Still Here

who: Caleb & Tensiel
Where: Lockwoods Residence
When: Early morning

Caleb hadn't gotten much in the way of sleep. He'd been watching over Ten. He might have drifted a little in and out occasionally, but really, he had spent most of his time just...watching her. Listening to her breathing, the long, even exhales and quieter intakes of breath. His mind circled around and around endlessly, getting absolutely nowhere. He didn't know what to say, glad she was out for the count so he didn't have to figure that part out quite yet. When the darkness outside his window turned into lighter dawn, he watched the light slowly illuminate her better and better. She didn't look any healthier in the natural light than she had under the lightbulbs the night before.

The pale morning light crept over Tensiel's eyelids, and eventually it was that which stirred her awake. Her eyes screwed up a little against the brightness, resisting waking up like she usually did, and she tried to do as she usually did - curl up into a ball and wish for five more minutes.

Not a good move with a body full of bruises and a belly full of stitches. A small cry of pain escaped her lips when she tried to turn onto her side and her eyes flew open. There was a dizzying moment as the pain in her belly and the confusion of where it was coming from made her very vision spin, and she said the first thing that came to mind... "Caleb?"

Caleb happened to be sitting with his back against the wall next to the head of the bed, and he reached out to put a hand on her arm when she moved. "Shh." he said, voice quiet and a little hoarse from not having spoken in hours even if he hadn't slept much. "Don't move around, you've got a lot of stitches." he finished quietly.

Blinking against the sunlight and a sudden need to get wetness out her eyes, Tensiel just tried to hold still when Caleb told her to. It wasn't easy, but his hand on her arm was warm and steadying against the way everything felt like it was slowly spinning. "I... ow," she tried to hold her breath to stop making her painful stomach rise and fall. It felt like she had dozens of pinching bites gnawing across her belly, and they just stung when she breathed too much. "Are you okay?" she asked, not really recalling how she'd landed where she was and worried about him.

"I'm fine." Caleb said, blinking at her. Was he okay? Jesus. He moved, sitting on his knees at the side of the bed, arms going up to rest on the mattress next to her. "Do you need anything?" He was still speaking quietly, the early morning and everything about the situation feeling like speaking any louder would be wrong. "I can get you anything you want, just don't move around."

Tensiel turned her head on the pillow and looked at Caleb, eyes turned mercifully away from the light for a moment. It was alright, even if she had gotten hurt; Caleb was there and she was starting to recall ideas from the previous night. Dorian and Eli's voices... and another, which had rasped and guttered at her from behind burning bright white eyes.

She shuddered a little, finally letting herself feel the fear she'd forced away the previous night so she could take action. Oh gods... that had been so frightening. She'd been so scared and she'd gotten really hurt, was still really hurt. But it was alright now, it had to be, because Caleb was there and she realized she was in his bed and in his room and in his house and it was okay.

She swallowed against the dry, hard lump in her throat. "I... I don't know," she admitted, looking at him. "Am I supposed to need something?"

He was having a rough time keeping himself calm again. seeing her like this just brought up that red wash of anger, and made him want to go out hunting again. He hoped the tension that was singing through his frame wasn't obvious to her. "I don't know. Water? Something to eat? A blanket, or...I have no idea. Anything you want." He'd find a way to get it to her. Caleb desperately wished she'd give him something to get for her. It would make him feel slightly less useless. "Painkillers?"

Closing her eyes, Tensiel tried to think. In response memories began to flicker back from last night. Intermittant and confused and painful. But there'd also been... oh, oh yeah. "I am hungry," she told him, voice weak but kind of certain. She felt drained, like all her energy was gone. Maybe that was why she felt so dizzy. A lot of her strength had gone into those blessings, and into keeping herself conscious after she'd been injured. Food sounded like a way to make it better. She opened her pale, bloodshot eyes and looked at Caleb's face, "I think maybe all that stuff would be good..." She felt kind of cold too, and her numb hands moved a little as she tried to prop herself up.

Caleb winced, and put a hand down on her shoulder to gently keep her laying back. "Don't move around. You don't want to jar your stitches." he said. "I'll get you everything, just...relax, okay?" he said, standing up. He hesitated, looking worriedly down at her.

Being so helpless wasn't sitting well with Tensiel, and she wanted to fight against it suddenly. Prove she could sit up (even if she couldn't) and everything, but the tone of Caleb's voice pulled sharply at something else in her heart.

She gave up her struggles at the gentle pressure he put on her shoulder and just gave a slightly pained sigh, looking up at him. "Okay," she echoed, not wanting to worry him any more. A thought occurred to her then, and though she couldn't see the stitches they'd been mentioned enough times for her to know they were there. "Did you put stitches in for me? I don't really... uhm, remember."

He had been about to turn away to get her probably more than what she asked for, but stopped, then nodded. "Yes." he answered. "I tried to make sure that it won't scar..." But I don't know how well done they are. I don't ever care when I'm stitching myself up. I care about it with you though. He really, really did. They were straight and small, which was the best he could do. He hoped it worked.

A small smile lit her face then, a genuine one for all that she shouldn't be smiling. "Thanks," she murmurred, wishing suddenly that he wasn't going to go anywhere and getting the idea that she'd rather he stayed than anything came back with him. Still, she resolved to be brave: after all, they were kind of even now.

"You're welcome." he said, then after another hesitation, he made himself leave the room. It took more convincing than he would have liked, to tell himself that she would be fine in the five fucking minutes it would take him to get her things she needed. She'd be okay. Really. That didn't mean he didn't grab her water, crackers, and painkillers quickly, returning to give them over. "Here...lemme know if you want something else to eat, I didn't know what your stomach was going to be able to handle."

Taken a little aback at the speed with which Caleb had gone and returned, the injured little angel just blinked as he held out the things he'd thought to bring. But the trouble was that now Tensiel really did have to sit up, otherwise there was no way to take any of these things. "Can... can you give me a hand?" she asked him a bit hesitantly, gathering up her strength to push up. Maybe if some pillows were behind her it'd work, but tensing her stomach muscles to get that far wasn't likely to be fun. Oh well, it would be alright so long as she tried.

He set things down on the other side of her, then nodded, moving to take her hand, then grabbed his pillows and blankets up off of the floor. He hadn't actually used them, and he could use them to prop her up now. "Try not to tense up. Just...I dunno. Trust me." he said, starting to slowly pull her up.

Tensiel's blue-gray eyes met Caleb's brown ones then, and she did her best to grip his hand with her bandaged and cut one. "You're saying that like it takes effort," she said quietly, and then closing her eyes and trying to let go of the impulses to tense or move or twist her body she just trusted Caleb not to drop her. She managed it, and within a few moments was sitting up, eyes slightly drifting from dizziness now her head was raised, but able to do so much more.

He got her propped up, making sure she wasn't too high, but high enough that she could do things like eat and drink and all that shit. Then he opened up the pill bottle for her and tapped a few out to give her. "Here. If you need more, let me know, okay?" he asked. It was over the counter. He'd have gotten her something more heavy duty, but being that pain didn't bother him, he'd never gotten any hardcore painkillers for shit, and if he had, he'd just tossed them in a drawer back home and forgotten about them.

She held out her hand to accept the medication, not thinking to question it. Tensiel hardly ever took any medicines, painkillers or otherwise, so she wasn't sure what other affect these would have on her. All the same, so long as they helped cut down the bad pain which was clouding all her senses they'd probably be worth it.

Her hand was shaking a little as she held it up, and she felt her cheeks redden a bit with embarrassment. Hopefully this would stop soon, it wasn't just pain it was the physical affect of losing so much blood. Tensiel figured she'd probably been in shock or something, but it would wear off soon. It would. "Thanks, Caleb," she managed to say before clumsily swallowing the pills and a little water. Just doing that seemed to take a lot of strength, and she closed her eyes and rested against the pillows behind her. Even if it had disturbed her into waking up, the sunlight felt very good on her skin. There had been a moment she hadn't thought she'd feel it again. "Mm, sunshine," she murmured almost inaudibly.

Caleb remained where he was for a few moments, as if waiting to see that she really was alright. Then he sat back down again though, feeling like he was hovering. "You're welcome." he said. "Look, I want you to stay in bed as much as you can." he said. "You've got my bed until further notice. You can't be getting up and straining yourself all the time, so your bed is out."

Her head turned on the pile of pillows, just a little, and she opened her eyes to see the way he was looking at her. Not ironically it looked just how he sounded, and she felt a sudden upswell of guilt for scaring him this badly. She hadn't thought... well, she just hadn't thought about after. She bit the inside of her cheek and watched him. "It can't be that bad..." she murmured, still a little confused and not entirely believing it.

"I stitched you up last night. Trust me, it's that bad." Caleb said, note in his tone that said he wasn't entertaining any sort of arguments here. It just wasn't going to happen. His mind was made up and that was it.

Hearing that tone, Tensiel knew what it meant. She gave him a look that almost promised an argument, but it fell away. He'd know, she wouldn't. "Okay," she said quietly. Now that she was propped up a little, she was suddenly pushed with curiosity to see what the damage looked like. It was hard to move her hands, but she managed to tug down the blanket and tug up her shirt enough to see the bruised, bloodied, alien mess across her belly. The long rows of little neat stitches holding her skin together caught her eyes with fascination, but she managed to keep from touching them. She just looked for a long moment, remembering the fight a bit more, and then gingerly pulled at her torn and bloodied shirt until it covered them again. "...the stitches look... thanks. I'm sorry you had to do that." It had probably disturbed him a lot, and she regretted that painfully, which could be easily discerned by how she suddenly had trouble looking at him.

"It's fine." Caleb said. It wasn't, but he wasn't going to say as much. He was worried. Nothing was quite okay. That was just how it worked, and that was it. "Don't be sorry." Next time just don't get yourself hurt. Don't get brought back home bleeding out with wounds that if any worse, could have killed you in a really dragged out, painful manner. Please.

Tensiel gave him a weak nod. There wasn't really anything else to say or to do... but she didn't want him to leave, and she wanted to talk to him. Or more, listen to him, really. She took another sip of water, having to concentrate hard to keep it steady, and then gave a small sigh. "I haven't seen you since Journey Winters' house on Friday," she commented quietly, remembering with a sort of disjointed pang how that whole movie thing had gone. "How are things?" she asked, genuinely wanting to know. And it was a way to focus away from the pain and wait for the painkillers to try and do something.

Caleb wasn't sure how to answer there. How were things? Well, she'd been brought home in a horrible state, that's how things were. In other words, fucking awful. Oh and Jamie was insane a lot of the time, and occasionally threw him off with being normal again. And she'd been attacked by a cat. He hadn't gone to search for the demon who'd attacked Ten, and he still wasn't happy about that. Generally speaking, things sucked. He didn't really want to tell her that though. "I know, I'm sorry." he said with a sigh. "Things have been kind of hectic, and then I worked for Dorian and shit."

For a moment, Tensiel very definitely wanted to ask if the hecticness included the girl she'd sort-of-met, Jamie. That's where he'd gone when she'd seen him last (presumably) but she stopped herself - for once - from voicing her question. She didn't feel up to it, which was an odd and sort of worrying thing to think. Tensiel tried to push the thoughts away and asked something else. "At the bookshop?" She gave a small groan. "Awh, I was s'posed to go read translations at the bookshop. Dorian had books for me to practice with." Tensiel had been really looking forward to that, but now Caleb said she wasn't even allowed to get out of bed.

"Do you want me to get you things to read?" Caleb asked. "or...anything else for that matter? I can get you whatever you want, music, I could probably bring the tv in here for a while, something. I don't want you to get bored, but you do need your rest, and I don't want you jarring those stitches at all. I don't want them getting infected, or popping..." And he was being overly worried, but he couldn't help it.

Tensiel gave him a slightly wry smile from her wan face. All she wanted was for him to stay for a while, because then things were sure to be better; but she wasn't completely sure how to say that or if she should just then. What if he had things he needed to do today? Oh. Oh, damn.

"It's okay... I uhm... I can't really see straight just now," she admitted, gently curling her fingers in over her bandaged palms. "C-could you call Mya for me, at the Diner? She's my boss and I don't..." Didn't think she was going to be able to make it to work, today. And she'd been trying to make up for almost leaving them on Thursday (even if she never told them) by working late last night and that's how she'd gotten like this. A small sigh. "Can you tell her m'sorry? I know the shifts are hard on uh..." She shut her eyes and tried to work it out... "....Tuesday?" Was today Tuesday?

Caleb nodded. "Yeah, I'll take care of it for you, don't worry." he assured her. Then he frowned. "You okay?" he asked. "Why don't you get back to sleep, Ten." he said, standing back up and looking down at her. She sounded like she was fading, so...yeah. Rest was good.

Fading was a good word for it. Suddenly Tensiel's strength was leaving her in a rush; she hadn't realized how much effort all these little things like nodding and talking and holding things took. Caleb was suddenly further away, which wasn't so great but she didn't want to cause him anymore trouble and she couldn't really see through the swimming in her vision. Still, she tried to look up at him with her unfocused blue-grey eyes. "Okay... Can you... stay," she murmured, cheeks specking red a little. "Just for a little bit?"

He nodded. "Yeah, don't worry, I'll stay." he promised, voice quiet. At least til she fell asleep. That he could most definitely do. "Close your eyes, Ten." he added, going to sit back down on the floor at the side of the bed, though he stayed close to it. "Get some sleep." Don't have bad dreams.

"Mmnh," she murmurred, obeying without thinking and closing her eyes. Her hands went slack at her sides, small fingers shifting slightly against the air. The pain was strong and getting stronger all throughout her - but it couldn't win against her flagging strength and that at least was one good thing. One small, but important good thing.

The bigger good thing, of course, being that her friend was there to help her... and that was why there was no fear to go with any of this.