Madeline follows Nica tentatively, glancing back at Gabriel outside until she couldn't see the door anymore. As soon as she can't see him her heartbeat speeds up, mouth going dry, but she's doesn't make a sound beyond the occasional whimper that escapes. Walking hurts like everything else does.
She doesn't say anything to Nica. She can barely look at Nica. She just goes where she's led.
Nica isn't unaware of Madeline's reaction to all of this -- the physical aspect, at least, is like a siren in the back of her mind. She doesn't see a lot of other options, though, so she's just going to roll with it for now, and hope like hell she doesn't make whatever happened any worse.
Part of her, an ugly part she'd tried to forget about when she came here, is angling to do serious damage to whatever did this to the older woman.
"Here we go." She says it quietly, turning the shower on -- not too hot, not too cold. "Just put your clothes over here and I'll take care of them later. You have to tell me if you need me not to touch you, okay, Madeline? There are other ways I can help you. I can--heal. But I need to be in here to do it. Just tell me if I'm too close." This is more than she usually says, but Nica reacts to things differently in certain circumstance.
Madeline bends over to take off her shoes, left, right, socks, right, left. Is that a palindrome, in a way? She's not sure if it'd qualify. She starts listing things in the room as she straightens up.
One (1) Madeline Yi, second hand
One (1) Nica, small and pretty
One (1) corner for clothes, empty
One (1) shower, unoccupied but functioning
God knows how many (too many) drops of water
Zero (0) movements to take off her shirt
It's the logical progression. She should be able to. She takes her shirts off every day. Everyone does. Why would it matter that anyone else was here when that's not what this is?
Madeline's hands have made it all the way to the hem of her shirt, and she's staring at them in a mildly confused, distant way, like she has no idea how they could've ended up there, of all places.
They're shaking. So is the rest of her, in little fits and starts.
Nica hesitates for a few moments, and then comes closer -- a little less than an arm's length away. "Let me help you," she says, softly, and as her hands connect with Madeline's, the shaking begins to ease, just enough that Nica can actually start getting her clothes off.
"I'm not going to get in there with you, or anything," she says, steadily, because one of them needs to be steady and Nica isn't about to let her frustration out on Madeline. "Hey--one second, okay?" she rests her palm on Madeline's shoulder, and the sprain in it eases and is gone. "Here we go. That'll make it easier."
Madeline looks up, eyes even wider and startling bright set in the blood all over her face. She opens her mouth as if to ask something, like how did you do that? or why? but what'd be the point? She has never had control over her body; this is just more of what she already knows.
Anybody can do anything they want to you, and you can't even make yourself not thank them after.
Still, losing the pain is...is nice, even if it's more touch than she wants from this girl she doesn't know, but that doesn't matter, what will she do, say no? Don't help me?
Madeline doesn't nod, or smile, or do much more than breathe very, very carefully as Nica starts taking off her clothes. (You can't touch something that is empty because empty things don't have skins, you can't drag back someone who can run away under their bones, she can feel everything and she always could but this makes it easier to push that back.)
Nica doesn't want to be here, doesn't want to be doing this, doesn't want to see the brightness of Madeline's eyes or the way she's looking at her now. But she's Nica, and this is what she does, and she can't walk away, even if both of them kind of want her to.
"All right," Nica says, eventually, when there's a little pile of Madeline's clothes (she thinks about burning them and the flames stay there in her eyes for longer than they need to). "Let's get you under here."
She guides Madeline under the water, if Madeline will let her, rinsing the blood off of her own hands. (This outfit is for burning, too.)
Of course Madeline will let her. Madeline will let anyone do anything anywhere as much as they want to.
She keeps her arms up, all the same, and her head down as she stares at the tile floors and counts them in threes and fives.
The water prompts the first real reaction out of Madeline in a while, a low, soft hiss as it runs over the burns on her back and the hole with its twisted edges through her arm, tears springing to her eyes as her knees threaten to buckle under her.
"Hey, shhhhh," Nica soothes, staying close but not, as she promised, getting under the water. "You might want to hold onto the wall or something, just--breathe, okay? Just breathe with me."
This is something Nica does whenever she's healing somebody, which is, of course, what she's about to do. She closes her eyes and evens out her breathing, matching it to Madeline's, and a little bit of her power guiding Madeline to breathe smoothly with her.
"Just breathe."
And then the physical healing begins. Continues. Something.
Madeline knows she should be sobbing, not breathing, and she wonders what else Nica could do to her if she wanted. A lot, she'd bet.
But she just breathes. She's a good person who knows how to be grateful for gifts.
And maybe as her skin begins to knit, the missing tissue ease back into place, the pain seep out of her...maybe she is grateful, holding onto the wall with her eyes closed, naked in a shower with a pretty girl who seems to know what she's doing. Mostly numb, after that mostly humiliated and sick and scared, but what's left after that could be called grateful.
Oh, God, at least it didn't show anything in the shower, she doesn't think she could've lived with this then, Nica's power wrapped into her or not.
When Nica is satisfied that Madeline is okay, she takes a few steps back. "I'm going to grab you a towel and some clothes, okay? Do you think you can finish up in here on your own, now?"
She doesn't really want to leave Madeline, but she's getting the impression that her presence isn't really helping the woman's mental state.
Madeline crosses her healed arms over her chest, with another tiny closed eyed and silent nod.
This is more backbone than she's shown in weeks, that little nod, because this is something that's clawing at her brittle composure and there's no one here who needs her not to start crying but herself.
Nica goes down the hall to find a towel and to steal an outfit from Wanda -- she makes a split second decision and hopes Wanda will forgive her for taking some panties, but she has those skirts and Nica...doesn't think Madeline should have to go without underwear now. Call it a hunch. She has those, sometimes.
When she comes back, she hesitates, and then knocks on the door instead of just walking straight in.
When Nica closed the door behind her, Madeline's eyes snapped open and she nearly screamed - it's only that she knows everything is still there that keeps her from it.
But it does mean her eyes are open. And blood doesn't just slide off under water, oh no, it dissolves slowly, and that means that all of the water swirling around her feet is red red red red red - Madeline makes a sharp, broken little sound, slapping her hands over her mouth. It's not rising, is it, it can't be, it's draining it's going away it's not coming up it's going down and away and off and she'll just close her eyes again and find the soap by touch, a scrub brush too, body wash, razor, yes, these things she'll need - shampoo first, her hair has the most blood in it and she needs it gone, so find thatMadeline almost doesn't repond to the knock, picking at the blood clots in her hair to give her room to lather - she'll have to use the soap and scrub brush on her head first, it looks like - but if she doesn't say anything she'll come back and Madeline suddenly
( ... )
Nica counts backwards from ten before she answers, evenly, "I'm just going to put the towel and the clothes in here on the bench, and then you can come downstairs when you're ready. How's that work for you?"
Madeline murmurs a vague agreement, thinking about what she could find under the sink to help. Sometimes people store cleaning supplies under there, don't they?
She'll replace them. She will. She just needs them now.
She doesn't say anything to Nica. She can barely look at Nica. She just goes where she's led.
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Part of her, an ugly part she'd tried to forget about when she came here, is angling to do serious damage to whatever did this to the older woman.
"Here we go." She says it quietly, turning the shower on -- not too hot, not too cold. "Just put your clothes over here and I'll take care of them later. You have to tell me if you need me not to touch you, okay, Madeline? There are other ways I can help you. I can--heal. But I need to be in here to do it. Just tell me if I'm too close." This is more than she usually says, but Nica reacts to things differently in certain circumstance.
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One (1) Madeline Yi, second hand
One (1) Nica, small and pretty
One (1) corner for clothes, empty
One (1) shower, unoccupied but functioning
God knows how many (too many) drops of water
Zero (0) movements to take off her shirt
It's the logical progression. She should be able to. She takes her shirts off every day. Everyone does. Why would it matter that anyone else was here when that's not what this is?
Madeline's hands have made it all the way to the hem of her shirt, and she's staring at them in a mildly confused, distant way, like she has no idea how they could've ended up there, of all places.
They're shaking. So is the rest of her, in little fits and starts.
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"I'm not going to get in there with you, or anything," she says, steadily, because one of them needs to be steady and Nica isn't about to let her frustration out on Madeline. "Hey--one second, okay?" she rests her palm on Madeline's shoulder, and the sprain in it eases and is gone. "Here we go. That'll make it easier."
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Anybody can do anything they want to you, and you can't even make yourself not thank them after.
Still, losing the pain is...is nice, even if it's more touch than she wants from this girl she doesn't know, but that doesn't matter, what will she do, say no? Don't help me?
Madeline doesn't nod, or smile, or do much more than breathe very, very carefully as Nica starts taking off her clothes. (You can't touch something that is empty because empty things don't have skins, you can't drag back someone who can run away under their bones, she can feel everything and she always could but this makes it easier to push that back.)
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"All right," Nica says, eventually, when there's a little pile of Madeline's clothes (she thinks about burning them and the flames stay there in her eyes for longer than they need to). "Let's get you under here."
She guides Madeline under the water, if Madeline will let her, rinsing the blood off of her own hands. (This outfit is for burning, too.)
Reply
She keeps her arms up, all the same, and her head down as she stares at the tile floors and counts them in threes and fives.
The water prompts the first real reaction out of Madeline in a while, a low, soft hiss as it runs over the burns on her back and the hole with its twisted edges through her arm, tears springing to her eyes as her knees threaten to buckle under her.
Reply
This is something Nica does whenever she's healing somebody, which is, of course, what she's about to do. She closes her eyes and evens out her breathing, matching it to Madeline's, and a little bit of her power guiding Madeline to breathe smoothly with her.
"Just breathe."
And then the physical healing begins. Continues. Something.
Reply
But she just breathes. She's a good person who knows how to be grateful for gifts.
And maybe as her skin begins to knit, the missing tissue ease back into place, the pain seep out of her...maybe she is grateful, holding onto the wall with her eyes closed, naked in a shower with a pretty girl who seems to know what she's doing. Mostly numb, after that mostly humiliated and sick and scared, but what's left after that could be called grateful.
Oh, God, at least it didn't show anything in the shower, she doesn't think she could've lived with this then, Nica's power wrapped into her or not.
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She doesn't really want to leave Madeline, but she's getting the impression that her presence isn't really helping the woman's mental state.
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This is more backbone than she's shown in weeks, that little nod, because this is something that's clawing at her brittle composure and there's no one here who needs her not to start crying but herself.
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When she comes back, she hesitates, and then knocks on the door instead of just walking straight in.
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But it does mean her eyes are open. And blood doesn't just slide off under water, oh no, it dissolves slowly, and that means that all of the water swirling around her feet is red red red red red - Madeline makes a sharp, broken little sound, slapping her hands over her mouth. It's not rising, is it, it can't be, it's draining it's going away it's not coming up it's going down and away and off and she'll just close her eyes again and find the soap by touch, a scrub brush too, body wash, razor, yes, these things she'll need - shampoo first, her hair has the most blood in it and she needs it gone, so find thatMadeline almost doesn't repond to the knock, picking at the blood clots in her hair to give her room to lather - she'll have to use the soap and scrub brush on her head first, it looks like - but if she doesn't say anything she'll come back and Madeline suddenly ( ... )
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She'll replace them. She will. She just needs them now.
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"I'll come check on you in a bit if you're not down." There.
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