Kate grinned and just stared at the ceiling. She deserved that, and had to clear her mind of all she had seen and been a part of because in reality, she wasn't a part of that world.
"So you're just sitting here because it's spacious?" Kate asked.
"That bad?" Elsie asked.
"For my feelings. It's terrible. I haven't been here a week and I'm in a hospital bed." Kate laughed.
"You feel bad for yourself?"
"Someone should."
"What happened to all that hero talk before?"
"I stand by it. But even the greatest hero in the word has to take a bowl bursting runny shit."
Elsie actually laughed, making a pained noise like she'd been punched in the groin.
"Don't remind me. I understand why doctors get paid so much. There's only so much poop a person can look at before you need to wash the smell away with money to keep interns like me here."
"Oh no!" Kate suddenly yelled.
It made Elsie jump.
"What? What is it?"
"Have you seen mine?"
Elsie blinked then yelled laughing.
"Yes! Oh my god yes."
"Oh no!" Kate laughed out covering her face. "Wait is that why you're here? Because you're a freak?"
"Oh screw you, I'm not afraid to beat up someone in a hospital bed. If anything that's the best time."
They laughed for a full minute before the happy air fizzled like a leaky balloon.
"It must have been when I was out. Otherwise I'd have remembered it. Was it that bad?"
"Traumatizing. You know the arc of the covenant?"
"We going biblical. Yes, the story of the priest who touched it by accident of habit and was immediately struck down."
"Well, we were changing your diaper when it slipped from Tif- Tris's… a nurse you haven't met. Her hand slipped and stupidly I reached out and well… I only ever want to see you from the front."
Kate's grin was ridiculous, she couldn't help it! Even as Elsie stepped up and wiped a tear from Kate's eye, before stroking Kate's hair.
"Did my mother come?"
"Yes!" Elsie whispered angrily.
She poked and traced a line on Kate's forehead before pulling out a screen and pointing it at that line.
"You feel that?" Elsie asked.
"Your finger?" Kate asked.
"No, you simpleton, look." Elsie demanded.
The screen displayed a picture of Kate's forehead, which she'd yet to see.
Kate looked so pale and wane, no one was supposed to look like her. But dead center was a lipstick stain.
"She didn't stay. It's Happy Tug corpo stuff she needs to do. I assume." Kate said.
"You rubbing it off?" Elsie asked.
"Yes, did you want me to keep it there?"
"Well no. One of your friends will double down on that spot. I don't want to see someone trying to molest your face."
"Oh the inhumanity." Kate said with a sarcastic droll.
"You really are an attention queen."
"No, not at all." Kate said with a sad sigh she hadn't known she had. "I just took all your sexy attention and went with it."
"You went with it?" An incredulous Elsie asked.
"Yes. Imagine this. You're walking down the street and someone walks up to you and says 'you're that super model Mindy, we've been waiting for you.' And there's a bunch of money in their hands and they're headed somewhere amazing."
"And you'd go along?"
"Yes," Kate began, but stopped and raised a brow. "Are you trying to give me therapy?"
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