Running Edge

OOC: I'm really, really sorry I haven't posted recently! I've been really busy with final exams, and school trips, as well as finishing up my sports. I'm really sorry.

Kevin's dream turned worse and worse, finally getting to the point it was terrifying. He saw his father and mother, burning in the house fire from earlier that day, he once agian thought it was all his fault. He suddenly woke up screaming from his dream, he sat up quickly, wincing from pain, gripping his shirt near his chest as he felt an asthma attack coming on. He then went into a violent bout of coughing.

 

alex looked at hanna to answer her question.
"i have this couch, which is a hide-a-bed, that massage table which kevin is sleeping on, and a queen-sized bed. you can stay with me in my room. and you can sleep on the couch there."
she pointed at kaleb as she said that. alex still had no clue what his name was, but before she could think more about it, kevin woke up screaming and coughing. alex ran to her bag and pulled out an inhaler. she wrapped one arm around kevin to pat his back, and used the other hand to hold the inhaler up to his mouth.
"breathe!"
alex pushed down on the bottle in the inhaler so that kevin could inhale the puffs.
"kevin, i need you to take deep breathes and relax."

kaleb watched every move she made. he was impressed by how hard she worked for them. she could have been a doctor at some expensive hospital. she was good at what she did, and what she did was help people. help them. the runners. he felt gratitude and remorse at the same time. she chose to help the runners instead of work in a real medical facility, so in the end he would have to take her down as well.

 

OCC: Finally I can post something

Hearing what the doctor said Ren let out a sigh of relief. "At least she's going to be okay."

 

Kevin heard Alex's voice faintly and tried to breathe deeply, but was struggling to due to coughing. Finally, he stopped coughing and took in the huffs from the inhaler. Finally, his breathing returned to normal, and he moved his hand down on to the table agian to support him self. The pain in his chest was still there, but it wasn't as bad.

 

alex breathed a sigh of relief. it was no wonder that his asthma was acting up. being trapped inside a burning building surrounded by smoke could easily do this to a person. kevin had passed out before she got a chance to see if his airway was clear. there could be soot in there and that could make him suffocate. at least the coughing would have helped clear it out a bit. when kevin seemed fine she walked to the kitchen to get him a glass of water. when she came back she held it out to him.
"here. drink. it'll help."

 

Mya sat on the steps of the hospital, looking at the night sky. It's sad. I can't see the stars out there anymore. She fingered her neckalace. Mom. Dad. Would you approve of my actions against the whole city and government?

 

As Hanna went into the bathroom to wash herself, she tried to work out how many that could actually sleep and compare it to how many she'd invited. After about 5 seconds she gave up and decided she wasn't in the mood to think. She looked through as Alex helped Kevin, she felt out of place somehow.

 

kaleb felt weird about the whole situation. all he wanted to do was go home for the night, but it didn't appear as if alex would allow that to happen. she was kinda like the 'mamma bear' of the group. always taking care of them and looking out for their best interests.
i guess that's what happens when you're the one in charge of healing the whole group.
this whole day had given him so many mixed feelings. he didn't think going undercover would be so straining on his mental state. and demitri...kaleb knew that he and ryku were rough guys out in the field, but that was just so extreme.
he really wants these people dead. it looks like he's not going to stop at anything to have that happen either. he knows i'm just undercover, but i wonder if this is going to change our friendship.
kaleb sighed as he felt the nicotine withdrawl start to kick in. he hadn't had a cigarette in hours. he had actually completely forgot about it until now when things had finally started to calm down.
"i'm going to step outside and get some fresh air."

alex gave him a you better not disappear stare.

"don't worry i'll be back inside in a few minutes."
he walked out the front door and leaned against the side of the house and started to smoke his second to last cig.
what am i going to do when that last one is gone?
kaleb sighed heavily.

 

Hanna was drying herself off as she heard Kaleb go out, remembering how he stank of smoke. She shook her head, why would someone who wanted to be a runner ruin themselves with something like that? Just why? To her it made no sense. She walked back through and sat down, she considered going out to see him but she knew that she might do something stupid due to her disaproval. She looked at Alex and smiled, "Are you alright? You spend so much time worring about us, think about yourself for once."

 

when kevin seemed to be stable enough alex sat down on the couch.
"hanna can i tell you something?"
she never had this conversation with anyone. she respected her fellow runners and envied them at the same time. alex never wanted to tell any of them how she truly felt about them all, because she didn't want them to look at her differently.
"you see...i love all of you i really do, and i enjoy helping you all. i just, i just feel so much like an outsider though. i know i don't have the physical capability to run with everyone and go on missions and i know that even if i did, we would then not have anyone to really help take care of everyone, because if i got hurt then who would help me? and if i'm hurt than i can't help anyone else that may get hurt. i don't know...i just with that i could do more. i wanna feel more like i'm a part of the team. it's why i work so hard to take care of everyone. even if you just trip and scrape your knee i obsess over it so that i have something to do. which is why i don't enjoy those occassional trips to the hospital. it means that i'm rendered useless. and then i wonder if everyone even wants me here, because i couldn't do anything to help."
alex sighed and felt a tear trickling, but tried to ignore it.

kaleb could here talking, but figured he'd wait until they were done to walk back inside. he stared longingly at the last cigarette left in his pack. he could tell that quiting was going to be a must if he was to join their group. he had only spent the day with them and had already received a number of disaproving looks.
they don't even know that i decided to try and quit. they're just judging me. i wonder how demitri is going to do with his drinking. if he can hold up to it than i can hold up to it with my smoking.

 

Ryku poked his head around a corner and smiled at Kaleb. "Demitri's just fine." His pale eyes bore into his old friend as he studied him as if to figure out what he was up to. "Is this your plan? Leaving the EBO?" He pushed his fingers through his white hair and studied his hand for a while. "I hope this is what you want Kaleb. I don't know how to explain it to myself....I'm sure your superior could but for some reason....I just feel like you know what you're doing."

Lynne shoved her way out of bed, the beeping machines went beserk as she wobbled to her feet and hobbled out of her room. Several cords dragged after her as she dizzily made her way down the hall toward the familiar sounds of her comrades talking. She needed to see if everyone was alright. She had to make sure no one was hurt.

 

Kaleb sighed. He didn't want to hurt his friend. He cared about him to greatly. "Ryku I'm glad to hear demitri is all right, but it's not what you think. I'm not giving up the ebo for the runners. That's ridiculous. They oppose everything we are meant to stand for.". He shook his head. Talking to ryku right outside of a runners house was risky indeed. Especially since there were three runners inside. "Do you know how many missions I have been on? Four, I've only ever been on four missions since I've become an ebo. This is my chance to finally prove I'm more than capable to perform well as an operative. It's my chance to show that I deserve this position, not that I was just given the spot because of my father."

 

Demitri nodded slowly. He could understand. Though no one knew anything about Demitri and his parents, Ryku recalled the entire painful truth about his father. He spoke slowly and quietly, "You remember the night you met Demitri and I? It was raining....Dem had the flu and was still out with me on a mission. We were still young...." he paused and his pale eyes turned dark, "It's hard to recall now but...do you remember the man who met us at our home? The man who opened the door and started to curse in a drunken accent....? Our Father...not the brightest bulb in the lamp but...when he was sober, he was a good soldier....perhaps too good. Our Father was a drunk....and a damn mean one at that." Ryku glared past Kaleb into the street, "He told me everyday that Demitri was worthless and that I should leave him behind and advance in my ranks to be the best I could be. He and I knew I could....but I couldn't leave Dem. He was my little brother and I needed him with me to succeed....I still need him.....he's....going to die Kaleb....His illness isn't a small cough anymore....he thinks I don't know but...I know he's been coughing up blood." Ryku stepped forward until he was within reach of the hospital doors, "There's a reason I came here tonight....These people have it....the medicine Demitri needs at the moment." he hesitated for a long time, without speaking. "......Demitri can't be cured.....we can only pause his situation with the medicine to extend his life. How long will it last...I don't know...." he turned to Kaleb and smiled sadly, "I'm telling you this in case anything happens to me. Someone needs to look out for the big oaf. And...you're younger than I. I know the EBO will ship me out somewhere else when Demitri dies....when that happens....promise you'll visit his grave. The big idiot gets lonely easily." His pale eyes were incredibly sad. It was as if someone had killed a puppy right in front of a small child and then kicked the small corpse. Ryku looked older. Lines around his eyes showed more and a streak or two of premature gray hair glinted in his white hair.

Lynne hustled and bustled from the long hall into the lobby, her wild eyes saw her fellow Runners but failed to recognize them. She weazed horribly and the receptionist screamed as blood seeped through her bandages and hospital gown she wore.

 

Mya heard screams and ran into the hospital. She saw Lynne where she shouldn't be. She grabbed her by the shoulders. Lynne! Are you crazy?! Get back in bed right now!

 

Kurisu walked straight to Lynne, he was surprisingly calm considering... "Hey, you were always too into not doing as told." he smirked as he rested a hand on her shoulder, on top of Mya's hand. "I can tell, you were worried about us right? Well... we're all fine. Everyone is fine.
But... we won't be if anything happens to you... so please. You can go back to bed can't you now?"
He sighed. "Come on, you don't wanna give Mya a heart attack do you?" he asked.
"I will pick you up and take you back if you don't go back yourself now." he added, "and you know I will, it's not the first time and it won't be the last. Kay?"

 

The sooner she get well, the better. Ren thought seeing Lynne walking into the lobby. I just hope she gets better before any thing else happens.

 

Lynne opened her mouth to speak and shut it. Her eyes were glazed with pain and panic. Her memory was blurred and kept replaying how she'd gotten hurt. A simple gun shot echoed through her head and she flinched. "Kur...isu....I'm...s-orry...." Her voice was weak and ragged as if she hadn't used it in forever.

 

Kurisu sighed.
He put an arm around her. "Come on you. Back to bed 'kay?" he told her as he gently led her back to the room she had been in and to the bed.
He looked at a Doctor as he passed by as if saying, Once she's back in, you best check everything to see if she needs re-patching again.
He spoke softly to her. "I'm gonna be just outside the door the whole time okay?
Don't be sorry... If anything, I should be the one apologising. If I had just been able to fight harder... then, well... you wouldn't be in this state."

 

Lynne shook her head weakly, "No...I shouldn't....have gone....to Ryku's....He told me....a lot of things....and it made me realize....how little my head is actually...in the game." she panted a breath and sat on her bed, her eyes closed in pain and a light sheen of sweat covered her skin, "I wanted to remind...myself....how I was useful....and I go and get myself...shot. I'm an idiot.... I needed to do something....you were all trying to save Kevin....and I was being selfish..." Lynne's eyes glazed and closed and she crumpled on the bed, lying motionless.

Doctors hurried inside, jostling Kurisu and re-attaching all the cords and wires to Lynne. A thready pulse blipped on the machines again and they gave her an oxygen mask. Without warning, a doctor ripped open her bandages and gown, revealing a good portion of her body to Kurisu and her wound. What had been a small bullet wound before now was a long ragged cut in the middle of her chest. The wound bled freely and they restitched the stitches that had come open. "Good..nothing serious this time..." "Her pulse is failing Doctor." "Dammit...someone alert the heart surgen. We'll need him to check all the damage. We'll have to open her back up and see what's been damaged by her little walk about." They ignored Kurisu altogether.

 

Mya slowly pulled Kurisu out of the room. We need to give them time. Stupid girl. Why can't you stay in one place and make others worry more? She sniffed and watched through the window.