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

[momslilassassin]

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!]

Comments

[hoorayimrich.livejournal.com]

"Which is a wonderful place to be, I hear," Tony replied, rubbing his forehead.

[momslilassassin]

"Oh, it's astral," Ben said. "Sorry that I forgot to pick up a postcard. She told me that she was worried he was going to do something stupid, then ran off without disconnecting our phone call. I spent the next few hours screaming at Portalocity and got to...wherever the hell they were...in time to watch some giant kid come pretty close to kicking Ender permanently brain damaged."

His voice shook slightly on that final part.

[hoorayimrich.livejournal.com]

"Jesus," Tony muttered. "What happened? Are you okay?"

Ask another silly question, Tony! It'll help so!

[momslilassassin]

"Oh, I don't have a scratch on me," Ben said with a humorless laugh, "and as for what happened, well, Ender's been pretty drugged up and Val's been so distracted I haven't wanted to ask."

[hoorayimrich.livejournal.com]

"Did you-- are you guys coming back?"

[momslilassassin]

"Yes," Ben said firmly. "A century into your planet's future or not, I want Ender to have better health care than what we've got right now. I think we have to wait until he's awake more than about fifteen minutes at a time, though."

[hoorayimrich.livejournal.com]

"You need any help?" From someone who couldn't do aaaaanything magical.

[momslilassassin]

Ben sighed. "I wouldn't even know where to start asking for it."

[hoorayimrich.livejournal.com]

"Now would work," Tony tried. "Seriously, just let me know."

[momslilassassin]

"When we get back, I'll take you up on it," Ben promised. "Here I'm pretty much helpless myself. I'm not exactly a doctor. I get hit a lot, but we have bacta. And I remember to duck."

[hoorayimrich.livejournal.com]

"I thought Ender would have known too," Tony muttered. "Are you okay? And I don't mean if you need that bacta stuff."

[momslilassassin]

"I taught him," Ben snarled. "He meant to get his ass kicked."

So, no. Ben was not okay.

[hoorayimrich.livejournal.com]

"What?"

[momslilassassin]

Ben thumped his head into the wall. "Yeah," he said, sounding a little scared. "No idea what's going on in his head."

[hoorayimrich.livejournal.com]

"Is this--" Tony rubbed the back of his head. "Seriously?"

[momslilassassin]

"Seriously," Ben said softly. "I am so far out of my depth here..."

[hoorayimrich.livejournal.com]

"But he's... alive," Tony replied. "And we can all go from there. Not that Ender will make it easy..."

[momslilassassin]

"Ender never makes it easy," Ben said, "but he's going to stay alive if I have to sit on him and drag him back from the great beyond."

[hoorayimrich.livejournal.com]

Tony snorted at that image. "Well, thank god you're around to be just as stubborn as him."

[momslilassassin]

"On this, I'll out-stubborn him," Ben said, sounding deadly serious. "He squeaked by."

[hoorayimrich.livejournal.com]

"So, what do we do now?" Tony asked, resisting the urge to Google. That wasn't going to help anything.

[momslilassassin]

"I don't know," Ben said, "but I I feel like it's going to involve a lot of hovering and annoying him."

[hoorayimrich.livejournal.com]

"I think we can all manage that." A beat. "Have you told Karla?"

Though, Ben's eardrums still functioned, so it was possibly a no.

[momslilassassin]

"She's the next call," Ben replied. "You'll probably hear her."

[hoorayimrich.livejournal.com]

He was in the lab. But it was Karla...

"Probably," he agreed. "Want me to try talking to her."

A beat.

"Or taking to Warren to talk to her. Warren seems good at talking to her."

Being her boyfriend and all.