fandomhighdorms | The Garden, Monday Early Afternoon

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The Garden, Monday Early Afternoon

Karla had let her pick the place for where the healing was supposed to take place and, while her hotel room had the advantage of privacy, Zack wasn't the only one of them who wanted to be out amongst nature for as long as possible before heading back to Midgar.

So Ino had picked her old garden, the one that she'd planted ages ago, behind the stables.

She arrived early, making sure to get there before Karla did, and took her time wandering through the trees, eating a few chocolate cherries off the chocolate cherry tree and inspecting the pillow tree and the blanket tree (and thinking about that period of a few months, back then, that she and Zack had camped out here, since he couldn't bear to leave Angeal's sword in the locker) and all of the plants that she still considered hers in some way, despite the fact that it had been five years and counting since she'd seen them all.

They were still alive. Thriving, even.

Ino found that comforting.

[Expecting one, but totally open!]

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Ino had one, just one moment to think 'oh, gods, for what--'

She was not a Healer like Karla, and was only a field medic by her original world's terms, but Ino felt it when her heart stopped.

Her breathing literally stopped and her mind reeled as the oxygen it needed suddenly wasn't there and if there'd been a way to make it stop, Ino would've found it, but she wasn't in any position to do anything, not even swear at Karla--

Karla was fully aware of Ino's growing panic and also the fact that Zack was right there with a giant sword over her and he would not be thrilled to be kept in the dark.

"It's okay, it's okay," Karla murmured. "I have to do this; I'm rebuilding your heart and your blood is still practically irradiated. I can't have it flowing through while I'm trying to make you better. We have three minutes before we pass the point of no return, I'll be finished in two."

And she'd heal any other ischemic injuries Ino's body sustained. Just add it to the pile.

It was not even remotely okay, Karla. Not even.

Not that Ino was in any state fit to protest about it, or even think about it that coherently, or even wonder if she was really going to die because her world had narrowed down to the facts that her heart had stopped and it hadn't been restarted yet and she wasn't precisely conscious at this point anyway.

Lack of oxygen did that to a person.

Ino could talk about her grave reservations about heart-stopping later, once Karla had Healed her. And, in fairness, it wasn't like Karla had known she'd have to do this before she started. It was only once she'd gone in and seen how deep the damage went that she'd realized what she'd had to do.

Look, she'd offered whiskey and told Ino to brace herself. What more warning did she need?

In the world of Within, Karla was focused completely on rebuilding the muscle that lay in her palm like a dying bird. She coaxed Ino's heart into furious growth--which also likely hurt, but at least Ino was mostly unconscious for it--shaping the new tissue into place. Seconds slipped by, fifteen, thirty, a full minute.

Once the muscles existed properly again, Karla turned her attention into nurturing the tracery of veins, giving them the kind of care she would a newly-transplanted rootlet system. She urged them to grow, to expand, burrowing their way around and through, growing big enough and strong enough to withstand the pressure.

A minute forty, a minute fifty...

She had a full heart again, but Karla still needed to make sure it was properly set into her chest, that everything connected and lined up. And it was still so thin, so fragile--the Mako had poisoned her cells and even cleansed of the taint, they were still injured and slow, fighting her every step of the way. They didn't want to grow, to connect--it was easier just to stop. Karla had to use more precious time and Craft to force them to do what she demanded.

Forty-seven seconds left. Forty-six. Forty-five.

A capillary broke and Karla swore, sealing it back up first with Craft and then by repairing it properly. Thirty-three. Thirty-two. The tissue in the right ventricle was too thin and tore right down the scaffolding.Twny-seven. Twenty-six. Karla was beyond cursing then and nearly made the tear worse with a flare of power. She had to stop, take a few deep breaths, and start again. Eleven. Ten. Nine.

And with less than seven seconds to go, she finished making the last of the connections and restarted Ino's heart again.

It likely hurt more the stopping it had done.

Ino liked to know what was going on and what was being done to her but, in this case, it was probably for the best that she had no fucking idea what had happened between Karla stopping her heart.

And Karla restarting it.

(Other than a haze of panic and sheer, unadulterated terror, and pain that never really faded.)

Ino came thudding back into herself as her heart rebooted with a breath that was more like a heave that shook her entire body and she struggled to get enough air.

Oh gods, though, the pain. The pain. She'd thought she'd be fine, but she wasn't, and she didn't even have enough air to properly scream yet.

Karla let go of the Healing trance. She figured she should be properly aware of what was happening for the first few moments after Ino woke up--especially with Zack, there, watching them both like a hawk with his sword so close to hand.

And, you know, after all that work, Karla wouldn't mind a drink. She'd only get water, but at least that was something.

"She's probably going to scream," she said dully, in case Zack was listening. "If she doesn't, she's a stronger woman than I."

Zack nodded a little, his own expression carefully blank, trying not to wear... something... something that would have been in it not all that long ago.

He didn't speak, either. He couldn't bring himself to. He didn't know exactly what had just gone on, but there had been something about the way that Ino had just been laying there...

He reached for Ino's hand. That much he could do without getting in the way.

"Can you prop her up?" Karla asked. "She might find it easier to breathe that way. And you might want to ready that whiskey, just in case."

Karla would love a drink right now, but she'd be sticking to water for the duration. Though she was finishing an entire bottle in three long gulps while she waited for Ino to come around.

Zack nodded, shifting his weight so that he could slide one arm under Ino, gently easing her into a sort of sitting position with his forearm serving as a kind of seat back. With his other hand holding one of Ino's, he couldn't exactly reach for the whiskey yet, but it was near enough that he figured he could still get to it if Ino wanted it.

The benefits of being tall.

Ino did not want the fucking whiskey, nor was she a stronger woman than Karla was (though she'd have dearly liked to argue otherwise at pretty much any other time).

As soon as her lungs had enough air, Ino screamed.

It didn't help the pain at all, for all that it was a release that she'd been deny. And, worse, lungs that had just gotten their air back weren't the best for screaming as, shortly, the screams ended in favour of coughing.

Distantly, Ino was aware of a warm arm behind her and a hand in hers (that she was gripping as tightly as she could) and of Karla somewhere to the side (but she was disoriented and figuring out which side seemed like too much work).

Breathing burned, her heart beating burned, and everything in her chest ached like someone had been stomping on it. Ino wasn't even going to try and talk and flailed out mentally with a weak (and, okay, flippant) protest:

Next time my heart is stopped, she thought hard, knowing that she wasn't being careful enough to keep Zack from hearing and just hoping that, this once, her lack of control could be forgiven regarding his privacy, I want more warning than 'brace yourself'.

"And if I ever have to do it again, I doubt you'll survive it," Karla said, stretching the tendons in her neck. "I just had to rebuild your fucking heart, Ino. You don't get a lot of do-overs with that."

She finished her water and vanished it, checking on the state of the Healing web. Unsurprisingly, it was almost completely ash. She carefully moved over to the next one. "Your body barely wanted to support this one."

Zack sat there in silence, listening to the exchange, his eye on... on Ino, mostly. She was in pain, she wasn't looking like she was doing so well, but she was still alive.

Still alive.

He was clinging to that, right then.

"Is there more?"

He needed to know to brace himself, too. Not because he was feeling sorry for himself, poor Zack having to watch Ino in pain, or anything. But because if he lost it, he could be actually, legitimately dangerous, and nobody here needed that.

... Or would even necessarily survive it.

Yes.

That was the worst part, really, that Ino didn't even need to check with Karla to know that. The heart had been just a part of it--an important part, arguably the most important part--but just one part.

Is my heart going to make it through the rest?

Now that was a question she was legitimately interested in hearing the answer to. Even though her heart was rebuilt, the rest of the Healing... there was no way that was going to be easy on it.

Edited 2015-09-09 04:25 (UTC)

"More?" Karla gave a harsh caw of a laugh. "We're just getting started." She wiped the sweat from her forehead. "It'll make it through. I'm going to surround it in Craft that will make sure it keeps beating regularly. The next thing I'm going to do is filter this muck out of your blood. It'll still be painful, but nothing that dramatic."

Hopefully. Though she was careful not to tell Ino that the worst was behind her.

"I had to start there, though. Your original heart wouldn't have survived the strain I was putting on it."

Yeah, Ino wasn't... going to hold her breath on the worst being past. Just in case and all.

I understand.

It didn't mean she liked it, but she got it. She figured that Karla would understand that.

Are you alright?

"A little winded, but otherwise fine," Karla said, she said, cracking her neck. "I'm ready to start again if you are?" She glanced back at her water. "You want something to drink first?"

Ino rested her head back against Zack and followed Karla's glance.

No.

She was thirsty but didn't think drinking now would help her. If anything, it would only upset her stomach during so much pain.

I'm ready.

"Then we'll begin," Karla said, sinking back down into the Healing trance. She added more power to Ino's heart to ensure that nothing would damage it and got to work. She wove webs of power in Ino's various arteries to sieve through the poison and burn it out.

This was fun. For everybody. Really.

Oh yes. An utter joy.

The only thing it really had going for it was that it lacked the utter panic that had filled her at the stopping of her heart.

And it was less painful. Marginally.

She writhed with agony, knowing better than to try and ride it out, and instead let it ride her. It wasn't pretty but it'd be over eventually.

Or she'd be dead. Either or.

Ino wasn't going anywhere, dammit. Kathy had already invested too much Craft into her to let her just die. If her body gave out, Karla would just hold it steady via Craft until she Healed her enough that her body worked again on its own.

And then she'd make snarky comments to cover how afraid she'd been. As per usual.

Filtering out Ino's blood was a long process, because it required multiple passes to make sure she got it all. First she worked in the arterties, then moved down to the veins, and then to the capillaries, each sieve getting finer and finer as she went. Each pulse of Ino's heart sent fresh blood through and Karla had to work quickly to make sure that she didn't create a blockage anywhere. That sometimes meant letting the Mako go past, to hopefully catch on the next pass.

"Now to clean out the organs and we're good," Karla said, coming free to take another small break. She was sweating freely now, her hair clinging to her scalp and neck. The sun had shifted position in the sky significantly, but they were making real progress.

She gave Ino a smile and a tired thumb's up. "How you feeling? Any better?"

Ino's own smile was just as tired and she was no longer laying down so much as drooping. Tired, so tired. And achy too, from pain, which was tied up with the exhaustion in a way that only sleep was really going to take care of.

She took stock of her own condition, running a scan with a thought series of seals. It's looking better, she said. And I feel less... off.

But mostly: she was going to need sleep before having a real idea of what was feeling better and what was just knowledge that she was doing better.

"Good," Karla said, vanishing the three boxes that had contained Healing webs before she'd burned through them. "Right now, it's mostly just that your body's getting more oxygen than it was before, because there's more blood to carry it throughout and it's not clogged with poison. Your thoughts should be clearer, at least in a bit."

But Ino was entirely right. She needed sleep, real healing sleep, in order to fully appreciate the changes.

"Once more into the breach then. And we'll be done."

And then Karla was going to eat an entire cow and nap for a day and a half.

Ino was going to nap and then possibly find herself up for food when this was over, so the same thing, but reversed.

I think it's supposed to be 'unto', she thought, because even pummeled with pain and somewhere between healed and really, really not, she was a brat. Instead of 'into'. Just so you know.

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The Garden, Monday Early Afternoon

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