9482/Licking wounds

Licking wounds
Date of Scene:	06 January 2022
Location:	Sherwood Florist, First Floor
Synopsis:	A wounded Dinah is helped by John Stewart.
Cast of Characters:	Dinah Lance, John Stewart

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Dinah Lance has posed:
There's a problem with being a hero on a budget. No medical plan. After her fight with the glowy-eyed owl guy, and after the subsequent police grilling over what she saw (oh, and the collapsing of three stories of a section of office building), Dinah was finally let go to limp home.

Limp being the operative word.

Her own inventory of problems: massive contusions from right shoulder to right knee in a line down the side of her body. Two probably cracked ribs. Possible light concussion. Possible stretched ligament in right hand.

Short form: she's a mess.

Groaning, she climbed the short flight of steps from the attached garage, not even bothering to properly stow her bike, before collapsing, out of sight of the main entrance, against the bench containing a bunch of her more fragrant flowers.

Let the scents soothe her a while until she worked up the wherewithal to go upstairs and start bandages and painkillers. And bourbon. Lots of bourbon...

John Stewart has posed:
Trying to keep up with current events has a good side and a bad side when you're a Green Lantern: On the good side, the Power Ring has an artificial intelligence solely dedicated to supporting their user and can monitor things for them.

On the bad side, doing the filtering wrong can lead to information overload. Luckily, the right news got to him, and even though John is halfway across Earth at the time he learns about Dinah's condition, leaving orbit makes it easy to get to the Sherwood Florist in minutes.

Re-entry could be seen by anyone looking to the outskirts of the city, but he bobs and weaves through the buildings to throw off any potential spies as he flies to the rooftop of Dinah's building.

Without bothering to scan, he looks over the side, sees the bike, and uses his ring to construct a green sheathe to move the bike into storage as he walks inside, then scans the building in it's entirety from below, looking for Dinah... and her condition.

Above, Dinah may or may not see the familiar green light as it flits over the entire building: A Green Lantern scanning field.

Dinah Lance has posed:
She sees it. She doesn't respond quite yet ... have to work up the energy for it ... but she sees it. Slowly she gathers her mental and physical resources, all directed to raising her left hand.

Which she uses to briefly fingerwave as the green light scans over her.

Then, energy expended, she drops the hand to the rubber mat with an audible THUNK.

"Hey, loverboy."

John Stewart has posed:
He's with her before she can say the words. One of the benefits of having a boyfriend that floats at incredible speeds.

Without a word, John aims his Power Ring at her, and suddenly multiple bits of medical constructs appear. Bandages, casts, and a bed to rest in as first aid is dealt with.

He might not be able to regenerate her on his own, but it seems he learned some things in the marines.

"Hello, sweetheart." John softly tells her as he float in front of her, his left hand reaching out to tenderly touch her cheek as he focuses on maintaining the constructs. "Don't move, I'll take care of you."

Dinah Lance has posed:
Dinah lets out a groan as the constructs start to appear. Not a groan of pain, as such, but one of relief. She stares up at the floating John.

"Rough night," she says dryly. "I did something stupid."

As opposed to every other night, right? RIGHT!?

"It turns out jumping across buildings to catch a falling body doesn't work unless you're named "Batman". And have a bunch of cool toys."

She sighs at the brush against her cheek.

"Supes could have caught him too. Diana probably. You. You know, everybody except the person who was actually there."

She rolls her eyes, then, adding, "Just the way life works. But don't worry, I gave as good as I got. Better. That building knows now the price of bruising a superhero!"

Laughter turns into a wince of pain turns into a cough turns into a little whimper of pain.

"Saw someone there. Kicked him down to his death, in fact. Accident. Didn't mean him to fall down two storeys. Snapped his neck in the fall."

Dinah stares at John, then, eyes wide. "And then he got up. I hit him full Cry, taking down three floors of the office building in that corner. He wasn't in the rubble."

John Stewart has posed:
"When I first got interested in you, I knew what I was getting into." John begins to explain as he 'carries' her to her own bed and lays her down. The sheet is still a thin construct for the mess, but otherwise he no longer has to Will the bed into existence. Then, he sits down on the edge, even as the constructs do their work. "If you want to talk about it, I'm here."

There's no judgment, not pressure in his tone. He's simply being supportive and offering a door, if she wants to walk through it, "Sure could have used that myself back in the day." John muses aloud.

Dinah Lance has posed:
"Oh, it's the same old story. Boy mugs girl. Boy runs away from girl. Other girl takes up the chase. Boy thinks he can run away from second girl. Boy winds up hogtied by zip ties with broken nose to help him focus on his sins. Second girl sees someone about to go over edge. Girl runs off top of building to catch rope on other building. Girl tries to catch falling man but fails because she got the right side of her body caved in. Girl climbs up to where man fell from and found armoured villain planting fake evidence. Girl fights armoured man. Armoured man escapes."

She sighs then.

"Girl makes it home and boyfriend makes it all worthwhile."

Dinah laughs then (a proven mistake, so 'learning from mistakes' does not appear to be in her skills list).

"At least this time it's all hidden. Not like the time that goon got a lucky shot in on my face with a brick so some old guy who works for Wayne starts wondering if she wasn't being beaten by her husband."

John Stewart has posed:
"If I didn't know better, I'd think you were a masochist." John pauses briefly, "Not that there's anything wrong with that. Everyones got their thing, and you're mine now."

Yep, he's still got that possessive edge when it comes to Dinah... but this is familiar by now. He's certainly not shy about being hers.

"Sounds like you did everything you could. Part of this life is knowing you're going to fail, or make mistakes, or ruin something... and keep going anyway."

Dinah Lance has posed:
"Yeah, it was a long shot. Success in this case was not being street pizza alongside him." She snorts with amusement. "And I don't intend to die that way. I have a very specific plan for how I'm going to die, and it involves waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too much whiskey-flavoured ice cream."

That's specific all right.

"So, what about you? What trouble have you been getting into?"

Vulnerable time is over, it seems. Though she has the brains not to try to get up just yet.

John Stewart has posed:
"So you want to go out in a diabetic shock?" John teases.

Then, he shrugs, "Been off world handling sector business the last week, but nothing serious. Just got back yesterday and my ring filtered through about what you've been doing."

Dinah Lance has posed:
"Well, I was thinking more drowning in it, but diabetic shock works too. The key is the mix of ice cream and whiskey."

She listens to what he's been doing, and upon having what she's doing mentioned, she suddenly gets edgy. "LOOK, I CAN EXPLAIN! I DIDN'T KNOW IT WAS THAT KIND OF CLUB! THE GIRLS JUST INVITED ME! HOW WAS I TO KNOW THAT A PLACE CALLED THE BEAR REVUE WAS THAT KIND OF DANCE CLUB!?"

Then more laughter. (She never learns.)

"OK, seriously, I was there undercover, not for the entertainments."

John Stewart has posed:
There's a long period of silence as John just.... stares at her.

"Uh huh."

Dinah Lance has posed:
"I was!" Dinah says. "Remember I don't just kick people in the face. That's the end of the job. I investigate. I track people. I follow. And in this case I had to follow someone into the Bear Revue."

Dinah peers at John, then, before accusingly adding, "You're JEALOUS! It's a BEAR Revue, John! Gay club! Even if I was there to ogle, there'd be no action 'cause not wired to see these legs!"

She mimics putting on a pair of glasses. "I was there as a health inspector. Gave me a reason to search the place."

John Stewart has posed:
"Uh huh." He dryly continues, then, he looks down to said leg and ogles them shamelessly. "Depends, did you go in with your usual outfit, or civvies?" John inquires.

Dinah Lance has posed:
"I went in a sensible dark blue-gray sheathe suit with even more sensible shoes," Canary says. "And sexy librarian glasses. And a clip board with a bunch of crap on it that looked like the kinds of things a health inspector would be looking at."

She holds up an imaginary checklist and pretends to tick items off and write down information.

"That and a bit of a quick flash of a badge that... uh... well, it's very persuasive if you just flash it quickly and put it away. It's amazing what people will let you do if you say you're an authority, but not a cop."

John Stewart has posed:
"Most people only care about the perception." John agrees, looking back to her eyes, "As it is, I think you should probably look into grey market doctors at this point. You have some serious weeks long injuries, and I can only do so much without surgery."

Dinah Lance has posed:
"Oh, I already figured out what's wrong with me. Worst thing is the cracked ribs. That's going to hurt a while. The brain damage is perhaps a bit troubling too. But it's nice that you care, Alan."

She pauses a moment, impish humour in her eyes.

"Get it? Brain damage? Alan? Pretending that I misnamed you?"

This time she doesn't laugh. So she does eventually learn.

"Really, I may have to go to the Watchtower and get some help. I've been mulling it over. I hate being a burden on them..." The people she's fought alongside. "...but I hate being out of the fight even more."

John Stewart has posed:
"The entire point of being a member of a team is you don't have to rely on solely yourself." John looks at her, eyes getting more serious than they usually are, even under that green glow, "One of the best things about being a member of the marines and now the Lanterns is the support and resources. You can't do everything yourself."

Dinah Lance has posed:
"If you check my League files..." Dinah is looking more serious now herself. "...you'll see Bats' comment: does not play well with others."

Dinah half-shrugs. The half that's not covered in construct bandages.

"I'm not sure I'm really meant for teams. I mean ... I guess? Depending on the team? But I'm headstrong. Impetuous. Stubborn. Independent. And I hate, hate, hate relying on other people for things because it makes me feel weak."

This is probably the longest moment of self-insight John has ever seen from her.

"So ... I'll head up to the Watchtower after I've punished myself for my stupidity enough..."

And there's another clue.

"...but I'll hate every moment of mothering I get. Even if it's the gruff, didactic, tough-love mothering from Bats."

John Stewart has posed:
He listens. There's no witty remark, just him silently there.

"I won't pretend to understand that mindset, but I get it." John brings up his ring and does another scan of her. Listening to the mental voice briefly, visible, John nods, "Most of the bleeding is stable, but you need stitches for the big stuff, and real casts for the breaks."

John glances up to the roof, "I can bring you right to their medical center, if you can get us in."

Dinah Lance has posed:
Dinah struggles a moment with her right arm before giving up and using her left, the right too covered with constructs. She pulls out a little device that looks like a key fob.

"They made this really simple for me," she says with a snort. "Press that button and it takes me up to the Watchtower. If I'm touching someone else, that person goes too."

She passes the device to her right hand and raises her left for John to take hold of.

"Just so you stop worrying, understand?" she asks, with that ghost of a smile she gets when she's lying.

John Stewart has posed:
"You're my woman, I'm never not going to worry about you. It comes with being a good boyfriend." John informs her, flatly. Then, he reaches out with his left hand and clasps her left, "Whenever you're ready."

Dinah Lance has posed:
Whatever it was that John said, it was apparently the right thing if the pinball machine smile that suddenly lights her face is anything to go by.

For just a second she lies there, holding his hand, and holding his eyes with her, face lit up like the aforementioned machine signalling the million-point jump scoring.

Then...

"Go-go-gadget telegizmo!"

*sigh*

And next instant the pair are on the Watchtower, ready for the advanced technology of the medical centre to get to work on her.