2513/Memory: Themysciran Healing VI

Memory: Themysciran Healing VI
Date of Scene:	18 July 2020
Location:	Palace - Themyscira City
Synopsis:	After Caitlin's VIOLENT and SAVAGE assault on Donna, the pair spend some quiet time in the Halls of Healing together, wondering whether it's time to grow up , and if so how to do it.
Cast of Characters:	Donna Troy, Caitlin Fairchild

---

Donna Troy has posed:
    The light spilling through the windows has the paleness of morning; that's just a guess though. Caitlin had fallen asleep in her chair in Donna's room in the halls of healing, and the hours had blurred into each other some time during the night.

    At some point during her sleep, someone seems to have brought a small table in and put it beside the seat ledge Caitlin has occupied. It's occupied with a glass of wine and a plate of cold meats, cheese and and bread. The other change since Caitlin's eyes slid shut is that Donna's bed is empty.

    The halls of healing appear to be empty, too. It's a little spooky at first, but sounds outside draw Caitlin's attention, a regular thrumming sound, about once per fifteen seconds. Outside the halls are a garden, well-kept with tall cypress trees surrounding it, a host of decorative plants, and several beds of herbs that fragrance the air. One of the junior healers sits on a stone bench, a disapproving look on her face as she carefully watches Donna. When she sees Caitlin, the healer gives her a roll of the eyes and a helpless shrug - she doesn't speak English, but the expression says it all.

    Donna is obviously much recovered, but still looks very pale. She wears a clean linen tunic, bandages visible through the sides. She stands with a look of intense concentration on her face, and a bow in her arms. A dozen arrows are planted in the ground at her feet, and several more are embedded into the side of a tree across the garden. Donna pulls an arrow from the ground, knocks it, raises the bow, takes careful aim and releases.

Caitlin Fairchild has posed:
Caitlin's stomache growls her awake as the scent of the food tempts her into consciousness. She blinks around in confusion and rubs the grit from her eyes, then peers again. Donna's gone; a momentary panic is quickly swallowed by the realization that no emergency could have taken her without the tumult waking Caitlin from her vigil.

She pauses long enough to slab the food into a messy sandwich and starts out of the healing quarters with a restrained urgency, following the sounds of arrows whipping through the air.

She smiles and shrugs ruefully back at the healer and moves slowly along Donna's peripheral vision so she doesn't startle her friend. Once she's noticed, she wiggles fingers in a wave. "Hey." Her voice is soft and reassuring-- a little guilty, but concerned. "You look like you're feeling better. Are you, uh.... are you supposed to be exercising so soon?"

Donna Troy has posed:
    "Hi Cait," Donna replies lightly, her eyes not moving from the tree she is using as a target. She plucks another arrow from the ground, knocks and pulls, holds the bow in position for a few moments and releases. The arrow whips through the air and embeds itself into the trunk of the tree with a resonant >Thunk<.

    It looks like Donna's trying to create a circle of arrows around the first one she fired.

    The junior healer says something to Caitlin, but the rush of words are too fast for Caitlin's slender grasp of Greek. She does catch the words 'should not' though. Donna turns her head to look at the healer for a moment, then turns away and plucks another arrow from the ground, knocks it and draws.

    "Fine thanks. You? I didn't want to wake you up."

    >Thunk.<

Caitlin Fairchild has posed:
"I'm okay," Caitlin replies automatically. She watches Donna's effortless precision with a little envy; even grievously wounded, Donna's a phenomenal archer.

There's also a measure of relief that her friend clearly hasn't been seriously maimed beyond recovery, either. If Donna can pull a bowstring, she is probably going to mend nicely.

"I needed to get up anyway. It's past sunup." Few Amazons sleep in after the sun rises, after all. Helios and the birds are the most ancient of alarm clocks, after all.

"Looks like you're feeling better," Caitlin ventures. She finds a spot that's out of the way and sits down with an adolescent awkwardness and takes a few more bites of her breakfast. ".../are/ you feeling okay?" she asks, more timidly.

Donna Troy has posed:
    "I heal fast Cait, I'm completely fine." The lack of color in her face marks the words as a lie, or at least an exaggeration, and her words quickly follow suit. "A little shaky still, but I'll be back to normal by tomorrow, I'm sure. "

    As she pulls the next arrow from the ground, the junior healer says something in a rush of Themysciran Greek, which Donna completely ignores. She knocks and draws. "I should be out training with the guards, but she said she'd complain to Eponia if I went. Can you believe that?" Donna asks. "Eponia was up very late, she needs her sleep."

    >Thunk<

    Donna pulls another arrow from the ground, knocks and draws. The spacing of the arrows making the circle is impressively even. She's making a clock face of twelve arrows, and is up to nine o'clock. She takes aim, holds, then sighs, loosens the string and lowers the bow.

    Donna turns to Caitlin, looking her in the eyes at last. The expression on her face is desperately guilty. "Cait... I..." she shakes her head. "I'm so sorry. That was really stupid of me. I should have known better, but I... I can't believe it just slipped my mind to check there wasn't more than one wound. I'm sorry I put you through all that."

Caitlin Fairchild has posed:
"I think it's kind of hard to think for that sort of thing when you're bleeding out," Caitlin tells Donna. She tries for a wry smile but it ends up looking more ashamed than anything else. "I'm sorry I lost my temper. I've never really gotten mad like that before. I won't do it again."

The ball of her foot grinds a little dimple in the ground around her sandal; she watches the dirt rising up around her foot. "I shouldn'a done that. I know what you were doing there and I still let myself get angry. Wasn't..." She exhales, looks up. "You and Richard wouldn't lose your tempers like that," she points out. "I guess I have more to learn than I thought."

Caitlin looks down and away and finds her sandwich in her line of sight. She looks up and offers the half remaining to Donna, as a peace offering.

"Want my sammich? It's beef and cheese," she offers.

Donna Troy has posed:
    Donna looks a the sandwich and then back up at Caitlin. Suddenly it seems so absurdly incongruous that she can't help but burst out laughing. "Oh Cait... Cait." She shakes her head, smiling. "Thank you. No, I already had breakfast. I'm sure you need it more. I hear you haven't been eating properly."

    Donna turns back to the tree, looking at the pattern of arrows for moment. She plucks two more arrows from the ground, and grips all three arrows under her thumb, and stands there staring at the target again. "Cait, you were /supposed/ to get angry. That was the point. Don't apologize to me for reacting the way I was trying to get you to react. Of course you shouldn't lose your temper in actual combat. But I needed you to lose your temper, because you keep holding back, Cait. You always have. You needed to know that it's possible to /not/ hold back. Of course it's better to do that in a controlled way, but you needed to know what it feels like. "

    Donna raises her bow, eyes still fixed on the target. "Apart from the stupid little accident, Cait... that was good. You actually did it. You committed to your attacks, you moved decisively. It was a real breakthrough."

    Donna's wrist flicks forwards in a blur, and the bowstring thrums twice in quick succession. The motion is too fast to see how the trick was done, but two arrows thunk into the tree in quick succession, completing the circle.

    Donna turns, a triumphant expression on her face interrupted for just a moment with a wince. She places the remaining arrow back down into the ground point first, hangs the bow from it by the string, and steps over to face Caitlin, smiling a little awkwardly. "Please don't blame yourself for what happened, Cait. You did good. It was my fault. I should have known better."

Caitlin Fairchild has posed:
Caitlin's elbows rest on her knees and she drops her chin into the palm of her hands. Knees together, heels kicked out, hunched; she'd look like any other teen save for her sheer size and mass. Particularly with someone more appropriately scaled at her side.

"Donna, this is why I don't drink," Caitlin says with a heavy sigh. "This is why I don't party or go out and pick fights or let the papparazzi rile me up. You barely survived. What if that was Richard, o-or Garth?" she asks. "Or someone from the League? Can you imagine the headlines? 'World's Clumsiest Titan kills Green Arrow in training accident, nation grieves'," she posits, and gestures a scrolling headline with one hand.

Her eyes drop to the ground and she exhales through her nose with a frustrated sound.

"Are you really in love with Raven?" Her eyes flick sideways at Donna. Concern and interest in her friend's personal life are most prominent, though a little discomfort and uncertainty are visible in her honest features as well.

Donna Troy has posed:
    "I... don't know." Donna shakes her head and looks away, thrown by the sudden change in topic. She takes a deep breath and exhales slowly, puffing her cheeks out. "Maybe. I think so. I just... I'm not sure, Cait. It's... confusing. I've known her since... I mean she's a friend. You all are friends. More than that. I love all of you. You know that. But it's different with each person, isn't it?"

    She takes a seat on the stone bench, sitting a little stiffly. The junior healer says something to her in another flood of words, which again she ignores. "You know how... well each of us has certain things more in common with some than with others, I guess. Like Garth and I were both the outsiders. You and I... I guess being a pair of women who can punch holes in walls kind of brought us together. Dick and I... for all the differences in the way we were raised, there were a lot of similarities too. All the training. The strong mentor figures, I guess. And we could talk for hours about tactics and technique. Rae was always more distant, until recently. Maybe that's why... I don't know. Don't... don't tell the others, please. I'm not sure how Rae feels about me now, and I guess that's something the two of us will have to work out between us when I go back."

    Donna closes her eyes and for a moment looks thoroughly miserable. "That's if there's ever anything to go back to."

    She stares into the distance for a while before sighing and shaking her head. "Cait, accidents happen in training. It's normal, it's not something because of you being clumsy. I've had injuries before, and inflicted them. That's what armor is for, to make sure they're rare. When you're training, accidental injuries can be dealt with easily. If I was you I would be more worried about what might happen if you're fighting next to Dick, or Arrow, or whoever, and you haven't trained enough. That's far more likely to get them killed. "

Caitlin Fairchild has posed:
"Yeah. Well." Caitlin stares at the same distance, except her eyes are canted downwards at the turf underfoot. "Like you said. If there's anything to go back to," she says, her tone soft and listless.

"I'm taking time off from stuff. Everything." 'The Team', except she doesn't say that. "Once I'm home. I want to have a real life and see what it's like. Get my engineering certification. I don't think I'd hack it as a surgeon but I wanna do something in medicine, now. Maybe biology or genetics. I could be my own thesis subject."

Her smile's rueful and a little joyless; it's not a topic she'll likely willingly bring up with anyone.

"I know stuff's gonna come up, 'nd I'm not gonna like... cut myself off from the world, or anything," she remarks. "I just wanna see what it's like to like... normal. I got like a year of that in college before everything happened to me. I could get a place to live. Have a job."

"I won't say anything to Raven," Caitlin promises Donna. "I mean, I don't think she'd ask. I don't think she ever really liked me too much." The redhead looks sideways, up at Donna. "It's gonna be hard for me to keep all this--" she getures at Themyscira, Donna, everything-- "to myself when I get back. What do you want me to tell them when I go back?"

Donna Troy has posed:
    "Don't... I mean don't say anything." Donna gently pokes at her bandage, checking the wound. "About me. I mean... if Di gets her way, we're going to be revealing the existence of Themyscira to the world. So if that happens... yeah, tell them about coming here. I think Diana would like having someone from outside being able to tell people what Themyscira is really like. But I can't... It's got to be me who tells them, Cait. It was wrong that you had to learn about who I was from my sister. I owe it to them all to tell them the truth face to face, okay?"

    Donna puffs her cheeks out and looks at Caitlin silently for a while. "I guess that's what I've done, isn't it? I mean this... all of this must seem as wild as anything we did as Titans, but it's home to me. This is me taking time off from stuff, it just happens that wearing armor and holding a sword /is/ normal for me. America's the strange magical world, not here. I wish I'd stayed long enough to finish college. "

    "You're not... planning to go back right away, are you Cait?" Donna looks down at her hands in her lap, checking her nails. "You know the way they refer to us, it kind of translates as 'the kids'. We never quite get away from that, do we?" Her lips curl up into a fond smile. "It's been really nice having you here, Cait. I guess going to America changed me more than I thought."

Caitlin Fairchild has posed:
Caitlin snorts back a laugh. "Here I thought I was the kid," she says wryly. "I guess compared to Philippa, we're both babies," she agrees.

She falls silent again, but a companionable sort of quietude rather than awkward stillness. Thinking. "I won't say anything until you're back," she promises Donna. "This isn't exactly my idea of 'normal', but it's sort of like the summer vacation that doesn't ever end," Caitlin agrees with a pleasant smile. "I'm not in a hurry to go back either. I'm still figuring things out. Thinking. I do want to take a trip home for a few days. Get some textbooks and application paperwork. Load my Kindle up. Check on my brother, 'nd the others. Go to Mass. I feel weird missing Sunday service," she admits. "However many weeks it's been now. Time kinda ... I don't know. Flies here. Holds still. Something."

Donna Troy has posed:
    "Cait... you know I didn't meet Diana until I was ten? She'd been out in Men's World since the first world war." Donna gazes out into the distance, watching clouds drift across the deep blue sky. "I've never asked her, but I suspect that mom adopted me because she was missing Diana. Everyone says I look like her. Maybe when mom saw me as a baby it reminded her what she was missing, and... anyway, the point is, Diana wasn't around when I was a kid. But people told me about her all the time."

    " When she returned to the island and we met, it was..." she shakes her head slightly. "I don't know how to explain it. Suddenly I had a sister in more than just name. Someone who understood me. Even if I didn't understand her. I mean... I was ten. But the thing is, she remembered what it was like. Cait, you and me... Diana's the third youngest person on the island right now, and she's going to be nine hundred next year. So..." her shoulders start to shake with silent laughter. "Yeah. Babies."

    Donna reaches out a hand and rests it gently on Caitlin's arm. "I'm glad you're not in too much of a rush to go. It's been really good having you here. Besides, I haven't seen all of the island yet. And maybe you don't want to get drunk, but there is this nice bar I know and maybe I can persuade you to let go enough to get just a little bit merry."

    "Besides..." Donna smirks and winks at Caitlin. "You've got a lot more training to do, Cait! I'm not letting you go until you've learned enough to terrify Dick."

Caitlin Fairchild has posed:
Caitlin leans against Donna's shoulder with an expression of sympathetic support. A smile crosses her face when Donna confesses to the age difference with Diana, the familiar-yet-strange sense of family created by being adopted by not just Hippolyta, but by Themyscira as a whole. She rests her hand atop the one on her arm and worms her fingers through Donna's, offering silent solidarity through a gentle squeeze of the finger. At Donna's wheedling, Caitlin grins, then giggles once.

"/One/ drink," Caitlin concedes, making pointed eye contact with DOnna. "I figure if I get stupid or goofy, there's a pretty low chance of someone getting hurt if I forget my own strength. And I'm -pretty- sure I'm not going to terrify Richard," she points out. "He trains with Batman, and Batman's super-scary. I imagine Richard's pretty tough to scare. Kinda like you," she says, and bumps shoulders with Donna.

Donna Troy has posed:
    Donna winces a little at the shoulder bumping, a reminder of her injury and more evidence that she's putting a brave face on it. She quickly hides it with another smile, eager not to let anything worry Caitlin any more than she is already.

    "Two drinks. Maybe three. If you don't get at least a little bit drunk it doesn't count. I promise to not let you get too drunk or start any fights, okay?" Donna gives a comfortable laugh, and leans back against Caitlin a little. "We can use that as a gauge. If you still think Batman's scary, you need to drink one more."

    Donna squeezes her eyes shut and gives a shake of her head. "Uh. Listen Cait... Rae doesn't dislike you. She... she likes all the Titans more than she admits to. It's kind of a defensive reaction. But she does kind of... she's nervous of what you think of her. Because of who... what her father is. She kind of assumes you disapprove of her."

Caitlin Fairchild has posed:
That's a stopper. Cait blinks, twice. "Rae is... nervous. About -me-?" The idea clearly has her a little stunned, and she's shaking her head automatically at the idea. "That doesn't make sense. She can't help who her father is, any more than anyone else can. I don't-- I don't *love* that she uses dark magic," Caitlin admits, "but I don't see her using it in cruel or evil ways. She's sometimes a little *petty* about it," the redhead allows, "but no one's perfect."

She fidgets, fingers curling unconsciously in Donna's hand. "She tries hard to be better than she is. Being Catholic-- I mean, having faith, that's really what that is. Trying to rise above our own failures. Raven tries harder than anyone."

She exhales in weary surprise, grimacing at the sea change in her perception. "I'unno, she's... she's snarky with everyone, but ..." Caitlin trails off again, her argument getting tied up on her tongue.

Donna Troy has posed:
    "It's a defense," Donna says with a dismissive wave of the hand. "The snarky thing isn't meant to hurt people, it's meant to keep people at arm's length. I don't think it's fair to say she's trying to be better than she is. I mean if she wasn't a really good person naturally... well think about it in terms of your beliefs. She has the devil whispering in her ears every single day of her life, and not only does she avoid giving in, but she joins the Titans to fight other people's battles against evil too."

    She peers at Caitlin sideways, a mischievous grin growing on her face. "I mean if you look at it like that, she's almost saintly, huh? But yeah. The snarkiness. I think it's about keeping in control, you know? She keeps people at arm's length, because she's got this battle to fight and she doesn't want..."

    Donna breaks off suddenly with a frown and falls silent. The junior healer says something to her in that rapid Themysciran that's so hard to follow, but Donna cuts it off with a palm raised up in the universal stop gesture, then gives her a slight nod of the head.

    "Cait? I probably should... I could do with a little more rest I think. Tomorrow... tomorrow we can do some more training. I don't want you to be put off by what happened, okay? It was just a thing that happened it all worked out fine in the end. It's important that you keep learning."

Caitlin Fairchild has posed:
Caitlin laughs at Donna's comment about sainthood; she misses the pensive frown crossing the princess' face while chuckling at the absurdity of it all. But she doesn't challenge Donna's logic, either.

"Take a couple of days and rest," Caitlin counters, and gets to her feet so she can offer Donna help up. "I'm not just sittin' in my room feeling sorry for myself. Eponia promised to help me work through some of the scrolls she gave me, show me what I coulda done better." There's that relentless positivity coming back to Caitlin's tone already, long-missed in the first weeks of her arrival. "Also, Polemusa the huntress invited me to see some of the island. I told her I wasn't really up for hunting, but she said I need to see some of the pools and grottos while I'm here. The, uh... 'Asimenia Spilia'?" Caitlin ventures, mangling 'Silver Grotto' quite badly.

Behind Caitlin's shoulder the junior healer chokes back a laugh and quickly finds something interesting on the far wall to examine.

Donna Troy has posed:
    Donna gives the healer a warning glare, but otherwise makes no comment on Caitlin's grammar or pronunciation. "A couple of days?" she echoes skeptically. "Really Cait. I have no intention of sitting in my room feeling sorry for myself either. I'm not spending two more days laying around in bed. I'm prepared to take it easy, but I've got to get in at least a bit of training. And if Polemusa can't persuade you to do a bit of hunting, then I'm going to have to."

    Donna gets to her feet too, obstinately refusing Caitlin's subtly offered help and giving a wince of pain that is the price she pays for that obstinacy. "Really Cait, you eat meat, but you're not prepared to hunt it? Everyone should do that, at least once. It's wrong to reduce the animals we use for food to an abstraction by pretending they were never alive, and that's very easy to do if you don't understand the... Well. I think you respect what you're eating more if you understand it. But there is also a responsibility to do it well. How about we get together for some archery practice this afternoon? I'll be fine for that. I'm just going to go lie down for an hour or two. My room though, I'm sick of hanging out in the halls of healing"

    It's an odd claim, really. She'd been unconscious virtually the entire time.

Caitlin Fairchild has posed:
"You're gonna get me in trouble," Caitlin chivvies Donna. But she holds her hands aloft in surrender. "Fine, you win. We'll go... hunting." Caitlin sighs. "I guess I better get over it someday. Heaven knows, I eat enough animal protein, and I love bacon too much to go vegetarian."

Cait gives Donna's shoulder (opposite the injured side) a gentle nudge to rock her backwards. "But you're on the hook with Eponia if you break outta the infirmary. I don't want to make anyone mad at me. Princesses get away with it, but I don't wanna push my luck with the Queen as your guest."

She thinks, then brightens and laughs. "Oh my gosh, I don't wanna get in trouble with your *mom* because she might end the *sleep-over* early!"

Caitlin laughs gaily all the way to the stairs. The idea of such a pedestrian interpretation of her stay clearly tickles her funny bone. Because it's nothing like a sleepover, an experience alien to both Donna *and* Caitlin--

--but it's too much akin to one for the comparison not to be funny, either!