ArchivedLogs:Patchwork Healing

Patchwork Healing
Dramatis Personae Micah, Corey, Kate, Jackson
In Absentia	19 March 2014 Bringing Jax back. Again. (Takes place a few hours after finding out about Spencer.)
Location <NYC> The Mendel Clinic - Lower East Side
With its sharp crystalline edges and sleek lines knifing up into the sky, this building is one of the most /distinctive/ new additions to the neighborhood. An angular structure in glass and steel, the tall tower has a deceptively slender look to it that is belied by the heavy security as soon as you enter the doors. The front doors are frosted with the Clinic's logo -- a rising sun over a rod of Asclepius -- a motif echoed in many places throughout the building. Visitors to the clinic must first pass through a small mantrap, guarded by some of the Clinic's security guards; once they make it through the metal detector and airlock's double doors they emerge into the much more hospitable lobby. With dark wood floors underneath and comfortable black and red couches at its edges, the high windows give the room an airy feel. A bank of elevators to one side carry visitors to the many destination floors, while the wide welcome desk at the other side is manned by a security guard ready to help point visitors in the right direction. Micah has looked better. He's still dressed in a long-sleeved white undershirt and torn khakis with a significant quantity of blood and ash and assorted unidentifiable stains on them, having been /going/ since Tuesday night. His hair is in worse shape than it would have been if he /had/ slept on it. A trip to the school using Professor Wagner's particular mode of sick-inducing teleportation, followed by holding his youngest son's already-cold body while it was injected and taken away for cryogenic storage has certainly not helped matters. At least the trip back was less rushed and simply involved a long car ride with an Xavier's staffer. It hasn't been long since Micah returned to Jax's room at the Clinic, not quite three hours since he left. Jax is still unconscious and wrapped like a mummy in an endless swath of bandages with tubes and wires protruding to attach to assorted monitoring devices and IV poles. Micah is finally /still/ for a a moment, seated in a bedside chair pulled up next to Jax with his head resting on his forearms, slumped over the bed's guardrail. Phone calls and texts left and right has lead Corey from one hurt friend to another over the most recent period of time, but he keeps a determined face in the course of events. He seems like he's been asleep or at least resting, as his hair is sticking a bit funny and he has a bit of stubble. He's wearing a pair of sweat pants, a white teeshirt with a zip up sweat shirt pulled over top of it and his feet are shoved into a pair of sandals. Still despite all that, his eyes are bright and alert, and he's as lively as usual. He is walking beside a shorter woman, and with directions from Clinic staff, they make their way to the room. Peeking in, he taps his knuckles against the door frame, trying to keep his face neutral. "Uh, hey Micah?" he says with uncertainty, not sure if he's waking up the slumped figure. "I brought along some help, and such." Caffeine and a stubborn willfulness to help is powering Kate at this point, along with a scant few hours of sleep from which she had been awoken by Corey's phone call. Holding an almost comically large reusable coffee cup as she walks with Corey to the room, Kate looks as though she is heading for work, dressed as she is in an old somewhat mismatched pair of scrubs - the pants are a faded kelly green, while the top features various dancing animals in a pastel rainbow of colors, beneath a white zip up hoodie. Her chocolate brown hair is pulled up in to a sensible ponytail to keep it out of her way, also possibly to hide the fact that the long night may not have afforded her time to wash it. Standing beside Corey, the young nurse looks even more petite than she is, though she carries herself with a confidence that belies experience. Waiting for Corey to talk first, Kate offers a gentle closed-mouthed smile, perhaps to hide the initial reaction to the vague diagnostics she gets from being nearby. "Hello, Mr. Holland-Zedner," she says quietly, nodding in greeting, "My name is Kate Floros. Corey thinks I might be able to help your husband recover faster." There is a brief pause and she offers hesitantly, remembering where she is, "I'm a healer." There's not a lot of outward anything initially coming from Jackson in the bed. He's breathing at least, his heart is beating, but he's -- very much not in good shape. Stable, at least, from visits from Joshua and Dusk in the immediate aftermath of the explosion, but much of his skin has been charred and crisped and many of his bones crumpled into unpleasant tortuous states. There's a heavy amount of damage to quite a few of his organs that the Clinic really /isn't/ equipped to do proper surgery on. His head turns, slightly, towards the newcomers, but past this he doesn't give a whole lot of immediate response yet. Unfortunately, Corey doesn't wake Micah with his arrival. He does startle, but only from /blank staring/ at the plain white sheets on Jax's bed. "Does someone need help with a dressin' change aga--Corey." The sentence shifts as Micah manages to haul his head up and focus bleary eyes on the tall man. "Thank you for comin'. I know you been gettin' pulled a dozen dif'rent directions. An' t'tell the truth I don't even know...where t'direct you first. I'd originally called for...another friend. Who's kind of a tree. Like an Ent. An' he got burned. But I...don't even know where they took 'im. He needs /outside/, not hospitals. I just. Remembered how y'made those flowers better an'..." His glance slides side-long to Jax, betraying where he'd /like/ to focus the healer's efforts. "Um...hello, Miss Floros. Thank you. I mean. Whatever anyone can do, we...kinda been holdin' 'im t'gether with gauze an' a patchwork of healin' abilities. But the docs, when they even have a second t'/be/ here. Ain't been makin' their optimistic faces. Please." His fingers rake shakily through his mess of hair. "I'm kinda hearin' all options at this point." Wincing slightly as he sees more of Jackson's apparent injuries, Corey shakes his head. "Oh man. I had heard like where the explosion happened. I just didn't quite realize," he shakes his head not voicing the rest of his thoughts. "Hanna and Jayna must have been farther, but they'll be alright soon I think." Thankfully, there is little the large man has to do for his healing energy to provide benefit aside from be present, so he moves to provide easier access for Kate to work, and he offers Micah a reassuring hand. "Hey, he'll be alright. We'll do what we can, I just don't know how long it will take." "You can call me Kate, if you'd prefer. Apologies for the formality, it's a bit of force of habit, " Kate takes a deep breath and nods, startling slightly when Jax turns his head towards them, "I'm afraid I can't offer a complete recovery right away. But," she pauses again, considering, "I can diagnose and repair. It requires physical contact, but I'll have a very detailed understanding of what I can do to help, and can offer a estimated time-line for recovery." She nods in agreement with Corey, "He'll be okay. He's stable. That is, um, more than I was working with on people last evening." The diminutive nurse pulls up one of the backless rolling stools over to sit beside Jax's bedside, opposite Corey and Micah, looking over Jax with an appraising eye. Offering a gentle, reassuring smile, Kate leans against the rail of the bed, addressing Jax this time in a soft voice, but also providing the information for Micah to hear, too, "Hello Mister Jackson. I'm Kate. I'm going to need to touch your skin - it might be a little uncomfortable, because you're badly burned, but the pain should lessen after just a moment. You might start to feel a little sleepy while I'm working." Her tone is warm, comforting as she explains this. "Is that okay?" The last question is somewhat posed to both Jax and Micah - a request for consent - which Kate waits for before she starting. Jackson's hand twitches, a little bit out towards Kate as she approaches the bed. Perhaps it's like consent; it's hard, really, to tell. His eye still doesn't quite yet open, though his hand settles a little bit nearer Kate on the mattress. "Glad t'hear they're doin'...okay," Micah responds to the news of Hanna and Jayna. "I was in the park across the street when it happened. The first...smoke started comin' out the windows on the third floor. S'where our apartment," he pauses, forehead creasing before changing the end of that statement to, "was." He nods, grateful for the contact from Corey but trembling slightly beneath it. His red-rimmed eyes look like they could well start tearing up again, if they weren't so painfully dry. "Kate. Yes. Apologies, t'weren't you. M'just. Southern. Y'can call 'im Jax. He...likes t'be called that." A small nod answers Kate's request for conset more clearly. "Please. Be...careful. But do what you can." At the trembling, Corey leaves his hand to rest on Micah to continue the reassurance. "If you guys need anything let me know. Though I mean, I wouldn't even know where to start. But yeah, just ask for what you need." He nods again and directs his attention to Jackson again, unsure of what precisely Kate can do, hell he's unsure of what he can do. "Oh, should we buzz for maybe more food for him? I... I mean, I don't know how your healing works, if he'll need to replace what he recovers." He seems uncertain either way, thinking he really ought to learn the weirdness of mutant powers more. "Alright, Jax. This might sting a little bit, but then is should just sort of feel cool and tingly," Kate cautions, nodding to Micah, "Midwestern, myself. Sir, Ma'am, etc. just reinforced by working in hospitals." Very gingerly, she touches a patch of exposed skin on Jax's hand, her fingertips rough and dry from repeated washing. Her eyes close as she concentrates, falling silent for several minutes while she works through the initial litany of injuries in her mind - though the flesh visible around the area begins to pink and renew, a slow and gradual spread of healthy flesh radiating from her touch. "Food is good," she answers Corey, quietly, her eyes still closed in concentration, partially mumbled, "Probly going to need some myself, too. I sort of... remind the body it knows what it's s'posed to do, as far as I can tell." After several minutes, she takes another deep breath and nods once, "Okay. I can't do this all in one sitting, it'll hurt both of us. Could... a few days, if I push it. But... I can start to address the most pressing internal damage, and the worst of the burns. Might be able to do more with Corey here." She opens one eye, looking at Corey, her attention still mostly focused on Jax, the repair to the skin on his hand sort of creeping along beneath the bandages, "It's actually interesting. Seeing someone else's healing working at the same time. Subtle, but helpful." Settling in, Kate focuses again, sighing to herself, mostly, "Right. Organ damage. We can do this. We'll have you feeling better in soon enough, Jax." "Oh-h-h." It's fluttery-soft, a quiet breath that comes several minutes after Kate starts working. Jax's eye opens, his fingers twitching against the sheets. He looks to Micah, first, then Corey, /familiar/ faces, but then slowly up to Kate. His eye closes again; only several minutes /later/ does he open his eye once more, looking back to Kate as if only just now even connecting her to what is going on. "Oh --" He breathes, slowly, more easily. And, simply, just a quiet rough: "Thank you, miss," as his eye drifts back off into a more peaceful sort of sleep.