so I'm glad I got burned, think of all the things we learned

[abelmedic]

Who: Maxine Myers + You
Where: Undisclosed 1st floor location, and later the clinic
When: 4/17 onward
Rating: PG-ish? Maybe some cussing.
Summary: Catch-all for the fallout of Maxine's run-in with Dean. She's off her feet for a day or two. Even if she'd rather not be.
The Story:

[April 17th]
Afterwards, it's hard to remember even parts of the attack. Encounter? She remembers shooting first (insert inevitable Star Wars reference by Sam Yao, probably), but in the aftermath of the attack it's hard to think of even that. Even after she comes to (more or less, the waking world a hazy and fearful half-understood thing even before she tries to comprehend the unoccupied room she'd been hidden away in), she just knows that she hurts everywhere, and wants to sleep, and is deeply resentful of anyone who would keep her from that.

[April 18th onward]
She'll admit, after that - in a place without modern hospitals, technology, or surgical options, she's really, really glad that magic is an option. Especially when it comes to head trauma.

That isn't to say she's all better. She hadn't wanted to be all better. She hadn't wanted her brain to tell her one thing even while her eyes were telling her another. She's had enough of that for one lifetime. So she still looks unmistakably roughed-up, smoky-brown skin purpled dark with bruises apread across her neck and one cheekbone. But though her eyes are sleepless and heavy, there's a hardness in them too. By the afternoon of the second day after the attack, she's back in the freshly-warded clinic, shotgun back in its holster in the footwell of her desk.

She's had worse try to scare her into hiding. Even when death was something very permanent, it hadn't worked.

Comments

[intelligently]

It's when Maxine is back on her feet, when she's resuming work in the clinic that Lydia hovers the most. She doesn't mean to hover but she knows what this sort of experience is like. With Angelus Lydia had died and then tormented. Maxine had almost died, and whilst that act hadn't been finished Lydia knows what the feeling is like - how it settles in your mind.

She's making sure that she's okay, particularly with the injuries that Maxine had acquired. Since they'd started her first aid training Lydia had done some reading, wanting to know more to be prepared - to push her training further, even if what she was reading about was something that she wouldn't be able to do anything about for a long time. First aid was not general medicine.

"You know that I'd get you if someone did come in."

Lydia's been manning the reception, staying longer whilst Maxine was recovering. She's trying to be a good assistant, and whilst the clinic had been empty of people minus those visiting Maxine she wants to be prepared. She has Maxine's intake forms for any injuries, and she can (hopefully) assess how serious something was before getting Maxine.

She didn't want her to be passing out from overwork on top of her head injury - that was what Lydia was trying to do instead.

[abelmedic]

It's a relief when Lydia finally speaks up, rather than just keeping a conspicuous eye on her, and Maxine half-smiles to herself haplessly as she looks up from the textbook she's building a lesson plan from.

"I know. It's not that I don't trust you - I'm grateful, really, that you're keeping an eye on this place. But I'd rather be here than just . . . hiding in my room." She'd rather be anywhere than in her room, alone, honestly. The clinic is just the next best thing to home - and if she's honest with herself, even working silently alongside Lydia feels infinitely better than just huddling behind a fortified door.

"There were times at home when I had to hide. When there wasn't anything else I could do with a clear conscience. I guess it makes me appreciate the choices I have now that much more."

[intelligently]

"Having to hide is never a nice option."

But sometimes they needed to. Sometimes they had to, although that didn't make them feel any better. Lydia had hated the time that she'd spent in her room after Angelus had attacked her - how long she'd spent hidden away from Wonderland, but for her she'd been too afraid and uncertain to pull herself out.

At least Maxine didn't seem to have that same fear, or she was stronger at fighting past it. Considering what her home was like Lydia expected that she was used to a modicum of fear in her life.

"Sam told me a lot about what your home is like. I didn't really understand at first why he'd want to be here but I get it." When home was different, and when you saw bad things that spanned from the events or being here it made you doubtful about wanting to be there. About wanting your friends there. When your home wasn't safe or comfortable? Lydia understood, she just wished that more bad wouldn't happen here.

17th

[mourning_ghost]

An injured human? Nageki can't see someone who injured and not offer aid, if he's able to provide it. Not that he can offer much here. He doesn't know how to tend to injuries on a bird or a human. But he can let her lean on him like a walking stick until she reaches her destination or he can find a doctor that can help her, provided that she's able to tell him where one is. Hopefully that will be enough.

He walks over to her, a concerned expression on his face. "Let me help you." If she seems alright with it, he'll try to slip under an arm and help her walk.

17th

[abelmedic]

Maxine had only stepped out of the room Sam had put her in for a second. She just wanted to get a few things from her room, and even if he'd said to call if she needed anything, she can walk a hallway to pick up a bag. She's not going to be terrified into hermitage by some- some-

Her inner tirade trails off as she spots the . . . pigeon? Enormous- no, no. It's a mourning dove. She stares, breathing quietly, stunned. She hasn't seen one since she moved to England, and now here one is. Impossibly huge. In the middle of the hall.

Talking.

It moves closer and she leans back against the wall, one hand coming up to cover her mouth as dismay creeps across the rest of her visible features. "Oh no. Hallucinations," she mutters to herself, watching the bird warily. "Bad sign."

[mourning_ghost]

Nageki halts when he sees the look on her face. His worry only increases when she mutters about hallucinations. She's right. That is a bad sign. Nageki tries to see where the hallucination is and... she's looking at him?

Perhaps it isn't so surprising. He's seen many humans here, but he hasn't seen another bird yet.

"I'm not a hallucination." He holds out a wing and continues, "You can try grabbing my wing, if you want proof."

[thesamurai]

Michonne doesn't know what's happened, but she does know there's shit going on, and she heads down to the clinic after realizing Maxine's been through it. It makes her tense, to know someone she considers on her side had this happen to her, makes her want to check up on her, so she does, making sure her presence is known as soon as she's in sight, not wanting to spook her. But there's no preamble at all either.

"What the hell happened?"

[abelmedic]

Maxine's always quick to notice something new in her field of vision, but there's a wary dart to her eyes in the first moment Michonne shifts into view, one that wasn't there before half so dramatically. One that's matched all too well to the bruises mottling her skin, and that melts into a relief that is just as new.

"Michonne, hey." She half-smirks, gesturing for her to take a seat. "Short version? Misadventures in Attempted Emergency Medicine - Demon Edition."

[thesamurai]

Michonne says nothing for a moment, taking that in.

"So. We got a demon on the loose. And a cannibal."

Fantastic. Fucking wonderful. And her friends are being affected by this shit, and there's not a damn thing she can do about it, apparently. "You need anything? Can I do anything?"

[iseethings]

He heard about Maxine from Sam on the network, and he's been restless and agitated ever since. Killing walkers, killing people - he knows how to do that, doesn't even have to think about it, it's instinct now. But demons and Jabberwockies and Mirrors - that's another kind of insanity he knows nothing about. He'll fight, and he'll kill what he can, what he has to in order to keep people safe. But he doesn't know how to handle it all the way he does back home. He keeps that locked down tightly, though, and just does what he can, patrolling with weapons in plain sight, making people think twice about crossing him.

He goes to check on Maxine at the clinic, though, stepping in.

"You stayin' safe?" He asks, skipping the introduction most normal people would utilize.

[abelmedic]

Maxine's quick to look and see whatever comes through the door. Jumpy, she knows. Paranoid, maybe, though given that she might well be a demon's job left unfinished, maybe it's less paranoia and more practicality.

The person coming through the door being Rick, though - an armed Rick, at that - earns a little smile, and she nods, gesturing back at the door he just walked through, the floor and frame all around it marked up with symbols. Juat around the ones on the floor there's been an arc-shaped gutter cut into the tile, filled to heaping with a fat line of salt.

"All anti-demon countermeasures in place. And you?"

[iseethings]

He should have said something before he just walked in, he realizes, but he's there now, and she smiles at him, so he figures it's forgiven. He manages a small smile in return, glancing at all the protections that have been placed at the door. It's all supernatural stuff, but it makes sense given where they are now. This place is filled with magic. Not a lot of it good, from his perspective.

Rick nods, remarking, "Decided to start patrollin' the mansion, the grounds. Keep watch. Doesn't seem to be an organized system, and there needs to be now."

[voiceinthedark]

After making his announcement, Sam spends most of his time flitting between Maxine and Jo and Simon, making sure they're alright, that they don't need anything. He is probably, if he's honest with himself, bloody annoying, but it's all that he can do so he doesn't care one bit.

It's such a relief when she wakes up and Billy has managed to make her better. She still looks a mess, but she's awake and talking and he just wants to hug her.

There is a lot of hugging.

[abelmedic]

For awhile, Maxine's more than willing to let it stay at hugging. The one best thing in her world right now, with everything else a nightmare, is that Sam is safe. Terrified and clingy and probably in an awful state, but safe. She hasn't been looking at her phone, and doesn't even know there's been an announcement put out. It's terrible, but she can just . . . tell. She's been with him through enough loss. She knows that look on his face.

"He killed Jo, didn't he," she murmurs, without preamble, breaking the quiet of the darkened room.

[voiceinthedark]

Part of him is well aware that before the apocalypse, this type of behaviour would probably have been viewed as unhealthy, codependent, maybe symptomatic of a few other messed up things. But he's lost so many other people. Maxine has been a constant since soon after he got to Abel, and then he'd nearly lost her and... how can he not want to stay close? How can he not want to protect her with his life if he has to? Or with the lives of others.

His breath hitches at the question and he goes tense and taut before he nods. "Yeah. He did. She'll come back but... yeah."

The 17th

[actualwizard]

Sam had brought Billy to Maxine almost as soon as Billy had talked him out of going after Dean. She was a mess and barely conscious and Billy had done what he could, healed as much as he could without having the knowledge of a doctor. He had fixed the worst of it but he still wanted to check on her. It was likely she might have a concussion and he wanted knew he had to keep waking her up. No matter how much she protested.

"Hey." His voice was quiet but it was enough to wake her. "Just checking in. You can't sleep for too long."

[abelmedic]

"Nn?"

The world fuzzes in soft and dark and pounding, unsteady, queasy. There's a gentle voice, and for a moment Maxine's home and underslept, or no, she must be coming out of cryo again, just needs to warm up a minute, though when she tries to say so the first effort at words tangles on hoarseness and pain and she coughs, slitting an eye open as she catches her breath.

The room is disorienting. She doesn't recognize it for what feels like minutes, then she finds the source of the voice, and context comes seeping back in.

"Billy." Was he here before? Detail is slow to creep back, even if feeling isn't. She doesn't know why, but she scans the room, only looking back once she can't see anyone else there. "-hey."

21st

[lightgunhustler]

It's a few days after Jo's return that she finally makes her way to the clinic. She's been hesitant to go much of anywhere, to be honest, and Simon hasn't been all that interested in letting her out of his field of vision after what had happened, which results in his accompanying her to the clinic and opting to guard the door while he gives her a few minutes alone with Maxine.

She knocks before entering, carefully pushing the door open and leaning halfway in before walking through, not wanting to interrupt either rest or work-- whichever Maxine is up to at the moment.

"Maxine?"

21st

[abelmedic]

There are good reasons, Maxine tells herself, that she hasn't gone to see Jo.

1) Jo has been through something horrible, and should be allowed to make herself available as she is comfortable.
2) The last time she saw Jo, she was either dead or practically there. She probably will not be able to restrain herself from doing The Doctor Thing.
3) Given point 1 and that people revive in Wonderland perfectly restored, it is both unnecessary and inappropriate for her to do The Doctor Thing.

There are more reasons, of course, if she wants to invent them. She could probably fill notecard after notecard with them. And she could leave unwritten all of the ugly, dark ones - that she couldn't help her. That she only became another casualty in the process. That, as it's turned out, she doesn't even have the decency to suck it up and check up on a friend after they've been through something awful.

She's working, of course - when is she not? Reading. It's something she can look up from quickly, as she has been for every little thing to move in her peripheral vision. But when she sees who it is, she can only stare, throat going tight and eyes going hot and lips struggling into some painful little thing that is almost, almost a smile. She'd known she had come back. She'd known, but there's a difference between hearing a thing is true and seeing it, terrible start to finish.

". . . Jo." She swallows, and for a moment she can't breathe.

21st

[luckynumberthree]

Simon gives Jo some time to check on Maxine for herself before poking his own head in the door, hoping to catch a word or two with the Doc. His own expression is unusually solemn as he hovers near the door, waiting to see if she has a moment for him.

21st

[abelmedic]

One-at-a-time visiting. Somber looks. Maxine can't remember the last time she saw something like that from Simon Lauchlan, and she beckons him into her office, waiting until he has the door shut before settling in to look at him seriously. Worriedly, really - the last time he'd gone tumbling though his own immortality, he'd come out the other side unmistakably the worse for wear.

He's different this time, it seems like. She can tell that right away. And while he wasn't beaten and left for dead, he's walked away from a nightmare all the same.

"Okay," she sighs, leaning back in her chair. "How many nosy doctor questions are too many nosy doctor questions?"

19th

[halfwinchester]

<sub>[This isn't the first time Wonderland's had a spree of murders and it isn't the first time people Adam cares about have been at the center of them, but this is the first time anything's hit so close to him since the moment he realized he was never going to be with his family again.

Isn't he an idiot, thinking he could never be that powerless again. He can, and he is, and he feels more like a grenade winding down to zero than a human being. Kevin's clone on the network had mentioned Maxine's involvement, but even so, Adam doesn't feel right looking in on her for a while, not when worried he could go off in her face.

Eventually, though, he has to see her with his own two eyes like he had with Jo. It's his responsibility to, in a way. He knows none of the Winchesters will care enough to do it.

Taking a few minutes outside the door to roll his shoulders tensely underneath his hoodie, Adam finally exhales and steps inside. This is the first place he thinks to look for her--she seems like the type who stays on her feet unless she's dead or unconscious.

The thing is, he has no idea what he's supposed to say.]</sub>

... Hey.

19th

[abelmedic]

Hey yourself.

[Maxine's focus is a little better today, and she glances up from her reading, smiling crookedly at Adam.]

What, you're not taking the chance to play hooky while I heal up?

sliiiides in latest of all - april 18th

[disassembles]

James has been around the clinic a couple of times a day since he heard about Maxine. He hasn't gone searching for her - her friends have her handled. When she's ready and able to be around anyone else, she will be. She's only human, as far as he knows, so he doesn't really expect to see her too soon. Still, the impression he has of her is that she'll be back to work as soon as she's able to stand.

Sure enough, he finds her in the clinic the next afternoon. He hasn't brought his assignment, but he's carrying a half-dozen sandwiches from the coffee shop that were going to be dinner. He makes sure that she sees him before he takes a step inside.

"Dr. Myers," He looks her over, taking in the bruises and the rings under her eyes, watching for any hindrance in her step. He has a particular eye for injuries - he's been taking care of them for a much longer time than he's been exploiting them.

april 18th!

[abelmedic]

"James." She musters up a smile at the sight of him - last time he came around her workplace, the tone had been pretty different, and right from the beginning. It's nice to see that even if that same watchful stillness is lurking behind his eyes, there's none of the mistrust tinting it. She tables the benchwork she'd been occupied in and turns to face him properly (and yes, she's still a bit stiff, mostly in the neck though being body-slammed by a demon didn't leave the rest of you in great shape either). "Did you come to drop off a question?"