video; posted around noon

[paterelohim]

[Tile. Linoleum tile, to be precise, but the camera moves quickly to show a chair and then, finally, Chuck, looking almost grotesque: his face is streaked with blood and ash. He's in the hallway of Skye Medical Center, looking exhausted and utterly beat. A few long seconds pass wherein he seems to be gathering himself, trying to find words. How can

Comments

[video]

[thecrowingtobe]

[He'd been off shift that day and passed out in his car after getting it working properly again. There were few people he had auto set to his device and Chuck was one of them. Groggy eyed he looked at the post...not getting it at first (though his watering eyes said he got it fast). It took a minute to sit up, messy faced and looking to video. Jinx. Hospital. Odette lost?]

Chuck! What the hell happened?! [The boy on screen looked more then angry when he showed up on video. Worried, angry and shocked really.] Who the hell was looking after her? Where was she?

[At work no doubt! Damn it she should have been resting! Gabriel should have been making her rest or something or... or...--he was climbing out of the car, his NV rattling around, dropped in the front seat, still talking but recording out the open door, showing the boy moving around once in a while. A call from the distance]

You are Skye?

[video ---> text]

[paterelohim]

[Chuck looks overwhelmed for approximately four seconds before thinking fuck this and switching to text with an "I knew I should have stayed in bed today" expression.]

She was at Purgatory with me. Tonight was supposed to be my first day back at work, and we were getting ready.

Yeah. We're at Skye.

[video ---> text]

[thecrowingtobe]

[Sorry man, he really likes you and all but he has an odd attachment to Jinx and this just made him freak a bit. The fact that Chuck went to text means that Claudio didn't get this for.... some time.]

[When he does lean in again to grab his NV in order to try and get a reply he finds it's sent as text. A small growl at that. Damn it! Just... just talk! Why does EVERYONE go to text on him!?]

I... I just need to know what happened! [swiftly texting back cus he has no idea if Chuck would even get this he tossed out a short fast reply]

thx man
gabe with you guys too?
b there soon

[he'll come talk with you in person later... when he's not being a dickhead]

Re: [video ---> text]

[paterelohim]

I told you. She had a miscarriage and she's in surgery.

Gabriel is the one who brought us here. Screw ambulances.

[text]

[thecrowingtobe]

i mean did anythin get her
she fall or something
you alright
did it just... happen and that was it
good
stay with them if you can

[texting? He doesn't use punctuation often, sorry man. Those were lots of questions]

[text]

[paterelohim]

We were just talking about the bar. Getting ready for my first day back at work. She seemed messed up for a few minutes beforehand, but we thought it was just kicking.

...Are you fucking high? I'm not going anywhere.

[text]

[thecrowingtobe]

she shouldnt been working
i should have been there to help you
fuck

good
ill be there soon i think

[He wished he was high. It would make things easier, right? Hnng. He didn't realize it just yet but he would have Trauma with him as well. Not that it made much of a difference, but they would be there too.]

[text]

[paterelohim]

She insisted on being there, but she did a lot of sitting. Then pacing. I don't know if this could have been prevented. [Translation: it couldn't have been and there's no fucking way this would have ever ended well, but Chuck's keeping that opinion to himself.]

Drive safe.

[text]

[thecrowingtobe]

[At this point he wants to say tons. Ask more questions. This wasn't a normal pregnancy. Too fast. To wrong. Something wasn't right, was it? Instead he simply said:]

im glad you were there
thanks

ill try

[Action]

[mademyhell]

[ The wonders of having a night job means 12 noon is a bit more like the middle of the night. However,Trauma, as it turns out, still slept just as badly as when he left last, and so when the NV started beeping at him he was awake enough to comprehend pretty fast.

Trauma didn't let himself stop to think, because if he did, he was pretty damn sure he wouldn't start back up again any time soon. He just couldn't do it. If he did, he was pretty sure he'd be a danger, and then he couldn't reasonably go to the hospital. It would be more than not good to start going off in a freaking hospital. This was the kind of thing they talked about in the Initiative all the time. You couldn't let your emotions get ahead of you, because then you could cause a hell of a lot of damage. 'Don't be a New Warrior' and all that bullshit. He was a lot better, no doubt about it, but this was Jinx and this was her in danger and- And fuck. No. He couldn't do it. Breakdown, later. Way later. Possibly next fucking year when everyone else had calmed down

[Action]

[thecrowingtobe]

[Lets see... in a few moments that it took him to yell at poor Chuck, dodge about trying to pull shit off the hood of the car, replug something back in and slam his fist into his tool box and through it (going to need a new box, as well as tools, as most of them just got power-crushed...) and get back to actually replying to Chuck again? Yeah, well that was about as long as it took Trauma to come in and make a shitty comment about the car.]

[Closing his NV with a hard clap he tossed it into the back, climbed out again and hissed] Don't start with me and the god damn car!

[Which is to say shut your trap and get in already. Or something like that. When he looked at Trauma and the graying though he stopped... wiping his hands off on a rag he hissed, frowning... less angry looking. Calm down, yeah, fuck...]

You heard then? Yeah... I was just about to head there myself.

[Action]

[mademyhell]

[In normal circumstances, he'd have probably started into why the car, yes, totally was a rust bucket, deal with it, and back the fuck off...But under the current circumstances, he just put up his hands (One shoe still in hand instead of on, putting them on while running down the stairs had been harder than in the movies and had nearly gotten him killed due to missing a step. Yeah, that would've been awesome.) and then started around to the other side to get in.

If they were both going to be in the mood to pick a fight, might as well do it on the way.

Multitasking was effective, after all.]

I heard. Trust me, I did.

[He climbed into the passenger's side, and began to try and get the other shoe on the moment he shut the door, trying valiantly to ignore the fact that his hands couldn't seem to decide what color they were.

Well, fuck.]

How fast you think you can get us there?

[Action]

[thecrowingtobe]

[The fact that the moment he actually saw the guy and that Trauma was having his own issue of chilling his gray out did manage to throw cold water on the anger management problem that Claudio seemed to have. Tossing the rag to the side and peeling out of the work overalls he kicked that off, slapped an button on the garage wall to start opening the door and... climbed into the rust bucket.]

[Shut up, it's a damn good car considering how shitty it was months and months ago]

Not long. Skye isn't far. [with a creak-slam of his own door he sat, hands on the wheel, knuckles raw and sore and... realized he was shaking. Tightening his grip he let out a breath]

You alright? [Because he needed to ask himself that question, really. His fingers tightened on the wheel even more. Focus on someone else other then Jinx or... Odette. --Yeah, scared young man was scared to lose Jinx also... or how this would effect their girl. Focus on something else...]

[Action]

[mademyhell]

[He really couldn't help himself, but something about the question 'are you alright' just put him over the edge. Somehow. He found himself laughing, though it really just came out sounding sort of mean, and probably very sardonic. He really wasn't the best judge. Either way, it felt off, but come on. Trauma didn't have to count very high to list all the people in the world that he cared about, really, and when you shortened that list to the port...Well, to put it simplest, Jinx was hands down one of the most important people he had left, and he wasn't too clear on what he'd do if she was gone. Hell, he didn't know what to do if she got out of this, he'd been there for enough of everything to feel how freaked she'd been, where her fears were. And he didn't know how well she'd recover from this, even if she did completely recover physically.

And how fucking likely was that? He wasn't a doctor, and he could tell she'd been in real bad shape recently.]

.....Not at all. You?

[He sat back and crossed his arms, watching his friend and

[Action]

[thecrowingtobe]

[That... that was one of the most unsettling laughs he had heard, though he really understood where it came from. The question that was asked was stupid, really stupid. Even he couldn't lie and say he was fine. Claudio had meant if Trauma was alright with... with going, or with his graying out power freakiry thing. With---well, he meant a lot and really the answer covered most of it fine.]

[He didn't blame the other at all for the mild disturbing look he had either. With a held breath he broke his grip on the wheel with one hand and reached to turn the car on (it sounded better then it did last week)]

Not at all. [he repeated back in a tense voice. How do you deal with something like this? He started to pull out, hitting a garage door closer to seal up the house as they moved...] Doesn't matter I guess...

[Action]

[mademyhell]

[Well. Least that's honest, right?

....Somehow small victories just don't cut it when you're trying to keep yourself from freaking the fuck out.]

Sort of does. Just...[He pauses, and shrugs. There's no way to really say 'yeah, you and me are panicking, but we're sort of third or fourth tier importance here, especially if there's no good reason to say it because you are both far far too aware.]

...I didn't...[He pauses, and then restarts.] All I saw was that first-What Chuck said at first. I didn't....[Didn't keep looking because looking did no good when you could fucking be there already, and fuck, if Gabriel wasn't probably a fucking wreck he'd hate him a little for not coming and getting them.]

Was there anything else?

[He doubts it, but he would probably have to borrow Claudio's NV to look because, come to think of it, his is still upstairs. Great. Fucking amazing. Genus, really, Trauma. Just fucking genius.]