(no subject)
May. 14th, 2010 11:57 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
[backdated to May 7th]
Room 205, Northwestern Memorial Hospital
4:26 PM
Richard, should he care to wake up any time soon, will find that he has company in the hospital bed next to his: Fletcher. He will also notice an IV drip in his arm and a cast on his foot.
At some point in the day, Fletch managed to acquire a rather large gash down the right side of his abdomen. The doctors don't know this, so the bed isn't technically Fletcher's, but he doesn't need it. He can heal. So for now, he's resting, watching news coverage on the shitty little TV attached to the wall.
He's relatively quiet for the most part, careful to let Richard sleep, but then his cellphone rings and a quiet shouting match ensues. "Don't you tell me I'm out of my fuckin' mind! It's calm back there. We have control. This place is... it's like a war zone, Hannah. I know I don't belong here, but I can't just leave it like this in good conscience. And y'know I still haven't done what I came here to do in the first place..."
And so the conversation goes.
Room 205, Northwestern Memorial Hospital
4:26 PM
Richard, should he care to wake up any time soon, will find that he has company in the hospital bed next to his: Fletcher. He will also notice an IV drip in his arm and a cast on his foot.
At some point in the day, Fletch managed to acquire a rather large gash down the right side of his abdomen. The doctors don't know this, so the bed isn't technically Fletcher's, but he doesn't need it. He can heal. So for now, he's resting, watching news coverage on the shitty little TV attached to the wall.
He's relatively quiet for the most part, careful to let Richard sleep, but then his cellphone rings and a quiet shouting match ensues. "Don't you tell me I'm out of my fuckin' mind! It's calm back there. We have control. This place is... it's like a war zone, Hannah. I know I don't belong here, but I can't just leave it like this in good conscience. And y'know I still haven't done what I came here to do in the first place..."
And so the conversation goes.
no subject
Date: 2010-05-15 01:03 am (UTC)“What are you doing?!”
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Date: 2010-05-15 01:08 am (UTC)Don't make this weirder than it is, Richard. Fletcher will punch you again.
Actually, he's going to pull away now.
And help himself to that Jell-O.
Mmm. Green.
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Date: 2010-05-15 01:17 am (UTC)“Why don't you leave me alone?” is what he actually asks Fletcher, his voice cracking and angry and desperate. “Just go away! Go bother somebody else!”
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Date: 2010-05-15 01:33 am (UTC)"I was brought up to believe that everything happens for a reason and everyone has a purpose. So I don't think you're just here because space-time or whatever the hell decided to fuck with you, and I am not going to let you flounce off and die in this shithole of a city because you either haven't realized that or don't believe it."
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Date: 2010-05-15 01:45 am (UTC)His voice, it should be noted, is no longer low.
“I'm sick of people telling me I have a purpose! That I have a mission! And don't tell me what it is! If I have a purpose then tell me right now or leave me alone! I'm done! I'm tired of it! I'm...”
And without warning, without hesitation, he closes his eyes, covers them with his fists—and finally lets out the cries he's been holding back ever since he woke up. And in between his gasps, in between his sobs, he mutters something. Something in Spanish.
Something that means “I just want to die.”
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Date: 2010-05-15 02:03 am (UTC)"You don't know that," he says, voice steady. "You can't know that, and I don't believe it for one second. And I can't tell you what your purpose is because I'm not God but I know you have one because you exist."
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Date: 2010-05-15 02:20 am (UTC)“You don't know...how long I've lived thinking I had a purpose. You don't know...”
And he's tired of people forcing him to live longer based on their own hopes, not on his own.
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Date: 2010-05-15 02:24 am (UTC)"I can't help you if you won't let me. I can't help you if I don't know what's wrong. And I want to help you, so tell me."
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Date: 2010-05-15 02:28 am (UTC)It could be—it looks—as if that's the one thing that's preventing Richard from telling Fletch what he wants to hear. He just wants to know why he needs to hear it.
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Date: 2010-05-15 02:37 am (UTC)Not really, but he does look frustrated. "I just do. Whatever's going on in your head is wrong. You don't deserve—I need to know why you don't think you're important."
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Date: 2010-05-15 02:55 am (UTC)Finally, he asks, “How old do you think I am?”
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Date: 2010-05-15 03:05 am (UTC)"I dunno, late 30s? I'd say early 40s, but that might be a bit of a stretch, what with your... face and all."
A very weird way of complimenting someone, that.
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Date: 2010-05-15 03:07 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-05-15 03:12 am (UTC)"Come again?"
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Date: 2010-05-15 03:31 am (UTC)Richard shakes his head. He's gone over this before, said, succinctly, why Jacob had disappointed him. What was the purpose retreating old ground? Jacob had told him nothing, and in the end, he wasn't important at all to Jacob.
“I just want to rest,” he says quietly.
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Date: 2010-05-15 03:39 am (UTC)If Richard's an alien, this is officially the coolest friendship Fletch has ever had.
"Anyway, you can rest. You're safe. No one's askin' you to do anything right now."
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Date: 2010-05-15 03:47 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-05-15 03:52 am (UTC)He moves back to the bed that isn't his and sits, watching Richard. "So where're you really from, then?"
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Date: 2010-05-15 03:55 am (UTC)Obviously.
Richard leans back in the bed, his head resting against the wall. That pain is still there, always has been there. He guess he's gotten used to it.
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Date: 2010-05-16 07:27 pm (UTC)Well, then. That explains... nothing at all, really, but it's a step in the right direction.
He scratches the back of his head, looking around. "And... there's more to this story, or...?"
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Date: 2010-05-17 12:14 am (UTC)And he looks a little too tired to tell it right now.
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Date: 2010-05-17 12:27 am (UTC)Well, for good for now. When Richard gets out of the hospital, that'll change.
"Thanks for tellin' me."