That Dust Is Gonna Settle [ OPEN ]

[axinfinity]

Characters: Rion Steiner, OPEN.
Content: After a month-long coma that followed the fight with Birdman, Rion Steiner doesn’t have much going for him other than to wake up to yet another bedridden day. At least he’s conscious this time, which is debatably a good thing.
Location: St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Rion’s Room.
Time of day: Throughout the day.

Comments

[clevermedic]

Rebecca had taken a little longer getting to the Cathedral than she'd expected, between stopping off a few places on her way up, and crab-dodging, even on her bike it was into the afternoon before she arrived. Still, she had every intention of spending at least a little while checking in on Rion, and while she knew she probably wouldn't need it, her medical kit was still strapped to her waist, just in case.

She knew her way to Rion's room, by now, and made her way through the Cathedral without trouble. She approached his door while peeling off her gloves and shoving them into the pocket of the heavy winter coat she wore, taking in the fact that the door was cracked open, although she still gently knocked on the wood before pushing it open and ducking her head in.

"Rion? It's Rebecca." She kept her voice soft, just in case he was asleep. When her eyes fell on him she pressed her lips together in response to him keeping his face uncovered, but that was her only reaction, pushing the door open wider and stepping inside. She'd seen them before, after all. Had been the one to clean them out, bandage them up. It didn't bother her, not now, but she wasn't sure if he was trying to make a point or if the bandages had just been bothering him.

[axinfinity]

The volume hadn’t been too incredible loud for Rion not to hear the sound of the door creaking open and the knock. Or that voice, for that matter. The voice was easily to place, just like everyone’s Rion had come to familiarize himself with.

In spite of everything, Rion was grateful to Rebecca for what she had done. He remembered hearing her voice present before the morphine had taken him under... how long ago did Harry say he was out? ... a few weeks? a month? At times it felt like the blink of an eye, and others it seemed to be an eternity.

The nightmares that followed were nothing more than a disjointed mess.

Lowering the headphones from his ears, Rion turned his head in the direction to which he heard Rebecca’s voice.

“Hey.”

While he had a month to recover, there was no doubt that the boy was still pretty banged up and bruised. His arm didn’t hurt as much as it used to, but his legs refused to move. He would have gotten up if he could, but... Oh well.

[clevermedic]

Smiling she moved further into the room, shrugging off the backpack she wore and unzipping her heavy jacket, sliding it from her shoulders and tucking it in the corner. Picking up the backpack she moved over to Rion's bed and sat down in the nearby chair, leaning forward. She almost reached out to take a hold of his face so she could get a better look at his eyes, but thought better of it, folding her hands in her lap instead.

"How's the head?" She knew he'd said he was feeling a little fuzzy. The question doubled for how his pain was, but if he didn't feel like being specific at all she wouldn't press him. She imagined everyone was poking at him enough, now that he was awake. And while she was concerned for his physical well-being, his mental well-being was also something she felt was important. He'd been through a lot. If he didn't want to be poked, she wouldn't poke.

[axinfinity]

Strangely Rion found himself avoiding looking directly at Rebecca. If it was anybody else, he wouldn’t have cared. Except that Rebecca had been nice to him, which was odd. Not very many people were nice to monsters.

“Hurts, but... I’ve always had migraines, so that’s not anything new.” Sadly it really wasn’t, even with the dose of morphine administered. In fact, Rion couldn’t think of a time his head didn’t hurt.

When he died, maybe? Back then all he concerned himself with was just how tired he was. Coughing, struggling to breathe, eyes burning and skin on fire... and Lilia’s voice right there with him, telling him everything was going to be okay.

He had pushed his limits back then when a damn virus program went and shut his brain down. Now here he was, alive again somehow and laid up in bed. The pain wasn’t so bad. He could live with it.

[clevermedic]

Rebecca remembered him having issues with the migraines before. It had been on her list of things to figure out the cause off in hopes of finally alleviating them, but that was all pushed back, right now.

"Just general hurting right now though, right? No migraine?" There really wasn't anything she could do if he did have a migraine on top of the pain from his other injuries, but she just hoped his body wasn't piling all his problems on him at once. She reached down for the bag at her feet as she waited for him to respond, beginning to undo the zipper.

[axinfinity]

It was difficult to say, whether he was in pain or not. Rion could at least flex his fingers and turn his head without feeling lightheaded and sick to his stomach. Every once in awhile there came the occasional pang that woke him up.

“Migraines are kinda normal for me...” Rion hesitated, unsure if it would be wise to elaborate at Rebecca’s expense, or if it mattered to her at all that she knew. It was true, though, in the very beginning since he woke up on that stretcher; the needles, the drugs, everything. The wave administered through his bloodstream. He could always feel the punctures in his neck.

And again from having dispensed a more recent chemical dosage that now swam in his system.

The zipping sound caught him by surprise. Rion turned his head to the noise, then let down his guard. Rebecca said she would be bringing something, after all. Made sense that she would carry a bag with her.

[clevermedic]

She sighed a little, shaking her head as she dug into the bag. "Migraines are never exactly normal, but I guess it could be worse." She did know a few people who did suffer chronic migraines, so it wasn't completely unheard of. There were medications and things that helped, but again, medications.

She wanted to help Rion live as normal and as healthy a life as he could. Maybe something or other would become apparent to her, eventually.

"Anyway. I remembered you saying you liked Stravinsky, so I did manage to find a little bit of his work. There's a store right by where I live that had a lot of tapes of classical stuff, so I managed to find you some of my favorites, even. Although you've probably already heard a lot of Beethoven's stuff so some of it might be repeats." She smiled, even if he couldn't see it as she drew out a stack of tapes. "I went over the labels with a label gun, so it'd be easier to tell which is which. The names are slightly raised."

[axinfinity]

Biting his tongue, Rion refrained from explaining the nasty details to Rebecca about where the boy was coming from. The pain induced from the abilities granted to him, from the drugs, would always be there. It was just a matter of getting used to it. The consistency just didn’t even bother him anymore. Though it certainly did help that he had other pain to distract him these days.

Naturally.

All the Galerians were the same. Rita suffered so bad she wanted to die, asking Rion to kill her as her last wish. Birdman as well once admitted to the same agony. What made Rion deserve any different? He killed them.

He simply never really told anyone because it was nice, letting them believe that someday he would be a happy and normal child. Just as Lilia had once hoped to take care of him...
They can dream.

His brows creased as he took the tapes Rebecca handed to him. “Ah, these are...” He ran his fingers over the names, recognizing the lettering. “You didn’t have to go through the trouble for me. Thank you. I... uh.” He tilted his head a little at her. “I wish there was something I could do in return.” The boy grimaced. No one said anything, but he really did stir a lot of trouble for everyone recently.

[clevermedic]

It was probably best that Rebecca didn't really know all the details about his past or why his pain would never be gone. She was a person who found hope and meaning in helping people, and as long as she had hope that she could help Rion, she'd feel better about things in general.

Frowning a little when he expressed a wish he could do something for her, she reached out and very gently touched his wrist with her fingers in a friendly gesture. "Don't worry about it. The fact that you're alive is more than enough for me." Rebecca didn't do kind things because she expected people to owe her back, or because she was trying to get some kind of recognition. She couldn't be like that, even if she put an extreme effort into being that kind of person. She was happiest when the people around her were safe and happy, and that was more than enough for her.

[axinfinity]

Ironically, it became clearer to Rion than before, the importance of staying alive. He didn’t understand it, or those who had helped him, but it nonetheless would prove to be a waste to Harry whom Rion had come to care for like a father he never had died. Harry had gone all out of his way to help and protect Rion, just as he had done the same. Not respecting that would have been an insult to Harry and everyone else, including Rebecca.

The idea of this strangely unsettled Rion, because he didn’t want that. He knew he could never be good enough, or normal enough, or nice enough, but at least he could try harder for them.

Feeling Rebecca’s hand suddenly over his own wrist nearly startled him at first, nearly resulting in the boy pulling back. However, the touch hadn’t been unpleasant, and definitely didn’t warrant any lashing out for.

It was just something he had trouble getting used to.

“I’ll try to stay that way.” The edge of his lip twitched again, but the boy could never really ever smile.

[clevermedic]

"Good."

Having witnessed Billy's aversions to touch, Rebecca was used to people who were uncomfortable being touched, even in a friendly way, so her hand didn't stay on Rion's wrist long, returning to her lap where she clasped it with the other one over the top of her backpack. She didn't seem particularly put-off by it, actually she found it the smallest bit amusing.

Glancing down at her watch she frowned a little. "I should probably get going." She had a good ride back, and if she wanted to get back before dark she knew she wasn't going to have much time for visiting. But she could see he was doing okay, she'd brought him his music, and it wasn't like she'd be incapable of coming back to check in any time soon. "I'll keep checking in though, okay?"

[axinfinity]

Amazingly enough Rion was a little disappointed in hearing Rebecca leave so soon, as she had just gotten there; he wasn’t going to start to hinder her schedule. Everyone had their own things to do. While checking on the network, everyone seemed to have things going on. Busy-busy little bees as some would put it.

Good for them.

“Okay.” He nodded slightly, bowing his head a little while not facing directly at her. Neither gesture would’ve mattered anyway.

For a few seconds, Rion drummed the fingers of his good hand over the bed sheets. Something nagged at him, ever since he woke up. How damned guilty they all were for having not made it to him in time.

“There wasn’t anything you could do for me. And in any case, my sight is the least I’ve lost. I was dead before I got here.” A little clarification would be nice, wouldn’t it? The boy felt his lips tighten. “I just don’t want anyone to feel bad because of the stupid decisions I’ve made.”

[clevermedic]

Rebecca had been halfway through zipping her bag when he'd divulged that bit of information, and she paused, looking at him with a look of confusion mixed with pity, her expression completely lost on Rion, but there all the same. She pressed her lips together, before slowly finishing zipping her bag and setting it down, chewing on the inside of her lip and folding her hands again in her lap.

"I know there wasn't anything I could have done to save your sight." She hesitated for a moment, before tilting her head to the side. "When I said I was sorry I hadn't gotten there sooner... I meant because you were in so much pain. It might not seem like a big deal to you now, because you've been through some awful stuff, but..." She sighed, turning her head away. "I take care of people. It's one of the reasons I decided to become a medic, and...I don't know, I want to improve your quality of life the best I can. Even if you're not completely okay and perfect.." She tilted her head down, staring at her hands again.

"...At least I'd be able to make things a little easier for you."

[axinfinity]

Part of what Rion had been saying was true; the sad fact of leaving a little piece of information out of what happened when Birdman had taken out the boy’s eyes. Something which he couldn’t bring himself to tell Harry, and now Rebecca.

The fact was that Rion had his vision back, if only for a brief while. Before Harry got there, before Rebecca got there; the drugs Birdman force-fed him restored not only the flesh and bone that had been burnt and charred off but Rion had been able to see again. And if he hadn’t been so careless, maybe they could have stayed that way.

It was bad enough that the two apologized for not getting to him sooner. That happened hours before Harry even found Rion. They didn’t need to know that, simply because he didn’t hold it against either of them for it. He hadn’t expected to be saved at all.

“I understand.” He tried to, anyway. There were so many people here who wanted to help, who felt the same way Rebecca did.

Rion hadn’t realized it right away but he had his hand over his head again. It didn’t throb as usual, but the nasty images that plagued him in his sleep were still there. Music helped. A little. Helped soothe the lurid images and horrible sensations lingering beyond the blackness that stole away his vision.

“Rebecca, before you go...” He swallowed hard; no matter how many times they said it was okay, he hated asking for favors. Most of all because Rebecca didn’t like the fact that Rion used substances to begin with for some reason. The others seemed to be the same way. “Do you have any remedies for how I can sleep better?”

[clevermedic]

"I...might have something." Rebecca didn't like the idea of adding on any more substances to what he was taking for his pain, but she could stop by and let Harry know what she was prescribing, as well as however many she gave to Rion. She trusted him to an extent, but he'd had so many problems with drugs...

It was important he rested, though. The human body healed best while asleep, so after a moment she twisted to pull her medical pack open, digging around for a minute before pulling out a bottle.

"I've only got about ten pills, but they're 5 milligrams of Zolpidem each, which should be more than enough to give you a good night's sleep." Snapping her kit closed she turned back to him again.

"I'll look into some herbal stuff, though. I know there are some great teas that work almost as well as this stuff will, and that might take some of the edge off the groggy feeling you've got going now. More of a natural sleep, I think." She held the bottle out to him, biting her lip. "One pill a night."