2020-08-13 - Double Agent Care Package

The first thing Rekani and Nova would notice when they got home was Kip's backpack sitting on the dining room chair that she normally sat in when eating. Which meant she'd probably come here after her own shift at the movie theater. The second thing was that there was a pained sort of groaning coming from Rekani's bedroom and the light was on.

Kip was half draped over the side of the bed and there was a small puddle of vomit on the floor. She gingerly tried to push herself up, hardly able to think straight with the way her ears were still ringing and her head was still pounding. She hadn't heard him coming back yet and so was focused on trying to get up. Maybe she could make it to the bathroom and clean up. The bleeding from her ears had stopped and mostly from her nose.

She idly noticed her hands weren't black anymore but they still hurt, like they were on fire. Next time she would know better than to go for silence.

In typical fashion, the Nazario siblings absolutely have to race to whichever destination they were both going to. Both had taken the early shift on Sundays, as it worked better with Rekani’s dual schedule at Platinum and Jack’s, and Nova preferred dancing to Rek’s mixing. Rekani, of course, had lost the race home, but was still right on Nova’s likely clear acrylic heels as they walked through the door.

Rekani sees the backpack, interrupted from talking shit to call, “Ayy Mamacita!”, walking toward his room, but stops cold to take in the scene as he gets to the doorway, “Aye Dios!” he’d exclaim, rushing to the bedside. Vomit was something you joke over, blood was absolutely not. It looked quite similar to how he’d come home Friday. He gingerly tries to help her up straight, careful to avoid the puddle, looking her over for other wounds, knowing he’d narrowly avoided taking an explosion to the face, and those dreams could do much worse, “What happened?”

Kip winced as Rekani's voice cut through her ringing ears. She felt disoriented and it actually took a couple seconds to remember where she was as she stared blankly at Rekani. She doesn't seem to have any other wounds besides the bleeding from her ears and nose. But also? She seems to be covered in remnants of some strange goo-like substance. Whatever it was, it was cold.

What happened?

She shook her head a little, regretted it via wincing and then drew in a breath. "It was dark...and it there was rain. But it wasn't...rain." Kip furrowed her brow a bit. "And I got sucked in to a puddle..." Another shudder ran through her. "...I made the wrong choice." She leaned forward to rest her forehead on his shoulder. Her words barely above a whisper. "It was so loud."

Nova had indeed arrived first, AirPods blaring a Latin dance mix into her skull. For someone who was typically not very alert, the unlocked door and bag were not troubling. Subtly was never her specialty, nor the cues of it.

Instead she was dancing in the kitchen, making herself a fruit plate. Nova was very likely to die first in a zombie apocalypse.

Add some strawberries, slide to the left. Pineapple, grapevine right. Thank Mary that Rekani was there because with just Nova, Kip May actually bleed out completely.

Rekani makes a grimacing face as she describes the scene. His hands test at the goo, then realizing it wasn’t caustic, her moves to help Kip up if her could, or just straight up pick her up if she couldn’t. Rekani had no real medical knowledge, but he’d done just fine after washing the blood off... Kinda. He’d been woozy most of Saturday. “Let’s get you cleaned up. You hurt anywhere?” He was looking, but it was hard to tell with whatever she was covered in. He’d help or carry her to the bathroom carefully, whatever was needed, and get the hot water going in the shower.

He grabs something random, like a CD case or something, off his dresser on the way out and chucks it down the hallway. He knew how oblivious Nova was being. His power glows slightly and it curves through the doorway and smacks into her leg with the flat side before clattering to the floor.

The CD smacks Nova in the back of the calf solidly, causing a surprised “Aye!” She almost drops her precious prized plate, but recovers at the last second. Setting the plastic platter down on the galley kitchen counter, she swivels, removing one pod. ”¡Qué mierda!” She exclaims angrily before noticing the water running and him essentially dragging a limp Kip.

“Oh” Her demeanor changes entirely as she scrambles to help them, grabbing mismatched beach towels from a nearby closet. “What happened?!?” The look of concern is obvious, her mind going to a mugging or rape. In Gray Harbor she had yet to find a problem she couldn’t dance at. This being a differing experience from the other two.

"No, just head. " Kip mumbled, managing to stay upright via leaning heavily onto the Latino man as he brought her to the bathroom. She looked up a bit, hearing Nova's voice and pressing a couple aching fingers to her temples. Which reminds her that her hands also hurt.

"Hands too. Like frostbite. " she sits heavily on the toilet seat before finally getting around to answering Nova's question. "Dream got me." She drew in another breath and started to disrobe. Fighting through the pain in her hands. "August was there. And a Byron. Don't know him."

Rekani does his best to gently help Kip out of her soiled clothes, tossing the slimy bits into the sink so they wouldn’t have too much to clean up after. One hand on her hip so she won’t go over, he pops his phone out to try to google what you’re supposed to do about frostbite, a concept the two warm-weather siblings likely never had to deal with. He looks surprised at the names.

“August? He ok?” The other name rings a bell, a glance tossed in Nova’s direction, “Isn’t Byron the name of the dude that took over the casino?” Take your pick of ways Rekani knew this, be it his intermittent piano playing to the bougie folk, or their ties to shadier stuff merely by being Cabaret employees.

Rekani puts his phone down and reaches to adjust the water temperture from hot down to just warm, looking to Nova as he gives it time to cool, “Painkillers. What you got?”

Nova sets the stack of cheap touristy towels down on the toilet seat. "Are you two sure it isn't this lumberjack Jesus who causes this mierda? He's always there." She says looking concerned, yet unsure of how to help. If someone though Rekani had limited medical knowledge, Nova had even less. Honestly she would be more help if Kip had been in a car crash than 'frostbitten by goo'? Honestly she had thought frostbite wasn't real, like quicksand, simply a climate myth.

At the mention of painkillers the fiery dark haired woman is able to assert some sort of competence. She raises a single arched brow and looks at Rekani in a 'Really?' fashion. Instead of grabbing Tylenol, Nova gently touches Kips cheek. The Russian would feel a sense of peace, like stepping into a garden of fresh flowers after a chilly winter's night. Nova removes her hand and goes to get a trash bag, there was no amount of color safe bleach that was getting the clothes in the sink clean. Also she wasn't entirely sure it wasn't toxic.

Kip just gave a shrug of her shoulders when Rekani asks about Roen. "I dunno. He...I was caught first. I don't know what happened. Him or Byron." She looked concerned for a moment. Then her attention shifted back towards the water. The good news was that her hands weren't black like severe frost bite might be. So hopefully it was something that could be easily fixed. She leaned a bit into Nova's touch, feeling the peace she summoned cutting through pounding in her head and the ache in her hands, making it at least somewhat more tolerable.

"Thank you, Nova." Kip drew in another breath and then straightened up some. "I can think sraighter at least." She closed her eyes and then finally - likely with assistance from Rekani - stepped into the shower to start rising off. Wincing just a bit at the initial contact of warm water cascading over her cold skin. She slowly started to relax and leaned against the shower wall. "There were three safes. And I picked the quiet one. When I opened it...it was so loud. Like...every terrible scream of terror ever screamed. All at once."

Rekani was thinking Percs or Oxys, something at least a little more narcotic, but the temporary relief would work in the short term, even if he gave it a roll of the eyes. He takes a moment to at least pull his shirt off and toss it to the floor, still careful to hold the Russian upright as he fully expected it to hurt like crazy, at least that’s what the internet said. No real time for lascivious looks, most concern and appraisal, looking for any more injuries as the slime and blood began to wash away, his hand still staying around her hip or lower back area if she needed support. The description does have his eyes returning to her face. Hearing damage was absolutely something he worried about.

“They gave you a choice, eh? They just dropped a bomb in mine.” He angles his head to gently look in her ear, hoping there wasn’t anything but just blood around the area, raising a wet hand to softly wipe the area. “I think you need to go to the hospital, mamacita. Get you checked out.”

Even with the commotion in her head dulled, Kip realized that Rekani's voice still sounded a little distant. She has no more injuries at least, everything had been centralized. As she slowly acclimated to the warmer water, she stood a bit stronger, more on her own as everything started to wash away. Her eyes lowered to do her own inspection, perhaps feeling like she got off easy and surprised that she had. She finally tilted her head to look up at Rekani again.

"A bomb? That was rude..." She mumbled. Rekani would see that while, by some miracle, the noise she talked about didn't fully rupture her ear drums, there's something else mixed with the blood and goop that would lend to the idea that her ear drums are damaged in some way. She grimaced as he wiped at the area, leaning forward to rest against him again. Forehead on his chest. "I hate hospitals." But she knew he was right.

Nova looks severely confused. Bombs? Frostbite? “Was going to the hospital not an option? We make some pretty terrible doctors...” This would be why Kip’s future lacked a Nova gifted Oxy. It made people have to explain things like where they got it and who prescribed it. She could try getting into some nurses heads to avoid this but that got dicey.

To be fair Nova had zero doubts that Kip would be given the drugs legally by the hospital staff. She had fucking frostbite. Which is a real thing. Were mumps real too? What did tying a bow around people’s heads have to do with treating it?

Focus Nova. “I’m gonna wash your hair when Rek goes to grab you clothes. He’ll pull it.”

“I hate seeing you in one, mamacita, but I’d rather people that know what shit is what look at you.” Rekani intones sympathetically. He rolls his eyes at the minor jibe from Nova, but knew leaving Kip with the Mentalist Painkiller was probably better for keeping that headache down. Also, if there was anyone more experienced with the care of long hair, it was probably going to be the female sibling. There’s a glance back and forth between them briefly, a final wondering or waffling if he wanted to be anywhere out of arm’s reach, but he would follow his big sister’s lead when it made sense.

Rekani leaves the bathroom to root through Kip’s backpack first, seeing if she’d brought clothes to change into, but if she hadn’t, he’d grab a clean pair of Nova’s shorts. Nova was probably a little more on the thicc side, but it’d be easier to drawstring a pair of hers than one of Rekani’s basketball shorts. He’d bring one of his tees along regardless of what he found, though, giving Kip the option.

Kip lets Rekani hand her off to Nova, a little involuntary shiver running through her. "Glad this happened here at least. That I ended up back here. Not some random part of town." She closed her eyes, letting Nova work on her hair without too much of a fuss. Funnily enough, Kip had brought a change of clothes. Except that had been what she was wearing when this whole mess happened! So the only thing in her pack was her work uniform.

"Do we have to go now?" She asked after a moment, eyes closed. "Can we just see how I am in the morning?" Though she knew full well she should go tonight. At least to make sure she wasn't going to go deaf or something.

“What?” Rekani responds to the question, his voice artificially lifted, hand put to his ear, then gives her a wry look. Obviously he was adding a joke to the fact he wasn’t going to be hearing any protest about her going to the hospital. He’d take the Russian’s care back over from Nova once she’d rinsed all the goo out of Kip’s hair. There’s a look given the drain, wondering if it was going to come out of the up easy, or if it’ll stop up the drain. You never knew with ecto-goo.

Seemed it was Rek’s tee and Nova’s shorts, because no one liked getting back into work clothes. Rek’s takes Kip’s hand and puts it on his shoulder, then takes a knee himself to help her get into clothes, the full princess treatment. “I’m glad you were here too, mamacita.” Then a thought occurs to him, “Your camera girl gots my number, right?” There was a tone to his voice, inquiring with a hint of ’she fucking better’, like he anticipated a few more nasty scrapes in their future.

Nova gets a silent, but grateful look, a nod, a bit of sibling telepathy without actual telepathy. Rek grabs his keys, making just the briefest lift of his own arm, trying to be covert about checking if he was still decent even though he’d just come off shift.

Nova had been exceedingly gentle as she had cleansed Kip's hair and then used a mass amount of conditioner to smooth it through. Unlike her brother she was aiming not to make Kip feel self conscious over whatever hearing injury she had sustained. "No you go tonight. I don't know how much of this shit gets worse if you don't."

While he dresses Kip, Nova uses a towel to wring out her hair and braids in back to keep it out of the way for when medical professionals take a look at the Russian's bleeding ear sitch. She wasn't going to argue about Rek driving even if she was the better driver, he was taking care of his woman and honestly Nova was proud. "Be careful ya?" she says tenderly, giving Kip a kiss on the forehead. "If you think you are lost just check 'frequently visited' on the GPS." While it was a joke she knew the two of them had been to the hospital more than once in the past few months, more or less she felt like she herself had just been dodging bullets she couldn't see that seemed to hit everyone else.

Kip grumbled just a little bit as they both told her she was going tonight. "Hopefully it does not." She said, eyes closed as Nova worked through her hair. She was starting to feel a little better now that she wasn't covered in weird goop and feeling warmer in general. Her hands still stung but it wasn't nearly as bad as it originally had been. When Rekani was helping her, Kip confirmed - "I think so. Will text her after to make sure."

The Russian lets the siblings do their work, dressing her and doing her hair. She gives Nova a hug and looks up at her with a little smile and nod. "Careful, yes we will be." There's even a chuckle at the joke about getting lost. "Will call you soon." Then she would let Rekani haul her off to the hospital to get checked out.