(2016-05-16) Teddy Bear on a Mission
Teddy Bear on a Mission
Summary: Kaylee visits Tabitha in the ICU.
Date: 2016-05-16
Related: Code Blue
NPCs: Nathaniel King
Scene Runner: NA

Things have quieted down in the medbay's small ICU since Saturday. Its sole patient isn't in much better condition but at least she's stabilized. And with the arrival of Tabitha's caretaker from Maine, a Coral Springs alumnus Nathaniel King, the doctors have been able to move forward with treating her. She's between treatments right now, laying face down in her adjustable massage table/medical bed hybrid thing. Her left arm is secured straight out from her body and immobilized and her back and left side are covered by concealing surgical cloth. She's awake and talking to the very tall man who's seated next to her bed.

"You can change the words any way you want, Master Nathan, but you should have told me when you brought me here. I really don't think anyone here would give a damn about me being some kind of legacy student, and I might not have been so scared on the trip down."

"Tabby, it wasn't my decision. I was instructed to leave you in the dark until the end of the term. I wasn't told why. And not only that, but I wanted you to come to grips with your powers on your own terms." The large man's voice is deep and energetic but tightly controlled.

Rumor travels fast in such a small location as the school. Plust, a student being severely injured is kind of a big deal! Unfortunately, Kaylee hadn't had the chance to come visit her friend yet, so this is her first opportunity to see her fellow student. Poking her head inside, Kaylee takes a second to scan the area before she walks in. She's holding a small, stuffed bear in front of her as she approaches, asking, "Is it okay for me to come in?" as she gets near enough.

Tabitha can't look up further than her eyes can rotate, but she recognizes the voice. "Hi, Kaylee! Yeah, c'mon in. I'm not due for my next skin tearing session for another couple hours, so all visitors welcome." She's either in a fairly good mood or she's been practicing her acting skills. She gestures with her right hand, pointing from Kaylee to Nathan and back. "Master Nathan, this is my friend Kaylee. Kaylee, this is my caretaker and sensei Master Nathan. Also, apparently he's a Coral Springs graduate. A fact that I was left unaware of for some mysterious reason." No, she's not bitter at all.

Nathan stands up as introductions are made by Tabitha. He's… well, he's something of a giant. The ceiling in this ICU room is an easy ten feet, and his head nearly reaches it. His body is well built but more lean than muscular. He inclines his head in a polite bow and offers his hand to Kaylee. "It's good to meet you, Kaylee." Then he grins down at Tabitha, who can't see him past his knees at this point. "If you'll excuse me. Now that you're here to keep my somewhat ungrateful ward company, I think I'll go check in with the doctor."

Kaylee blinks a little, even though she's not wearing her glasses, while Nathan stands up. And up. And uuuuuuuup. Her head tilts backward as she watches him rise, her mouth dropping open in a silent gape of astonishment. TALL. She's a little slow to react when Nathan reaches out his hand, which causes her to squeak a little and blush as she catches up, quickly reaching out to have her hand enveloped by the giant's. "Nice to meet you, Mr. Nathan," she responds, still trying to wrap her head around someone being so tall.

As the man makes his way out to check in with a doctor, Kaylee will watch him leave for several seconds, gift-bear held idly in one hand. Once he's away, she'll turn back to Tabitha and state the obvious: "He's TALL!" As if that were a good way to start a conversation.

"Oh sure, run away. Just don't crack the ceiling, yeah? I can't exactly swim right now!" Tabitha taunts at Nathan in a way that indicates she's either very annoyed with him or just playing around. Equal odds either way. In any case, once he's gone and Kaylee recovers she chuckles with a sharp wince at the end that quiets her down. "Yeah. Always made us feel safe with him around. I mean, how could anything bad happen with a giant like that around?" She tilts her face upwards a few degrees so Kaylee can see her smile. "Thanks for coming down, Kaylee. It's good to get visitors."

Without her glasses on, it's hard for Kaylee to see facial expressions. Which is a good reason she fishes them out of her pocket and slides them into place, moving in to settle on a chair next to Tabitha's bed. "I'm sorry your hurt, Tabitha," Kaylee intones, her bottom lip poking out in a sympathetic pout. "To cheer you up, I brought you this!" she quickly adds, the pout easily giving way to a broad grin as the teddy bear is presented in both hands, held out to full-extension for Tabitha to see. If Tabitha isn't able to reach out for the bear, Kaylee will absolutely try to tuck him in an appropriate cuddling position.

Being face down in a table/bed hybrid with a hole for her face to stick through, Tabitha can't see much beyond the floor and whatever she can catch by moving her eyes. But when the teddy bear is presented she smiles and blinks some moisture out of her eyes. "Thank you! I love it!" Her right arm is free to move, and she reaches over and accepts the bear with it before hugging it. "Thanks for coming, really. It's been a bit lonely."

Kaylee hands over the bear dutifully. And then, unsatisfied with her position sittinb beside the bed, Kaylee gets down and lays on the floor and then slides partway underneath it so that she can look at Tabitha. "Hi there!" she chirps happily, smiling. "I'm sorry if you've felt lonely. Like I said, I just haven't had time trying to catch up with all of the homework I have to get done before the end of the year, since I kinda missed most of the semester. But, I'll come down every day, if that'll be better?" she offers.

Tabitha's face lights up when Kaylee appears on the floor. "Ha! Tiny people win! Hi!" She shakes her head a tiny bit, "No, it's alright. Semester's almost over and everyone's busy. Hell, I can't even avoid homework in here." Her smile grows a touch with the offer to come by daily. "If you can, I'd like that." She sniffles a bit and hugs the bear to her face again. "But enough of the sniffles. What's going on outside the doors? Anything fun, exciting, or racy happening?"

"Awwwwwwwwww!" Kaylee coos when Tabitha sniffles, a hand instantly reaching up to gently pet her face. Because there's not much else to touch. Kaylee's bottom lip juts out again as she shows her camaraderie with the girl, determined to feel bad with her as best she can. … which isn't very well, since sad isn't really in Kaylee's nature. At the mention of what's going on, Kaylee lights up again, and then proceeds to splurge with pretty much everything that has happened the last few days. In minutia. Finishing with, "… and there's this tall blonde guy who talks like Thor but totally isn't buff like him and says that he's never met Thor which is really strange since Thor's not a real person anyway. And that's about it!" Some people may wonder if the girl actually needs to breath or if she somehow replenishes her oxygen simply by talking.

Tabitha listens raptly as the news, events, and gossip of the school is rolled out by Kaylee. Some of it is things she normally wouldn't pay much attention to, but now it's all mana from heaven. Then she's hearing about a new guy who's apparently quite a hottie. Then when Kaylee finally takes a breath at the end, the part of Tabitha that's visible looks much more relaxed and like herself. There's her spark of mischief there, too. "Well, how do we know that Thor isn't real? I mean, my roommate's a fairy, Annaleisa is a mermaid, and Harold walks around with a fuzzy ogre. Who knows, right?"

Blink. Blink blink blink. "… REALLY?!" Kaylee asks, incredulous. Apparently, she hadn't quite gotten that far in her education about the world in which she was now involved. … or she'd just been oblivious, which is probably at least partially true, if not completely. "So … is Chris Hemsworth ACTUALLY Thor?! Or … well … do they care if we make movies about them, if they're real?" she asks, canting her head to the side.

Tabitha shrugs her right shoulder, her expression about halfway between 'yeah, really' and 'I'm messing with you'. "Well, if there is a Thor I doubt that it's Chris Hemsworth. I just can't imagine the Norse god of thunder being in an Australian soap opera. But yeah, we've got quite a few folks here that are from a good bit to the left of normal. If that's a word we can use for any of us here." While she's talking she's also setting the bear up on the small table that's been placed below her face. "So this Thor-looking hottie, what's his story?"

Australian soap opera? That elicits a giggle and then a full-on giggle-fit from Kaylee as she imagines it, closing her eyes and holding her tummy as she laughs. "But it'd be the perfect cover!" she counters. Which is even funnier, in her mind. When she manages to calm herself down again, she just shrugs and grins back up at Tabitha. "I dunno. All I know is that when I asked why he talked like Thor, he said that he had never met him, and that he's not been added to the Tabitha harem yet, but that it probably won't be long. I can see if he wants to come visit!?" she offers, impishly.

Giggles are contagious, even when laughing hurts. So to keep from laughing so hard she starts to do damage to what's hidden under the surgical curtain she does the supressed laughter thing. This time when she tears up it's from the giggles. Then she has to stop, rewind what Kaylee said in her mind, then blink, "Wait he said what about me and my what? Y'know I don't actually have a harem, right? It's just Jacob and me right now." Her right shoulder shrugs again at the last question. "Should probably wait until they're done cutting steaks out of my flank before I meet anyone new."

Canting her head to the side as she continues to try and shut the giggles down, Kaylee seems a little confused. "What? No, he didn't … no, I said you have a harem because you said you have a harem. Zander just said he hadn't met Thor," she explains. And then she winces and cringes and writhes a little at Tabitha's description, totally grossed out. "Can I ask what happened? Nobody will tell me, they all just get really quiet when I try to ask."

"I was joking about having a harem. I mean yeah I like the idea of loving a whole group of people, but how likely am I to find people with the same idea? Jacob's good and cute and fun to be with. That's enough for me for now." Tabitha smiles at Kaylee, giving her the Cliff's Notes version of herself because the joke's run its course. Then she sighs and shrugs her one shoulder again.

"A couple weeks ago my burn scars started itching. Like volcanic erruption of fire ants all marching a conga line under my skin kind of itching. The last Friday it got so bad that I came in here. Something's happening with a glyph on my back. It's trying to expand but my scars won't let it. Master Nathan thinks that something about me is trying to wake up, and the doctors tried letting my own healing powers fix it. But that didn't work because I had my scars when I got my powers, so my healing thinks that the scars are how I'm supposed to be put together."

She takes a breath and lets it out, "So they, ah… they're…" She has a hard time saying the last part. "They're removing all of the scars in sections. Completely." She won't say the more blunt version because the words 'they're skinning me alive to make me better' just don't want to form.

"Oh no," Kaylee mewls quietly, her hand reaching back up to stroke Tabitha's face. Because that's what you do when someone's suffering, right? "I'm so, so sorry, Tabby," she adds, her brow wilting as her lower lip emerges again. And yes, it seems the indominable Kaylee actually really is capable of feeling bad for more than a few seconds. However, the pout turns into a more determined grimace as Kaylee decides, "I am going to bring you so much ice cream and … and candy … and snacks! What else do you like? Should I bring my mp3 player? We can listen to music. And movies. And I'll borrow somebody's tablet so we can netflix and hulu and … and …." Aww. Now Kaylee is the one who's tearing up!

Tabitha closes her eyes and smiles at the contact, then tries to reach down to return the gesture but can't reach by a good stretch. So she extends her aura from her right hand to do the job instead. "I don't know about the ice cream and candy, at least not while I'm in here, but all the rest sounds like heaven, Kaylee." The mention of borrowing a tablet gets a thoughtful frown. "I had a tablet in here. No idea what happened to it, though." She uses her aura to wipe away Kaylee's tears, then uses it to scoop up the teddy bear and have it give her a fuzzy hug.

Okay, so … the aura thing is a little weird, what with Kaylee's proton detection stuff and everything. But, the gesture is appreciated and Kaylee makes a feeble attempt to smile, her protruding lower lip hampering the expression a great deal. She takes a deep breath, though, and forces the attempt closer to success, nodding. "Then my first mission, as a student at Coral Springs and member of the Prometheus team, will be to find your tablet." She nods, smiling up at Tabitha and squueeeeeeeeeeeeeeezing the bear quite fondly.

Tabitha's smile widens and relaxes once Kaylee is almost back to her normal Kaylee-ness. "Sounds like a plan. Daxton was the last one in here before things went crappy, so he probably has it." She's about to say more when Nathan's distinctive footsteps are heard approaching along with a few other sets of feet. She lets out a sigh, "Well damn. Time does fly. Sounds like it's about time to get my ass shaved, for lack of better phrasing." She puts the bear back on the little table under her face and smiles at Kaylee. "Thanks for coming by again, Kaylee. I'm looking forward to your next visit."

Kaylee's frown is potent, when the bear is placed on the table. She reaches out, grabs the bear, and tucks it into Tabitha's good arm. "He's not just here for looks," she says, absolutely and totally serious … about a stuffed bear. "And I'll go start looking for your tablet right now! Finding things is one of my specialties," she adds, the grin returning. She reaches up and gives Tabitha's cheek one more affectionate pat before she slides out from under the table, stands up, straightens her skirt out a little, and then literally marches out of the medbay as if she was actually on a mission. Determined, this one.
