11/6/14, 3:10am…
Amanda's eyes snapped open when pain jarred through her lower back, tears falling down her face as Finn brushed his hand against her hair in the darkened hospital room.
But she was mentally cursing Konnor for slamming her into the steel steps, he had done it before repeatedly and this had never resulted from it.
"Can't… take it anymore. Please make it stop…" Amanda says through the pain, her throat dry from the anaesthetic and her realising that she was on her left side as the stitches tugged into her back. "They cut me open… did they…" She tries to say.
"It's still there… they stitched it up, you were bleeding internally." Finn says, Amanda seeing a bandage on his right arm.
"We share the same blood type…" Amanda says as her left hand was in his right one.
"And when you're released from here, straight home and resting up… don't fight me on that one, that was damn scary what happened to you." Finn says.
"Are they here? Konnor and Viktor? I'm not mad, I just… want to see them." Amanda says.
"They're here, just wait until you're fully awake." Finn says, pouring some water into a cup and putting it in Amanda's hands after helping her sit up, Amanda letting the cool water soothing her throat.
Amanda knew that Konnor and Viktor would wait… but Seth, Dean and Roman wouldn't…
Present time…
Seth opened his eyes, finding himself in a hospital room and seeing Talora nearby.
"She fell asleep in the E.R." Talora says, Seth seeing that although early, it was morning.
"I can't… feel my leg…" Seth says as Dean walked in, his right hand bleeding. "Oh fuck, did Mandy bite you?!" He asks.
"No, it was some little 14 month old child who was freaking out when she got separated from her mother. She's back with her, everything's calmed." Dean says.
"At that age, they don't really know any better." Seth says.
In the waiting room, Roman walked over with a few cups of coffee and lightly nudged Amanda to try to wake her but she moved closer to Finn.
"It's starting again… the nights without full sleep only for her to crash a day and a half later." Roman says as Talora walked over to them. "Want any coffee?" He asks.
"I… sure." Talora says, taking a semi transparent tube out from her pocket. "Can't take the mask off so I have to drink through this." She says, pointing to the round light below the visor as it turned off and opened, Roman catching a glimpse of normal looking skin by with some kind of tattooed mark on her cheek.
"What happened there?" Roman asks.
"You mean the suit?" Talora asks, having not thought of Roman seeing through the hole.
"There's a… small mark on your face." Roman says, all three hearing Amanda let out a small groan as she started stirring around in her sleep, Finn kissing her on her forehead.
"It's not a bad mark… it's the pattern of my family. The same as the 'Tal' in my name. That's my family name, then the second is my personal name, almost like surnames and forenames for you. It's just that my peoples' families are a hell of a lot bigger." Talora says.
Roman nodded and turned to Amanda, who's eyes were halfway open and she was drowsy. She tried to stretch her legs out but they were numb.
"Where is he?" Amanda asks, her voice rough.
"Half asleep, waiting for them to take him to the O.R." Roman says. Finn helped Amanda up and she wandered into the room, Seth seeing her reddened and puffy eyes as she sat down next to him and reached out, his right hand resting on the left side of her face.
"You look like hell." Seth says.
"Most of us do. We've been switching between sleeping and being awake… I can't remember even falling asleep." Amanda says, her left hand lightly squeezing Seth's right one.
"As your mind shuts down, you don't recall the last minute or two of consciousness even though hardly much happens in that time so… no one remembers falling asleep really." Talora says, detaching the tube after finishing the coffee and Amanda briefly seeing the same mark Roman had seen.
"We worry about her though… her mind goes into a fog like state because…" Seth says, seeing the look that said 'Please don't'.
"I… had seizures early last year." Amanda says after turning to Talora.
"No idea why?" Talora asks.
"Doctors found no direct cause, attributed it to low blood sugar and an elevated white blood cell count." Amanda says.
"White blood cells… now there's something I wouldn't mind, a higher count." Talora says.
"Higher and lower counts can be lethal at times." Seth says, lightly rubbing Amanda's left arm. "Go get some real sleep or something to eat… I'll be okay." He says.
Amanda leaned in and kissed Seth on his forehead, Talora seeing that some of Amanda's matte blue lipstick had gotten onto Seth's forehead.
"I wear this suit for that exact reason… I lived in a city made in the ice so few bacteria or any pathogens could form there… so we have a very weak immune system. Just 5 minutes of exposure to your air would render me stone dead in 6 days." Talora says.
"How is that possible?" Seth asks.
"If there's no pathogens where I evolve from, I'm not gonna form an immunity to something that doesn't exist to my nature. So there's hardly any resistance to stop an infection, a small sniffle on Earth could be lethal to me." Talora says.
"So… why leave the only place you can be free of the suit in?" Roman asks.
"I had to… I was banished. For feeling emotions I was never supposed to know." Talora says.
"Sounds like your laws are a lot different than ours." Seth says.
"Mine force a very no strings attached lifestyle… more or less, my people have no concept of love. No marriage, no dating… your family is who you speak to and that's it. As for making new little ones, well… it's sort of arranged. I would've chosen when I was ready for children and… it's almost like I would've been recruiting for a job, getting offers and running simulations for what the kids would look like for which male I was with… I didn't want that, I wanted to have a child out of companionship when the time came and they outcast me for it." Talora says.
"People are crazy. Me and my wife got a lot of hell for being parents before we got married." Roman says.
After a while, Amanda was dressed in clean clothes after getting cleaned off and felt Finn's arms wrap around her… but she flinched a bit when his left arm brushed against one of the bites.
"Did you have to bandage it?" Finn asks, Amanda nodding.
"I'm okay, it's not the first time one of us has gotten crazy." Amanda says, both hearing a half asleep Enzo fall off his couch before he woke up and started rambling.
"Who took my keys?! Where are my keys?!" Enzo asks as he searched for the rental car keys, Talora walking over to them and handing the keys to Enzo. "Thanks… I guess I was too tired to drive." He says.
"You could hardly stand straight, let alone drive." Talora says.
"Well the last time we all ended up in an E.R, a game of wheelchair derby got out of control." Enzo says.
"How out of control?" Talora asks, looking at Amanda, who started to explain.