[log] Catch Me [closed]

[rubikscomplex]

Characters: House and Ecks
Location Throughout the Split Tunnels
Date: Days 167-170
Summary: Ecks and House meet up in the split tunnels and go off on adventure!
Warnings: Probably just language and potential crude humor from House.

[House knows Ecks is in the area and that they're heading toward one another. He's a little preoccupied navigating the twisted wreckage of the apartment complex to be paying an excessive amount of attention to who might be in this area of the tunnels with him. He's sort of just assuming he'll pick her up in the apartment the next bit over before heading north.

His care comes in handy when the floor he's walking over shifts and then starts to collapse. House lunges for safety and is left swearing loudly, dangling on the edge of the floor. He could drop down, but he doesn't know what the landing would be like and can't let go to look.

It might attract some attention.]

Comments

[ecks]

[Ecks has had just about enough of sitting and waiting over the last weeks -- and just about enough of the people she likes wandering about without her and getting hurt. To Doctor House's credit, he really hasn't died very recently, but he is the one she can get to and so he is the one she is going to look after right now.

It's slow going with only the light of the tablet and a bed sheet instead of a rope for helping climb or descend the rubble. She doesn't see a light up ahead, but she does hear a collapse...and a familiar voice. She stops mid-stride, ears straining. It sounded bad, but she must be sure she was right about the direction from which it came. She raises her voice, projecting from the diaphragm.]

Doctor House? Doctor House is that you?

[rubikscomplex]

Jesus Christ, keep your voice down! [It's very much House and his words are snapped.] Floor's weak over here. Be careful and come help me up.

[ecks]

[That is definitely Doctor House, yes. Ecks falls silent, though as she moves her footsteps (too fast to be as careful as she ought) are faintly audible in the rubble and the clacking of something wooden accompanies her movements. Somewhere in the course of the last months she has more or less given up on stealth.

She picks her way carefully over, the dim light of her tablet's screen feebly pushing back the darkness. There's the sound of a crash, smaller than the one he set off, but her footsteps resume after a brief moment, and soon enough her light is falling on his face as her gaze flickers over the scene, taking in the crumbling edge of the floor and the abyss below him.]

Hold on.

[The command is terse, flat. He might be forgiven for not recognizing the fear and urgency she utterly fails to inject into it. She quickly squats, setting down the tablet and casting off her mittens, reaching one hand over his shoulder to dig into his armpit from behind (likely painfully, if he can feel it through the layers of clothing), the other to grasp his arm by the wrist, leaving him a hand to use on the rubble and a hand to help grip her arm in return. Feet braced, she takes just a second to look him in the eye as best she can in the darkness.]

Pull now.

[She cannot do this all on her own. Even if she had the strength, her grip is not what it was following the injuries to her hands. She won't wait for confirmation, but pushes with her knees, letting the weight of her pack carry her backwards to sit down hard, hopefully bringing him with her...and hopefully not losing her footing in the process.]

[rubikscomplex]

[House sees what she's doing as she gets herself into position. It's probably the best he can hope for. At the very least, he's considerably lighter now than he was when he first arrived in Norfinbury. Or, well, lighter than he was 30ish days ago when he last revived.

Regardless of what she doesn't have to deal with, there's still the weight that he does have. House braces himself as best he can and when she starts to sit back, he pulls with every ounce of strength he possesses. It's still a near thing, but between the two of them, he comes up from the ledge, half sprawled across her lap and panting in the dark.

He's silent for a long moment.]

Thank you. [It's brusque, tight, and then he's moving on.] Now get up and move back so the rest of this goddamn floor doesn't collapse out from under us. [He picks himself up, and if he makes it before her, Ecks will find his mittened hand held down to her to help her to her feet.]

[ecks]

[A full-size human is a lot of weight to lift, malnourished or not. Even using her own body as a lever Ecks runs the risk of being pulled over with him, or of losing her grip and losing him to the gaping hole in the floor. Her fingers stay dug into his coat past necessity; it's not until he's actively trying to climb off her that she lets go of him.

She casts about in the dark for first her tablet, then her mittens once she can direct its light again. Unstable floor or no, her mittems are one of her most precious commodities, and she's just finishing pulling them on when he extends his hand downward. Ecks takes it, climbing gingerly to her feet, already moving obediently away from the hole as she rises. The source of the clacking sound will be apparent if he looks at her pack; alongside the shovel he gave her a pull-toy in the shape of a caterpillar hangs down the outside of her backpack.]

You are welcome. [That's how the exchange goes, right? She's at least speaking quietly now, and she keeps moving, steps carefully placed.] You are still bad at not dying. That is a joke because I am glad you did not fall and die.

[rubikscomplex]

[Her going to the trouble to explain the joke gets more of a smile than the joke itself. Although, in the darkness, it likely isn't visible, which is fine with house. He gets himself situated and aims his pen flashlight into the wreckage of the apartment complex in front of him. He skips past her joy for him being alive and moves onto practical matters.]

Do you remember the way you came from here? We need to head west, then north. There's a section of tunnels up there that hasn't been documented.

[ecks]

I know how to return to the place where I slept, but I think that is west and south.

[Nevertheless, she'll point the way down the "path" she followed to get here, at least for now.]

We could mark a trail, except the spiders might unmark it when we sleep. Where was the place with the doll on the chair?

[Innocent, irrelevant, totally-not-planning-to-go-there question for you, House.]

[rubikscomplex]

Don't bother trying to mark it. [House shakes his head.] We can't trust things aren't getting shifted around.

The dolls back in the direction we'll be heading in a few days. If we can get it off the chair, you can carry it.

[Isn't he a great Sciencedad?]

[ecks]

[He is the best Sciencedad. She's going to carry the hell out of that thing. She's already named it in her mind: Child. It will be friends with Red-Cat, Bear, Mouse, and Bird. Except apparently there's a logistical problem...?]

Is it stuck to the chair?

[rubikscomplex]

That's one problem. The other problem is that even when I cut it free, it disappeared and went back to the chair when I wasn't looking. We'll see if we can find a way to get it up somehow.

[ecks]

You cut it?

[The tempo of her voice increases briefly in shock -- no, not shock, she knows him too well to be truly surprised. Rather, it's more akin to horror.]

Have you tried removing the entire chair?

[rubikscomplex]

Oh, get over yourself. I couldn't get it up any other way. I tried breaking the chair free, I tried pulling the doll up, I tried chiseling everything free. The only way that thing was coming out was being cut, and it fixed itself as soon as it was out of my sight.

[ecks]

Maybe it wants to be there. Maybe it does not want you to take it. Maybe it does not want to be cut and you should not be cutting it.

[Sorry, House, she's not getting over herself.]

[rubikscomplex]

We're not having this discussion. [He shoves roughly past a loose board, which sets the whole structure around them shaking briefly. House freezes in place, gaze and penlight going up toward the ceiling, waiting to see if anything happens.]

[ecks]

We --

[The protest dies in her throat as she freezes along with him. Her gaze flicks about, looking for structural weaknesses, where it might come down on them -- but outside the spot lit by House's penlight she can hardly make anything out. One of her hands slowly raises, ready to grab or push him should she need to burst into motion.]

[rubikscomplex]

[House lowers his pen light down again. His voice is low, but harsh.]

Move slowly and quietly.

[To demonstrate, he starts tiptoeing forward, lips a thin line of nerves.]

[ecks]

[It would seem prudent to let him get further ahead of her so that their noise and weight is more distributed, except for the part where she is using the light of her tablet to see, and his light is much better. Ecks still lets Doctor House take a small head start before creeping slowly and carefully after him.

When she speaks, it is in the faintest whisper, lest she cause a cave-in.]

We are having this discussion.

[rubikscomplex]

[Jesus Christ! Really?]

It's a doll. It's not alive like you. Stop projecting.

[There's another loud creak, and House pauses, but it only seems to be the complex settling. He moves on.]

[ecks]

...I know that it is not alive.

[She does. She knows that. None of them are alive, really, even if they have names now. She just...forgets, sometimes, for a little while.]

I just do not want you to cut it.

[rubikscomplex]

Considering it was useless before, I'm not planning on it. Believe it or not, I don't like wasting my time just to spite you.

[ecks]

Good. That is good.

[Except he cut it once already.]

I am not going to allow you to cut the animals I am carrying.

[rubikscomplex]

Golly! And I was planning to gut them all.

[Have you learned to detect sarcasm, yet, Ecks?]

[ecks]

You do not need to gut them because I already felt them for SD cards, and also I would not allow you to do it.

[Nope.]

[rubikscomplex]

It's sarcasm, kid. Learn to recognize it.

[ecks]

[Oh. She is supposed to know this already.]

I am trying, Doctor House.

[That's...settled?]

I will help you get this doll. I will also help you not fall down holes and die.

Think we can fade here unless you've got somewhere you'd like to take this thread!

[rubikscomplex]

Gee. Thanks.

[That's also said with sarcasm, though he means it a little more.]

C'mon. Think we're just about to a point where we can start heading north.