028: VIDEO

[intheblanks]

[The camera flicks on as Chase's network device is casually tossed onto a table in an unfamiliar apartment. This is not where he's been living for his most recent year in the city. Past the set of keys partially obscuring him from view there's a room that looks lived in - just not recently, and not too much.

Anyone who's known him long enough (and just a few others) might recognise a room on the top floor of Building 12.

He's going through the bookshelves, taking a small bundle out and looking through. Some slot back into place while others he tosses lightly into a pile on the couch.

Then he stops. The pile in progress - the topmost book reads Immunology, Allergology and Rhematology and a magazine sticking out looks to be titled What Car? - falls in a shower to the floor. Chase stands where he is, raising a hand in slow motion to press over his chest.

There's no dramatic blood spatter, no screaming, no grand response. He looks down as the colour drains from his face and red pools across his shirt.

He just looks down.

And then he falls.]


[ooc: Chase has taken Penny's death-ray shrapnel to the heart. He has someone to find him so responses will come pre-and-post that.]

Comments

action; at any time between noon and infinity

[brobeforehos]

[She doesn't check the network again until after she's left Stiles. And even when she does, she dreads what she might find - she knows nothing at all about medicine aside from chicken soup being some sort of miracle worker and that when you stab someone they bleed; so whatever the hell is going on just makes no sense. And it's frightening, and unstopabble. Like getting your foot stuck in the train tracks and having no other choice than to watch it approach you. Nothing to do. No miracle Mae Saves The Moment solution.

(Times like these make her feel so bloody useless.)

And of course, as predicted, what she finds on the network is one horrifying post after another, and -

Chase.

Still in the hospital, she turns around and heads to the reception, checking the time stamp on the transmission - good, someone must've stopped it since, right? Had to have. She finds his name thanks to a nurse - is everyone counting as family in the City? maybe - and wastes no time in heading to his room.]

action; at any time between noon and infinity

[intheblanks]

[Fortunately Chase knows people with particular skills in both housebreaking and emergency care. Even so he shouldn't have held out as long as it took for them to get to him and some detached part of his mind was aware of it. Aware of the useless flapping of a torn ventricle and subsequent crash in blood pressure, oxygen saturation, aware of the point at which he should have blacked out and the few seconds between that and death.

Which didn't come. Instead he's in a bed with hospital corners, short on blood (there's a replacement being pumped through his veins and a machine bypassing his broken heart muscle to make sure it circulates), lacking fine motor skills and much of an ability to lift his arms, and breathing roughly under a nasal tube.

He should have died. He didn't. The way he feels right now he's not sure he got the better luck of that draw.]

action; at any time between noon and infinity

[brobeforehos]

[She blinks quickly - what a loaded gun of a situation - because it's terrible to find friends in the hospital and...to see them suffer. (Then again, this is nothing like Alan or Nick or Jamie - no, this is like Mu- Annabel. Only he's still...alive.)

Finally, she walks closer to the bed, so he doesn't make an effort - if he's even awake.] Hi...

action; at any time between noon and infinity and beyond

[intheblanks]

[Awake yes, but not very focused. He finds her eventually, blinking a few times as his brain runs slow connecting up the dots that usually make for an instant flash of recognition. He gets there though, and she gets the weakest of smiles.]

New.... candystriper?

action; at any time between noon and infinity and beyond

[brobeforehos]

[That pulls a snort and a laugh from her.] You'd think it'd be a sweet gesture, wouldn't you?

[But alas. Not today. Still, one pause later and she is - reaching tentatively, with its due hesitance before - covering one hand with hers.] I feel like Florence Nightingale today. So many friends in the hospital. What a shit curse...

action;

[intheblanks]

[He can't really feel that, but he follows the line of her arm down with wide, dark pupils.]

Think of all the. Overtime I'm missing out on.

action;

[brobeforehos]

Keep thinking about work. You'll add headache to the list, too. [She doesn't know that he can't - medical details like those, she'd probably come to him for insight on them (would've come to him regarding this curse, if she hadn't seen the network transmission to begin with) - so she's careful what she's touching, and not touching too hard. Very careful.]

Can I do anything?

action; after, at... a time...

[anunluckypenny]

[After leaving a few frantic messages on Chase's phone (not that she expected and answer, but it's a curse, right? and the location of that injury was just coincidence?), Penny does the sensible thing and actually tracks him down at the hospital.

And peeks into his room.]

Chase? Are you awake?

action; after, at... a time...

[intheblanks]

[He is, although his current blood to morphine ratio might mean it's not the kind of awake most people would recognise. All of which makes it disconcerting when a voice comes through without a body to attach it to.]

Penny? [His mouth works a little between the words, taking extra effort to form them.] Penny? Is that you?

action;

[anunluckypenny]

Yeah, it's me.

[Sorry, Chase, but you look awful. Penny's not sure she should be imposing.]

Do you mind if I just... sit in here for a little while?

action;

[intheblanks]

[Wetting his lips he nods agreement while his brain tries to pick out the right answer. He's looking for 'of course not'. 'No' would do.]

I'll. Get you a coffee.

[That wasn't quite it.]

action;

[anunluckypenny]

No, that's... not a thing I need. Coffee.

[But she takes that as an okay and sits. Coherency is overrated.]

I'm sorry, Chase.

post; audio

[studmuffin]

You better not be dead, bro. Who else is going to secretly read all the books about cats?

[ r u ok bro? ]

post; audio

[intheblanks]

[Network device. He knows this because it buzzes on the stand by his bed when the message come through. People don't buzz. Most of them.

Forgive him sounding kind of like a heavy breather right now, okay.]

Still here. Still not. Reading catbooks. [pauuuse. (breathe, breathe, breathe).] Bro?

post; audio

[studmuffin]

It's a term of endearment. [ If he was sure Derek wouldn't bite him for getting out of bed he'd visit! ]

Near death escalates you to bro-dom.

post; audio

[intheblanks]

That explains it. [Interesting things Chase has heard about Derek: he has a strong smell.] Just hadn't realised we'd hit the level.

[Wait. And waiiiit. Slowbrain is playing catch up.]

You too?

post; audio

[studmuffin]

[ Like douchebaggery and hair gel, right? ] It's a difficult set of stages. I mean cat book is like number three but you skipped right ahead to the mutual death thing. [ Look he knows Chase and Chase is in the hospital, ergo mutual. ]

Yep.

post; audio

[intheblanks]

[If those are the basic components of werewolf it sounds about right.

Also laughing hurts Stiles, stop making him move his chest. It's more like wheezing anyway.]

Great. Needed more bros but. Don't have enough. Books to go round.

[Oh hush what was that.]

Holding up?

post; audio

[studmuffin]

That's why God invented the copy machine. [ He'd be sorry but he's enjoying all the drugs. ] We'll totally get some pages done and hand them out.

[ Huff. ] I'm not allowed to take my bandages off 'cause apparently seeing my insides is a bad thing.

post; audio

[intheblanks]

Like evangelists. Cat evangelists. Probably a website for that.

[and that sounds like sage medical advice although Chase feels he should point out-]

I can see mine.

post; audio

[studmuffin]

Dude, I wanna see.

[ Yep. But he's also the kid who dragged his best friend out to the woods to find a dead body. Morbid curiosity, much? ] I'm gonna break out and find you and your inside-y mess.

post; audio

[intheblanks]

Stay in bed. [He's still your doctor, Stiles.] You can run your own ECG later.

Know the. Real pisser about this?

post; audio

[studmuffin]

Nobody ever lets me have any fun.

[ Why can't a guy look at another guy's wounds, yo? ]

No, what?

post; audio

[intheblanks]

[Chase gets to do it all the time but maybe he's just past the age of consent here.]

Nobody in this. Hospital could. Fix me better than I could. Any day when I had the use of my hands.

post; audio

[studmuffin]

Have your hands been cut off? Because I could totally help out. [ Pause.] Except for that time Derek tried to get my to saw his arm off. But that was because Derek.

[synanthrope]

[Her heels click as she comes into his room, a little bit later than everyone else: it's hard for her to ignore the smell of blood even when she's fed, and the last thing she suspects Chase needs is her focused intently on everyone's bloodshed.

That and she doesn't want to share him. She enters his room and closes his door.]

You almost died.

[dignity_misery]

[She won't come until the curse is over, and even then it's only to leave an envelope with some art gallery tickets on the table while he's asleep.]

☞ i know this world is killing you

[as_damaged]

[Even if nothing happened, she'd have been surprised to see him there; it's almost funny, how out of place he seems in his own home, after all this time. Or it would be, if the Network video hadn't ended so gruesomely.

She's on her way before she sees him hit the ground, typing off texts to House in Wilson from the elevator, putting in a call for an ambulance as she runs down the street and hoping it remains necessary.

It's not the first time she's broken into the apartment, but this time she's lacking an axe. Who knew lock picking could be so useful?]

Chase?

[Please be conscious, please?]

[vicodincrutch]

[No dying on House's watch at least that's how he's treating the situation. He's missing his appendix and his limp. This would be a great day for skateboarding but he's indoors and pouring over screens and results. This isn't a cakewalk.]

[dr_conscience]

[He'd met up with them, of course, when Cameron brought Chase in, helped in that initial hectic flurry of action - but, naturally, there was more than enough going on at the hospital today to keep him occupied that, once they had Chase stabilized, he'd had to rush off to another admission.

As soon as things hit a lull, however, he is coming to check in. He's more than certain that he's far from the only one doing so, but that knowledge doesn't stop him from wanting to check up on Chase for himself. Even if Chase doesn't remember it, Wilson certainly remembers who rushed out in the midst of the hyper-aggressive, infected sheep - years ago, now.

Not that he wouldn't be stopping by anyway, of course. He doesn't say anything initially, not certain if Chase is awake and not wanting to disturb him if he isn't - instinctively, he gives his attention to the vitals on the screens.]