InsaneJournal

Current mood:	uncomfortable
Entry tags:	alec/jenny, chicago, interaction, introduction_powers

Aftermath
As if it wasn't bad enough being told to take a couple days off work, Alec had been told to wait until a Nurse Daniels could give him a lift home. Pfft, lift home, what did he need that for? Never-mind the fact he'd keeled over right in front of everybody, split open his eyebrow, and proceeded to babble nonsensical stuff at the perturbed intern that had picked him up.

He was never living this down.

Currently he was sat in one of uncomfortable plastic chairs in the general waiting area, keeping his eyes focused on something other than the people staring at him. What? Didn't they have something better to do than stare at the doctor with a bruise on his face?

Hopefully Nurse Daniels would be finishing shortly and Alec could do his best to sweet talk her out of taking him home like some kind of sick child. He'd never been taken home sick in his life, he wasn't about to start now. Stubborn? Oh hell yes.


Alec muffled another cough and sighed as he slumped back into the chair, closing his eyes against the fatigue that had overcome him shortly after he'd regained consciousness. He was doing everything not to think about the blood and the strange tingling in his hand, figuring that he'd spent his entire life ignoring the weirder things in his life, what was one more thing?

He breathed out slowly, fighting past that sharp ache in his chest.

Jenny had wandered into the hospital earlier on that day, the nurses knew who she was now and gently listened to her ramblings when she sounded particularly crazy. She had learned to hold her tongue and only intervene when something really serious was about to happen, the nurses didn't believe her still when she told them she saw what was about to happen, but they did at least keep a closer eye on those particular patients and Jenny was yet to be wrong.

That was why she let out a near-shriek when she saw Alec sitting in the general waiting area, the usually bright and fascinating aura around him pulsing a dark grey. She ran over and looked at him, dark eyes frantically looking at his aura as if just by looking at it alone could change the outcome.

"Dr Reed!" she hissed, dropping to a crouch in front of him, reaching up without really meaning to to turn his head a little and look at the cut on his eyebrow. Her arm still rose in goosebumps, though. "You're sick." And the concern on her face and in her voice was more than clear. "What's wrong?"

Alec grimaced faintly at the sudden shriek and then frowned as she turned his head. "Yeah, I'm sick. Caught some sort of bug." Ah, denial, you had to love it. He straightened up slowly and cleared his throat, desperately trying not to cough. "What brings you by the hospital? The usual?"

He muffled another cough and hissed in a slow breath, this whole being sick was getting old.

"You're lying," Jenny said conversationally, resting her hands on his knees. The hair on her arms stood on end briefly before the goosebumps disappeared and that itself - for her - was a cause of alarm. Alec was special, like her, but right now all she could see was sickness. And not the cope-able type of sickness. She frowned, the corners of her lips turning down. "It's not a bug."

She lifted her shoulders. "I was in the neighborhood." But she was more concerned about Alec. "I can see it." She'd walked through Alec's ward earlier, and the guy that had been black and grey and near death the last time she was here was now surrounded with white. She wondered why he was lying in the bed still when, as far as she could tell (and she was no doctor) he was perfectly healthy.

"Why would I lie?" Alec challenged, leaning further back into the chair until it creaked. He scrubbed his fingers through his hair and cleared his throat again, trying to will away another cough.

He tipped his head and regarded Jenny. "So, what do you see?"

"Because you don't wanna be sick?" Jenny challenged quietly, glancing around before she sat down at Alec's feet, sitting back on her haunches, feet underneath her butt. Her hands restlessly plucked at his pants, having little to no concept of personal space.

She tipped her head in mimicry of him and looked just past his ear, arms tensing like she wanted to reach out again before she just plucked at his trousers again. She chewed on her lower lip and shook her head, "You're grey. Like... dark grey." Her lower lip stayed snagged between her teeth as she worried at it.

Guess it was a good thing that Alec didn't have much issue around his personal space given that he invaded everybody else's without really thinking about it.

"I hate being sick," Alec commented absently as he attempted to recall the last time he'd been properly sick - throwing up his guts, can't move kind of sick. It had obviously been such a long time because he couldn't bring a memory to the forefront of his mind quickly.

Alec muffled another cough on the back of his hand, grimacing faintly as his entire chest burned with the effort. "Grey, huh? That can't be good."

Jenny reached out and pressed her hand against his chest to feel his heartbeat underneath her palm, as if to reassure herself that everything was going to be okay. She kind of liked Alec, he listened to her and she didn't want him to die, but when she didn't know what was wrong, it was kind of hard to do anything. She worried her lower lip before she nodded.

"It's not good." she looked around at the people milling in the general waiting area and shuffled a little closer to Alec, seemingly unperturbed by his coughing, like she didn't think she could catch whatever it was that he had. "How're you gonna get home?"

She plucked at his shirt before she let her hand rest against his chest again, the thud-thud of his heartbeat only broken when a cough reverberated through his chest. She cringed. "There's a man upstairs that's perfectly healthy," she offered as if to change topics. "I don't know why he's in here. He's not sick. You should be lying where he is."

"Nurse Daniels is supposed to be giving me a lift," Alec muttered in a gravely voice, throat strained from having coughed so much in the recent days. "No idea where she is, probably finishing up her shift."

He inhaled a shaky breath and licked his rapidly drying lower lip, hating how weak and feeble felt and how his hand kept tingling. It was disconcerting. "What man?" He asked, forcing his eyes open from their half closed state.

Jenny glanced up at the ceiling before she settled again. "He's upstairs, in the ward where I first met you..." She described the man and his bed in comparison to the rest of the ward. "And the nurse told me he had cancer and was gonna die when I asked." She wrinkled her nose and leaned forward a little to whisper, "She gave me a funny look when I said he was gonna be okay."

Her hand moved up to touch his face, fingers and palm cool as she cupped his cheek. No concept of personal space and Alec looked like he needed a hug. But hugging was awkward from her position on the floor. Maybe when she moved. "Have you seen a doctor? Another one 'cept you?"

Alec's brow furrowed. "He's my patient, my cancer patient to be more exact." He shifted a little closer to Jenny, turning his head away at the last second as another cough shook his form. Alec's eyes were closed in pain and his breathing was disturbed, limited and struggling. He pushed through the pain and focused his attention back on Jenny. "I can't explain it but he's made a pretty miraculous recovery, I was so sure he was a goner and I was going to have to explain his kid why her dad was no longer around."

He leaned into Jenny's hand, welcoming the cool touch as it felt like he was burning up. "Another checked me over, couldn't put his finger on what was wrong. I'm baffling I believe was the way that he put it."

Helpless was one thing Jenny hated being and right now she was absolutely helpless. She frowned in concern, shifting that little bit closer and putting her other hand on the other side of his face, pressing her cool hands against his warmth. She felt how he leaned into it, and if she could do something to help, then she would. Even if it meant kneeling on the floor between his legs with her hands on his face. "You're pretty baffling," she teased, "That's for sure."

Her lips curled into a small smile before she just shook her head, "He's fine, Dr Alec. I mean, he's not- he's fine. He's healthy. All glowing again." Her eyes slid over his aura in concern. "Not like you..."

"Hardee hah hah," Alec drawled with a small smirk on his face. He closed his eyes and then dragged in a slower more shakier breath, just trying to push through the pain.

Alec lifted his gaze a few moments later as she said what she did about his cancer patient. "Like totally fine? No sign of anything?" He didn't quite understand what Jenny could see and he knew his dad would slap him into therapy again if he so much as mentioned it to him but she had a gift, one that allowed her to see things other people couldn't.

"I haven't ran any tests on him lately but his vitals have been stronger recently." He was too out of it to make the link between his hand tingling and his patient's sudden turn for the better.

"When I came in here before, he looked like a sick person." Jenny said, trying to work out how to explain it to Alec. "People... they're- I see them differently." She tilted her head as a nurse walked past, ushering a family in front of her. "They're all like bubbles. You know when light shines through a bubble?" She asked, "That's what they're like. And that's what he's like." She meant the cancer patient.

She nodded decisively, "Like totally fine. But you're-" Her thumb brushed over his cheek gently, the hair on her arms standing on end again as they tended to, she found, when she was around people that were different. Like her. "-not." She remembered how bright he had looked when they had first met, how sparkling and intense. How he had stood out from everyone anyway and she'd told him he was special. She wondered if Alec was getting worse because Mr Cancer Man was getting better.

Alec leaned back into the chair and allowed Jenny's words to soak in. It didn't make sense, why was he sick and his patient was doing better? It made absolute no sense. God, he was going to give himself a headache on top of everything else.

"It makes no sense," he admitted out-loud. "I don't understand what's going on." Alec glanced up the hallway, wondering where Nurse Daniels was because he could really do with going home and passing out for a couple of hours.

"Maybe it's 'cause you're special?" Jenny asked, looking up at Alec earnestly. "Different, like me." Even if she couldn't see it right now, and that was alarming too. She dropped one hand back down to pluck at the fabric over his knee. Because other than that, no, it didn't make any sense.

She looked down the hallway as Alec did, wondering why he was still sitting here when he was sick and needed to be in a hospital bed rather than his own one. She hesitated before she was getting to her feet and sitting down on the chair beside Alec, hand moving to rest at the back of his neck. "You got a fever."

"My parents never really encouraged different," Alec muttered with a shrug of his shoulders. "And I don't think I'm special in the way that you think I am." He'd long given up the idea he had some kind of superpower, yay for relentless sessions of therapy?

Alec was kind of nauseous as well but he wasn't about to mention that. "I figured as much." He forced another breath out of his chest. "Hopefully I'll be getting out of here soon."

"Hopefully. Because you need to sleep." Jenny frowned, "Though, I still think you'd be better off sleeping here rather than at home." The grey around Alec kept flickering darker and she cringed back a little as the colour changed, hoping that it didn't get any darker. If it did, she would start seeing the skeletal flashes and she didn't ever want to see that on Alec. He was nice, he didn't deserve to be so sick.

She shook her head. "You are special, don't argue with me, I can see it. Or I could 'fore you got sick. Now I can just see that you're sick and-" the corners of her lips turned down and she flipped her hand over so she was pressing the back of her hand against the back of his neck, her palm having warmed up.

"Sleep, I like that idea." Alec nodded his head a couple times, resolutely.

He tipped his head to regard her closely. "Don't give me that look, I'm gonna be fine." And he was, even if he felt like he was dying right now. He'd be fine, he was always fine. He was about to say something when he caught sight of Nurse Daniels. "Looks like my ride is here."

Alec wet his lower lip. "You gonna be okay?"

Jenny's eyebrows near enough hit her hairline at that question. Was she okay? It took her by surprise and she opened her mouth to answer before she gave a sheepish smile and dropped her head. "Yeah... but- I-" she chewed on her lower lip and glanced at the nurse before she rested her head against his shoulder briefly. "Be careful, okay?"

She was worried about him, that much was obvious. Jenny liked him. "Why're you asking me that anyway? I'm not the one who's sick." She took another breath before she let go of him, kind of wanting to give him a hug even though he was coughing and pale and generally very ill-looking. It hadn't deterred her so far.

"You ready to go, Dr Reed?" Nurse Daniels asked as she fished her car keys out of her bag, looking curiously at Jenny.

Alec gave a weak smirk. "Always am." He gave a laugh a few moments later at her response before getting to his feet slowly. "Never hurts to ask, especially when somebody looks as worried as you do."

He turned to Nurse Daniels and nodded his head, gesturing between the two women. "Nurse Phillipa Daniels, Jenny. Jenny, Nurse Phillipa Daniels."

Phillipa held out her hand, which Jenny shook after looking at her critically for a second. She muttered something about it being nice to meet her and Phillipa smiled. Jenny felt that she was being silently judged.

"Well, I'm okay. Are you?" She knew he would say yes, and she knew it would be a lie. Her stomach twisted uncomfortably and, again, without asking, she took quite the liberty and stepped closer to him, curling her arms gently around his waist, resting her head against his chest and hugging him as if, by proximity alone, she could make him better.

Phillipa's eyebrow lifted. "A friend of yours, Dr Reed?" she asked, amusement colouring her tone.

Alec was a little taken aback by the sudden hug but he went with the flow, returning the gesture and rolling his eyes at Phillipa's teasing. "Yeah, she's a friend, what of it?" He cocked his eyebrow at her and then offered a smile to soften the question.

"It's alright," he muttered to Jenny after he gave her a reassuring squeeze.

The nurse just lifted a hand in the universal 'I said nothing' gesture, watching Jenny stay curled against Alec's chest for a couple of minutes longer.

"It's not," Jenny muttered back, tipping her head up to look at Alec and leaning back, fingers curled in his clothes again. "But I appreciate you trying to reassure me." She worried her lower lip and lifted her hand to touch his face again, like she was genuinely afraid that this would be the last time she saw him. If he kept getting worse at the rate she was seeing, it might be. Panic was curling in her chest but she was doing her best to keep a lid on it.

"Don't give me that look," Alec muttered with a shake of his head. "I'm gonna be fine." He resisted the urge he had to cough again, he could do that when he was away from Jenny. She looked like she'd seen a ghost. "And you gotta go do whatever it is you do with people in here, keep the doctors and nurses on their toes."

He turned to Phillipa and offered a smile. "Wanna take me home?"

"What nurse doesn't?" Phillipa asked with a wink, the double-entendre going right over Jenny's head. "You'll see Dr Reed soon enough, I'm sure," she reassured Jenny, patting her on the shoulder as the young woman stepped back and away from Alec, looking a little downcast.

She summoned up a smile for Alec though. "I will." she promised, "I'm getting good at it." She rocked back on her heels and then forwards onto her toes. "So... I guess I'll see you soon?" she asked, trying not to sound hopeful and failing miserably. This time, she prayed she was wrong. God, did she hope she was wrong.

"Let's get to the car," Phillipa said quietly, recognising when someone was holding in a cough. It was sweet that he didn't want to worry the young woman any more than she already was. "And you home and into bed."

Alec chuckled at the double-entendre and a comment just begged to be said but somehow he managed to stop himself, there was a first time for everything. "Yeah," he said with a nod and a smile to Jenny. "You'll see me again soon, promise."

He turned to fall into step beside Phillipa, managing a wink despite feeling like death warmed up. "Is that an offer, Phillipa?" It would have been a flawless comment had it not been for the cough that had pretty much stolen his breath and left him feeling even worse than before.

Alec waved his hand vaguely. "Maybe we'll rain-check that."

Phillipa laughed, resting a hand against his lower back soothingly as she lead him out of the hospital. "I'm going to hold you to thatrain-check , Dr Reed." she teased, "The car's just out here. Don't worry, you'll be safe and sound soon enough. And don't come back here until you're better, can't have you infecting all our patients."

Jenny watched the automatic doors swish shut behind them, sealing the outside world out and she slumped down into the chair that Alec had vacated. She drew in a short breath and rubbed at her eyes with the heel of her hands, swallowing past the tightness in her throat. She didn't want him to die. That would seriously suck.