we could talk about the lives we've led

[rightchoices]

Who: Lee and anyone!
What: Visitation hours are open at Clem's bedside while she's unconscious for his canon update. Feel free to tag each other, too! Bracketspam or prose are both A+ fine.
When: December 27th-Jan 2nd
Where: Clementine's room.
Rating: PG-13 for language, maybe? Will update if content changes.

On the first day, when Lee sits at all, he perches on the edge of her bed and waits for her to wake. A protective vigil, maybe, or a manifestation of guilt that he'd let this happen to her at all. (Rationally, he knew that there was nothing he could have done. Things like this happen. It's life, and there's no way to get around it.)

On the second day, he drags a stool over, and barely speaks.

Finally, on the third, he wishes up a high backed chair that is more comfortable than it looks. He keeps the area around it tidy, but the stack of books and notebooks grow. He doesn't shave, but he eats enough to keep him going. Showers and changes early every morning, feeds and takes Clementine's puppy outside for a few minutes, just out of habit; he doesn't want he recoiling in disgust when she does finally wake.

Regardless, Lee will be in Clementine's room almost the entire week, eyes probably on some sort of book in his lap, though he can, occasionally and if the door is opened quietly enough, be found either talking or reading to her. In short, he's the picture of a father, worried sick about a silent child, and nothing short of the castle's magic itself could get him to leave for any extended period.

Comments

[batteriesarehard]

Every day, Carley stops by. She brings food or a new book, or just comes empty handed to stand beside Lee's chair and put her hand on his shoulder and watch Clementine sleep. It's hard to shake the feeling of family left over from that strange world change, Clementine still feels like hers and it's a new, deep pain watching her lay there unmoving, almost like she's...

But she isn't. She's still breathing, there's no fever, it's just sleep. She has to remind herself that every day.

Today, it's Chinese food in white cartons wished up from the castle because that's easy, it doesn't require plates, and it's something you don't need to sit at a table to eat. It's something someone sitting vigilant in a chair can eat without taking their attention off of their charge for too long.

"Hey Lee." Her voice is soft when she greets him, letting herself in just like every other day. It's become a sad sort of routine, doing all this. "Feeling hungry?"

[rightchoices]

"I could eat."

He doesn't feel like it, of course, because he's not actually hungry. Preoccupied, or too tied up with worry that shows only in the lines made by the tight press of his lips when he's sitting there in silence. Carley's voice is enough to snap him out of it, even just briefly. While he doesn't speak again, there's gratitude in his expression as he nods toward a nearby chair; drag it over, come sit near him, just like every day before this one.

[batteriesarehard]

It's been hard, honestly, not to keep that chair exactly where it ends up every day and just follow in Lee's footsteps, sit there with him and Clementine until she wakes up, but Lee has it covered. So she moves it back over, close enough that the arms of each chair are touching, and then sits beside him to start handing over the food.

"That's good. No wasn't an option, you know."

[rightchoices]

"Yeah, I know. You and Ben do a pretty good job of keeping me fed."

He takes the cartoons, settling them into his lap, but he doesn't open them just yet. Instead, Lee shifts and leans back a little into his chair, waiting for to make sure that Carley is seated comfortably before he reaches his hand out. His eyes don't leave Clementine's face, but his palm is up, fingers open. A quiet request, maybe, and not one that's easy for him to make, but one that he has no reason not to anymore.

[batteriesarehard]

It might not be easy for him to make, but it's easy for Carley to take his hand in hers and squeeze it, scooting towards him a little more to reach better. She knows how hard this is for Lee, but she's glad he's making that first move. He's not shutting anyone out, it's a good sign.

"It's hard to let go of the group mentality, I guess. We protect our own, that whole thing." Her thumb rubs against the back of Lee's hand, soothing. "She's lucky to have you keeping an eye on her."

[indirectcause]

Ben has been checking in every day since it happened. Snatches of awkward time, compared to Lee's vigil, but he couldn't not show up, either. Through all of it, Clem had stood by him, and he was damned if he was going to ignore her now.

And so he came again, another day of hoping for a change, another day of disappointment as he taps on the door; paper bag in hand, quietly letting himself in and seeing her still sleeping. She could be seem as peaceful to anyone who didn't know what she was likely going through right now. He wanders over, pulling up one of those stools either wished up by himself or someone else during the last few horrible days, to sit opposite Lee. He watches the little girl, the one single thing that kept them all functioning as human beings, silently for a few moments. Then, carefully, he offers the bag to Lee.

Because enough to keep going isn't enough food at all in Ben's humble opinion. Not when they don't have to take that option. Inside is a sandwich, a can of soda and a packet of chips. Nothing fancy, but a meal all the same.

"Here."

[rightchoices]

It would have been easier to just shake his head and dismiss the bag, to tell Ben to stop bothering him with food -- but that didn't feel right, not when they were sitting at Clementine's bedside like this. She would have chastised him and insisted he eat, because food isn't scarce here and there's no reason to go without it if they don't have to, and so he sighs as he takes the offered bag.

"... sack lunch. Haven't eaten one of these since I was working on my thesis."

But he pulls out the chips, opening the bag and offering Ben one as he does. He'll eat, if slowly.

"You forgot the Twinkie." And then, sincerely even if a little subdued- "Thanks."

[indirectcause]

And that is exactly why Ben brings it. Even unconscious, Clementine is a good motivator for most things. He smiles, only briefly, barely a ghost of one at Lee's comment.

"Sorry, I'll remember it next time. Didn't figure on you wanting to try out being five again."

It's a half hearted attempt at teenage mockery, it doesn't come out quite right, much like anything Ben does when he attempts to do what regular teenagers do any more. But it's an attempt all the same. He shakes his head at the proffered food. It's for Lee.

"How'd she doing?"

It's a stupid question and he knows it, but one he feels the need to ask regardless.

[rightchoices]

It'd be easy to bristle at Ben's question - how is she doing? How does it look like she's doing? She's doing exactly as she was doing before, but remarking on that would be pointlessly volatile. Ben cares; he wouldn't be here if he didn't.

"Same as yesterday."

But he begins eating some of the chips, at least, settling in the chair.

"But at least she's still here."

[scaler]

Molly shows up only once, in the middle of the week, empty-handed. It's more impulsive than anything, the decision to actually go, at a weak point in her mantra keeping her away.

This isn't her business. These people aren't her responsibility. Lee has it under control. There isn't anything she can do. She doesn't want to see it again.

She doesn't bother knocking, but she's careful to make sure her footsteps are audible when she enters.

"Hey. Heard you'd camped out in here."

[rightchoices]

The sound of footsteps is far from alarming at this point, but Lee only glances over his shoulder at her when he hears the sound of her voice.

"Molly. Didn't expect to see you here."

It's neither an insult nor a jab - she's just not really the most team-oriented one of the group from home, and she'd never had any particularly strong ties to Clementine. Her failure to visit hadn't particularly rankled him.

"How are you doing?"

[scaler]

She smiles slightly, wryly. She doesn't take offense -- she didn't expect to see her here, either.

"Better than you, I bet." He would ask her something like that when he's already neck deep in adult fear. She crosses her arms, and her gaze slips from Lee to Clem. "You're stealing my lines, you know."

[rightchoices]

"That right?"

There's a soft smile in his voice, though it lacks any real amusement as he stretches his arms out in front of them, trying to relax the tension in the muscles.

"Didn't figure you the sort to ask something you already know the answer to, Molly."

[lucre]

Lucrezia visits on the fourth day with a bag of cookies that she belatedly remembers to be irrelevant. They were for Clementine, as she doubts Lee would enjoy them at all, but then the girl isn't ill. It's something else. It reminds her of her own time, though she doesn't remember it at all, and it makes her wonder if anyone visited her then, with a bag of cookies she never ate.

It's too sad.

She asks for no permission from Lee when she steps closer to the bed, placing her gift on the side table and leaning in to kiss the girl's forehead.

"I wonder if she dreams at all and if they are good ones."

[rightchoices]

Lee's back jerks straight in his chair when he hears Lucrezia's approach. It's not that he doesn't want company - it's the fact that by day four, he's tired enough to doze sitting up.

When she moves to kiss Clementine's forehead, he leans back, trying to give her respectful space and to rub his eyes are surreptitiously as possible.

"That's about the most we can ask for." He pauses, a little awkward, glancing at the window in an attempt to check the time by amount of daylight. "I'll make sure she eats one of those when she wakes up."

[lucre]

She grants Lee a polite smile, realizing just then that she must have disturbed his sleep, though she doesn't think to apologize either. Turning her attention to the sleeping girl, she busies herself with tucking those dark curls away from her face, watching intently.

"Perhaps I should have brought her a dress instead. I told her once that she looks most lovely in blue," but by now she's only pandering. It was two years for her. Two years spent back home only to find herself back here. It's hard to say whether this is a similar case.

"When do you suppose she will wake?"

[rightchoices]

"Soon."

The answer to that comes immediately, with force behind it - it's not aggressive or angry, but simply spoken with absolute assurance. It'll be soon, because it has to be soon; there is literally no other answer that will satisfy him.

Belatedly, though, he seems to realize that that isn't all that Lucrezia has said, and he continues:

"You think so? I really don't know much about... fashion. Glad that someone around here does."

[threeweeksago]

For the first few days, Ellie doesn't visit. The guilt weighs heavily on her shoulders; this was all her fault. She fucked up. She hurt Clementine, and no matter how much anyone else tried to convince her otherwise, she refused to believe that it wasn't her fault. If they hadn't been playing, this never would've happened...

So she avoided this room. But she couldn't avoid it forever, and so in the middle of the week, here she is, standing in the doorway. She doesn't take a single step into the room, doesn't say a single word. She just... stands there, as if waiting for something.

Maybe she's waiting for Lee to yell at her. To blame her like how she's blaming herself.

[rightchoices]

Lee is expecting an approach when he hears the door opening, but after a few lingering moments of silence, he finally twists to cast a glance behind him. Just Ellie in the doorway, and he lifts his hand in brief greeting to her. A moment after, he shuts the book in his lap, rolling his shoulders in an attempt to relax the strain.

"Wondering if you'd stop by. How are you doing, Ellie?"

[threeweeksago]

Ellie's still quiet for a moment, brows furrowed. By now she's heard it all, everyone telling her it wasn't her fault and that she shouldn't blame herself, but... she still couldn't believe that. At the very least, she thought Lee would be mad at her. Or at least he'd refuse to talk to her. So this was... weird.

"Okay, I guess..." It was a lie, really. She couldn't exactly say she was feeling good, but she felt bad saying Well I totally feel like shit when Clementine's been unconscious for days now.

"How's Clem doing?"

[rightchoices]

"Sleeping peacefully." Lee actually stands then, though, stepping to the side and indicating the chair, as if offering to let Ellie have the seat. "She'd feel a little bad, I think, if she knew... she seems comfortable."

The fact that Ellie might blame herself, might feel guilty doesn't rightly occur to him. Things happen, especially things like this. There's not much to be done about it.

[dog_eat_dog]

Tess is not always the most tactful person, but at least when she lets herself in, she does it quietly. She keeps the doorknob to Lee and Clem's place turned until the door is back in its frame behind her, and only then does she ease it back to its default position. She creeps to Clementine's bedroom –– or what she assumes is, seeing as she's never been in there –– and that's where she spies Lee. She's here for him, after all; it's not like she and Clementine get along well, but she's known Joel for too many years to be an asshole to a guy with a kid down.

"Hey," she says, lingering in the doorway. She's got two beers in one hand, necks between her fingers, and a box of take-out something-or-other in the other hand. "Not giving into grief yet, I hope?"

Maybe a little too abrasive, but this isn't exactly a bargaining situation.

[rightchoices]

"What's there to grieve about?"

Lee leans back, groaning a little as the clenched muscles in his back briefly resist him, and he reaches up to hold one hand for the beer. It's a clear sign, and one without hesitation - pass it over, Tess. The takeout can wait a minute.

"She's here, and she's fine. Just worrying myself over nothing." He seems to acknowledge it with a slight measure of embarrassment, but it's not nearly enough to get him to actually stop.

[dog_eat_dog]

"Oh please," she says, handing over the beer and sitting down at the end of Clem's bed, take-out on her lap. The kid's short enough that there's plenty of space. She pulls her keychain out of her pocket and uncaps her beer, and then holds it out to Lee before continuing.

"I know that look. Joel gets that way when Ellie so much as stubs her toe, or he sees some kid trip in the street, or when anyone so much as mentions a kid in distress. Once a dad, always a dad."

[rightchoices]

Lee makes a face when Tess seats herself on the edge of the bed, but he seems to realize a split second later that any complaint he could make is silly. Clem wouldn't mind if she were awake, and it's not as if she's injured or fragile right now; she's just asleep.

So he takes the keychain from her and uncaps his own beer, shooting a subtly grateful look down at it before pulling a long drink from it. "Never actually had any kids of my own. I mean..." He tosses the keychain back at her. "Clementine counts. Still a little weird to think that way sometimes, though."