[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

[rubikscomplex]

[House draws in a ragged breath and tenses, waiting for her to start. When she does, he just closes his eyes tight shut, grimacing. He'll make it about halfway through her disinfectant treatment before it becomes unbearable. The doctor cries silently, chest heaving, tears slipping down his cheeks. He gasps in short breaths now and again, but that's all.

He needs morphine. He needs so much morphine and an entire bucket of Vicodin after this.]

[nursetemple]

[She bites her lip as she sees him break, not something she'd ever expect, or want to see. But here he is, tired and crying and she doesn't stop - she can't stop, if she does she'll make it a thousand times worse when she has to start again.

So she keeps going, but with her free hand, she reaches out for one of his.]

[rubikscomplex]

[He lets her take his hand, but he doesn't actually return the gesture. His fingers spasm now and again until she's done. It's not something he can particularly hide from the group in the shed, but he is going to take a few ragged breaths to speak.]

Tell anyone about this, and I will make it my mission to destroy you.

[He's only joking a little bit.]

[nursetemple]

[As she finally pulls away, taking her hand away from his, she chuckles a little.]

With what ammo?

[Don't worry, House. She swore an oath, and anyway, she has no desire to talk about this to anyone. She doesn't see the point.

Going back to her bag, she takes out her last few remaining bandages.]

All right, time to cover you up.

[rubikscomplex]

You need to do my chest. After.

[It's really not a come-on.]

Tablet exploded. Shrapnel. Tweezers in my pack.

[He hadn't really had the mental capacity or ability to go digging it out. But Claire will be able to see, if she's looking closely that there are multiple small holes through House's layers of clothes.]

[nursetemple]

Shit.

[She's still putting bandages over his face, methodical about it. But she glances down to his chest, grimacing.]

Okay. I've got tweezers as well, don't worry about it. Do you want to just lift your multiple layers? I can't work through your clothes, but it'll be cold for a while.

[rubikscomplex]

Fine. Whatever.

[It needs to be done, and that's about the size of it. While Claire is bandaging his face, House starts to undo his zippers and buttons, shaking hands fumbling. It's really only his T-shirt that he had to lift up. That has a larger slit and bloodstain up over his heart where the Joker had stabbed him on his second death.

He'll lift that up when she's finished to reveal a small field of dime-to-quarter-sized chunks of plastic embedded in his flesh. On the bright side, his relatively recent death means he's not skin and bones anymore. So the doesn't look as emaciated as he might otherwise have been for her a few days ago.]

[nursetemple]

[After she's done with his face, Claire turns back to her kit and takes out her tweezers, making sure they're clean before doing anything else. When she takes a look at his chest, she winces, hoping her hair might hide most of her expression from him. While it's not going to be lethal in any way, it looks nasty.

She starts right away, taking out the bigger pieces first, careful not to rip his skin any further if she can help it.]

How did your tablet explode?

[rubikscomplex]

One of those things crawled out of the screen. Exploded, attached itself to my face.

[He hisses each time she takes out a larger chunk of plastic from his chest.]

Watched too many Alien movies.

[nursetemple]

[Alien is the first thing that comes up in her head, too, and she grimaces.]

Did it look like a face-hugger, too?

[She leans close to take out another chunk, her free hand pressing on his shoulder a little, keeping him immobile.]

We... I don't even know what we saw. There was something, for sure, but it was the noises it made, it was like it was trying to fry our nervous systems.

[rubikscomplex]

More like a lamprey. We like our nautical themes here. [House tries to stay as still as he can.]

Sounds like more fun for you than me. I'm gonna throw up, if you wanna pull back for a second. [The nausea is hitting a peak, and while he's already thrown up enough that it's more likely to be dry heaves, he'd rather not risk it.]

[nursetemple]

[Keeping her features as neutral as possible, Claire pulls back, giving him some space to do his business. She'd tell him to be careful of the bandages on his face, but that would just be cruel, and she doesn't have time for it right now.]

It sure was fun. [She murmurs, sarcasm dripping off of every word.] We passed out in the snow. When I came to, I had these.

[She motions for her arms, the long, obvious burns there not really hurting anymore, just itching.]

I got off lightly.

[rubikscomplex]

[House leans to the side and heaves. There's the taste of bile in the back of his throat, but nothing actually comes out. It's a few seconds of that pain and excitement before he can settle back against the wall.]

Others. What happened to the others? We should be recording the data.

[nursetemple]

Think we'd find a pattern in it?

[She doubts that very much, but getting more data is never a bad idea. She waits for him to settle back before going back to work on his wounds.]

Doing okay?

[rubikscomplex]

Maybe.

Stop asking stupid questions. I don't care about bedside manner.

[And her checking in is just annoying.]

[nursetemple]

Yeah, well maybe I do. Stop being a dick.

[She's not in the mood for this.]

[rubikscomplex]

My face is falling off, and you're a nurse. I'm allowed to be a dick to you. It's in your job description.

[nursetemple]

Yeah but right now? I'm not getting paid for it, I'm only doing it from the goodness of my heart. So refrain, or I'm done with your whiny self.

[Although she can imagine it will only give him more reason to be annoying to everybody else.]

cw: insensitivity regarding disabilities

[rubikscomplex]

You wanna let Strange try to pull chunks of plastic out of me? That'll go real well. Hope you enjoy the sound of me screaming because he shakes like a freaking Parkinson's patient.

cw: insensitivity regarding disabilities

[nursetemple]

[She sighs loudly, pulling another piece of his broke, exploded tablet out of his chest. Then she looks up at him, her face stern, tired.]

Honestly, all I really want right now is for you to be quiet for two seconds. I don't imagine you can actually stop insulting everyone around because you don't seem to know how not to be pushing buttons or lashing out, so I'll settle for just. Quiet while I work. Otherwise I will be done with you and your options will be severely limited. All right?

[rubikscomplex]

[House doesn't actually want to talk.]

You started the conversation.

[But other than that petulant jibe, he falls quiet apart from muffled sounds of pain as he bites his lip and just endures.]