I need an easy friend

[hark_and_hush]

Who: Ruby and Bruce
Where: The Clinic
When: Day 74
What: Ruby needs a few stitches on her hand
Warnings: Nothing that isn't covered in the "what"


Ruby's hands are usually sure and steady, but she's been on edge lately and it only takes one slip. The knife she'd been using was sharp, so thankfully it hadn't hurt much, but after she washes her hands, she decides that it could really use some antiseptic.

The medicine cabinets are pretty bare, so she wraps her finger in an old hand towel and makes her way over to the clinic.

"Knock-knock?" She pushes the door open. "Anyone home?"

Comments

[greenisnteasy]

Bruce is indeed home, or at least he feels at home here. He spends so much time in the clinic that it might as well be his home away from prison away from home. He'd been updating his files, trying to sort through who's here and who's not and trying to make some new files the lazy way by going through other peoples' network posts and noting the faces he doesn't recognize. At some point he should probably actually talk to them, but this still counts as productivity.

He slides his reading glasses off as he stands up and comes to the front.

"Hi, Ruby." He smiles, still holding his glasses in one hand. "Can I help you?"

[hark_and_hush]

She smiles when she sees him. Bruce has been nothing but kind and helpful since she arrived.

Moving into the room, she holds up her hand, still wrapped in a towel. "I nicked my finger cooking. I just wanted to see if we had any antiseptic spray."

Unwrapping her finger, she reveals a small cut. It's not bad, but it's deep enough that it might need a few stitches.

[greenisnteasy]

Oh, hey! Normal medicine. What a novelty. He slides his glasses on again as he comes over to peer at her hand, and he hums thoughtfully before he points to what he uses for an examining table.

"Why don't you have a seat? I'm going to wash up and take a look at that. You might need more than some Neosporin."

He heads over to the sink to wash his hands, and he glances over his shoulder.

"How's the pain? And how do you think the pain would be if I need to give you some stitches?"

[hark_and_hush]

Ruby looks a little dubiously at the table before going to hop up and sit down. Does she really need stitches? He'd know better than she would, right?

Looking down at the offending finger, it is still bleeding a little. "It's not bad. The former occupants of my house had expensive taste in cutlery, so it was a neat slice. I guess it is bleeding a little more than I expected, though."

She settles her hand in her lap on top of the hand towel so that she won't get blood on her jeans.

[greenisnteasy]

"Just covering my bases, but I'm predicting you'll need at least a couple." He turns around with a smile and sanitized hands.

"But let's hope I'm wrong, huh?" He comes over again, peering through his glasses as he takes gentle hold of her wrist and examines her cut closely.

"It is a neat little slice, isn't it?" he murmurs, and he already has his answer; he's just sizing up about how many stitches he thinks he'll need before he straightens up again to deliver the news.

"Bad news is that you need stitches. Good news is that for stitches, I'll give out two pieces of candy of your choosing. Spoilers, I only have suckers."

[hark_and_hush]

With a wide grin, Ruby lets her mouth fall open, feigning excitement. "Lucky for you those are my favorite. Do I get a Dora the Explorer bandage, too?"

She swings her legs a little. She's not afraid of getting a few stitches, but she's feeling a little jittery, anyway.

"So I met someone interesting the other day."

[greenisnteasy]

It's Bruce's turn to stop and feign some excitement, though only part of it is feigned.

"Dora's my favorite. I do also have My Little Pony though if you're into magical friendship."

He starts rounding up the things he'll need, though he glances over at her. That's usually the start to a good story.

"Oh yeah? Who's that?"

[hark_and_hush]

"Ellen? She warned me about the angels who might be lurking about. Apparently, they do some real damage back where she's from and the world is ending." She shrugs. "No big deal. Just the Apocalypse."

It seriously brings a new level of awareness to her own problems, because she's pretty sure world ending trumps everything.

[greenisnteasy]

"Oh, is that all." He has to be careful not to drip sarcasm onto the counter as he comes back with a tray of instruments, and he pulls on some gloves. He hasn't had much time to really revisit the topic of angels with Gabriel and Anna or Lucifer, for that matter, though he thinks Lucifer's gone for now. That's one person he won't really miss.

"There are angels here," he confirms quietly, and he glances up at her to gauge her reaction. "I don't know what damage they might have done outside of Lucifer -- yeah, that one -- handing out some ill-advised powers to some people who probably aren't responsible enough to handle them."

And maybe pushing Bruce to Hulk out, as a happy accident at the end of all that.

[hark_and_hush]

"So Ellen's right? They're dangerous?" She doesn't like having to distrust people this much without even knowing who they are. "I mean obviously Lucifer is dangerous, but what about the less evil ones?"

A pause. "Are there less evil ones? I'm not exactly from an angel-heavy background."

[greenisnteasy]

Bruce sucks in a breath as he considers her question, making a face at the same time.

"No? I'm going to go with no, they're not dangerous. Not all of them. I mean, against all my lapsed Catholic, agnostic -- atheist depending on my level of bitterness -- leanings, they've been... helpful. Offering to help." Anna and Castiel, he knows, and Gabriel-Loki too.

"I have a couple of them on my emergency medical speed dial, actually. You're not enough of an emergency to merit it though, so hold still."

After getting her as ready as he can, he stitches up her wound carefully. When he's done, he cleans her up and looks up at her over his reading glasses.

"How're we doing? You holding up okay?"