Needles and Pins

I am J · Feb 25, 2017

I will gladly do your unicorns for you.

Ji-Hye wasn't sure if she should laugh or scowl at that comment. She watched critically as her pushed his hair out of his face and smeared blood across his face. She did frown now. He did it a second time and she reached out and lowered his hand. "See, that's why I didn't want you on my couch." She took a bobby pin out of her hair, which caused several more strands to fall down along her neck, and gather the pesky hair he was fussing with and pinned it back. He looked ridiculous but she was sure at this point that wasn't a concern for him.

"You tried to stitch yourself up?" She asked, then shook her head dismissively, holding up a halting hand. "Never mind."

His tangible panic was making her anxiety begin to rise. She held up both hands this time, a sign of surrender. "Alright, not right now. No hospitals for now, ok? Chill out some." She'd probably be a whole lot more gentle with her words if he'd come to find her in a hospital. Bedside manners expectations and all of that...

As he agreed to stitches, she wasted no time turning back to her bag and fishing out a tube of over the counter LMX, a lidocaine. She spread some onto her gloved fingers and pressed it to his wounds and the surrounding skin with the practiced feather light touch of a trained professional. "That'll take a minute to start working. I'll be right back."

Ji-Hye disappeared for less then a minute and returned with a bowl and a clean wash cloth, which she filled with warm water before kneeling back down beside him to address the wound at his neck. It was nasty with the peeling gauze and his clumsy attempt to stop the bleeding and now the gauze was sticking.

Beside her, on the toilet, she lay out a line of butterfly bandages, a fishing line (since she didn't have hospital access she didn't have access to proper sutures, he was really tying her hands here!), a tiny curved needle, and a new, smaller pair of scissors. Finally she turned back to him, prepared to set to work. First to get the shirt off all of the way, and that necklace would have to go.

Her small hand reached for it as she began to speak in a light, conversational tone: "So, Lochlann, what exactly happened to you?"

ReD · Feb 26, 2017

Lochlann wasn't sure why she didn't want him on the couch. Well, he was--there was blood all over the side of the tub from where he kept grabbing at it-- but he was oblivious to the blood on his face. He didn't quite get what happened with the bobby pin. He blinked up at her, his eyes glassy and tired.

"Not this time," Lochlann slurred. He'd learned his lesson with stitches. It was a mess.

Her hands held up in surrender and the command to chill out did relax him. He seemed to fold inward on himself in the tub, as though now he considered himself safe for the first time in a while.

"Thank you," he said. The gratitude was undisguised in his voice.

She smeared....something, which Lochlann could handle, and he relaxed more when the area started to tingle and went numb. She left and Lochlann had no idea how long she was gone. He was starting to lose his grip on consciousness. It was probably less than a minute but it seemed like both all the time and none of the time.

He was alert enough to take in when her hand when to the necklace and Lochlann jerked suddenly, pressing himself further against the tub, scrambling like an animal. His body slid in his own blood and there was really no where for him to run.

He took a few shallow breaths and then apologized. His voice was hoarse. "Sorry."

He reached up with his good hand and pulled the amulet up over his head. He twisted the loop around his wrist multiple times instead, holding the small bauble in his injured hand.

Her tone was light, conversational. She had the longest lashes Lochlann had seen on a woman and he was focusing on her eyes.

He wanted to tell her the truth but he doubted she'd believe him. Worse? What if she did believe him?

Despite everything that happened, Lochlann felt a horrible, terrible urge to protect Guin.

"I had a bad night," he said. That wasn't a lie, not exactly, but it wasn't really an explanation. She'd probably be able to coax it out of him. His eyes were having a hard time focusing. He asked her, "Is that your real hair color?"

I am J · Feb 26, 2017

"Don't thank me yet," Ji-Hye said quietly. "If I can't stop the bleeding myself I'm taking you in. I have to."

She snatched her hand back when he scrambled away from her. He wrapped his necklace around his wrist under her studious eyes but quickly moved past the alarming behavior. She'd been on this island long enough to have the strangest, most inexplicable experiences.

"It's alright," she said, waving away his apology. "Keep the chain."

Ji-Hye set to work, dipping the wash cloth into the warm water, wringing it out, wiping away the excess blood from his hand, and then laying a gauze pad over the wounds and wrapping tape tightly around it to staunch the bleeding. She did the same to his chest, cleaning away blood, laying tape tightly over it to slow the blood flow. Finally, she came to his neck.

"I can see that," she replied calmly, taking the red water and dumping it in the sink, refilling and rinsing the cloth before returning. She worked quickly and deftly. "Of course it is," she replied to his question about her hair automatically with the same answer she gave the children. "I'm a unicorn, didn't you know? You can call me Pony." She spoke with her eyes down, gently soaking the gauze he had applied himself but her smile graced her lips reassuringly.

She began peeling away his poorly applied wrapping, peeling it back like sunburned skin. She discarded the pieces in the trash and when his wound was free of the nastiness, Ji-Hye cleaned it and reapplied the LMX and set back on her heels, threading the needle with a short length of fishing line. This would take forever because each stitch would need to be separate which meant she would have to thread each line.

Ji-Hye sighed, moving her forearm across her forehead to push her hair back, the gloves slick with blood.

"This would be easier in the clinic," she said into the air, not particularly directing the words at him. "I'm going to start now," she told him. "You'll need to hold as still as you can. Would you like something to hold on to or to bite?"

ReD · Feb 26, 2017

Don't thank me yet," Ji-Hye said quietly. "If I can't stop the bleeding myself I'm taking you in. I have to."

Lochlann took in her words and decided, right then and there, that if she couldn't help him he would have to get desperate. The bathroom was small but he could most definitely make it out of here... he looked around for a window and was distracted.

He flinched a few times when the water came in contact with his skin. It wasn't clear to him if it hurt him or just scared him. He was surprisingly still, though.

When she said that she was a unicorn, Lochlann's eyes narrowed.

or they would have if they weren't half-closed already. He eyed her with suspicion then, wondering why he couldn't scent it on her, but then again, it's not like he could really scent other species. He couldn't even recognize a pooka when he met him a few years ago, though he'd been wasted at the time.

He wished he would have known she was a unicorn before he asked for her help.

Oh god.

He'd never be able to live this down. He'd probably be in her debt forever.

"You're awfully cute for a unicorn," he slurred at her.

Lochlann had a bit of a complex with unicorns.

They were the pretty, beautiful horses in fairytales that people liked.

When she said to call her Pony, Lochlann frowned. He said, "I thought unicorns were horses."

Lochlann shook his head.

"No clinic," he pleaded again. When she told him that she was going to start, Lochlann took a ragged breath. "No. I'm ready."

He would be ready for the first few stitches, but after a few he'd beg her to stop for a moment, because Lochlann was a moron and would hold his breath until he nearly passed out. He clenched his fists until his knuckles went white and his injured hand did not like the additional tension and started to bleed again.

He realized, though, that he liked Pony a thousand times more than Dr. Hart because she'd asked him what he'd wanted.

He'd never had that experience before.

So she was okay with him, even if she was a damn unicorn.

I am J · Feb 26, 2017

One window, about ten inches wide and sixteen inches tall, with the privacy glass made for hotel bathrooms. It wasn't much but if he really wants to be could fit. It was a good drop with nothing to break the fall on the otherwise though. If he went out that window Ji-Hye would probably try to have him committed for being crazy. As it was, she was already wondering if he wasn't an asylum escapee or discharge to want so badly to avoid official channels for better medical aid.

She raised an eyebrow slightly as she worked. "I thought unicorns are supposed to be cute. But I'll accept that as a compliment.". She laughed lightly but in a distracted way as if this conversation was for his benefit and she wasn't paying particularly careful attention to it. "I didn't say unicorns are ponies, I said you can call me Pony. The kids like it, it makes them feel better then calling me nurse Park."

The stitches were very slow g going. Something that might have taken minutes at the clinic was stretching into half an hour because she had to re-thread the needle with each suture and he kept doing her because he didn't have the proper numbing agent. She hated his suffering and she hated the sense of his suffering that her Empathy shared with her.

When she finished at his neck the bleeding the had stopped, and the bandage and tight tape was holding up on his chest but he had started the bleeding on his hand again. Ji-Hye reapplied the LMX to his neck and bandaged it. She worked quietly on his chest and bandaged it nearly, then used the at cloth to clean away excess blood. She left and returned with a glass of water and a stress ball. She handed him the glass.

"I can still take you to the clinic," she offered. His hand was going to be the worst of it since he's would probably keep trying to clench it and that would make the skin too tight to stitch.

ReD · Feb 26, 2017

Lochlann eyed the window. He was not a cat. If he could fit his head out of it, it didn't mean he could fit the rest of himself out of it.

It was all in the shoulders.

Lochlann was lean and rangy. He could most definitely fit through there if he had to try. His breathing was ragged and uneven and tried his best to focus on her words. It kept him calm.

Aiden liked to work in silence. It made Lochlann feel like a thing, like an animal. Pony was keeping him human.

"Unicorns are, generally speaking, perverts," Lochlann said. "All of that 'ahh rainbows and lets put our heads in virgin's laps" like please, we know what you're really up to."

The stitches were slow going and Lochlann was worried he might lose consciousness and then lose his literal window of opportunity if she called the hospital.

He could call her Pony. For some reason, that made him smile, which took up more energy than he expected it to. His heart was pounding and it seemed like forever since it'd last been calm.

"It makes me feel better to call you that, too, Pony," he said, and then he frowned. "But also disrespectful. You're here helping me. Would Nurse Pony be better?"

Lochlann might have blacked out a little bit there at the end, because the next thing he knew, his throat was better and she was hanging him a glass of water. He took it with a murmured thanks and drank greedily. His throat ached and stung with every swallow, but it wasn't still bleeding, and that was relief enough. He touched the tips of it with his good fingers and set the cup on the edge of the blood-smeared bath tub.

When she offered again for the clinic, Lochlann shook his head.

"No," he said. His voice was still a little slurred, but less raspy since she'd given him the water.

"it's not you, it's just that.." he tried to figure out what to say. "Nothing good has ever come to me at the hospital. And I cannot stand Dr. Hart."

Lochlann spat his name. It was only his ingrained respect from his parents that Lochlann even addressed him as doctor.

he seemed confident, if melodramatic, when he said, "If I go there I will die."

He realized his chest was stitched and Lochlann blinked in surprised, then looked at his hand.

"Pony," he said, "Do you realize you're prettier than most unicorns are?"

Her cotton candy hair fascinated him and he longed to reach up and touch it.

I am J · Feb 26, 2017

There was nothing silent about Ji-Hye. She was vibrant and alive in every sense from her loud hair to her hot pink toe nails, the woman liked to talk and laugh and she liked to hear people talk and laugh. She was inclusive and enthusiastic and bright, so exactly the opposite of her boss. She sensed someone bigger then Dr. Hart got a kick out assigning her to him. Like they threw a tray of paint as a black chalkboard and then sat back to see what might happen.

"Perverts? That's blasphemy," she replied. "What is it that you think Unicorns are really up to?" She took the moments he used to drink the water to clean off the needle and the scissors, to cut down some more home made stitches, and to change the blood slick gloves for fresh ones.

Nurse Pony? That just sounded..... like what unicorns might actually be up too. The thought made her smile. "Please, no. Just Pony will do it. If you'd like to come see me in the hospital, however..." she let the suggestion trail off but she was beginning to see clearly that this wasn't just avoiding the hospital or the paperwork. He genuinely had fear for the hospital. She could feel it, taste it, and almost smell it on him.

Ji-Hye removed the glass from the edge of the tub before it could be accidentally knocked and set to working at his hand now, peeling away the tape she'd placed to stop the bleeding. She reapplied the LMX again. His tightening fist had cause the bleeding to resume and it was once again messy. Ji-Hye cleaned the wound again and then pressed the stress ball into his injured hand. This would keep him from squeezing his hand closed into a too tight fist while she worked.

His flat 'no' was enough to set her back to work. She began in the center of the incision and worked outward, applying the stitches as quickly as she could. "That makes two of us," she muttered when he declared he couldn't stand her boss. Then she paused for a second, while threading the needle again, "well, I guess that's not true. I can stand him but I'm not sure he can stand me and that's actually sort of fun."

She spared a glance at his face when he claimed he would die if he went to the hospital. While his words were melodramatic, she could sense his feelings and his feelings, whether he was being dramatic or not, were truths. He really feared dying there. "Well, Lochlann, I'm not going to let you die," she told him in a patient tone. He had lost a lot of blood but she was confident she had it under control.

"Thank you," she said in a matter-of-fact tone, the sort of tone that said 'I know' or 'sure, whatever' when he told her she was prettier then most unicorns. "Does that mean I'm caught out in my lie?" she asked him with a lilt of humor. "Have you figured out that I'm no magical white horse?"

She finished stitching the worst of his injury and began to apply several butterfly bandages to the outer edges, opting to save him the extra suffering of unnecessary stitches. "There now, see? I'm all finished." She began to press the cloth around the wound, cleaning away the blood, and applied a fresh bandage to that one as well.

ReD · Feb 26, 2017

Despite everything that Pony represented--unicorns, hospitals, Dr. Hart--Lochlann liked her. She was vibrant and bright and all of the hot pink made it hard to feel completely and utterly consumed by his fear and panic. It still lurked beneath the surface, ready to bubble up and send him bolting through the window, but it never reached that point.

What did he think unicorns were really up to?

"Getting good PR," Lochlann slurred. He was still pale and shaky, but now that he wasn't actively bleeding he seemed to be getting a bit of a grip on himself. "So they can put some kind of nefarious unicorn plot into action. I don't know. I'm not a unicorn so I'm not privvy to the details."

Lochlann suspected it was lewd.

"Okay, so just Pony," Lochlann took a ragged breath and closed his eyes. She slid the stressball into his hand and he held it and managed not to move, though he did flinch once or twice. The LMX was working really well or Lochlann was so burned out now that everything seemed dull.

Lochlann was rather surprised that she didn't like Dr. Hart. He'd sort of assumed all medical people liked each other. Of course, his thoughts about hospital staff and thoughts about unicorns were in the same line.

"Did you know he keeps his own coffee in his office," Lochlann said. "At every location. Like he's too scared to drink someone else's coffee. I think he carries it on him."

Lochlann had stolen it from him once while he was in juvie.

He wanted to grin at her but he was tired, and it looked more like a grimmace, but Lochlann liked that she found it fun to torture him.

"Thank you," he said again. The rush of appreciation was genuine. Lochlann, for all his self-destructive tendencies, wanted so desperately to stay alive.

"No," Lochlann confessed. He squinted at her and said, "Then how did you turn your hair into cotton candy?"

Then, she was finished, and Lochlann looked at his bandaged hand and reached out to touch it. It was still a little numb, but the pain was in him deep, like an ache, and Lochlann suddenly so desperately wanted to sleep.

He needed to change his bedsheets, though, because they were covered in blood.

"Thank you," he said. He reached his uninjured hand to touch hers for a second, as if trying to convey his gratitude in a way that words couldn't.

"How can I repay you?" he asked her.

He needed to get out of her bath tub.

Lochlann's voice, though still betraying his exhaustion and terror, was very, very serious. Lochlann took his debts seriously. It wasn't a rhetorical question. He owed this woman and he would do almost anything to repay her.

Almost. Because he certainly wasn't ever going to see her in the clinic to give her his repayment.

I am J · Feb 26, 2017

Ji-Hye found herself truly enjoying the banter. She'd started it to distract him but his answers were note-worthy clever, despite his slurring and what she was still pretty certain was a degree of delirium.

"Good PR. I haven't heard that one before." Of course, she'd also never discussed unicorns ulterior motives with anyone before either. Children just took her at her word. She didn't usually tell them she was a Unicorn. Her line was typically that she wanted to be a unicorn when she grew up. The message, of course, being that a. she wasn't yet grown up, and b. they could dream to be anything they wanted to.

His breath was ragged and she paused to check on him. Poor guy, her sympathy rose. He had lain as still as he could, and while she knew the lidocain was effective, it was only surface deep and he was in great pain.

When he rattled off the coffee fact about Dr. Hart, she was immediately on alert that this comment meant he had, in fact, been to the asylum. It didn't necessarily mean that he had been a patient or that he had been a dangerous one if he had been, but it practically confirmed he had at least been there. "Yes," she told him. "And he doesn't share. It's like his secret magic stash or something." She laughed. Truthfully, she didn't know if he didn't share. Ji-Hye had never asked for Dr. Hart's coffee and Dr. Hart hadn't offered that she could recall. Ji-Hye didn't drink coffee anyways.

"No?" she sounded surprised. She hadn't meant to lead him to really believe she was a unicorn. In fact, she hadn't known unicorns could look like people. "Um...dye?" She lifted her eyebrows like she'd shared a huge secret with him. "I dye it."

His hand lay on top of her gloved hand and she turned her hand over to hold his securely. Ji-Hye had held many, many hands before, some even kneeling on the ground covered in blood as they were now. She watched him silently for a moment after he asked her how he could repay her.

"I'm a nurse. I don't need repaid for doing what I do." She could see his fatigue, feel it on the air. He felt tired, he felt scared, he felt panic, but he didn't feel threatening or ominous. She let go of his hand and reached across him to take his shoulders and help him to sit. "Lets get that nasty shirt off. I might have something you can wear somewhere around here."

As she helped to sit him upright from the lounging position of the bathtub she said: "You shouldn't leave alone. Have you got someone I can call for you?"

ReD · Feb 27, 2017

Lochlann attempted a grin again. He gave up halfway through.

"I imagine it's because the unicorns usually try to keep their plans secretive," he said. Now that he knew she wasn't a unicorn he felt surprisingly relieved.

He liked her laugh. He told her so. "You have a nice laugh," he said. He wondered if she laughed a lot or if her profession was too serious to have a lot of laughter. He couldn't tell.

Lochlann was not surprised. He said, "You should switch it with the cheap stuff when he's not looking. See if he actually notices."

Lochlann had wanted to do this but didn't' have access to other coffee while he was committed. He was surprised that she dyed her hair and his eyebrows lifted to reflect this. He slurred, "It looks so natural. It's hard to imagine you without cotton candy hair."

He was surprised that her hand was in his own and Lochlann brushed his thumb over it without even thinking.

He was so, so tired. Lochlann felt like he'd been hit by a bus rather than getting laid. His entire body ached and he wished he wasn't so strung up.

But the idea of not repaying his debt didn't sit well with him.

"You can't expect me to let you do all this work for free," Lochlann frowned. He was ashamed that he needed her help to sit up, but movement like this, movement not fuled by pure panic or a single-minded determination, felt impossible.

He knew he could make the window if he had to, but Lochlann wasn't sure if he could do much else before that.

"It's okay," he said. "I can just wear the jacket back out."

He froze trying to think of who he could come get him. Guin was 100% most definitely out given that she was the one that did this to him; it was weird to him that he even considered her at all. He couldn't really explain this to Emily and he wasn't sure he'd be able to stay awake around Kaya without passing out. He didn't really know anyone else well enough to call them so late.

Except maybe his drug dealer.

Lochlann nodded.

"I will be okay," he said. He planned on leaving on his own. He was an animal that very much liked to lick his wounds in private. The less people who knew about this, the better. The neck and chest would be easy to hide--his flannels went up pretty high--but the hand was another story. Maybe he'd wear gloves.

"I'm serious about paying you back," Lochlann told her. His face was set into grim determination. "I will wash all of your unicorns for life if that is what you ask."

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Needles and Pins

I am J

Well-Known Member

ReD

Sex & Death Everywhere

I am J

Well-Known Member

ReD

Sex & Death Everywhere

I am J

Well-Known Member

ReD

Sex & Death Everywhere

I am J

Well-Known Member

ReD

Sex & Death Everywhere

I am J

Well-Known Member

ReD

Sex & Death Everywhere