[Xander] Quietly Observing, Part II (complete)fikgirlOctober 26 2006, 19:43:26 UTC
And speaking of dogs, one poured out of the jeep and after yipping and running in excited circles around Kayla, jumping briefly on Henry despite Kayla's attempts to call it back, charged towards the porch and right into Xander’s lap. The dog barked playfully, gave Xander a huge lick on his cheek with that typical New person, play with me, play with me, I like you enthusiasm.
“Well, looks like Aunt Millie already made a friend,” Jonas commented as they drew closer. Xander idly observed that the man held his left arm stiffly across his stomach and the bulge in his waist band where his shirt barely concealed the presence of a gun. Jonas projected friendliness, but Xander had seen enough disguised wariness to recognize it. Something about the man’s face was familiar* but it was fleeting and Xander gave up trying to figure out who Jonas reminded him of or where he might have seen him before.
Kayla followed behind, her eyes darting between the two men on the porch. Her footsteps slowed and there was something in her demeanor that screamed survivor and not just of the End of the World. Whatever she and Jonas had been through, it marked them. Suddenly, she stopped and crisply shouted, “Jonas! You’re bleeding.”
“What?” Jonas looked down and Xander scrutinized him, but saw no blood. Not until he turned to look at Kayla - giving Xander a good view of the growing red spot on his left shoulder.
(He’s hurt, that’s why he’s holding his arm like that.)
“Your stitches. Sit!” Kayla ordered and all signs of fear and wariness were gone as she turned and headed back towards the Hummer. “I’ll get my bag.”
Jonas looked at Henry, "Mind if we move the introductions inside? I learned a long time ago to never argue with a doctor."
[OOC: *Jonas has appeared on numerous magazines and newspapers, and was in the news a lot while he and his company were being investigated for embezzling and insider trading. Xander doesn't know who he is, just recognized his face.]
[Jason] Wanting to helpnewdawnjasonOctober 26 2006, 22:28:53 UTC
Jason smiled as Xander's reaction to Kayla. Yep, she was a cutie all right. But she seemed pretty attached to her companion, Jonas. Then the smell hit him. Blood, fresh blood. One of them was wounded. Before he could say anything, Kayla shouted, "Jonas! You’re bleeding." The woman kicked into doctor gear and headed back to her vehicle, saying she'd get her bag. The dog followed her enthusiastically.
Jason jogged over and met her at her Hummer. "Can I help," he asked sincerely. The smell of the blood wasn't bothering him like it might have the night before. He was more concerned that the guy had more than just a scratch. The scent told him this could be a major injury and without the ability to heal or fight off infection like a wereanimal, Jonas could be in serious trouble. He gave Kayla a concerned smile and ignored the dog that had started barking like mad at his approach.
[Kayla] Giving OrdersfikgirlOctober 26 2006, 22:48:12 UTC
"Aunt Millie, please!" Kayla scolded the dog knowing it would do no good. While the dog apparently had taken to Kayla, she hadn't taken to listening to Kayla. Aunt Millie only listened to Jonas marginally better.
She reflexively stiffened at Jason's approach, then gave herself a mental slap for doing it. So far, Henry and Jason had been nothing but hospitable, and Aunt Millie even liked the unnamed man with the eye patch, and hadn't started going nuts until Jason followed her. His offer sounded sincere and Kayla wondered if he had any first aid or EMS training, or was simply trying to be helpful.
No matter, she'd suss it out later. In the meantime Jonas had obviously ripped some of his stitches - (Probably when I tried to throw him through the windshield), Kayla thought guiltily - and that wound needed to get patched up and closed before infection could even think about setting in.
"I need some hot water. Preferably in a wash tub You probably don't have any sterile towels, but as clean and untouched as you can find, but not dusty. I have iodine and alcohol, but until I can restock, I don't want to use it for the first cleaning.
"Also," Kayla continued crisply as she grabbed her medical bag out of the back of the car, "if you can set up some place for me to work? Well lit where I can see what I'm doing. Even a chair in a bathroom. And a shot or two of something alcoholic."
She caught Jason's look and smiled, "Not for me. For Jonas. To take the edge off."
Re: [Kayla] Giving OrdersbrikinneypaOctober 26 2006, 23:08:15 UTC
Brian was in the middle of searching for some seasoning for the steaks when he swore he heard barking. He stopped what he was doing and looked at Noah with a raised eyebrow. He then shut the cabinet he'd currently been looking in.
"I'll be right back." He said over his shoulder to Noah as he made his way out of the house and onto the front porch. He nearly tripped over Xander as he started to make his way down the steps, more concerned with keeping his eyes on the new comers than watching where he was going.
"Everything okay?" Brian asked no one in particular, preparing dinner all but forgotten now.
[Jonas] Taking OrdersfikgirlOctober 27 2006, 01:01:48 UTC
Jonas startled at the sight of another man stepping onto the porch. Despite the twinging in his shoulder and the warm dripping and spreading he could now feel, he tensed a bit. The weight of the gun in his waistband offered a bit of comfort, but didn't guarantee that he'd be able to protect Kayla in time.
(Stop right there, Jonas Ray,) he heard Lu's voice in his head, (You gotta take a chance and trust people and stop jumping at shadows. You can't live in the world like that.)
The pang of loss stung and Jonas pushed it aside. "Not exactly," Jonas called out. He turned to Henry, "My mother taught me to be a better guest than this. I don't usually come to people's homes and bleeds."
Jason raced past him, followed by Aunt Millie who continued barking up a stream. She wasn't in attack mode, more acting as though she'd found someone interesting, or was trying to figure out her pecking order.
"Aunt Millie! Ven aqui!" Jonas called out uselessly. He groaned, moving toward the house, "That dog never listens to me."
Henry took a look at Jonas and saw that the man was fading, so he put an arm out to support him. "Don't worry about the damned dog. Let's get you inside," Henry said as they brushed past Brian and followed Jason inside. He helped Jonas into the bathroom and sat him on the toilet.
Then he turned to the cabinet to bring out clean towels and a pair of scissors. "The shirt's no good, so I'm just gonna cut it off and save you the pain."
[Jonas and Kayla] The Doctor is InfikgirlOctober 27 2006, 02:37:30 UTC
"Gracias," Jonas said sincerely. He really hadn't wanted to think about wiggling out of the shirt. Kayla had urged him to wear a button down, but he'd opted for a t-shirt. (Listen to your doctor next time.)
Kayla bustled in with her modified EMT bag and nodded at Henry. She was completely composed and professional. "Thank you for doing that, Henry." Kayla deposited her medical bag on the sink and opened it, turning her words to Jonas, "And as for you, Jonas, you have to start being careful. What's this, the third time you've ripped those stitches open?"
"Hey, can't blame me this time. It was your womanly driving that did this."
"And wrestling with Aunt Millie had nothing to do with it?"
Jonas forgot himself, shrugged and winced. Kayla snorted and knelt to inspect the wound, carefully not touching it. He noticed that as she did so many times before, she placed a hand on his shoulder just above the woman, and for one fleeting moment, he thought that he felt her hand grow hot.
"Still no infection, that's good," Kayla said. "But we're going to stretch your antibiotics another few days because I have to sew you up again." To Henry she said, "Henry, I need to clean away some of the blood. Can you wet one of those towels? As hot water of water as possible. Then I'll need the perioxide in my bag.
"Wash your hands first. I have medicinal soap in my bag." Dr. Thornton, Jonas noted, was in full form.
Noah stepped into the bathroom as Kayla spoke. "Boiling water and whiskey," he said, handing them to Henry. "It's too small in here. I'll hand in anything else you need." He stepped back out into the hall.
Henry plugged the sink and poured some of the boiling water from the kettle into it to wash his hands, and then he got busy acting the nurse to Kayla's surgeon, using up the rest of the hot water wetting the towel. Henry thought an order for Noah to put on a large pot of water, so they had more as soon as possible.
As Henry watched Kayla work, Henry wondered how she could know there was no infection. He could see that the wound looked clean- bleeding profusely, but clean, but there was no way to tell something like that just by looking.
With Henry's assistance, patching Jonas up (again) went fairly smoothly. Though Jonas squirmed a bit at first and gritted his teeth, once the three shots of vodka hit his system, he didn't seem to mind the stitching so much. Kayla hated to see him drunk, even marginally, because it reminded her too much of how she found him after he lost both Lu and Milagro, but desperate times called for desperate measures.
"I should have given you sutures," Kayla complained to no one in particular. "Sutures and staples, but I wasn't thinking straight. I just wanted to stop the bleeding. And then you told me that you'd take care of yourself ... that's it, Jonas Ray. We're binding that arm."
Jonas may have been more than a little buzzed but he was not five sheets to the wind yet. However, instead of one of his usual, logical arguments, Kayla got a pout. "No, Kayla. No sling. Can't work with a sling."
"Only until that wound is on its way to a proper heal," Kayla insisted. She looked to Henry, "He needs a new shirt, preferably something button down. He has a blue duffel in the back of our Hummer. I can use old sheets to make a sling and bind that arm to his side until he learns his lesson."
Henry could sympathize with Jonas- it didn't matter that he was hurt, he needed to be able to get done what needed doing. Henry had the feeling that it was protecting Kayla that Jonas most felt needed doing.
"Be back with both in a minute," Henry answered and left the bathroom.
Their vehicle was still open- Kayla had been in a hurry. The duffle was heavier than just clothing would have caused, but Henry refrained from looking inside. Trust had to start sometime, and these new people had already shown a lot of it (considering their rattled state) by just coming here and letting Henry and the boys help them.
Back inside, Henry dropped the duffle in the hall and took the stairs up to the second floor to get the clean linins from the closet in his room. He glanced at the bed. He should change the sheets and offer it for Jonas, but first the good doctor needed the one in Henry's hand, so he went down the stairs again.
Grabbing the duffle as he passed through the hall again, Henry stepped into the bathroom and asked Kayla, "You need me to help get him dressed?"
"Yes, please," Kayla said. "Then I can get cleaned up."
She ignored the look that Jonas gave her. Now that Jonas's wound was tended to, her curiosity turned up a notch. "Do all of you live here, Henry? In this one house, I mean?"
"All of us? That's a surprisingly difficult question to answer. Noah- the one who brought in the hot water and uh- anesthetic, he and I live here. The other three men all arrived in the last two days, so I'm not sure how long any of them are staying- Haven being so close," Henry answered as he set the things down and started to open Jonas's bag.
With the zipper half open, Henry stopped, looked up at Kayla. "Okay if I go in here?" he asked, indicating the duffle.
"Jonas, you have any top secret porn that you don't want Henry to see?" Kayla teased.
"Kayla, you know that's not where I keep my top secret porn." The reply came easily, if a bit slowly. "It's okay, Henry. I have a few shirts right on top there. Anyone of those will do."
The vodka was starting to get to him. Or maybe it was just the stress and tension from the bleeding and the worrying again. Whatever it was, Jonas felt like a nap might be nice.
Henry smiled to see the injured man cracking wise. Sure, it was probably the alcohol to some extent, but it still told of some relief of his pain and overall tension. "Nice to have a wife with a sense of humor," Henry replied, as he chose the topmost shirt and held it up to help Jonas into it as carefully as possible.
Kayla froze in the midst of repacking her bag. It wasn't that she was offended by Henry's words or assumptions - she supposed that was the sort of assumption that could be easily made. She froze because she worried about Jonas's reaction; they hadn't really talked about Lu -- or Peter -- since leaving Philadelphia. Ignoring the loss and pain seemed easier than acknowledging and talking it out. Kayla wondered how Jonas would react to such an immediate reminder of the loss of his wife and child and his still fresh widower status.
Jonas looked back at her over his shoulder, evidently not quite as inebriated as she thought. There was a seriousness to his eyes, an unspoken question that Kayla read there as We can pretend if you want.
It was tempting. It meant no worries about any of these men trying to get close to her, although truthfully all of them had kept a friendly and polite distance. But the truth of it was they didn't know how long they would be here or how long they'd have to be among these people. Even Kayla wasn't so skittish as not to realize that starting off with a lie -- among strangers who might someday become community --was a bad idea.
Kayla gave a barely imperceptible shake of her head and then said, "Oh, we're not married."
"She's not my wife," Jonas said in the same instance. Their exchange and 'discussion' had taken place in the span of a few seconds, but he'd understood her answer easily.
"I'm not his wife," Kayla tried to match her explanation to Jonas's.
"We're not married," Jonas corrected himself in stereo.
Kayla laughed a bit. "Stop talking, you're confusing things." She continued to pack up, explaining, "Jonas and I knew each other back in Philadelphia. I suppose that we're lucky that we were both still alive and found each other. He's been a really good friend to me."
"Been?" Jonas challenged. Kayla noticed that there was a bit of strain to his voice. He probably needed a good few hours of rest in a comfortable bed, not an air mattress or the back seat of the Hummer. "Know something that I don't know?"
With an exaggerated roll of her eyes, Kayla corrected herself. "Jonas *is* a good friend to me."
"Si, el mismo, una amiga buena," Jonas murmured. The slurring words and slipping into Spanish were another sign of his tiredness.
Kayla shifted her gaze from Jonas to Henry. "Is there a bed we can - well, he can -- borrow for a few hours? I think a little rest will do my stubborn patient some good. After I bind that arm up."
Henry watched Jonas and Kayla exchange meaningful looks before they explained their relationship, letting Henry know he'd put his foot in it. He's taken the protectiveness they have for each other for something more than it was. Maybe he'd wanted to be able to see them together, be able to look at them and tell himself that yes- someone had made it through all that had happened with someone they loved, because damn it, someone should have!
"Ah," was all Henry said in acknowledgement of the correction. "A bed, right. Upstairs- he can take mine." Henry made another mental request to Noah to change the bedding before they got up there. The cleaner things were, the better it would be for Jonas.
“Well, looks like Aunt Millie already made a friend,” Jonas commented as they drew closer. Xander idly observed that the man held his left arm stiffly across his stomach and the bulge in his waist band where his shirt barely concealed the presence of a gun. Jonas projected friendliness, but Xander had seen enough disguised wariness to recognize it. Something about the man’s face was familiar* but it was fleeting and Xander gave up trying to figure out who Jonas reminded him of or where he might have seen him before.
Kayla followed behind, her eyes darting between the two men on the porch. Her footsteps slowed and there was something in her demeanor that screamed survivor and not just of the End of the World. Whatever she and Jonas had been through, it marked them. Suddenly, she stopped and crisply shouted, “Jonas! You’re bleeding.”
“What?” Jonas looked down and Xander scrutinized him, but saw no blood. Not until he turned to look at Kayla - giving Xander a good view of the growing red spot on his left shoulder.
(He’s hurt, that’s why he’s holding his arm like that.)
“Your stitches. Sit!” Kayla ordered and all signs of fear and wariness were gone as she turned and headed back towards the Hummer. “I’ll get my bag.”
Jonas looked at Henry, "Mind if we move the introductions inside? I learned a long time ago to never argue with a doctor."
[OOC: *Jonas has appeared on numerous magazines and newspapers, and was in the news a lot while he and his company were being investigated for embezzling and insider trading. Xander doesn't know who he is, just recognized his face.]
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Jason jogged over and met her at her Hummer. "Can I help," he asked sincerely. The smell of the blood wasn't bothering him like it might have the night before. He was more concerned that the guy had more than just a scratch. The scent told him this could be a major injury and without the ability to heal or fight off infection like a wereanimal, Jonas could be in serious trouble. He gave Kayla a concerned smile and ignored the dog that had started barking like mad at his approach.
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She reflexively stiffened at Jason's approach, then gave herself a mental slap for doing it. So far, Henry and Jason had been nothing but hospitable, and Aunt Millie even liked the unnamed man with the eye patch, and hadn't started going nuts until Jason followed her. His offer sounded sincere and Kayla wondered if he had any first aid or EMS training, or was simply trying to be helpful.
No matter, she'd suss it out later. In the meantime Jonas had obviously ripped some of his stitches - (Probably when I tried to throw him through the windshield), Kayla thought guiltily - and that wound needed to get patched up and closed before infection could even think about setting in.
"I need some hot water. Preferably in a wash tub You probably don't have any sterile towels, but as clean and untouched as you can find, but not dusty. I have iodine and alcohol, but until I can restock, I don't want to use it for the first cleaning.
"Also," Kayla continued crisply as she grabbed her medical bag out of the back of the car, "if you can set up some place for me to work? Well lit where I can see what I'm doing. Even a chair in a bathroom. And a shot or two of something alcoholic."
She caught Jason's look and smiled, "Not for me. For Jonas. To take the edge off."
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"I'll be right back." He said over his shoulder to Noah as he made his way out of the house and onto the front porch. He nearly tripped over Xander as he started to make his way down the steps, more concerned with keeping his eyes on the new comers than watching where he was going.
"Everything okay?" Brian asked no one in particular, preparing dinner all but forgotten now.
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(Stop right there, Jonas Ray,) he heard Lu's voice in his head, (You gotta take a chance and trust people and stop jumping at shadows. You can't live in the world like that.)
The pang of loss stung and Jonas pushed it aside. "Not exactly," Jonas called out. He turned to Henry, "My mother taught me to be a better guest than this. I don't usually come to people's homes and bleeds."
Jason raced past him, followed by Aunt Millie who continued barking up a stream. She wasn't in attack mode, more acting as though she'd found someone interesting, or was trying to figure out her pecking order.
"Aunt Millie! Ven aqui!" Jonas called out uselessly. He groaned, moving toward the house, "That dog never listens to me."
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Then he turned to the cabinet to bring out clean towels and a pair of scissors. "The shirt's no good, so I'm just gonna cut it off and save you the pain."
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Kayla bustled in with her modified EMT bag and nodded at Henry. She was completely composed and professional. "Thank you for doing that, Henry." Kayla deposited her medical bag on the sink and opened it, turning her words to Jonas, "And as for you, Jonas, you have to start being careful. What's this, the third time you've ripped those stitches open?"
"Hey, can't blame me this time. It was your womanly driving that did this."
"And wrestling with Aunt Millie had nothing to do with it?"
Jonas forgot himself, shrugged and winced. Kayla snorted and knelt to inspect the wound, carefully not touching it. He noticed that as she did so many times before, she placed a hand on his shoulder just above the woman, and for one fleeting moment, he thought that he felt her hand grow hot.
"Still no infection, that's good," Kayla said. "But we're going to stretch your antibiotics another few days because I have to sew you up again." To Henry she said, "Henry, I need to clean away some of the blood. Can you wet one of those towels? As hot water of water as possible. Then I'll need the perioxide in my bag.
"Wash your hands first. I have medicinal soap in my bag." Dr. Thornton, Jonas noted, was in full form.
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Henry plugged the sink and poured some of the boiling water from the kettle into it to wash his hands, and then he got busy acting the nurse to Kayla's surgeon, using up the rest of the hot water wetting the towel. Henry thought an order for Noah to put on a large pot of water, so they had more as soon as possible.
As Henry watched Kayla work, Henry wondered how she could know there was no infection. He could see that the wound looked clean- bleeding profusely, but clean, but there was no way to tell something like that just by looking.
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"I should have given you sutures," Kayla complained to no one in particular. "Sutures and staples, but I wasn't thinking straight. I just wanted to stop the bleeding. And then you told me that you'd take care of yourself ... that's it, Jonas Ray. We're binding that arm."
Jonas may have been more than a little buzzed but he was not five sheets to the wind yet. However, instead of one of his usual, logical arguments, Kayla got a pout. "No, Kayla. No sling. Can't work with a sling."
"Only until that wound is on its way to a proper heal," Kayla insisted. She looked to Henry, "He needs a new shirt, preferably something button down. He has a blue duffel in the back of our Hummer. I can use old sheets to make a sling and bind that arm to his side until he learns his lesson."
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"Be back with both in a minute," Henry answered and left the bathroom.
Their vehicle was still open- Kayla had been in a hurry. The duffle was heavier than just clothing would have caused, but Henry refrained from looking inside. Trust had to start sometime, and these new people had already shown a lot of it (considering their rattled state) by just coming here and letting Henry and the boys help them.
Back inside, Henry dropped the duffle in the hall and took the stairs up to the second floor to get the clean linins from the closet in his room. He glanced at the bed. He should change the sheets and offer it for Jonas, but first the good doctor needed the one in Henry's hand, so he went down the stairs again.
Grabbing the duffle as he passed through the hall again, Henry stepped into the bathroom and asked Kayla, "You need me to help get him dressed?"
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She ignored the look that Jonas gave her. Now that Jonas's wound was tended to, her curiosity turned up a notch. "Do all of you live here, Henry? In this one house, I mean?"
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With the zipper half open, Henry stopped, looked up at Kayla. "Okay if I go in here?" he asked, indicating the duffle.
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"Kayla, you know that's not where I keep my top secret porn." The reply came easily, if a bit slowly. "It's okay, Henry. I have a few shirts right on top there. Anyone of those will do."
The vodka was starting to get to him. Or maybe it was just the stress and tension from the bleeding and the worrying again. Whatever it was, Jonas felt like a nap might be nice.
He stifled a yawn.
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Jonas looked back at her over his shoulder, evidently not quite as inebriated as she thought. There was a seriousness to his eyes, an unspoken question that Kayla read there as We can pretend if you want.
It was tempting. It meant no worries about any of these men trying to get close to her, although truthfully all of them had kept a friendly and polite distance. But the truth of it was they didn't know how long they would be here or how long they'd have to be among these people. Even Kayla wasn't so skittish as not to realize that starting off with a lie -- among strangers who might someday become community --was a bad idea.
Kayla gave a barely imperceptible shake of her head and then said, "Oh, we're not married."
"She's not my wife," Jonas said in the same instance. Their exchange and 'discussion' had taken place in the span of a few seconds, but he'd understood her answer easily.
"I'm not his wife," Kayla tried to match her explanation to Jonas's.
"We're not married," Jonas corrected himself in stereo.
Kayla laughed a bit. "Stop talking, you're confusing things." She continued to pack up, explaining, "Jonas and I knew each other back in Philadelphia. I suppose that we're lucky that we were both still alive and found each other. He's been a really good friend to me."
"Been?" Jonas challenged. Kayla noticed that there was a bit of strain to his voice. He probably needed a good few hours of rest in a comfortable bed, not an air mattress or the back seat of the Hummer. "Know something that I don't know?"
With an exaggerated roll of her eyes, Kayla corrected herself. "Jonas *is* a good friend to me."
"Si, el mismo, una amiga buena," Jonas murmured. The slurring words and slipping into Spanish were another sign of his tiredness.
Kayla shifted her gaze from Jonas to Henry. "Is there a bed we can - well, he can -- borrow for a few hours? I think a little rest will do my stubborn patient some good. After I bind that arm up."
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"Ah," was all Henry said in acknowledgement of the correction. "A bed, right. Upstairs- he can take mine." Henry made another mental request to Noah to change the bedding before they got up there. The cleaner things were, the better it would be for Jonas.
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