[h1][b][i][color=MediumSpringGreen][center]James Kingston[/center][/color][/i][/b][/h1]
[center][img]https://i.postimg.cc/MKVmbk8X/image.png[/img][/center]
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[center][color=MediumSpringGreen][b]Location[/b][/color]: Medical -> Dining Room
[color=MediumSpringGreen][b]Skills[/b][/color]: N/A[/center]
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James patted Luna’s arm while she spoke. If he’d watched her die, maybe he’d feel less like hovering but the fact of the matter is he didn’t just watch. He experienced right alongside her. He felt the chill from blood loss, he felt his limbs get heavy and sluggish, he felt his heart racing against the inevitable, beating hard enough to burst out of his chest, before the pauses between beats grew longer and longer and longer. He felt the panic, his lungs screaming because she couldn’t catch her breath, and that bitter cold that seemed to drag him down with her. He doesn’t know how much she remembers and he hopes for her sake something, the blood loss or her own telepathy, blocked it out. At least some of it. Because he remembered all of it. It haunted him, sometimes in the quiet of his work or at night when he closed his eyes. It clawed him out of bed at two am, tongue bleeding where he bit it hard to keep from screaming, and he stumbled out of his room and just paced downstairs for hours until he felt like he was safe in his own skin again. Safe and alive. 

[color=mediumspringgreen]“You just got dealt a shitty hand. You’d do the same if I was in your place.”[/color] James said sympathetically. He’d panicked after the first time she’d jumped in but he was… comfortable wasn’t the word but he was used to it on some level. He’d never be comfortable but he couldn’t fault her for something out of her control. He finished cleaning her up, making sure to leave a clean towel under her head and a trash can next to her bed so she could vomit if she needed to. [color=mediumspringgreen]“I’ll get you some water and something easy to eat as long as you stay here and don’t go wandering off. Some food would make you feel better even if you can’t eat all of it.”[/color] James explained as he washed his hands, drying them off and giving her a critical look over. She looked so frail and weak like this. He didn’t like it and the worry wormed its way up his throat and settled there like bile. Something said he wasn’t going to be sleeping much tonight. 

He left the infirmary and headed downstairs to grab some food. He could smell coffee and quietly thanked the heaven’s for Echo’s continued presence. As much as instant coffee satisfied his caffeine needs, real coffee did it so much better. Tunnel vision set in as he made his way into the dining room and the first thing he zoned in on was the french press. Talking was an unnecessary function when he existed, in that moment, only to drink the stuff he was pouring into his mug, sharp and bitter and perfect. He sighed happily after his first sip and then got to grabbing a few waffles on a plate, some water for Luna, and pocketed a banana. [color=mediumspringgreen] “Hey thanks Harry and team for breakfast. It’s awesome.”[/color] James wasn’t certain he’d ever learn all the duplicates’ names but thankfully they tended to group up so he could just address them as a whole. They all looked exactly the same so how the hell were they supposed to do anything else? He swung by Casper, giving his breakfast monstrosity a doubtful look but wisely kept his mouth shut, and pressed a quick kiss to his cheek before turning to Sapphire. [color=mediumspringgreen] “Hey, I’m gonna finish settling Luna in and then I’m going to catch up on some stuff I didn’t do yesterday. We aren’t quite out of pipe freezing range and gotta make sure everything’s still running at one hundred percent. Probably going to do some cleaning up too so once Luna’s recovered, we can finish patching up a few places in the walls. If you need me, just shout.”[/color] He told her, keeping her up to date with his plans and raised his coffee cup to the room in a vague goodbye and headed back up to the infirmary. 

If he stayed busy, if he stayed moving and focused, he wouldn’t have to think that the little reconstruction team was mostly incapacitated. Cayden had been helping Luna and James, throwing himself into an unfamiliar (and usually painful because this place had been in bad shape) skill set just because they needed it. Keeping the work rolling meant he didn’t have to think about the empty bed that’d stick around after Cayden, he wouldn’t have to think about star gazing without his friend’s stories, he wouldn’t have to think about how his other best friend was dying of something he couldn’t fix. Someone had already died of m-pox and he couldn’t stop it. If this kept going, James wasn’t sure he could bring himself to suffer it again.