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[beautifullies]

Who: Claire Fraser + YOU
Where: Her room, clinic, outside
When: After the hurricane blows over
Rating: Light cursing, wherever that puts us.
Summary: Something's wrong with the closet and Claire blames whatever tf happened over the weekend. Plus, she needs to check on the garden.
The Story:

☼ home ☼

Ever since arriving in Wonderland and for few exceptions otherwise, Claire has always dressed in 18th-century fashion. Not because it's overly comfortable; it's sentimental. Frank had purposefully destroyed every single thing Claire had to remind her of the life she'd lived with Jamie (save for Brianna, of course, and her ring), and she'd be damned if anyone would ever take that away from her again. Twenty years was long enough. Besides that, her husband won't suddenly and all at once adapt to 20th-century life. Paired with Wonderland being modern in and of itself, seeing their daughter in bikinis, shorts, and tank tops is enough for the poor man's heart, she feels.

Which is why there's some frustration happening in their room today.

Every now and then she keeps the door open to invite friends new and old alike to their 4th floor home. It's almost like being Laird and Lady again, to have people come in and out of their home just to visit. They don't collect rent and they aren't overseeing anyone's safety and well-being, but it's nice all the same to get to know their fellow residents. But today, that open door is revealing a current struggle.

"You damned bloody closet, cooperate," she huffs. But it doesn't. And outfit after outfit is modern, including the one she's currently wearing. Giving up, she rubs her face and decides to just spend her day in the damned blue dress and heels, if that's what she's meant to do for God knows what reason.

"Christ, fine."

The rest of her morning is spent tending to her indoor plants, fussing over them and trimming what needs to be, taking care to check soil and light and everything else that goes into taking care of her herbs. Sometimes Bree or sometimes Jamie will lead people through their own version of Lallybroch to speak with Claire and she greets everyone, happy to chat the day away.

☤ clinic ☤

Making her way to the clinic and pushing the door open, she props it then stares in confusion once the lights are on. Broken glass.

"How in Christ's name..."

It's interior, with the views she assumed were magical because how in hell does an interior room have windows? And yet whatever hurricane winds swept through shattered two of them and she sets out for a broom and dustpan to try and get it cleaned up. Why didn't Wonderland repair itself? Or is it still trying? She has no idea. If they don't repair themselves she'll need to ask someone if they can help, but for now, she simply closes the shades once the glass has been removed. At least the weather is nicer now.

Once she's done, Claire sits behind her desk right at the front and gets to work on a list of things to plant outdoors now that spring has arrived and she has a better idea of the climate during each season in Wonderland. She's lost in thought and tapping her pen against her cheek, contemplating beets and radishes this year instead of carrots and peas. Maybe she'll just go for all four. That's why as someone walks in, she murmurs. "If you had your own garden, would you rather yield radishes or carrots?"

✿ Gardens ✿

Early in the evening, but before supper with Jamie and Bree, Claire heads outside to the gardens, trading her high heels for boots and wearing an apron over her dress. A dress that is so impractical for outdoor work, but a fight she didn't want to continue having with Wonderland's magic.

Basket in hand, she crouches, trying to remember not to bend lest she give everyone a free show. Examing plants, she moves to the greenhouse where things are up on raised tables and she doesn't have to worry about being down on her hands and knees in a dress. As she works, she hums to herself, a mindless tune that sounds suspiciously like Stop, in the Name of Love. It's peaceful, which means it's easy to get lost in her own thoughts out here, busy working as she is. She loves company, though, never minding it as she adds things to her basket and makes notes of what she's going to plant and where.

❤ Wildcard ❤


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Comments

[waitin]

Clementine smirks softly if only because she hears the surprise in Claire's voice. "It sneaks up on you," she says by way of understanding, but she moves up to the table, setting the crutches aside.

She was able to pull herself up the side of a cliff without the use of one of her legs given it'd been cut through to the bone (In fact, that is how that leg got bit, but she still made it up even after getting bit) so she feels pretty confident in her ability to get up on the table. Clementine presses her hands on top of the table, lifting herself up on top of it with minimal struggle.

Clementine turns back around, releasing a breath at the question.

"So I live in a place with walkers-- zombies everywhere." If Claire's been here two years, she probably knows what those are by now. "If you get bit by one, you'll turn into one too. Sometimes if you're bit on a limb, you can chop it off fast enough, and you'll survive. In the middle of a lot of other shit, I got bit on my leg," Clementine says quietly, right where the other wound had been. It hurt like hell. "AJ, he's six- I... kinda raised him. We got somewhere quiet but surrounded by walkers still, dangerous. I told him to leave me, but he... had other plans and had the ax to pull it off."

And he chopped off her leg.

[beautifullies]

Jesus H. Roosevelt Christ.

It isn't the answer she's expecting, and as she listens, she's glad her back is turned, reaching to pull gloves out of a box. This girl can't be much older than fifteen or sixteen. There's so much to process, but she first wants Clementine to know that she does, indeed, understand that world.

"I cut off quite a lot of limbs during an event once. We were in a neighborhood that became overrun by the--walkers, as you call them."

God.

Facing Clementine now, she sits down on her rolling stool so that she has to look up at Clem; partly on purpose, mostly because it will be easier to look at her leg. "If he saved your life, whatever else is going on with your leg, it doesn't matter, I'll fix it." She reaches out to begin moving aside clothing but pauses, looking at the girl for permission.

LMFAO that gif

[waitin]

Clementine nods in understanding. She cut off someone's arm during that Event, but thankfully, no more than the one especially since she doesn't have medical training at all. Not beyond knowing what to do in those specific situations with what items they can find. She taught AJ all she knew too, and it's the only reason he knew how to respond.

"He saved my life," she says in confirmation, some pride filtered into her voice, and then sees the way Claire sort of asks permission. She appreciates it. Clementine takes out the pins that hold the bottom of the pant leg together, and revealing the stump underneath. It's still bandaged, and she cleans it regularly, remembering Ruby said that was important.

It tends to be important for most injuries but especially for lost limbs. She had to do the same when she lost her finger. "I've kept it clean. It's not the only limb I've lost." She lifts up her hand to reveal the missing finger. "But it hurt a whole helluva lot more to lose the leg. Still does sometimes like it's there, like it's on fire. Is that normal?"

[beautifullies]

Claire's heart, if it's even possible, breaks even further. But she swallows, nodding at the question.

"That is normal, yes. It's called having a phantom limb. Some amputees even say they can still wiggle their toes," she says with a faint smile. "There are a few different things we could try to help with it." Then, she begins unwrapping the bandaging to look at the wound. It isn't a clean cut, which isn't surprising considering a six-year-old did the job.

"Well, that little boy managed to avoid an artery, likely without knowing it. It's a little jagged where the skin wasn't cleanly cut, but--"

She trails off as she inspects a bit more. No redness, no swelling; honestly without antibiotics and easy access to fresh clean bandages and water, the fact that she doesn't have an infection is a miracle. "There isn't any reason why this shouldn't heal well, as long as we start taking care of it a certain way," Claire promises.

"May I ask how you lost your finger?"

[waitin]

It helps to know it's normal (the pain, the feeling like it's still there even if it's not). Sometimes it makes her feel a little like she's losing it.

"Yeah, I don't think AJ really aimed all that well at the time." He was crying so he couldn't see, and it's not like she knows the best places to cut. "He cauterized it afterwards anyway. I taught him how to do that. Ruby- She's at this school that's kind of our home now. She got training from the school nurse when the whole world went to hell, but she's helped me care for it."

She's not sure everything that happened, because she was unconscious at the time, but Ruby was able to keep it from getting infected. Keep it cleaned.

Clementine blinks a bit and then lifts up her hand to look at the missing finger. "Yeah. Even if it's kind of a stupid reason why." No walker bite, just Clementine trying to go too fast and not having access to antibiotics. "AJ was a baby. I was trying to hunt food for him, but we were getting surrounded by walkers. I found a car, and I tried to put him in it to keep him safe. Slammed my finger in the door. ...that did get infected."

[beautifullies]

That a group of young adults knows so much about first aid and wound care is surprising. Perhaps less so, knowing the world Clementine is from.

"It's easy to get infections, easier than people think. Trust me, I live in a time when penicillin hasn't even been invented yet, so the fact that you have no infection very sincerely speaks to how good of a job you and Ruby, I assume, did."

Honestly, Claire's impressed.

"I could clean this area up a bit with a little skin graft, but that would be completely optional and not necessary." She could smooth over it with skin from the back of Clementine's leg, but truly it likely doesn't matter. It isn't as though it would stay that way once she left. But if she wants it, Claire will do it.

[waitin]

Clementine knows what it is like to not have penicillin for an injury because there simply wasn't any available, but she doesn't know what it is like to not even have it invented yet.

It must have been terrible how easy it was for people to get badly sick, to lose a limb, to die. Without hope of finding medicine that might help.

"A... skin graft?" She's not sure what that even is, which should be evident by her confusion. "So... cleaning up would just change the look of it?"

It is strange to feel so connected and so disconnected from a part of herself simultaneously.

[beautifullies]

"That's exactly right. I would carefully cut a round piece of skin from somewhere else and then simply shape it around the end of your leg and suture it in place. As it heals it would look more like a smooth, clean cut happened."

She doesn't assume what this young woman would truly want, so she tries to put options on the table, just to give her a choice.

"You're in no danger of doing any further damage if you leave it the way it is. You and the people who cared for you truly did a wonderful job."

[waitin]

Clementine tilts her head to the side in genuine thought. She is not someone who cares much for the way things look. It's impossible to care living in the world that she does, and okay, maybe she cares a little bit when Louis is involved, but he doesn't seem to mind the way her stump looks.

"I think it's okay like this. It's ugly, but the moment was ugly too."

There's a pause. "But uh, thanks. I'd like to come back to figure out what we can do about it hurting sometimes, and I'm gonna try to figure out how to get a prosthetic leg for it and learn how to walk with that. ...and hopefully run."

Cause otherwise Events are gonna be hard.

[beautifullies]

Claire's never minded scars; Jamie's back is a map of them and she knows that once he thought they were ugly, twisted things. He only had to find her to know the weren't, that they were simply a part of him, a whole that she loved.

"Scars and wounds that we live from are certainly stories. Lessons, maybe. Of what, I'm not always sure."

She nods with a smile that's more warmth in her eyes than anything else. Turning to get some cleaning supplies and bandages, she nods. "It isn't always easy, and you'll need practice, help walking. What's important is that you don't put a world of instant expectations on your shoulders, alright?"

Claire's voice is gentle when she says it, looking right at Clementine as she sits back on her stool and begins to clean the area on her leg.

"I've no doubt you will be able to do those things. But it will take time and practice to learn and get used to a prosthetic. That's normal."

[waitin]

"Lessons of the price of survival, of living. Maybe."

Clementine doesn't really know either. She has a lot of scars, and most of them are covered. Bullet wound, brand, dog bite that she sewed up herself. She glances down at the cleaning supplies and bandages.

She breathes in a little sharp.

"I'll try not to expect too much too fast. It's already been hard waiting to try one out, but I read a book about it, and I know it can hurt more if I start before it's fully healed."

But she probably will push herself. It's helpless really, but she is stubborn and determined, and she's desperate to gain back that ability to run. She's had to so many times in her life.

[beautifullies]

As she cleans, Claire assesses the damage and then comes to a conclusion fairly quickly.

"As far as healing goes, you're on the right path. Nothing looks inflamed or swollen, there's no redness. If you can give it at least another month, we could start seeing about getting a prosthetic for you. It might take some fiddling with the closet for the right fit that's comfortable for all day use, or perhaps someone could make you one," Claire points out.

"I know four weeks sounds like a long time, but I promise, it will go by quickly."

[waitin]

Clementine breathes in slow but she nods at the answer, grateful to hear it's healing well, grateful that she can try on a prosthetic soon so she won't have to feel so. vulnerable. all the time. She's getting a hang of the crutches, but-

"I'll have to look into the options. I know it takes really practicing with the leg on for awhile before I can use it."

There's a pause.

"At least here the prosthetic leg's an option."

It's a lot harder to find material like that in her own world.

[beautifullies]

Claire frowns, understanding what Clementine means. She hate that when people leave here, it's as if nothing they've done matters. She won't have her prosthetic.

"You know, my brother-in-law lost his leg in the war. It had to be amputated. He has a wooden leg now and gets around alright, runs a farm and keeps up with his children alright. Well, grandchildren by now."

All of that to say:

"You're extremely smart, Clementine, and it sounds as though you're with very smart people. I come from a time with no prosthetics either, and if we could manage it, I know you can. You will."

She'll believe it enough for both of them if she has to.

[waitin]

Clementine quiets as she listens to everything Claire says, and then she smiles. It's soft but genuine. It helps to know that other people have been able to get something that works for them even in times where it is far more difficult to do so.

That maybe she won't have to worry about being the reason other people get hurt (because that is what an amputation means in her world).

Her voice is full of that appreciation when she speaks.

"Thank you. I'll do my best, and I'll keep moving forward."

No matter what.