darker_london | Dare (Kenzie, Joss)

A doctor tried to shine a light into her eyes as Kenzie was trying to get to Joss. "I'm fine," she insisted. "I don't need help, I don't need lights, just let me go and see Joss."

He was not the first person to shine lights into her face. The paramedics had done it when the ambulance arrived, and they'd put a neck brace on her too, which was really irritating. Kenzie was aware of an echo of Teagan's pain in her neck - all over her body, really, but to Kenzie it was just an annoying echo and not something that was going to stop her getting to Joss.

"Your friend is alright. You can go and see him in a little while, just bear with us for now." His name was Derek, and Kenzie hated him immediately. Doctor Derek. Ugh. But maybe if she sat still for a moment and proved she was alright he'd let her go to Joss. She glowered at him while he shone the light in her eyes, though he didn't seem to notice her expression at all, he was too busy looking worried. He got Kenzie to follow his finger with her eyes, then said: "Hm. Wait there a second," he told her, straightening up. "I'm just going to get a second opinion."

"Ugh," Kenzie sighed heavily. He left one of the nurses to guard her, an older woman by the name of Linh. "Does he even know what he's doing? Clearly I'm fine."

"Your eyes," Linh explained. "Your pupils aren't responding normally to the light. You could have a serious brain injury."

"Well clearly I don't," Kenzie told her. It was harder to sass someone with a neck brace but she managed to get her point across.

"I understand you're running on adrenaline," Linh said as Derek and some other woman came in. "But it's better for your health if you are honest, rather than brave."

"I'm not being brave, I'm fine!" Kenzie snapped, standing up off the bed. Linh positioned herself in front of Kenzie, looking partially like she was ready to catch her if she fell and partially like a prison guard ready to restrain her charge.

"You may feel fine but you need to take it easy," she said, her hands gently on Kenzie's shoulders.

"I do not need to take it easy! I need to see Joss!" Kenzie yelled at her stupid face.

"Whoa, whoa dear," Linh said, as the two doctors moved in behind her. "You need to sit down, Teagan, you need to sit down. You've just burst a blood vessel in your eye, you need to take it easy."

"I'm fine!" Kenzie repeated, straining against Linh's hands until Linh pointed her toward the mirror that hung on the wall of her room. Kenzie stopped fighting, horrified - she looked horrifying.

Her face - Teagan's face - was so badly bruised, the marks around her eyes and across her nose were so dark it was like she was wearing sunglasses. Her nose was obviously broken, and there was still blood around her nostrils through they had cleaned the rest of it up. There were several cuts on her face and down her jaw, some deep enough to warrant bandages, though none of them had needed stitches. Her bottom lip was so fat she couldn't believe that it was actually all lip, and there were teeth marks in the skin underneath it. Then there was the neck brace, of course, which made her face look even worse.

Her right eye was just dark and puffy but the left - she could see it happening - was turning red as she watched. "Fuck me!" she exclaimed. "Oh fuck me."

"You are doing yourself more damage," Linh said gently, guiding her back toward the hospital bed. "You can see your young man in the morning, but right now I am sure he is sleeping and resting, as you need to be. Even if you didn't need to lie down, I wouldn't let you wake him up anyway. It is very late and you have both been through a lot."

Kenzie stared her down. "Fine," she said, coldly. "I'll lie down." And she did, carefully laying herself down on the bed, then as soon as she was down, she left Teagan's body.

She hung around long enough to laugh at the nurse and doctor and his daft backup doctor as they started to panic; as their previously responsive patient instantly became unresponsive, seemingly out of pure spite.

Kenzie found Joss asleep, as they'd said. He didn't look as bad as Teagan, but he had a neck brace too. They'd shaved off part of his lovely dark hair to stitch up his head, in a long line above his temple. He was hooked up to fluids, the needle deep into his bare arm. One of his hands lay on top of the hospital blankets, bandaged up, bandaged all the way up his wrist. She couldn't tell how bad it was. Couldn't tell if things were worse under the blankets.

She waited with him through the night, watching over him. A few times during the night nurses would come in to wake him, to check various things. He was more disorientated than his usually grumpy morning self, and had to be told where he was and what had happened every time.

Once he woke up on his own and looked right at her, said "oh, hi Kenzie," and she nearly floated to the ceiling with elation. But he'd only seen her before when he was very sick, or very high.

"Joss, Joss," she said, demanding his attention. He smiled weakly. "You have to promise me if you die that you'll stay here with me. You have to promise. You have to. You can't die and leave me. You can't. Promise me. Joss? Promise."

"Mm," he said, slowly blinking his eyes shut. "Yes, yes."

"Joss, you can't die and move on," Kenzie said, but Joss had drifted off again and there was nothing she could do to wake him. Nothing that wouldn't risk hurting him further, and she didn't know if he'd actually promised. She didn't know if he'd have the strength to stay if he died.

Next time he woke up, a little after the sun had risen on the new day, he looked right through her. Kenzie was furious, and send the plastic cup of water beside the bed flying against the wall, but perhaps it meant he was feeling a little further from death, and she wasn't at risk of losing him entirely.

She ran her hands over his hair, over the hair he had left. It moved beneath her fingers. "Don't you dare leave me, Joss," she whispered harshly in his ear. "Don't you dare."