Sept 29th onwards - Nina's room

[Jessica Temple]

((Downtime week 1))

After being discharged from her own room with reiterated advice not to try shifting until she'd been cleared by a doctor, Jess made her way straight to Nina's room.

After a couple of hours, she'd run out of tears and anyone that came in would find her holding one of Nina's hands in both hers, talking to her quietly.

[Ryan Gabriel]

Ryan peeked his head in, having been told that Nina had company when he came to check on her. Ah. Should've known.

"Hey," he said quietly as he walked in, taking a quick look at Nina's charts and readouts. He wasn't exactly an authority on such things... but he'd spent enough time in the infirmary himself to be able to get the general idea from them. "Still nothing," he sighed, shaking his head as he set them back. "How are you holding up?" he asked gently.

[Jessica Temple]

"First I get damn near killed then I find out my girlfriend is in a coma." Jess replied without looking away from Nina.

"How do you think I'm holding up?"

[Ryan Gabriel]

"About like I'd expect, then," Ryan said, nodding as he sat down across the bed from her, looking at Nina. he sighed, shaking his head. "I want Constantine's fucking head for this," he muttered quietly, looking visibly disturbed by the sight of the unmoving Nina.

[Jessica Temple]

Jess did look up then, sad red rimmed eyes gazing across the bed.

"I just want her back."

[Ryan Gabriel]

Ryan's expression softened as he looked across at her, and he just nodded. "She'll be okay," he said quietly, looking back down at Nina. "Just give her a little time, she'll be okay. If only so that she can be frustrated at not having been able to examine herself to see what was wrong."

[Jessica Temple]

"Or me." Jess replied, forcing a smile. All she'd been hearing was 'just give her time'. Personally, she didn't think the doctors had any idea whether Nina would recover at all.

[Ryan Gabriel]

"Look... I've known the doctor for years. And I've never known him to not manage to save someone in a situation like this."

He was silent for a moment, during which he heard Jess's stomach growl loudly. "When was the last time you ate anything?" he asked, eyeing her suspiciously.

[Jessica Temple]

"Day before the mission I guess. Why?"

[Ryan Gabriel]

Ryan eyed her for a moment, then held up a finger to gesture 'just a minute' as he slipped from the room. He re-entered a moment later. "Come on. I'll get you lunch. I really don't think you want Nina having to spend a bunch of time spitting out facts about what starving yourself does to your body when she wakes up," he said, smiling a little. "The nurse promised to shoot me a text if it looks like she might be starting to change. So if she wakes up, we'll be back here before she even has a chance to blink and look around the room."

[Jessica Temple]

Jess looked torn. She was hungry, particularly now that Ryan had pointed it out, but she didn't want to leave Nina.

"Do you have Rachel's number" she asked after a moment.

[Ryan Gabriel]

Ryan nodded. "Yeah, I do," he said, pulling out his phone.

[Jessica Temple]

"May I?" Jess asked, standing up and walking towards the door.

[Ryan Gabriel]

Nodding, Ryan surrendered his phone to Jess.

[Jessica Temple]

"Just a sandwich or something, kay? I don't wanna be too long." Jess said, typing a text as she headed out.

[Ryan Gabriel]

"Eat good right now, and you'll have longer before you have to leave for food again," Ryan pointed out.

[Jessica Temple]

"That's what takeout is for." Jess replied, already planning on stocking up for as long as she could.

[Ryan Gabriel]

"Yes, yes, self-destruction is strong in this one," Ryan sighed, following her out of the room. "To the food places we go."

[Nina Madaraki]

((A brief update on Nina's condition, done to just generally cover everything until I get back))

The doctor's assured any visitors that Nina was improving, but was happening was still quite an ordeal. At least when she was unconscious she was quiet. During her brief, but increasing bouts of consciousness she screamed and swore and even occasionally seemed physically violent.

After some heavy treatment by healers and telepaths on staff, Nina seemed to calm down a bit. But she still didn't seem very aware of the world around her. Most of what she said was complete gibberish and her movements seemed slow and clumsy. Her powers occasionally flared up dramatically, covering the room in probes that seemed to have no real direction beyond skittering around the room randomly.

Nina's parents arrived and seemed to be there almost every day. Any frequent visitors would become well acquainted with her father and mother. They seemed friendly to any visitors, though her father was serious looking and intimidating. Both seemed very worried for their daughter but assured people that there was no one to blame for the situation except for the monsters that had gotten into Nina's head.

The opinions on Nina's condition were very hopeful. She was responding well to treatment, her doctors said, and they expected any permanent damage to be minimal. They did stress that physical therapy would probably be necessary.

[Jessica Temple]

Jess was also there every day, spending hours talking quietly to Nina and getting to know her parents.

She did resume classes but would frequently bring her homework into Nina's room to give her more time at her lover's side.

[Byrna Cooper]

Bear stopped in every couple of days to check how Nina was coming along, enjoying Jessica's, and Nina's parents company when she was there. (Nina's father got a hug, as well.)

She did her best to cheer up the hospital room, helping out however she could. That included getting the dustpan and broom whenever Nina had a bout of aimless probes.

[Nina Madaraki]

((SOMETIME DURING DOWNTIME))

((that totally rhymes))

It was the late afternoon and Nina's mother was sitting by the girl's side. She smiled down at her sleeping daughter looking fairly exhausted. Her father had left to do a bit of business at the moment.

Nina had been quiet for most of the day. She'd even seemed very close to be lucid at one point, though it was hard to tell because of the heavy drugs they had her on at the moment.

[Jessica Temple]

Jess came in, book bag slung over one shoulder, carrying a takeaway tray of drinks. As she had done on previous afternoons, she'd brought tea for both herself and Nina's parents, along with food to get her through the evening.

Setting the drinks down, she asked the same question as she had done all week, already knowing the answer, but needing to hear it anyway. "Any change?"

[Nina Madaraki]

Mrs. Madaraki shakes her head, smoothing her long black hair and smiling at Jess, "I'm afraid not. They're hopeful though."

[Jessica Temple]

Jess gave Ms Madaraki a weak smile in response, not pointing out she'd said exactly the same thing yesterday..

She gave Nina's hand a gentle squeeze, standing there for several minutes in silence before she started on her tea.

[Nina Madaraki]

"You're a good friend," Mrs. Madaraki says, "I'm glad she came here."

[Jessica Temple]

More than a friend.

"She'd do the same for me." Jess replied, smiling briefly as she gather up an errant probe and settled it down on top of Yorrick. It didn't stay there of course.

"No she wouldn't." Jes corrected on as she tried to coax the probe to stay put. "She be trying to work out what was wrong and how to fix it instead of this helpless waiting."

[Nina Madaraki]

"It's nice to know that," Mrs. Madaraki says with a tired smile, sipping her tea.

"How has she been? Is she getting along well?"

[Jessica Temple]

"She is." Jess nodded. "She's much smarter than me, sometimes I think she could do my homework better than me without even taking my classes."

[Nina Madaraki]

Mrs. Madaraki nods as if that's to be expected, "And she's been acting fine? No strange....episodes?"

[Jessica Temple]

"Episodes?" Jess queried, wondering quite how Mrs Madaraki would define that. For all she knew, Jess and Nina's relationship could be one big 'episode' in her eyes.

[Nina Madaraki]

Mrs. Madaraki sighs, "I shouldn't have brought it up but...I've been worried about her."

"Sometimes she seems to go off in her own little world," Mrs. Madaraki says, looking at Nina with kind eyes, "Sometimes for hours."

"And when she gets angry she sometimes....loses control. She'd been getting better but...I guess I didn't believe it'd last forever."