Under the surface (Brody)
Jul 31, 2014 19:41:04 GMT -5
Post by Artemis on Jul 31, 2014 19:41:04 GMT -5
The male nurse who had originally tended to Dunham continued to drop by every few minutes, running superfluous checks on the ventilator and making sure his patient was alright; by the time he'd been by three times, Brody gently waved him off when he glared at Dunham's groggy remark.
"I'll call if he needs anything."
The nurse shrugged and left, probably grateful to be released to go do... whatever it was nurses did when they weren't tending to patients. Brody continued working on his boots (they were scuffed to holy hell, he hadn't had the time to tend to them since he arrived), and in a matter of minutes Dunham was breathing slow and deep; he was asleep. The nurse didn't come back at his regular interval, which meant Brody had a chance to slip away for a moment. His own stomach was starting to growl and remind him that he'd missed breakfast as well, and it was coming up on lunch.
Satisfied that Dunham wasn't going to wake anytime soon, Brody slipped out of the room, fetching the now-dry uniforms from the drier and walking past the unattended receptionist desk in the lobby. Thankfully the instructors' barracks were closer to the clinic than the swim hall, so he went relatively unnoticed on his way up to his room. As much as he wanted a shower, Brody didn't figure he had enough time; instead he settled for hanging up his damp swim gear in the shower and tossing his heavily chlorinated uniform in the basket. There were few things Brody enjoyed more than putting on a clean, dry set of clothes after a particularly grueling exercise; his uniform felt like a second skin. He was powerful when he wore it; he was Corporal O'Rourke of the Peacekeeper Corps, he had authority, and he commanded respect.
Something Dunham seemed to keep forgetting.
He checked his watch as he finished dressing; only a few minutes til the galley was open. Brody trotted down the stairs, nonchalantly skipping the line of recruits outside the doors. The woman who unlocked the doors at chow time had been there since Brody had gone through, so she was pleasantly surprised when this tall, handsome Peacekeeper called her by name and asked in his most persuasive voice for a little favor.
Many of the civilians the Academy employed were older in age, and many of them had children or grandchildren the same age as many of the recruits (some of them, as old as the staff); so when Brody played the pity card, telling them about his recruit, miserable and stuck in medical, it was easy to pick out the grandparents. The galley made take-out boxes available for recruits confined to their quarters, and by the time Brody left with one in each hand he was carrying enough for four people. The nurse had mentioned that Dunham's core temperature needed to come up after being in the water for so long, and the boxes were piping hot through the cheap plastic.
Dunham was still out cold when Brody returned; he set one box aside for when he woke up, covering it with the now-dry uniform his recruit had been wearing in the pool. Nearly drowning had taken more out of him than Brody expected; by the time Dunham came around again, Brody had already finished and was sipping coffee as he polished his boots to a high gloss. By now, his reflection was clearly visible from any point on the leather. (Why recruits thought it was some exact science, he didn't know; all it took was cotton balls and warm water.)
"I could shave with the reflection in these boots." He said very matter-of-factly, putting down the piece of cotton in his hand to uncover Dunham's lunch box; it was still warm, having been covered by the blouse. "Here. The galley seems to think you're starving to death when I mentioned we'd missed breakfast."
For a moment, he didn't look up, putting the last bit of elbow grease into the tip of the toe that would signify the job being done. Once he heard the squeak to tell him that the polish had formed a solid, smooth surface, he put the cotton down and slid the boot back onto his foot. He looked seriously at Dunham, who seemed to be more alert now.
"Lets get something straight, Dunham." He said, "We can be cordial, and we can talk. But I do not tolerate disrespect; I guarantee copping that attitude after graduation will get your head summarily bitten off and latrine duty for a month."
Brody regarded him silently and sternly for a moment.
"We clear?"
