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Post by DarkSideCookie on Feb 10, 2019 6:05:40 GMT -8
The Sanctuary - Infirmary
A small infirmary room inside the Sanctuary building in Washington DC.
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Post by Kristi Lynne on Feb 10, 2019 12:00:00 GMT -8
*** Nora and Simon enter from the Saviors' Outpost ***
Fortunately, the Sanctuary's infirmary was empty so the doctor could give his full attention to his new emergency patient. Dr. Shaw had been a medic in the National Guard, one who had been in Negan's company since their time at Fort Belvoir, so he was ready and able to get to work on Nora as soon as Simon had brought her there and placed her on a bed. He removed the makeshift tourniquet of Negan's scarf and tossed it aside, seeking a nurse's help in dealing with the still-bleeding laceration and prepping the equipment for an urgent transfusion.
Simon did his best to stay out of the way but to stay close. He pulled up a chair and took his post against the wall, removing his hunting knife from its holster and placing it on his lap.
"I don't think you'll need that," the doctor remarked upon seeing the weapon.
"I made a promise, doc," Simon replied. "You just make sure I don't have to keep it."
The doctor nodded in understanding as he and the nurse got back to work.
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Post by Kristi Lynne on Mar 21, 2019 16:30:42 GMT -8
After what seemed like hours, the doctor was ready to take a step back and assess his patient. Nora's neck was tightly wrapped in bandages to stop the blood loss, an oxygen tube was placed in her nose as a pump hissed rhythmically beside the bed, and the blood transfusion IV remained in her arm. She had yet to open her eyes or make any movement.
"Her pulse is still weak," Dr. Shaw told Simon, as he continued to keep vigil in a nearby chair. "And her blood pressure isn't where I'd like it to be, but we've done all we can at this point. She just needs to rest and heal. You should get some sleep, too."
"No can do, Doc," Simon replied. "Gotta' be here when Negan gets back. I suggest you do the same."
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Post by DarkSideCookie on Mar 30, 2019 18:01:59 GMT -8
*** Negan enters from the Saviors' Outpost ***"...""Gotta' be here when Negan gets back. I suggest you do the same."As if on cue, it was right that moment that Negan entered the room, a harsh expression on his face. "You can head to sleep now.", he said with the voice of a man who had had a really bad day. Not like one of these bad days he was used to - no, a really really bad day. For a moment his eyes were darting over at Dr. Shaw, silently adding both of you before the two men finally left their boss alone with Nora.
Once they were alone, Negan let out one deep breath. A breath that he had been holding like since he had to watch the knife cutting deep into Nora's throat. An image that had been giving him the biggest shock in a long time. With slow steps he walked closer towards the bed in which she was obviously sleeping; alive, but still struggling. Negan had given himself a promise once but right this moment he couldn't help breaking it. The promise to never again see the piteous image of his deceased wife Lucille who had spent her last days in just a bed like this, with just the same setup like this scene right before his eyes. Of course, this was not Lucille; but the woman here fighting with death was someone he cared for as well - maybe more than he would admit to himself because in a world like this there was no room for this kind of more. And maybe not only in a world like this but also inside the man he was today. "Shit...", Negan eventually spoke up in a whispered tone after a while he had just sat there in the chair next to the bed, watching her in silence. "I thought I would have lost you. Y'know... You and Ingrid", he made a pause in which his gaze was wandering down to his hands folded in his lap and back to Nora's closed eyes in front of him. "You always made me remember... the life we had... the man I was. It's not like this anymore, it never will, but... well, sometimes it was just nice to remember. Today I know just how nice it was." He had no fucking idea where Ingrid was, and even though he had never given up the hope that somewhere out there she would be still alive, Negan couldn't really know for sure. And with the believed loss of Nora today, he just realized that he had a weakness that would always work to his foes' advantage. The weakness of still emotionally caring for someone. Normally any realization like this would have caused him to turn his attention towards the barbed wire bat he once had named after his wife, but it had been just that realization that had caused him to do just that not, maybe for once. Because, after all, it was just a bat. Whereas, the woman in this bed was of flesh and blood. "Don't kick the bucket just yet...", Negan whispered as he leaned forward to give Nora a gentle kiss on her pale forehead. Something he had never done before and also something he never would have done if she was awake. But she will never know. With the same hard expression, that had been laying on his features when he had entered this room, Negan left it. But with something, usually carried around with him, missing. Lucille. Left at the bed. *** Negan exits ***
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Post by Kristi Lynne on Mar 31, 2019 9:57:13 GMT -8
Everything had gone dark after that moment she hit the parking lot pavement, and it was a long and difficult struggle back to the light. Any attempt to move was futile; she felt like she was weighed down. Even her eyelids were too heavy to open. But she managed to convince herself that she was still alive. This wasn't death. She was in a safe place, she must be, and she wasn't one of those reanimated dead things.
As if in more proof that she was alive, there was pain. The wound on her neck. They must have been able to stop the bleeding. Hearing -- there was a dull constant beeping somewhere to her left, and a metallic wheezing. Hospital sounds, tracking her heartbeat, helping her to breathe. Taste -- her mouth was too dry, it was an effort to swallow. And no words would come from her throat. How much damage did that kid do to her? What if she couldn't speak? She would come to terms with that, given time. After all, what was there to talk about these days anyway? But what if she couldn't stand, or walk, or fight? What if she never regained the strength to leave this -- where was she -- hospital bed? Nora felt trapped, close to panic. Why couldn't she open her eyes?
"Don't kick the bucket just yet..."
The sound of a familiar voice suddenly calmed her. Negan was there. She was alive and he was by her bedside, uttering sarcastic yet sincere words of encouragement. Feeling a soft kiss on her forehead before he was gone. No, she must have dreamed that. But the smell of the leather jacket, the bristle of his beard against her skin -- it must have been real.
Nora summoned what little strength she had to force open her eyes, brace her resistant hands against the bed and raise up to look around. Only for a moment. Enough to see that she was in the Sanctuary's infirmary, to see the nearby chair, to see the baseball bat wrapped in barb wire. So he had been there. It was real, as was the relief she could now allow herself to feel. She fell back against the pillow again and surrendered to sleep.
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Post by DarkSideCookie on Sept 14, 2019 17:27:29 GMT -8
*** some hours later ***
Negan had withstood the urge to check on Nora's condition for, at least, a couple of hours to grant her some time to sleep. Maybe though it had been rather to grant himself some time to not look like an overly worried husband or something. Fucking Jesus, that was an almost disconcerting thought in these days. Like a real husband... Well, no, he had forgotten Lucille on Nora's bedside which was the main reason why he came for another visit. That was at least the easier explanation.
When he entered through the door, Dr. Shaw was just checking her vitals. Negan gave him a short hard expression but this time it seemed that he wouldn't get some private time with the patient, as he received a look saying this is an important checkup. And so Negan turned his attention to Nora who looked like she was still asleep. He watched her for another moment before wordlessly reaching out to the bat right next to her.
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Post by Kristi Lynne on Sept 14, 2019 18:17:35 GMT -8
"...Blood pressure still pretty low, and you're still running a fever," the doctor was saying. "We'll need to keep you on antibiotics for a while to prevent any infection." Dr. Shaw acknowledged Negan's arrival as he wound up the blood pressure cuff and placed it on a side table. "She's going to be sidelined for a while. And silent, until we can figure out the extent of damage to her throat. A lot easier to win an argument with her now."
Though her eyes were barely open, Nora still managed to narrow them at the doctor. She also found the strength to raise a middle finger to him before letting her hand fall weakly back to the bed.
"She can still find a way to express her opinions, though," Dr. Shaw remarked, gathering his clipboard and heading for the door. "Don't stay too long, Negan. She needs rest. And you're gonna' need a new scarf."
Once the doctor had left, Nora firmly shut her eyes again and tried to breathe as normally as she could while still surrounded with tubes and beeping machinery. She felt weak and useless -- something that one never wanted to feel in this world. And certainly not in his presence.
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Post by DarkSideCookie on Oct 4, 2019 6:26:10 GMT -8
Negan couldn't resist on chuckling at Nora's silent but incisive counter at the doctor's words. Though he may not be so wrong about that. Seeing her keeping up her sense of humor, this whole situation immediately seemed less dramatical. She would be alright.
"Don't stay too long, Negan. She needs rest. And you're gonna' need a new scarf.", the doctor said before he was leaving them to themselves.
And here they were, surrounded by an awkward silence. Negan looked down at Lucille in his hands, and then decided to stay for at least a while. Taking a seat in the chair right next to the bed, he eventually regained his voice. "I'm sorry."
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Post by Kristi Lynne on Oct 7, 2019 18:08:26 GMT -8
"I'm sorry."
Nora's weakened eyes still widened a bit as she turned to look at him. Very few people had heard those words pass Negan's lips, at least with any sincerity, so she could only imagine how near-death she must have looked. "Not your fault," she struggled to say, her voice barely above a whisper. Seeing the bat in his grip was a jarring reminder of why she was lying there in the first place. "Are they dead?" she asked, fairly sure she already knew the answer.
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Post by DarkSideCookie on Oct 26, 2019 11:52:01 GMT -8
"Not your fault,"
Negan was looking back up at her, a severe look on his features. There still was this anger inside of him, not even half gotten satisfied by his action to beat the holy shit out of that boy.
"Are they dead?"
Instead of an answer his eyes silently remained at the pale image right in front of him, looking very different from the badass officer he knew. After a while, he finally said: "He got what he fuckin' deserved." This was not giving away what had been happening to the other one but if Nora knew him well enough, which he was quite sure about she did, she could guess that his answer didn't go for the girl as well.
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Post by Kristi Lynne on Nov 8, 2019 18:09:45 GMT -8
"He got what he fuckin' deserved."
Nora closed her eyes and inhaled deeply, or tried to, as the slightest movement caused the pain in her neck to ripple outward again. She could have died, a lot of their people did die, and so Negan had delivered justice in his own way. One that she couldn't argue with, nor did she want to.
She slowly opened her eyes again and searched his face for the other half of his answer. "And the girl?" she prompted. Normally Negan never raised a hand to a woman, an admirable aspect of his self-made code of conduct. But this girl had killed their people, and deserved to share the same fate as her boyfriend.
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Post by DarkSideCookie on Nov 14, 2019 11:29:22 GMT -8
"And the girl?"
Usually, Negan would have nonchalantly answered with the pride of a peacock, but something made him pause all of a sudden. Could it be that it was to spare her from more distress? Hearing that he would make the girl his wife who had belonged to the boy who'd almost killed her might not be on top of the things on Nora's road to recovery.
So, instead of answering her question at all, Negan raised a finger close to her lips to gently hush her. She would learn what had happened to the girl soon enough anyway. "Stop talking now." For a moment there was almost seen something like a sincerely caring smile upon his face, but then he added in his usual tone of amusement: "Would be a god damn shame if I wasn't able to listen to your bitching ever again, wouldn't it?"
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Post by Kristi Lynne on Nov 15, 2019 12:15:51 GMT -8
"Stop talking now. Would be a god damn shame if I wasn't able to listen to your bitching ever again, wouldn't it?"
"Yeah, it would," Nora agreed, with an attempt at a nod and a weak smile at his shushing gesture. The morphine in the IV was making her sleepy, and the room started to get out of focus again. She made a motion to clasp his hand, like reaching a life preserver. "I was scared," she confided in a still small, shaky voice. "Not to die, or even to come back, but to do it alone. I don't know this world without you. I don't want to."
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Post by DarkSideCookie on Dec 13, 2019 12:47:47 GMT -8
There was a change happening upon his features when Nora suddenly made a motion to clasp his hand, and even though this hadn't been more like an almost imperceptible touch, for the moment Negan felt something that he thought he would never feel again - peace.
"I was scared,""Not to die, or even to come back, but to do it alone. I don't know this world without you. I don't want to."
Negan could have hushed her another time because all the talking really was not the best for her right now, but for some reason, her words were even intensifying this feeling of peace that he actually appreciated.
"You won't.", he suddenly said quietly yet affirmative. "After all the shit we've been through... you really think I'd let you down?"
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Post by Kristi Lynne on Dec 14, 2019 14:55:34 GMT -8
"You won't. After all the shit we've been through... you really think I'd let you down?"
"No," Nora whispered in reply. Not intentionally, no. But nothing in this world was certain, and things could change for the worse or much worse in a second. Negan was the man they all counted on for their protection and prosperity, and he in turn counted on them to be obedient and careful. She had been reckless and nearly paid the ultimate price. If she had lost him, it would have been her own fault. Being honest about how much the thought of that terrified her ... well, she could easily blame it on the medication later.
"You control so much, Negan, but you can't control everything." Nora let her arm fall to the bed again, as she began to feel heavy and blurry. She inhaled deeply and closed her eyes. "Sorry about your scarf," she added.
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Post by DarkSideCookie on Dec 15, 2019 18:38:43 GMT -8
"You control so much, Negan, but you can't control everything."
With her words and her hand falling back down, there was also coming back this usual harsh expression to his features, almost like all of that was happening at the very same time. And so Negan reminded himself what he was actually doing here and, first and foremost, what it would mean to allow real feelings to come up between them. It was not like he wouldn't always have sensed some kind of attraction between them, and that actually not in the sexual sense meant, well, not only at least, but this was just not the right thing to feel in times like these. This was how things were nowadays even though it sucked.
"Sorry about your scarf,"
"Take some rest now.", Negan said without even reacting to her stupid apologize before he grabbed Lucille from the bedside and turned around towards Nora one last time. Her eyes were already closed and her breath more consistently. "Good night, Nora."
Then he walked outside.
*** Negan exits ***
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