Hospital, Bristol, Monday

[chosehumanity]

Early that morning, George had offered to get Annie a taxi. "Oh, no need," she'd said, and vanished before his very eyes; supposedly, back to the house, to see if the Door was still there. Which left George sitting at Mitchell's bedside, fidgeting, and watching the nurses argue about the heart monitor.

They were still pinning that on a possible defect in the system, but they were going to catch on sooner or later.

As the day progressed, he might have gone out to get some coffee occasionally, but mostly he spent his time here, watching Mitchell lie there, motionless, confounding the doctors. Apparently, his body hadn't forgotten how to simulate breathing just yet.

And because it wasn't enough of a clusterfuck yet, the hospital sent in a vicar later into the Monday evening, too, which was really complicated to deal with.

[[ for anyone who has reason to be in this Bristol hospital room any time today. spoilers for Being Human 1x06 likely if there are any comments. ]]

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[vanillajello]

By now, Kate had decided she hated portals to Bristol.

She hated them especially hard when they dumped her in town way later (almost early evening instead of the afternoon like she'd been aiming for) and in the wrong place (on the other side of town from the hospital).

By the time she got to the hospital (which was another thing she hated), she was ready to just snap at everyone, but managed to restrain herself. She assumed Mitchell was probably drawing enough attention to himself without people wondering who the random American girl was and why she was having a shitfit.

And by the time she was shown to Mitchell's room, she felt nothing but helplessness. She stopped to stand at the door, without a word. Like she needed a minute to just deal with the fact that this was reality.

[chosehumanity]

The heart monitor was making a pretty conspicuous beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeping noise. The nurses had given up on it for the time being, but it was still failing to register a heartbeat.

George had fallen asleep by his bedside, an inane magazine about interior decorating lying on his knee. As for Mitchell, he wasn't moving much, to be honest. He looked a lot paler than usual. A blood bag dripped pointlessly into his veins on the right.

[vanillajello]

After a moment of just... standing and staring, Kate stepped into the room, making sure to be quiet as she moved closer to the bed. She didn't need to wake George up yet. She didn't want to wake George up yet. That just led to talking and she didn't want to hear the kinds of things she was sure she eventually would.

Now, she just wanted to wonder at just how pale Mitchell looked, and how utterly human. Her stomach was twisting a little and she was almost glad she hadn't really eaten much after breakfast today.

She glanced at the heart monitor. No pulse. Of course not.

[chosehumanity]

Something was coming closer. Something... something. It twisted at Mitchell's senses in the dark, and his wrist tugged a little involuntarily, stopped by the IV that came attached to it. It wasn't that close yet, but something. He should warn-- someone.

Sometime.

George didn't appear to notice any of the motion at all.

[vanillajello]

Kate did, though. It was kind of hard not to, with how close she was. Her brow creased with worry and everything attached to it as she looked Mitchell over.

After some hesitation, she reached out to touch his arm, to... soothe, or something. She didn't know how to act in this situation, in this environment.

[chosehumanity]

It worked, at least a little. Muscles that had gone taut settled again, but there was something distinctly wrong about Mitchell's expression.

A man in a black suit with a white collar slipped into the room, a few feet in until he was at the foot of the bed-- then he cleared his throat. ... Not particularly gently.

[vanillajello]

And the frown Kate had been giving Mitchell's temporarily still form was now directed at the new guy. Wasn't exactly the same kind of frown though. One man was practically a brother, the other almost a threat until proven innocent.

"Who are you?"

That wasn't particularly gentle, either. More like a hiss.

[chosehumanity]

"The milkman," said the guy in perfect deadpan, tugging demonstratively on his collar. "Here to deliver the week's catalogue." And heaved the bible. He hadn't dropped his dry tone for even a second.

This time, it was George who stirred.

[vanillajello]

Kate was still looking dubious, eyes narrowing. "I don't think we need you here." Then her attention was drawn away. "George?"

[chosehumanity]

"He works here," the vicar said, "It's hospital policy to get one of us in if they think... Well."

"...what?" George muttered, reaching underneath his glasses to clear the sleep out of his eyes.

[vanillajello]

"We have a priest here," Kate said, still looking decidedly unimpressed about that. "Uh, also, hi. Jack called me."

She almost said something about stupid fucking portals. But right. Random stranger in the room.

[chosehumanity]

"Kate...?" George sat up abruptly. "And a-- what are you doing here?" he asked. Possibly of one or the other, possibly of both, who knew the difference?

"I was going to say a prayer for him," the vicar replied. He sounded, oddly, like he was having trouble not rolling his eyes. "Perhaps the two of you'd like to join me?"

[vanillajello]

"I think I'll pass," Kate said, and actually did roll her eyes. The only one interested in praying in her entire family was Alice, for fuck's sake.

And her brother while he was trying to get closer to cute boys, but whatever.

[bitten_notshy]

"I called Kate," Jack announced as he slipped into the room again. He'd been away longer than he meant to.

Some homework had been done, and some aimless walking. But, mostly, he'd been pestering Sebastien over the phone for a description of what had happened between his last moments as a human and his first as a vampire. Sebastien swore there had been nothing -- but Sebastien tended to forget.

[OOC: He can be there while Kate is there or after Kate steps out, whatever works.]

[chosehumanity]

"Yes, we know," George said, from his spot in the comfy chair by Mitchell's bed side. "We've seen her."

[bitten_notshy]

"I shouldn't have procrastinated so much," Jack answered, resigned. "... was everything okay?"

[chosehumanity]

"No. No, not really," George said, pushing on his glasses until they were practically shoved into his face. "Two vampires came 'round looking for Mitchell. He woke up again."

[bitten_notshy]

"I'm sure that did wonders for his recovery," Jack said, sounding as if this was all just giving him a massive headache. "What got them to go?"

[chosehumanity]

"We had a vicar over. He managed to put the fear of God in them." George laughed a little nervously. "Er, you can... probably talk to Mitchell, unless he's zoned out again."

[bitten_notshy]

"And we find a use for vicars," Jack murmured, and took the few steps to come closer to Mitchell.

So pale.

"How are you feeling?" Which was the stupidest question one could possibly ask, except anything else Jack could think of was stupider yet.

[chosehumanity]

"Like I got hit by a very large truck," Mitchell muttered. He was clearly hoarse, too. "And scraped off the side of the road."

[bitten_notshy]

"That's about what I would have guessed," Jack said. "Don't talk too much."

[chosehumanity]

"Talking, I'm capable of," Mitchell replied. He turned his head with visible effort. "Everything else, though."

[bitten_notshy]

"There's a hole through the middle of you, so that's not precisely a shock," Jack fussed. "Talking still takes energy. Just -- rest. I'm not going home for a bit."

[chosehumanity]

"My body's already healing as much as it can." As much as it could without a large quantity of fresh blood, but fuck him if he was going to say that to the lad already used to offering. "I'll be fine."