[log] Look Away, Look Away [closed]

[rubikscomplex]

Characters: Gregory House, Stephen Strange, Claire Temple, Ecks, Rhys, Angel
Location: Building 29
Date: Night 202
Summary: Traumatized by their exciting adventure in the snow, a bunch of people turn up at a shed where House made the mistake of staying put.
Warnings: Severe injury (face mutilation), blood, burns, frostbite, narcotics withdrawal, suicidal ideations, general discussion of psychological trauma

[A small shed outside the school, going inside reveals sports equipment is being stored in here. There are hurdles, various sports balls, giant mats, and the like. There's nothing that could be used as a weapon, though, unless you're going to try to hurl a basketball at someone's head. This is the only place on the campus it's possible to stay in overnight--if you try to stay anywhere else, you'll be made to leave at 7PM. The following is written on the wall in blue ink: "This is Building 46 on the composite map. Contact @CaptSteveRogers for details." Underneath is a fairly accurate map showing the shed in relation to the school. The school is labeled "School. Food available in cafeteria; DO NOT STAY HERE OVERNIGHT." The shed is labeled "Shed". Behind the shed is a small army of snowmen armed with sports equipment. There's a drawing spraypainted on the inside of the shed. It has been labeled "GEROMY". The skin color has been left blank.]

Comments

[ecks]

I did not look but I think it is gone because there is so much blood. You can't be alive without a face. You can't be a person without a face.

[No one ever accused this murderchild of having a good bedside manner.]

[rubikscomplex]

Shit.

[House doesn't care about the person thing. He knows why she's saying it. But he does care whether the skin on his face is actually completely gone. He's pretty sure he would be dead right now if that were the case. He's still weak and dizzy from blood loss, not to mention the trembling and magnified pain from withdrawal, but he reaches up to grope at the bed sheet mask over his head. It's going to be indescribably painful to peel this thing off, but it needs to be done.]

[ecks]

[Ecks starts groaning again. She does not want to see him without a face, does not want him to peel that mask off and reveal that he's been dead since before she got here. She reaches for his hands, trying to grasp them so that he will stop.]

[rubikscomplex]

[He doesn't have the strength to fight her off, and just goes limp in Ecks' grip.]

Need to change bandages.

[Maybe that will move her. She'd been putting something up against his face.]

[ecks]

I don't want to see.

[She ducks her head, forgetting the burns and taking in a sharp breath when they remind her of their presence. She's silent, just holding his hands as her stomach churns. Bandages. Change the bandages, keep the openings clean, stop the bleeding, keep the body warm. He is not dead.

She releases her grip. When she speaks again, the unsteadiness is gone from her voice as she turns off something inside her.]

Awaiting instructions.

[rubikscomplex]

[Great. She's shutting down. Well, if it makes her do what he wants, he'll deal with it for the moment. His head is spinning, his throat is parched, he's in too much pain, but they need to do this.]

Untie the bandana at the back. Peel off the sheet gently. Get water ready to wipe the blood away. You can use the clean parts of the sheet.

[What few of them remain.

[ecks]

[She listens carefully, sure to hear all of the instructions before beginning. She lets it be like it was before, lets the body before her be just a body, lets herself be a tool rather than a person.

He has a moment's peace as she retrieves and uncaps her bottle of water before she pulls away the second sheet and her fingers insinuate themselves under his head to untie the bandana. Peeling away the sheet is not precisely like before, but the motions are familiar and she knows to be steady and slow and gentle.]

[rubikscomplex]

[And she will see... a face! A blood-covered face, but definitely a face. It looks like something circular latched on and tried to chew it off, but it is, in face, there.

Tears run down House's cheeks and a pain sob is muffled in his mouth as the sheet comes off completely. He's in terrible shape, but still a person, for sure.]

[ecks]

[Ecks's own expression remains blank, but there's something like a little sigh of relief as she looks at him for a moment. Then she's moving mechanically to dampen what unbloodied part of the sheet she can find to gently wipe away the blood, finishing out the instructions.

He's a person. He has a face and he is a person and he can be a person rather than a body for her.]

[rubikscomplex]

[He stays quiet as she works, though he winces and twitches. The wounds surrounding his face a still bleeding, but not nearly as much as they had at the start. His skin is incredibly pale, and when it gets to be too much, he can't help passing out on her again, body going slack.

If Ecks checks, he's still breathing, though. So there is that.]

[ecks]

[For a second she thinks that he has died, so she does check -- breathing and pulse, still alive, cold, still bleeding. She doesn't have any orders beyond removing the sheet and cleaning up the blood. Even as she comes back to herself, Ecks struggles with the desire to simply subside and wait for him to somehow tell her before she can nudge herself back to letting prior experience guide her. She digs out the cloth bandages he left with her weeks and weeks ago and carefully applies them over the worst of the wounds, shivering more violently as more time goes by with her coat on House rather than on her.

When she's done with that, she does simply stop and sit still and wait. He will wake up, or someone will come, and she will have orders. If he doesn't wake up on his own, she'll sit like that for a good ten or twenty minutes before the cold becomes unbearable and it occurs to her to try cuddling up with him under the coat she's draped over his form.]

[rubikscomplex]

[House comes back around by degrees only once Ecks has cuddled herself up to him. He's not a physically affectionate man by nature, and having another person so immediately in his space is disconcerting. When he cracks open his eyes to see the golem, feels whatever heat lamp she's stuck in his coat still burning warmly between them, though, he doesn't shove her away. Maybe later when others come.

For now, he'll just close his eyes and murmur in a quiet voice:]

Thanks.

[ecks]

[Ecks is not entirely at ease with the cuddling herself, but she presses in close, too cold to bother about the sense of unease that comes from being so close to even someone she knows well.

It is more pleasant than she expected.]

You are welcome. Do not die.

[She'll be content to remain like that until he makes her get up.]