12.23.08 - Wherever She Goes

Location: Redwall Infirmary

Characters Involved: Harper, Nathan, Sivaine, Tameus

Harper is still on shift. He's seated on a stool reading, his feet up on a counter. Fascinating!

Bundled up in a cot not far from Harper is Tameus. Just napping. Not sick.

From outside comes Nathan, his blond hair speckled with snowflakes that melt as he runs his fingers through them. He stops on the threshold, looking around. This ... is not where he thought that stairway would leave. "... who's idea was it to put an infirmary on the second floor," he mutters curiously.

"My design. All mine. Thought it up, dragged the bricks, mortared it all t'gether, dragged in some cots. Tada, infirmary." This comes from the back of Harper's head. Or, okay, it comes from the front of his head, but he's facing the other way, so. "Don't tell me - you stabbed yer paw with a fork," and now he's turning to see who it is and - blink. "Oh. You. Hi. C'n I help you?" Broooow... quirk.

"Then you are both very old and .. kind of dumb," Nathan says pleasantly to the hare, stepping more into the infirmary and shutting the door behind him. He flashes Harper a bit of a grin. "No forks, sorry. I'm trying to get accustomed to the abbey's layout, just wandering. Figured this would be .. dorms, or something. How's the day treating you, Brother?"

"We figure if they're not well enough t'get up the stairs, we'll let the crows pick 'em off. Saves time," Harper muses. He is giving Nathan a kind of odd look. Curious-like. "Well. Well enough. And yerself?"

"Well enough so far. I ate something like three .. four, maybe pasties at dinner. Inn food is never this good." Nathan takes another few steps, gestures at an empty cot nearby where Harper is perched on his stool. "May I?"

Harper gestures welcomingly to the cot. "My cot is your cot."

"What a generous sentiment," Nathan mutters wryly, "but for both our sakes I'd prefer not to share a bed, thanks." The joking tone is obvious as he sits down on the empty cot, leaning back so his weight is on his hands on the mattress behind him. "So, infirmary duty I guess? .. hmm. I imagine vermin are worse around here in winter."

Harper inclines his head. "You would be correct - on both accounts. We've just had a bloody drop-in earlier this evening," and he nods to one of the nearby cots, where Darklett lies unconscious. "I guess the vermin figure stabby fun is warm fun."

Nathan glances at the indicated beast, brows lifting a little. ".. another Long Patroller," he judges by the uniform. "So ah, of course you'd be the one to ask. Why so many of them around? Dorms flooded in Salamandastron?"

Harper smirks, shakes his head. "No. They came to pay their respects to Abbot Keiran, who passed in summer. And then there was a situation with the owl and now they're snowed in for the winter."

"The.. oh. Oh, the same owl Siva had a run-in with, I assume," Nathan says, eyebrows lifted.

Harper hesitates only briefly, nods. "The very same, yes."

Nathan crosses one leg over the other knee, and sits forward a little. "Well if it's not too much of a bother, could you tell me about that incident?"

"Well, I'm afraid I wasn't there. But from what I understand she stabbed the owl after the owl attacked a patrol hare by the name of Taye," Harper explains. He tilts his head. "So, I take it you knew Siv when you were younger?"

Nathan gives a slight nod in reaction, muzzle tugging into a fond grin. "Yeah... yeah, me and Siva.." He pauses, chuckles a little. "We were sweethearts, I guess you'd call it. Eight seasons, both of us. We spent a summer together."

Harper ahhhs. "Since her family moved around," Harper nods.

Nathan nods again. "They stopped for a summer in my village. Her mother took a post as a teacher there. ... best summer of my life. Then they left when the leaves started turning."

Harper muses. "I gather they did that a lot."

Nathan absently flicks at a clump of snow stuck on his boot. He glances at Harper's face with a kind of smile that shows more on one side of his muzzle than the other. "Yeah, since .. forever, is what Siva told me. I don't know where they went after that, but up til that point... I don't think there's a place they traveled to that she didn't tell me about. Always wanted to travel. I ate it up like... well. Redwall food." Grin.

Harper listens quietly. He nods. "So what happened after she left?" Tell me a story, Nathan.

Nathan lifts his brows. "I'm.. not sure how much I'm willing to say. By which I mean, I think there are certain things me and her both would rather.. just. Let go." He smiles apologetically.

Harper glances away, towards Darklett mostly just for a place to look. "Ah. No. Sorry I asked."

"No, no. Not at all, Harper, it's fine," Nathan says with a slight shake of his head. "You're just curious. I'm sure I'd be just as much so if our positions were reversed. So ah.. you and Siva, known each other a while? I gather she's just here for the winter, so it can't be that long."

Harper shakes his head. "... No. No, not very long. Just since she arrived, which - yeah. Wasn't very long ago. Some time before the winter."

"Well," Nathan says with a slight tone like he's reassuring the buck, "looks like a longer winter, might as well enjoy her company. She always leaves when the season turns." Absently his fingers run up into his hair. "... hell, not even I could keep her in one spot."

"It seems Ardice wants to stay. Siv's... been talking about visiting an Aunt, at least, come Spring." Harp shrugs noncommitally.

Harper considers. "So, I suppose you'll go with her, when she goes? Or?"

"Aunt Peh," Nathan says with a grin. "Wow, she's still alive? Brilliant. Ahh.. heh, you know," he responds to the question, shrugging in a somewhat sheepish manner. "... I really have no idea. I'll have to talk to her, and.. well. Talking to Siva is not as easy now as it was."

Nathan adds, "I certainly want to go with her, though. Wherever she goes."

"Well," Harper replies with a rather bracing smile, "I wish you luck with that."

Harper asks, "Mayhaps I c'n direct you to wherever it was you were trying to get?"

"Heh. Thanks," Nathan says, ears tucking back a little. "And ... thanks. But I wasn't actually searching for somewhere particular, which kind of nullifies the offer."

Tameus gives a sleepy sniffle and coughs a few times.

Nathan's attention slides from Harper to the sick leveret, brows furrowed slightly with gentle concern. "Ahh.. your son," he says, voice now lower - more conscious of not wanting to disturb anyone, particularly the little hare nearby. "He's a real sweet kid," Nathan directs at Harper.

Harper nods, looking towards Tam. "He is, aye." He shakes his head ever so slightly, thinking back to earlier. Ahh, Tammy. "I think a cold might be runnin' the laps 'round the dibbun population here."

"Well, it happens, especially with everyone living in one place," Nathan says with a nod, and another smiling glance at the leveret. "Well I'm certainly looking forward to meeting your wife, if she's as pleasant as you and your son are."

"Oh. Er - Tammy's adopted. His parents are dead," Harper explains. He hehs, "We're kind of a magnet for orphans, I guess." His eyes remain on the sleeping Tameus a moment longer before he glances back. Stands. Busies himself at one of the counters. "I assume his mum was pleasant enough, though. Most mums are."

Nathan cringes a little, his ears folding back for a moment. "Ohh, bother.. I'm sorry, I shouldn't have assumed." He rubs at the side of his muzzle, looking a little hesitant. Then that smile blooms across his muzzle again. "Most orphans aren't lucky enough to be adopted, though. And by an abbey Brother."

"Well, as you said, he's a very sweet kid," Harper explains.

Tameus coughs again, a few times, the sound rattling out of his chest; then he takes a wheezy inhale and hugs his doll.

".. and a very sick kid," Nathan adds, with a sad little smile. "I'm sure he'll be healthy as ever in a few days. Kids aren't patient enough to stay sick for long periods."

Harper nods. "He's a tough one. He'll be just fine. If only so he can go outside 'n' play again."

Nathan chuckles and falls quiet after that sound. Then his ears perk up. "Oh! My manners, they always seem to be lacking. I had meant to thank you for the food.. ... and the ice pack."

Harper blinks. "Oh - it was nothing. My job, really," Harper explains. He is washing used healing supplies in a basin, his back to Nathan.

"Well. Obligation or not," Nathan says, standing up and absently tugging at one sleeve of his jacket. "... it was much appreciated. Ah.. anything you need help with? I'd hate to just sit here while you're working."

"/There/ you are. Finally," comes a brisk female voice from the stairs, followed a moment later by Sivaine. She looks flushed from an outside run, there's bits of melting snow caught in her headfur, and her expression is one of those nail-you-to-the-wall stares. ..except then it changes. "..oh." There /you/ are. Hello awkward.

Harper shakes his head. "Not much to be done, really." Workworkwork. "At least here, anyway. There's always plenty to do around the abbey." Heh.

"Yes, I've been discovering this," Nathan chuckles, "I had a stint of dish-duty.. today..." He trails off, looking toward Sivaine now. His mouth pulls into a smile. Almost boyish in the pure happy-to-see-you quality. "... hi."

Harper's ears twitch at Sivaine's voice. He glances over his shoulder, blinking. "Oh. Siv." Oh hai.

"Erm." Sivaine seems to have quite forgotten her purpose in coming here, and much of her characteristic ire. She blinks, edges back a fraction. ".. hi." There's a twitch of a smile, nervous.

"... hi." Nathan flashes a grin, hand rising to push blond bangs from his forehead. A glance goes to the window; darkness. His eyes slide to Sivaine's turquoise ones and stay there. "You're finished for the night?"

Harper's eyes shift between the pair a moment. And then he turns back to the washing - the fur on his arms is damp to his elbows.

"..you said that," Sivaine points out. It's a /very/ complicated expression, somewhere between nonplussed, hesitant, and.. well, it doesn't know /what/ to be. "Outside, yes," she answers after a pause. Her eyes flicker to Harper for a moment, and her tail lashes an irritated circuit in the air.

Harper doesn't look around. Heck, he doesn't even say anything.

Nathan catches the glance at Harper. His brows lift. ".. aha. Sorry, go ahead and talk to Harper, I can wait to steal you off." He gives Sivaine a grin, moving as if to pass her and go out into the hallway - though he pauses just long enough to sneak a kiss onto her cheek.

Sivaine closes her eyes as the kiss lands, ears folding back a fraction, but she doesn't move. Or inflict physical harm. There's a certain not-so-resigned resignation about the gesture. "Ah.. right," she replies quietly.

"Good night, Nathan. Nice talkin' to you," Harper pipes up. Other than that, the only sound from him is that of washing healing supplies.

With a backward glance Nathan reaches the door, then pauses. "Ah, Harper. Good talking to you," he aims at the buck, smiling as pleasant as ever. ".. hope your kid gets better soon." And he steps out.

Sivaine opts for just.. standing there. Waiting. Her gaze drifts to Tam on the cot, then back.

The sound of scalpels and things going clink-clink-clink in the washing basin. What an answer!

Tameus coughs again, hard and deep, and gives a little whimpering noise in his sleep.

"So." Sivaine folds her arms. It seems a safe enough way to start off.

Harper's ears twitch. His paws briefly still. He glances back, at least half-heartedly. "So?" Hm. "Nathan seems nice."

Sivaine raises a brow. "To a fault," she confirms.

Harper's eyes return to his washing, which he resumes. "Mm," he murmurs nonspecifically.

After a brief break spent just wheezing, Tameus starts coughing again, hard enough that his little body flinches with each one and it's a small miracle that no one sleeping in the infirmary has woken up.

Harper's ears twitch. He sighs, shaking his head. "Always the worst at night..."

"..look. I'm as surprised as you are." Another look at Tam. When the cough comes she winces, and there's real concern on her face. "That's worse than I last heard it."

"What, surprised?" Harper questions, not looking up from his work.

"You're not?" Sivaine taps her fingers against her upper arm, causing little undulations in her cloak.

Harper's ears twitch again, but for a wholly different reason. He finally turns, drying his paws on a cloth. His eyes are narrowed slightly in consideration. "What do you think I'd do if Flaxpaw showed up tomorrow? I'm not surprised."

The coughing eases a little and Tam settles, each inhale sandpapery and struggled for slightly by the sleeping buck.

"No. I didn't think so." Sivaine's voice is dipping into that low murmur that can mean so many things, few of them good, and her expression has slipped into impassiveness. "Still have Tam's inkwell, then."

Harper's ears flinch a little bit, but he remains otherwise neutral. "And?"

"And." Sivaine huffs a little and studies a spot just above Harper's left shoulder. "You were holding on to it for me."

Harper's ears flinch further. And color a little bit. He cuts his eyes away. "Oh. Right. It's in the healer dormitory, on the shelf above my bed."

"I'll just. Get it."

And Harper goes, disappearing briefly into the dorm.

"Harper-" Sivaine starts, then bites her lip.

But he's gone. He's gone for longer than would be necessary to grab an inkwell, too. At least a couple of minutes. When he returns, he glances only very briefly into Sivaine's face before his eyes skitter away, as if burnt. He settles on a spot past /her/ shoulder. He walks across to her, holding out Tam's gift. "Here."

As Harper reenters Tam's wheezy sounds turn to coughing again. His form tenses up and jerks with each sound and he twists a little in discomfort. The doll falls off the edge of the cot.

Sivaine doesn't take it at first. Instead she ducks away to the cot, crouching down to pick up Tam's doll and set it back next to him, brushing against the leveret's paws.

Harper's eyes turn to follow Siv's path, silently.

Tam's fingers move reflexively as the doll is bumped against them. He pulls the doll back in toward him and gives a clenched exhale against Taye's head.

Sivaine's paw hovers there a moment. Then she nods to herself and pulls back, returning to Harper in silence save the rustle of her thick woolen drape. "What did he tell you?" she asks, closing her eyes. Tired.

Harper's eyes shift away when Sivaine turns back. "Nathan? Not much. Nothing I hadn't gathered already."

"And.. what did you gather." Sivaine's voice is slightly husky, most likely from running in the cold air.

Harper's eyes briefly snap back to Sivaine's own, briefly searching. "That the two of you were 'sweethearts'," he uses Nathan's word. "For a summer, apparently. When you were eight seasons. I gather he left. Or you left. Or something. Nathan didn't want to say. No sense dwelling on past pain, eh? Water under the bridge 'n' all that." Ha. Haha.

Sivaine takes all this in, and her mouth twists to the side. "Of course he didn't want to say." You can hear the eye roll. "Ngh. No. I.. we came back there, after a year. He'd.. well." She looks away. "He was there, but.. somewhere else. Someone. Else." Wince. "I don't know what he's thinking now."

Harper's eyebrow quirks. "I rather think I could hazard a guess." He /almost/ snorts, but holds it back.

"Really." Sivaine's voice is flat.

"The guy's crazy in love with you, Siv. Wants t'follow you t'the ends of the earth." Oh, he looks so wry. So very. Grim humor, thy name is Harper. "Just about ride your coattails, if ya'd let him."

More heaving, hacking coughs from the sick kid. The wheezing suddenly turns to sounds almost like he's choking, mouth open and making raspy sounds when the coughs die off again.

Now she really does wince - grimace - and grit her teeth, eyes closed, while her fingers dig into her upper arms and her ears slick back.

Sivaine says, "He can't. Just. ..hh."

Sivaine says, "Idiot."

Harper's ears flick at Tameus' sounds. He ignores Siv's attempts at speaking. "So go on. You're a mouse, he's a mouse. You'll be great t'gether. He's ridiculously cheerful - the perfect, smilin' little balance to your snark. What bipolar children you'll have," he concludes with a laugh - just an exhalation of breath, really.

And then the humor suddenly collapses, and he sighs. "I'm sorry. That's not fair. I'm not being fair. But I'm not exactly sure what else t'do. I notice you haven't mentioned me to him. He /certainly/ didn't know. So what'm I supposed t'think? I told you once that I'm here - if you want me. If you don't, that's fine. Just tell me. I'm tired, Siv, so tired."

"Heh." It's not a laugh, not even a humorless bark. It's a little gasp like she'd been punched in the stomach. Sivaine twitches; her fingers spasm, claw at herself, then tighten to a death grip as she sinks to the floor, crouched over her tucked-up knees. "Hhh." She releases a silvery breath, an exhalation under pressure, and her shoulders jerk.

Well that's not good. Harper's ears flatten to his skull and he looks down on her in alarm. He sinks down in front of her, eyes all of a sudden full of worry. He rests his paws on her shoulders. "... Siv, I'm sorry. Siv. Never mind. It doesn't matter, okay? Forget about it." His eyes are searching.

Sivaine isn't crying. No, definitely not. She's doing the opposite, curling in on herself and trying to contain the expanding bubble in her chest, but it leaks out in hitching, hissing breaths that make her rock ever so slightly with each one.

Harper hesitates, oh he hesitates. Does he have the /right/ anymore? The hell with it if he doesn't. His arms go carefully around Siv, to stabilize and comfort. He doesn't trespass - would it be trespassing? - with a kiss, or anything like that. "Siv, shhhh... I'm sorry. Look." He closes his eyes, jaw briefly stiffening. Silent exhalation of breath. "I don't matter. Just. Take whatever time you need, figure things out - with Nathan or with yourself or whatever you need to do. I can't stand t'see you like this, so if it means takin' myself out of the equation, that's what I'll do."

"Nhh." Just a desperate little whine. She shouldn't make sounds like this. She shouldn't be /capable/ of it.

He doesn't mean to ruin the moment. Really he doesn't. But Tam is sick and he just. Keeps. Coughing.

Oh man. He broke her. Harper's throat aches. "Please stop Siv please please stop..." And hey, for that matter, Tammy, that goes double for you! Why do you plague him, oh sad-making people.

Nothing. Just more sounds, gradually shifting from strained hissing to half-vocalized keening and ragged, gasping breaths. She fights every one. Gulps. Tenses. Shudders.

Harper's voice is thick, "Siv, I can't- pleasestopmakingthosesounds, please please I'll do ANYTHING I'll leave I'll never-" His voice cracks and his words fall off. Like they've reached the edge of a cliff and jumped off without any satisfying *thud* at the bottom.

And Tam. Tam is coughing and it doesn't stop this time.

"Tam," Sivaine whispers and draws a strangled breath. "Go see Tam."

Harper jerks as if slapped. His arms fall away from her and he stands, turns, walks over to Tam. His shoulders are hunched, as if standing too very straight would hurt him right now. There's not much he can do but stand there. A coughing Tam who is sleeping and getting rest is better than a coughing Tam who is awake and miserable.

The leveret coughs raggedly and nearly chokes on the feeble inhales he tries to take. If Harper had been paying attention he'd have noticed that since Sivaine's arrival he's started sweating and looking very flushed indeed.

Sivaine's arms tighten around herself a fraction as Harper moves away. She stays huddled, balled up in her blue cloak on the floor, and gradually lapses into a silence only broken by the occasional strangled sob that's quickly hushed.

Clearly he's allergic to Sivaine's presence. Harper crouches down, feeling Tam's forehead. Feverish indeed. Tam's well and got it, now. He sighs softly.

Tam gasps and wheezes and clutches miserably onto his doll, little body shaking with coughs that just. Won't. Go away.

And then, nothing. Sivaine's breathing comes under control - forcefully at first, then easing into breaths measured and slow that fade into silence.

So that the only sound is Tam's coughing, which Harper can only watch. His paw rests on the dibbun's forehead.

And the coughing shows no sign of abating.

Sivaine's shoulders loosen by fractions; her fingers relax. She draws a deep breath, holds, and releases it slow.

"C'mon, Tam... ease up," Harper murmurs softly.

The coughing eases. For about two seconds. It's long enough for him to give a slight, breathless whimper before the coughing takes over again. One almost expects a lung to detach.

Or lung tissue to start coming up. Ho hum.

What a pleasant end to the day that would be.

"Harper," the Sivaine-lump muffles.

Harper's ears twitch. His eyes flicker briefly toward Siv before looking Tamward again. "What?"

Sivaine's ear flickers and she raises her head a fraction. "I don't know. All right? I just.. don't know." She gazes at a point beyond her nose. "You're not the only one that's tired."

And still more coughing.

Harper's ears are lying about his shoulders, all dejection and woe. "I know, Siv. I know. I won't make things harder than they are." And he scoops Tameus up, then, carrying the cough-racked form toward the healer dormitory. "Good night, Siv."

The doll slips from Tam's hold as he's lifted. The leveret ends up choke-coughing into the front of Harper's habit.

And Taye doll is on the floor again.

"Hnnhf." Sivaine just sighs, then stiffy uncurls and straightens, wincing at a knot that's formed in her calf. Her eyes fall on Taye doll, trail up the dorm door, then close. After a moment she wanders over and picks up the stuffed toy, thoughtfully squishes a lump of stuffing into shape, and sets it on the workbench. "Too late," she murmurs, and turns to go.