Log: Lil and Madison

[x-diamondlil.livejournal.com]

Lil makes it to Ottawa and Department H's medical facilities.

((OOC: Posted early due to needing bed.))


The whole flight back home, it felt as if she hadn't managed a single exhale. No tears had come, either. Even as her world tilted, turned sideways then upside down and inside out, Lil felt frozen in the moment with Heather's words playing through her head like a broken record.

All dead but Eugene... and Madison.

And they would have lost Puck, too, if it weren't for the technomorph in shining Box armor.

They still could.

Another name to add to the list of the dead. Another friend and teammate to mourn...

But not Madison. Not her husband.

Somehow, someway by some ironically cruel twist of fate, he'd survived thanks to the very creation Lil held responsible for the destruction of their marriage. The Boxbot had saved his master's life, but in doing so, had met its own end.

The sound of blood rushing in her ears blocked out everything else; the noise of the medical facility with its thrumming pulse of life and quiet beeps. The echoing of her shoes hitting the cold tile as she trotted down the hallway alone went unnoticed. Only her own heartbeat and Heather's words penetrated the fog that surrounded her brain until Lil finally made it to the nurse's station.

"Madison Jeffries. They told me he was here," she said, managing to keep her voice from wavering too noticeably. "Heather Hudson said he was here."

The answer didn't come from the surprised woman seated in front of her but a fresh-faced doctor who Lil guessed couldn't be much older than herself.

"Of course, ma'am, but first we need you to -"

"I want to see my husband," Lil demanded, hauling the young man off his feet and six inches into the air by the lapels of his coat.

"Mrs. Jeffries, please -"

"Where is he?!"

He struggled briefly then pointed to down another of the corridors with a shaking finger. "That way. Room one-oh-six."

Lil gave a grunt of acknowledgment before dropping him back onto the floor and stepping over his sprawled form. There hadn't been enough force to hurt him but even if she had, the giantess would have kept walking. She was focused, her eyes flickering no where but to the numbers that marked each patient's room.

One-oh-three.

One-oh-four.

One-oh-five.

A shuddering breath rattled in her chest as she came to the next door.

One-oh-six.

Another moment to collect herself, to slow the pounding in her chest, to fight back the wetness that threatened to fall once more, Lil inhaled slowly then pushed open the door.

The tall blonde was used to seeing the dark-haired technomorph surrounded by wires and tubes as he sat hunched over a work table with a determined gleam in those bright blue eyes. Typical Maddy... and a far cry from the man who lay before her; resting on his back and hooked into various machines by those same wires and tubes, staring vacantly at the opposite wall.

"M-Maddy?" she said softly, folding herself into the chair beside his bed, finally losing the battle and allowing the tears to come. Little rivers started to spill down her cheeks as she took his closest hand with hers then used the other to brush away a lock of hair from his face. "It's me, sweetheart. It's Lil, your Diamond Girl." The blonde sniffled once then gave his fingers a squeeze before lifting them to her mouth and kissed the back of his palm. "Madison? Can you hear me, hon?"

The frail-looking man frowned at the voice, as if trying hard to concentrate on something on the opposite wall and not appreciating the interruption to his thoughts, although the glassy stare made his comprehension of anything that was going on in the real world seem doubtful. When her lips met his palm, he flinched, sending a tremor through his fried nervous system, almost a spasm. He made no further acknowledgment of anything having influenced him in any way.

"Shh, sweetheart. It's okay; it's just me," Lil cooed softly and continued to brush her fingers lightly over his forehead while keeping a hold of his hand. "I'm back, Maddy. I came home as soon as I heard what had happened." First flight out after receiving the second worst phone call a wife could receive. The blonde couldn't even imagine what it was like for the poor women who had lost husbands, fathers, brothers and sons. "Madison, please, look at me, sweetheart. Please? It's Lil; I came back home."

The wall might have been an IMAX screen showing the latest psychological thriller-with-car-chase-scenes-and-lots-of-nude-women movie, for all the attention he paid to it, and Lil might have been history homework, for all the attention he paid to her. He didn't even blink as she spoke, didn't flinch this time at her fingers brushing his head, didn't notice her at all.

Her face scrunched, pain lining her features with more tears falling. "Come on, Madison, please," Lil whispered then pressed her lips to his hand again. Even after the hours she'd spent by Jean-Paul's bed, the few minutes with her husband had been just as hellish if not more. The blonde slipped out of the chair and moved to the left side of his bed, crouching so she was directly in his line of sight. "Madison, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry, sweetheart," Lil sniffled as she ran trembling fingertips over his cheekbone. "I'm sorry I left and I'm sorry I wasn't here."

A bead of perspiration slid down Madison's forehead and he blinked rapidly several times, as if trying to gain some ability to focus, but unable to. His face grew flushed, colour draining to nearly the pallor of the crisp white hospital sheets. Another tremor passed through his body, but after a moment his eyelids and the tremor stilled, and his glassy eyes were fixed on the wall, or something beyond the wall, something that kept him withdrawn into himself, as if underwater and unable to surface to the shore where his Lil sat calling to him.

Lil whimpered her panic when he went pale, helpless when the tremor shook his injured form. "M-Maddy," she breathed in a voice no louder than a hush, clinging to his hands desperately with both of hers. Even after he settled again, the sickening terror remained. He was still alive but how much of him had she lost? With another hitching breath, another scared mewl, the broken woman laid her head on the mattress by her husband's shoulder and began to sob.