Can't Sleep

[Joza Perl]

The Semmelweis

It had been weeks since she’d had a visitor—one that had snuck in dressed as a nurse, no less. Initially she’d told Dr. Kreiger that under no circumstances was he to inform anyone about her condition but things got lonely.

Fast.

Joza had been getting stronger, well enough to spend the day glued to her datapad and going over everything that had happened to her company in the past few weeks. Lukas chided her for it, citing the fact that the more she rested, the quicker her discharge would come. She didn’t believe that. Dr. Kreiger was cautious with her, they were old friends and she was technically his boss. He couldn’t miss anything, couldn’t be responsible for her sudden collapse in the field if it came to that.

And so she stayed, bored. Her fingernails were growing back beneath bandaged hands and she had her people looking into prosthetic eyes to replace the one that had been damaged beyond repair.

All this time gave way to more meditation. More meditation gave way to finer senses, especially when it came to sensing the living Force—very very occasionally she’d come across someone who would enter her senses and pass through, trickles of the Force from someone who didn’t know that they had it. [member="The Slave"] was the last Force sensitive to be in this wing of the hospital, so it stood reason that she was both startled and intrigued when a new presence pervaded her senses.

Something darker. Something honed.

Why here?

Deciding to act on the most interesting moment she’d had in the past few weeks, Joza lifted herself out of bed, adjusted her IV and hobbled out of her room and down the hall like she owned the place. Because she did and goddamnit she was bored as hell.

The Zeltron had to wave off a few nurses who’d rushed over to make sure she didn’t hurt herself, offering her a wheelchair or an arm to hold while she walked. I’m fine. She insisted. Just out for a walk.

The backed off but kept a watchful eye on her as she hovered in the doorway of a new arrival, staring at the pale young man in the bed.

“Huh.”

[member="Vereshin"]

 

[Vereshin]

"Mr. Sabek, it's time to sleep." A nurse ordered as she passed by Vereshin's door. Looking upward from the notebook, he delivered a disapproving raised of his eyebrow. His mouth stopped, ajar, in preparation to speak before she turned and left as soon as they made eye contact. The mention of his last name made him shiver in discomfort and he scanned the Force presence of the hospital in habitual paranoia for any Sith. Abandoned equations splayed across the notebook on his tray, scored out and discarded in repeated frustration.

With a deep sigh, Vereshin leaned backwards and diverted his gaze from his theory to the window, the light of the stars reflecting in the surface of his glasses. He raised a hand to grip his lower abdomen, the effects of painkillers failing to completely take hold. Sweat gathered on his forehead and neck as swallowed the pain and stroked his finger across the closed notebook. A flash of pink skin blurred by the doorway in the corner of his eye. He looked up to view the features of an attractive, Zeltron woman.

Vi gulped slightly, wrapping his skeletal fingers around the notebook and hugging it to his chest. An intravenous drip strapped in his hand hung from a stand by the bedside and the dull beep of hospital equipment echoed throughout the space. Taking note of the woman's condition, Vereshin assumed she had been injured during a conflict and slid his eyes over to the chart detailing his own ailment. Malnutrition and abdominal pain due to anxiety was not quite as noble or impressive in comparison. While not the direct sort, he kept his own battles he fought and lost.

"Hello Miss..." He uttered coyly while stroking the leather bound cover of the notebook. The last word trailed off his speech as he realized he did not her name. His eyes darted towards the discrete lights around the corridor, failing to completely make eye contact with the woman. "I already slept all day, so I don't need to right now." He managed to say with a small smile and a mischievous tone. The nurses would not tell him when and when he could not sleep.

[member="Joza Perl"]

 

[Joza Perl]

“Did you?” She swiped the pad of her bandaged finger beneath her one visible eye, rimmed with a vague tint of purple. The swelling had gone down and the heavy bruising had begun to fade but the eye behind the patch hadn’t fared as well.

He certainly didn’t look like he had slept and she tsked.

She took a step into his room, hand now wrapped around the IV stand as she dragged it alongside her before making herself comfortable in one of the chairs. She smiled over at him in a polite manner. “You’re new.” She observed. “How are you faring?”

Nevermind that she’d just invited herself into a stranger’s room—that sort of boldness followed a Zeltron and she was bored. All Joza really wanted was to jump back into the groove of her bust life or see her son—one of which she wasn’t fit for, the other she wasn’t ready for. She didn’t want her toddler to see his mother in this condition, to see her missing an eye and her fingernails ripped out. Not while they were monitoring her daily for brain bleeding.

She’d get back soon, for now she’d make do with harassing the doctors and chatting with other patients. This one was of interest—pale, sickly and gaunt but had an air about him that intrigued her.

And so she sat and smiled.

[member="Vereshin"]

 

[Vereshin]

"Well, yes." Vereshin said while he cocked his head slightly in response to the woman's questioning of him. A creased eyebrow told her did not understand the banter or how she could not believe a statement of truth so mundane. He pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose and shifted the covers off his tiny legs, sliding them them over the bed to sit on the edge. He wore a thin, white dressing robe over his hospital gown. On the side table, sat a glass of water and a box of prescription medication.

"Yes I am." Reaching for the box, he popped out one tablet and swallowed it with the water. Upon hearing the woman's question, he winced in pain and sighed. "I have been better, thank you." He set the glass and box aside. The woman entered his room and he recoiled abruptly, eyeing her down with caution while his hand left the box of medication on the table. A pause held the air between them as Vereshin scanned her for any possible threats. Curiosity, once again, had the better of him.

"What happened to you? If you don't mind me asking." He asked as he sat up on the bed and brought his thin knees up the chest and held them in his arms. His hair remained unkempt and fluffy, not slicked back as usual. Straight wisps fell over his forehead and glasses. The pain in his diaphragm grew tense as he held his knees to his chest in effort to relieve the tension. The Zeltron woman sat boldly across from him and Vereshin shifted his gaze to the wall, rocking back and forward while he curled up on the bed.

Reaching down to the covers, he felt the notebook and pen and stroked them while staring at the wall. He desired so deeply to write, knowing only well that the thoughts would not come even if he tried. He flicked open the page which he left and glanced briefly over the mathematics, a pang of stress gripped his chest and he slammed the book shut. His primary source of relief now brought him distress when he knew he could not turn there to escape.

[member="Joza Perl"]

 

[Joza Perl]

Joza did not miss his wariness of the situation. This pale young man likely didn’t want her here or was at least somewhat unnerved with her presence from the way he recoiled when she invited herself into his room. Unlucky for him, the Zeltron like to tease and would not be leaving so quickly.

Perhaps he was truly curious or perhaps he was just being polite, but the question came up as Joza settled herself in the chair.

She hummed softly, fingers idly wrapping around the pole of the IV and stroking the metal as she thought. She’d been febrile the night before so they had her on fluids to keep her from becoming too dehydrated.

“I got the chit kicked out of me.” She smiled the sort of toothy showgirl smile she’d used many times before on stage. It was a little out of place now but Joza didn’t mind. She was telling the truth, anyway.

Part of her wondered if this young man—a dark one—had been sent by Adnan to finish the job. But Adnan liked to play with his food, and what he’d done to her was a warning. He didn’t want her dead, not yet. He wanted to destroy her before then.

Perhaps, once she got out of here, she’d go for the jugular once and for all.

For right now she was content to chat up the young man in the hospital bed.

“Brought your diary with you, I see.” She tilted her chin to the book that remained safe in his clutch. “Working out a plan to ask that nurse out?”

[member="Vereshin"]

 

[Vereshin]

The woman seemed intent on socializing with Vereshin, who only set down his notebook beside him and clutched his tummy. He winced in pain and shuffled over on the bed towards her, leaning a thin arm on the post. She described her experienced and he raised an eyebrow in silent awe, parting his mouth slightly and cocking his head over the floor.

"Goodness me!" Vereshin exclaimed in genuine impression with a tinge of distaste towards the woman's violent lifestyle. His glasses began to fall down his nose as he looked at the floor. He raised a wrist and pushed them back up before turning to face his guest. "May I know your name?" He finally asked while lightly rubbing the needle strapped in the top of his hand, recalling the great fuss he made when the nurses inserted the drip in the first place. Vi hated hospitals and medical procedures. As someone who felt nervous upon any physical contact, aside from that with his beloved, they were places he spent far too much time in for his liking.

"Oh, this is not a diary." He chuckled slightly and smiled at Joza's question regarding his notebook. "Then again, you're not entirely incorrect." Although his mathematical notes were most certainly not a diary, they served the same purpose. People detailed their innermost feelings within a diary. The numbers Vereshin wrote had no feelings and that was why he liked them. They provided an escape from panic and distress. "Ahh... Well no." He blushed coyly and slicked back his hair in response to her joke. "I already have a lady, you see." He raised his eyebrows and nodded in confirmation. A slight pride rang on his tone. He had a girlfriend now and could say that he had one.

[member="Joza Perl"]

 

[Joza Perl]

Joza would have lied if she said she didn’t take at least a small amount of delight in his reaction.

“You can call me Joza.” She would have extended a hand at this point but elected to give him a polite nod instead. Hands shaking…seemed weird in this sort of setting and was something she preferred to reserve for business meetings. "You?"

A scarlet brow arched as his pale features flushed at the mention of the nurse. Or was it the nurse? Her question seemed to have evoked a certain type of feeling.

“Oh, I do see.” She affirmed, grin curling the edges of her lips in a toothy smile. “Poor Nurse Emilie, then. You’ll have to let her down gently.”

She leaned back in the chair and let her hand drift from the IV pole and into her hair. Joza had thick, wavy hair and always had a habit of playing with it. “So what’s this girl like?” A crimson strand looped around her finger coyly.

[member="Vereshin"]

 

[Vereshin]

"My name is Vi." Vereshin offered, refraining from revealing his full name to Joza. He brought his hands to chest and fumbled with his fingers in his nervous state. When she mentioned the nurse named Emilie, he blushed deeply and smiled, not quite certain whether or not the nurse was really named Emilie or if Joza was making fun of him. As Joza asked about his lady, Vereshin beamed and turned his head to one side, blushing a running a hand through his hair. He recalled [member="Pom Stych Tivé"] fondly and dearly missed her.

"Her name is Pom and she is a sorceress. She has black hair, black eyes and wears long black dresses." Vi offered a wide smile of black teeth as he described his lover. He leaned closer towards Joza and raised a hand in a subtle casting gesture. Gently penetrating the mind of the Zeltron, he delivered a mental image of Pom and himself on Ziost together before retracting and lowering his wrist. "Do you have anybody?" Vereshin asked while his leg shook compulsively beneath his hand.

[member="Joza Perl"]

 

[Joza Perl]

“It’s nice to meet you, Vi.” She took note of how his demeanor changed when the topic turned to his lady love—not that he hadn’t been pleasant and polite before. Now he seemed more congenial and animated.

It was nice.

Images of a young, pale woman with darkly painted lips and dressed in gothic fashion flashed into her mind and Joza blinked in surprise. She hadn’t expected the intrusion. “A mentalist,” She declared, pearly whites showing as if in response to his own ink-stained teeth. “I would have pegged you for the hand to hand combat type. Shockboxer, maybe.”

She thought for a brief moment on his question. “I have many.” It was an honest answer. “It is the nature of my people to copulate on a social basis.” Though still maintaining a friendly demeanor, she was more clinical in her explanation. She’d actually stolen that line directly from [member="Alkor Centaris"], a man who was technically their husband and that was…complicated.

There was only one person who she could have ever claimed to truly love and even now she wasn’t sure if that was true given teenage infatuation, hormones and a clash of emotional tides.

Joza had to smile.

"She's quite the lovely lady, your Pom. Any children yet?"

[member="Vereshin"]

 

[Vereshin]

Vereshin laughed at Joza's comment regarding him as a shockboxer, not quite sure if she meant it as a joke or not. "Well I am not specifically a mentalist, I distort perception through altering reality." When she mentioned the extent of her love life, he recoiled and blushed immediately and could not fathom the idea of having somebody else other than Pom, although they had recently clashed during an emotional loss for both of them. They had since come to terms and accepted one another in their committal.

A pang of sadness overcame Vereshin as Joza asked about him having any children with Pom. For the sake of his lover's privacy, he did not mention that they had lost their first child. "Pom would like to have children, but I am not ready myself." The lines of his smile turned downward as he shifted uncomfortably. "I am not sure I will ever be ready." He expressed with a tone of remorse, the vision he witnessed of himself and his family in the future still weighing on his mind.

"My girlfriend and I are very close. We have great differences which we accept and overcome. This is a very difficult one, however." Vereshin expressed to Joza with a sigh. He loved Pom and wanted to make her happy in the ways that she wanted, even if that meant sacrificing some of his independence one day to give her a child. "Tell me Joza, how does one cope with having multiple partners? Do they become jealous or despise the others?" He asked with keen interest.

[member="Joza Perl"]