(Hospital) Beat the Press

Jan 18th, 2013 11:07 AM

There was an obvious difference. Derevko had lost weight in his imprisonment, and for a fit, hardworking cop-turned-agent, the loss clearly hadn't been fat. His cheeks looked hollow and gaunter, even beneath the scars, and the bones of his hands and arms were tight against the skin. There were no new, visible scars, although the new Lucifuge Agent knew that he had one hell of a demon dog bite on his thigh.

Fucking thing.

"Don't bother. The food's fuckin' lousy in here, plus they keep giving me broccoli soup. Who the fuck wants broccoli to begin with, much less after it's been fuckin' blended?" Derevko grumbled, pushing himself into a more upright sitting position. "Yeah, I tried that, but the bastards declined me, so I thought I'd get myself chained to a fuckin' bed for a few weeks. Don't try it, it's less fun than it sounds."

Jan 18th, 2013 06:52 PM

“Well what hospital has good food?” With an eye roll to the hospital and not Derevko. “Did you tell them you wanted something different? Unless you can’t eat anything other than liquids.” Daysha asked half wondering if he was just being stubborn and the other half wondering if he had internal damage. “Cause you’d think if you were chained somewhere and nearly starved they’d try to feed you better shit than cream of whatever pureed slop.”

Shrugging and shaking her head, Daysha looked around for a guest chair for a minute. “Anyway, back to the chained to a bed thing.” Eyeing the Agent, not letting that one slip by. “What the fuck happened? Last time anyone saw you, was the night we were in the park. Or at least that’s what I understand.” Of course she was more than intrigued. It had to take a lot of something to pen up Derevko.

“By the by, did they give you the 'nic patch’ or did you kick the habit while you were gone.” It was one of those smoker to smoker questions she could wholeheartedly understand.

Anything to make him less bitchy if that was at all possible. Although Daysha knew he had every right to be a crabby asshole right now with only that tidbit of information.

**Vassagon** · Jan 18th, 2013 07:09 PM

Jaeger arrived at the door to Derevko's room and heard voices coming from inside. A nurse perhaps? It was vaguely familiar though he couldn't place it. He knocked first, three raps on the door before turning the knob to enter. He stood in the doorway a moment, seeing the other visitor and then Derevko sitting up in his hospital bed.

"Oh, umm..." he hadn't expected someone else to be there first. Jaeger remembered her from the Spiral, some brief meeting a while back. "Hey," he said finally, whatever words he had thought to say before dissolving from his mind in an awkward silence. "Err, glad to see you back in the land of the living, Derevko," he added, still trying to recover, seeing the agent restored to life with his own eyes.

Jan 19th, 2013 12:53 PM

"Deprivation, ironically, makes you puke everywhere," Derevko said sourly. "I was stuck on a drip when the bastards took me. Guess they wanted me alive, but not too comfortable... anyway, my stomach decided to fuck off and hide at some point. This is supposed to help it work again." The scarred Lucifuge was perfectly willing to admit that he wasn't about to argue with the puking, but he wasn't going to be nice about having to choke down reconstituted sludge, either.

"I don't know what the fuck happened, Jackson. I headed home, and some assholes had broken into my apartment. So I shot 'em. We fought, they won. Next thing I know, I got a serious drug headache and I'm chained up on a bed in some dark room, and someone's babbling about demons. Stayed like that for... turns out to have been months, then they drug me with something else and pitch me out of a van. And no, they didn't give me the patch. I fuckin' cold turkeyed over there. Don't quit. Don't quit caffeine, either," Derevko said, in brief. It was literally true, as well.

It just happened to omit the Lady.

Before he could say anything else, the scarred former-cop heard the rap on the door and glanced up, faintly surprised that not only had he gotten a visitor, he'd gotten two.

"Yeah. Rumours of my demise were greatly exaggerated. So... own up, both of you. When'd you start thinking I was dead?"

Derevko knew any cop would have started thinking it about four days or so in, if they were really honest with themselves. Like he was gonna hold that against anyone.

Jan 19th, 2013 11:49 PM

Daysha should have guessed that was the case. And briefly she felt insensitive. “Guess that explains all the vomit at the scenes of kidnappers.” It was pretty easy to tell she was reminding herself of that piece of information.

Then Derevko began with some of the details. Well aware of how long he’d been missing, this only confirmed it further. It really pissed her off that it was one of their own; as in a badged cop not to mention a former lieutenant. The Demon thing struck her to the core though. Unless he was referring to some gang, which he would have detailed that it was a gang. He’d always given her shit at the bar when Vigil shit flew past his ears. Right as Daysha was about to ask about that some familiar looking guy showed up. Familiar…but just the face.

“I never thought you were dead.” Relaying in a stoney voice that matched the look in her eyes. She was serious, no bullshitting about it while holding her eyes on Derevko’s for a few seconds. There had been too much weird shit that night. The park, the pictures, the fact that the Agent kept bitching about sulfur.

Then unlocking her look to Derevko she turned to the newly arrived and threw out her hand. “Detective Jackson.” Nodding to him, skipping all the rest of the social crap. Besides, this wasn't a getting to know you party in Derevko's hospital room. He'd certainly bitch about that.

**Vassagon** · Jan 20th, 2013 05:49 PM

Was Derevko making a joke? He was acting like it was no big deal that he had been abducted and was even making light of it. Jaeger bet that next he'd say it happens all the time to him.

"Well, I mean, it's just an expression," Jaeger replied, making an excuse in case Derevko wasn't joking. "I'm glad you're alright. You are alright, aren't you? You've been missing so long and... everyone did their best trying to find you. Everyone's been worried." Which is to say that I've been worried, but let's not make this about me, thought Jaeger with an internal sigh.

When Daysha thrust her hand at him, Jaeger blinked a moment before giving his in return. "Right, I think we might've met briefly some time ago. Agent Jaeger."

Jan 21st, 2013 06:51 PM

"Insofar as I've been stuck immobile for a few months, I'm fine. It was a fucking good thing I was in good shape before they got me, or I'd be a fucking wreck right now," Derevko said bluntly, as Jaeger seemed desperately to be making sure that he had limbs. Which... well, they were all accounted for, plus the unexpected addition of the fireballs. It probably wouldn't be a good idea to mention the fireballs.

"Your faith in my survivability is astounding, Jackson, but I think they wanted me alive for some reason. No fucking clue what. Seemed like they were all a fucking deckchair, a hamper full of food and a colony of ants short of a picnic to me."

The scarred agent shrugged shoulders that looked a lot less solid than they previously had been.

And if I tell anyone the whole truth, they'll think I'm fucking insane.

Jan 22nd, 2013 04:06 PM

“Yeah, I think so.” Daysha nodded to Agent No. 2. “Probably the Spiral or something.” Could have been at a random police thing too, but the Detective’s social circle was pretty obscure. Or nearly non-existent.

“Well did you talk to them at all? You have to know some reason they let you go.” She was unsure if Derevko was the best negotiator for his own life. It would have been dripping with pot shots and sarcasm. They’d have shot him in the face.

Did the lack of food and nutrients make him crazy? When he began to prattle on about the deckchair, hamper and what the fuck ever, Daysha’s face made a screwed up confused look with a definite ‘What’ expression.

**Vassagon** · Jan 22nd, 2013 06:52 PM

She must've known Derevko well since Jackson had no problems bringing up the kidnapping while he was still recuperating. Jaeger was thinking about the conversation him and Derevko had last, about the conspiracy that revolved around that hotel incident, but he wasn't going to bring it up here, at least not directly.

"Maybe they just needed you out of the way temporarily," suggested Jaeger to Derevko. "Maybe you were getting close to something you shouldn't have. I can't think of why else they'd keep you alive. Murder wasn't their goal, just the abduction." That or he's an experiment that they're reintroducing into the wild, or some horrible punishment from someone he put away in jail. Or maybe it was some military training exercise to see how potential candidates handled long-term stress before selecting them for black op missions.

Yeah right, maybe I aught to try applying Ockham's razor to this before I throw out any other theories.

Jan 23rd, 2013 02:24 PM

Derevko shrugged at the question. Oh, yeah, he'd spoken to them. Quite a lot. They'd been very fucking persuasive. So persuasive that eventually, he'd believed them, and probably wasn't suffering from Stockholm Syndrome.

Er... probably.

"I spoke to them, but what they said didn't make any fucking sense. They rambled about demons existing, and some holy war being fought against the Devil," the scarred Agent said, in pure and complete honesty. "They didn't ask for a ransom or anything, as far as I can tell... just drugged me one day and let me go. Said it was time."

Derevko shrugged.

"You want my honest opinion... I don't think this was about anything I did. Surprising as that might sound, I know. I'm a fucking pain."

(Hospital) Beat the Press

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