Bad Medicine |Tag: Oz, Jessica, Force sibs, whoever|

[Irene Rutherford]

Eithne assured him there was, and that was that. She'd only had a few seconds with which to speak to him; any longer and Aaron would begin wondering how hard it was to find juice. As though on cue, Irene came into the room behind him, smiling demurely.

"I hear my services are needed?" she asked, her eyes bright. It was strange to see her in her "Onyx" mode; her blonde hair was pulled back into two messy pigtails and her button-down shirt was tied in a knot, exposing her flat, creamy abdomen. She wore earrings and heeled boots, and gave the impression more of Buffy the Vampire Slayer rather than the demure Irene that everyone at Diamond knew. Of course, she was Rini now, and she had to dress the part.

"I've only got a second. Come with me," she said, gesturing for him to follow her into the men's bathroom. Nobody was in there, thankfully. She pressed her hand to the full-length mirror on the opposite wall of the door. "I really hope you can do some good. Eithne's text was vague; she only said she needed you back there as quickly as possible. I'll leave the mirror open; it'll close when you come back through."

She offered him a reassuring smile. Nobody liked jumping through her mirrors, and she expected a Witch, whose nature was to avoid vampires, would enjoy it about as much as the others. The only person who liked it outright was Nicolette, and it was only because she'd proclaim, "SLIDERS!" every time she ran full-tilt at one.

[Gunnar Arissen]

"Jessica?  I'll be back soon, I just got called for another case.  Just hold the place for a little while until I get back," he told her, walking by and squeezing her shoulder to follow the vampire who'd just shown up.  He should have expected something along the lines of Irene, sorry, 'Rini' showing up as his 'ride', but she still startled him just a little when she came in all bright-eyed and dressed the way she was.  Still, other than to smirk a little and shake his head, he followed her and kept his mouth shut about using the mirrors.  No, he wasn't fond of them and it made him a little queasy; he didn't complain ever, but he really did think that it was his being a witch that made him fundamentally react a little worse to the vampire power that was just so very useful for Diamond. 

"Thanks.  I'm sure I'll manage something.  Stay safe," he told her, and then he was gone into the mirror only to step out in Diamond.  "Uhhnnn, I hate that."

Gunnar grabbed the wall beside the mirror, careful not to fall back into it and took a moment to collect his bearings before he smiled at Eithne.  He also hated looking like a wuss every time he stepped through one of Irene's mirrors, but he probably had a reason.  Hopefully, or he'd be very disappointed in himself.

[Jessica Markova]

Jessica felt like she waited forever. She was busy tending to people, making sure she got them out of there in a timely fashion. By the time Gunnar finally came back, she'd emptied the room down to people who were just critical; all the other bumps, breaks and bruises were gone. She finally had a few seconds to sit down, but then the door opened and he was just standing there.

Jessica gasped when she saw him. He looked like a ghost, really - as pale as one, anyways, with glassy eyes and sweat still at his brow. In fact, he looked more like a person who had a really high fever, which didn't make any sense given the fact that she'd just seen him only about an hour or so before and he'd been fine.

"Gunnar, are you okay? Here, sit down," she insisted, practically dragging him to a chair. "What happened? Where did you go?"

[Gunnar Arissen]

It was good that Jessica had used the time she had wisely and gotten rid of all but the most critical of patients, since it made for a much calmer environment for her and her co-workers.  Also for Gunnar when he returned, which hadn't been a fun move on his part.  When he'd finally been well enough to get up and back through the mirror Irene had left open for him, he was still a wreck and not likely to improve all that much.  It was actually a really good thing that the mirror into the guildhouse was in the men's bathroom, since the first thing he did upon returning was make a dash for one of the stalls and puke his guts out.  It wasn't all saltwater like Azhure and Aaron had suffered, but actually because he was already so badly weakened and just couldn't endure the mirror jaunt like usual. 

When he was done, he made the attempt at washing his mouth out and drinking some water nice and slow, but he couldn't stomach much of it without choking a little.  There was still that lingering sensation of water currents and drowning in the Lyr's energy as it sucked him dry that wasn't going to fade quite so quickly. 

He made his way to the infirmary and Jessica, pushing open the door and then just stopping there to take in the situation and try to figure out what the hell he was going to do here.  He knew he looked like hell because he'd seen himself in the mirror when he washed up, so her gasp and quick reaction as she dragged him to a chair wasn't unexpected, but he wished there was something he could do about it.  There really wasn't.  He wasn't like a triste who could get an energy meal to replenish themselves, though he'd learned how to draw energy from other individuals.  That was actually the only thing that had kept Azhure from utterly draining him before she'd come to and shoved him off, but it didn't mean he looked at it as a solution.  As far as he was concerned, he was just going to have to take the time to recover, which sucked.

"I tried to heal someone I shouldn't have," he explained, voice a little strained even after he was seated and she was fussing over him.  "She drank me down like I was a cup of water."

No, there was no getting away from the water references.  It was all he could think of when he turned his thoughts to her and what had happened.  All water, all waves and cold.  He may have been sweating from the whole ordeal, but he was cold like he'd taken an ice-water bath.

[Jessica Markova]

 As Jessica listened, she hurried around the room, a flurry of movement. She disappeared into a little nook, a shuffle, slam and beep was heard, and two minutes later, she came out with a mug of something warm. She grabbed a chair with the hand that wasn't occupied by the mug (inscribed "I got out of bed for this?") and wheeled it over to Gunnar. She sat down and held it out to him, large greenish-grey eyes wide with concern.

"Okay, I don't really understand, but okay," she said. "Do - er, is there anything I can do? Or anyone I can call?"

For once, there was a lull in injured people coming in. Either they had finally found other healers, or the hunters had stopped getting hurt. She felt uncomfortable in the silence, but she didn't know what else to do or say. She was in the room with a guy she had a crush on, and her timing couldn't really have been worse - Jessica sure did have bad luck with men, didn't she?

[Gunnar Arissen]

It was no surprise that she didn't understand, but he appreciated her easy acceptance and desire to help.  It wasn't that he didn't get any kind of appreciation back at Diamond or anything as emo as all that, but since he was the healer/doctor, he certainly didn't get fussed over....pretty much ever.  He was okay with it (though he'd have liked it if Eithne would have paid him just a little more attention, preferably when he was in a condition to appreciate it, instead of in a heap and at the mercy of an elemental), and he didn't complain, but he suddenly had a mug with an amusing saying on it full of hot tea in his hands and large, pretty eyes staring at him in concern.

He could get used to this.

Taking a shaky sip of the hot drink, he shook his head slightly immediately after.  Anyone she could have called was far too busy to worry about the fact that he overdid it.  "No, my guild is busy trying to save your people and I'm not in any danger of dying.  It was...a water elemental, I think.  It was like pouring energy into a bottomless pit."

He didn't know how to explain it to someone who couldn't heal like he could, though he'd had practice trying to explain the process before.  That wasn't quite it, but it was pretty close.  "Thank you for the tea," he finally said, offering her a tired smile and only really giving the room a closer look right then.  He wasn't going to be healing much for a little while, but it looked like his timing was actually pretty decent; the infirmary wasn't empty, but it was in much better shape than it had been.  "You did well while I was gone."