inhotwater | BORDERLANDS AU 1

[it's...a hospital room. White walls, no windows, a curtain pulled. There's a bedside table, and a chair next to his bedside.

And sitting in that chair, reading a book, one of her feet propped up on the steel frame, leaning the chair back on two legs is...Selena.

It's been a couple days, so she's cleaned up now and back in her casual clothes. There isn't much to do other than hang out and keep an eye on Edward, which is kind of boring, but it definitely gives her time to just...relax.

So that's what she's doing. Relaxing.]

[It takes a bit, before his mind is awake enough to actually start connecting any dots. He's not... entirely there, yet, but after a slight delay he squints a little, to focus his vision.

Which isn't much, but even blurry, he recognizes that person.]

...Cat?

[His voice is quiet, kind of hoarse. But he manages to force the word out, at least.]

[it takes a moment--a pause in her reading, a frown, glancing up--and then her eyes widen, almost comically.]

"Holy shit, you're awake." [she lets the chair drop back down onto four legs, closing the book and dropping it on the chair as she pushes to her feet. Selena leans on the railing of the bed, smirking down at him] "Welcome back to the land of the living, Eddie."

[Edward blinks a few more times, just... tiredly shifting his head a little so he's got a better view of her. That's... harder than it should be. He hasn't put together why yet.]

Kinda... didn't see that one coming...

[Kind of a wry sarcastic comment there, but honestly, he was fully expecting to be dead by now.]

[yeah, Selena's gonna just arch an eyebrow at that one]

"What, the moonshot? Or you being in the land of the living?"

The latter, mostly...

[He thinks that over for a moment.]

...I guess both, technically.

[He's... feeling a little sluggish, here, so the response is a bit slow. There's a lot of drugs in his system, right now, which is helping him not be in horrible agony.]

"I mean, technically you are kinda dead officially. I'm your injured stand-in. Hence why I'm stuck hanging out here." [she sounds more dryly amused than put out, though]

"But hey! Actually, you're not dead. So that's a bonus. And whatever you did with the shield saved, like, half the Citadel and Ivy and Victor so good job there."

[He squints... more, at that. Selina, please, he's far too out of it to follow along with all of this.]

I'm... huh?

[He's very confused. Selina. Why.]

[yeah he looks very confused. She just huffs a bit, and waves a hand]

"Don't worry about it. Hold on, though, I gotta let Dr. Thompkins know you're awake--"[Selina leans over, pushing a button on the side of his bed, and there's a low buzzer noise] "There. Fulfilled my civic duty."

Oh... okay...

[He keeps trying to focus his vision, but she's just a little too far away for that to work, really, without his glasses. And--

He blinks, suddenly realizing part of the problem. It feels like... there's something over his other eye. A bandage, maybe? He tries to touch it to confirm, except... one of his arms feels a little stuck. IV drip... oh. Hospital. That makes sense.

And... no response on his other side.

...If he was just a little less awake, he'd wonder about that more. Right now, it's really just... one step at a time.]

[which is about the time that Lee comes in--and Selina's backing up to get out of her way as she leans into Edward's field of vision. She smiles a little, gently]

"Hi Edward. I'm Doctor Leslie Thompkins. I'm taking care of you for now. Are you in any pain?"

[He blinks, at Lee's appearance, and it... takes a few moments for her words to register properly.]

No, I... I don't think so...

[Very numb, maybe. Weird. Not... good, really, but no pain that he's noticed.]

"Okay. That's a good start. Can you tell me what you last remember?"

Mostly I remember... being stuck under a bunch of debris, after part of the Citadel collapsed...

[He remembers that pretty clearly, in fact. It felt like it was forever.]

"Yes, that certainly happened. You were dug out and then transferred to my hospital."

Mhm, I think I... I kind of figured out that part...

Got that far...

[But that's... good. Not dead. He's not stuck anymore, he can breathe again, all good things.]

"That's good. Your cognitive abilities seem intact so far, so that's a good sign. You need to heal a bit longer before we talk about other issues, so for now I'm going to put you back under so you can sleep a bit longer, alright?"

[Honestly... he can feel himself almost starting to zone out again anyway, so he can't exactly argue with that. More sleep... doesn't sound so bad.

He just exhales.]

Oh, um... O-Okay... sure...

"Okay. Just rest, Edward. That's the best thing you can do for yourself, now."

Alright...

[He'll... do his best, sure. Who's he to argue, right now?]

[when Edward wakes up again, he'll find himself marginally more lucid. Marginally being the key word--there's still painkillers in his system, though they've started weaning him off them a bit.

Dr. Thompkins is currently taking his blood pressure. Selena is fiddling with an ECHO device, propped up with her legs on the bed]

[Edward blinks, as he wakes up again. Shifting slightly, without really thinking about it. His head still feels... kind of fuzzy, so it takes him a few moments to realize what Dr. Thompkins is doing.

Waking up is kind of a slow process, so for the moment he finds himself just sort of watching, as his mind tries to wake up more.]

"You can tell Oswald that his blood pressure is stabilized. However you're doing that, anyway. With that code."

[she glances up and over at Selena, who just gives her a thumbs up without looking up from her ECHO device]

"Got it."

That sounds good.

[It's a little quiet and he sounds a little out of it, but that's about to be expected.]

[Lee startles a bit at that--but quickly regains herself]

"Hi there, welcome back." [she moves to sit on the edge of the bed so she can talk to him easier] "I'm Dr. Lee Thompkins. Can you tell me your name?"

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