, and you try to kick me out for your arbitrary visiting hours, I WILL set your fucking hair on fire, lady. She rushes down the hall looking for 1702, ready to fire up her healing to save her Grandmother if it is indeed Dove Celaeno in that room.

Bean looks over at the mention of drag race and she looses the color in her features, "you dont have a Mr Everett woods in here do you?" she asks as she wonders if there is a reason she was here... Her eyes look back to the others then briefly as she tags along the others slowly

The news of a drag race hits Ignacio like cold water. It's really how he and his ad-hoc hermano met. Everything he used to want to be was a race car driver. This... this is not what that's supposed to do. Coulda been me. He squeezes Finch's hand and lets it go. If Dove needs help he'll slow her down. When Bunhead informs them there's only a short while of visitors left he helpfully informs her, "We're not visiting. We're staying as long as we need to, but that's helpful to know. Gracias." He broadcasts to Finch the assurance in her head <<Take all teh time you need. What're they going to do, call the fucking police?>>

"I'm sorry," Nancy says to Bean, "What is your relation to this Mr. Woods?" She doesn't seem to notice the look that Finch gives to her at all. Instead, she goes on looking up the name that Bean has given her, but her expression belies nothing as to whether she's found it or not.

As Finch rushes off down the hall, she finds the room without too much difficulty. It's exactly where Nancy said it would be. The door is cracked open and as they walk in, there are four separate curtains, all closed, and one would presume that there is a bed within each of the four curtained spaces. There are no televisions out in the hall but there are televisions within the room. The one that is in the room itself is currently turned to the news. On the screen is downtown Gray Harbor and there are flames and smoke, and what looks to be far more cars piled up around a flaming tanker truck than should feasibly be driving around on Gray Harbor streets at that time of night. It's hard to make out the colors and makes of the vehicles involved. They are twisted, up-ended, and some are on fire.

There is no sound in the room save for the quiet beep, beep, beep of machines, and the whoosh and rush of what might be a ventilator. The room is also cold, nearly ice cold, so cold that they can see their breath.

August says, "We'll be," to Bean, and gestures down the hall towards the room Nancy indicated. Finding no TVs out here, he heads into the room, and stops dead when he hears that sound. A ventilator. Oh Christ, can they--can that be done? If someone's brain dead?

He realizes, then, that there's four curtained areas. "Which one is..." He's trembling, not just from the cold. Stepping forward, he pulls aside a curtain, hand trembling. He knows what he doesn't want to see, wills it into being.

Finch goes to another curtain and moves it aside, bracing herself for what she might see. At the same time her spirit sense reaches out to feel for the injuries in the room, excluding those ever-present aches and hurts of Ignacio and August, which she knows by heart by now.

Bean gives a nod to August as he and his friends continue onward to their room. "relation?" she adds "uh, girlfriend, and racing seems to be something he might have been doing." she says quietly leaning over "he isnt on there is he?"

Ignacio walks in and takes a deep breath finding his own center of gravity and focusing not on some stupid happy thought but need. He tapes into his need born of fear and love and tries to swallow that taste of adrenaline back to focus and reach out and- "..........." August knows this look; that focus of absolute purpose.

Determination turns from an imperative to stillness. He feels it like a tire to the chest. again. What he can't do right this moment is hate the world and fall apart. He looks to August telegraphing to him a look that calmly reads No mas, no bueno. Slowly he walks in lopsided gait to Finch waiting to stave off ground zero neumero dos.

"I'm sorry miss," Nancy says to Bean, "But I can't give you someone's room number unless you are on their emergency contact list." Which is in direct contradiction to all the weirdness that just happened with Finch, isn't it?

In the patient room, as the curtains are drawn back, the beds are empty. There is no one in them. There are machines, and the machines softly beep and whirr but they don't seem to be attached to anything at all. And yet, there they are, machines, floating in the air, IVs running into, nothing, heart monitors registering the hearbeats of thin air. Respirators with tubes floating there, pumping in and out and in and out and.. there's otherwise silence.

Bean frowns... she looks to the room everyone went into and shakes her head. "Right." she sighs a little looking forlonged as she moves back to the elevator, the person the others are here for is not her person.

August starts. Seeing nothing is almost as bad as seeing someone he knows. More so, really; he goes from that intense moment of realization to utter confusion to dread. What--why--

He cuts a look at Ignacio. The various medical equipment trembles, like it's going to rattle apart, stills. August licks his lips. "You fuckers," he whispers, breath ghosting in front of him. He marches back out into the hall, concentrates on not tearing this building down arond them.

"There's no one in that room," he says to Nancy. Somehow it doesn't come it like an accusation. "So where are they?"

Finch almost crumples at the empty beds. Nothing there. No one there. Just the empty machines. She slumps back against Ignacio, caught between wanting to cry in relief and throw up from the stress. "What the hell is going on here?" she whispers, angry tears leaking from her eyes. She looks around for charts, for names anywhere on anything. She reaches to try and touch the beds to make sure there isn't SOMEONE there she just can't see.

Ignacio keeps trying to reach out to catch a fragment of a mental synapse like a hand fishing in dark waters. His arms wrap around Finch and pull her back from the bed and the things... floating. He's not at all a physically capable man, but something about all the chips being down helps him refocus on what he does have here. He won't back down from it. "Well these are not going to be for us." His head turns slowly getting a good look and informing the room of this in perfect clarity. He holds on to Finch a bit tighter for his sake, or hers, or to be transparent to the world: no touchie. "Pajarito we need to leave... pronto."

When August marches back out to Nancy's desk, Nancy is no longer there. In fact, the nurse's station is deserted. There are no people there, either. The computers are all off. The folders are all put away. It's as though in that brief moment that they went down the hall, the entire place had cleared out. Strange. Bean, as well, seems to have vanished.

When Finch goes to look at the charts, there is a chart at the end of each bed with the patient's name on them and some information about their vitals and latest medications. The names on the charts are: E. Lake, R. deSantos, D. Celaeno, E. Woods. And yet, there doesn't appear to be anyone there.

August stands at the desk, frozen in place. The woman who was with them is gone, 'Nancy' is gone--everyone is gone.

"Shit."

He runs back to the room. If this isn't one of those bullshit constructs, it's about to become one. He can't honestly tell, maybe doesn't care. He just has to get back to Ignacio and Finch.

Finch goes from chart to chart, getting more and more disturbed with each one. "Dove, Eleanor, Raf, and someone I don't know. What the fuck are they playing at?" she snaps out. This isn't reality, it can't be. The floating machinery is a big tip off there. "How do we get out of this damned Dream?" she mutters to Ignacio. She looks around and hollers, "This isn't real! You fuckers tried hard, but it didn't work! The people we love are all fine, back on our side of things! Fuck off!!"

Ignacio tries to hold on to Finch but his focus is blown when she mentions his brother. "Raf?" That is fear hitting the underside of that wave of calm. His heart is racing faster than his car ever has. Finch has to be right. Right? "This...isn't allowed to be real. " Looking around he wants to talk to his brother, assure him, something- //ANYTHING!?? Except there's one problem. He swallows and pulls her back with him out of the room with purpose. "Finch I'm telling you I can't feel them. They've been discharged or... we have. to. go."

It's then that they can feel it, like a presence watching them. They get that feeling, a prickling like raised hairs along the back of the neck. Those feelings of despair, confusion, hopelessness, and particularly Finch's rage, it seems to be feeding something, because they all suddenly feel a sense of breathy laughter somewhere in the back of their minds. The laughter becomes a wheeze, the wheeze, the slow in and out of the ventilators, and then, they feel themselves standing right where they'd turned when they went around that corner, or opened the door, except each and every one of them can feel adrenaline pumping through them, and a faint cold sweat.

August grits his teeth, fingers digging into his hands, nails going deep enough to draw blood. No, he's not going to pull this building down, he's not, he's not--

The warmth of the kitchen, the beep of the oven completing its preheat cycle, jerks him back to reality. He stands there in Eleanor's kitchen, trembling. Finch had been right. Hadn't she?

He pulls out his phone, shoots off a few panicked texts. To Eleanor, asking if she's on her way home yet; to Itzhak, asking if he needs help with getting new tools for the garage. Tells himself these sound like totally normal texts and not the panicked questions of someone coming out of a Dream.

He gets to making dinner once he thinks he can handle the santoku without cutting himself.

Ignacio finds himself standing in teh bathroom right where he left. THe adrenaline, the despair, the fear, and the profound sense of loss even if farce caused all rush on him at once. That bravado and certainty he had? Well that leaves him with his lunch as he takes two staggering steps and hunches over the bowl. blindly behind him his good foot swats and tries to close the door, mostly but not shut.

In a moment Finch is going to tear open the back door if it's left on its hinges and take those steps two by two to race up the stairs to find him and find-

"Ignacio? Sweetie are you alright in there?" He's never been so fucking glad to hear Granny Dove's voice in his damn life.

His voice shakes as he tries to answer evenly, but he's already given up the ghost (and his graham crackers) with that ruse. "I'm um... I'm alright. Can you... tell Finch I'll be down in a minute? I need... a moment. Think she needs to talk to you." To say the least in a big way.

"I understand. Take your time."

Her patience is amazing. It's sympathy he's picking up off of her. She thinks he's embarassed, and he's inclined to let her believe the false need for nobility right now. He just needs for Finch to have the old bird healthy and normal (for as normal as this house gets). Hugging the bowl he lets himself let the tears and emotion out. Turning sitting on that floor, back to teh tub. Breathe

The phone comes out and he sends three tests. The first to August that only reads 'Alive'. The nest to Itzhak that reads, "Slow the fuck down on those corners ya putz. Call me later." and the last to his brother that reads, "Love ya, Cabron. Thought you should know." His eyes close and he murmurs quietly with a sigh, "Fuck You, Gray Harbor."

That done he pushes himself to a stand and finishes what he set out to do.
They are the worst.