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[mr_gaeta]

"Alone she sleeps in the shirt of man
With my three wishes clutched in her hand..."

Simon finally hooked him up to a morpha -- morphine, whatever it's called here -- drip once the nerve block wore off and the supposedly unidentifiable opioid had left his system. Gaeta's half-drowsing, eyes closed in a vain attempt to sleep outright; the pain's still too great, though, and the exhaustion more prominent.

And if he sleeps, that means he can't do the only thing that's worked so far.

"The first that she be spared the pain
That comes from a dark and laughing rain..."

The words are a little roughened with hoarseness, a touch slurred by morpha -- but his voice still rings clear through the infirmary.



[ooc: for continuity's sake, all threads now take place before Boyd's and Simon's.]

Comments

[fireinthehole]

Harlan County born and raised; no desire to spend the gas money to go elsewhere; at least there's this bar to explore. Stories of the Sirens well in mind, Boyd prowls down the hallway to see where the sound's coming from.

Boyd sticks his head in the infirmary door.

Notes the source of the music.

Considers.

He takes another four or five steps toward the man in the bed, but doesn't announce his presence just yet.

[mr_gaeta]

It's fair to say Gaeta doesn't notice him yet.

"When she finds love, may it always stay true
This I beg for the second wish I -- "

The words cut off in a lurching gasp. Gritting his teeth, trying to reign in the worst, he bears on.

" -- made too," he finishes in half a hiss.

[fireinthehole]

Seems like the verse is over.

"Don't they give you drugs?" Boyd inquires.

[cbucsrule]

Wow, that... that sound, someone singing. It's pretty frakking haunting. He follows it, lets his feet carry him to the medical area. There's a guy lying there in one of the beds, no one he knows, but that song, man, that song.

It's beautiful and terrible at the same time.

He's not even sure he oughtta be here, and because of that, he stays back a little. Rests his arm against the wall, head tilted down, and just... listens. He'd like to help, but he's not sure what the frak he could possibly do.

Water, maybe: he's got an unopened bottle with him. Holds it out in offering, just a little.

[mr_gaeta]

"To have her please..."

Gaeta opens his eyes, taking in a shaky breath. He notices the water first; the hand holding it second.

Last: the face above him.

Even with the drugged-up glassiness firmly in place, it's amazing how fast his expression darkens.

[cbucsrule]

"Hey, man." His voice is just a little whisper. He doesn't know what the situation is, but he's not bad at reading them and figures this demands quiet. "I didn't mean to disturb you. Just followed the sound."

The singing: he'll know, maybe.

"Can I... can I get you anything? The water bottle's brand new. Haven't even touched it."

The only thing he can really tell is the situation here? Not good, and that sucks. The guy looks like he's in a world of pain. Probably, he ought to leave the poor guy alone.

[callipygos]

She always loves a good song in the springtime.

It may be why she's following the tune with light tread, arriving finally in the doorway to the infirmary. She pauses a moment to listen.

(Normally, she would avoid places of pain.

But then again ... they do put her in mind of Ares.)

[mr_gaeta]

"But wish no more, my life you can take -- "

His fingers tighten on his thigh, just above the spot where he was instructed don't touch. Gaeta swallows on an increasingly dry throat. "To have her please just one day wake..."

[callipygos]

Her eyes are drawn to the bandages, and consequently to what is no longer there.

This is exactly why she was so glad to have missed all that battling.


But Aphrodite stays, for the moment.

She'd like to hear how the song ends.

[the_cupbearer]

The words are nearly unintelligible from where Ganymede sits, but the melody pricks his ear enough to have him getting up and following it. The singer is unknown and for that matter the song is as well, but he finds it curious enough to move, knife and reed in his hands still.

For now he stays in the doorway, filling in the gaps in the song's melody, inventing a countermelody and rhythm silently, and forgetting them again when his attention shifts from note to note coming out of the young man's throat. He doesn't interrupt it yet.

[mr_gaeta]

The song continues for a few more lines before Gaeta realizes, through the steady bleats of the heart monitor and his own breathing, that there's another noise in the room.

Another tune.

He trails off, eyes still closed, bring all his focus around to bear on the sound.

[the_cupbearer]

Any other sound, faint as it was to begin with, immediately ceases save for the gently rasping sound of another person breathing; Ganymede takes a soft step back, head raising before he speaks, tentative. He spends a good deal of his time watching the people around him and staying quiet to do it.

"Your song is very sad."

[river_meimei]

River's barefoot steps are silent, except for occasional rustles of her skirt against itself or the walls. Whether she's drawn by the song or by something else is hard to say; she's listening to something, though, and she's drifting down the corridor towards the infirmary with a faint concerned line between her brows.

At the door, she halts with one foot drawing up briefly, her instep brushing gently against the other ankle before her weight settles. She brushes light fingers against the doorframe, and leans in for a look.




Oh.

[mr_gaeta]

The heart monitor next to his bed beats out a steady rhythm. Without noticing it, Gaeta has begun to fit the melody's rises and falls to the same beat: one two three, one two three.

"When she finds love, may it always stay true
This I beg for the second wish I made too."

[river_meimei]

River can't sing.

And there's not much to dance to, here, in this moment. In this place.

But as she slips inside, her steps match the rhythm too.

[ihavemyflaws]

Exploring has to do when leaving isn't an option.

A song leads her to the infirmary -- it shouldn't surprise her that this place has one -- and she hesitates, not sure she really wants to go in. Sickbay is never her favorite place to be.

Stubborn, she ventures farther in, but the source of the song stops her in her tracks.

"Gaeta?"

That's not possible.

[mr_gaeta]

The song breaks off. Gaeta opens his eyes, focusing on her with great difficulty.

It is not, at all, a kind look.

But even here, she outranks him; even now protocol must be followed. "Sir," he says, though he can't quite dig out all of the coldness in his voice.

[ihavemyflaws]

Her throat threatens to lock up.

(She had no idea Gaeta could carry a tune, much less sing like he was trained to do it.)

She swallows the feeling.

(His hair's longer, softer, curling. In her two years and change on Galactica she's never seen it like this.)

The look on his face reminds her that she's intruding, but her feet feel rooted to the spot.

(His leg. Gods, his leg.)

"What the frak did they do to you?"

[wheatencrown]

Demeter hears his voice and follows it to the infirmary where she sits beside him and rests a hand on his head,

"Oh Felix, child, what happened to you?"

[mr_gaeta]

As soon as he feels someone touch his forehead, the last note rushes out of Gaeta and fades into breath. He looks up, struggling to focus.



"Lady Demeter?"

[wheatencrown]

"Yes, I'm here,"

She strokes his forehead, its hard to tell how much good all the medicine in him is doing. There's so much pain.

[stilljustandrew]

It's the purity of tone, more than any familiarity in the voice, that catches Andrew's attention as he passes by the infirmary door on his way out back; he hasn't gone out to look at the grounds since the battle, and wants to see how things are doing.

He pauses, retraces two steps, and peers cautiously into the infirmary.

[mr_gaeta]

"When she finds love, may it always stay true
This I beg for the second wish I made too -- "

It trails into a gasp, and shakes a little when it starts up again, the lyrics rushing faster as if to outrun the pain.

"But wish no more
My life you can take
To have her please just one day wake -- "

[simon_doctor]

It's some time after this that Simon Tam comes back to the infirmary to check on his patient.

The lingering scent in the air is what he notices first; herbal, faintly sweet, as though someone's been burning some unfamiliar incense.

[mr_gaeta]

It's surprisingly quiet, too, which has been unusual since Gaeta's arrival. Right now, there's nothing but the beep of his heart monitor.

He'd planned to sleep a little while the pain was at bay, but the shape of the ceiling tiles kept distracting him; it's amazing how well they fit together and how easily the pattern spreads across the whole ceiling. He has no idea how long he's been studying them. The only way he can tell time's passed at all is because his leg has started twinging a little.

Not too badly, though. He's still okay. This is fine.