Reprieve

Who: Gabe, Roxie and Grams (NPC)
Where: The hospital
When: late afternoon

Tad was taking care of Jess and he’d shaken his grandmother off, leaving her to look over Roxie’s leg. Gabe was anxious but useless in this situation outside of sitting with Roxie, arm around her waist, waiting to see if she could be helped. “Does it hurt?” he asked Roxie, resting his head on her shoulder.

Roxie nodded, leaning her head into Gabe's as she took a deep breath. "Yeah, but nothing I can't handle. It's..weird. Numb but still hurts or something. I don't know what's going on. This thing just...swiped at me, I managed to get my pencil in its hand or arm or something, and I got out of the school before I even stopped to look at my leg. Is it gonna be ok, Doc Grams?"

Gabe ran his hand through her hair, trying to keep her calm. “Sorry I wasn’t there. I feel like I should have been there.” Grams smiled, tugging at Roxie’s jeans to get a better look at the damage. “Just nurse Grams,” Grams corrected with a smile. “It seems the damn things have a poison their claws, things go numb when they scratch, which would slow you down. Make sense?”

"Poison...And not the Bret Michaels kind...Great." She sighed, leaning more into Gabe as she watched Grams. "You can cut the jeans if you want. I'll make...shorts or something. Whatever you need. But it does make sense...but..does it just name be numb or do I need to be worried about other stuff? Because what I know about poisons is that it could easily be...pumping through my blood stream right now."

Looking back over at Gabe, she kissed his forehead. "I wanted you safe. You were safe. You stayed safe for me, that's more important."

“Just so long as you’re alright with it,” Grams said finding some scissors and cutting at her jeans. “It’s just local, should wear off soon. The big concern infection because you can’t feel what you get your leg into. Just sit back and rest as I wash it out and get it cleaned up.” She gave the duo a smile, then went back to work.

“I was asleep, that’s not safe. That’s one hundred percent out of it. Tad had to wake me up,” Gabe frowned, looking at Roxie and reaching for her hair again. “I’m sorry.”

"Anything you need to do, Nurse Grams. I think I'll be just fine without one leg of my jeans. There are worst things in the world. And besides, I could start a whole new fashion statement: disaster wear."

She turned towards Gabe again after leaning back like asked from Grams. "Gabe...If you give yourself hell for this, it's just going to upset me. You know that. I'm fine. Listen to Grams, she says I'll be fine. Promise me you'll let it go, ok? Just..don't beat yourself up."

That had Grams smiling, nodding a little. “I can see why Tad likes you. He’s funny like that too.” She kept working on patching up Roxie, closing the wound up in place before starting into the bandaging.

Gabe sighed and nodded. “Alright, alright I won’t beat myself up as much. Just so long as you aren’t mad.”

Smiling at Grams, Roxie shrugged. "Tad's funnier than I am. Thank you for being here with me instead of him. I know that has to be hard, but I appreciate it."

She squeezed Gabe's hand a little. "I wasn't mad in the first place. I'm gonna start getting mad if you keep beating yourself up. I'm fine, just another story to tell. And it's getting professionally treated so it won't scar like the others."

“He is being stubborn and he’s rather smitten with that girl. You needed help which means you get me. And when I’m done with you I will make him sit down and patch his arm up.” Grams shook her head but kept quiet on the rest.

Gabe held up his hands in defense and settled for sitting closer to Roxie again, arms around her. “Alright not mad and not scarred. Though I don’t mind your scars, you know that.”

"He is smitten, isn't he?" Roxie asked, grinning a little at that. "You should tease him for it." It'd be funny to watch, she'd probably pay to see his grandmother tease him about Jess. She'd join in too.

Roxie softened, leaning closer to touch Gabe's cheek. "I know you don't and I love that. Love you for that..and lots of other things."

Grams put the patch over her leg then worked the tape and gauze over it. “If he was any other boy maybe. But I’d rather not jinx it.” She did look up again to watch the two of them, shaking her head a little.

He smiled more, leaning into her hand nodding. “Love you too,” he said, kissing her forehead.

As Roxie settled in against Gabe, she turned to look back at Grams again. "I'll tease him for you, how about that?" It was a good thing her leg was numb because otherwise it would have hurt incredibly. "...Have you seen this kind of thing before, Grams? This numbing poison?"

Grams shook her head a little, then let out a sigh. Even though Tad knew now, she was still slow to talk about the truth. “I have...but only the after the fact, not during like this.”

Roxie watched her, studying the way the woman spoke and sighed, and ended up scooting closer to Gabe then patting the bed where she'd been. "You should sit down. You must have been working hard all day, you deserve to sit down. Especially after the strange change in her eyes that Roxie had thought she'd seen.

Grams looked up as she finished up with Roxie’s leg. “Me? Oh no honey. I”m fine. Just fine. This is what keeps me young.” She patted Roxie’s knee on her good leg and then left her with Gabe. “She’s all yours, take care of her for me.”

"Thank you, Grams! You're the best nurse ever," Roxie said, smiling a little as the woman started towards the door. She leaned into Gabe again, closing her eyes. "She's great. She's always been so nice to me."

Gabe nodded, arms around Roxie. “She’s Tad’s Grams?” he asked after a moment, finally catching up with the situation.

"Oh, yeah, sorry. That's Tad's Grams. She's always really nice whenever I hung out with Tad at his house. Always had snacks. I helped her make some cupcakes for his birthday." Roxie slowly lifted her legs up onto the bed and scooted down, putting her head in his lap as she closed her eyes.

“Tad’s Grams who makes snack. I could like her. Especially if she patches you back up afterward.” Gabe let her sit there, running his hand through her hair again. “Are you hurting still?”

“She’s really awesome,” Roxie said, smiling as he stroked her hair. “I’m better now. I’m sure it’ll hurt when the poison wears off...wonder when that’ll be...” She murmured, closing her eyes again. “Could use a nap but...do you want to go check on your truck? We can. I just know this is the safest place we could be. Caleb told me the psych ward is protected.”

“Truck will be fine. If I go down there now I’m going to try and stay in it.” He sighed a little then brushed at her hair again. “You nap. It’ll be fine. I will stand guard.”

“I’m not sure I wanna nap. It’s weird. This was so..dreamlike and yeah, I could just say my meditations, but I’d rather be alert. I just don’t feel right yet. Feel like at any moment something could happen again and hurt you this time.”

Gabe nodded. “I promise not to get hurt if you nap. Plus you said we’re safe here, and Tad’s just next door. We will be fine.”

Relenting, Roxie nodded a little, curling up on her side to murmur her meditations. For now, a nap might really need to happen. If she wanted to stay alert later, a nap was necessary. And doing it now, here, while they were safe, was the surest bet not to get hurt again. Not yet, anyway.