simplestgift | Fifteen Bells: [ACTION/WRITTEN]

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Fifteen Bells: [ACTION/WRITTEN]

[Archie woke up yesterday. How is this new? Well, after getting some fairly critical stab wounds from Grell, he was put on a ventilator and kept under sedation for a few days. The ventilator was exchanged for a less impressive-looking concentrator yesterday and he was taken off sedation. He spent yesterday sleeping anyway, since anesthesia doesn't generally leave you bright-eyed immediately afterward.

This morning, he is talking and eating Jell-o, which is a new experience. The most important bit comes written on the journal network in wobbly handwriting courtesy of the heart monitor clipped on his finger.]

I have been informed that I may have visitors. I'd like to know everyone is all right.

Kennedy

[Anyone who comes in will find him looking predictably weak and pale but lucid and in good spirits, or possibly catnapping after a dose of painkillers.

OOC: Purely for the sake of mercy, Archie is unaffected by the event.]

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[Oh, that would be cause for concern! But some cold water and salt would probably do the trick.]

If you're sure...a couple of bachelors on their own could probably use a good meal or two under normal circumstances, let alone in more trying times. It'd be no trouble.

Well, I'm not sure what I'm allowed to eat. Not to mention I don't have much of an appetite. Although...

[He was wanting something earlier--bland, but filling...but imposing on Kay probably isn't the answer.]

Never mind.

Well, it's not hard to clear that with the doctor. [If she were in person, she'd be tempted to pat your hand, Archie. Let her reassure you with homecooked meals.] If there's anything you want, you just give a shout. I've got plenty of time to cook you a meal or two.

[He'll give in.]

Have you anything...oh, perhaps a slice of dry toast?

Toast? [She's slightly disappointed, let's be honest--he'll need bland food, certainly, but it doesn't take much effort to cook toast. But what's best for Archie is what's important!] I'll make you some in a jiffy, bring it down in just a bit.

Thank you. [There's a dull ache in his back now, but he's going to hold off on the pain meds until he can get his toast. If he doses himself now, he'll lose his appetite, and toast just sounds amazing right now.]

[And so Kay makes the very finest toast she can--she's not sure if Doctor McCoy has a toaster and doesn't want to take the risk that he won't--and dashes it over to the battle dome and thus to Archie. Despite the heels, she can move pretty damned quickly, and so it hopefully hasn't grown too cold nor too soggy in the interim.

When she arrives, she has toast for him on a plate, each of the two slices of bread cut into triangles on the diagonal. She raps lightly on his door, poking her head in to see if he's awake.]

Mr. Kennedy? I've brought your toast.

Bless you. [This is the first time they've met face-to-face, and this...isn't really what he was expecting, but still. He eyes the plate hungrily.]

Well, I do try. [Kay slips inside, bringing the plate to him and taking a nearby seat. She's dressed as she normally might be, but her demeanor is so entirely different that it might not matter, to see her.] When you're feeling better, you'll have to come by for a proper meal, you and Captain Hornblower both.

[He takes the plate and bites into one triangle of toast. Ambrosia, Kay. Pure ambrosia.] You speak with Horatio often?

Once or twice. [She shrugs, crossing her legs at the ankles as delicately as can be done.] I've always meant to strike up a proper conversation with him--my husband's a great fan, you know--but days go by so quickly here if you aren't careful. [Especially if you're spending every day vacuuming and baking pies.]

[He ignores the bits he doesn't understand, like "great fan."] Yes, it can be a chore to force a conversation out of him, for some. I've known him since we were mids and he still doesn't tell me everything.

[The fact is that he doesn't need to, but that's not the point. Mmm, toast.]

[Her expression softens some--which is saying something, considering how much she's been smiling lately--as Archie describes Horatio.] It does seem like his way, holding things in when it might help him to tell someone. [She has, after all, read Forester's books herself, though having less of an investment in Very English Things means she'll never like them quite as much as Julius.] But he seems very pleasant beneath that, of course.

I've never known a better man. I owe him my life a thousand times. [Munch.] You do talk to him often, then.

[Well, not quite. Admission time.] I've read more about him than I've talked to him. But to all accounts, he's a very good man.

[Oh hey! This is exciting!] You've read the book, haven't you?

Oh, I've read all of the books. Like I said, Julius is very fond of them. [A bit of a sigh, one of fond remembrance.] Each time a new one comes out, he has to have it that very day. Do they have 'em here?

No, and I've been wanting to--there's more than one! I came here before Horatio, and I can't tell you how happy I was to hear they wrote a book about him.

Nothing...nothing I'd be in, of course.

[Right? Right? He sure hopes not. He'd rather his story be kept private, and besides, they wouldn't include the convicted mutineer in their retelling, would they? Nothing about his seizures, nothing about Simps--oh God, this could be a disaster.]

Oh, heavens, there's at least six now, Jules got me reading them after we were married... There was a movie, too--I liked it a lot, but of course, it's hard to go wrong with Gregory Peck.

[And then she hmms, frowning. Archie's last comment is one that's been niggling at the back of her mind for a little while now.]

You know, I've been wondering about that. The books're all about Hornblower and Bush. I can't for the life of me remember you from them--but probably I'm not remembering them correctly, I've no head for those sorts of things. [Yes, she does.]

[A look akin to relief.] No, I wouldn't be in them. But I've met Mr. Bush. We were lieutenants together aboard Renown. He's a good man, though not much for imagination.

[Whereas Kay still looks a little apologetic. Either she's managed to forget about Archie, or he was left out of the stories entirely (though how he's shown up here in that case, she's not sure). Neither option seems to her like it could possibly be ideal.]

I always did like Bush. With all of Hornblower's melancholy, he needs someone steady with him, though. Imagination's nice, but not always that solid. [And here she's talking about Archie's friends like they're characters--which, to be fair, they are, but in front of someone who thinks of them as people even when they're not in the room? Oops.] It's really too bad they haven't shown up here. They're very good.

[And this is why he'll always know he's a real person.] Bush might steady him, but he can't cheer him. That was always something I did.

[There's a subtle possessiveness in his words. I'm the best friend, lady. In fact, I was the first.]

I guess so. [She can't really know for certain--after all, Archie's existence remains a mystery to her as far as the stories go, and she hasn't had much chance to get to know them here--but there's no denying the miasma of sadness under which Hornblower conducts himself in Forester's books.] He's lucky to have you, then. It'd be a sad thing, to go through life without anyone there to pull you out of your misery. [Something something platitude something something. This Kay would rather solve problems with cake, on the whole.]

[He doesn't reply. A palpable melancholy has come over him quite suddenly, and he decides to blame it on the fact that he's let the pain get out of control. No longer hungry, he puts the toast back on the plate, sets the plate on the little table attached to his bed by a hinged arm, and presses the button that releases more morphine into his bloodstream.]

[Even if she's not aware that Archie has a sudden case of the sads himself, the fact that he's set down his toast doesn't go unnoticed.] You've got a lot of rest to catch up on, I'm sure. I shouldn't keep you.

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