Chapter Text
Eve woke up again, this time her head was pounding and her eyes were a little blurry. His chest fept a bit better and she still felt a bit warm but not nearly as much as before.
She curled up more into the blankets she was buried under, ignoring the door when it opened, simply wanting to sleep. When someone shook her she hissed in annoyance and pulled the blankets over her head.
She heard a small chuckle and then the blankets were pulled away. She let out a small whine, turning to bury her face in the pillow. "Daddy five more minutes"
"Can you at least eat something before you go back to sleep?" Her dad asked, gently running his hand over her back.
Eve flopped over onto her side and looked at him for a moment before reluctantly pushing herself up. She pulled the oxygen mask from her face and looked at her father with sleepy eyes.
Quaritch smiled a little as he looked at his little girl and saw she seemed better than before. He handed her a cup of broth and a plate of bread. "Eat," he said, sitting in a chair.
She sipped at the broth for a second, immediately recognizing it as something Mo'at always makes for her when she's sick. She sipped a little at the broth, not quite realizing just how dry her throat and mouth felt until now.
"How long was I asleep?" She asked and looked at Quaritch. Whenever she was sick she would just sleep so much. Her record so far was 6 days.
"About two days," Quaritch said and shrugged. "You had us worried though. You were dead asleep. Nothing woke you up. Lyle joked you were straight dead"
"Is that why uncle Lyle isn't here?" She asked, not even fully realizing that she had used the word uncle to refer to Lyle. She didn't realize she was thinking of the recoms as her family. She didn't realize that it should be wrong. That she should hate them.
"Yeah that is exactly why your uncle isn't here. He's dumb" Quaritch confirmed and smiled a bit; leaning back in the chair as he watched her slowly eat and drink.
Birdie nodded a little and continued to sip at the broth and nibble on the bread. "He is kinda dumb" she agreed after a minute of silence. She finishedq off her broth. She set the cup down and finished off the last of the bread.
She laid back down, ready to pass out again. Though she suddenly realized how sticky and wet she felt. She sat up again and felt at the collar of the shirt she had been given. She was soaked in sweat.
Birdie wrinkled her nose at the uncomfortable sensation of the wet cloth.
Quaritch took quick notice and looked at her. "You wanna take a shower?" He asked her. "Not gonna lie to ya kid. You smell the way you probably feel" he told her.
Birdie nodded at that and sighed. "Yes please," she said. She had always been so good about her hygiene. But after being so far from home for so long, it kinda fell apart. Especially when with the Recoms nothing was ever really constant. They started moving around after the first month when she gave them nothing.
She hadn't had time to take proper care of herself, nor reapply her stripes, which she was honestly really missing.
As soon as she got the hell out of here she would have to redo her stripes. Though...she may try a different pattern. The woman in her dreams from the night she got sick had beautiful patterns and markings. They may be a little more difficult to emulate because the woman had seemingly been made of wood but that wouldn't stop her.
She wasn't sure why she wanted to copy the woman's markings. She had always copied Mo'at's. Ever since she and spider had first started painting themselves they had both been inspired by someone else. Spider likes to copy Jake while she prefers Mo'at. Though she did try to copy Neytiri once and the woman did not seem amused at all.
After that she had shifted to trying to copy someone else, though ended up with a mix between Neteyam's and Kiri's.
She shifted in the bed, tossing the blankets to the side and swinging her legs over the slide, standing up. She was immediately hit with a wave of vertigo and felt like she needed to puke. She groaned and squeezed her eyes shut, reaching up to cover her mouth as she took a deep breath
She felt a hand on her shoulder and answered before the question was even asked. "Fine. Just dizzy." She said and sighed. "But I really need a shower. Cause I'm gross"
"Okay. Well take your time." Quaritch assured, gently rubbing over her back.
She nodded a bit and took a few deep breaths. Once she didn't feel like puking anymore she stood up fully and nodded. "Okay. Where's the shower?" She asked.
Quaritch patted her on the back before carefully grabbing her shoulder, taking her out of the med ward and instead towards the Recom quarters. He pushed her into the shower room. "Take however long you need. There's a locker with my name, use the towel and clothes in there when you're done" he told her.
Eve nodded at him in thanks and went into the shower room. She went over towards the few lockers, looking over them for a moment and pausing at the one labeled M.Quaritch she opened it and looked inside, pulling out a large black towel.
She set that down on the bench and then took off her rosary, her dog tags, and her songcord. She stored that on a shelf and then took a small step back, closing the locker. She grabbed the edge of the hoodie she had on, pulling that off and then doing the same with the undershirt. She tossed those into a laundry bin nearby before getting rid of the sweats and underwear she had on. She grabbed the towel and went towards the showers.
She hung it on a hook and then went into one of the little stalls. Well not necessarily small stalls. They were built for the Recoms.
She turned on the water, flinching at the cold water that slammed against her bare skin. She quickly began to try and get it warm. In the back of her head she heard Quaritch's voice telling her steam was good for her.
She waited for the water to warm before putting her head under. She let the hot stream wash over her before turning around, wanting water to soak into her hair.
Eve looked down at the stream of water by her feet, letting her hair fall forward over her shoulders and fill her vision. She watched the water slowly turning a mix of brown and a bit of red. She reached up to massage her scalp. Yeah she needed this.
Eve shivered a little as she felt a little chill run over her, grabbing reaching back to turn up the water temperature a bit more, stepping more into the stream. She ran her hands over her head and through her hair, pushing it back as she tilted her head back so the water ran over her face, closing her eyes. She just stood like that for a while, holding her breath and letting the water slightly sting at her skin, mostly where she had little cuts or scrapes.
Once she was done soaking she grabbed a bottle of shampoo on the small ledge nearby. She poured some into her hand and then began to lather it into her hair. She washed it out and then began the process again. Eve did it probably like 5 times before the soap lather was finally clean.
Once that was done Eve grabbed a washcloth and a bar of soap, sniffing it for a second and wrinkling her nose slightly at the chemical scent of it. She sighed a bit, realizing she was likely gonna smell like one of the RDA humans now. With that she scrubbed the soap into the washcloth and then began to scrub at her body, needing to get all the grime off.
She repeated the process of scrubbing and rinsing for quite a while, making sure to scrub off every bit of dirt and dead skin.
Once that was done she turned off the water and grabbed her towel from the hook. She wrapped it around herself, heading back to the lockers. She opened up her dad's locker once again and dug through it until she found some clothes that should fit her.
Eve pulled those on and then began to dry her hair, ruffling it and squeezing it. She got as much water as she could out.
She then went back outside, finding Quaritch patiently waiting for her. "I feel so much better," she told him.
"You smell better" Quaritch told her, starting to lead her back to the room.
Once they got there she climbed right back into bed, laying down and ready to just nap again. She pulled the blankets over her, reveling in the warmth they provided her. They weighed heavy on her, and it felt great, like someone was laying on top of her. Kinda like when Spider and her cuddled.
"Sleepy time" she muttered to herself as she nuzzled deep into the blankets.
Quaritch stared at Eve as she slipped off to sleep. He let out a small sigh and shook his head silently. She was 17 and while she liked to think and try to act like she was more mature and adult like, he could tell she wasn't. If anything her mental growth was stunted. if he had to guess she was likely mentally and emotionally alot more immature than she would like to present.
he couldn't help the concern that grew from this as he tried to mull over the reasons she would be like this. Though personally he knew, she had grown up too fast, too quickly, forced herself to act mature and grown when she should have been enjoying being a dumb kid. Likely because she felt responsible, because he wasn't there to protect her.
He had to do something similar in his own childhood for his own younger siblings. He grew up too quickly, took on too many responsibilities, forced himself to be more mature, to be stronger, smarter. All so he could protect his little sisters.
He should have been there, he should have been alive to keep his kids from that fate, to keep Eve from that fate. Now she was a touch starved, attention desperate, emotionally vulnerable, highly spiritual teen, and no doubt she had some kind of trauma from neglect or god forbid abuse that could have been caused by the McCoskers.
He sighed as she watched her to make sure she was asleep and then got up, heading out as Walker waa coming down the hall. "The kid showered and ate, and she passed out again. Stay with her" Quaritch ordered told her before going to do whatever duty was needed of him
Walker gave a nod and headed into the room, she looked at Eve for a long while, taking in just how much the girl seemed like Paz. She sighed and shook her head, sitting down in the usual chair. Guess it was her turn for watch duty. She wrinkled her nose slightly at the smell the girl gave off. It was very chemically and a bit unnatural, like all the other humans around the bridgehead.
Safe to say Walker was already making plans to shove Eve into the first mud pile or river they came across once they left.