Sympathy {Desire}

[Desiré Alys]

Muffins for Sebastian.  Maybe that would be nice.  He knew his brother was upset over this whole thing, but Sebastian never seemed to dislike Dawn, and Dez knew from experience that her muffins were good.  It seemed to make her happy that everyone liked them, so he wasn't arguing.  "He'd probably like that."  At least, Desiré hoped he would.  He hoped Sebastian would stop looking the way Desiré felt.  He was starting to wonder just how much of the accident his younger brother was blaming himself for, or if he just felt horrible physically and it was manifesting in his expressions.

Either way, he wanted his brother to feel better.

He tore his thoughts away from his brother as Dawn started explaining what was wrong, and he actually blinked, surprised that she was even there.  "I can't believe you came.  If that had been my mom, I don't know if I'd have ever gone into a hospital again."  Ignoring the necessity of being in one currently, of course.  At least his own mom was going to be showing up later that day to coo over him and tell him that everything would be okay.  Unlike with Sebastian, Desiré allowed his mom to hug him and tell him those little lies that they knew probably weren't true, but would make her feel better for a little while.  Sebastian was realistic, usually pessimistic, and Dez had always seemed like the optimist.  Now, looking at Dawn, he realized what a real optimist, what a real 'good person' was.  Not him.

She had his hand again, and was holding it rather tightly, but he didn't mind.  He squeezed it back, actually unsure how to proceed from here.  Most of his friends, even the girls, didn't dump THIS kind of stuff on him.  Most of his friends didn't seem to have these kind of problems, though.  Now, whether she told him or not, he felt bad.  "Man, I'm sorry.  Really, I can't believe you're even here with all that.  You're a much better person than I am."

If it had been his family, he'd have been much more of an ass to doctors, and about hospitals in general.  Sebastian already had him beat, but it would have been much worse out of both brothers if that had been the case.  Of course, there was still room for the whole, 'the doctors said they could fix it' bit.  Thinking about what this mess could do to his family, especially his brother, was only worse when thinking about Dawn's problems.  Would Desiré be like a living reminder for Sebastian if things went wrong here?

Shit.

[Dawn Phillips]

"I hope so," said Dawn. She meant it. She didn't have this burning need for Sebastian to like her or anything, but she did enjoy being friends with people, and since Sebastian was Dez's brother, naturally she'd like that. Plus, as mentioned before, she liked his witty, darker sense of humour. It was refreshing, in a 'glad he's not saying that to me' sort of way.

"Of course I came," she said, chiding him lightly. "I wouldn't let that stop me. You're my friend, Dez. Think about it. Even if my mom were here still, she'd have told me to go anyways. She'd be more disappointed that I left you in here hanging out by yourself because I was scared." She didn't have to force a smile. Memories of her mother's wise lessons were something that Dawn could never be sad about; she was a better person for it. She knew her mom would have wanted her to grow from the experience, not regress.

"I'm no better than anyone else," she said firmly. "What time do you expect your family to be here, anyways? I don't want to crowd you any more than I already have." She didn't want to leave, not really. She still wanted to take the day off of school and try to grasp all of the info she'd just been fed, but really, she knew better. She'd just sit and worry, and she couldn't let her grades suffer again. It wouldn't do anyone any good, and she was sure that if she did, she'd get dropped from the play, and then Dez really would have something to bitch at her for.

[Desiré Alys]

He knew better than to push the issue, which was why he didn't.  He'd gotten his point in, and pressing that conversation could only make her uncomfortable at this point.  That was the last thing he wanted to do, since he really was glad she'd stopped by.  No sense in spending all of the time she was there feeling awkward and stupid.

He felt enough of that already with this mess.  He couldn't want to get moving regularly again, and had already decided that he was going to move around as much as was possible as soon as possible.  The bathroom was only the first step, especially since sitting in this room was going to drive him up a wall.  With as much time as he was used to spending outside, being stuck in the same room for extended lengths of time was going to get old fast.

"If you say so.  My parents won't be around until after work, even though I had to talk my mom into going.  Sebastian'll probably be around earlier, possibly after my Uncle's left and gone off to do his own thing.  Less chance of them running into each other that way."  It didn't take much to realize that Dirk wasn't super friendly, and that he and Sebastian didn't get along.  Dirk liked to wander off to the park with his old man magazines in the afternoon. 

Oh, shit.  Would he today?  Dez and Sebastian had been planning on going to get Dirk's magazines, but the accident screwed that up.  He hoped his brother didn't have to deal with Dirk more than was necessary at home.  That would suck.

[Dawn Phillips]

"Well," she said, "I wish I'd brought some cards or something for us to do. Unfortunately all I brought was book and the Mountain Dew, which was kind of an accident anyways." Of course it was - Dawn's accidents were always in her own favour. Hey, it beat the machine just taking her money and not dropping anything, or worse, dropping a Tab. Gross.

"We could read some lines, but I imagine you're not really into that right now. I should steal my brother's PSP and bring it up here for you. I'm sure you could probably manage to tap out a few games of Tetris or something," she offered. It would be easy to get, they all had spent whatever Christmas/Graduation money they had on gaming systems. Boys.

[Desiré Alys]

"Nah, don't worry about it.  No need to get your brothers pissed at you for my sake," he told her, and he really wasn't so sure how much time he'd have for games after he went into surgery.  He was betting he'd be doped up quite a bit after that and doing a load of sleeping, and if it went the way they were saying it might, he wouldn't mind being doped up and sleeping.  So far, he was avoiding putting any real thought into what all that would mean for him and his family, mostly because he knew it would be bad.  The last thing he wanted was to end up being the reason his family went from fairly normal to dysfunctional and bitter. 

Yeah, no reason to dwell on that, yet.  If that was how things went, he'd have plenty of time for that afterwards.

Besides, didn't the PSP require two hands?  With the way his one arm was wrapped up, he was thinking that wasn't quite going to work in his favor.  "I'm up for anything that doesn't involve lots of moving, really.  Lines would work, or if you wanna peek in the closet, I think my things are still in there.  I don't know if they threw my clothes away or not, but I had some cash in my pockets.  Don't the gift shops have some generic deck of cards or something?" he asked.  He was pretty sure that they did.  Actually...

"Give me a minute or two, and maybe I'll come with you," he told her, glancing at the IV beside him.  It really didn't have anything useful in it, just Saline, and he had to admit that he was hating it.  Couldn't he get them to take it out?  It made his whole arm cold, not to mention sore.  That, or he'd have to see if he could get Dawn to push it along with him while he was working the crutches.  Yeah, it'd be annoying and it'd probably hurt like hell, but he couldn't say he would mind leaving the room.

[Dawn Phillips]

"Okay, that would be cool," she said, brows raised. "The gift shops here are always stocked full of neat stuff. I don't know why they have so many knick-knacks, but they do. Hey, won't they get pissed if you leave your room?" she asked, tilting her head a little. "Maybe I can steal you a wheelchair or something," she trailed off, glancing out of the room for something that she could use to steer him around with.

She glanced back to him. "If you can't get free of all that junk, I can find the shop myself. I think I can anyways. I don't know why these places are always like rat mazes; it's like they want you to get lost or something." She stretched out a little before walking back to the chair, but she didn't sit down right yet - she was going to wait and see if Dez would get up or not, first.