Log: Kyle & Laurie

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Backdated to June 29th

Laurie stops by Kyle's room to check on his injuries.



Laurie knocked on Kyle's door, waiting for an answer before she entered. Hank had asked her to handle the routine check up; the combination of Kyle's healing factor and the sheer amount of work Dr McCoy was currently doing meaning that he had had to delegate a few of the simpler procedures to people like Laurie. It was true that Amelia could have handled it, but Laurie had argued that it was good experience for her, and she'd make copious notes for both doctors to go over to make extra sure.

"Seriously, you have the worst timing in the history of ever." Kyle's voice came out behind the trio of brown paper bags that contained his groceries. "Also we have got to work on your, you know, awareness of the stuff that's going on around you." He grunted, shifting the bags so he could wedge one between a raised knee and the wall, and unlocked his door with the newly free hand. "Intercept the Houdini-cat for me, and then you can play Doctor Ladypants."

Laurie grabbed Shamu Jnr as he made a break for freedom, juggling her clipboard as she did so. Luckily for her, Shamu was something of a runt and didn't need both hands to hold onto. She opened up with her power a little bit, smiling as he started to purr and lick at her fingers.

"Doctor Ladypants?" she asked, eyebrows raised.

Kyle set two of the bags down on his counter. "You want to be a Doctor, you're a lady, and you wear pants." He said, while putting the entire other bag full of various meat into his freezer without unpacking it. "Also quit using your powers to suck up to my cat. Every time you do that, he mopes for like a week after you leave." Despite the grouchiness, he took a baggie of what looked like salmon out of the fridge and dumped it onto a plate and set it on the floor.

"It's the easiest way to stop him from running away," Laurie noted, placing him on the ground and allowing her power to dissipate. She took out a packet of wet wipes and wiped her hands before tossing it into the trashcan near Kyle's counter. "He wouldn't mope if you didn't spoil him rotten. He knows if he acts all sad you'll give him more attention."

"He's not that smart." Kyle protested, watching Shamu pounce on a piece of fish before eating it. "Sides, fish is good for him as long as it's only a treat and I am totally training him to be a guard cat." Which was total bullhockey, but he wasn't trying to be believed. "So, knee, elbow, or gut first? The ass bruises are totally gone and I am not showing you my ass so you can check. You're just gonna have to take my word for it."

"Gut first, I need to check on how it's healing and ask you a couple of standard questions," Laurie said, taking a pen out and making a note on her clipboard before setting it aside and warming her hands.

Kyle's response was to pull his shirt off, and then hop up onto the counter. It wasn't exactly sterile, but he didn't have any open wounds anyway, and from there he could watch his cat, peel an orange and let Laurie look at whatever she wanted. "Fire away, but if you try to slip some sex questions in there, I'm deferring to Jan." Not that she would but it was fun to try to get Laurie to squirm.

"Your guts have nothing to do with your gonads, Kyle," Laurie noted, the hint of exasperation colouring her voice. "Even with Jan using some form of strap on device, it shouldn't harm you in any way. Well, as long as you're using enough lubricant, anyhow."

She stepped forward, placing her hands on his abdomen, and started to pulsate her fingers across it.

"Let me know if you feel any pain."

Kyle let out a long exasperated grunt. "This was a lot more fun when you were all like awkward about sex. Can we just pretend it's like two years ago?" He watched Laurie prod around the scar tissue on his stomach and shrugged. "Nope. Just sort of tender, but not really in a sore way. Just in a you're poking me way." He frowned, screwed up his face for a moment and then belched. "Sorry." He so wasn't.

"Only if you want me to start behaving like I did two years ago," Laurie noted, a smile tugging at the corner of her lips as she continued her probing. It all felt perfectly fine for a mostly healed gut wound. "Have you defecated at all since you were wounded?"

"Dude, -defecated-? Seriously? You're not Doc Hank, you can talk like a regular person. I mean, I'm not saying you should ask me if I had a big ol' poo or something but you can say Bee-Emm or bowel movement or number two." Kyle said, teasing mostly but also slightly frustrated. "And yeah, I'm pooping just fine. You want me to save some next time?"

Laurie blinked at him for a minute, and then burst out laughing, shaking her head when she thought he might think she was laughing at him rather then at what he'd said.

"Kyyyyle, I'm trying to be a professional here," Laurie protested, reaching out to hold onto him for a minute as her knees went weak with the force of her laughter. "You don't say 'number 2's'; it's just; it's not how things are done."

"Bowel movement is totally professional! I had pediatricians say it when I was a kid!" Kyle protested. "Defecate makes you sound like you ate a dictionary and I'm already bringing my pocket thesaurus down to the infirmary when I see Doc Hank, I don't need to do it for you too!" He liked Doc Hank, but part of that was because he could tease him a little about the giant words.

"Okay, okay, bowel movement then," Laurie said, recovered enough from her fit of giggles that she stood up again. "And it's good news that you have, one of the issues with gut wounds is it can really mess up that whole system. If you hadn't, we might have had to cut you open to make sure none of your intestines were twisted, or that something hadn't healed wrong."

Laurie had no compunctions about being completely honest with Kyle, it would have felt wrong for her to try and sugar coat anything to do with his injuries.

"Okay, one." Kyle held up a finger. "I want to avoid as much cutting open of me as possible. And two." Another finger. "Can we stop talking about poo. Not just my poo, but all poo. Cause I gotta eat again soon. I'm still growing back muscle." And he really didn't want to think about poo.

"I think we've talked enough about 'bowel movements', yes," Laurie said, gesturing for him to put his shirt back on. "Although, we do have things to talk about, eventually. Once Nick's been found, anyhow."

Kyle's mostly-good-mood dissolved. "Yeah, how about we don't even talk about that right now." He said harshly.

Laurie nodded, gesturing for him to show her his knee next, "I'm not going to make you talk about anything, Kyle. It's not like I don't understand how hard things are for you right now. I've had to up my therapy sessions to once a week again, and I was doing pretty well there for awhile."

Thankfully, Kyle was in torn-off jean shorts and all he had to do was scrunch them up a little bit.

"Knee's been good. Back up to my normal set of laps in the pool, yes, before you ask I was taking it slow because knees heal fucked up easy and only got up to my normal number today" Because he'd gotten that lecture about a billion times already. Or three. "No swelling, doesn't hurt, full range of motion, yadda yadda sweet potato bisque." He paused, and Laurie could almost see him forcing his expression back to the normal 'dude every fourth word, so laid back he's almost horizontal' face Kyle wore all the time. "Which, by the way, you should totally make for me. Because I have sweet potatoes in my fridge."

"I'm thinking I could arrange that," Laurie noted, taking a good look at his knee, and then testing his reflexes with a small hammer. "How have you been sleeping?"

It wasn't technically a related question, but Laurie figured that with the correlation between lack of sleep and slow wound healing she could get away with it. Mostly she just wanted to make sure he was doing okay mentally as well as physically, and knew he wouldn't take kindly to a more direct approach.

"Eh, you know. The usual. Run myself ragged so I pass out and don't wake up from crazy ass nightmares about Nick in the white room." And right back to that, it was Serious Business Kyle. "Dude, seriously, can we just not talk about this? Cause I am totally in therapy and I promise I am not like, fucking around and not going or something."

"I think we're good," Laurie said, pulling his jean leg down and taking a quick look at his kitchen. "How about you tell me where everything is so I can make you that sweet potato bisque then?"

If Kyle told her he was looking after himself, she believed him.

Kyle hopped down from the counter and made a show of landing on his good leg, just to avoid any potential but probably unlikely lectures about strain on his knee. "Potatoes in the crisper, everything else is still in my grocery bags. I don't have a peeler but I got that covered." He flashed a hand full of sharp claws. "And that blender-thing you stick right in the pot is in the drawer behind you."

"Good, let me just wash my hands and we'll get started then," Laurie said, heading over to the sink and the helpful container of liquid soap that sat beside it.

She quickly washed her hands, wiping them with some paper towelling and then handed the soap to Kyle so he could do the same.

"We'll start with the potatoes, since they have to go in the oven for awhile."