This Isn't Control [Invite]

[Christian Moynahan]

”Well,” asked he of the count, “what has, then, happened?”
“Nothing,” replied the count, “only, as you see, the Carnival has
commenced. Make haste and dress yourself.”
"In fact," said Franz, "this horrible scene has passed away like a dream."
"It is but a dream, a nightmare, that has disturbed you."
"Yes, that I have suffered; but the culprit?"
"That is a dream also; only he has remained asleep, while
you have awakened; and who knows which of you is the most fortunate?"
-The Count of Monte Cristo, “Chapter 36: The Carnival at Rome”

Brownsville, Texas - January 1, 2014, 1:10 A.M.

Bleakness. Dark, quiet. It tiptoed around the back of his head, danced through his subconscious. Always manifested, never expressed. It remained contained, for the most part, in a little compartment in his mind, where it waited its turn. Sometimes it took days; sometimes it took months.

"The darkness," he called it, or "the dark." No one knew it existed except himself. No one else would understand. Upon his appointment to Ark's top seat, in fact, he had been afraid that he would not be able to control the dark well enough, but he had. He wasn't crazy. Neither Lucius nor Gabriel thought he was nuts. No one had suggested an innocuous visit to the Jung Facility. Although the dark made appearances at times, he was always at home when it did, and, except for during his arrest by Mathias, he had never needed to show it.

This, however, was not darkness. This was brightness. Too bright. He closed his eyes and let his other senses do the work. Thin, grainy sheets. A too-short slip that tied in the back and left everything exposed. Cleaning solution. Food, faint. Soft-soled shoes; Crocs. Tiny metal wheels propelling metal carts to and fro. A hospital. He opened his eyes. A number of people were standing over him. They were hazy. Some of their figures were obscured by black dots.

He closed his eyes again. The lights were too bright. “YouactuallytookmetoAdele,” he said, but the words may have been difficult to pick out due to the slurring.

“Yes. Now sit on the gurney.” That was Gabriel’s voice.

Christian wasn’t sure where the gurney was.

Someone moved him and then he was lying down.

“What exactly happened?” Dakari. Typical of a lawyer to want all the facts.

He did not quite remember how it had happened. Christian had been practicing something in his exercise room, and perhaps overreached or tripped or something of that nature. He did not remember falling. He did remember lying flat on his back with his head on something. He did not remember getting back up. But he had shaken his head out, decided that was enough exercise for the day, and set about working instead.

In retrospect, Christian realized he should have rested. Christian Moynahan did not know how to rest. He had not rested for sixteen years. If that.

Sixteen years.... His birthday had been the twenty-ninth, nestled neatly between Christmas and each new year. He had never gotten a birthday present, and seldom a cake. The presents were for Christmas, and the cake for New Year's. He was never sure whether that was because of his family's frugality or because they just really didn't care.

This New Year, he had hoped, would be a positive sign of things to come, for Ark and for him. So when he hit his head, he ignored it completely. He was already at home, and was only going over some work. This had been easy, and off the official record. LSD had low addictive properties anyway, so rebuilding it to have a lessening effect had been nothing. He had already sent the news off to Maurelle and directed Alain's team to begin mass-producing it along with the reductive MDMA. Now he was working on reductive cocaine. That one would be more of a challenge. Excellent.

Sometimes he kept IntelliTouch's chatroom open while he was working. Surprisingly, he had been using his anonymous identity less and less, as the chatroom's users began to accept him for what he really was - a regular guy with a dry sense of humor and a love for science. Who was also the head of one of the world's most influential corporations, but who cared about that?

He set the work aside when Maurelle appeared online. He had a favor to ask of her. He wasn't just being goofy this time. He was beginning to see black splotches on the right side of his field of vision and was losing motor control over the right side of his body. A headache was spreading over and around his head, and when he talked to himself - as he usually did as he worked - he found his speech felt a bit slurred.

Perhaps he needed a bit more help than he'd thought.

His first thought was the hospital. That idea he shot down quickly. The press frenzy was extremely undesirable, especially not so close to his trial. Someone to stay with him, then. He ran through the possibilities. No work contacts; he did not want this spreading through Ark. Friends, then. Not Gabe or Lucius, although he always assumed the former already knew about everything. A sign of weakness in their CEO, no matter how close they may have grown, might be viewed negatively. Alice, but she had Sharon. Maurelle.

She was a good choice. As she has demonstrated before the trial, she would not take any of his shit. He also trusted her not to talk about the situation. They were business partners, yes, but also friends. She also happened to be online at the moment, so, in French, he had briefly explained the situation and asked for her help.

At around the same time, Jordan, a distant relative of the Rahals and Gabriel's protégé, was having a breakdown, seated atop a balustrade precariously while typing with one hand and drinking with the other. Christian had his closest advisor and oft-time teleporter track Jordan and bring him to Áine, where the two men sat in the backyard and watched Christian use a psionic bow and arrows to shoot down any fireworks that came too close to his property. The activity seemed to amuse Jordan for a while.

As that went on, Maurelle rejected his request. Christian failed to see why. He was in pain, and probably in danger. He would have done the same for her at any time. But now, when he needed her....

Before, it had always crept up on him slowly, giving him enough time to react. This time, the dark washed over him, consuming him, and there was a breaking noise, and a voice, and he came back to himself - in some part. Energy was flowing through him, dark energy, and it wanted an outlet.

It appeared that the breaking sound had been caused by him throwing a bottle of wine at a tree trunk. In return, Jordan threw his laptop, but Christian caught it in a sort of psionic Jell-O. If Jordan had been looking into Christian's eyes, Jordan would have made haste out of there, but the young man never did. With a vague explanation that Jordan was "no longer safe here," he borrowed Alain again to send Jordan to his relatives.

He was taxed now. Overtaxed. He could feel himself collapsing in on himself. Even the dark was fading. He hardly noticed when Gabriel appeared in the chatroom, first asking after Jordan, then informing the room that Christian was five minutes away from blacking out.

Well. Christian supposed some secrets weren't meant to be secrets. After spending four and a half minutes bickering, it came to pass that once again Alain moved Christian and then Gabriel and then Lucius and Lex to Brownsville, where Adele was on call. Or, at least, that was what Christian figured had happened. He was fading in and out now, barely hearing the voices around him.

Unwillingly, his next thoughts went to Maurelle. She valued him as a business partner, she had told him. That was where her interest in him had begun, and, presumably, ended. Anything else was shielded by a tall, smooth concrete wall that he couldn't climb for trying. And he was - had been - trying. He wanted to be a part of her life in some way, but some fear of those loved ones becoming targets made him stop at every turn, an impossible labyrinth that the was sure had discouraged lesser men and women… but had only proven a challenge to Christian.

Tonight, however, she had clarified exactly where their relationship stood. She had disproven every theory, every thought he'd had of getting any closer. He prided himself on carrying through on every promise or bargain he made that he planned to honor; such was the sort he had made with Maurelle. He would not renege on that. But if a business partner was all she wanted... then a business partner was exactly what she was going to get.

“AmIsuppossedto…” He was wavering again, but he was asking whether he was meant to stay awake; the answer, as it turned out, was of little consequence, as he closed his eyes anyway. They seemed to be moving now. A little quickly. Even with his eyes closed, he felt dizzy. “Mm.” His head lolled slightly to the left. “I’m just gonnasleepnow.”

*Note: If I got any medical/hospital stuff wrong, feel free to correct me.

[Maurelle Lacroix]

Maurelle had been, no she still was angry. Not just angry, she was livid, not at Christian, but at everything that there was. All the years of work, all the meticulous planning and building up everything from the ground was being wasted and destroyed. It was supposed to be a joyous time, the passing of one year and into the next fresh with new possibilities. It was time to wash away past mistakes and whatever wrongs had happened in the past, to begin anew, fresh and clean. Yet all that Maurelle saw before her was blackness, despair, and total defeat.

It was as literal as it was metaphorical, her powers did not pierce into the future any longer. Whenever she attempted to see into the future now, there was nothing but blackness or a fog, like static over the radio. All it was now was white noise lost in the background of the space-time continuum that her mind was attempting to navigate. And it had all began the same time that Christian had decided to make the world burn for the government deciding to reel him in.

What fools they were, putting on this great farce, it just fueled her anger even more. They were so short sighted with their plans of actions, despite talking of seeing the greater picture. The Kilvayne was the worst of them all, patronizing while so utterly full of himself and his ego, it was sickening. Their little holy trinity were just one big collection of fools and idiots who believed themselves to be so freaking clairvoyant that words of wisdom and caution were to be dismissed without a second thought. What did they care when it was not their plans that were being torn asunder, when it was not people they cared about who were being slain by the riots they had set off.

It all could have been avoided, Maurelle had the plans to do it, and even get the outcome that they desired in the end. They thought her short sighted but she was the one with the big picture in mind, what good was ruling over a world when it was half in ashes and its citizens so ready to turn on anyone in the seat of power. They had masterminded the own devices that would see their own greatness be able to be torn down.

What bothered her most was that she helped them do it, particularly Christian, who was supposed to be her friend and ally. Blinded by his own hurt pride, his own reckless abandon, he had dismissed hers, Helena's, and the other Rahals warnings and gone ahead with his plans. He was a walking hypocrisy, caring about the people on one hand and yet desiring to see their deaths in the other. A castle built on the corpses and mortared with the blood of their predecessors would not a lasting structure make.

Again he wanted her help, for what and why, she was not sure, she had not desired to read his messages. Instead she had vented her anger in destroying a case of crystal glasses, glasses she had planned to use at a New Years party where Christian was invited. He had tried to stop her and then manipulate her into going to visit him, well she was not about to fall for that noise. Her anger was a boil, as the scattered pieces of crystal across the dining room would vouch for. She had allowed this man to craft her own destruction, all because she had found him interesting. What a fool she had been.




(Edit: Maurelle is not present. This post is a one-shot to give her a fair chance at explaining why she is not there/why Christian is villainizing her.)

[Adele D'Alteau]

We spiral down
No one can save you now
We slide away
No one can bring you around

†††
۵ ۵ ۵

Valley Baptist Medical Centre
Brownsville, Texas

This wasn't how she'd envisioned spending her New Year's Eve, bustling about the surprisingly calm emergency room near midnight. She'd already seen to two patients with rather severe (if unexplainable) injuries, and in between procedures and pages, she'd busied herself with chatting in the Ark Industries chatroom. The topics there seemed to do a better job of keeping her awake rather than the standard cup of stale coffee served in the hospital's cafeteria.

In the past several minutes, she'd made a handful of staff aware of the imminent arrival of a special patient who required her immediate attention. She hadn't shared his name, knowing that in such a situation, Christian valued anonymity—that and the last thing she wanted to deal with tonight was being bombarded with questions by a hungry press. Most of the staff would recognise his face. Short of covering it with a paper bag a sheet of cloth on the gurney to make it appear as if he were a corpse, she hoped that Gabriel or Lucius would have had the soundness of mind to hide the CEO's identifying features.

She scribbled a brief note and passed it over the counter to a nurse who was stationed in the emergency room's admitting area. “This patient will require all of my attention for the remainder of the night. Please direct all trauma pages to Doctor Perrette or Doctor Anjari.”

Before the nurse could question her decision to drop off the ward for the majority of the evening, Adele's hurried pace had taken her to the receiving doors of the emergency room. Seeing as how the waiting room was full of patients in various forms of distress, coming in through the less populated ambulance dock had been a good decision. At her instruction, a gurney and an IV were set up in anticipation of Christian's arrival. She had no idea of the state that he was in; he seemed cognizant enough to type on the chatroom mere moments earlier. That at least informed her that he hadn't caused himself any serious or permanent injury, unlike the man who'd stuck an M 80 firework into his rectum and would now most likely need to use an ostomy bag for the rest of his natural life. Idiots.

When they arrived, she was slightly surprised to see the number of people in tow. She assumed that Gabriel would have been the only one present, so it came as a surprised to see both Lucius and Dakari standing before her, attempting to get Christian into a hospital gown and persuade him to lay down on the gurney that had been provided. There was another young man there who she presumed was related to Lucius since they seemed to share some sort of family resemblance. Taking the small entourage into account, she sighed. Working with a half-dozen other surgeons in a surgical suite was standard operating procedure lol. She would have preferred to work with a smaller audience present, if anything for the sake of Christian's anonymity.

“YouactuallytookmetoAdele.” Although his voice was slurred, she was able to grasp at what he was saying.

“Yes. Now--”

“Yes. Now sit on the gurney.” Gabriel finished for her.

“What exactly happened?”

Squirting a dime-sized amount of hand sanitiser into her palm from the a bottle on the medical cart set next to the gurney, she made sure that her hands were disinfected before donning a pair disposable of nitrile gloves.

Adele wasn't interested in answering any questions to which she had no answer. She snapped the gloves into place and took what tools she'd need to get the IV started. The sooner she could bring Christian down from the state that he was in, the better it would be for all of them. “I hope to have more of an answer once we get him stabilised.” She wrapped an elastic tourniquet around Christian's left bicep once he was relatively subdued and waited for the central vein in his arm to show itself from underneath the skin on the inside of his elbow. In the meantime, she broke open a sterilisation package and thoroughly rubbed down the area into which she would be inserting the cannula apparatus. The air grew rank with the pungent scent of rubbing alcohol. Given that she was unfamiliar with his medical history, using iodine may have been a bit of a risk as some patients were highly allergic to the amber coloured liquid.

Inserting the cannula and the IV needle was a relatively painless procedure in her deft hands. Striking the vein was simple. When both instruments were in place, she released the tourniquet and taped a portion of the IV line to his forearm. The IV stand snapped into place at one corner of the gurney where the line wouldn't catch on any passing objects or individuals. She discarded the spent steriliser into a biohazard container on their way to the freight elevators that would take them to the ICU. There was a private room that had been reserved for him and would be prepped and ready by the time they arrived.

She pushed the gurney along down the hallway, careful to avoid any major footpaths lest someone catch sight of Christian in his condition. As a precaution, she grabbed the thin blanket at the foot of the gurney and unfolded it, then draped it over his entire body like a death shroud.

Trekking through the bowels of the hospital was like walking through a labyrinth; unless one was capable of interpreting the sometimes misleading signs posted the walls and hanging from the ceiling, they were likely never going to be able to find their way out. Navigating through the hospital's numerous halls was second nature to her. Even so, the walk to the proper set of elevators that would transport them to the ICU took nearly five minutes. Thankfully they hadn't encountered many people on the way aside from the odd janitor or passing hospital staff going about their regular duties. Those who they did pass were unfazed by the sight of a sheet-covered body being pushed on a gurney accompanied by a small crowd of onlookers. Private viewings in the morgue weren't unheard of.

Upon arrival to the ICU floor, she wheeled Christian into the large, empty suite reserved for the hospital's more high maintenance patients. Complete with hardwood floors, a flat screen TV, and an adjoining room with a leather coach, a bed, and a kitchenette, it was obviously meant for family stays.

“If one of you could please transfer him from the gurney to the bed while I get the door . . . ” she trailed off and walked the few steps to the door, then shut it gently and locked it from the inside to ensure that they would not be disturbed. She could take the gurney out later.

Ignoring the four individuals in the room aside from herself and Christian, she set about hooking up the various machines which would monitor his vital signs. For someone so lethargic, his pulse was quite rapid. “I can go about diagnosing you the conventional way or in my own unique way. Both of them are painless, but I leave the choice to you.” She hoped that he would have been aware enough to answer the question on his own, though he was slipping in and out of consciousness. “If any of you are legally able to represent his medical needs, now would be the time to tell me what you'd like me to do given his present condition.”

†††
۵ ۵ ۵

† Word count: 1351
۵ Mood: Sore.
† Outfit: Eh, doctor's attire, white lab coat, etc.
۵ Lyrics / Quote: Spiral, Pendulum
† Illustrations: Included in post.
۵ Comment / Informational links: None.

[Christian Moynahan]

You hit me once, I hit you back
You gave a kick, I gave a slap
You smashed a plate over my head
Then I set fire to our bed
-Florence + The Machine, “Kiss With A Fist”

While Christian was usually very stubborn about being helped by anyone, he knew he had to recognize this as an exception. That stubbornness had led to this. First he had been working, pushing the pain away, and it had worked, right up until he’d found himself teleported to the hospital. There, he found no distractions to keep his mind running, so he switched modes, to the pace at which most people thought. That meant the pain hit him full force.

He had tried to distract himself in the form of guessing games. Where he was, and who was around him. That was child’s play. So instead he let himself be moved onto a gurney and laid still while there was a squirting sound and the soft snap of gloves being pulled into place. He felt the tourniquet being wrapped around his arm and correctly guessed what was coming next. His eyes remained closed and hardly fluttered as Adele did her work. A click of heels told him that Dakari had turned away. The woman was disturbed by the sight of needles, he surmised.

He could not remember the last time he had been injured. He had been as a child, but not seriously enough to merit a trip to the hospital. This was a wholly new experience for him. There was a way of looking on the bright side, he supposed.

He made no comment as he was rolled down what seemed to be a never-ending series of halls. The footfalls around and behind him told him that everyone in his party had followed him. His unexpected entourage followed him and, suddenly, he felt something fall over his face. That was when he remembered exactly who he was. Not in terms of amnesia, just regarding how well-known he had become. The lights were dimmer now. Still, he did not feel like opening his eyes.

They came to a stop. Here the lights were even dimmer. There was the slight smell of cleanliness and wood polish. Flowers, faint. Leather. He was… not somewhere he wanted to be.

He was in a special suite. While he understood that his identity had to be concealed, he had not wanted to be treated that much better than nay other patients. Now he pulled the sheet from off his face and looked around. The place looked more like a small hotel suite than a hospital room. And it was set up like one, tiny kitchen at all. How long was he going to be here?

“I can doi’t, he murmured as Adele asked his friends to move him to the bed. He started to do that, but the bed wasn’t where he thought it was, and a pair of hands stopped him and guided him to the correct place. He sighed. How he hated being babied.

He was almost literally fighting now; he would very much have liked to just close his eyes and let his body do whatever it wanted, but he had a feeling that might complicate matters. He glanced at the heart rate monitor once Adele had attached it to him, and wondered why his heart was beating so fast. Was that him? or was it because he was forcing himself into consciousness? “What’s….” he started to ask Adele, but she was asking a question of her own at the same time. He was not unfamiliar with the science behind the hospital’s technology, but the thought of having a health care proxy was not. Although it was a mostly unrelated thought, he also realized he needed to find someone to replace his next of kin, who was in Virginia and probably gave no shits about his son.

He took a deep breath and then exhaled. It helped him to focus. The pain moved to the back of his mind then. Unwise, but necessary, and not always a factor in Christian’s decisions. “Lucius, if you could do that, please. Otherwise, Dakari.” Everyone in the room knew that Dakari was a lawyer. That was fortunate, because explaining as much would have been even more exhausting.

Then he remembered that Adele had asked a different question before that. “Unconventional. Why not?” Normally, his answer could have been a cheerful “Why the fuck not?” but that capacity was absent from him at the moment.

There was nothing much Gabriel or Dakari could do in the moment, and he got the very clear impression, given that she was mostly ignoring them, that Adele wanted to be left to her work. He was successful in moving Dakari out to the waiting room, but Lucius and Lex might have been a different story, given their work and their studies and just who they were.

He pulled the blanket closer, or as much as he could without jostling the equipment. From what he knew of her, he knew he could trust Adele - one of the best in her field, and a good person, as most of is friends assured him - but as always, leaving his life in the hands of another gave him very little comfort, simply because it marked a loss of control.

[Lucius Kilvayne]

Arise, my sweetest friend
Or be forever fallen, we've finally arrived
From prison of this life
To Kali's womb, down to the Earth
As angels of Almighty God, Chaos

“YouactuallytookmetoAdele,” Christian's slurred speech was painful hear. Lucius remembered the pride and the resolve he had shown before, and this was a far cry from that. Lucius had been that way when he was desperate to help Dakari overcome the cholera. It was something that only two souls could bear witness to.

Things had progressed rather well, up until this point. Lucius Kilvayne had watched his team coalesce into a powerful force capable of defeating all threats, managing any potential crisis that might arise. Even the madness ensuing the nation, the chaos and carnage was to his liking. What he did not like was the development regarding Christian's health and his current predicament. The man had defeated cholera, famine, and a government inquest...but now he was disoriented, losing consciousness. Talking erratically, and being brought to the one person Lucius really trusted in these matters. Aside from his own brother, that is. Adele Couteau had stepped up to save the life of another of Lucius' valued friends- no, he was more than that, by now. Christian was effectively a member of Lucius' family. Many of those he considered family were now present, actually. This was in truth a family emergency, to be handled privately and with expertise. Lucius didn't show outward signs of concern, save a slight grimacing frown, and a serious furrowing of his brow. He was rigid, holding Dakari in his arms, steadfastly imperious in what might have proved to be one of his darkest hours.

"Yes. Now--” Adele started to answer, only for Gabe to cut in.

“Yes. Now sit on the gurney.” Gabe's voice was reassuring, in his firm yet soft manner. His was the voice of a leader, and a father. His eyes had concealed things when they must, and revealed only what Gabe desired to. But among this family, very little was concealed. The keeping of secrets from an entire world had strangely existed alongside openness that Lucius had thought impossible for so long.

“What exactly happened?” Dakari had her mind set to learn the facts of it. That was very good, and one of the many reasons Lucius had fallen for her. Her will was ironclad, even though they had each softened the other. But that was something few were even privy to. Outwardly, they were always a force to be reckoned with. Powers that be.

“AmIsuppossedto…”

Christian was trying to remain with everyone. He was a fighter, after all. He was not so willing to go quietly into that good night.

“I’m just gonnasleepnow.”

Or perhaps he was. Lucius' frown deepened. He knew the man wouldn't stay conscious much longer, but he had hoped maybe he would defy expectations. Hope was not really something Lucius put much stock in, usually. But today seemed to call for such things. What could it hurt, really?

“I hope to have more of an answer once we get him stabilized"

The good doctor's work was remarkable. He would have liked to see her working under less personal circumstances, but such was not the case. His scientific interests and business interests were definitely eclipsed by his personal connection to the patient. He could offer nothing, more was the pity. He had to sit on the sidelines and release control. His intellect was not trained for this task. He could mastermind a revolution, he could school a chess grandmaster, fence with the best of them, work miracles of science and technology, and run a massive multinational corporation. But he was not a medical professional. This was not his arena. It was not his laboratory.

“I can go about diagnosing you the conventional way or in my own unique way. Both of them are painless, but I leave the choice to you."

Lucius listened, and nodded, as she continued.

"If any of you are legally able to represent his medical needs, now would be the time to tell me what you'd like me to do given his present condition.”


“Lucius, if you could do that, please. Otherwise, Dakari.”

"For my part, I say do whatever you believe to be best. Do what you have to save him." Lucius said, moving his gaze from Christian to Adele, "I trust your judgment in these matters."

“Unconventional. Why not?"

"That's what we do best," Lucius said with a smile for his friend's unbreakable spirit.

[lyrics from At The Left ov God by Behemoth]

[Adele D'Alteau]

In heaven, everything is fine
In heaven, everything is fine
In heaven, everything is fine
You've got your good things, and I've got mine

†††
۵ ۵ ۵

The muscles in his body contracted with pain as he was forced to release whatever it was that held his mind in thrall. Without much concentration at all, Adele was able to deflect the pain—or rather negate its effects—with a little help from her ability. A brief touching of her fingers to his face was all that she needed.

“I can doi’t.” His attempt to transfer himself from the gurney to the bed did not go unaided, no matter how much pride he was attempting to spare.

The hospital was her kingdom and she was its queen, as far as she was concerned. While she always took into account what her patients had to say (their medical intuition about what was happening inside their bodies happened to be correct more often than not), her assessments of their fitness to perform certain tasks was generally one to be heeded. “I really don't want to have to sedate you, Mister Moynahan, but if you continue to resist, I will have to put you under. Do you understand?” She wasn't threatening him; it was his well-being that she had in mind, and she knew that he wasn't thinking properly. His spatial disorientation had clued her into what might have been happening with him under the skin, but in order to correctly diagnose precisely what was wrong with him, she needed him to remain calm.

He was cognizant enough to name someone as his healthcare proxy in the event of an emergency. Adele nodded at Lucius and then at Dakari once the woman had turned around. She didn't seem to be overly fond of needles which was strange given her affinity for manipulating metals. Perhaps because she'd used them so regularly and had been hospitalised several times as a minor, needles were so commonplace that they'd never registered as a fear in the young doctor's mind.

At his request to be treated unconventionally, Adele stood in the small space between the head of the hospital bed and the wall, being careful to sidestep the wires coming to and from the set up. “Close your eyes and relax as best you can.” She grasped his face firmly (though not painfully) between her hands with the heels of her hands resting against his temples and her fingers fanning out over his cheeks and his jaw. Her pupils dilated until they filled the whole of her eyes. The tiny veins in her sclera were a faint azure colour, giving her eyes the appearance of an oil slick. Temporarily robbed of her natural sense of sight, she was able to see the inner workings of his body even through the thin blanket and cotton hospital gown beneath.

The darkness in her eyes flowed outwards, branching out through the numerous blood vessels in her face, down her arms, and finally to the tips of her fingers. With the precision of a mosquito seeking out a quick meal, the oil-like liquid penetrated his skin, giving her more complete access to his nerves and his circulatory system so that she could bend it to her will. The instant she felt even the slightest resistance, she paused. No one appreciated having their body invaded, and from Ryan's repeated successes of possessing her over time, she'd learned a few of his tricks. “I know it's uncomfortable, but please try not to resist. It breaks my concentration.” She was working as quickly as her ability would allow. Once he allowed her to press further into the tightly-packed network of veins in his cranium, identifying the problem became much easier.

“You seem to have given yourself a concussion which has formed a clot. I'm assuming that you either didn't get this treated immediately after it occurred or that it was misdiagnosed.” Now that she knew what she was dealing with, she was able to break up the clot and mend whatever blood vessels had been damaged. Adele kept a firm grasp on both his central and peripheral nervous system so that he wouldn't cause himself any further damage while she went about fixing the damage that had been done. The entire process only took a few minutes, and once she was satisfied that the effects of the concussion had all but been erased, she released the hold she'd had on him and called her ability back.

“I would like to keep you here overnight for observation, but I'd advise against putting you in with the general population. Word tends to travel fast in closed quarters, and I doubt you want the press knocking down your door in your present state. I would much rather keep the knowledge of your presence restricted to those individuals who were present with you upon your arrival and myself. Do you have any questions?”

†††
۵ ۵ ۵

† Word count: 909
۵ Mood: Adele is obvs not in the mood to deal with Christian's “BUT I DON'T WANT TO BE GIVEN THE STAR TREATMENT!! ):” attitude. lol
† Outfit: Doctor's gown. Coat. Robe. Whatever the fuck it's called.
۵ Lyrics / Quote: The Lady in the Radiator, Bauhaus
† Illustrations: None.
۵ Comment / Informational links: None.

[Christian Moynahan]

I am right here and I’m waiting
-Evans Blue, “Painted”

Not through energy. Not through auras. Not spiritually or metaphysically. But Christian could sense his friends in the room, even when they did not speak, even as he was drifting in and out of consciousness. He had heard Gabriel and Dakari, but not Lucius, not yet. But Christian knew the man was in the room. He was… standing next to Dakari, Christian was sure, but where, exactly? His senses were all failing him. All failing him, a spacecraft falling back to Earth. One of his own. One of his greatest fears. Failure, as he stood there and watched.

Wait. That was not a memory he had ever had. All of his launches had been successful. What was happening? He was panicking; he had to hold onto something. Sight. Gone. Smell. Gone. Sound. He could hear Adele’s voice. Something….

“…don’t want to have to sedate you…nahan. If you continue to-“

Wait, this was important. Focus. Concentrate.

“-resist, I will have to put you under. Do you understand?”

Christian’s eyes fluttered open. The room was a panorama. He could see everything. Not just his friends, but everything within a certain range. It felt unreal. The light slid everywhere like J. J. Abrams had appeared and applied some lens flare Star Trek style. It hurt to look at it all. But there was Dakari, clutching Lucius tightly, or maybe the other way around, and Gabriel just nearby, watching Christian carefully.

Lucius accepted the position as his health care proxy, and instructed Adele to do what she felt best. Additionally, Christian, in a lucid moment, had given a preference for the unconventional treatment. “That’s what we do best,” he heard Lucius say almost cheerfully. He thought for a moment what a typical hospital visit would have been like without Adele and his gathered friends, and closed that thought quickly. It was far more lonely and just… past. Something that might have happened in the past. Not now.

At Adele’s instruction, Christian closed his eyes. He felt her hands press against his head, and he tried to relax as much as he could. He had no idea how to do that. How did normal people relax? His mind was always racing at top speed; there was never quiet in it, and had not been since fifth grade. He remembered that moment, specifically because the thoughts had already started, and at that age, he had known he only had a little bit of time before they took over.

Oddly, he had been able to control the thoughts then, as a child; now, he could not. Particles, schematics. Blueprints. Ideas, calculus equations. All the time. Now, he went back to that memory, that last moment of quiet.

He was on a playground, one behind a child care center. There were jungle gyms, a pool, slides. He was on a swing. His sister was next to him. “I can swing higher than you!” Cami taunted, and pushed herself harder, and Chris accepted that challenge, pushing just as fast and hard as she did, keeping up with her.

They went along, back and forth and forth, forward and upward, backward and upward, until Chris glided himself to a stop. That was when he realized he had to do this now. Clear his mind.

He closed his eyes for a moment. The sounds cleared. His mind was silent. Peaceful.

“Chris. What are you doing?” Outside his mental quiet, Cami’s voice was next to him; she must have stopped as well.

Then he opened his eyes and took a deep breath. Quiet. Peaceful. He only had a little time left. Two more breaths. Then he looked to his right, where Cami was. Or where Cami had been.

And the cacophony began again.

“You shouldn’t be here,” he said plainly.

"I'm never where people think I should be, yet that is exactly where I ought to be." She was wearing a black dress with white trim and a trio of white silk bows where buttons would have been on a blouse, and there was a very familiar smirk on her face as she looked at Christian.

“Mmfm.” Outside of his memories, in the real world, his relaxed state had been broken. His mind automatically went into a defensive, resistant state. His breathing rate increased; he pulled his lips tightly.

"Then why be here? Why now?" The child Christian stared at her. "I'm trying. I am. Please forgive me." Apparently the woman had been just as obtuse as a child as she was as an adult. Or perhaps Christian’s mind was corrupting the memory. He decided it was both.

"Why should I not be here?" Maurelle propped her head on her elbows and her ponytail full of her luscious black hair swiveled over her shoulder. "Are you asking me to forgive you or are you trying to forgive yourself?"

"You," he answered automatically. "I knew what I was doing. I just didn't want... I knew I would... but I didn't want to alienate you."

In real time, Christian’s mind continued to resist. He was aware of it, dimly. He was somewhere between the memory and the conscious. He didn’t want to be in the memory. Not anymore.

The two children had crossed into adult matters. Ones he didn’t want to think about, much less discuss. Not in his last memory he had of mental clarity.

"You and I both know that actions ring louder than words. You say one thing and acted completely differently in the other." Maurelle gave him a look of pity. "Alienate is such a strong word. I would say you pushed me away for your pursuits, but is that not how Christian Moynahan operates?"

Young Christian narrowed his eyes. "You would know. Is that not how Maurelle Lacroix operates?"

Maurelle shrugged her shoulders. "It has been, in the past."

"What's different now?"

"There's nothing left to protect, it's all come crumbling down."

The adult Christian stopped fighting. An exhale passed his lips, and one might have thought him asleep or unconscious, but he was neither. His eyes remained closed, and his mind finally allowed Adele passage through his brain.

The child’s lips trembled. “I’m sorry.”

Maurelle sighed. "Your apologies are accepted. The question though now is what are you going to do about it?"

"I'll help you rebuild. I'll help the nation rebuild. I'll fix what I broke. I swear it."

"I'll hold you to that Christian." She placed a soft kiss on his forehead and then leaned back smirking. "I think it is about time you rejoined the world of the living and get your carpenter hat on."

From there, Adele’s work was easy. Christian allowed his focus to shift to hearing as she spoke to him. She was correct in the former; he had not sought medical attention immediately. In fact, it had taken his friends’ intervention for that to happen at all. He had been able to focus on other things, thereby pushing the pain and everything else to the back of his mind. He said nothing in that regard, however. He was certain there was nothing much to say.

He opened his eyes and nodded slowly as Adele suggested overnight observation. She was right about remaining separated from the rest of the hospital, of course, as much as he hated it. He didn’t need the press and Adele didn’t need the bother. When she asked for questions, Christian shook his head. “No questions, just my gratitude. Thank you, Adele.”

For her part, Dakari looked like she wanted to hug the doctor. She settled for a handshake instead, as did Gabriel. Gabriel also reached for Christian’s hand and pressed it lightly. Christian gave them all a weak smile.

“I’ll be out of here before we know it. I think it’s about time I got my carpenter hat on.”

*The memory is a true story. Mine. Except with music rather than math.
Part of this post was written with Chellote’s help.
Also, once again, Maurelle is not present.
Half the post is a corrupted memory. All the other characters know is that
Christian is fighting Adele for most of the post.