whatever i got, i got it myself

[newmythology]

Predictably, Candice isn't tremendously fond of hospital stays. Her intake into the ER was something of a blur, and she's lucky she managed to punch off a message to anyone who might be interested in her welfare back home before passing out. Her ribs hurt. Her wrist is in its cast. They've given her painkillers, but her injuries don't

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[errantknights]

Martel passed through his home on the way here; had to change into something a little less likely to make him stick out like a sore thumb. (More than being a man of a certain physique standing 6'3" with long white hair will, that is to say.) He didn't bother with the tie and the jacket's just draped over his arm, shirtsleeves rolled up when he rolls in, as it were.

(He couldn't do anything about the boots, but let's be fair, here: they're very nice boots.)

Understandably, his attire is about the furthest thing from his mind right now, reining in whatever impulses he might be having in favor of finding somebody who can tell him where she is.

[errantknights]

Martel reaches out, but it occurs to him he's not sure where he can safely touch her, yet, so his hand ends up resting on the blanket next to her. "Is it?"

[newmythology]

"Well, I'd like it if you did, but I'm not really in fantastic shape for harassing you to be more forthcoming right now." She reaches out for his hand on her own, though the broken wrist stays put, obviously.

[errantknights]

"It's an interesting question in the context of our last conversation," he says, mildly, turning his hand to make that easier for her.

[newmythology]

"Yes, it is," she agrees, "But I'm--offering, I suppose."

Life and death situations prompt things like this, she's learned.

[errantknights]

"I don't know that you know what that means to me and I don't know that it's a conversation we should have with you in this particular condition," he says, after an oddly naked pause.

[newmythology]

She exhales, eyes half-closed for a second. While her headache is dissipating slowly, it's still there, and it worsens when she holds her breath like that.

"Well, before I decide whether I'm well enough to have this particular conversation, answer me this: is that what you want?"

[errantknights]

"Yes. I doubt I'd be here if it wasn't." Because nothing you do is entirely casual, really, when your emotions can inspire the kind of thing you go down in history for -- history written by winners that weren't you.

[newmythology]

"But you want to make sure..." She tries to sit up slightly, which proves to be a phenomenally stupid idea, and one she ought to have gotten a better grasp on earlier. The conversation has made her forget herself, just a little.

[errantknights]

"Careful," he says--not, in fairness, entirely unrelated to their conversation, even if he is specifically referring to the sitting up. Don't do that, Candice, it looks painful and he dislikes your pain and feels it should stop immediately.

(What, by the force of his crankiness? Martel, it does not work like that.)

He does, though, meander back on topic. "Yes, I do."

[newmythology]

"I'm fine," she insists, with the air of a woman who has been insisting she is fine despite gunshot wounds (starting at the tender age of fifteen, no less), stabbings, contusions, being tossed downstairs, and multiple possessions, for thirty-five years.

"I feel sure." That's an admission. "I thought of you in there...I didn't know how you'd react, if I didn't come back, and I want to know. How you react to things."

It is entirely possible she wouldn't be talking like this if she weren't beaten and then medicated.

[errantknights]

"'Badly'," he summarizes his reactions for her, helpfully. As...probably demonstrated by his inability to have this conversation well, despite being the person participating who has not in the past week been beaten or medicated. "Twenty years ago I expected to be married now," he says, finally, fingers flexing like he can't decide whether to let go or hold tighter and is trying to somehow do both. "That is, in fact, what that means to me. And now is not a wise time to make agreements you expect to be held to."

[newmythology]

"I am not sure wise has a damn thing to do with this," she tells him, after a quiet moment of processing that, "But--caballero, you know you don't know me that well. How can you be sure that's what you want if you don't think I can?"

Nevermind she's relatively drugged right now, she thinks they'd be having a similar conversation even if she weren't.

[errantknights]

"I am not on enforced recuperative bed rest, and all I say is that I'm not holding you to anything right now, particularly when what I wasn't sure of was that I had been clear." He pauses, briefly. "No, I don't, yet. I'm extremely patient."

[newmythology]

"That doesn't really answer the question, you know." But her smile is fond, even if it's only faint.

[errantknights]

"There hasn't been one explicitly asked," he points out, infuriatingly reasonable.