Medical City Hospital
Bright, wide lights hang from the ceiling, casting the clean and sterile surroundings with brilliant light. A reception area sits centered before the door where people can check in, or ask for directions to other areas within the hospital. Past the desk is a small hallway with elevators leading to the upper floors, and signs that point to radiology.
Two large metal doors to the left of the entrance lead outside to the ambulance loading dock. The doors are marked 'EMERGENCY ONLY' in large red letters.
It's just about dinner time, here at the hospital. Which means as much food as you can eat, and it's all good. Just kidding. Actually, for Paige, it means beef broth, two different kinds of pudding and something or another she's not even quite sure is even edible, despite the fact that it's on her dinner plate. At the moment, she's mostly sitting up in bed, having cranked the bed up as high as it will go, blatantly ignoring the 'might be meat' off to the side. And for the time being, she's alone, Jed having headed back to the house to try to meet up with a couple more contacts, or something. Maybe to eat himself. Maybe he'll even sneak something back with him when he returns. Paige, for her part, is looking rather smashing…or smashed up, whichever, in a gown, hospital green all the way. A bit barrel chested, from all of the bandaging around her upper body, IVed, and bruised and banged up along her arms. Her throat is bandaged along the right side, and her head as well. She looks like she got hit by a truck. Which, in this instance, is not an exaggeration. The TV is waiting in the background, trying to tempt her…but the PBS rerun of Antiques Roadshow doesn't seem to be capturing her attention at all.
—-
Perhaps Skylar can anticipate the needs of his friends. Perhaps he is omniscient. Or perhaps, just perhaps, he spent a fair amount of time in this very hospital several years ago when he had his blackouts. And so? In addition to a stuffed polar bear that would make a good, if slightly smaller companion to the well known Mr. Panda, a bouquet of lilies, a balloon with a smiley face on it, and a get-well-soon card, Sky has also managed to sneak chinese takeout into a satchel which he wears over his shoulder. The other gifts in his arm? Draw all the looks, and the bag goes unnoticed - if people even would have commented on it.
Standing in the doorway to the hospital room belonging to Paige, for a moment, Sky takes in the view of his battered friend. A brief, fierce look replaces the usual easy grin for a moment, but is soon forced away by a smile as he calls out, "My, that looks delicious. And here I was planning on taking you out for that dinner we owe each other, but I don't think I can follow up this meal."
—-
Paige's spoon pauses mid-spear, as she works at breaking off a piece of pudding that is way firmer than pudding has any right to be. The sound of a familiar voice bring her head up, and a smile soon follows, her gaze finding the familiar face hidden between balloon, bear and flowers. "Skylar." Her voice is raspy, husky in the aftermath of the accident, but whatever pain speaking creates, well, the drugs are handling all of that very nicely. "I didn't expect to see you. Aw…you brought Mr. Panda a little buddy. That was very sweet of you. Come on in." She looks back down at the pudding of petrification, "I know you're just jealous. But I have two. One's yours, if you want it."
—-
"Well, at least you got the soft pudding," Skylar says after eyeing the 'desert' that Paige is currently eating. "Last time I was here, I was building an igloo out of them. Out of their plastic containers, might I add." It could be an exaggeration - but it might not be. "I was lucky, though. My grams came and snuck in a barbeque feast for me. I think the doctors were dumbfounded when I gained five pounds while in here, but either they didn't care enough to investigate, or my grams bribed them." Or intimidated, which might be far more likely.
Setting down Ms. Polar Bear on the foot of Paige's bed, and setting the balloon, card, and flower arrangement on a nearby table, Sky then reaches into the bag, and HUGE plastic bag, with lumps inside that look suspiciously like asian take-out cartons. "I don't have anywhere my grams talent, but since I know your family couldn't come rescue you from the dread hospital food, I figured I could be a stand in," he says with a big grin. "Unless you're allergic to asian food, in which case I'm trying to poison you."
—-
"Well, it was a couple of these or the brownies." That's worth a shudder or two in and of itself. "An igloo is inventive, but I'm thinking of going with some sort of escape vehicle, I could turn them on their side and use them for wheels." Laughter, as much as she can manage, as Skylar spill his grandmother's secrets, "She sounds like mine. Except she probably would have added a fresh herring with instructions to bite off the head." And then, more seriously, "I haven't told them yet. I'm hoping they won't hear about it on the news. But I've got someone who's almost family in town, and he's been popping in and keeping me company. Paige watches her room fill up, and Skylar's arms empty out, but her face lights up as she spies the bag he digs out of his satchel, "You'd better close the door. If they see what I'm about to do to those cartons, I might be arrested for indecency."
—-
"Yes ma'am," Skylar says with a grin and a mock salute, removing Paige's tray and 'food' from the little eating table, and replacing the entire bag of heavenly smelling takeout food in front of her. Then, taking Paige's advice, Sky moves across the room, closing the door. "I wasn't sure what you liked, so I got a little bit of everything." A little bit is an understatement, since each carton holds an entire entree. Apparently Sky, his grams, and apparently Paige's grandmother all have something in common - when they do something, they go all out.
—-
"Understate things much?" Paige would tear into the food if she could. Well, no she wouldn't, she does have manners, but she's think about it(!) but at the moment, it's hard for her to do much of anything, which is precisely why she got the pudding to begin with. Her movements are slow and careful, her hands a bit steadier than they were this morning, when she couldn't even pour herself a cup of water. But she does peek into each container, while Skylar takes care of cutting off the food's escape route. Finally, she settles in a container of lo mein. Even she's not crazy enough to start off with something that would stress out her already overstressed system, "Thank you. You really didn't have to. How as work, busy day?"
—-
"What can I say? I'm indecisive at times - and when I can't choose between two things, I'm liable to choose both." Or in this case the whole menu. "Besides which, I didn't know what you could handle or not. The news report was rather vague." He pauses, his face suddenly serious as he looks at her. But instead of grilling her about what happened, he forces a smile back on to his face, shrugging his shoulders. "It's been alright. Worked from last night into today, with a few naps. Working on two projects. Took the afternoon off though, got some shopping in - which is actually when I heard about what happened." He's rather glad that happened, since if he hadn't gotten out of the shop in the afternoon, he might well have not heard about Paige until later.
—-
"Well, that's another thing we have in common, then. It's one of the reasons I hardly ever go out to buy anything. Not unless I have a list to stick to." Paige works the box open, and then pauses, "You should have something to eat too. I'm certainly not going to be able to finish all of this." As she begins to eat, her movements are slow and careful, and she does her best to control the shaking of her hands. Swallowing is a treat. Not really. And it takes a bit of work, but she looks far too happy with having some real food to stop now. "I think it was a combination of the police not really knowing what happened, and not wanting to give out too many details, in case it caused some sort of backlash with the general population." A few bites, and Paige sets down the box, folding her hands into her lap, both of them curled into fists. "Good to hear that your workload hasn't backed down at all. I know how hard it is to keep a business above water."
—-
"Oh, business is fine. My employees do most of the day to day work these days, and we're constantly filling orders from the website. But yes, I'm glad my own workload is keeping me busy - I get bored otherwise." Skylar smiles lopsidedly, moving to clear off the bag of food so Paige has room to eat. For his own meal, he selects a carton of orange chicken, taking a seat in the chair beside Paige's bed. He eats in silence for a moment, watching her, finally asking, "So. I know you've probably been grilled sick, and you don't have to talk about it if you don't want to… but what did happen?"
—-
"I can't imagine a bored blacksmith is a good thing in anyone's world. I can just picture you, running rogue around the city, hammer in one hand, tongs in the other." The thought does bring a smile to Paige's lips, even as she uncurls her hands, having controlled the shaking a bit more. It's difficult, when the exhaustion and aching is as much magical as physical. But she does pick the carton back up, returning to slow, careful bites, "Hugo was driving me back to the studio. I don't know if you met him, but he was at the auction. Hugo Bosch, the painter from New York?" A slight shrug, "We were crossing on a green light, and a truck with its headlights off ran the red and slammed into the car, knocking us both around pretty badly, as you can imagine. Hugo's up in ICU. I haven't been allowed to go up and see him yet. Anyway, there was a vampire driving, he got out, ripped the driver side door off the car, grabbed Hugo and tried to drag him out of the car so he could, well, kidnap him, I guess. Seemed like that's what he wanted to do."
—-
"You make me sound like a super villain. I like it," Skylar says with a small smile. The smile, however, fades, as Skylar listens to Paige's story. "I think I remember him," Sky says with a nod, when Paige mentions Hugo. He falls silent, however. Perhaps waiting for Paige to continue. Perhaps just lost in his own thoughts. He has, however, stopped eating after only a few bites, and soon puts the carton aside.
—-
"Well, every super villain needs a good villainy name. We'll have to come up with one. We'll work on that after dinner." Paige too takes a break from eating, finding it too difficult to eat and talk at the same time. She instead settles for pouring herself a glass of water. "There was a police officer, not on duty nearby, and he came when he heard the crash, pulled a gun on the vampire and demanded he put Hugo down, but he wouldn't. I managed to get out of the seatbelt and past the airbags, I was trying to crawl out of the car on Hugo's side, to try to get to him, to stop the vampire. I managed to blind him, at least for a few seconds, and the officer shot him, but he was relentless. After he realized that I was the one who blinded him, he lunged at me, grabbed me by the neck and bit me." Hence the bandage on her neck, "The officer shot him again, but he still wouldn't stop. Well, I mean he wouldn't let go of Hugo, but he did let go of me, and then he grabbed the officer and started choking him. It was so hard to think, to focus. But I managed to hurt him," though she doesn't say how, "Enough that he dropped the officer, dropped Hugo, and then flew off," yes, flew, "just before the police arrived. I stayed with Hugo and the officer until the police got there."
—-
Skylar does offer Paige a small smile at the offer of villain naming him. However, he doesn't comment on that just yet - instead, he continues to listen in silence to Paige's story. His expression hides his thoughts well, though there's an ever-so-slight downturn of his lips as the story progresses. Clearly, he's not pleased. However, neither does he comment on all that, or question. He just nods, and when he finally breaks his silence, he says, "I'm sorry you had to go through that, Paige. I'm… just glad you're alive."
—-
"For now I am. And I'm trying to do everything I can to stay that way. But he's coming back for me. That much he promised me. 'Your life is forfeit witch. No woman bests me and gets away with it.'" Paige's voice deepens, in those few seconds when she quote some of the vampire's last words to her. "For me, and for everyone I care about. Or so he says. But I'll deal with him when he does. And the next time I won't let myself be blind-sided. And I will kill him. Because I made him a promise too." Paige drinks the last of her water, and for a little while, as she speaks, Paige is gone. Sweet, friendly, mostly harmless. And in her place is someone cold, and hard and completely unyielding. But as quickly as paige let that part of herself out, she draws it back in, and when she speaks again, her voice is as normal as it's possible to be, given the circumstances. "Who would have thunk it. Not just a racist vampire, but a misogynistic one."
—-
"Not exactly surprising, depending on how old he is," Skylar replies slowly. His eyes have never left Paige, especially once she started talking and acting different - his gaze is still unreadable, but clearly taking it all in. Finally, he says, "Well, if that's the case, I'm not leaving you alone tonight," he finally announces. Of course, that'll be hard, him not being family. But he'll try and work something out with the nurse on shift. Perhaps he'll get lucky and know one of them.
—-
"He must have been quite old. I don't think flying is that common of a gift for vampires, though I could be wrong. And he swore on the name of Anubis. And the last I checked, the old egyptian religion went out of fashion quite a few years ago." Paige sets down her water, picking back up her lo mein, forking it rather viciously. "You're going to have to. I don't have many people in this city that I care about, Skylar. But, for better or worse, you're one of them. And that means you have to make certain that you're ready, if something should happen. Jed is out right now, doing what he can, I'm sure, calling in whatever marks he has outstanding, even if he knows I'll be upset when I find out the extent of it." Paige isn't stupid. She knows the man is pulling out all the stops, "You need to go home, get whatever you have available to protect yourself, silver of whatever kind. And make sure you do what you can to protect the people you care about too. Don't cause a ruckus of course, but get it done. If you want to come back after that's done, I'd be grateful for the company. I'm going to be trying to get in touch with a vampire I know in town, to find out what course of action I can take with them, if this guy is some sort of rogue."
—-
"You want me to protect the people I care about - well, one of them is right here. So, no. I'm not leaving until this Jed or someone else you trust comes to relieve me. I can make calls of my own from here, and when I leave I can handle the rest." Clearly, Skylar is not letting that be up for discussion. "Now, are you done with your food for now? I should probably hide the cartons if you are, in case the nurse comes to check on you."
—-
"There's only Jed. Unless he went behind my back and called my family." Which, while unlikely, well, she's never been able to tell the old witch what to do, no matter how much she might like to think she has. "Thank you for staying, Skylar." Truth to tell, she doesn't have the strength to fight anyone off right now, not in her condition. "I think I am. My throat's so sore, it's hard to swallow." Which is probably why the hospital decided, correctly, she should have soft foods. "You'd like him. He runs Voodoo Tattoo, it's not far from my house." Which is probably one of the reasons why Paige decided to take the house in the middle of ghettoville West Dallas. "Besides, I love cold chinese."
—-
"Good, because there'll be plenty of it left over," Skylar says with a small smile. He stands up, cleaning up the cartons. When he comes to clean up Paige's, he leans in, placing a kiss atop her forehead. "And you don't have to thank me. I'm just glad I can be useful. Get some rest, I'll make some calls outside, then be in here if you need me." Yes, he's planning on sleeping in the hospital chair.
—-
"I'm going to make this right, Skylar. Whatever I have to do, however far I have to go. I'm going to take care of this problem." Paige shifts, as Skylar kisses her forehead, a hand rising, cupping the side of his face, if only to hold his head still, while she presses her cheek to his, the closest she can manage to a hug at the moment. "I will. I'll be here when you get back. Unless you can sneak me out in the satchel."
—-
"Just focus on getting better. The rest can wait," Skylar replies with a small grin. His hand covers her hand, briefly, before he pulls away. He grins at her words, but doesn't respond right away. He just looks at her for a moment, taking in her injured state, and when he does speak, says, "I'll be back in a few moments then - since I doubt my satchel has used up it's sneakiness for one night." And then, he heads out into the hallway, to make some calls.
