Chloe's brows knitted when she saw her bent over, watched her not respond, and she went further into the room to try and approach her. "Angela?" She tried to keep her voice soft, to not startle her - but her foot crunched against a stray piece of glass on the floor, making her step back and look down at it, confusion more evident on her face.
She looked back up at Angela, saw her with the broken vile in her hand, the yellow liquid on the table in front of her and over the floor where she'd stepped, and the mixing of something darker, something more red... It didn't take her long to figure it out. "Oh, shit -- Angela, your hands!" Chloe didn't really have the knowledge of how to help someone in crisis, nor the ability to notice when someone was in the middle of a flashback, and so she hadn't thought to be gentle about it.
No, instead, she reached out, going to grab her shoulder and try and pull her away from the table and towards her. "Hey, snap out of it."
The crack of the glass under Chloe's feet snaps her to attention, but not the kind of attention that it wanted. No, instead she's trapped in a memory where there are bodies everywhere and no more medicine to heal them. There are too many people for her to bring back to life and the truth is that she can't get them all.
Her hand with it's white knuckles from gripping the vial too hard let go of the glass, but not in a positive response. No, she startles and instead of seeing Chloe for the person that she is, she sees a threat. She scrambles away from her, pulling her gun out quickly and pointing it directly at the intruder. When she speaks it isn't in English, it's in German.
"No. Stay back." She scream it loudly and as she reacts to her terror she backs away and slips on the fluid. She isn't usually so clumsy, but the battle is in her mind and not in front of her and it's made her awkward. As she falls, the weapon falls with a clatter to the ground. It doesn't discharge because the safety is still on, but Angela scrambles away again, trying to get herself to safety.
Chloe's hand had gone up and she'd quickly stepped back the moment that Angela had pulled her gun, her heart leaping into her throat for that brief second it was pointed at her. She had to give it all to not get trapped in her own bullshit, having been on the other end of a gun far too frequently for her own tastes and constantly being reminded by this town how badly it could end for her, but she knew that it wasn't the place for it. She'd bury it down and maybe process it later, but more likely she'd never let that emotion resurface again as she tried to remind herself that Angela wasn't Angela right now.
She still had instinctually cringed and covered herself when the gun dropped, waiting to hear a bullet fire, but relieved when nothing did. Chloe waits only a second longer before she lets her arms drop and she carefully goes to look at Angela, scrambling herself from her, looking so frightened and not knowing how to fix it. "A-Angela, come on - it's - ... It's me, it's Chloe." She cautiously went to try and get down on the floor, to stay at her level, but it's slow and her face scrunches up on pain as she gets on her knees. Her stomach muscles still can't take so much movement, but she knows that it's the only way to stay non-threatening.
"I'm not an enemy. You know me. You - you asked me to come here, remember?"
As she speaks in a quieter voice the words begin to infiltrate the false reality and the flashback. Chloe. She knows Chloe and part of her brain starts to focus on that fact. The sights, sounds, and smells that are wracking her mind begin to break up as she whispers the younger woman's name. Her voice is small at first and unsure. Her movements have stopped as she had backed up as far as she could into the wall.
Almost like a person slowly waking from a dream Angela starts to come around back around to her senses. New floods of emotions start to course through her. Shame. Guilt. Embarrassment. They fill the spaces where she had only been able to feel fear. Tears start to roll down her cheeks and she quickly wipes them away with the edge of her doctor's coat. Part of her desperately wants to text Moira about it all, but she knows she also has to face that mess that her PTSD attack had caused. She had mentioned to Chloe that she knew what it was like to suffer from PTSD, but she had hoped that Chloe would never see that side of her. It happened from time to time, most times not as bad as others. Usually she could easily enough brush it off, but her mind had seen too much to not crack around the edges. Even if she was well put together she had her moments.
"Oh...Chloe...I... I am so sorry." Her voice was smaller than she wanted it to be, and she knew she had to find a way to pull it together and be the adult. A child shouldn't have to witness this or take care of her. She was the adult. Yet, the more she pushed herself to get up the harder the tears fell. At the same time she mumbled apologies for her behavior.
There was a wave of relief as she saw the lights start to come back into her eyes, the recognition dawning on her face, and she let that run over her with a long sigh. She didn't move to touch her again right away, just in case it triggered another response of some kind, but stayed still, hovering just out of reach, as she started to find her way back to the present. She knew what it was like, after all - maybe she hadn't recognized it as a panic attack at first, but the way she'd scrambled away had made it more than apparent pretty quick.
She gave the smallest smile when Angela finally said her name, going to carefully reach out to put a hand against one of her knees cautiously. She knows that the apology is probably instinctual, but she's immediately shaking her head, forehead wrinkling like she's confused as to why she's giving it at all.
"Shit, dude - you didn't do anything wrong. It's --" She swallowed slightly, glancing at the broken glass, the mix of blood and healing liquid that remained, and then looked back to her when she'd gathered her thoughts more clearly. "It's not like I don't get what it's like to be stuck in your own head. I - Can I see your hands?" She wanted to make sure there wasn't any glass shards left in it and she figured it was easier for her to get them out with help.
Angela's heart was racing in her chest and she took a deep shaky breath to try and settle it. Her mind and body were still on high alert, but she was starting to regain some resemblance of control. She was quickly trying to focus on the present. Finding things that helped settle her was a old skill that she had learned during forced sessions of therapy. She never had been much for sitting down and talking about her own issues, she much preferred to focus on helping others to alleviate her guilt and mental strain. And in that way, she brought herself back to recognize that the girl she had heavily operated on was straining herself physically. A fresh wave of embarrassment washed over her as she looked over at Chloe.
Her eyes moved then down to her hands and the scrapes that covered them from the broken vial. They weren't bad, and they likely wouldn't even need stitches, though one small piece seemed to be stuck a little. Damn, how had she lost herself so badly when she had only just been recovering from her last excessive mental trip. The fear hadn't fully left her face, but she wanted to turn the attention back to Chloe.
"No, no...don't worry about this. For the most part I am a healing machine." It was true in some aspects, though it hadn't worked as well with the situation with Eddie the previous month. "Just..." She went to try and put one hand on the ground to push up, but that stung and she was still shaky. She hated asking for help and wished again that Moira was here. At least she was an adult and knew what she needed medically. With some resignation she sighed. "Don't push yourself, but I suppose I need a hand up."
Chloe didn't like being told not to worry, but she was at least good about following direction when it needed to be followed. She'd look at her hands later, if she had to, and instead focused on getting Angela up and off the floor. She paused for a moment, before carefully moving so she could pull herself back up into a standing position without hurting too bad, and quickly went to offer a hand out to her in turn.
"You still need to get that glass out of your hand," she said, to make it clear she hadn't not noticed. "Healing machine or not, I don't think that stuff does well when it stays in your skin."
Angela used Chloe as little as possible to get herself up off the floor. She then settled herself into her chair and let out another sigh. "No, the likelihood is that my body would heal around it and cause problems. It's not in deep though, so it should be easy to get out and the rest is minor at best." She looked her hands over as she checked the damage and then turned to Chloe. "Are you alright? To think that you came here for my assistance and it ended up being the other way around." Her cheeks her a bit pink from the embarrassment of it all, she was definitely coming back to herself and that meant that now she felt a bit frustrated at herself for such a display. "That hasn't happened in awhile, but I apologize all the same."
Her eyes glanced over the gun and she felt suddenly sick to her stomach to think about what might have happened. "Mein gott! Are you are you alright? I could have really hurt you... I am so sorry. It's not like me."
"Stop saying sorry," she said with a wave of her hand. "You've helped me like a gajillion times. I owed you." Maybe that wasn't exactly how this stuff worked, but Chloe hated feeling like a drain on someone. Knowing she'd been able to help her had made things a little more even grounded. Made Angela seem more human. She hated knowing she hurt so much to end up there, but she was glad to see some of her weaknesses for once.
"I'm fine." Mostly. She's very skillfully not looked at the gun once since it dropped to the floor and she was keeping it that way. "Not the first time someone's pointed one of those suckers at me, probably won't be the last. It ended better than usual."
Well Chloe had definitely gotten to see a side to Angela that only a few had. She kept that side of herself in check around others because being vulnerable could be dangerous. Still Chloe wasn't going to hurt her and she knew that. At Chloe's insistence she nods. "Very well, I'll let it go. We'll focus on the health care since that is what I am good at." The gun was going to have to stay there for awhile longer because she didn't want to pick it up with something in her hand. "I don't suppose you can grab the tweezers off the table over there. They sure be in an open metal box among some other tools." Her voice was getting stronger and she sounded much less vulnerable and more in charge of the situation.
To Chloe's comment about the gun she rolled her eyes. "I always keep the safety on unless I am going into a dangerous situation. Safer that way. And it's locked in my home any other times."
She nodded at the instruction, going over to the table and looking for said box. Once she'd spotted it, she glanced through the small tools inside of it, before finding the tweezers and snatching them up. She walked back over, not holding the tweezers out to her, but her hand instead, making a Gimme motion that showed that Angela was clearly supposed to give her hand over to her so that she could be the one to take out the glass.
"The safety is safer? Well, fuck me, you learn something new every day." She figured that if the doctor's voice was getting steadier, it was a good time for her usual sarcasm to return. Maybe to just make things seem a little more... normal.
Angela had to roll her eyes at the comment. It did bring a small smile to her lips though as she shook her head. "Don't be a smart ass." She recognized though it had been a stupid thing to say.
As Chloe reached out for her hand, she paused for a moment. She had been planning on plucking the shard out by herself and wasn't sure whether to let someone who wasn't experienced in medicine do it. However, It would be easier to not do it on her own and it was in her dominant hand so she finally relinquished her hand to the other girl. The trepidation was clear on her face though. It wasn't easy for Angela to hand over control to even the most experienced of doctors.
"Do you know what you are doing? I can walk you through it."
"But then I wouldn't be me," she said with an innocent bat of her eyes. She was glad that Angela at least had smiled some, though. That was better than nothing after what she'd just been through.
Chloe relaxed as she felt Angela's hand rest into hers, making sure to hold it still and nodding when she asked if she knew what she was doing. "I watched a lot of First Aid videos on YouTube," she said with a shrug. She at least had the basics down. "You can always tell me if I look like I'm about to fuck up, though. I'll listen. I promise."
She went to grab some disinfectant first, pausing to make sure that was right, before going to carefully pour it over her hand and get rid of the excess debris.
Chloe definitely wouldn't be herself without the sarcasm and Angela wouldn't want to change that. It had grown on her and she was coming to care deeply about the younger girl.
She directed as best she could, but let Chloe do the rest. If there was any need for further assistance she would bother Moira to patch it up. She managed to barely even flinch as Chloe plucked it out of her skin. Under different circumstances she would have dabbed a bit of her medicine on it but it would just have to heal naturally.
"I used to skateboard," she said with a shrug, putting the glass bits into the dish she'd brought over as she talks. She's looking again to make sure she hasn't missed anything. "I've fallen on gravel and shit and had to pick it out, so I figured it probably wasn't too much different." Thus watching the YouTube videos, apparently. Just in case.
Satisfied, she goes to place the tweezers down and rinses her hand off again before reaching for the bandages.
"Wrapping it, though, you're gonna have to walk me through."
The statement about skateboarding made sense. There were definitely similarities in how to approach anything that was imbedded in the flesh.
The cut bled a little, but it wasn't deep enough for her to worry. She'd let Moira take a look at it later to get her opinion, or heal it a bit further.
"Happy to. The guaze is over there on that table."
"Without my nanites, it's probably best to add a little bit of antiseptic. To be on the safe side." The whole situation was starting to feel a bit silly to her. After all this was usually her job and handing over the reigns to someone else was not something she did with ease.
"And then you can just put a piece of gauze on it and a couple strips of tape and it will be fine in a day or two."
"Okay. Uh ..." She looked around, finding the antiseptic in reaching distance, and going to grab it and unscrew the top. She puts a dollop onto her finger, going to spread it over the cuts on Angela's palm, before grabbing the gauze.
She scrunches her mouth as she places it around her hand, grabbing the tape and tearing it easily into strips that she uses to hold it down.
"... Are you gonna be able to get more of your nanshits?" She can't remember the name already.
Once her hand is dressed she flexes her fingers and looks satisfied with the results. There is minimal pain now that the shard was removed and the rest would heal soon enough. It was her pride that had taken the greater hit this time.
Standing up from her chair she decides that all she can do at this point is clean up the mess and shut down for the evening. Despite her nature to overwork herself she can't stand to be in her office anymore. As she picks things up to a satisfactory level she shrugs to the comment. "I don't know. I'll see what I can do to get more. Hopefully I'll be able to." She lets out a sigh.
"In the meantime. Let's head home, I'm in desperate need of a break from this room."
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She looked back up at Angela, saw her with the broken vile in her hand, the yellow liquid on the table in front of her and over the floor where she'd stepped, and the mixing of something darker, something more red... It didn't take her long to figure it out. "Oh, shit -- Angela, your hands!" Chloe didn't really have the knowledge of how to help someone in crisis, nor the ability to notice when someone was in the middle of a flashback, and so she hadn't thought to be gentle about it.
No, instead, she reached out, going to grab her shoulder and try and pull her away from the table and towards her. "Hey, snap out of it."
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Her hand with it's white knuckles from gripping the vial too hard let go of the glass, but not in a positive response. No, she startles and instead of seeing Chloe for the person that she is, she sees a threat. She scrambles away from her, pulling her gun out quickly and pointing it directly at the intruder. When she speaks it isn't in English, it's in German.
"No. Stay back." She scream it loudly and as she reacts to her terror she backs away and slips on the fluid. She isn't usually so clumsy, but the battle is in her mind and not in front of her and it's made her awkward. As she falls, the weapon falls with a clatter to the ground. It doesn't discharge because the safety is still on, but Angela scrambles away again, trying to get herself to safety.
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She still had instinctually cringed and covered herself when the gun dropped, waiting to hear a bullet fire, but relieved when nothing did. Chloe waits only a second longer before she lets her arms drop and she carefully goes to look at Angela, scrambling herself from her, looking so frightened and not knowing how to fix it. "A-Angela, come on - it's - ... It's me, it's Chloe." She cautiously went to try and get down on the floor, to stay at her level, but it's slow and her face scrunches up on pain as she gets on her knees. Her stomach muscles still can't take so much movement, but she knows that it's the only way to stay non-threatening.
"I'm not an enemy. You know me. You - you asked me to come here, remember?"
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Almost like a person slowly waking from a dream Angela starts to come around back around to her senses. New floods of emotions start to course through her. Shame. Guilt. Embarrassment. They fill the spaces where she had only been able to feel fear. Tears start to roll down her cheeks and she quickly wipes them away with the edge of her doctor's coat. Part of her desperately wants to text Moira about it all, but she knows she also has to face that mess that her PTSD attack had caused. She had mentioned to Chloe that she knew what it was like to suffer from PTSD, but she had hoped that Chloe would never see that side of her. It happened from time to time, most times not as bad as others. Usually she could easily enough brush it off, but her mind had seen too much to not crack around the edges. Even if she was well put together she had her moments.
"Oh...Chloe...I... I am so sorry." Her voice was smaller than she wanted it to be, and she knew she had to find a way to pull it together and be the adult. A child shouldn't have to witness this or take care of her. She was the adult. Yet, the more she pushed herself to get up the harder the tears fell. At the same time she mumbled apologies for her behavior.
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She gave the smallest smile when Angela finally said her name, going to carefully reach out to put a hand against one of her knees cautiously. She knows that the apology is probably instinctual, but she's immediately shaking her head, forehead wrinkling like she's confused as to why she's giving it at all.
"Shit, dude - you didn't do anything wrong. It's --" She swallowed slightly, glancing at the broken glass, the mix of blood and healing liquid that remained, and then looked back to her when she'd gathered her thoughts more clearly. "It's not like I don't get what it's like to be stuck in your own head. I - Can I see your hands?" She wanted to make sure there wasn't any glass shards left in it and she figured it was easier for her to get them out with help.
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Her eyes moved then down to her hands and the scrapes that covered them from the broken vial. They weren't bad, and they likely wouldn't even need stitches, though one small piece seemed to be stuck a little. Damn, how had she lost herself so badly when she had only just been recovering from her last excessive mental trip. The fear hadn't fully left her face, but she wanted to turn the attention back to Chloe.
"No, no...don't worry about this. For the most part I am a healing machine." It was true in some aspects, though it hadn't worked as well with the situation with Eddie the previous month. "Just..." She went to try and put one hand on the ground to push up, but that stung and she was still shaky. She hated asking for help and wished again that Moira was here. At least she was an adult and knew what she needed medically. With some resignation she sighed. "Don't push yourself, but I suppose I need a hand up."
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"You still need to get that glass out of your hand," she said, to make it clear she hadn't not noticed. "Healing machine or not, I don't think that stuff does well when it stays in your skin."
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Her eyes glanced over the gun and she felt suddenly sick to her stomach to think about what might have happened. "Mein gott! Are you are you alright? I could have really hurt you... I am so sorry. It's not like me."
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"I'm fine." Mostly. She's very skillfully not looked at the gun once since it dropped to the floor and she was keeping it that way. "Not the first time someone's pointed one of those suckers at me, probably won't be the last. It ended better than usual."
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To Chloe's comment about the gun she rolled her eyes. "I always keep the safety on unless I am going into a dangerous situation. Safer that way. And it's locked in my home any other times."
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"The safety is safer? Well, fuck me, you learn something new every day." She figured that if the doctor's voice was getting steadier, it was a good time for her usual sarcasm to return. Maybe to just make things seem a little more... normal.
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As Chloe reached out for her hand, she paused for a moment. She had been planning on plucking the shard out by herself and wasn't sure whether to let someone who wasn't experienced in medicine do it. However, It would be easier to not do it on her own and it was in her dominant hand so she finally relinquished her hand to the other girl. The trepidation was clear on her face though. It wasn't easy for Angela to hand over control to even the most experienced of doctors.
"Do you know what you are doing? I can walk you through it."
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Chloe relaxed as she felt Angela's hand rest into hers, making sure to hold it still and nodding when she asked if she knew what she was doing. "I watched a lot of First Aid videos on YouTube," she said with a shrug. She at least had the basics down. "You can always tell me if I look like I'm about to fuck up, though. I'll listen. I promise."
She went to grab some disinfectant first, pausing to make sure that was right, before going to carefully pour it over her hand and get rid of the excess debris.
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She directed as best she could, but let Chloe do the rest. If there was any need for further assistance she would bother Moira to patch it up. She managed to barely even flinch as Chloe plucked it out of her skin. Under different circumstances she would have dabbed a bit of her medicine on it but it would just have to heal naturally.
"Not bad for your first time."
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Satisfied, she goes to place the tweezers down and rinses her hand off again before reaching for the bandages.
"Wrapping it, though, you're gonna have to walk me through."
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The cut bled a little, but it wasn't deep enough for her to worry. She'd let Moira take a look at it later to get her opinion, or heal it a bit further.
"Happy to. The guaze is over there on that table."
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"Do I need to put anything on it first? After washing it out as much as I did?"
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"And then you can just put a piece of gauze on it and a couple strips of tape and it will be fine in a day or two."
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She scrunches her mouth as she places it around her hand, grabbing the tape and tearing it easily into strips that she uses to hold it down.
"... Are you gonna be able to get more of your nanshits?" She can't remember the name already.
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Standing up from her chair she decides that all she can do at this point is clean up the mess and shut down for the evening. Despite her nature to overwork herself she can't stand to be in her office anymore. As she picks things up to a satisfactory level she shrugs to the comment. "I don't know. I'll see what I can do to get more. Hopefully I'll be able to." She lets out a sigh.
"In the meantime. Let's head home, I'm in desperate need of a break from this room."