He was on the verge of nodding off when he heard the sound of a door opening.
He pushed himself from the front desk to try and at least appear more focused, before he looked up to see Kidman stepping into the lobby. She walked with a more pronounced limp this time and kept one hand on her right thigh as she moved, grimacing slightly with every movement. It was pretty easy to tell that whatever had injured her leg in the first place had done a good amount of damage- enough to be worried about.
With Tatiana busy assisting Joseph, and giving them no other option but to wait, the two of them tried to focus on taking care of the rest of their injuries to pass the time. Most of his were surface injuries or raw bruises that couldn't be helped. Meanwhile her leg injury had started to act up again- mostly because they never got around to taking care of in the first place. So, given no other option, she locked herself up in her previous room to get it over with and had been in there for... twenty minutes at most maybe.
"That bad?" Sebastian asked.
"It was a piece of glass from the window I jumped from." she answered as she slowly walked over to where he had taken Tatiana's seat. She motioned for him to stay when he offered her the chair and, instead, used one of the support bars on the stool to hoist herself up onto the desk; she was very careful not to put too much pressure on her bandaged hands during the motion. "It was still embedded in there too, so I had to cut it out." she continued, sliding herself further back to make herself more comfortable. "If it had been half an inch deeper, I'd be dead right now."
"Lucky jump."
She gave a brief shrug in response and continued to keep one hand over the patched up injury. "Nothing more than another bump like the rest of them."
Why did she feel inclined to use that as an answer or response for everything?
"Are you doing any better?"
Sebastian gave a short sigh and carefully sat back. "Nothing different, although the feeling of impending death has worn off."
"Improvement." Kidman reminded, as she moved some of Tatiana's papers around before she leaned back to peer down the other corridor. Her expression didn't say much, but then again, it didn't really have to. "So... all we can do is wait, huh?"
"Unfortunately." he nodded. "And I have no clue how long she's already been in there- not like time would really matter I guess."
"Well, I think we would've been worried if she had walked in and then walked back out five minutes later." she replied as she pulled herself back forward. "She worked in a hospital apparently... so I'm sure she's seen worse cases."
He had no doubts about that- but it was that statement about worse cases that he was worried about. The woman, as many times as he had seen her, always carried the same, emotionally-dead expression. It never changed, no matter what happened in this hospital world. And expressions like that didn't just occur out of nowhere either; it was always the result of something, like something traumatic or a self-defense thing.
So, she had either truly seen the worst of the worst.
Or, she had stunted her emotions in order to protect herself from the constant exposure to something horrific over time.
Or maybe there was third option he was missing, but either way, none of them seemed all that promising.
"I'm sure she has, but... that's if we're going off the assumption that she's real." Sebastian started.
Kidman shot him a brief questioning look. "What do you mean?"
He knew he was going to come off sounding paranoid, but this was something that had been bugging him for quite some time now. "I've only seen her here, in this place; and wherever the hell this place is, it doesn't seem to be connected to the other world." he answered. "So, if she's like us, like someone who got trapped in here, then she would be getting moved all over this world. Instead, it seems like she's stuck in here. And it's like she's seeing something in this world that we can't- like this entire world is completely different to her-"
"Okay, let's just... not think about it." she interrupted, as she briefly held up one hand to stop him. "My head hurts enough as it is. I don't want to get involved with something that's only going to make it worse."
"So you admit that she doesn't exactly fit in."
Kidman paused for a short moment before she let loose a defeated sigh. "I'm admitting that you bring up some good points... but that's all I'm admitting to." she replied, before she carefully brushed her fingers through her dark hair. "Can't you find something else to preoccupy yourself with?"
"No."
He swore he saw her roll her eyes at him.
She leaned back once more, and nearly too far this time, when they heard the sound of a second door opening. He pushed himself to his feet and offered a hand to help pull her back forward as the dark-haired nurse stepped out.
"Detectives." Tatiana called as she gently pulled the door partly closed behind her. She already seemed to know where they were and quietly stepped into the lobby with them; her hands brushing themselves off on her white skirt. "Your partner is resting well, you may see him if you wish."
Thank God.
"How is he?" Sebastian asked, as he helped Kidman off of the desk and carefully set her on her feet- hoping to avoid further stress with her leg injury. It felt like his heart was in his throat for some reason and he couldn't push the feeling down.
"He's doing fine." Tatiana nodded. "He only needed a few stitches and some minor first aid- he was quite the patient though, very well-mannered."
He wasn't surprised.
"Well, he's part Canadian." he started, before he felt Kidman lightly elbow him in the side.
Tatiana stepped out of their way and allowed them to pass her by as she headed back to her desk.
He pushed the room door open and held it for Kidman as he stepped in, feeling a mixture of nerves and anxiety catching up to him. The first thing he noticed was that Joseph was asleep for the time being- or unconscious from the pain, either or. His thin shirt had been pulled back down to conceal where Tatiana had stitched up and re-bandaged the bullet wound- which, thankfully, would stop the external bleeding for now. Internal bleeding would be a whole new issue though, but that was something that they just couldn't focus on right now. And hopefully they would be out of this place completely before any possible complications from it could set in.
On a better note though, the open cuts on his arms looked as though they had been taken care of as well; it was probably for the best that Tatiana had decided to handle all of his injuries instead.
He was still pale and breathing a little hard, but... he had a better chance of recovering in this shape. At least, he could manage to fight for a little longer now.
His work shirt, vest and tie had been neatly folded together and placed on the nearby desk. For some odd reason, Tatiana had removed his gloves as well, exposing his heavily-bruised palms, and had set them aside with the rest of his uniform.
For now, he seemed to be at ease.
"He's still alive." Kidman remarked, as she briefly skimmed her fingers against his bruised hand before she moved to brush aside his dark bangs that had come loose. "He's got a bit of a fever though, but he'll manage."
"Look, he's already been shot and went through a hell of a crash- and you had to relocate his shoulder." Sebastian started as he grabbed the chair from the desk and set it closer to the bed. "I think he'll manage a fever just fine." he assured as he passed her by and stepped out of the room to grab another chair from one of the vacant rooms. He tried to ignore the fact that Tatiana was no longer at her desk where they had last seen her; although her nail filer was there to confirm that she had, in fact, recently been present.
"You ever have a fever reach the triple digits before?" she asked, when he returned- having already seated herself in the first chair.
He shook his head as he set the second chair down and took a seat, knowing well he didn't want to consider her question right now. "Don't you have something else to preoccupy yourself with?"
"Oh, plenty, but this is more fun."
The sarcasm in her voice was not difficult to pick up on.
He gave a brief sigh and watched as she seemed to switch her gaze between the two of them, still holding a small look of concern. For a moment, it almost appeared as though she was worried... Like she knew something was going to happen outside of this place and she was no longer confident that they would survive it. He pushed the feeling aside though, knowing that it wasn't something he wanted to consider right now; he needed to keep himself focused on what was happening now rather than get caught up in what could happen later. "We'll probably end up having to stay here until he wakes up."
"Why bother leaving?" Kidman lightly humored as she leaned back in her chair and propped one leg onto the frame of the bed. She brushed her fingers through her still unruly hair and, for a moment, all one could see were the dark rings forming under her eyes. "... Actually, don't tell Tatiana, but I really fucking hate this place."
Sebastian chuckled softly with her and moved to pinch the space between his eyes as he slumped back just the same. "I do too. Fuck this place."
"For what it's worth... it's not all bad, but I'm getting real tired of it." she replied. "I usually don't stick around for this long."
That, he could agree with. "Then again, without this place, we would all be bleeding out in the middle of a wrecked hotel, so when you compare the two situations..." he started, watching as she seemed forced to give somewhat of an agreeing shrug. "... Regardless, we're going to be in a fucking mess when we get out of here."
"I can handle myself just fine." she assured, as fingers briefly toyed with a small, torn portion of her shirt. "You should just focus on how the two of you are going to get out of that hotel. Regardless, whatever way you choose, it's going to be a hell of a way down."
"You seem extremely confident for a woman who barely survived a head-on collision with the street." Sebastian remarked.
"I'm alive, aren't I?"
"Barely."
They gave into silence for a short while, and he took their previous, light conversation into heavy consideration. They did have quite the uphill battle going for them after this- not that he really thought it would be all that different from what they've already gone through. It might take them longer to get anything accomplished, but... they would certainly manage.
A few cuts and scrapes weren't going to stop them.
...
He didn't exactly remember falling asleep, but the realization of it hit when he somehow managed to startle himself awake. And he wasn't entirely sure if it had been something in his dream or if something outside of it had caused the sudden wake up. He couldn't really blame himself for sleeping though- he was utterly exhausted. With everything that had happened beforehand, and then with the crash following soon after... it had felt like he would collapse at any moment. Still, he partly had to curse at himself for it. What if something had happened? Or, what if they had woken up at the hotel instead?
They couldn't afford to drop their guard at a time like this...
He needed to be able to keep an eye on his partners.
Kidman was, thankfully, asleep just the same in her chair; he wasn't sure why he was half-expecting her to be gone.
And Joseph... was absent.
"Shit." Sebastian cursed, as he pushed himself to his feet.
Why was it that he could never keep the two of them with him for an extended period of time? It was like there was always some kind of obstacle or situation that dictated that he could only have one of them with him at all times. And even then, he usually couldn't keep one partner for all that long either.
Either way, he managed to startle Kidman awake.
She made a short gasping noise and pushed herself forward, straightening up briefly. "What is it?" she started, taking a second or two before she got to her feet- as though to make sure she wouldn't lose her balance. She looked to him for the answer before she briefly glanced towards the empty bed and found it. "... You're kidding me. We can't even catch a damn break here- of all places."
The frustration in her voice was easy to hear.
"He's got a bullet wound, he couldn't have gone far." Sebastian assured, although more so for himself. Sighing, he pushed his fingers through his hair and started out of the room. The last thing he needed was something else to worry about- especially concerning Joseph. Stepping out into the lobby, he noted that it was empty- well, with the exception of Tatiana, who had seemingly chosen to be at her desk now; she was filing her nails again.
"Ah, Detectives, you're up, that's good." Tatiana started, as she glanced up to them for a short moment before she returned to her nails. "Your partner is in the back office if you're looking for him."
"Why did you let him walk around?" Kidman asked. "You just stitched him up not even..." and she trailed briefly when it occurred to her that she had no idea how much time had actually passed since then.
Hell, they didn't even know how long they had been asleep.
"I advised him not to, but he insisted." Tatiana answered. "He was very well aware of his condition and his limits, so I was confident that he wouldn't hurt himself in any manner. Just as well, I told him to call for me if he needed any assistance."
While he wasn't surprised by the man's actions, Joseph damn well knew he had a bullet wound and had already lost a good amount of blood- and he would know that walking around was not in his best interest. At least Tatiana was around on the off chance that something did happen, so they had that to assure themselves with. Sighing, Sebastian walked around the nurse and continued on into the back office with Kidman close behind him. It was quiet, which wasn't new, but it still left him with a cold feeling that itched at his skin.
He headed towards the office in the back corner and paused briefly in the doorway, noticing Joseph looking at the partial, unfinished map of Krimson City that hung on the wall. Somehow, next to slipping out of bed and out of the room without waking them, he had also managed to completely redress himself in his uniform before doing so. And with his black vest covering the entirety of his blood-stained shirt, it almost made it easy to forget that he had been shot at all.
"Before you say anything, given the situation and current ordeals, I'm feeling better." Joseph started, not even looking back at them. He was partly leaning against the table with one hand firmly holding onto the edge of it, most likely for balance. "I got a lot of lower back pain from that bullet, and lying down for that long only made it worse. So, believe me, despite the pain from everything else, this is a relief."
"You could've at least told us." Sebastian replied.
"You were both resting, I didn't want to wake you." he remarked, before he looked over to them. "Although, do you realize how unsettling it is to wake up and have two people sitting that uncomfortably close to you?"
"We were aiming for romantic." Kidman retorted.
Sebastian snorted briefly at the unexpected remark, unsure how she managed to keep a straight face with it. "We just wanted to make sure we were close by in case anything happened."
"Nothing ever happens here." Joseph reminded. "But I understand your intentions and you had every right to be concerned, so I should be thankful for that at least." he moved slightly to lean more prominently against the table now. "How are you two feeling anyways?"
"Like I died and woke up here instead." she answered. "I'm sure we could all share that feeling though."
"Given the circumstances, at least we're okay. Nothing serious was broken and we keep waking up, so that's a good sign." Sebastian replied.
Joseph chuckled lightly and removed his glasses for a moment, once more checking over the broken lens. "You're not wrong. We're pretty lucky we survived that crash the way we did, and in the shape we did as well... Although I'm curious as to why Ruvik didn't kill us."
"He's more than likely enjoying this." Kidman shrugged, as she finally stepped into the office and elected to take the seat closest to Joseph on his right. She kept her injured leg stretched out some and continued to keep one hand over the injury. "Or maybe he did intend to kill us and we'll have an army of Haunted to battle through when we're done here."
Sebastian groaned lightly as he stepped in soon after her and walked around the table to take the seat on Joseph's left. His body still ached with the motion. "Don't say things like that, they might come true."
"With everything we've seen so far, the Haunted are the least of our problems." she reminded.
And he wished she hadn't.
"You can have your pick of the Haunted, the Boxhead, Shigyos, or another Heresy." Kidman continued.
She used to be a bit of a killjoy before... and that trait was once more rearing it's ugly head.
"I'd rather take a bullet." Sebastian remarked.
"I wouldn't recommend it." Joseph replied.
Shit.
"Besides, you already have." she spoke. "That's why I didn't offer it."
He shook his head and leaned back in his chair, crossing his arms over his chest- not the least bit surprised by their input. "How much longer do you figure until we can get out of here?"
A change of subject would be nice.
"It's a gamble." Joseph shrugged, as he finally turned around and pulled out the chair behind him before he sat down- doing so with some difficult it seemed. "This place doesn't necessarily have a consistent theme that we could track."
"I'll give it another hour." Kidman offered.
"And then what?"
"Then we'll just have to wait longer." she replied.
Joseph leaned forward against the table for a brief moment and kept one hand somewhat hovering over his side. If he was in any serious pain, he was doing a damn good job at pushing it down. At best, he seemed more annoyed with the back pain than anything else. "So what exactly are our plans once we get out of here?"
"We do what we can to regroup." Sebastian answered, aware that he was making it sound easier than it would be. He hadn't really given it much thought in terms of the long-run, but... he knew what they needed to do the moment they escaped from here. Regrouping would be the difficult part, but after that... well they would just have to handle things as they went along. "It'll be safer for us to get down to street level, so Kidman, you try to stay out on that general street. Don't go too far, but don't stay if there's trouble nearby- I figure with a crash like that, we'll have alerted every Haunted in a three block radius and it won't take long before they're on our asses. So, just don't do anything stupid until we catch up with you."
"I could say the same for you." Kidman reminded. "Like I said, it's not going to be easy getting out of that hotel. You may run into more problems than I will- and I can't exactly scale four stories to provide back up."
"There's two of us, we'll manage." Sebastian assured.
"That doesn't necessarily mean shit." Joseph remarked. "I mean, sure, we've survived the asylum, and somewhat survived part of the church, and then the Heresy, as well as the city up till now, but-"
"I get the point." he interrupted. "There's still a good chance we'll get hopelessly slaughtered, but until that actually happens... we'll manage."
"Don't do anything stupid." Kidman repeated.
"No promises-"
A high-pitched, grinding shriek cut him off.
Like those of overheated brakes desperately trying to catch traction on an empty road.
And it got louder until it was followed by what sounded like something violently crashing into the entire building. It heavily shook the room they were in and caused the window just outside to shatter inward in a mess of broken glass- as though something on the other side had physically hit it.
Despite the overwhelming sudden action of it all, neither of them really jumped or reacted all that much to it.
After all, they had already heard it once before.
He held his breath and waited until the brief echoes of the crash had died down.
"Well... I think we found our exit."
They stuck around just long enough to recollect their things.
As big of a relief as it was to have the downtime, and a fairly safe place to rest, they needed to keep going; there was a lot more they had to do from here on out and they couldn't risk holding it off any longer. Grabbing his holster from the table, Sebastian slipped it back on and felt reassured by its familiar weight- and even more so with heaviness of his shotgun slung over one shoulder.
Tatiana was nowhere to be found, which wasn't surprising at this point; he wasn't entirely sure why he expected the nurse to be there to see them off.
"Are you going to be okay with that leg?" Sebastian asked, watching as Kidman emerged from the lobby and headed back towards the corner office towards him. She had returned to her room for just a brief moment to collect some extra supplies and do a quick re-patch on her arm.
"Don't worry about it." she answered, somewhat walking with a steadier gait now. "It'll wear off in time."
That didn't really assure him of anything, but he was certain the woman had answered as such on purpose. Either way, if she said not to worry about it, then that meant she could handle it and he would trust her word on it. Sighing, he stepped back into the office where Joseph was still studying the broken map on the wall. "Are you almost done with that?"
"Yeah, it's just... it's kind of odd for this map to be here, so I was wondering if it's supposed to reflect the damages Ruvik's done to the city." Joseph started, before he briefly tapped one of the few, remaining pieces. "Because Beacon's on this street and everything within a ten-block radius of it is basically gone."
"Goodbye apartment." Kidman remarked.
Joseph gave the map one last look over before he finally turned away and readjusted his holster as he walked back to join them. "It just means that we're going to have to find a severe alternative route to get to it." he finished.
Despite his reluctance to return to Beacon, it was the only place left for them to go.
It wasn't exactly something they could argue.
"We'll find a way."
Even now, after all the times he had gone from that hospice world back into this one, or vice versa, he still wasn't entirely sure how those mirrors worked. Sometimes it was as simple as waking up next to one and other times, it was like being consumed by whatever possessed the mirror.
Either way, he woke up to the smell and taste of smoke and plaster in the air.
There was that ever-familiar ache as he forced himself to his feet and looked around at the utter wreckage. The bus itself had carved out a complete tunnel through the hotel, going easily through one side and out the other. The ceiling above them was cracked and bowed downward, threatening to buckle and collapse on top of them at any given minute. The cold breeze brought his attention to the obvious hole in the wall to his left that opened out into the city, giving off a beautifully destructive view of the ruins.
And it just made him more thankful that they had had the time to patch up and regroup beforehand.
Sebastian turned briefly at the sound of a groan and watched as Joseph slowly forced himself to his feet just the same- with a little more struggle on his part; although he quickly assured him that he was okay.
He briefly checked to make sure he still had his weapons on him before he slowly made his way over to opened portion of the hallway. Careful to mind his step around the loose edges, he peered down at the smoking wreckage of the bus on the street below. It was barely recognizable now, with the exception of the yellow paint that was slowly being burned away by the quick flames. The smell of burning rubber was almost nauseating.
If anything, he was sure as hell glad he knew for certain that Kidman had survived the crash, and that she was, in fact, alive.
A brief tremor shook the building and he quickly backed up a few steps, watching as more of the flooring broke off and tumbled into the streets below. And it only reminded him that they couldn't stay here; they had to find a way to get out.
"She'll be fine." Joseph assured, as he stepped up next to him and placed a hand on his arm. "... It's us we need to worry about."
Sebastian chuckled briefly and looked around at the utter wreckage they were standing in. "Yeah... it's gonna be a hell of a way down though."