Visiting post for Alex Rider

[guppy_sandhu]

What with the concussion, and the newly healed burns, Alex has needed to rest for a couple of days.

Guppy has been in and out, keeping an eye on him, but he could probably do with some company too.

Comments

[guppy_sandhu]

Guppy brings him some lunch in from the bar and places it on a tray next to him.

"Hey, how are you feeling?"

[beenherebefore]

Alex eyes the lunch a little dubiously. It's not that he's not hungry, he's just feeling kind of nauseous. "Better." Mostly.

[guppy_sandhu]

"You took quite a beating out there, huh?" Guppy says gently.

[beenherebefore]

"Yeah."

He winces and drops his head down for a moment, hands clasped around his neck. "I just wanted to talk to Jack."

[guppy_sandhu]

"Was she in the fire?"

[beenherebefore]

Oh, thank god she wasn't. He winces at even the thought of that. "No. I was trying to leave the hospital I'd been in and some men came in and shot the receptionist."

[guppy_sandhu]

"They shot the hospital receptionist? Man..." Guppy shakes his head.

"What were you in hospital for before this?"

[beenherebefore]

He laughs shakily. "Yeah. So I just... got involved, and the next thing I know..." He shrugs up a shoulder, purposefully not answering the other question for now.

[guppy_sandhu]

"They burned down a hospital?"

The hell kind of world does Alex live in?!

[beenherebefore]

He looks up again, startled.

Oh. Right. He can see how Guppy would have gotten that impression. "An abandoned building, actually. It was just me in it."

[guppy_sandhu]

"Ah. Well you were in it, so still, harsh."

[beenherebefore]

Understatement. He laughs again, this time with a touch more bitterness. "Yeah."

After a moment he says, quietly, "I really can't go back home, can I?"

[guppy_sandhu]

Guppy hesitates for a moment.

"You have to do what's right for you, Alex." he says. "But you don't have to go back home, and your life might be a whole lot better elsewhere. I mean, people do migrate - Gavroche, for example."

[beenherebefore]

"Yeah?" He eyes Guppy. "Where'd he migrate to?"

[guppy_sandhu]

"London." Guppy says. "From France."

[beenherebefore]

Alex eyes him, waiting for the full story. "That doesn't seem like much of a migration."

[guppy_sandhu]

"Well he's gone to an entirely different universe, at a different time, been adopted by another family and escaped war." Guppy says. "It's a fairly big change."

[beenherebefore]

See, he knew there had to be more to the story than just France to London. "How was he adopted?"

[guppy_sandhu]

"Unofficially I think." Guppy says. "I don't think he goes to school or anything."

[beenherebefore]

"Okay."

Well. He supposes that's an option, although the idea of not being able to finish school doesn't sit too well with him.

[guppy_sandhu]

"But I'm sure there are plenty of other options. Bound to be someone around here who can get you fake documents in a world so you could get adopted formally."

[beenherebefore]

"Yeah."

Although, honestly, he hadn't really thought about having a new guardian, and he'd sort of... rather not. "There's probably somewhere I could just... stay on my own, isn't there?"

[guppy_sandhu]

"Depends if you're of age where you go." Guppy says.

He thinks for a moment.

"I met someone who's been here a couple of months the other day who's a high school teacher. She used to foster teenagers in America. She might know something about the system."

[beenherebefore]

Alex ducks his head and sighs. "What's her name?"

[guppy_sandhu]

"Bonnie Murdock." Guppy tilts his head slightly at Alex. "Hey, you know you don't have to decide anything like that now, right? It's a huge decision and first we need to get you well."

[a1enzo]

Enzo understands there is a patient, so he comes in to check on him.

"Hey. You need anything?"

He looks possibly familiar, but it has been a while. (That happens a lot around here.)

[beenherebefore]

It has been a while (and a head injury), but it's not like Alex is going to forget Enzo. The coloring is a dead giveaway, after all. "I'm all right. Long day."

[a1enzo]

"Must have been. I've met you before, haven't I?"

He seems particularly familiar in connection with the infirmary. Funny, that.