IC: Inbox

[consultantsdoctor]

greg.lestrade@compass.net (6) [text: sherlock] W16D4 daniel.cross@compass.net (6) [email: headaches] W16D6 sherlock.holmes@compass.net (9) [text: conan] W17D3 alayne.stone@compass.net (3 (9)) [text: visit] W18D4 zelos.wilder@compass.net (33) [text: medical] W22D2 joan.watson@compass.net (20) [text: favor] W22D4 sherlock.holmes@compass.net (5) [text: medical] W22D6 joan.watson@compass.net (4 (~)) [text: talk] W23D3 conan.edogawa@compass.net (8) [text: food] W24D1 first.last@compass.net (~) [text] W?D?

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Comments

[wont]

I am feeling much better after last week's events, doctor, and the week before that.
It seems as though we have been granted some temporary reprieve, for which I am endlessly grateful.
In fact, I find myself in near to full vigor, though my stomach has proven fitful on occasion.
If it is no trouble, I shall call upon you now.
We are nearly neighbors, you and I.

[ Alayne considers it happenstance that Doctor Watson's makeshift quarters are so close to her own. When she visits, it is without her direwolf in tow, the great beast still relegated to her own container to satisfy Alayne's own wariness. The events of the previous week had affected Lady's mood terribly and so she is often left behind whenever Alayne feels she can spare the company.

With her she brings — surprise, surprise — a bottle of wine (the nicest she could salvage amongst the surplus of spirits), swaddled in a spare bit of cloth and tied very prettily with a bow. Not the most original gift, of course, but as good as Alayne can spare given the meager resources.

She knocks once, then goes about arranging the folds of her skirt to look tidy. ]

[consultantsdoctor]

[The news of her good health is very wonderful. They haven't had many interactions when she wasn't in need of medical attention so to have one when she's feeling better than she has is brilliant. Knowing that she was close by was also a bit comforting, it wouldn't take long to get to her if she was in trouble. So when she comes knocking, John opens one of the doors to the container and steps out.]

Good day, Ms. Stone. Glad to see you in good health.


I'd invite you in but we've a bit of a crowded house at the moment. [Adding a fifth person makes it very tight inside. He looks down at the bottle in her hands, an obvious gift and honestly -- she didn't have to.]

[wont]

[ Good on her word, Alayne looks to be near to (if not entirely) the picture of health. A splint to one of her fingers and little else, the last of her burns long gone and so much of the battering from the week before having been stripped away by the passage of time and the liberal application of magic. There is no more stiffness in her posture; in fact, when Alayne bows (and she does, deeply as if Watson was some respected lord), it is with nothing less but a swan's grace, her skirts billowing gently around her, making her look ballerina-esque. ]

Doctor Watson, you look well, [ and that brings a genuine smile to her face — the first that he's ever seen grace her features, given the troubling circumstances of their previous meetings. ] I cannot think of better news, given that my own good health is the result of your kind work.

[ Modestly she extends the gift with both of her hands, the ribbon not particularly colorful for fear that the good doctor would find a brighter color too garish. Instead, Alayne has given him her very best grey ribbon — dark and staid, the color of pewter. It bobs slightly as she offers the bottle. ] I had hoped to thank you, and thought spirits better than sewing you a dress.

[consultantsdoctor]

[John can't help but analyze everything with a doctor's eye and is pleased to see how much better she looks compared to all the other times he's ever seen her. Moving better too if her smooth curtsy is any indication. He returns it with a nod of his head, not really one for bowing but still wanting to acknowledge it.]

[It's also hard not to return a smile for the genuine one she's giving him.] I'm just glad to see you doing better. [There had certainly been some rough weeks already.]

[He blinks when she extends the bottle, surprised even though John had been expecting it. Normally he would refuse such a gift back in his world from a patient but clearly Alayne was not going to give up until she had done something. So John takes the offered gift.] It wasn't necessary but I appreciate it, Ms. Stone.

[wont]

[ It pleases Alayne that he takes the gift, as evidenced in the way she smiles, satisfaction crinkling the corners of her eyes, forming lines that Watson has never seen before. There is proof everywhere of not only a healing body but a healing soul, so much of Alayne's previous unhappiness washed away by the sunniness of her disposition now. (There is part of her that remains to put on a brave face, covering the very faintest hairline flaws that come with lingering uncertainty and loneliness. But that effort insignificant compared the burden that had weighed her down before.) ]

Alayne, please, doctor. You needn't worry about such formalities with me. Your company is pleasant enough. [ Besides, Stone isn't so much a surname in Westeros as it is a badge of shame, a constant reminder of bastardy. She doesn't tell him this, however. (The reveal often made modern folk uncomfortable.) ] I know the ship is awash with wine, so I cannot offer something you may not have already, but—

I could not help but make the gesture. I am truly grateful. [ A beat and then Alayne's expression puckers briefly with worry. ] You do drink spirits, don't you? [ Gods above, she would be embarrassed if he didn't. ]

[consultantsdoctor]

[To see her smiling like that after all this time is brilliant. Such a sweet young woman should be able to smile in that manner more than she does. It does make him wonder if she smiled like this before coming to the ship. Though he won't ask what her life had been like. She seemed the sort to need to offer up that sort of private information of her own free will. As long as it doesn't affect her health John will let her open up at her own pace.]

You can call me John if you'd like. [He won't be offended if she doesn't.] I enjoy your company as well, Alayne.

Your gift is brilliant. [Perfect, in fact. A gift that cost someone a lot always left John feeling awkward and refusing it. But something like a child's drawing or this bottle of wine which had cost near-to-nothing always suited him better.] I do drink spirits.

[wont]

[ She breathes an obvious sigh of relief at that, her posture relaxing and her expression taking on a slightly different color. Whether or not she accepts the offer and decides to address Doctor Watson as John has yet to be seen, but the gesture in and of itself is a welcome one. It speaks to a kind of closeness, something that is not quite friendship but perhaps has the possibility to become it one day. Though some might question what a middle-aged modern man might have in common with an adolescent medieval princess, Alayne knows from experience that circumstances can sometimes forge stranger alliances than that.

The prospect makes her feel slightly giddy, albeit in a still cautious way. ] You've inspired me to look at my own talents and think upon what I might offer the ship — other than sewing, of course. Though I'm not studied in anything save needlepoint, I hoped— [ Alayne inhales, as if bracing herself for his approval. ] —I hoped I might volunteer at the clinic.

I've been told my bedside manner is quite good.