Fifteen Bells: [ACTION/WRITTEN]

[simplestgift]

[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.]

Comments

[intangible-girl.livejournal.com]

Can you play go fish with a regular deck? I always played with a special deck that had fish on it.

[simplestgift]

Oh yes. Say I held a nine, I'd ask if you had any nines.

[intangible-girl.livejournal.com]

Oh. Of course. That's silly of me. I only played it as a child, with the deck my father bought me. I'll go find a real deck and we can play.

[She'll go do that, if you don't stop her, and return shortly.]

[simplestgift]

[By the time she comes back, he's half-asleep, but he wakes fully on her arrival and smiles, scooting up in the bed.]

[intangible-girl.livejournal.com]

I think McCoy won't mind us borrowing this, [she says, sitting down next to the bed.] Would you mind shuffling? [She's not sure she can with the gloves on.]

[simplestgift]

[This is where they reach a catch-22--one of his arms is in a sling and the other has a heart monitor attached to one finger. He chuckles and leans back into the pillow.]

A fine pair, we are.

[intangible-girl.livejournal.com]

[She smiles genuinely back, and slips the cards out of the box.]

I'll try my best for both of us then. [And proceeds to spread all the cards out on the bed and move them around until they're all mixed up. Then she'll gather them carefully together using the pads of her fingers and deal by sliding out one card at a time and letting it drop onto the bed near Kennedy's good hand. It's clumsy, but it works.]

[simplestgift]

Brilliant. [The game begins, though he has some difficulty playing one-handed.] You're often in the clinic?

[intangible-girl.livejournal.com]

I sort of live here, actually.

Do you have any... sevens?

[simplestgift]

[He passes her a seven and draws a card to replace it. Oh, that makes a pair of fours! He puts them down.] That must be awful. Do you have any kings?

[intangible-girl.livejournal.com]

Go fish.

It's not so bad. It's better than the alternative. Do you have any threes?

[simplestgift]

Go fish. Do you have a delicate composition, somehow? Or, ah, any knaves?

[intangible-girl.livejournal.com]

Do I- [Oh, he's talking about cards. For a second she was trying to figure out what kind of disease knaves was. :T] Ah- no, go fish.

[She draws a six and makes a face at her hand.]

Extremely delicate. I'd probably die of a common cold, honestly.

[simplestgift]

And the suit helps to keep you alive. [So you can live normally. He wonders what sort of technology the future could develop against seizures.]

[intangible-girl.livejournal.com]

Yes. My father invented it. He called it his heart's greatest dream, seeing me walk around outside. [Wistful smile.]

[simplestgift]

He sounds like a great man. [How many young women with doting fathers does he run into around here? Well...this one and Alexis, who's quite a bit younger. He nods to her cards--her turn.]

[intangible-girl.livejournal.com]

He is.

Isn't it your turn? [She starts studying the discard pile, trying to figure out where they are.] It's been so long since I played...

[simplestgift]

Er..[Then he realizes what happened.] I believe you drew a card by mistake, Miss. You had no knaves, and that was the last turn.

[intangible-girl.livejournal.com]

Oh. Should... I put it back then?

[simplestgift]

At the bottom of the pile, if you please, Miss Ingrid. [It's spoken with exaggerated formality and good humor. He shifts a little.] Good God, I'll be a complete lunatic by the end of the week if I must stay trapped in here.

[intangible-girl.livejournal.com]

[She does as he instructs, unsuccessfully holding back a grin. Then she answers in kind.]

That's what I am for, good sir. I do more than play cards, you know. I also- [Leaning in, as if to divulge a great secret.] -play checkers.

[simplestgift]

Will wonders never cease? You shall have to teach me!

[He knows it. He just calls it something different.]

[intangible-girl.livejournal.com]

I'd be happy to, of course, but perhaps we should finish our hand here.

[simplestgift]

Of course! I'm afraid it's still your turn.

[intangible-girl.livejournal.com]

Oh! Ah... I didn't have any knaves, so... what do I do now?

[Seriously, she was like six the last time she played.]