Night 65: M31-M40 Hallway

[freewill]

[In M39.]

Honestly, Castiel hadn't expected there to be another clue offered. It made him wonder for a moment if he should call everything off to see what else they might be able to learn, but at this point he realized there was no turning back. He'd already asked the help of multiple people, and he wasn't going to waste their time by no going through with it. Besides, Landel had revealed that five patients would be changing tonight, which made it clear that they were even shorter on time than he'd imagined.

Kobayashi left quickly, and Castiel was glad that he didn't have to bring up that he might be undergoing surgery in their room. It wasn't as if he planned on involving his roommate's side of the small space in the first place, and there was also a chance that it would be taking place in Rapunzel's room instead.

For the moment, all Castiel could do was sit and wait. He didn't like the inactivity, but seeing how his stomach was still giving him grief, it wasn't the worst fate at the moment. No, at this point he was relieved that the night had already started and all that felt odd were the same symptoms he'd been suffering from all day.

It seemed possible he'd lucked out tonight, then, but he doubted that would last much longer. That was why he needed to take care of this now.

The first person who was set to show up here was the one who'd claimed to be Gabriel, and Castiel had to admit that he was uncertain about the entire encounter. He went through his possessions box and dug out his replica angel blade, wanting to have it on hand unless this all really did turn out to be a trap. He was hardly in the position to get in a fight with anyone now, but that wasn't going to stop him from being prepared.

[Waiting for Gabriel and Kratos.]

Comments

[forsworn]

It looked as if the two were indeed "brothers" of a sort, judging by that hand on Castiel's shoulder (or, at least one of them thought as much), but that was hardly the thing to be thinking about at the moment. "Nothing that I can think of."

He actually had several anesthetics in his pocket that were probably deserving of a peek at this point, but unfortunately, he wasn't aware of that fact, nor used to usual surgical procedure. Whenever he'd been called on to perform some kind of rough, makeshift operation in the field, it had always been sort of spur-of-the-moment.

"Are we going to wait for Rapunzel, or would it be better to move to her room instead?" Kratos had seen no word from Rapunzel on the board, but for all he knew, she had sent Castiel a note that had been removed upon reading.

[impudentsongbird]

Rapunzel? Gabriel's eyebrows lifted suddenly, because, naturally, he recognised the name. Who wouldn't? Her tale was very well known. It was just that most people didn't know the truth of it, just as they didn't quite know the whole truth behind Arthur, Guinevere and Lancelot. The Archangel opened his mouth to ask if she was all right, then closed it again with a frown.

She was here; that was bad enough. But what, he wondered with a glance down at Castiel, were the odds that it was the Rapunzel of which he knew? She had lived a long time ago, and if what Castiel said was true ...

Again, irrelevant. There were other issues at hand, and Gabriel shunted those questions and his confusion to the back of his mind.

"How far are her quarters?" he asked instead with another glance down at Castiel, addressing his next question to the other angel. "And could you make it there? You don't look well at all, and you'll need your strength. It may be better to wait."

[freewill]

It was no surprise that his health came up when the idea of moving was set forth, but Castiel didn't want to let something like that get in the way. It wasn't as if he was an invalid, after all. "She'll need her strength as well," he pointed out. "If she's healing others before me, chances are she'll be weakened already. Seeing how we're all here and have nothing left to do, we might as well head that way. It isn't far."

Castiel stood up from the bed, moving away from Gabriel's touch to show that he was serious about the decision. Seeing how he was the one with the illness, he thought that he should be the one to get the final say. As for what to take with them -- the sword in Kratos' hand was the main thing that they needed, but Castiel made sure to grab his flashlight as well. There might be transformed patients prowling the hallways by now, and he wanted to make sure they saw them ahead of time at the least.

While he felt feverish, sore, and still had that stomach cramp that had persisted all day, Castiel managed to hold his footing. If he needed to lean on someone as they walked, he imagined that Kratos would allow it without causing him to sacrifice his pride.

He looked to the swordsman in question and nodded. "You can lead the way."

[forsworn]

Kratos watched as the two talked, waiting patiently for them to finish. Thankfully, it didn't take long for them to decide on their next course of action, which was to go to Rapunzel directly rather than wait for her to arrive. That sounded like the safer decision to him: there was no way of knowing whether Rapunzel had adequate protection when she ventured out, whereas he and presumably Castiel's friend as well could deal with anything that crossed their path.

(It was rather overambitious of him to assume that, but frankly, better them than Rapunzel.)

He nodded back to Castiel. "Very well. Follow me."

[to here]