vanillajello | Room 324, Sunday Evening

"I won't," he said, just watching her now, waiting patiently since he'd pretty much exhausted his pain tolerance in standing up for any lengthy amount of time.

"Tomorrow, if I can, I'd like to go back to my cabin," he told her. "I have to get your picture."

"You're not walking to the cabins," she replied, gentle but determined. "All my shit's still back there too. I can go get it. Are we done here?"

She might have asked that only to have some sane reason to stand in the shower for just a little bit longer, even though her legs were pretty much screaming at her for having run around the island like that when she was clearly not a runner.

"If you're done, we're done," he replied, nodding. "Don't cut your shower short because of me, though. I'm fine where I am."

He wasn't standing so he was doing all right for the moment. He didn't argue about the cabins either. Walking was not fun to think about right now.

"My legs hurt," she replied, turning the shower off, as much as it pained her to do it. She reached for the towels, handed one of them to him.

"Mostly 'cause I already went to the cabins once today."

Bod took the towel and ran it over his hair and shoulders while he moved to slowly pull himself off the edge of the tub. It hurt, of course, but he was starting to get used to that.

"If your legs hurt, we probably shouldn't waste time in getting you off them," he said, still trying to sound authoritative.

He got an amused glance in return. Or a vaguely amused one, anyway. It was all Kate could muster.

"Pushy," she murmured, drying her hair some before just wrapping the towel around herself.

"Observant," he corrected, using the walls and door frames to aide his walk back out into her room. The bandage around his knee was pretty much falling off so he draped the towel loosely around it.

Being clean was a marked improvement on how he'd felt though. It was nice not to feel covered in a fine layer of ash and dirt.

Kate felt a little better too. But she thought it was more because he was here with her than because she'd finally taken a shower.

She slipped out of the bathroom behind him, crossing straight over to her dresser to dig out her first aid kit, and some clean clothes to go with her clean skin.

[Sleep calls to me, night!]

Bod moved towards her bed, sitting on the edge of it and keeping the towel over his knees. Her bed felt...amazing. He'd slept on floors (if sleeping twenty minutes counted) for three days so this was blissful.

"Is there anything I can do?" he asked, trying to be helpful.

[And me as well! Night!]

Kate was... pretty glad he couldn't see her face when he asked that. It was so very him to ask that. And right now that was pushing her so close to just cracking.

She didn't strictly speaking answer his question, but she did toss the first aid kit on the bed next to him. "There's bandages and stuff," she muttered, finally finding her Four Winds Landscaping t-shirt and a pair of shorts, clutching them to her chest as she straightened up.

Edited 2010-08-09 09:24 (UTC)

"All right," he said, watching her for a few more moments before reaching for the first aid kit. He pulled the towel away from his knee and slowly went about pulling off the wet bandages.

The burn looked worse than he'd thought, dark red, blistered with some blood caked in there and he winced. A clinic visit might have to happen if things didn't shape up but, for now, he was just going to use the fresh bandages to slowly wrap around it. It hurt...incredibly bad to do so but he pushed through it. He covered the gauze with an ace bandage, keeping them in place.

He ended up sweating with the effort (or the pain, he didn't know) and rubbing those red eyes of his again. He thought about doing his feet but acrobatics and stretching just weren't on his agenda for the moment. He was too busy trying to not whimper.

Kate tried not to look at him too much while he was doing that, because she knew he'd be in pain and she didn't want him to be in pain, and she knew there wasn't anything she could do about that.

So, after draping her towel over the back of her desk chair, she put on her clothes instead. First the shorts, then the t-shirt that made her look even smaller than she actually was. It was her dad's who was a pretty big guy, so that was no wonder.

Once they were both done, she turned to him again. "You should probably get dressed." Or she should help him get dressed. "'Cause I think that might require standing up. And afterwards, I'll... try to deal with your feet."

"Right," he said, still sounding pained but less like he was going to pass out. He nodded, hands flat on her bed and eyes on his knee. It was nice to have clean bandages and despite the pain.

"The shirt first would probably be easiest," he said, stretching out his injured leg and sighing when that eased some of the throbbing. "That's less likely to be the difficult part."

Some cuts and bruises were small compared to what he'd done to his lower body.

"Yeah," she sighed, moving to pick up his shirt. "If you just raise your arms, I think this should be fairly easy."

"I can still do that," he said and did raise his arms, using the opportunity to stretch a little too. His muscles were tired but not too sore so giving them a stretch felt good.

And it was easy enough, getting the shirt on him. Hands and arms first, then carefully tugging it down.

"Can't remember ever dressing you before," she muttered idly.

"You never have," said Bod, tugging on the hem of the shirt and running his fingers over the clean and soft fabric. It felt inordinately good and he actually did smile.

"Thank you for helping me now," he added after a moment, looking up at her gratefully.

She leaned down to kiss his forehead and whisper, "It's nothing. You'd do the same for me."

Then she sighed again, reaching for his shorts.

"It's something and I would do the same for you," he insisted, smiling softly again. "If you can manage to get the shorts up my legs, I can stand up and get them the rest of the way."

It seemed to be the quickest and most painless way and didn't require him shimmying around on her bed.

"That's what I was thinking too," she replied, already sinking down to her knees by his feet. It was easier to be about on the same level with what she was doing.

And it went without saying that she was going to be extra careful.

He knew she'd be careful and he trusted her so he slid closer to the edge of the bed to make it easier on her, keeping his bandaged knee straight since the pain had dulled for the moment.

"Hopefully I won't need this level of help for long," he said, biting his lower lip in anticipation. Or possibly waiting for any stabs of pain.

"You won't," she replied, condifently, as if she had a say in the matter. "And even if you do, I'll be around."

Being helpful and anything he needed. She found it an easy promise to make, right now, as she was easing him into his shorts. One foot first, then the other, then pushing them up his legs, trying to be quick but careful not to cause unnecessary pain.

She was mostly successful.

Mostly successful was still successful and even if he had a few throbs of pain, he could manage. He could deal. With the shorts halfway up his legs, he used his hands to push himself into a standing position, keeping little weight on his burned knee.

He reached down to pull his shorts the rest of the way up, settling them around his waist with a quiet sigh. Thinking of getting himself dressed as an accomplishment was odd but he did anyway.

Kate pushed herself up as well, totally thinking this was an accomplishment. Really, that they'd gotten this far without any tears was kind of a success too.

"Do you want to eat something?" Before she'd start poking at his feet and most likely causing yet more unavoidable pain. "I don't have anything... too healthy, but I have at least pudding and a couple of power bars, and cookies. And possibly an apple."

"I'm not really hungry," he hedged, not sure if his stomach could handle food, "but I know I should eat."

First, he was going to sit back down on the bed, rubbing the spot above his knee idly. "So, maybe just a cookie? I don't want anything too heavy but I should eat."

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