Patching things up

[tefe-holland.livejournal.com]

They had taken up residence in the infirmary to start patching up the wounded and see how many people were missing. Tefe knew that some of the prisoners had escaped into the swamp but they could wait for now. Most of them had no idea what they were in for by escaping into the Louisiana swampland. They'd be happy to be recaptured most likely.

She had caused no few blushes and stares by showing up the way she had. It wasn't her fault she could heal her skin but not her clothes after her encounter with the napalm. Now she was dressed in a long shirt with her bare legs and feet showing from beneath it.

Caleb needed to be sat on and healed but he had to sit still for two seconds first, that would be the hard part. Other than than Tefe wasn't sure who else was around and what they still had to do.

"Hold still." The guard flinched when she touched him where he had a large gash on his face until he realized where she touched there was no more pain. "There, not even a scar. You can go now." Flesh wounds were easy, that's why she always healed them first. Bones were much harder.

Hopefully the others were on their way, Tefe wasn't exactly a take charge of a bad situation kind of gal. At least not in a situation like this, when it came down to fighting she usually took care of herself and then left. Others took care of the aftermath and these people were looking at her like she knew what to do.

And really she didn't.

Comments

[caleb-z.livejournal.com]

Caleb manages something similar to a normal walk as he approaches Corrine.

“I doubt that's a good sighn," he says through an uneasy smile. "Are you alright?”

[damage-girl.livejournal.com]

She taps a finger lazily against her head. "Quelling the riots."

[caleb-z.livejournal.com]

Deductive reasoning was always Caleb’s single strongest skill. It’s the skill which has allowed him to master so many others.

“Hammond?”

[damage-girl.livejournal.com]

Right. Deductive genius.

This is usually the part where she'd fling some snide remark in his direction. It doesn't come. "Yeah. Y'know. 'Phenomenal cosmic power'," she smirks a little, "Itty bitty brain space."

[caleb-z.livejournal.com]

He rests his sore frame on the ground beside her, sighing in relief as he gets off of his feet.

“Telepaths have a way of, uh …. well, of sodding your brain over. In, uh … in this particular case, the offending telepath has already been …” He glances first at the ground, then at his watch.

“He’s no longer an issue. I, uh I-I don’t know if there’s any comfort to be found in that, but if so, there it is. And-and if not …” His attempt to lend Corrine his ear is cut short by a sudden tightening of a knot in his stomach, causing him to lurch forward in a series of short dry heaves.

“Oh, Bloody hell…”

[damage-girl.livejournal.com]

A resigned sigh but she smiles. "Sounds like you're worse the wear for it."

She gives him a hearty 'good job, cadet' pat on the back. There's a stack of nearby towels and she hands him one. "And yes, it does make me feel better."

She pulls her hair out of her face and thinks about it. It still makes her kind of dizzy to do so, but. "I know there's bad out there. Intellectually, I get that. There's even really bad. But evil, real evil? Someone whose soul is made of rot... completely devoid of anything that means anything or is worth anything..." She shrugs. "I don't think I've ever seen that until today. S'jarring."

[caleb-z.livejournal.com]

He accepts the towel and wipes around wipes around his mouth. He may not have actually thrown up, but he still doesn’t exactly feel clean. “We’ve both encountered entities like that, love. Most of them just have the excuse of not having any soul at all.”

“I'm hardly certain, but, uh ... from what I’ve been told, I, uh … I think that tainted soul might have given me the mystical equivalent of food poisoning.” He chuckles minutely. “I guess that’s what I get for over-eating, then, eh?”

[damage-girl.livejournal.com]

Corrine idly notes he still hasn't stopped with the 'love' thing. Last year at this same time he was insane, not eating, not sleeping, and seeing his comatose sister in her kitchen. Not to mention the last few days. Bickering over a word just isn't worth it right now.

"Eww?" she snickers. "I don't want to think about consuming Hammond's soul-- or any other part of him. Actually, let's just stay away from discussing consuming anyone's soul at all, hmm? I do want to eat and have sex before the end of the year, and it's going to take at least two weeks to get the 'nasty' out of my head."

[caleb-z.livejournal.com]

That took the wind out of his sails. In truth, Caleb was only trying to make her laugh, or even crack a little smile. She looked like she could have stood to just then.

He’s not quite sure what to say to that, so he decides to just let it go. “Right. Very good, then.” And he’s silent, unsure of how to proceed. Internally his thoughts are still of watching Amelia grow up, the entire time lying motionless in a hospital bed when she should have been getting kicked out of college for placing her unique stamp on sorority parties. Corrine may not heave meant to, but he feels as if she had rubbed his nose in that somehow. Well, that is Corrine, now, isn’t it?

Hammond may not have had the opportunity to get into his head the same way he did hers, but he did manage to do a number on Caleb just the same.

“Sorry.”

[damage-girl.livejournal.com]

Puppy has taken fire. This is getting really old, really fast. Well, honestly, Corrine couldn't blame him too terribly much for taking everything she says as a snipe; even when she's laughing along or smiling. For the most part, her smile usually meant debris along with whatever explosion she was having.

People can change, though, and she'd spent almost a year trying to get Caleb to see that. She's spent months biting her tongue and doing her damnest to be nice to him, to make amends, to be friends. He's got the guilt ready at every turn, packaged up like a morbid little gift that just keeps on giving.

"No, you're not," she says snidely. "My last few days have been just as fucking crappy as yours, Caleb. I'm sorry if I'm not the epitomy of jovial and polite. Unlike you, when I've got a mouthful of bile, I don't choke it down and smile around it. No, I don't want to talk about how you can suck the essence right out of someone until they're just a fleshy lump, no matter how awful that 'fleshy lump' is. I'd think after all the--"

A breath. "After everything we went through together I thought maybe one day you'd get that it has nothing to do with you. Your abilities unsettle me. If that makes me a nasty bitch--" She shakes her head. "Y'know what, nevermind. I'm always going to be a nasty bitch to you, no matter what I do. I hurt you once, and I will never, ever be your friend because of that, because that's just the way you are, Caleb. You wanna bathe in it-- have it."

She storms out of the room, leaving him sitting on the floor. With any luck there's still a few more escapees to toss-- oh, yes, literally toss-- back into their cells.

[caleb-z.livejournal.com]

He sits there, listening to her rant, and when she leaves, he doesn’t even try to follow her. He sees no point in even trying. She’s just being, well …. Corrine. For a few seconds he sits there, trying to figure out where that came from. All he had tried to do was give her someone to talk to, and she laid into him. Normally an unexplained and, to his mind, unjustified explosion like that would cause him to reconsider his position in the world, but given the tense situation, he dismisses it as stress.