Post by Lyall British on Mar 21, 2015 10:35:09 GMT -5
It had taken a week for Jane to reach the same stone henge that she had woken in several months prior to meeting Lyall. Those tall, deformed stones stood silent against the darkness, unyielding in their sentry duty against the passing of time. She always felt like she was somehow being watched, as if someone or something could see her through the face of those massive obelisks and at any moment would strike her down. Nothing like that ever happened, yet the feeling still lingered as she moved into the center of the stone circle. Lyall, she hoped still had that silver tin. "God I hope he's not lost it..." she said to herself, one hand clutching at a braided inch long rope of hair. She had 'acquired' the lock from Lyall's head when he was sleeping the last time they had been together. She had gotten the idea from the chess piece and had spent every penny she had earned to have someone cast a binding spell before having the healer do the same she had done for Lyall. All she had to do was think about him, think about that silver tin, draw on the connection.... and then shoot herself in the head. Nerves rattled her brain, her body. She took a deep breath, the hand that held the gun shaking. "This is crazy...." a single shot broke the silence, echoing into the distance.
Somewhere in all of space and time was a planet, much like Rhy'Din in many respects, especially the one where it had a sort of nexus that permitted interstellar, and thus temporal, travel. It wasn't as wide spread and they tended to monitor it a great deal more. The technology there was somewhat limited, there were minor traces of the use of electricity but it seemed a limited resource given the use of lanterns instead of streetlights.
With the hundreds, upon thousands, of miles that he traveled there was sometimes difficulties in sticking the landing. This was the worst he had ever experienced. When he blinked into existence the ground so happened to be one story beneath his feet, sending him to an immediate drop onto a cobblestone ground. The resulting crack of bone came, sending him into a cry of agony as he held onto his hip and curled on his side. Oh. Fuck. That was how the first hour went for Lyall. He had fractured his hip and ankle the instant he came to the planet and was in what he thought, largely, was a partly abandoned part of the city. A broken down factory of sorts? No one appeared to be around. It was also night time, he could see only some indications of street lamps lit down a long alley in the distance. With a frown he grabbed his fedora, put it on his head and fought to get to his one good leg, using the side of the building for support. What were the chances that there would be a good doctor, someone who could actually help him and not just stick leeches to his body. After working his way just three yards he slumped against the building in pain. His hand went into his jacket pocket where the tin was. His hand closed around it, needing something to hold. Lyall didn't think anyone could hear him, he generally thought no one would ever be there for him, but he spoke against the brick wall like a prayer, "Somebody... please help."
She opened her eyes to find only darkness and then pain. Sharp, stinging pain much like the bite of horse flies. She tried to move, but found only more biting stings...."Holy shit..." the henge she had woken to was over-grown, covered in a massive sticker bush. "Son of a bitch..." the more she struggled the more she only seemed to get herself tangled and snagged. It took the better part of an hour to free herself from the briar though she would be picking thorns out of her hair, skin and clothing for days. Covered in scratches she looked as if she had gotten into a flight with a room full of angry cats. Standing on the outside edge of the stone she looked up into the sky, wondering where she was or even when. She didn't recognize and of the constellations. Instinctively her hand closed once again about that braided length of hair, something was drawing her North. She turned, seeing a few dim lights in the distance, shapes of buildings breaking the natural flow of the horizon. Jane hurried, breaking into a run. A sense of urgency pulled her, dragging her onwards towards those buildings. She had no idea what she as running into, for all she knew this place could have been the stronghold of vampires or goblins. The turns and twists down abandoned buildings seemed an endless maze, when she rounded the next corner she almost ran face-to-face into the very person she had set forth to find. She caught herself before she actually ran into him. "Lyall...." she said his name, a whispered hope that she wasn't imagining things, that it was really him. Still clutching that lock of hair, fearing if she let it go he would vanish.
"Feral Jane?" he breathed her name and looked up, his face still tightened in pain. One hand was grasping his hip, hoping that the pressure of his hold on it would give him some relief. Was he seeing things? He couldn't bring himself to push off the wall when he looked at her, "I'm not supposed to be in Rhy'Din though. Something must have happened, I must be off course." Lyall thought he must have been accidentally dumped off at the marketplace, in some part of it he wasn't familiar with, to explain her appearance.
Brows furrowed a moment as she stood there looking at him, those muddy-brown eyes dropped to his hand and the way he was holding his hip. "What the hell happened..?" she said, moving, she came beside him, taking his arm over her shoulder in order to help support him. "We're not in Rhydin..." she said, quietly. "I have no bloody clue where I ended up at..." trying to sound light, but from the look of pain on his face. "Where... are we..?" looking away from him, she searched for other signs of life or anything that might have been a threat towards them. They couldn't just stand here out in the open. Okay Lyall... you were the one with all the answers.
"It was supposed to be Niaboi... Naropie... something like that. How did you get here?" His arm came around her and brought her side against his quickly as if afraid he would fall without her support. He nodded towards the street and started hobbling with her to it, "There's gonna be an inn or something around here. All the major cities have them for travelers. I gotta get a place to stay and a doctor and a drink." The drink was mostly about doing something, anything, to dull the throb in his body.
Jane wasn't a wilting violet by any measure. It was easy for her to support Lyall. She held him close, arching her body to the side so that she was pulling more of his weight off that leg. "Oh... yeah, how did I get here... um... whell..." she shrugged. "We can talk about that later, first lets find...." she stopped talking a moment as she shifted her thoughts, reaching into that part of her mind that controlled the implant she had been fitted with during the world prior to RhyDin. The implant aided in scanning the surrounding buildings, reading heat signatures as well as demotions. "Ah... this way." she said, turning down an alley that looked as if it would only come to a dead end. It split off into another, smaller back alley that came out between two buildings, one of which was the local Public House. "How the hell did you get fucked up..?" shifting him a little, her hand going numb.
"Usually when I end up somewhere I'm pretty close to the ground, but this was the worst," he said with a groan. The fingers of his hand grasping her shoulder wrapped and tightened whenever a step got to being too painful. That was, as it turned out, a good portion of the walk. Lyall wasn't macho, he had absolutely no qualms whatsoever with wincing when he thought it hurt, even before it did. There was some hesitation at going down the seemingly dead-end alley. If she had been a stranger to him he would have found an excuse to go another way. But this was Feral Jane, he was 80% sure of it. When the alleyway opened up to that smaller side street and deposited them by the public house he exhaled, "I was about a story up in the air when I got here so I just fell and there wasn't much of anything to break my fall."
Jane didn't view him as weak for showing pain. If something hurt, it hurt.. she could feel the bite of a few thorns, but said nothing as her pain was nothing compared to his. She was worried, there was little she could for broken bones and knew nothing about this place or how things worked. Voiced raised in what seemed to be some kind of argument between several men that were standing outside the main entrance of the Pub. She didn't press forward, unsure of dragging the injured Lyall between a gaggle of angry men was really a good idea. She really didn't know what to do... but then, where really was no choice. They needed to get inside, she needed to get Lyall some help. " ...don't look at them..." she said quietly to Lyall, and then moved out from the alley, walking towards the door as if she had done it a million times before. That was often the way to play things, just go about it as if you belonged and nothing was out of place.
Lyall tried, his very best, to not look like he was clinging to her for walking support. One of his hands went up to the brim of the fedora to pull it down as if to shade his face. It was actually... not a bad, standoffish show. His glasses with the angle sort of obscured his gaze because of the light. It made him look terribly grave, as if he could have given the men a stern warning they would have listened to. When they survived stepping through the break of men he leaned in, his lips at her ear, "Where are you taking me?"
Jane almost missed a step as his whispered words came against her ear. The simple action sent a heated chill down her spine. Damn him for doing that. It caused a flush across her skin. "In here...." at the very least they could get a drink, and there was a good chance someone would know where to find a doctor; if the doctor him or herself wasn't sitting about drinking that was. Holding the door open for him, she aided him through into the dimly lit room of the public house. Typical, much as she would have expected given what she had seen of the place. "There..." nodding towards the bar. "..tenders know everything and everyone.." she said, half carrying him towards the bar. "we need to get you some help Lyall.." the concern in her voice was something she couldn't hide even if she had wanted to.
"I know, I'm not doing so well this time." He had never been hurt like this before. It wasn't as though he were going to lose a hand or anything, but the body could only take so much. Jane was... well, unusually kind to him. She had appeared from no where and instead of dodging to avoid him or looking frustrated, she actually had a sort of niceness and patience about her he had, previously, never seen before. Upon reaching the bar with her he leaned his weight off of her, thinking she must be ready for a reprieve from it. The bar stool was about two inches taller than he would have liked, but he was able to half sit on it, finding that it hurt less to keep weight on his good side and prop up the bad leg on the stool. The bartender went to where they were and Lyall looked at the kegs, discerning that the options there were few and went with the general, safe response of, "Two of the house drinks." How did he have money? Well, his employer generally knew where he was going to send them. Lyall had a rudimentary understanding of the money system and started picking through the green coins. Sort of like tarnished copper. Jane might have to be the clever one that bartered for the doctor information since his mind seemed more consumed with the want of pain relief. *
She was watching him, and notice of his discomfort only seemed to etch worried lines about a face that was riddled with scratches and pin-point pricks that left red freckles of blood about her skin. Lyall paid for the drinks, not that she was at all surprised by the fact that he seemed to have some understanding of this place, as he had said once about his 'employer', however, she would have thought the method of transport might have been something to work on. It seemed like playing Russian roulette. What if he materialized 20 stories up next time..? As the tender set the drinks before them, she offered a smile and spoke with a casual tone, keeping her features pleasant, her voice just as easy. " I was wondering if there was a local doctor near by..?" the tender was a rather large and imposing figure and stood there in silence, waiting the coin which he counted before dropping into the till. At first Jane thought there was little hope of garnering a response from the man, but then he pointed with a nod of his head towards the end of there bar where there sat a hunched figure with his head resting on folded arms. Jane looked back to Lyall, brows arching. "...the doctor..?" blinking a few times. "..did you want me to...ask him..?" it seemed a silly question given his inability to walk, and yet, she didn't want to be the one running the show.
"If he prescribes me a single leech I am running screaming out that door," it must have been an experience he had or he wouldn't have had that strong response. Given primitive surroundings, he was loathe to hold his breath about it. Yet, Jane was also hurt and displaced and hardly had a complaint for it. That seemed to take his resistance to trying down a notch before he conceded to her suggestion, "Yes, please ask." a thirsty downing of half his drink. The effort that it had taken to get there was absolutely something that had made him thirsty. He hoped for a glow of something to work against the discomfort before he questioned the bar keep, "Is this just a bar or are there rooms?" the bar tender made a gruff shake of his head and jerked a thumb, "two buildings down, on the right, they got rooms."
Jane had already slipped down towards what was apparently the local doctor by the time Lyall asked the tender about rooms. "Excuse me..." she said, standing short of the hunched figure. No response. "Excuse me...doctor..?" she said again, this time slightly louder. Still, there was no response from the figure. Jane turned, looking back towards Lyall, her brows knitting together, nothing about this seemed like it was going to work in their favor. With a sigh she reached, lightly shaking the fellow. This time where was a response, the man lurched up.."...the only way to save him is to cut it off..." he said, smacking his lips, his face lined with the wrinkled imprint of his sleeve from where his face had been pressed against it. "..wait..." he was looking around, then seeing Jane, he leaned towards her. "...got in a fight with some cats did we..?" Jane looked back to Lyall again, eyes wide in that Oh God..expression. Slowly looking back towards the doctor who was trying to get the bar tenders attention. "Wait.. we need your help... I need your help.." Jane softened her voice, a small note of pleading painted between the tone of her words. "My ...friend there.. he was thrown from a horse..." it was only after she said it that she pondered if there were horses on this world. Given there was no strange expression from the Doctor at the mention of the equine event, it seemed a safe bet there were indeed horses to be had. The man looked down the bar towards Lyall. "I think he might have broken something..." she said. The doctor just sat there for a moment, looking between the two of them before he spoke. "Another drink ifin you please..." he said to the tender whom served the Doctor another pint. "Pay the man.." he said to Jane, whom turned and looked at Lyall. The bar keep didn't care who paid as long as someone did. "Well, first thing ya need to do is get him laying down...a firm bed.. traction, need to set the bones in place, gunna hurt like hell..." his words fell off as he lifted the drink to his lips, swallowing down a good measure of the contents.
Lyall was through with his drink by the time there was the movement of Jane, a command he could read on her face well enough that she didn't have to say it. he sucked in a breath and then put more coin on the bar. One for him and the doctor, then. A more reserved swallow of the second glass until he was given news of how things were gonna hurt like hell. All right then. Heavy swallow and then he cleared his throat, "Does it have to be dealt with tonight or maybe," when the bartender set another cup in front of the doctor, "Maybe it's something you could do tomorrow? Did you know that alcohol impairs your judgement? The whole beer goggles thing isn't a myth, that really does happen to people. It throws off your entire perception of everything." Like the whole leg situation.
Beer goggles. It was something she had not thought about. had not the times they had been together been proceeded by much drinking. Perhaps that was the true reason behind any of it. Lyall only saw her as anything other than Feral Jane when he had reached the bottom of a few beers. The doctor kept drinking, finishing the beer with a lick of his upper lips. "Longer ye wait, more it will hurt..." he said, pushing the mug forward for a refill. Jane was thinking they might want to hurry and get that room before the good doctor here drinks away what funds Lyall has. "Okay well..." she moved back to Lyall, her arm snaking around his back. "Lets go.." she said, stern in this. She wasn't going to take anything from him about waiting until tomorrow.."The quicker we do this.." she said, pulling him up. "Two doors down..." she said, getting affirmation from the tender of what she had heard him tell Lyall. She would carry him if she had to, in fact, she thought about it.... then turned, offering her back. "Hold on..." she was going to piggy-back him.
The problem with Lyall was that he was, when it came to women, very much a coward. Though he could not have explained that it wasn't beer goggles so much as liquid courage, that was the real source of it. Jane had already forgotten about the time they had crossed paths in Rhydin and he stayed with her two or three days. That hadn't been a drinking misstep in the least. When he felt her arm go around him he looked up at her with the sad hope a child does at the dentist where they believe, somehow, that she will say the doctor is ill and that they must reschedule. She had him on his feet though. The resting had done him no immediate good, he bit back the urge to cry out and instantly pressed his side to her, his arm wrapping around to keep a hold of her. When she separated to offer her back to him he groaned at the thought, then completely gave into it. It didn't matter if the other men gave him curious, smirking looks. His hip and ankle hurt like all get out and he may never have to see them, or this planet, again. He would, apparently, be seeing Jane, who did not seem put out by the gesture but insistent. An exhale and then he leaned forward, arms wrapping around her neck, "You sure about this?" She was sort of small of frame.
Jane was not small of frame. 5'9 and a healthy 160. That might have seemed like a high number for a woman, but muscle weighed more and Jane kept herself in rather good physical shape; aside from her drinking. "Just hold on..." she said, her tone holding a slight bite. She was doubting herself more than him, doubting she had the ability, the femininity to hold any man, let alone Lyall. Perhaps she simply wasn't smart enough. "I'll be right back ..." she said to the doctor. And then off she went, moving with firm steps, her hands fetching behind, supporting Lyall. "Do try not to choke me..." to Lyall as she passed out the door, taking him two doors down to the Inn where they would, hopefully find a room. She carried him inside and up to the counter. She was going to let him do all the talking, he, after-all had the only funds.
"Holding," he said at the command. Truth was, Lyall lacked the assertion to catch a woman. Jane wondered night and day how he and Moka ever crossed paths and the truth of it was that Moka asserted herself. Beyond that, Lyall could spend weeks chatting at someone he liked and then sort of watch them drift off with a man that made his intentions better known. When she told the doctor she'd be right back he had to fight the want to cringe, which might have choked her just as she had told him not to. When they got into the inn he waved at the man behind the counter, "Room, please!" To which the inn keeper gave him a bewildered look followed by, "We've got one vacancy. Three larks a night," Lyall reached in his pocket and placed three larger, but still copper-tarnished-green, coins on the counter. The man placed a key in Lyall's hand, a piece of wood with the inn's name on one side with the number "114" on the other. Atleast it was the first floor, right? There was some guilt starting to set in, "I can try to walk the rest..."
Jane didn't say a word, she simply turned from the counter and headed in the direction of the room, Lyall had no choice but to take the ride less he intended in jumping off. Down the hall they went, Jane was breathing harder from the exertion, but she was far from reaching that burned out point. Room 114. Now she let her hold of him slip, bending her knees a little to let him off. She waited from him to unlock the door before offering her support once more, aiding him into the dark room. It seemed that Jane could see in the pitch black as she directed him right towards the bed before turning to find an oil lamp sitting in the center of a small table. Fishing her lighter from out her 'bar-of-many-holding' she set the lamp to burn, filling the room with the soft amber glow. It captured her features, washing them in a soft, amber hue. She was almost attractive in that moment, the fall of mahogany tresses adding a softness to her features. Such moments were fleeting and no doubt lost on Lyall. He didn't really see her, she knew that now. They were, to coin a vernacular... fuck buddies. "I'll be right back with the doctor..." she said, already heading for the door. There was nothing he could say or do what would have stopped her.
"Not the doctor, the man's a torturer!" Apparently though, she did not believe his stories or the following pleas that Lyall's voice made to her about how he put men on the rack and wasn't to be trusted. Jane was set on it. Alone in the room, it felt... quiet. The sort that consumed him and left him feeling rather uncomfortable in his own skin. Lyall didn't like these moments, they forced him to be introspective, to consider what was going on and how he felt about it. He took off is hat and hung it on the bedpost of the only medium-sized bed of the rather tight-quartered room. Was cozy the word? Maybe, except that there were no personal affects to make it emotionally comforting. Lyall tried to keep himself occupied by slowly working his way out of his shoes, his coat, the vest and the ascot. That left him with a loose fitting white shirt and grey slacks that had seen better days. The pain had been countered by the drinking, but was still enough that all the moving around he'd done was making him sweat. Jane was... falling through time with him, for him. They weren't fuck buddies at all, Lyall was thirty five and never kissed her. Beyond that, he just never really thought a woman would want to be invested in someone as backward and displaced as he was. If she had told him they had been together? He would have assumed it was an act of pity that she had, one she might not want to admit to to others.The tin had been in his room at the inn, the older version of himself had left it there for him. With what was about to happen, he didn't need glasses, either. He took the beaten frames off his head and put them on the nightstand, two red grooves on the side of his nose from where they had been perching.
It would seem that the doctor had little choice in the matter either. Jane could be quite persistent and demanding when she needed to be. She had pushed the man most of the way. When they came through the door, the doctor carried with him one of those typical doctor looking black bags. Dark ages indeed. Perhaps they still performed blood letting as a cure for sickness. However, Jane knew a little something about setting bone... it was something she had done before, but Lyall's injury seemed a little beyond that which she knew. As they entered, Jane fetched the lamp, setting it upon the table beside the bed. She avoided looking Lyall in the eyes. "Well... you need to get undressed boy.." the doctor said. He pointed to the armoire across the room. "should be another sheet in there..." it seemed the doctor was directing Jane to fetch the sheet, which she did without a word. "Well... get undressed... I need to be able to see the bone and I can't do that through your pants. I've seen it all before..." The doctor noted the look on Lyall's face with the request of stripping down. He looked to Jane, then looked back to Lyall. "You two...oh..I thought you were married or something..." he shrugged, Jane turned three shades red. "..could have fooled me.." Jane turned around, offering Lyall a measure of privacy. " Not like I've not seen it all before either.." muttering under her breath.
"I can't get undressed in front of her," he protested and then when Jane went red-- what was that, anger? Or was she blushing at the thought of an undressed man. The doctor was met with an uneasy look. His ankle had swollen. The skin just looked red and inflamed at the moment. The bruising would come later. When she finally turned her back to him he relented, removing his shirt and then his pants. When the doctor nodded to his underwear and said, "Got to look at that hip, take 'em off. You want to get better or not?" he grunted, pushing down his underwear but immediately putting the wad of cloth over the family jewels. Some illusion of privacy was needed! He laid back against the bed. Lyall had what was a fairly advanced sort of injury. The curve of his hip bone had fractured when he landed, which meant that there weren't any bones jabbing out or misaligned, just a great deal of pain and the need to rest on it least it come unhinged. "I'm not getting the leeches," he defended, even if it made no sense to the doctor.
Can't get undressed in front of her. She heard it and her mind put her own spin on it. She repulsed him. She wanted to leave then, wanted to go, run all the way back to that stone circle and start the cycle all over again with a gun to her head. Perhaps this had been a mistake. She couldn't turn less Lyall see the truth on her face, not yet. "Need to set things back in place.." the doctor said. "Yer going to have to help hold him down." when Jane didn't move, the doctor turned. "You girl... stop sulking and get over here and hold him down." Her face pinched, fists knotted a moment, then with a deep breath she turned around and moved to the bed. Her face was still flushed, though she avoided looking him in the face. "that's right.. just...lay your body across his chest.." Oh, how awkward was that.? She drew a breath, holding it as she did as the doctor ordered, laying her own chest across his. She ached, and not fro the scratches driven by those thorns. This was going to hurt him. Her arms moved, and in the end she was embracing him in more of a hug. "I'm sorry..." whispering against his ear.
"Maybe there's a clerk or something down the hall, this really isn't necessary," but the doctor shot him a look that told him to shut up, which he did, promptly. Lyall thought of himself as a slightly... odd looking man. His arms and legs had the same blonde curls of hair as his head. There was also that whole bit about him starting to feel sort of old and settled and, well, that surely he repulsed her. He blushed a fierce red when her chest pushed against his, one hand involuntarily drifting up as if to steady her in the place she was. That close, he could see the little red marks on her. He reached out to touch the ones on her cheek, curiously, his eyes shifting their focus from those small marks to her face just in time to catch the apology at the point that her arms hugged his arms to his body. It was the strangest thing, that her whisper could feel so familiar to him. Disarming, even. He turned his head in surprise at it, just before there was a cracking sound and the jolt of pain sent his body into a fit of tension. Lyall normally didn't curse, but a string of cursing followed. The tipsy doctor let out a snarky sort of laugh, "You'll thank me in the morning." Behind the pain came the relief of the ball of his femur fitting more appropriately into the socket of his hip. It hadn't been entirely dislocated, but the adjustment had helped.
Jane didn't have stunning eyes, not the pale blues, soft greens or even dusty-pinks that offered a softness... no, Jane's eye were a dark brown, a boring colour indeed. In that moment, that single tick of time, the touch against the red freckle upon her face. Why had the older Lyall given up the tin..? Why had he given it to this time..? Why had he left it. She closed her eyes, burring her face upon his shoulder in ready of the doctor's pull and twist of his leg. She heard it, even felt it echo through his body. She held him longer than was needed..."You can let him go now..." the doctor said. "....and you say the two of you are not together... bah, even a blind man can see how she feels about you boy.." Jane could have crawled under the bed right then. She was still pressed against his chest, her face buried against his shoulder. She had to think of an escape. "I have to pee..." she said, moving with a swiftness to avoid looking at him or him seeing her face and the heat that painted it a warm red.
The doctor rolled his eyes, shaking his head slightly. "...boy, if I was twenty years younger I'd be all over that..."
Jane was always scurrying away from him. Sometimes she seemed annoyed with him. When the doctor said that there was a like of her for him, he would have countered it with an argument except that Jane's reaction was the most telling. She wasn't rolling her eyes or spitting at the doctor. The hold she had on him was tight, it was the sort of hold that sent a chill of worry down his spine and cut him with the realization that Jane's path in time was no longer linear to his. They had started to skip around each other. As quickly as she moved, the blush touched her eyes and neck. If it weren't for the fact that an incredible, searing pain went through his leg when he sat up, he might have pursued her. As it was, he just sat up and instantly regretted it, laying back down with a shudder from the pain. The doctor's comment was met with a dark look. Either Lyall disliked Jane being spoken of that way, or he just disliked a truth that had been brought to the surface uncomfortably, "You should take your pay and go," he said, grabbing his jacket off the floor to turn the money over to the doctor. Once the doctor left Lyall fought to get his underwear on and, after undergoing the pain of that success, attempted nothing else. Modesty could be completed by pulling the ratty blanket over himself.
Jane didn't need the use of the bathroom, she hadn't in fact gone very far at all. The doctor passed her on his way as she sat there with her back against the wall. He looked at the woman for a moment, perhaps entertaining the idea of himself at younger moments when he himself might have had a chance. That was unless she liked older men. " Well girl, if you find yourself lonely and in need of company.. you know where to find me." he said with a chuckle as he moved off down the hall. Jane waited for long moments, then with a sigh she stood and moved off down the hall. She was gone for a long time..leaving Lyall alone, perhaps to sleep. When she returned it was with a few needed items, like fluid and something to put in his stomach. Bread, cheese, apples and water. Hell must have frozen over, Jane was drinking water and not vodka. Quietly closing the door behind her, she set everything down on the table, taking a sly look to see if he was awake.
Lyall wasn't, not anymore. Asleep on his back, his head was rolled to one side, an arm splayed out and half hanging over the bed. At first the pain had been too much, but once it subsided his body was quick to put him to rest. Tomorrow would be more manageable, it had to be. His chest rose and fell in a gentle snore, the mess of his blond hair pressed this way and that. In the morning, he would be grateful. In the moment, he was oblivious, as many times he would ramble and be oblivious.
She was quiet as a mouse, moving to the edge of the bed she carefully lifted his arm setting it back against his side before she pulled the other covers over him. She stood there, watching him sleep and wondered what his dreams were made of. So many questions. Her chest felt heavy... with a turn she moved back to the table, taking one chair to sit on, the other to rest her legs on as she tucked down into herself, letting her eyes close. She'd slept in far worse places.
Somewhere in all of space and time was a planet, much like Rhy'Din in many respects, especially the one where it had a sort of nexus that permitted interstellar, and thus temporal, travel. It wasn't as wide spread and they tended to monitor it a great deal more. The technology there was somewhat limited, there were minor traces of the use of electricity but it seemed a limited resource given the use of lanterns instead of streetlights.
With the hundreds, upon thousands, of miles that he traveled there was sometimes difficulties in sticking the landing. This was the worst he had ever experienced. When he blinked into existence the ground so happened to be one story beneath his feet, sending him to an immediate drop onto a cobblestone ground. The resulting crack of bone came, sending him into a cry of agony as he held onto his hip and curled on his side. Oh. Fuck. That was how the first hour went for Lyall. He had fractured his hip and ankle the instant he came to the planet and was in what he thought, largely, was a partly abandoned part of the city. A broken down factory of sorts? No one appeared to be around. It was also night time, he could see only some indications of street lamps lit down a long alley in the distance. With a frown he grabbed his fedora, put it on his head and fought to get to his one good leg, using the side of the building for support. What were the chances that there would be a good doctor, someone who could actually help him and not just stick leeches to his body. After working his way just three yards he slumped against the building in pain. His hand went into his jacket pocket where the tin was. His hand closed around it, needing something to hold. Lyall didn't think anyone could hear him, he generally thought no one would ever be there for him, but he spoke against the brick wall like a prayer, "Somebody... please help."
She opened her eyes to find only darkness and then pain. Sharp, stinging pain much like the bite of horse flies. She tried to move, but found only more biting stings...."Holy shit..." the henge she had woken to was over-grown, covered in a massive sticker bush. "Son of a bitch..." the more she struggled the more she only seemed to get herself tangled and snagged. It took the better part of an hour to free herself from the briar though she would be picking thorns out of her hair, skin and clothing for days. Covered in scratches she looked as if she had gotten into a flight with a room full of angry cats. Standing on the outside edge of the stone she looked up into the sky, wondering where she was or even when. She didn't recognize and of the constellations. Instinctively her hand closed once again about that braided length of hair, something was drawing her North. She turned, seeing a few dim lights in the distance, shapes of buildings breaking the natural flow of the horizon. Jane hurried, breaking into a run. A sense of urgency pulled her, dragging her onwards towards those buildings. She had no idea what she as running into, for all she knew this place could have been the stronghold of vampires or goblins. The turns and twists down abandoned buildings seemed an endless maze, when she rounded the next corner she almost ran face-to-face into the very person she had set forth to find. She caught herself before she actually ran into him. "Lyall...." she said his name, a whispered hope that she wasn't imagining things, that it was really him. Still clutching that lock of hair, fearing if she let it go he would vanish.
"Feral Jane?" he breathed her name and looked up, his face still tightened in pain. One hand was grasping his hip, hoping that the pressure of his hold on it would give him some relief. Was he seeing things? He couldn't bring himself to push off the wall when he looked at her, "I'm not supposed to be in Rhy'Din though. Something must have happened, I must be off course." Lyall thought he must have been accidentally dumped off at the marketplace, in some part of it he wasn't familiar with, to explain her appearance.
Brows furrowed a moment as she stood there looking at him, those muddy-brown eyes dropped to his hand and the way he was holding his hip. "What the hell happened..?" she said, moving, she came beside him, taking his arm over her shoulder in order to help support him. "We're not in Rhydin..." she said, quietly. "I have no bloody clue where I ended up at..." trying to sound light, but from the look of pain on his face. "Where... are we..?" looking away from him, she searched for other signs of life or anything that might have been a threat towards them. They couldn't just stand here out in the open. Okay Lyall... you were the one with all the answers.
"It was supposed to be Niaboi... Naropie... something like that. How did you get here?" His arm came around her and brought her side against his quickly as if afraid he would fall without her support. He nodded towards the street and started hobbling with her to it, "There's gonna be an inn or something around here. All the major cities have them for travelers. I gotta get a place to stay and a doctor and a drink." The drink was mostly about doing something, anything, to dull the throb in his body.
Jane wasn't a wilting violet by any measure. It was easy for her to support Lyall. She held him close, arching her body to the side so that she was pulling more of his weight off that leg. "Oh... yeah, how did I get here... um... whell..." she shrugged. "We can talk about that later, first lets find...." she stopped talking a moment as she shifted her thoughts, reaching into that part of her mind that controlled the implant she had been fitted with during the world prior to RhyDin. The implant aided in scanning the surrounding buildings, reading heat signatures as well as demotions. "Ah... this way." she said, turning down an alley that looked as if it would only come to a dead end. It split off into another, smaller back alley that came out between two buildings, one of which was the local Public House. "How the hell did you get fucked up..?" shifting him a little, her hand going numb.
"Usually when I end up somewhere I'm pretty close to the ground, but this was the worst," he said with a groan. The fingers of his hand grasping her shoulder wrapped and tightened whenever a step got to being too painful. That was, as it turned out, a good portion of the walk. Lyall wasn't macho, he had absolutely no qualms whatsoever with wincing when he thought it hurt, even before it did. There was some hesitation at going down the seemingly dead-end alley. If she had been a stranger to him he would have found an excuse to go another way. But this was Feral Jane, he was 80% sure of it. When the alleyway opened up to that smaller side street and deposited them by the public house he exhaled, "I was about a story up in the air when I got here so I just fell and there wasn't much of anything to break my fall."
Jane didn't view him as weak for showing pain. If something hurt, it hurt.. she could feel the bite of a few thorns, but said nothing as her pain was nothing compared to his. She was worried, there was little she could for broken bones and knew nothing about this place or how things worked. Voiced raised in what seemed to be some kind of argument between several men that were standing outside the main entrance of the Pub. She didn't press forward, unsure of dragging the injured Lyall between a gaggle of angry men was really a good idea. She really didn't know what to do... but then, where really was no choice. They needed to get inside, she needed to get Lyall some help. " ...don't look at them..." she said quietly to Lyall, and then moved out from the alley, walking towards the door as if she had done it a million times before. That was often the way to play things, just go about it as if you belonged and nothing was out of place.
Lyall tried, his very best, to not look like he was clinging to her for walking support. One of his hands went up to the brim of the fedora to pull it down as if to shade his face. It was actually... not a bad, standoffish show. His glasses with the angle sort of obscured his gaze because of the light. It made him look terribly grave, as if he could have given the men a stern warning they would have listened to. When they survived stepping through the break of men he leaned in, his lips at her ear, "Where are you taking me?"
Jane almost missed a step as his whispered words came against her ear. The simple action sent a heated chill down her spine. Damn him for doing that. It caused a flush across her skin. "In here...." at the very least they could get a drink, and there was a good chance someone would know where to find a doctor; if the doctor him or herself wasn't sitting about drinking that was. Holding the door open for him, she aided him through into the dimly lit room of the public house. Typical, much as she would have expected given what she had seen of the place. "There..." nodding towards the bar. "..tenders know everything and everyone.." she said, half carrying him towards the bar. "we need to get you some help Lyall.." the concern in her voice was something she couldn't hide even if she had wanted to.
"I know, I'm not doing so well this time." He had never been hurt like this before. It wasn't as though he were going to lose a hand or anything, but the body could only take so much. Jane was... well, unusually kind to him. She had appeared from no where and instead of dodging to avoid him or looking frustrated, she actually had a sort of niceness and patience about her he had, previously, never seen before. Upon reaching the bar with her he leaned his weight off of her, thinking she must be ready for a reprieve from it. The bar stool was about two inches taller than he would have liked, but he was able to half sit on it, finding that it hurt less to keep weight on his good side and prop up the bad leg on the stool. The bartender went to where they were and Lyall looked at the kegs, discerning that the options there were few and went with the general, safe response of, "Two of the house drinks." How did he have money? Well, his employer generally knew where he was going to send them. Lyall had a rudimentary understanding of the money system and started picking through the green coins. Sort of like tarnished copper. Jane might have to be the clever one that bartered for the doctor information since his mind seemed more consumed with the want of pain relief. *
She was watching him, and notice of his discomfort only seemed to etch worried lines about a face that was riddled with scratches and pin-point pricks that left red freckles of blood about her skin. Lyall paid for the drinks, not that she was at all surprised by the fact that he seemed to have some understanding of this place, as he had said once about his 'employer', however, she would have thought the method of transport might have been something to work on. It seemed like playing Russian roulette. What if he materialized 20 stories up next time..? As the tender set the drinks before them, she offered a smile and spoke with a casual tone, keeping her features pleasant, her voice just as easy. " I was wondering if there was a local doctor near by..?" the tender was a rather large and imposing figure and stood there in silence, waiting the coin which he counted before dropping into the till. At first Jane thought there was little hope of garnering a response from the man, but then he pointed with a nod of his head towards the end of there bar where there sat a hunched figure with his head resting on folded arms. Jane looked back to Lyall, brows arching. "...the doctor..?" blinking a few times. "..did you want me to...ask him..?" it seemed a silly question given his inability to walk, and yet, she didn't want to be the one running the show.
"If he prescribes me a single leech I am running screaming out that door," it must have been an experience he had or he wouldn't have had that strong response. Given primitive surroundings, he was loathe to hold his breath about it. Yet, Jane was also hurt and displaced and hardly had a complaint for it. That seemed to take his resistance to trying down a notch before he conceded to her suggestion, "Yes, please ask." a thirsty downing of half his drink. The effort that it had taken to get there was absolutely something that had made him thirsty. He hoped for a glow of something to work against the discomfort before he questioned the bar keep, "Is this just a bar or are there rooms?" the bar tender made a gruff shake of his head and jerked a thumb, "two buildings down, on the right, they got rooms."
Jane had already slipped down towards what was apparently the local doctor by the time Lyall asked the tender about rooms. "Excuse me..." she said, standing short of the hunched figure. No response. "Excuse me...doctor..?" she said again, this time slightly louder. Still, there was no response from the figure. Jane turned, looking back towards Lyall, her brows knitting together, nothing about this seemed like it was going to work in their favor. With a sigh she reached, lightly shaking the fellow. This time where was a response, the man lurched up.."...the only way to save him is to cut it off..." he said, smacking his lips, his face lined with the wrinkled imprint of his sleeve from where his face had been pressed against it. "..wait..." he was looking around, then seeing Jane, he leaned towards her. "...got in a fight with some cats did we..?" Jane looked back to Lyall again, eyes wide in that Oh God..expression. Slowly looking back towards the doctor who was trying to get the bar tenders attention. "Wait.. we need your help... I need your help.." Jane softened her voice, a small note of pleading painted between the tone of her words. "My ...friend there.. he was thrown from a horse..." it was only after she said it that she pondered if there were horses on this world. Given there was no strange expression from the Doctor at the mention of the equine event, it seemed a safe bet there were indeed horses to be had. The man looked down the bar towards Lyall. "I think he might have broken something..." she said. The doctor just sat there for a moment, looking between the two of them before he spoke. "Another drink ifin you please..." he said to the tender whom served the Doctor another pint. "Pay the man.." he said to Jane, whom turned and looked at Lyall. The bar keep didn't care who paid as long as someone did. "Well, first thing ya need to do is get him laying down...a firm bed.. traction, need to set the bones in place, gunna hurt like hell..." his words fell off as he lifted the drink to his lips, swallowing down a good measure of the contents.
Lyall was through with his drink by the time there was the movement of Jane, a command he could read on her face well enough that she didn't have to say it. he sucked in a breath and then put more coin on the bar. One for him and the doctor, then. A more reserved swallow of the second glass until he was given news of how things were gonna hurt like hell. All right then. Heavy swallow and then he cleared his throat, "Does it have to be dealt with tonight or maybe," when the bartender set another cup in front of the doctor, "Maybe it's something you could do tomorrow? Did you know that alcohol impairs your judgement? The whole beer goggles thing isn't a myth, that really does happen to people. It throws off your entire perception of everything." Like the whole leg situation.
Beer goggles. It was something she had not thought about. had not the times they had been together been proceeded by much drinking. Perhaps that was the true reason behind any of it. Lyall only saw her as anything other than Feral Jane when he had reached the bottom of a few beers. The doctor kept drinking, finishing the beer with a lick of his upper lips. "Longer ye wait, more it will hurt..." he said, pushing the mug forward for a refill. Jane was thinking they might want to hurry and get that room before the good doctor here drinks away what funds Lyall has. "Okay well..." she moved back to Lyall, her arm snaking around his back. "Lets go.." she said, stern in this. She wasn't going to take anything from him about waiting until tomorrow.."The quicker we do this.." she said, pulling him up. "Two doors down..." she said, getting affirmation from the tender of what she had heard him tell Lyall. She would carry him if she had to, in fact, she thought about it.... then turned, offering her back. "Hold on..." she was going to piggy-back him.
The problem with Lyall was that he was, when it came to women, very much a coward. Though he could not have explained that it wasn't beer goggles so much as liquid courage, that was the real source of it. Jane had already forgotten about the time they had crossed paths in Rhydin and he stayed with her two or three days. That hadn't been a drinking misstep in the least. When he felt her arm go around him he looked up at her with the sad hope a child does at the dentist where they believe, somehow, that she will say the doctor is ill and that they must reschedule. She had him on his feet though. The resting had done him no immediate good, he bit back the urge to cry out and instantly pressed his side to her, his arm wrapping around to keep a hold of her. When she separated to offer her back to him he groaned at the thought, then completely gave into it. It didn't matter if the other men gave him curious, smirking looks. His hip and ankle hurt like all get out and he may never have to see them, or this planet, again. He would, apparently, be seeing Jane, who did not seem put out by the gesture but insistent. An exhale and then he leaned forward, arms wrapping around her neck, "You sure about this?" She was sort of small of frame.
Jane was not small of frame. 5'9 and a healthy 160. That might have seemed like a high number for a woman, but muscle weighed more and Jane kept herself in rather good physical shape; aside from her drinking. "Just hold on..." she said, her tone holding a slight bite. She was doubting herself more than him, doubting she had the ability, the femininity to hold any man, let alone Lyall. Perhaps she simply wasn't smart enough. "I'll be right back ..." she said to the doctor. And then off she went, moving with firm steps, her hands fetching behind, supporting Lyall. "Do try not to choke me..." to Lyall as she passed out the door, taking him two doors down to the Inn where they would, hopefully find a room. She carried him inside and up to the counter. She was going to let him do all the talking, he, after-all had the only funds.
"Holding," he said at the command. Truth was, Lyall lacked the assertion to catch a woman. Jane wondered night and day how he and Moka ever crossed paths and the truth of it was that Moka asserted herself. Beyond that, Lyall could spend weeks chatting at someone he liked and then sort of watch them drift off with a man that made his intentions better known. When she told the doctor she'd be right back he had to fight the want to cringe, which might have choked her just as she had told him not to. When they got into the inn he waved at the man behind the counter, "Room, please!" To which the inn keeper gave him a bewildered look followed by, "We've got one vacancy. Three larks a night," Lyall reached in his pocket and placed three larger, but still copper-tarnished-green, coins on the counter. The man placed a key in Lyall's hand, a piece of wood with the inn's name on one side with the number "114" on the other. Atleast it was the first floor, right? There was some guilt starting to set in, "I can try to walk the rest..."
Jane didn't say a word, she simply turned from the counter and headed in the direction of the room, Lyall had no choice but to take the ride less he intended in jumping off. Down the hall they went, Jane was breathing harder from the exertion, but she was far from reaching that burned out point. Room 114. Now she let her hold of him slip, bending her knees a little to let him off. She waited from him to unlock the door before offering her support once more, aiding him into the dark room. It seemed that Jane could see in the pitch black as she directed him right towards the bed before turning to find an oil lamp sitting in the center of a small table. Fishing her lighter from out her 'bar-of-many-holding' she set the lamp to burn, filling the room with the soft amber glow. It captured her features, washing them in a soft, amber hue. She was almost attractive in that moment, the fall of mahogany tresses adding a softness to her features. Such moments were fleeting and no doubt lost on Lyall. He didn't really see her, she knew that now. They were, to coin a vernacular... fuck buddies. "I'll be right back with the doctor..." she said, already heading for the door. There was nothing he could say or do what would have stopped her.
"Not the doctor, the man's a torturer!" Apparently though, she did not believe his stories or the following pleas that Lyall's voice made to her about how he put men on the rack and wasn't to be trusted. Jane was set on it. Alone in the room, it felt... quiet. The sort that consumed him and left him feeling rather uncomfortable in his own skin. Lyall didn't like these moments, they forced him to be introspective, to consider what was going on and how he felt about it. He took off is hat and hung it on the bedpost of the only medium-sized bed of the rather tight-quartered room. Was cozy the word? Maybe, except that there were no personal affects to make it emotionally comforting. Lyall tried to keep himself occupied by slowly working his way out of his shoes, his coat, the vest and the ascot. That left him with a loose fitting white shirt and grey slacks that had seen better days. The pain had been countered by the drinking, but was still enough that all the moving around he'd done was making him sweat. Jane was... falling through time with him, for him. They weren't fuck buddies at all, Lyall was thirty five and never kissed her. Beyond that, he just never really thought a woman would want to be invested in someone as backward and displaced as he was. If she had told him they had been together? He would have assumed it was an act of pity that she had, one she might not want to admit to to others.The tin had been in his room at the inn, the older version of himself had left it there for him. With what was about to happen, he didn't need glasses, either. He took the beaten frames off his head and put them on the nightstand, two red grooves on the side of his nose from where they had been perching.
It would seem that the doctor had little choice in the matter either. Jane could be quite persistent and demanding when she needed to be. She had pushed the man most of the way. When they came through the door, the doctor carried with him one of those typical doctor looking black bags. Dark ages indeed. Perhaps they still performed blood letting as a cure for sickness. However, Jane knew a little something about setting bone... it was something she had done before, but Lyall's injury seemed a little beyond that which she knew. As they entered, Jane fetched the lamp, setting it upon the table beside the bed. She avoided looking Lyall in the eyes. "Well... you need to get undressed boy.." the doctor said. He pointed to the armoire across the room. "should be another sheet in there..." it seemed the doctor was directing Jane to fetch the sheet, which she did without a word. "Well... get undressed... I need to be able to see the bone and I can't do that through your pants. I've seen it all before..." The doctor noted the look on Lyall's face with the request of stripping down. He looked to Jane, then looked back to Lyall. "You two...oh..I thought you were married or something..." he shrugged, Jane turned three shades red. "..could have fooled me.." Jane turned around, offering Lyall a measure of privacy. " Not like I've not seen it all before either.." muttering under her breath.
"I can't get undressed in front of her," he protested and then when Jane went red-- what was that, anger? Or was she blushing at the thought of an undressed man. The doctor was met with an uneasy look. His ankle had swollen. The skin just looked red and inflamed at the moment. The bruising would come later. When she finally turned her back to him he relented, removing his shirt and then his pants. When the doctor nodded to his underwear and said, "Got to look at that hip, take 'em off. You want to get better or not?" he grunted, pushing down his underwear but immediately putting the wad of cloth over the family jewels. Some illusion of privacy was needed! He laid back against the bed. Lyall had what was a fairly advanced sort of injury. The curve of his hip bone had fractured when he landed, which meant that there weren't any bones jabbing out or misaligned, just a great deal of pain and the need to rest on it least it come unhinged. "I'm not getting the leeches," he defended, even if it made no sense to the doctor.
Can't get undressed in front of her. She heard it and her mind put her own spin on it. She repulsed him. She wanted to leave then, wanted to go, run all the way back to that stone circle and start the cycle all over again with a gun to her head. Perhaps this had been a mistake. She couldn't turn less Lyall see the truth on her face, not yet. "Need to set things back in place.." the doctor said. "Yer going to have to help hold him down." when Jane didn't move, the doctor turned. "You girl... stop sulking and get over here and hold him down." Her face pinched, fists knotted a moment, then with a deep breath she turned around and moved to the bed. Her face was still flushed, though she avoided looking him in the face. "that's right.. just...lay your body across his chest.." Oh, how awkward was that.? She drew a breath, holding it as she did as the doctor ordered, laying her own chest across his. She ached, and not fro the scratches driven by those thorns. This was going to hurt him. Her arms moved, and in the end she was embracing him in more of a hug. "I'm sorry..." whispering against his ear.
"Maybe there's a clerk or something down the hall, this really isn't necessary," but the doctor shot him a look that told him to shut up, which he did, promptly. Lyall thought of himself as a slightly... odd looking man. His arms and legs had the same blonde curls of hair as his head. There was also that whole bit about him starting to feel sort of old and settled and, well, that surely he repulsed her. He blushed a fierce red when her chest pushed against his, one hand involuntarily drifting up as if to steady her in the place she was. That close, he could see the little red marks on her. He reached out to touch the ones on her cheek, curiously, his eyes shifting their focus from those small marks to her face just in time to catch the apology at the point that her arms hugged his arms to his body. It was the strangest thing, that her whisper could feel so familiar to him. Disarming, even. He turned his head in surprise at it, just before there was a cracking sound and the jolt of pain sent his body into a fit of tension. Lyall normally didn't curse, but a string of cursing followed. The tipsy doctor let out a snarky sort of laugh, "You'll thank me in the morning." Behind the pain came the relief of the ball of his femur fitting more appropriately into the socket of his hip. It hadn't been entirely dislocated, but the adjustment had helped.
Jane didn't have stunning eyes, not the pale blues, soft greens or even dusty-pinks that offered a softness... no, Jane's eye were a dark brown, a boring colour indeed. In that moment, that single tick of time, the touch against the red freckle upon her face. Why had the older Lyall given up the tin..? Why had he given it to this time..? Why had he left it. She closed her eyes, burring her face upon his shoulder in ready of the doctor's pull and twist of his leg. She heard it, even felt it echo through his body. She held him longer than was needed..."You can let him go now..." the doctor said. "....and you say the two of you are not together... bah, even a blind man can see how she feels about you boy.." Jane could have crawled under the bed right then. She was still pressed against his chest, her face buried against his shoulder. She had to think of an escape. "I have to pee..." she said, moving with a swiftness to avoid looking at him or him seeing her face and the heat that painted it a warm red.
The doctor rolled his eyes, shaking his head slightly. "...boy, if I was twenty years younger I'd be all over that..."
Jane was always scurrying away from him. Sometimes she seemed annoyed with him. When the doctor said that there was a like of her for him, he would have countered it with an argument except that Jane's reaction was the most telling. She wasn't rolling her eyes or spitting at the doctor. The hold she had on him was tight, it was the sort of hold that sent a chill of worry down his spine and cut him with the realization that Jane's path in time was no longer linear to his. They had started to skip around each other. As quickly as she moved, the blush touched her eyes and neck. If it weren't for the fact that an incredible, searing pain went through his leg when he sat up, he might have pursued her. As it was, he just sat up and instantly regretted it, laying back down with a shudder from the pain. The doctor's comment was met with a dark look. Either Lyall disliked Jane being spoken of that way, or he just disliked a truth that had been brought to the surface uncomfortably, "You should take your pay and go," he said, grabbing his jacket off the floor to turn the money over to the doctor. Once the doctor left Lyall fought to get his underwear on and, after undergoing the pain of that success, attempted nothing else. Modesty could be completed by pulling the ratty blanket over himself.
Jane didn't need the use of the bathroom, she hadn't in fact gone very far at all. The doctor passed her on his way as she sat there with her back against the wall. He looked at the woman for a moment, perhaps entertaining the idea of himself at younger moments when he himself might have had a chance. That was unless she liked older men. " Well girl, if you find yourself lonely and in need of company.. you know where to find me." he said with a chuckle as he moved off down the hall. Jane waited for long moments, then with a sigh she stood and moved off down the hall. She was gone for a long time..leaving Lyall alone, perhaps to sleep. When she returned it was with a few needed items, like fluid and something to put in his stomach. Bread, cheese, apples and water. Hell must have frozen over, Jane was drinking water and not vodka. Quietly closing the door behind her, she set everything down on the table, taking a sly look to see if he was awake.
Lyall wasn't, not anymore. Asleep on his back, his head was rolled to one side, an arm splayed out and half hanging over the bed. At first the pain had been too much, but once it subsided his body was quick to put him to rest. Tomorrow would be more manageable, it had to be. His chest rose and fell in a gentle snore, the mess of his blond hair pressed this way and that. In the morning, he would be grateful. In the moment, he was oblivious, as many times he would ramble and be oblivious.
She was quiet as a mouse, moving to the edge of the bed she carefully lifted his arm setting it back against his side before she pulled the other covers over him. She stood there, watching him sleep and wondered what his dreams were made of. So many questions. Her chest felt heavy... with a turn she moved back to the table, taking one chair to sit on, the other to rest her legs on as she tucked down into herself, letting her eyes close. She'd slept in far worse places.