Visiting the Hospital

*Frank pulls up to the hospital in an old, beat-up pickup. He leaves it double-parked, and runs inside,sprinting up to the Visitor's desk. After a hurried conversation with the receptionist, he sprints down the halls toward Casey's room. Presumably he is stopped by a police officer at some point.*

Two officers stand by the door, three or four more and hanging out in the room or in the halls outside.

You draw their attention as you approach. Even the ones not standing watch instinctively reach for their weapons, though none of them draw.

(( OOC: Frank, gonna have to ask you to pause on this for a bit. Wishbone or other members of his pack may very well be there to meet you, depending on how Casey responds to mental communication. ))

*Frank skids to a halt, clearly not trying to startle the officers.*

"Hey, I'm Casey's nephew Frank. I came as soon as I heard."

Wishbone wrote:(( OOC: Frank, gonna have to ask you to pause on this for a bit. Wishbone or other members of his pack may very well be there to meet you, depending on how Casey responds to mental communication. ))

OOC : How? I left the challenge scene to come STRAIGHT here. You stayed to watch the fight... I have at least a few minutes head-start on you.

/Edited by Moderator to make OOC nature of comment clearer to readers.

((I'm going to let this go a little longer. Forum time is always slippery, but Frank clearly has a decent head start, unless you guys are willing to moon bridge over. I'm going to rule that Frank gets here before Wishbone's team. Though whenever you guys finish your mind-chat with Casey, you're free to pop into this thread.)

The officers seem extremely on-edge, " Casey. You got a nephew named 'Frank'? You want to see him? " says one, in a tone that implies he rather hopes the answer from Casey is 'no'.

Casey lays sprawled out in his bed, left leg elevated so high in a suspension sling that he can't even sit up as he rests amidst the clutter of machines he's hooked up to. What parts of him aren't concealed by bandages and sheets, is bruised, scraped, or singed. He stares up at the ceiling tiles listening to the steady beeping of a monitor, and sipping through a straw from a cup of ice water.

Hearing the commotion of running steps out in the hall he winces, glancing towards the officers at the door and struggling to prop himself up on an elbow.
"Something wrong out there Hernandez? Look I know the nurse said no cell phones but cant you boys smuggle a radio in for me so I can at least hear what's going on over dispatch? Ahhh.." He sighs deeper hearing that Frank's there and nodding. "Yeah, my wife's nephew. Know visiting hours aren't supposed to be for a bit, but be nice to chat with him if ya don't mind bending rules a little."

*Hearing this, Frank shifts a little on his feet, but waits for permission from the officers to go in.*

(( OOC: Brian, please see my PM. It should cover the bases, and it also shouldn't interfere with anything that's taken place so far. ))

The officers ease off, but they are clearly keeping themselves in a position where they can blow Frank away without hitting Casey.

" You got it, Casey. Come on in kid. "

*Frank nods his thanks, and steps into the room. He takes one look at Casey's condition, and collapses into the chair by the bed. It looks like all the fight has fled from his body, which is pretty damned unusual for an Ahroun. His head hits his hands, and though he isn't crying, he is clearly distraught.*

"Another example of me failing to follow Grandfather's wishes. He brings me here to protect the family, and I just keep letting shit like this happen. Casey, I'm so sorry."

Casey leans back, turning his head to look to Frank and reaching over to pat his nephew's shoulders. "Hey there, Francis. Hush... not your job to look out for 'me'. Risk comes with the badge, but trust me it looks worse than it is. It'll take more than some crackhead sniper with a bomb to put me in the ground."

"Good to see a familiar face, even if its not the best of times. How're things with the rest of the family?"

"It IS though. It IS my job to protect you. That's the job Grandfather brought me to Buffalo to do. He said protect the family. You're family, Casey, and I haven't been protecting you. Since the great protector got here, over 30% of our kin here have died, Grandfather kicked it, Victor almost died, and now this. What the fuck?! He's probably windmilling in his grave right now..."

Casey lifts a finger to his lips, glancing towards the doorway and back as he clears his throat. "You've done a fair job looking over the ones that 'can't' protect themselves... thats more important than watching out for me. I've been doing that for myself long enough Frank wouldn't expect anyone to do the impossible and keep me 'safe'. Don't tell me you're gonna echo your aunt and complain that I should be looking forward to desk duty after I finally get back on my feet."

He reaches to pat Frank on the shoulder again, and nods towards the table. "Speaking of, she got even with me for 'stupid heroics' by making sure I couldn't reach the remote, mind turning the news on for me?"

"Fuck desk duty, Uncle Casey, you're too good for that, but still..."

*He shrugs, clearly at a loss for words. He grabs the remote and flips to the news.*

"I dunno, maybe you owe it to her to get off the front lines. This shit can't continue. Next time you might not be so lucky. She just lost her dad, Casey, don't make her lose you too. Plus, I know we aren't close, Uncle, but I can't take losing you either..."

*His voice gets really low, whispering in Casey's ear.*

"If I had walked in here and you were dead, I'd have started killing, and I don't know that I could be stopped. The sept needs you, I need you, My Aunt needs you. You can't go dying for humans, you have to protect her, since I can't."

" - investigation of last week's Gas Line explosions continues. We plan on holding a telethon for the families of those killed in the 4/15 explosions. Especially in our thoughts are the families of the fifty-six servicemen killed at the Niagara Falls Airforce Base explosions. Tonight, we take a look at the lives of these brave men, some of whom served a half dozen tours of duty - "

Drones on the TV.

A short chuckle turns into a wince but Casey nods, "We'll see... couple of the doctor's figure I won't have a choice. Care to make a bet on whether I can recover fully?"

As the television comes on he relaxes a bit, ignoring the droning voices that make sure no one outside the room can make out the private conversation. The heart monitor beeps a bit faster at the plea on behalf of his wife and Casey reaches up to grab Frank by the wrist, holding him that close and giving a shake of his head.

He keeps his voice low and steady, managing to seem calm for the benefit of the officer's just outside the open doorway.
"I owe it to her, and to Gaia to make this world as much better for our daughter's as I can. By any means necessary. She knows that, we've both known since before we married that being a cop is a walk in the park next to the dangers you and I both go through regularly. I know my responsibilities better than you realize so dont, ever, give me that again and dont make me an excuse for yourself."

"I have some idea what you're going through, and I'm sympathetic. I've come close to that point myself a time or two... but you have to reign it in. All those people need you to, but they need you with your head on straight."

*Frank sighs.*

"You're right, of course. I don't have any right to tell you how to live your life."

*He looks at Casey, taking in the bandages and burns. He whispers, to avoid being overheard.*

"Why are you staying here? We both know we can take you back to the Caern and get you fixed up in less than an hour. Can't we just make some excuse for you to sign out and return home to recover there? I'm sure one of the kinfolk currently at the Caern is a Doctor, and is family to you. We can bring him or her here, have them claim to be your primary care doctor, and have them sign you out for in-home care. Then we just come up with an excuse to prevent your co-workers from visiting you, and we can have you patched up and back to work for The Sept tomorrow."

The beep..beep..beep of the monitor slows as the tension bleeds out of Casey's grip and he relaxes with a sigh, a ghost of a smile crossing his lips.

"I could walk myself out of here in twenty minutes, most of that getting your aunt to sign off on the charts, but aside from saving me from hospital food there's no immediate benefit, and... doing it without raising eyebrows would be tough. At least a half dozen officers saw how bad I looked when I crawled out of that explosion. And dozens of fire fighters, paramedics, the mercy flight crew, doctors, and a couple of journalists have heard since that I won't be able to walk for weeks. They think I'm tough as nails just to have gotten out of the house... let alone not being on respirator in ICU right now. There's only so much we can pull the veil around their eyes."

"Besides, I can do a lot from right here, undercutting O'Malley's influence on the force, and running some overdue investigations from the sidelines, and baiting Fischman into trying something stupid. I've already got my lawyer screening requests from politiician's that want a photo op with me once I'm healthy enough to be seen in public again. Your grandfather always used to stress that battling the wyrm was more than just fighting the obvious monsters, this is my chance to do more good than I could otherwise."

He raises his voice a bit, speaking clearly over the drone of the television and machines.

"Trust me, this isn't gonna get me off the streets for long. Just a rough way to get him to stop ignoring my requests for vacation time, but if you're worried about me, how about arranging something better than hospital food. Josh Davis always made some good things in the kitchen as I recall, see if you cant talk him into coming an seeing me."

*Frank chuckles.*

"Oh, you can rest assured that you'll have a number of visitors shortly. Considering the exit I made when I left, i'm betting people will be on their way now. If by some stretch of the imagination Josh isn't one of them, I'll make sure he comes to see you."

Lowers his voice again to assure privacy, "Actually I told them not to worry too much and I could handle the mess when Wishbone warned me you were coming over. He..." Casey cocks his head towards the corner of the room even though there's no one visibly there, "...still felt the need to come babysit meanyway. Think you've been overlooking that I'm always able to get word with my pack. Bob knew my condition just fine and that it sounded a lot worse than it is so might want to cut him some slack on this."

*Frank stands, and walks into the corner Casey was looking at.*

Casey clears his throat and makes an indecisive gesture with his hand, "He's on the other side, but still watching over me."

*Frank nods, but he looks so unbelievably pissed off that Frenzy seems a serious concern.* ((Willpower expended.))

*When he speaks, his voice is deadly even, almost emotionless.*

"So what you are telling me is that Wishbone doesn't even trust me to speak alone to my family, when they are laid up in the hospital? He felt he had the right to intrude on one of precious few private moments that I will likely have with my Uncle. Moreover, you felt that telling me NOW, AFTER I've bared my soul to you here in private, that we weren't alone was appropriate? After all the two of you knew about me and my issues, after everything I've told you," *He stares at the corner Casey indicated.* "about my feelings for my family and my responsibilities to them, you felt it was okay to intrude on this?"

*His eyes have taken on a VERY dangerous glint, and his hands begin opening and closing into fists, as though he is considering shifting forms.*

"After all the comments I made to you and your packmate, Wishbone, about the importance of my Uncle, and my feelings for him, you felt you had ANY FUCKING RIGHT to be here? You were wrong, Wishbone, dead wrong."

*He walks out of the room and doesn't look back, at either of them, ignoring any parting comments.*

Beep...Beep..beep..beep..beep.beep.beep.beepbeepbeep. Casey's knuckles crack as he tries to prop himself up a bit higher and takes one long breath to steady his voice. "You forgetting you cant 'hear' from over there? He was due to check on my soon anyway or I'd have ordered him to..." He lets out a sigh as Frank's already walking out the door and showing no sign of turning back.

*Casey's Nephew, either not hearing or not believing his words, walks right out past the cops, gets in his truck and leaves. He doesn't return to visit again.*

Casey lets out another long sigh, voice raised so the cops in the hall can hear him, "Let him go, he just needs to let off some steam." His eyes glaze over a bit with the distraction of thinking in Wishbone's direction a moment before settling back to watching the television and waving Hernandez in to B.S. and pass the time. "Fuck, I'm getting too old. Just caught myself thinking 'kids these days'."

<< Probably best if you hadn't mentioned I was here, >> Wishbone's thought comes back. << Boy's looking for excuses to hate. Now he has one more. >> On the other side of the Gauntlet, he sighs. << Of course, he's right; I don't trust him alone with you, and I don't trust him to behave himself in a building full of cops and sick people. Question is: what do we do now? >>

::a day and a half later a very cancer patient looking mofo rolls up::

'scuse me officer how is the hero today? Accepting visitors?

"Casey, you know this guy?"

Wishbone is once again sitting in his spot on the other side of the Umbra; it's his shift to watch Casey. No spirits today, and he's keeping touch by mindspeak rather than continually peering through the Gauntlet. Casey needs SOME privacy.

Casey's still stuck in bed, leg elevated well over his head by a suspension sling but the ugly bruising from his ordeal has started to fade and yellow and he looks up from thumbing through a folder as Pnym's announced and he smiles.

"Yeah I do. C'mon in, pull up a seat, I've been hoping you'd have time to make it over here... obviously wasnt going to make it to any poker game this weekend. How're the kids?"

All ways up to something, you know how it is.

::Pulls up a chair and takes a seat::

I like what you've got going on here. Excellent beeping and wires and what not.

"Yeah well, the things I'll do to finally get some vacation time...."

Casey shrugs and settles back, "And oh believe me, I know how it is. If they're not getting into trouble, you have to worry you're just not catching what they're up to. Skip isn't giving you any grief is he? I was planning on sitting him down and keeping an eye on him myself, but obviously thats not going to be happening any time soon... doctor's say I can expect to be in the sling at least a couple weeks, limited to wheelchair for at least a month after that before I begin rehabbing and who knows after that, so I'm gonna have to ask you to cover for a lot of things I wouldn't ask otherwise."

Not a problem, Skips a great kid, keeping an eye on him will be more a joy than chore. Jason on the other hand we haven't spent enough time together to know the score.

"I'll let ya get to know him yourself, you've got enough in common you should be able to get along and he knows Skip better than you and I do. If there is any issue with teaching him the ropes... and I haven't forgotten the trouble last week even if it seems to have gotten better... he knows who to get in touch with. But looking out for them wasn't the only duty I've got to dump on you, how are you at overseeing some competitions? If you've met Josh Davis, he should be handling things but he's always been a little too easy going to do the job. I heard there were already some... difficulties."

That's just ol' pipe and bob strong personalities clashing...it wasn't going to be good no matter who was running the shift.

"Eh, I always hate armchair quarterbacking, but for the moment its all I can do. I don't think anyone but our little gang would accept a teleconferenced referee. There's no trouble with those two butting heads, its unavoidable at some times. Its not letting them get it out of their system with half measures thats a problem... Francis might need to be held back before he takes things too far. But Bob and Pipe had clear heads on their shoulders..."

i see what you mean. I'll let pipe and bob stew a little longer and see if they can work stuff out. We'll see how young francis feels about the situation when he gets back from his vacation.

"Probably the best way for the moment... push em to hard to bury the hatchet and they'll just pull further apart. Sounded like it should have been a simple matter, and I want to hear Davis's take on it before I get too bent out of shape over complicating it, but if he's too soft hearted to handle the responsibilities... I'm gonna need to tag you for my proxy instead of him."

Casey lets out a longer sigh and shakes his head, "Francis... is a lot trickier situations. Lets not borrow trouble until we see shape he's in when he gets back from his sabbatical."

sounds like a plan to me....got anything else for me?

"Well if there's still room on your plate through that... and keep in mind its going to be at least a couple months you have to hold the fort for me, also hoping you do some leg work. There's the businesses Francis wanted to invest in that he asked us to look over for him, though why he'd expect me to know stocks I'll never guess. There's also a possible source of information I'd like you to check on, see if he's reliable enough to turn to or if he'll be trouble down the line."

Casey picks his folder up again, sorting through some older news clippings and underlining the name 'Sam Mendoza' before turning the page to Pnym to read.

That sounds right up my alley.

"Figured it would be. If you need any help tracking things down, I can ask some people to return your calls... but I trust you've got plenty of contacts you can lean on yourself. Other than that, just let the boys know I'm doing fine. I dont care what the doctor's say, I'm gonna be back out on the streets before Summer's out and maybe on my feet sooner so they better not go making a mess I'll need to straighten out."