momslilassassin | Ben's room [Ellis Island, Enderverse, Wednesday afternoon, Fandom time]

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Ben's room [Ellis Island, Enderverse, Wednesday afternoon, Fandom time]

Ben finally got his hand extracted from Ender's (he hadn't really been trying that hard while Alai had been visiting), and left the room to give Val (and Alai, sigh, grumble, whatever) some time to spend with Ender as well.

Ben went for a walk, got lost four times, found some food and a shower and finally made his way back to his room.

He sat down in an uncomfortable chair on the theory that if he sat on the bed he'd fall asleep for a week, and began making some long-delayed calls back to Fandom.

With his luck, time had sped up there, he'd been gone for a month, and Karla was after his head...

[OOC: If you think he called you, he did!]

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"Possibly, but it seems like a weird thing for you to have made up," Ben admitted. "So it's only Wednesday there?"

Hello instant suspicions. "Why?" she asked flatly. "Where are you?"

"Um. Ender's universe?" Ben replied.

He was starting out small.

Karla was very glad that Ben couldn't read emotions over the phone. It meant no one else needed to notice that flare of irrational jealousy over being excluded. Again.

"Oh?" she asked, trying to sound neutral. "Visiting for awhile?"

"Not exactly," Ben said. "I got a call from Val on Tuesday in Fandom--several days ago here now--that Ender was going to do something stupid. I got here just in time to see how right she was and I've spent the last bit of time in the clinic with him hoping he'd wake up."

He sounded wiped out.

The jealousy was beaten into submission by concern and a little bit of fear.

"Wake up?!" she asked. "What happened? Has he yet? Should I catch a portal?"

Sure, Ben had mentioned a clinic, but--Karla. Healer.

"He's awake," Ben assured her quickly. "The IF is monitoring every breath he takes, and have the security here just about as tight as an I've ever seen."

Even if it didn't stop Alai from waltzing in.

"I think we'll be heading back to Fandom soon, and he will just have to suck up you fixing him the rest of the way."

Ben was preparing to throw an epic hissy fit if Ender was going to be stubborn.

"Damn right he is," Karla said, setting her jaw. "Especially since it sounds like he's barely making it back home as it is."

If he really fussed about it, Karla would just knock him out and then heal the rest of him before fixing that second concussion.

"Do I even want to know the list of injuries?"

"Head to toe or serious to less so?" Ben asked, rubbing at his eyes.

Karla closed her eyes and rubbed at the bridge of her nose. "Serious to less so. This way if I get lost halfway through, I'll know the most important bits."

Ender, she was going to murder you. FYI.

"Concussion," Ben recited, "multiple broken ribs, broken nose...pretty much what you'd expect if some extremely large person decided to hit you for a very long time, then kick you when you fell while you and all of your self-defense training just let them."

There might have been some frustration in there. Maybe.

Just a bit, sure.

"He what?!" she yelped. Sorry about that eardrum, Ben. She'd add it to the list of things what needed Healing when the boyos got back. "Why in the Hell would he do something like that? He's supposed to be the smart one!"

Ben had some ideas but didn't like any of them.

"I don't know and he's been too drugged up to have a real conversation about it yet," he said quietly.

"Hell's fire, Mother Night, and may the Darkness be merciful," Karla said, throttling back her temper in the face of Ben's obvious distress. "I bet he's loving that, too."

Ender. Who drank milk at parties so he never felt out of control.

"When he swims back up to consciousness, I mean."

"It was pretty much the first thing he complained about," Ben said, sounding a little amused. "It was--" adorable, "--funny."

"How are you doing?" Karla asked, her voice losing that irritated edge it'd gained since first hearing about Ender's little stunt. "I mean--obviously not good." There was no way he could be good after seeing Ender like that. "I will make Portalocity send me to Eros just long enough to set down the world's biggest ice cream sundae in your lap if that's what you need."

"I think if they find out it's for me, they'll send it to another dimension," Ben said. "I made two different customer representatives cry because they weren't getting me here fast enough"

Color Karla completely unsurprised. "I'll be happy to tell them I'm coming up to give you a swift kick in the ass if that's what it takes," she assured him.

Mother Night. This was a clusterfuck.

"So, what details can you give me?" she asked. "Obviously not the whys, but the who and the how and the seriously, what the fuck?"

Ben ran a hand over his eyes and took a deep breath. "It's still not making much sense to me," he warned, "but I haven't slept--" at all, really, "--much in the last few days that wasn't while sitting up in Ender's room. The major question also involves when: Ender and Val were setting out for Eros and ended up somewhere else: the planet name escapes me, but far enough in the future that they have colonies set up here. As for the who, it was some kid who looked like Bean--height and all--and went by Achilles."

"The last lost baby," Karla said softly. It didn't take a ~~Wiggin~~ genius to put that together. "Being raised by one of Achilles' flunkies or something. How awful!"

She started pacing, trying to figure out how that could have led to Ender getting curbstomped. "Raised to hate him, right? Him, and Bean, and everyone else that Achilles hated and resented and feared. Was Ender ambushed?"

But the real question was, why hadn't Ender fought back?! She knew he could. Ender was devastating when he needed to be.

"I don't know," Ben said. "I don't think so. Val found something while she was on the phone with me and took off fast enough that she didn't remember to hang up. And she was just standing there while Ender got the poodoo kicked out of him, so I'm guessing he must have said something to her. She wouldn't have just let this kid hurt Ender otherwise."

Karla....wasn't entirely as convinced about Val as Ben was. She had his memories, the memories where Val had, at the very least, allowed herself to be used to drag Ender back into the war. Was it likely? No. But was she pragmatic enough to let it happen?

Well, she was a Wiggin, wasn't she?

"So, he just lay there and took it?" Karla asked. And, as much as she hated to ask it, she had to. "...Some kind of penance thing?"

There was a very long pause as Ben tried not to bawl all over the phone, then a quiet, "Yeah, that's what I think."

Shit. Could she schedule a portal while still talking to Ben on the phone?

"Mother Night, Ben. Are you sure you don't want me to come up? Even just to take a stint by his bedside, so you can sleep."

She'd even go before Ender woke up if he wanted.

"We'll be back pretty soon," Ben replied, "and Val's here to swap out with. And Alai."

Not that Ben was all that thrilled to split hovering time with Alai.

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