Her forehead furrowed at the mention of an electro-mag rod, and she shot an alarmed and suspicious look at his thigh. When she next spoke, her voice was flat. Probably hiding a distinct fear for him. "He shot you twice."
Tseng sighed at Sheska's change in tone. "Yes, he did. The second one went wide and just hit muscle. Which means I'll be able to get around fairly well with crutches in a few days instead of being stuck in bed the whole time, thankfully."
Sheska took a deep breath and for a moment, she wasn't sure if she was going to cry, yell, or do something completely different. As it was, she removed her glasses, rubbed her hands over her face, and exhaled a slow, shaky breath. She had promised him no lectures. If she just kept repeating that to herself, maybe it would make it true. She couldn't pretend everything was ok with this, though, and wound up keeping her hands over her face when she next spoke. "Um... How long are you going to be healing?"
He grimaced slightly - whether because of her reaction or because of his answer, it wasn't clear. "Probably about three weeks, unfortunately. Knee injuries are difficult to heal."
She nodded with a small noise of acknowledgment and looked at him through her fingers. "You two aren't going to try and hurt each other as soon as you're back on your feet, are you?"
He reached up and pulled Sheska's hands down gently. "Barring the city throwing us both for a loop again, no. I am not particularly angry at him, and while, Reno being Reno, he's probably annoyed at me, he seemed a lot angrier at the woman who was calling her the 'avatar of Desai'. And believe me, having your kneecap shot out is an intensely painful experience I have /no/ desire to repeat."
She nodded understanding, keenly aware of his hands on hers but carefully not looking (or squinting, as there was no way she could bring herself to separate right now) at them. "I should hope so. I don't blame him for being angry at this Desai person, but if she really is who they say she is, there is going to be more security around her... You won't let him go after her, will you?" She wasn't feeling particularly charitable toward Reno at the moment, but she didn't want to think about the repercussions of a failed assassination attempt. As it was, with him announcing his enmity on the Network like that there were probably already agents set to keep an eye on the Turks.
He gave her a small, reassuring smile. "I'll be sure he doesn't do anything foolish, don't worry. Not he'll be going anywhere any time soon with that knee, I think."
She returned the smile with a wry, "So says the man with two wounds, rather than one. Maybe you should ask Aeris-san to do that." She could have kicked herself. Here she was supposed to be keeping him cheerfully a-bed, and he was reassuring her.
"Point. Though I could send him threatening text messages across the house. Besides, with any luck, Elena is taking care of that little task already." He dropped his hand down again, settling back against the pillows.
She curled her hand loosely, slipping her glasses back on with the other hand. "I haven't heard from Elena in a while... Is she all right? She and Reno seemed to be getting along well at the breakfast the other day." For a moment she had the insane notion of never washing that hand again, but dismissed it as silly and ridiculously childish. ... But she did cup the one hand in the other as though it were a precious, breakable object, and watched his face.
"Elena is fine, although understandably a little shaken up today. As for her and Reno-" He coughed politely. "-I suppose 'getting along well' is one way to put it."
She looked at him, puzzled. What was it with people being intentionally vague the last few days? "Well... I'm glad she's all right. I think she had been a bit lonely, when she was living with me. Though this was, perhaps, more excitement than she really wanted."
"Perhaps...she was always closer to the other two Turks, and not having them around..." He shrugged slightly. "And I think this was a little more excitement than any of us wanted." He glanced at the clock, and, seeing that enough time had passed, reached over for the glass of water and bottle of painkillers.
She sighed. "I must say, I'm getting about as wary and tired of these strange events as Reno is." At the rattle of pills, Sheska eyed the bottle. "... Xiaowen... Those are your prescription, not Rufus' aren't they?"
He looked up at her again, repressing a small sigh. "Yes, they're my prescription. I had it somewhat forced on me by one of the doctors who was fairly certain I would be back within two hours of signing myself out." He tapped out a tablet and swallowed it with a gulp of water. "I usually prefer being clearheaded, but I'd also like to be able to think and get some sleep later, and pain is a bit of a deterrent to both of those."
A tenseness she didn't know that she'd had eased from her shoulders and neck and she didn't quite sigh in relief. "Oh good. Even having worked around alchemists and having read alchemy texts, I still don't know half of what goes into those things. Putting large amounts of things you can't pronounce into your bloodstream has always seemed a little uncomfortable to me. But when the pain is so great that you can't sleep and let the body get on with healing..." She shook her head. Thinking of Rufus lead her into wondering if Tseng had been going to see him, but surely not, if he had thought the Turks were after him. "If you don't mind me asking, where were you going to run off to? Not to Midgar...?"
Tseng shrugged slightly. "Well, that's science for you. Though I've been told that when it comes down to it, ordinary things are all made up of unpronounceable chemicals too." He shook his head slightly as if to clear the memory. Hojo was never a pleasant topic, even if he wasn't being creepy. "As long as it works and won't kill me, I don't care how exactly it works." He put the bottle and glass back down on the little table before answering her question. "I had a ticket to one of the more advanced Earth world - popular tourist destination. I still have it, actually, but it seems a bit impolite to try and get a refund."
"Well, if you're only a day late, and you didn't go, it wouldn't be impolite... You didn't use it, after all, so you should be able to get your money back. I could go down there for you, if you like, since you shouldn't get out of bed." She offered, cocking her head with a smile.
He gave her a somewhat embarrassed smile. "Well, I did cause something of a mess there. If you'd like to try, or at least see if you could get an exchange for somewhere you'd like to travel or something, it's on top of the dresser, with my wallet." He pointed across the room to the small wooden dresser.
"They may not return the money if they realize that was you, but it's always worth trying." She stood smoothly, making her way to the dresser and lifting the bill fold. She held it up for verification before opening it and gently extracting the ticket. She tried not to pay attention to the other things in the wallet - they were none of her business. She set the wallet back where it had been and brought it back over, setting the tote bag full of books next to his bedside table. "I'll run over there tonight before they close and see if I can't get a refund for you. I don't know if I could leave this place. Not right now, anyway. Is there some place you'd like to exchange it for, if they won't return the money?"
He nodded. "Yes, that's it." As she came back over, he shrugged slightly. "I can't think of anywhere - I suppose ask Elena, before you leave, if she has anywhere she'd like to go. The money isn't really a big issue - it just feels a little silly to let it go to waste."
"I'll certainly ask her. Everyone is so busy right now, it seems like. Is there anything else that you'd like, while I'm out?" She shouldn't keep him awake, if he'd like to sleep. He'd need a lot of it if he was going to recover quickly, even with the healing.
"Well, with everything that's happened the last few days, I'm not terribly surprised," he said dryly. "I think I'm alright for the moment - Aeris has been taking care of most of the everyday shopping anyway. Thank you, though, and the books are very much appreciated.
"I just hope you find them to be entertaining." She smiled at him and held the ticket tightly to keep herself from pushing back a stray wisp of hair that had worked itself loose to lie along his temple. "Be sure to rest, won't you? And call should you need me? I'm sure you'll be well taken care of, though."
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Re: Action!
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