[semi-open] tell me why my love has got a gun aimed at my heart

[causational]

who: eddie thawne; any cr who'd want to visit him in the hospital
what: Eddie got stabbed in the heart during the Butterfly Effect event, and he's in recovery. This is a log for anyone who wants to hang out with him in the hospital.
when: Backdated to during the Butterfly Effect event.
where: Hospital; maybe his apartment
warnings: Mild trauma, probable discussion of violence, death, kidnapping, etc.

[Starters are in the comments below. Please feel free to toss one my way if your character would see him in the hospital!]

Comments

[causational]

✪ i. closed to taako

[Eddie can't remember much of what happened after John pushed the knife into his chest - he vaguely remembers John telling him how to survive it, vaguely remembers hitting his panic button, remembers Cassandra doing something to keep him from bleeding out. But it's all a blur, disorienting and hazy and out-of-focus, and Eddie's mind had retreated from the reality his body was facing, because it's too much like how he'd died at home, it's too much to process, too much...

At some point, he'd fallen unconscious, and when he wakes up, his lashes fluttering, his body aching through the haze of painkillers, he's not sure how long it's been since it happened. It's like he can still feel the knife in his chest, a sharp line of pain cuts through his left pectoral, smoothly through his ribs, reverberating through him with every beat of his heart. Or at least he thinks, at first, that it's a knife. Was it a knife or a bullet? Disoriented, he makes a soft noise in his throat, his fingers curling as his eyes flutter open and he looks around him.

Hospital. The pain in his chest. For just a second, Eddie panics, his fingers closing into a fistful of the blanket over him, his lips parting.]

Iris?

[It's rough, his throat and lips dry, and he looks around, pale blue eyes flicking back and forth too quickly, red around the edges and stinging.]

[spellslots]

[He's been here since Cisco called him, having teleported to the hospital as soon as he'd gathered up his umbra staff, and there had been a lot of anxious fussing in the waiting room while the doctors did their thing. Yet again, it had left Taako desperately wishing for Merle, but there was nothing to be done about it.

Eventually, the doctors had given them a reassurance that Eddie would be fine, and a shaky kind of relief had come over Taako. At some point, he sent Cisco and Yuri home to rest and get cleaned up, offering to wait overnight for Eddie to wake up. He doesn't need sleep in the way humans do, after all. It's only the logical choice.

It has nothing to do with wanting to be there for Eddie.

That particular thought is what makes it oddly painful when Eddie wakes and immediately asks for Iris. It's not-- It makes sense, really, he had been with Iris for a long time, and he'd loved her, and that's not something Taako wants from Eddie. Still, it kinda sucks a little, even as he reaches out to put a hand on Eddie's arm.]

It's me, it's Taako. You're okay, just don't try to get up, yeah?

[causational]

[It isn't necessarily because he wants to see Iris that her name slips out - mostly it's confusion. The last time he'd felt this disoriented, hazy, painful feeling, his chest aching, the taste of blood in the back of his throat, he'd been looking up into Iris' face, looking at her and Joe while he died. And now, disoriented and hurting, and for that few moments, everything that had happened between that moment and this has completely drained out of his mind.

The moment he hears Taako's voice, though, it comes back in a rush, and all mixed up with the disorientation, the spike of emotional pain on top of the physical, the memories, the knowledge of being dead back home, of losing everything, it's too much. Choking quietly, he squeezes his eyes shut, and tries to will himself to calmness.

It doesn't work, and for a few long moments, he's silent while his stomach clenches and his throat aches and he tries not to cry. It all feels like too much, so he focuses on the feeling of Taako's hand on his arm, the solid warm pressure of it, and mostly manages to clear his mind. When he opens his eyes again, two tears run down his cheeks, but he mostly has it under control.]

Sorry. I just...I forgot where I was.

[spellslots]

[Almost as soon as those tears slip out, Taako carefully brushes them away with his thumb, before resting his hand against Eddie's hair.]

Hey, come on, I know I'm super pretty but you don't have to cry about it.

[His tone is light, but it's not dismissive as it is an offering, a little joke that Eddie can play along with if he doesn't want to think about... everything else. This is difficult to watch, in a way Taako had anticipated, really, but this isn't about him, so he can suck it up for a little while.]

[causational]

[The hand against his head, fingers curling into his hair, is reassuring. Comforting. Eddie leans his head into it a bit, eyes flicking up to Taako's face. And when Taako makes his lame joke, Eddie laughs, which sparks a sharp, painful twinge in his chest.]

Ow. Hey. Are you trying to kill me or something?

[Resting his head back against the pillow, he exhales heavily and closes his eyes.]

Sorry.

[spellslots]

My bad.

[He winces in sympathy when he realizes the laugh hurt Eddie; going for a joke to lighten the mode is kind of his default response to any painful situation, but he makes a note to... not do that.

The thing is, he doesn't know how to do this, the whole recovery process. Magic makes quick work of dangerous injuries, even if not everyone can always get to a healer straight away, but Taako's been lucky on that front. He isn't sure what this inbetween stage requires, how to handle it, though he knows he's going to have to figure it out.]

What's you apologizing for, pumpkin?

[causational]

[When Eddie realizes that Taako had taken that particular joke seriously, his face softens, and he smiles at him a little more gently, lifts his free hand, shaky and weak, to cup over Taako's hand at the side of his head.]

Hey, babe. I'm joking. I needed to laugh.

[For a moment, he closes his eyes, tries to work out what he's apologizing for, and then speaks quietly, a little hoarse.]

I don't know. For being hurt. For making you come sit here. Hospitals suck.

[spellslots]

[There's a difference between needing to laugh and accidentally making Eddie hurt through laughter, but he doesn't want to argue the point, so he just nods and lets it go.]

Isn't this kinda a given when dating a cop? I don't-- I mean, it's okay? I want to be here. [He wonders how Sloane felt, about Hurley getting herself hurt on the job, but it's not like he knew either of them long enough to ask. ] But hey, uh, I can fix at least one of those things?

[He carefully eases his hand off Eddie, since he needs both of them to make the gestures necessary to cast hallucinatory terrain, and the hospital room gently falls away to be replaced by a scene of the ocean, as if Eddie's bed is set somewhere in the sand. The machines and furniture in the room is still visible, out of place on the beach, but it smells like the ocean and there's the sound of waves lapping at the sand. It doesn't feel like enough, but at least Eddie doesn't have to look at sterile hospital walls.]

[causational]

Mmm. I guess so. Kinda. I only had to go to the hospital like...three times in the past year, because of my job. So, apparently Riverview is a little more dangerous than home for me.

[He settles in a little when Taako says it's okay and he wants to be here. There's something intensely reassuring in that simple assurance, and it soothes a good chunk of Eddie's anxiety. Licking his lips, he lets go of Taako's hand when he says he can fix at least one of the things that's bothering Eddie.

The change in scenery isn't something he was expecting - somehow, despite having learned some magic, despite being around Taako so much, he never really anticipates it, it always catches him a little off-guard. But the way the hospital melts away to be replaced by a warm sandy beach and an ocean, realistic enough that he can feel the sun and smell the salt air, takes his breath away.]

Wow. This is amazing. I always forget how cool some of the stuff you can do is.

[spellslots]

[Three times in the past year seems like a lot, based on what Taako knows of regular humans' lives, which he's trying to compare Eddie to rather than his own perspective, since needing a cleric to save his ass is pretty much a monthly occurrence.

He's thinking about how to respond as he casts the illusion, and he's glad that Eddie seems impressed.]

It's not all magic missiles and fireballs.

[He doesn't have a lot of use for magic like this, deception isn't really their strong point, and most of what he uses is either creative problem solving (bringing back Magnus) or straight up battle. But sometimes it's nice to just cast shit to make someone feel better.]

But I'm kinda wondering if my luck's rubbed off on you, cause like, I haven't gone this long without nearly dying since I joined the Bureau.

[causational]

[Regular humans are one thing, but police officers are another. Still, Eddie seems to manage to get himself hurt a lot more often than most police officers, and that probably has to do with his affiliation with the Flash. With Eobard. Just another instance of destiny and fate messing with him.]

Yeah. I get that.

[It's nice, to be able to smell salty air and feel a breeze instead of looking at the sickly green and white walls of the hospital. It helps, more than he could've anticipated, just to feel like he's out of that place.]

And maybe? I dunno. I was already getting hurt more than most cops before I even met you. I think it's more down to The Flash than you, honestly.

[A sigh, and he closes his eyes for a moment, pursing his lips.]

Lot of good that did me.

[spellslots]

The Flash sounds kinda like a dick to me, no offense.

[Taako knows that Cisco is friends with the guy, Barry or whatever his name was, but it seems like all he's done is bring trouble into Eddie's life, up to and including Eddie's death. That doesn't particularly endear Taako to Barry, since he gives more of a shit about Eddie than he does about some guy he's never met.]