Leah roams the hospital halls for a bit, taking her time on her way to Halisi's office, not particularly eager to reach her destination. But Halisi has been one of many that has always had her back so, after all of the trouble Leah has caused recently, she certainly deserves a face-to-face explanation.
#Hospital – September 23, 2022
Holly is carrying a tray of sludge-like hospital food as she notices Leah coming down one of the hallways and stops with a smile. "There you are. Dr.Halisi just got out of surgery. She's in the Floor 2 recovery room if you'd like to meet up with her." she informs with a gesture over her shoulder at the elevator.
Leah barely notices Holly, gaze downward until she's addressed, startling her a bit. She does her best to play it off, sucking in her lips with a raise of her brows as she listens to the helpful nurse. "Oh!" she hums, glancing past Holly towards the elevator in question before giving a few small nods of her head. "Right! Thanks, Holly." she offers before she starts to continue on her way. The clack of a pair of steps all that's
managed before Leah's voice sounds out in the hollow halls from behind Holly once again. "Uhh-... Actually-... ya know, maybe I shouldn't bother her today." she muses, the heels of her heavy boots groaning against the glossy, smooth floor as she shifts back towards Holly. "If she just got out of surgery-... another surgery." she corrects, rolling her eyes on behalf of the busy doctor, "It sounds like she's had a long day."
Holly offers a friendly not before continuing, only to stop and turn around as Leah speaks again, looking a little puzzled. "Well, I... already told her that you wanted to speak to her. I wouldn't worry, every day's a long day here. She sounded keen to talk." Her feet shift as if she's about to get going again - the food in her hands is obviously on its way somewhere and she doesn't look like she has time to stand around.
Leah reigns in her frown, giving a small nod- moreso to herself than to Holly. "Right. Yeah." she hums, drawing in a breath and puffing out her cheeks as she exhales. Not exactly the level of encouragement she was hoping for. "That makes sense..." she adds, voice growing quieter even as Holly continues on her way. No getting out of it. "Alright-..." she says, brushing an unruly strand of hair back behind her ear as she looks to the
escaping nurse. "Thanks again, Holly!" she continues, raising her voice a little to be heard as the distance between them grows. With a quick adjustment of the bag hanging off her arm, she starts back on her way towards the elevator.
Leah continues towards her destination once she departs the elevator, following the signs on the second floor towards the recovery rooms as she mulls over what to even say to Halisi. 'I'm sorry.' is beginning to wear out its welcome at this point. 'Same time next week?' almost sounds more appropriate at this point.
It's a pretty straightforward task to find one's way in the small hospital, and soon enough Leah finds herself at the wide doors to the recovery room. Stepping near them is enough to make them open, revealing a square room with beds lining all four walls, patients of various species resting in each. Most are still sedated, while a couple of those that are not are being tended to by nurses, and in one case an anesthesiologist. In the middle of
the room is a slightly elevated platform filled with computers displaying various readouts. Halisi is standing there studying a screen while talking to two other doctors, both asari. The nurses moving around the room and the constant chatter that fills the air gives an organized but busy impression.
Leah comes to a stop when the doors slide open, bringing one hand against the door frame as she glances about the room. As she spots Halisi, she swallows at the lump in her throat and moves to take a step into the room but suddenly seems to think better of it. Interrupting her work would just be the icing on top of an already-shitty cake. So she remains where she is. She equips her big bright smile and waits to be noticed. Too
much. Just a subtle grin. No, no, that looks smug! This is no time to be smug! She settles for a small, tight-lipped smile. At one point, as Halisi's focus turns from one of the doctors to the other, she seems to think she might be noticed and lifts a hand to wave, but when it's clear she wasn't she's quick to use that hand to wipe her uncooperative bangs out her face. After casting a self-conscious
glance about the room to make sure nobody else noticed, she goes back to waiting. And continuing to block the doorway.
Halisi continues to talk to the two other doctors, oblivious to Leah's presence. She points to something on the screen, having one of them take a look. After a while she stands straight, turning away from the screen to chat with them. One of the asari snickers and shakes her head with a roll of her eyes.
A human nurse stops as he notices Leah lurking in the doorway, eyebrows furrowing in confusion. "Ma'am, you're not supposed to be h-"
Halisi glances over as she hears the nurse, and upon spotting Leah she speaks up. "It's alright, I need to talk with her!"
Halisi turns back to the two asari, exchanging a casual goodbye before heading across the room towards Leah. She's still wearing her surgical cap, a custom one with a colorful abstract pattern. Her mask is hanging off of one ear, but she takes it off as she approaches and gestures for the door. She doesn't wait for Leah before stepping out herself.
Leah scrunches up her nose as Halisi turns away, shifting from one foot to the other impatiently. As the nurse approaches and begins to address her she opens her mouth to speak, but Halisi beats her to it. She looks to the busy doctor, offering a small smile and appreciative nod. She remains where she is until Halisi approaches. Her mouth opens once more and she finally begins to take a step into the room before she's ushered out by
Halisi. "Oh-... Right! People are resting in there, huh? We probably shouldn't be-..." she trails off, falling in step behind Halisi. "How was your-..." do not ask her how her day was! "You!" she quickly changes gears with a snicker that tightrope walks somewhere between 'friendly' and 'uncomfortable', "Umm-... how are you? Doing, I mean. Obviously."
Halisi starts walking down the corridor, not hurrying, but keeping a steady pace. It's hard to discern much about her mood from the look on her face. She glances over towards Leah as she listens to her awkward inquiry. "I'm quite alright, despite the... unorthodox start to my day. But I would appreciate some answers, now that there's time." The words are accompanied by a pointed look at Leah, but it's softened by familiarity and trust.
Leah's frown takes hold at the word 'unorthodox', no doubt an insinuation to her rabble rousing. Her gaze drops towards the floor as Halisi finishes speaking, a long, drawn out sigh escaping her. "They were Talons." she says flatly with a glance Halisi's way, shoving her free hand into her pocket to sort of lock the bag hanging from her arm into place in the crook of her elbow. "The-... uhh-... gang that tried to grab me back on
Omega. The ones that were dealing with House Bar'adon..." she explains before quickly following up without so much as a breath as something occurs to her. Not the-..." she rolls her eyes at her miraculous ability to somehow making the simplest of things confusing, and gives a dip of her head in the direction of-... something? The elevator? Who knows. "...two that are here. They were just hired guns for the Talons. Barely
even knew what they were getting themselves into..." Her words grow quieter towards the end and her gaze falls back on the hallway in front of her.
Halisi 's eyebrows furrow, studying Leah's face while continuing to walk. She waits for them to pass two nurses wheeling a patient in a bed before speaking. "I take it you're the one that shot him, then?"
Leah glances to the two nurses, also seemingly waiting for them to fall out of earshot. The question garners a shake of her head. "Wha-... no." she stammers, brows furrowing as she passes a glance Halisi's way. Though it quickly sets in that it's quite a fair assumption and another heavy breath escapes her. "Like I said, they didn't really understand what they were getting into. Once they got the whole picture they-... uhh-... they
tried to help me." she says. Perhaps it would be more apt to say RC tried to help and Crux stood frozen in place, but that's neither here nor there. "The Talons gunned him down right there on the spot..." She shoots another glance to the doctor, as if to gauge how this is all landing with her.
Halisi 's shoulders relax a little, relieved by the news that Leah wasn't the one to shoot the man who's life she spent the morning saving. Unsavory as it is, the idea that she'd been asked to save him for some ulterior motive had certainly occurred to her, and she wasn't about to let her friends harm a patient for information. The additional information makes her frown, shaking her head. "Thugs..." she mutters, slowing down as they draw
near to her office. She stops outside the door, staring at the interface for a moment before sighing and looking over at Leah. "It's a good thing you called me. He wouldn't have made it much longer without medical attention." she admits while opening the door, expression softening.
Leah gives a nod in agreement with Halisi's initial assessment of the Talons, anger- or maybe just frustration- tinting her features. It fades away as they near the door and she finds herself in Halisi's headlights. She offers a few more small nods to the doctor's words. "Yeah..." she agrees, "...I did what I could but he had already lost a lot of blood by the time I was able to dress the wounds. I guess he's lucky that I have
friends in high places." she adds, propping the tiniest hint of a smile up. It wavers slightly and she swallows hard at the discomfort that washes over her. "...At least I-... hope that's still the case." It's more of a question than a statement, but she doesn't give the doctor a chance to answer it before she speaks up once again. "Look, Halisi, I know I've done a good job of complicating the lives of everyone around me
and I know that 'sorry' stops carrying the same impact after you've heard it for the hundreth time. But-... I am. If I had known that this problem would follow me all the way back from Omega and cause everyone more problems like this then I-..." she trails off sharply. Would have killed them. It's the truth, but it's a harsh truth. One that doesn't feel right to voice aloud right now. Not in a place designed to save
lives. To a person sworn to protect life. "...I would have-... handled it differently." Her tone sounds defeated, reflected in the shrug that follows her words. "I never expected them to find me."
Halisi frowns as Leah speaks. She listens silently, but steps into her office and gestures for her to follow. A shake of her head follows as the door closes behind them. "Leah, of course we're still friends. You don't really think I blame you for someone else trying to hurt you?" she asks, turning to face her. She looks genuinely concerned by the notion as she looks down at Leah, one hand coming to rest gently on her shoulder. "Or for
Leah follows Halisi into her office. Her discomfort soon turns to full on embarrassment as Halisi speaks, green eyes briefly turning towards the floor. There's even a tinge of frustration with herself for having doubted Halisi would be quite so understanding. Outside of her family and those she worked with directly in the Alliance, understanding isn't something that's been offered so easily by most people throughout Leah's life. And,
as much as she tries to give everyone the benefit of the doubt, it's sometimes hard not to assume they're going to leap at an opportunity to think the worst of her. Especially in a situation like this when Halisi would have every right to be fed up with her shit. The doctor's final words draw out a tired snicker and she finally hazards to meet her gaze once more. "I know..." she says, finally sounding every bit as exhausted as
she feels. She blinks at the glassiness in her eyes that she refuses to allow to take hold. "But, I am sorry..."
Halisi 's smile widens a bit, her hand giving Leah's shoulder a squeeze. The look in the biotic's eyes - and the tone of her voice - makes her silver eyes linger, an uncertain frown taking hold. Her stance shifts into something more open, her free arm lifting a little in a silent offer of a hug. Leah is an... unconventional member of her profession, and it can be hard to judge the degree to which she participates in the field's culture of
posturing and feigned invulnerability. There's no end to the headaches caused by other members of Redrock in that regard. The leading pair might be the worst of the lot.
Leah draws in a breath, smile fortifying as she pulls her free hand from her jacket pocket and slips it around Halisi. "Thanks..." she mutters, giving her friend a gentle, one-armed squeeze. The whole 'stone-faced hardass act' that so many of their co-workers put on has never really been her thing. She's been underestimated her whole life and pretending she doesn't have feelings isn't going to change that. She lingers in the hug for
a few moments and, as she pulls back, she meets Halisi's gaze for just a second before something seems to occur to her, drawing a sharp, "Oh!" out of her. She glances down at the bag on her arm and takes it upon herself to step past Halisi, heading right for her desk. "I-... uhh-..." she begins to stammer, slightly distracted as she sets the cup holder and bag down on the doctor's desk and begins to rummage through the latter,
"...wasn't sure if you had time to eat today on account of all the-... you know-..." she glances back over her shoulder, shooting a small wince Halisi's way, "...extra work I dropped on you. So I~ brought~ you~..." she lets her words linger for a moment before producing a rather hefty looking burger wrapped in a metallic wrapper. She spins around to face Halisi once more, pivoting on the balls of her feet as she holds it up in
the palms of both hands. "Dinnah!" she exclaims with some... sort... of... accent? She looks from what has to be the largest (only?) burger to ever grace this office with its presence to the doctor beyond it before dropping it onto her desk. Its heft makes an audible thump and she moves on to scooping one of the two cups from the cup holder. "I wasn't sure how you took your coffee so I just-... threw some-..." she cranes her
neck about, looking into the cup holder and rummaging her free hand around in one of the openings before giving up with a frown and a shrug, her ponytail bouncing behind her as she turns back towards Halisi and thrusts the cup towards her, "...there's some packets of cream and sugar in there." She seems to have regained her composure at the very least.
Halisi 's smile returns as her arm slips around Leah backand pulls her in for a hug. She's warm, and smells of antiseptics. She gives her a squeeze before she lets go. She watches in silent bemusement as Leah digs around in the bag she brought, the burger she produces and the words that follow making her quirk an eyebrow, but the tug at the corner of her mouth makes her look equal parts puzzled and amused. "Thank you. I'm quite hungry
actually, so your timing is impeccable." she assures, allowing her smile to manifest as she accepts the cup of coffee. A big, greasy burger is hardly her usual go-to, but she's not about to turn the food down. She goes to take a seat in her chair, gesturing for Leah to take the small, backless rolling chair that stands in the corner.