Curtis and Edgar, initial treatment and visiting hours

[simon_doctor]

It's been a rough day for Curtis and Edgar. Fortunately, the Milliways infirmary is definitely set up to handle hypothermia and exposure.

[Icon above notwithstanding, Simon Tam is not actually appearing in this thread.]

Comments

[hate_gettin_older]

Edgar swallows hard.



"You been looking out for him, yeah? All this time."

It's a question, but only barely.

[dejah_thoris]

She smooths a hand over her trousers, picks away an invisible piece of lint.

"Yes."

When one or the other of them can't sleep, the other stays up just to talk or to make a midnight run down to the bar for hot chocolate. Discussing plans for the cabin. There hasn't been a repeat of the night with the champagne, but it's never far from either of their thoughts.

"As much as he'll let me, anyway."

[hate_gettin_older]

It's the exhaustion that's making his vision blur, he tells himself, and tries to blink it away.

"Good."

[dejah_thoris]

She feels the waves of loss and quiet anguish coming off him as clear as the late evening breeze off the Warhoon.

"He's still here for you, Edgar. He always will be. Nothing that passes between him and I will ever change that."

[hate_gettin_older]

"What would you do?" he asks, entirely without meaning to. "If it were you?"

[dejah_thoris]

Her brow knits for a moment, and there's a tendril of warmth from her. Genuine concern and care. Is he honestly asking for her counsel?

"If I were you?"

[hate_gettin_older]

"Yeah. Or if ... if you found out something like that. About, about somebody like him."

[dejah_thoris]

"Edgar, I cannot tell you what to do. I can only tell you what I know."

She rests a hand on the bed, not wanting to invade his space again.

"I know you have been wronged. I know you have had a grave and everlasting wound. I know nothing, nothing anyone can do or say will bring your mother back. And I know it was Curtis's hand that held the knife."

She leans in, her voice quietly pleading. "I also know, he was younger than you are sitting here today. I know that he was also wronged, driven to madness by hunger. He was robbed of his childhood, his parents, and finally, his very humanity. I know in my heart that while he held the knife, the crime is not his."

[hate_gettin_older]

He was younger than you are. Something about that concept is sticking in his head, refusing to be processed.

He looks away, his sense troubled but not rejecting.

[dejah_thoris]

"If I could ask you to do anything, I would ask you -- beg of you, please."

"The only Curtis you have ever known, for the whole of your life, is a man who tried everything to -- he wanted you to be safe and healthy and happy. As much as anyone could be in that godforsaken place."

"If you have any love for him in your heart, learn his story. Not the Curtis you know today, but that younger Curtis."

There are more words, but she bites her tongue.

[hate_gettin_older]

"He doesn't remember." Still troubled. "He says he doesn't remember any of it."

[dejah_thoris]

Dejah sighs and he can feel her sorrow and more importantly, that bright thread of hope.

"He says he doesn't, but -- I believe the memories are still there. It just hurt too much to have them before. He has been sharing them with me, slowly. He remembered the name of the city came from?"

[hate_gettin_older]

He looks up at her, eyes widening a little.

The emotion is closer to wonder than hope, but close enough.

[dejah_thoris]

She smiles and nods, like, Yes, really, isn't it amazing?

[hate_gettin_older]

A long beat.

And, slowly, Edgar turns to look at the other cot where Curtis is sleeping.

[dejah_thoris]

She follows his gaze, and looks at Curtis. His face is still chafed and red from the cold, the creases around his mouth deep and still raw. He's resting now, but the furrows in his brow still twitch occasionally.

"He bears the weight of what happened that day, every day."

And she wishes she could share that burden, but she knows, she can only do what he'll let her.

[hate_gettin_older]

He nods, silently.

Some of that sense of insoluble internal struggle has faded, and most of the rest of it is slowly sinking under a wave of renewed exhaustion.

[dejah_thoris]

"Get some sleep. We can talk more in the morning."

[hate_gettin_older]

"Yeah," he mumbles, and turns over on his side, closing his eyes.



"Night."

[dejah_thoris]

She sits at the foot of the bed, and watches, waiting until his breathing levels out.




"Issus watch over you, Edgar."



When she's assured he's asleep, she moves back to lie with Curtis.