The harrowed weariness is everywhere in Chin's face, wire-tight in his shoulders, posture tilted toward the figure quietly sleeping in the bed no matter whether he's talking to them or to the nurse who was there were they arrived. The way he looks barely awake on his feet, but entirely fixated. Steve doesn't blame him. Especially if waking up for a few minutes is happening more than just the once.
But it doesn't mean he backs off of the point, if anything it's an even stronger solvent. If she is waking up more often, even for short durations, things are getting better, and Chin can go take care of himself, knowing that Steve'll be right here, able to call him at a second's notice. That, hey, it's not like he's asking him to go catch the three or four hours it looks like he needs, just a shower, get some real food, bring Malia the clothes, books, blankets, any of the things he knows best she'll like having near her.
Things only he'd known or realize because he knew her best. Because it was their house, and she was his wife.
He did give in the end, saying he'd be back as soon as possible. The words still far more for her ears than either Cath or Steve, but Steve didn't pay that any mind. If anything, boats and mission bunks made them both as equally ready to pretend you weren't standing five to ten feet from another person having a very private moment that was about them, and no one else around. Before it was just them left in the room.
Tripler was as quiet as this ward ever got, really, but being there a good enough reason to request for a status report on the HPD officers that had ended up there, too. A general all around update, without ever venturing far from the Malia's door in the Intensive Care Unit. The way the time slipped quickly enough by, barely hitting an hour by the time Chin was back, carrying a food box that didn't look like it had been opened once yet, but in fresh clothes, with a fully stuffed duffle and a brightly colored, if worn-thin, patchwork quilt.
Relief still palpable on his face when he first saw her, again, like breaking the water and being able to breathe, but he did thank them before they were headed out again.
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The harrowed weariness is everywhere in Chin's face, wire-tight in his shoulders, posture tilted toward the figure quietly sleeping in the bed no matter whether he's talking to them or to the nurse who was there were they arrived. The way he looks barely awake on his feet, but entirely fixated. Steve doesn't blame him. Especially if waking up for a few minutes is happening more than just the once.
But it doesn't mean he backs off of the point, if anything it's an even stronger solvent. If she is waking up more often, even for short durations, things are getting better, and Chin can go take care of himself, knowing that Steve'll be right here, able to call him at a second's notice. That, hey, it's not like he's asking him to go catch the three or four hours it looks like he needs, just a shower, get some real food, bring Malia the clothes, books, blankets, any of the things he knows best she'll like having near her.
Things only he'd known or realize because he knew her best. Because it was their house, and she was his wife.
He did give in the end, saying he'd be back as soon as possible. The words still far more for her ears than either Cath or Steve, but Steve didn't pay that any mind. If anything, boats and mission bunks made them both as equally ready to pretend you weren't standing five to ten feet from another person having a very private moment that was about them, and no one else around. Before it was just them left in the room.
Tripler was as quiet as this ward ever got, really, but being there a good enough reason to request for a status report on the HPD officers that had ended up there, too. A general all around update, without ever venturing far from the Malia's door in the Intensive Care Unit. The way the time slipped quickly enough by, barely hitting an hour by the time Chin was back, carrying a food box that didn't look like it had been opened once yet, but in fresh clothes, with a fully stuffed duffle and a brightly colored, if worn-thin, patchwork quilt.
Relief still palpable on his face when he first saw her, again, like breaking the water and being able to breathe, but he did thank them before they were headed out again.