how can you change what is altered

[forthsofar]

Somehow, she manages to stop the bleeding, that strip of sailcloth turning into as close to a lifeline as it's possible for a thing to be. A group of them get Jamie to the ship, to something approximating safety; the pirates have seen this kind of injury before, and know more than the rest of them what to do. It's so easy to let them take control of the situation, to salvage from it what they can.

Clothes splashed with blood, Rosie wanders belowdeck, passing hammocks and coils of rope until she finds a hidden nook in the ribs of the ship. It's narrow and shadowed, barely large enough for her to fit inside, but she climbs in and sits, folding her arms around her bent knees to make herself just that much smaller. She stays there, numb and silent and waiting for whatever happens next. Her eyes close, just for a minute.

When they open again, it's to the sight of a stark white ceiling and a fluorescent light so bright it almost shocks her. There's a slow, steady beeping coming from somewhere nearby, the strange sensation of tape against the back of one of her hands keeping something in place. She lies there in confusion for another moment more, then tries to sit up, the motion slow and full of so much effort she shakes with it.

"What..." she starts, looking to one side of the bed--the hospital bed, she's at a hospital now, somehow--and then the other. "What happened to the ship?"

Comments

[awickedtime]

Nick has barely left the room since they moved Rosie to the bed. He's been home to shower and change but, mostly, he's lived on shitty machine coffee and snacks. When she speaks he startles and, suddenly, he finds himself absurdy close to tears.

"Oh shit," he says softly. "You're back."

[signed_sabrina]

That Sabrina sleeps through Rosie's initial awakening can most likely be attributed to her utter exhaustion, paired with the safety of napping in Charlie's arms. They've stolen some much larger chair from the hospital, but she'd been fairly certain the hospital hadn't minded since it meant reducing its wandering, anxious teen problem. She'd finally given into the way her eyes had felt ready to swell shut when cradled securely against Charlie's chest; while Nick had also had his arms around her often enough, she thinks they're both hyper-aware of what's different when it comes to their mortals.

They're so much easier to lose, after all.

There's some movement and voices, and she goes from mostly asleep to mostly awake-- only to see that Rosie's state of consciousness has changed, and she gently extracts herself from Charlie's arms to pad over to the bed.

"Rosie?" Her eyes are still lidded in pink, her face pale, and her eyes huge and dark and worried. "You're awake."

[teenagerenegade]

Mostly, he's been staying where Sabrina needs him to be. She's dozed off, tucked in alongside him in the chair but, when Rosie speaks, Charlie is still awake, cradling a cup of shitty hospital tea in his hands. Relief floods through him like water, his eyes stinging.

"Oh, thank God," he says. "I didn't know what I was going to do with the two of them if you didn't come back."