CHAPER 3: NEW BEGINNINGS
PART 2. SOB STORIES AND GETTING DRUNK ON A PLANE
Frank is still high. Aurelia still likes beanies. Nurses are asshats. People cry. People get drunk on planes.
Aurelia had lost track of the time when a knock at the door finally forced her to pay attention to reality. It was the same doctor from before. Noticing Frank was once again asleep, the doctor quietly beckoned her outside, and she nodded, getting her crutch and limping out after him before gently shutting the door behind her, trying not to make any loud noises.
He waited for her to shut the door, holding a new clipboard and chart. "Well, we noticed he was having issues eating so we ran some more tests on his shoulder and arm. I figured we should tell you this rather than him directly because he's still partially under IV Sedation. He put you on as his guardian before we put him under general anesthesia for the operation the night this happened."
"Oh." she said, raising an eyebrow in genuine surprise. "What's the deal?" she asked.
The doctor shifted himself slightly, evidently uncomfortable with what he was about to tell her, but he elected to go straight to the point. "Our tests indicate he's lost about 80% of the executive function in his left arm, due to the nerves cut by the gun shot wound."
She sighed, hearing the news. It had been her idea to rush the border - and now someone was going to pay for it. She bit her lip. "Oh." was all she said, electing to let the doctor finish what he was saying.
He was expecting more of a immediate barrage of questions, but after just hearing "Oh" he elected to continue. "The decision you need to make, on his behalf, is whether to keep the arm or not. There's a possibility he can regain some function through more surgery or more likely physical therapy, but it'd be hit and miss. If you keep the arm, he'd have immediate issues with things as simple as changing clothes, probably eating into he can adjust to using his right hand, driving is out of the question, and as I believe he's a lefty, writing." He paused, ensuring she was still following. "Amputation would obviously mean no chance of recovery, how ever small it may of been otherwise, but he'd immediately be better off, it's far easier to adapt to no arm than having one you can't use." He ensured she still was with him, "The main thing that it comes down to is if you'd have someone able to take care of him for at least the time it'd take him to learn to make the best of it - possibly years, or, if it doesn't get better, which I must stress there's no gaurentee it will get better, the rest of his life."
She looked down, letting out a second and more prolonged sigh. "I can't make this decision for him. Not now." she frowned. "I assume it's...alright if he, uhm. If he keeps the arm?" she asked. "At least, until I've talked it over with him. Although I assume we'll be long gone by then." she said, with a third sigh, clearly distraught. "Listen, doc. If you know any good places for him to potentially heal up, like...anywhere in the world, I'd like to know. I'm sure he will too." she trailed off on the last word.
The doctor paused, reminding himself of their situation. "In terms of rehabilitation, East Moreland, Dartfordia, Rokkenjima, Achkaerin all have exceptional programs." He thought more for a second, "I understand you wanting to talk it over with him, but know he's still on a IV so his emotions are going to be hit and miss. You probably already found that out by now." He shifted the clipboards position, nodding at her. "If you need me for anything, let me know." He thanked her before leaving her alone in the hallway.
She stood quietly for a bit, leaning on the crutch and quietly whispering another "Damn it." silently, before heading inside. She'd brought their stuff from the police station earlier, and luckily, they hadn't taken any of the money. She sat back on the chair, leaving her crutch on the floor, and threw a blanket over herself, pondering her options.
After about 15 minutes, a nurse entered sheepishly, moving over to the stand next to Frank's bed and replacing the now-depleted IV bag with a new one. She noticed Aurelia was still awake, going up to her and whispering "I-...uhm...just want you to know..Your story has spread all over the hospital....that was...awfully brave of you two..."
"Thank you." she half-whispered, almost sounding like she'd squeaked, watching her fiddle with the bag, and not saying a word. She'd met Frank and hated him simply for his affiliation with the government; and now she was his guardian. Life was strange oftentimes.
"Oh...no miss..thank you.." She left sheepishly, whispering when she was almost out so as not to wake Frank, "Best of luck to the both of you!". The nurse closed the door quietly, careful not to stirr Frank or patients in other rooms.
Aurelia smiled sleepishly at the Nurse's words after she closed the door, looking down at the recovered burner phone and fiddling with travel locations. They'd decided earlier to avoid Rokkenjima and Achkaerin, so the choice now resided between the rather quaint Dartfordia and the famous East Moreland. Although they'd compromised on Dartfordia earlier, she'd always wanted to go to East Moreland most of all; and their rehabilitation systems were reportedly amazing. She'd talk it over with Frank when he came around properly. No point in getting worked up over it, she presumed. Some decisions are better put off.
The story had taken more interest on Luvonian television, with them even showing images of the hospital where they had been taken to, but with Luvonian border police repeatedly refusing to release names or exact accomodations; it became evident the only way the media would find out their exact whereabouts was if someone in the hospital leaked the information.
Aurelia had learned of the media obsession when she'd retrieved their stuff; she'd narrowly missed a reporter, according to the clerk at the border post. She'd decided that, for both of their sakes, they should stay as anonymous as possible. And while the nurses certainly were interested, none of them had blabbed, yet, which meant they were safe from any paparazzi. For now. Hopefully, leaving Luvonia would alleviate things on that front.
Frank slowly stirred, pushing himself up slightly to see what was going on; he had been sleeping since about five o clock in the afternoon and felt like he could go right back to sleep. He eventually looked over at Aurelia... "Can you get me some water.." He sounded rather parched.
She nodded silently, digging into her bag and taking out the water bottle from the Ardian diner. "This good enough?" she asked sincerely, putting it up to his mouth and frowning. "It's late..."
"Yeah..." He tried grabbing it with his left arm, but it just kinda moved a few inches before falling back down. He tried this a few times before finally grabbing it with his right arm, drinking what was left of it before setting it down on the table next to him. He heard her mention it's late, "Yeah..I know...." He looked down at his left arm, failing to move it much. "God damn meds they have me on..haven't been able to do much of anything....I asked them about it but they didin't get back to me on it..."
"Yeah, uhm." she paused, frowning at watching him struggle. "You still high?" she asked. "I wanna tell you something now, so I don't have to later." she gulped, hoping she wouldn't be causing an awkward situation.
He looked at her, telling the despair in her face at a seconds glance "Go ahead and tell me now..." His right arm moved over to the table, grabbing his prescription glasses and placing them on as least-awkwardly as he could with the use of only one hand.
"Uhm...you're arm's gonna be fucked for a while." she said, barely audible. "Got nerve damage and shit...and...you'll need rehab. The doc asked me if I wanted to cut it off, even. Oh, it's a mess." she frowned. "I'm sorry. It's my fault..."
He looked at her with a blank expression, causing her to be unsure if he was comprehending her. He slowly reclined back into the bed, and the heart montior, which had been beeping so rhymicly they both forgot about it, began beeping faster as his heart rate rose. He looked down at his arm, trying and failing to move it again. Frank slowly reclined further into the hospital bed, closing his eyes as tears began to form. It quickly appeared to him this was the first time she'd seen him cry, but at this point it didin't matter to him; He was crippled.
Almost instinctually, Aurelia got up on her good leg and tried to clumsily hug him over the hospital bed, repeating to him that she was sorry countless times. She was unsure if he was aware that she would blame herself for this, but she was very sure of it; she'd suggested it when there were potentially better solutions, and now she'd never forgive herself.
He sat there, sobbing, when Aurelia moved over to hug him. After about ten seconds of this, his good arm instinctively moved around her back, trying to hug her back as much as he could and pull her closer to his chest. "I mean...at least we've still got ourselves..right...?" He sounded virtually incoherent with the amount of sobbing, still coming to grips with the situation.
Emotionally compromised as she'd been recently, Aurelia had started crying too, hugging him as close as she could. To his barely understandable silver lining, she only responded with a choked "Yeah.", not saying anything else after that, and not going into what it meant.
They both sat there, crying and hugging for a few minutes, when Frank, who had been thinking about her choice of words, blurted "The doctor thought you should...cut it off?..."
"We're not gonna!" she replied as quickly as she could. "You're gonna get better!" she insisted, choosing consciously to deny the very real, and very unfortunate probability of that actually happening.
He sat there for a minute, having cried himself out for the time being, still hugging her. All the things that he wouldn't be able to do came to mind, "I can't drive...I can't eat...I can't type...I can't even change my own clothes..." He trailed off, holding her closer as he realized either way he was loosing his independence. He slowly began sobbing again as he held her, trying at this point to hold it back as it was giving him a massive headache.
"Y-yeah you can! It's just slower!" she insisted, trying to make him feel better, her voice muffled. "I'm sorry. " she said, one last time.
He pulled her closer for a second before letting go of his side of the hug, "Thank....Thank you...for everything." Her reassurements having some effect; whether it was geniune or just him trying to subconciously push it out of his mind, he didin't know.
She lingered a while longer before slumping back into her chair, wiping her eyes. "You're the one that saved me." she noted meekly as she threw the blanket over herself again. "We'll get through this. Together."
He sat there for a second after she finished, before recalling "I believe we're even now, actually." He slyly smirked to her before turning back to the television.
She half-smiled, a bit taken aback by his sudden joke. "Yeah, I guess we are." she chuckled sadly. "Listen..." she frowned. "There's some epic rehab centers in Moreland...dunno if you wanna change our plans now or not."
He nodded, still looking at the TV. "They also have a culture-shock thing going on with their religion, their Cultists or whatever. Dartfordia has good rehab places as well.." He trailed off, before continuing. "I guess what I'm trying to say is don't change our plans because of this. Anything will be better than the medical care I'd get back home, that's for sure."
She sighed. "I don't know..." she said, as she looked over the TV briefly.
He continued to stare at the TV, "I know you wanted me to make the decision, but it's probably going to come back to you." He paused, trying to think of how to word it. "What it comes down to now is I'm stuck with you now, not the other way around."
"We've been stuck with each other for a while." she quipped. "And I don't feel comfortable making decisions for you." she explained depressingly.
"Yeah...we have havn't we...And it looks like a while longer." He thought for a second, "If my arm wasn't a factor, where would you want to go?"
"I don't know." she said, looking at the night sky through the window. "Someplace exciting that doesn't want to kill me, that's a start." she said, her frown barely reflecting in the window.
"Yeah." she frowned. "So was I." she turned back to him, her eyes still slightly red. "You know, the news cares about us now. I really want to leave as soon as possible. I don't want to become a sensation..."
"Yeah well...sooner we figure out where were going the sooner we can leave" He chuckled, thinking. "Either way, it's me, you, and a long boring ass plane ride with as much wine as the airline wants to overcharge us for."
"Oh yeah. I've been wanting to get drunk for a while now." she chuckled. "And I think those airplane wines are tax free, too." she said. "So we get to save even more of this giant chunk of cash."
He laughed, "Yeah, I could get hammered right now too. But this fucking hospital doesn't serve alcohol." He paused, "Soooo...we still need to decide where the fuck we're doing."
"Give me a minute, you know I'm shit at this." she frowned. "Advantages, disadvantages, costs, all that shit. Gotta think about it."
He yawned, taking his glasses back off. "It's a bit late for poor old' me. I'll head back to bed and let you do your math and shit. Let me know what you think in the morning." He smiled at her, reclining back into the bed and eventually dozing back off.
Shortly after Frank went back to sleep, the news cycle was cut into by a breaking announcement; "Nova Ardian officials have confirmed a massive prison break from a facility close to the Luvonian border." The announcer showed the relative GPS imaging of the area. "Officials say it started when a former intelligence agent, Frank Keeve, broke out with a thusfar unidentified prisoner and fled heading east. Mr. Keeve is reported to have killed between one and five officials in his escape, and thusfar unidentified terrorist sources infiltrated the prison following his escape, leading to the remaining prisoners being armed and - allegedly - killing the remaining guards. Nova Ardian state news lists the casualties at 53 guards, 27 prisoners. They are still working to contain the situation. Luvonian Border Police officials refused to comment on if the two individuals who ran the checkpoint in Nasiyiah last night were part of the prison break, but Lieutenant James Brown stressed that they posed no current or future threat to Luvonian citizens."
Aurelia went from a state of near-sleep to a state of utter shock yet again. But after the reel finished; she'd made her decision. She'd purposefully remain clueless to this, and Frank wouldn't have to suffer any more. A short while later, she silently laid her head back in frustration.
She shut the news off and curled up in the blanket, trying and failing to sleep.
By the time the sun had risen in the morning, Aurelia had only gotten a couple hours' worth of sleep; she still hadn't made her decision. She properly got out of the chair with a yawn.
Frank was still slumbering peacefully in the hospital bed, evidently still resting from his injuries. The hospital was as quiet as ever, with morning activity just picking up.
She got up and checked the phone again, immediately putting it away after being hit by a sudden feeling of dread. She limped out and quickly checked the hallway, finding nothing, before sitting outside, briefly, simultaneously bored and mildly depressed. Luckily, she hadn't had a had a nightmare, but she felt like she was living in one these days.
She got up again with a light ache in her leg and limped back into the room, changing out her clothes, careful not to disturb Frank, and re-bandaging her leg. After a while, she turned the TV on again, muting it and continuing to read the headlines briefly, hoping that she could find out about imminent reporters before they arrived.
She turned off the TV before she could read anything. She knew deep down that all she was really doing was wasting time on her decision. They were going to try to get into Dartfordia. It was peaceful. It was quiet, for the most part. It had everything she missed. She blinked, her eyes taking a second longer to refocus than normal, before slowly turning and giving Frank a gentle poke. "Wake up, sleepyhead." she repeated what she'd said earlier. "It's the morning." she said softly.
"Mfmmmmhmmmmm...Yeah i'm up..." He slowly stirred, wiping his eyes with one hand as Aurelia came into focus. His right hand fumbled over to the table, placing his glasses on awkwardly, almost poking his eye out in the process. "...Yeah?" He looked out the window, sighing that he had been woken from his slumber. "Yeah, I guess it is."
"I think we oughta go to Dartfordia...Moreland has a weird chivalry obsession and it's just..." she paused. "I'm still not one hundred percent, but I stopped beating around the bush, and made a decision, y'know?" she explained.
"About fucking time." was all he said, at this point anxious to get out of the hospital. "You should probably get them to get this fucking needle out of my arm while they're at it." He raised his right arm, his good arm, with a IV inserted into it. "Makes it about as useless as the other one."
She nodded. "I don't know if you're clear to leave." she confided. "I'll go ask. Don't try to go anywhere." said Aurelia as she got up and limped towards the door.
He laughed, reclining back into the bed. "Glad to see your leg is getting better at least!" he shouted as she walked out the door. He went back to staring out the window as Aurelia had turned the TV off and left the remote in her chair across the room.
She looked back at him, smirking a bit sincerely, before heading out the door and fetching the nearest medical professional, which happened to be leaning back on a stretcher in the hallway, looking at his phone. "Hey, I'm Aurelia from Room 3A. Uhm. I'm with Frank. I was wondering when we could leave?"
The nurse looked up from his phone , "Urm....Ask the lobby, they'd know..." He trailed off, looking back at his phone, evidently he was on break
She muttered something a bit too rude under her breath and hobbled over to the elevator, waiting in it for what seemed like far too long for a four story building before getting out at the lobby and narrowly avoiding another nurse and patient standing at the door as she limped towards the lobby. "Hey." she greeted the clerk. "We're in 3A. When can we get out?"
Three people were standing next to the clerk, a nurse and a janitor, and they were conversing when she walked up. The clerk looked down at her computer, checking some charts as the nurse and janitor watched. The nurse, a guy in his 20's, spoke up, "Francis...Keeve...Holy shit...you're the crazy fuckers who broke out of the Ardian prison, right? Wicked shit, man." He quickly realized he may of been offensive after he finished, correcting himself, "Erm, I mean, sorry to hear about your ordeal Miss." The clerk kicked the nurse under the desk, before responding formally "Assuming you don't want the amputation, now is fine."
She scratched her head, finding a way not to cringe somehow. She ignored him, nodding. "Alright, thank you." she muttered condescendingly, before signing them out and going upstairs again. According to the office, a nurse would be coming to help them out. Finally limping into their room, Aurelia quickly threw on her beanie and hoodie, before turning to Frank. "We're cleared to leave. You need any help?" she asked, wondering when the nurse would show up.
"Waiting for the nurse to pull this shit-...Oh." Right as he got to 'shit', a nurse walked in, nonchalantly removing the IV and heart monitor from Frank, before leaving without saying a word, seemingly in a rush. "Right." He pushed himself off of the hospital bed, "You got my clothes anywhere in that pile of stuff?" He moved over in the hospital gown to the pile of items, pulling out a polo shirt, jeans, his shoes/socks, and a belt, managing to hold all of it in his right hand. "I'll be out in a second." He moved over to the bathroom, shutting the door behind him.
She nodded, starting to pack the rest of their stuff, and pocketing the burner phone. She supposed now would be a good time to call a taxi or an Uber to get them to the nearest international airport.
She heard a few minutes of grunting and squirming, before finally a loud crashing sound came out of the bathroom with a loud "FUCK!"
She dropped the phone, trying to limp over to the bathroom as fast as she could, pushing the door open with her crutch.
He was sprawled out in the bathtub, trying to push himself up with his one good hand; He had managed to get his jeans on and buttoned, but failed to get the belt on. Trying to put his shirt on with one hand made him loose his balance and tumble over, leaving the shirt covering much of his face and neck. "I can't even...fucking...put a shirt on..." He grunted as he tried to push himself out of the bathtub, eventually getting himself up right by trying to climb up the side
"Dude..." she said, crouching over with a groan to try to help him. "It's probably a technique. Just give it a bit of time." she assured him, pulling the shirt down properly and picking his belt up off the ground.
He, with help, was pulled up to the side of the bathtub and sat on it. "I don't know, I guess." He struggled pulling his limp arm up to make it go through the hole for it in the shirt, failing due to the awkwardness of grabbing his own arm "Give me a hand here, would you?"
She helped his limp arm through his shirt properly, sitting down on the edge of the bathtub next to him and letting her crutch fall to the floor, before pulling down his shirt all the way for him.
He let out a deep sigh as she helped dress him. "I think we might need to get used to mornings like this." He held back the anxiety and depression of this thought, trying to think of the plane ride and plenty of alcohol.
"Chill." she said, trying to console him. "It'll be fine. Hard part's over." she frowned, putting her arm around him. "We're both alive. Somehow. And in my book, that's gotta count for a lot."
"Yeah, I guess you've got a point." He reached for the belt with his right hand, pulling it through the slots on his jeans to the best of his ability, which wasn't very good. He managed to get it most of the way around before failing to buckle it up all the way.
Her arm went from the half-hug to the belt, helping him fasten it lightly. "There's probably a technique to it." she frowned.
"Probably" he said, more in doubt than belief. He tried buttoning the collar to his shirt with one hand, being evident he was unable to after about twenty seconds. "One final thing then..."
"I think the issue here is the shirt, not you." she joked, reaching over and buttoning the first two buttons on his collar. "Now, if you're ready, I say we get the hell out of here."
"Yeah," he said, digging his head into her shoulder. "I'm sorry you have to deal with me like this." He stood up, being careful not to fall over again. "Mightaswise get the hell out of here. Alcohol awaits."
"Let's get drunk on a plane." she agreed, picking up her crutch and heading out. "I called a taxi...I think." she said, going over to the now-cracked burner phone on the ground and picking it up, revealing that the taxi-driver had already arrived and was waiting for them. "Surprised you even get signal in Luvonia." she noted. "We got a guy waiting outside." she said. "Could you get the backpack? I'm not exactly good with weights right now. Just one-strap."
"Yeah.." He grabbed the backpack with his good hand, forcefully slinging it over his back. "Let's go."
They headed down the elevator and into the lobby, garnering quite a number of stares. "Don't mind them." whispered Aurelia as she adjusted her beanie.
The front desk clerk watched them walk by, noticing the attention they were already gathering, and decided it was better to call Aurelia's name as it wasn't published yet. "Miss Octavia!" She had a white bag on her desk, signalling both of them over.
She looked towards the clerk. "What?" she spat at the man, clearly annoyed for having been held up. "I already signed out."
"Medication and bandages." echoed the Clerk, pointing to the bag; inside was a whole coctail of steriods, antibiotics, painkillers, and bandages. "Painkillers every 4 hours, steriods and antibiotics twice a day. Bandage needs re-applied once a day for 7 days." The clerk, seemingly also annoyed by Aurelia's negative attitude, just held the bag up expecting one of them to take it.
"Mmh. Thanks. For everything." she replied, a little coldly, as she grabbed the bag with her free hand and gave Frank a poke before beginning to head out.
"Huh? Oh." Frank snapped back to attention from his daydreaming, walking out the door with Aurelia, mostly due to the medication which was still fresh in his system he didin't notice the looks they where getting.
Giving both directions a look to watch out for potential reporters, she instead spotted their ride, a yellow taxicab, waiting just off of the edge of the entrance, in a designated no-parking zone. "There." she said, pointing as she walked up to the cab.
He nodded, walking up to the taxi with her. He sat down in the seat next to her, placing the backpack in his lap and shutting the door. He murmered "I still fucking hate hospitals.", leaning his head against the window drowsily.
"I agree." she said, reluctantly, as she pulled out a wad of cash from her pocket trying to maneuver around her crutch to hand some to the driver. "Nearest international airport." she told him.
The driver happily took her money; happy to profit off of foreigners who didin't know the true fares. He sent a reliable "Yes ma'am" before pulling out of the hospital, right as a news van pulled up into the parking lot, not noticing their departure; perhaps someone in the hospital had snitched them out after all.
She pointed to the van and gave Frank a nudge. "Look." she said. "Our timing is impeccable." she noted. The ride was due to be relatively long, almost an hour, so she tried as best as she could to stretch her broken leg in the cramped cab.
"You got some kind of sixth sense I guess" he smirked, still resting his head on the cab window. He looked down at her leg, "Didin't the doc say that'd be good enough to walk on in a week or two?"
"Hasn't even been a week." she sighed. "I lost one crutch in the car. I probably shoulda asked for a second one but...I hate hospitals."
"Really? Time is relative I guess." He shrugged, kinda unaware of just how little time had passed. He shifted his position in the cramped cab, trying to make himself more comfortable, and he rather quickly found out that the most comfortable position was laying his head into Aurelia's side, which is what he did. "You ever like...imagine you'd end up here? In another country running off to Dartfordia with a guy you met a week or two ago?" Part of his question was the meds, surely, but he was at least partially serious
"Nope." she admitted. "I never thought they'd catch me either, though. I thought I was too low-level." she said, as the cab started down the road, and she leaned her head against Frank's. "Life is weird, bro."
He sat there for a few minutes, evidently still high as a kite "So like, if we stick together and get married, would our anniversary be the day we met in the prison or the day we 'actually' met when I broke you out, or would it be the day we actually were able to have a real relationship when we decided to run the border into Luvonia?"
She was entirely taken aback by his utter bluntness with it, so she pondered the question for a bit, not saying anything. They undoubtedly had grown to rely on each other, and Aurelia had a strong respect for Frank based on what he'd done to her, regardless of how they felt about each other. But people who were ridiculously high were often honest. Throughout the course of their trip, she'd brushed any thought of what he was suggesting aside. And after today, after all she'd learned and had to deal with...things were slightly different. "It'd be today." she whispered, still a bit unsure if she was making a mistake. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she felt like she'd inadvertently Stockholm syndromed him along the way at some point.
He sat there, leaning against her, almost forgetting he asked the question into he heard her reply. He smirked, slightly, though it wasn't really noticeable, and dug himself deeper into her shoulder, watching the trees and signs go by as they approached the airport. He didin't detect any of her body language or thoughts involved, mostly due to the drugs, and took the answer at face value - provided he actually remembers it.
Five or so quiet minutes later, they pulled in front of the airport, and Aurelia waited for Frank to get out on his side, leaning over to the driver in the meantime. "That extra cash? It's for your mouth being shut about us. Media attention and all, you know?" she explained, as she hoped that she had actually given him enough to warrant a sort of half-assed bribe.
Frank exited the car, unaware of her conversation with the driver, who quickly took the extra cash with a "Yeah, OK, this ride was for a Mister and Misses Anonymous."
"Thanks for understanding." she told the driver, before clambering out, leaning on the crutch and trying not to fuck up her leg as she hopped up on the curb. They both entered the terminal and Aurelia went over to the boarding pass printer before realizing she didn't have one. They'd have to buy them here. "Come on." she told Frank, as they headed to the ticket booth.
"Mhm..." He walked along with her, looking around the lavish airport in a sort of constant daydream. It certainly was far nicer than anything at home.
"Heya." she greeted the woman behind the counter. "Two tickets to Hematite, please. One-way, no luggage but carry-on." she explained.
"Business or Economy?" remarked the woman, "And I need your passports, please." She began dabbing information on the computer.
She nodded, digging out the temporary asylum passports the border guards had given them and setting them down. "Business." she said, turning to Frank and tugging on his arm. "Think we've earned it."
He let out a simple "Yea", kinda staring around nonchalantly. The lady took their passports, taking a few minutes to type up their information. She seemingly didin't catch a connection to the names, and printed out their tickets. "Flight boards in a hour 30 minutes. Have a safe trip."
Aurelia almost had an urge to say 'My pleasure.' from her days as a pharmacist, but caught it at the last second, doing a double take. The lack of sleep would eventually get to her. She nodded. "Thank you." she said, as they headed to the concourse through a surprising lack of security. "Alright," she told Frank. "We're in. Since you're still clearly high, I'm gonna drop you off at the gate and go get some airport food; I won't be long." she said, staying true to her word as they found their gate and she turned around. "Wait here, yeah?"
"Yeah, allright." he said, moving over to a seat and sitting down with their bags, kinda staring off into space.
Aurelia returned a bit later with two rather large burgers and a plastic bag with some drinks, chocolate, and snacks for the plane. She tried to hand one to Frank, digging into her own as they stared at their ticket out of Luvonia, a Dartfordian two-engined passenger jet, just outside their window.
He grabbed his burger with his good hand, biting on to it and taking bites of it, eating it with surprising quickness; evidently he didin't like the hospital food. "Well.." he said, starting to come off the peaked high caused by the morphine withdrawal, albeit only slightly. "Better than anything back home."
"You never went to Roma, then. Some of those local places were amazing." she said, remembering the famous spaghetti place down the road from her apartment. "But this totally tastes like...freedom." she said, likely referring to the commercialized ingredients that Ardian food lacked, leaving it quite a bit...blander.
He poked fun, whispering, "Don't let their food fool you, this place is truly ran by masters over slaves. Nova Ardia is home of the truly freeeeeeeeee!" he tapered off, evidenly poking fun at the usual propaganda, albeit he thought it was funnier than it actually was due to the drugs.
She giggled. "I never bought that crap." she said. "But I will buy their crap." she said, waving her half-eaten burger around before biting another chunk out of it.
He took another bite of his food, finishing off the burger quickly. "Well, at least this shit is edible." He laughed, leaning his head onto her shoulder again as they waited to board.
"Fuck yeah." she said, biting into the remainder of her burger and checking the time. "Thirty minutes left." she said. "They'll start boarding any time now." she told him, waving around their passports and tickets.
"Yeah...and then alllllcooohooollllll" he said like a drummed up frat college boy, making her wonder if she actually should get him any. "So, like, wouldn't passing the exam in Dartfordia make you a doctor or some shit?"
"Yeah, probably. If they consider my degree." she noted, with her mouth full of burger.
"That's cool, like, really cool." he remarked, "Like, how many doctors do you know? That's pretttyyy cool."
"I knew like, four. And I worked for one." she remembered, right as they got the calls for business class boarding. She hobbled up from her seat and managed to get in near the front of the line, mainly because the gate was relatively deserted. She handed their passports to the lady at the counter, still chewing burger.
The lady at the counter nodded, letting them both on. They sat down in business accomodations in their seats, a rather spacious set of two seats next to the window, with TV's embedded in the seat infront of them, which immediately caught Frank's interest even though they wouldn't be powered on into they took off. "Oooh, TV's on planes? That's cool."
"That's a standard, I heard. Even for economy class, sometimes." she told him, pulling out some of the stuff she'd bought. "Alright. We're on the plane. The seatbelt light's on, now. I think that means we're about to leave." she said, giving him a poke and then pointing to the drinks. "As soon as we take off, we're gonna get hammered. Like you said."
"Yes please..." He bucked his seatbelt in as the announcements came on and the plane started moving, going through basic safety protocols and the flight time to Hematite, Dartfordia; 11 hours and 36 minutes. The plane rolled to the runway, getting ready to take off.
They felt themselves get pressed into their seats as the plane took off....Aurelia felt her ears pop, despite her beanie. Eventually, the jet steadied out and the seatbelt light turned off. 11 hours, 24 minutes, now. "You first." she said, gesturing to the drinks. "You need it more than I do."
He reached down with his good hand, grabbing whatever the first alcoholic beverage was that he could find in the bag. "Ask a steward for two cups. We're getting hammered together."
Aurelia had bought some sort of surprisingly marked down Vodka, alongside some wine. "Couldn't find any beer..." she frowned, as she waved over the approaching peanut-giving stewardess. "Hey, we wanna drink, could we have a couple of cups? Thank you." she said. The stewardess raised an eyebrow at them, before dropping down plastic cups alongside the traditional peanuts and graham crackers planes usually served. Aurelia got one of the wines and uncorked the top, pouring it into her cup.
He struggled to open the Vodka, popping it open and pouring it into his cup "At this point, can't complain". He took a sip from the vodka, being slightly repulsed by how strong it was, but going immediately for another sip.
She raised her cup. "For survival, bro." she grinned, before downing the wine much faster than most would advise. This would be the first set of many drinks