(Untitled)

[cant_kim]

[OOM: London, 1816. Not that anything can make a beating pleasant, but having someone on your side in the gang sure helps.]

The door opens, and in come two boys in the clothes of Regency-era London. The older one is supporting the younger, who looks to have just been on the wrong end of a . . . spirited argument.

Kim hurts like hell. The ache in her

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[walksthebounds]

"Think you can make it across the way to the infirmary," the older boy asks, glancing down at the younger, "or d'you want me to shout?" His accent's notably shifted from a few minutes ago; pure Cockney then, it's more cosmopolitan now, harder to place.

He'd rather not shout if he doesn't have to.

[cant_kim]

"Don't shout," she snaps. Milliways may be safer than Covent Garden, but she doesn't want to go drawing all that attention.

[bannion_sight]

Perhaps fortunately for the two of them, the young woman with white hair has raised her head on overhearing their conversation.

"Did someone say infirmary?" Clear gray eyes sharpen as she looks at them.

"Do you need help? I'm a doctor."

[walksthebounds]

"Ah! Lucky for you," Jamie says, brightening at the prospect of escaping his responsibility, "he's a patient."

He jerks a vague gesture at Kim with his free hand - not that it really needs indicating - and adds, "Unlucky for you, we can't pay. But you doctor types here are all about the charitable impulses, right?"

[bannion_sight]

"You could call it that," she says, dryly. "In any case, you don't need to worry about payment."

She's already getting up from her seat.

"Can you walk?" she asks the prospective patient.

[cant_kim]

Kim eyes her warily.

"How far?"

[bannion_sight]

"Not far," she says, and although there's no sign of pity, it's anything but unkind.

"The infirmary's over there." Kim indicates the door, halfway across the room.

"If you'd like, I can go get a wheelchair, though. Or maybe your friend here can."

[walksthebounds]

"I'm willing, if you'll lend a hand here," Jamie offers.

Kim'd probably rather be leaning on the nice doctor than on Jamie anyways.

[cant_kim]

Go get a what?

She tries straightening up and taking her weight off Jamie's shoulder. It works -- sort of -- but it isn't pleasant. She scowls at the floor and tells it to hold still; it doesn't listen.

[bannion_sight]

"Here."

Kim offers a hand, moving toward her patient.

"I'm Dr. Ford, by the way; Kim Ford."

[cant_kim]

That brings her head up.

"Your name's Kim?"

She hesitates, then takes the proffered hand for balance, muttering, "Don't that beat all."

[walksthebounds]

"There," Jamie says, odd man out, "you're made for each other," and heads off to the infirmary for the wheelchair, glad to have Kim's weight off his shoulder.

[bannion_sight]

"Your friend's chipper," she says, a little dryly. "Why don't we sit down here while we wait for him to get back with the chair?"

Kim smiles.

"I gather you're a Kim too? I don't meet that many."

[cant_kim]

"He ain't a friend," she grumbles, allowing herself to be led to a chair.

"I ain't never met another Kim." A sidelong look. "Didn't know it -- was common, like."

[bannion_sight]

"It's not that common, I don't think," she says.

A beat. There's something almost disconcertingly clear about the look in her eyes as she says,

"Not a friend; I see. What is he?"

[walksthebounds]

"Interested bystander?" Jamie suggests, coming to a halt with the wheelchair next to the table by Kim's chair.

"Suspicious but intriguing stranger with sinister secret plans?" He lifts his hands off the wheelchair in order to wiggle his fingers portentously. "I mean, none come to mind at the moment but I'm sure I could think up one or two."