Starring:
Summary:
Gunn, Cordelia and Fred come back to the hotel after their fight with the worm and give Wesley a briefing.
Date It Happened: November 29th, 2001
The Nitty Gritty
Hyperion Hotel - Lobby
This is crazy. Or was crazy. Not that Gunn has never been wounded before, but this one hurts a little bit more. Luckily, Cordelia managed to keep the demonic gook from getting in the wound, because that would probably be bad. The door to the Hyperion Hotel opens up and in comes Charles, very likely being helped along by Wesley's Angels: Cordelia and Fred. Something, it looks like some kind of shirt or something, is being held against the wound in his side, complete with the pressure and such to try and stop the bleeding. He may or may not be rolling his eyes, depending on if there is a female fuss being made. No, he's rolling his eyes anyway. Fighting giant worms is annoying.
Cordelia is doing her best to play battlefield nurse. Hey, she's usually the one who patches Angel up. Yet more benefits of a misspent youth. As they come inside, she indicates one of the chairs. "Sit down, and we'll see how bad it is."
After getting most of the nervousness out, and she's still pretty skittish about the whole incident, Fred has actually stepped up to the plate. On the other side of Gunn, she tries to help support him as well as keep out of the way of all wounds and the like. It's harder than it sounds. "It's not bad, is it? Not really bad? It's not like he's gonna have to keep his insides in a bag that he'll have to carry around because we'll never be able to patch his wounds up again, is it?" She's worried, if that wasn't obvious.
"What's not bad.. Good Lord!" That would be Wesley emerging from his office, where he looks as if he's been hitting the books, researching something or other. The state of the trio is quickly analyzed as he ducks for the very well stocked first aid kit that's kept ever so handy. "What in the devil happened tonight?"
"Tremors." is all that Gunn says to Wesley, as he follows orders and moves off towards the nearest soft cushion to slump down against. He only winces a little bit, because he's far too manly to be showing too much pain. He immediately removes the bloody cloth and drops it to the floor, before rolling up the bottom of his shirt to show off the clean gash in his side. Not bad, at all. "/Nice/." Oh Sarcasm.
Cordelia steps out of her poor gooked-up heels, and then looks over to Fred. "Bring us a tub and some water? We need to rinse this crud off," she asks the other brunette before answering Wesley. "Giant worm. Messy. We need to patch Gunn up a little."
"Right. I can do that." At least Fred's been given something to do other than just worry and wring her hands. Trotting quickly off to go find a bucket and some water and a rag so that they can start cleaning Gunn off, she lets the people who know what they're talking about explain it to the bossman.
Wesley stares in fascination at the wound when he gets a glimpse of it. "Not bad, it could be much worse. At least it appears to be a clean cut." Always look on the bright side, right? The first aid kit is passed over to Cordelia, since it's just assumed she's playing nurse. "What's that on your shirt Gunn, aside from the blood? Do you mind?" And without waiting for permission, he's snipping off a section containing worm goo and spatter. "A giant worm you say? Interesting. Of all the denizens beneath Los Angeles, I haven't heard much talk of a giant worm. Other than the obvious worm-like qualities, what did it look like?"
Gunn blinks a little bit at Wesley, before shaking his head. "My bad. I ain't have time to get a picture while I was tryin' to save people." Brotherly sarcasm, as he now notes that he's going to have to get a new shirt now. This is not good. This was a cool shirt. He looks good in red. "Think you can figure out where it came from? For some reason, I'm doubtin' that was the only one."
Cordy looks back to Wes. "Sorry, aside from "giant worm with teeth", everything was kind of lost in the whole trying not to be worm-bait kind of thing." Okay, so she's a little snippy. YOU try having a $300.00 pair of heels wrecked and see how good your mood is. "This might hurt a little…" she warns, as she applies peroxide to the cut.
The only one who isn't really snippy or bent out of shape about Wesley asking would be Fred. But that may be because she didn't even hear the question. It doesn't take her very long to find a small tub to fill with water and a wash cloth to clean everything off with. If Wesley asks nicely, they could probably save some of that for him, too. Not worrying about her own goo covered clothing, she sets the water down gently and holds out the cloth to Cordelia. "Here. I hope that's enough?"
"Of course, it will take a little research, based on what the three of you can tell me about this worm." Wesley says, sounding mildly distracted as he studies the goop on the fabric swatch. Even going so far as to sniff at it. "That's rather ripe," he comments. "Since there's been no talk of a worm demon in the area, obviously it's here for a purpose. "I will factor in region, temperature, soil makeup of this area to narrow down the number of possible worm demons this could be. Although giant worm with teeth could be helpful. Do any of you possibly recall what color it was?" The testiness about his questions are overlooked. They have to be asked!
"Girl, what you talkin' 'bout. I been stabbed, scratched, bitten and broken. I think I can handle a littl— oh lord! Damn! What is that?!" Gunn's too busy reacting to Cordelia the Peroxide Bandit to actually be of any more help to Wesley. Must go into a fit of wincing at the stinging and blistering pain that comes with the cleansing of his wound. Ow.
Cordelia's reply to Wesley is to give him a Look(TM). You know, one of those "Would you please get real" expressions that Cordy does so well. She looks back to Gunn. "Hydrogen peroxide. Quit being such a girl and sit still." Don't feel bad; she does the same thing to Angel. She grabs a gauze pad and tape, and starts to apply to the now-cleaned area.
"Oh, uh, I think it was that regular worm color. You know, brownish-grey?" Fred decides to answer Wesley's questions because Gunn is busy bleeding and Cordelia is busy trying to patch him up. "There're more of 'em down there?" she gives a look between Wesley, Gunn and Cordelia. Not because she doesn't believe it, but because she doesn't want to walk out again and suddenly worry about being chased by huge worm demons.
The state of Gunn being tortured by a little peroxide goes mostly unnoticed, well, Wesley pays attention long enough to helpfully state, "Don't be such a baby, it could be iodine." Which reminds him. Replace the peroxide in the first aid kit with iodine. Fun ensues, but that's a thought for later. "Thank you so much for the assistance in providing further description of the worm," he says in the driest tone he can manage. "And thank you, Fred," he says with a faint smile for the woman when she gives him something to go on. "That I'm not terribly sure about. Where were the three of you when this worm attacked?" The scrap of shirt is bagged before it's set down and a notepad with pencil are picked up.
"Hollywood." answers Gunn, in the midst of trying to calm down from the stinging pain of evil Cordelia and her nursing ways. He watches as she gets him all bandaged up and proceeds to fix her with a polite, "Thanks." Before looking over in Fred's direction, since she seems to have more knowledge of the worm than anyone else. How she managed to pay attention and run for her life at the same time? Hell if Gunn knows. "Where the demon/human ratio is like seventy to one."
With the wound immediately bandaged up, Cordy looks back to the crew. "Okay. I am stealing one of the rooms here and SHOWERING." Cause..demon snot! In her hair. ICK! That said, she moves to put action to word, and starts up the stairs.
Other than lots and lots of teeth and what color it was, that's all Fred knows about it. There weren't big wormy demons in Pylea and, hopefully, there aren't any more here. When Gunn looks over her in her direction, she just gives a self-conscious shrug and ducks her head down to grab the water and wash cloth to put it away. "You're welcome," she says quietly to Wesley. "We were just comin' back from the Victoria's Secret."
Wesley opens his mouth to say something to Cordelia, but only shuts it and lets her dash off to shower. Never get in her way when she wants to clean up. Ever. Moving on then. He settles himself down into a chair and starts taking down notes. "Gunn, that slash? Was it from one of the worm's teeth?" When Fred speaks, there's an audible snap as the lead of his pencil breaks on the pad he's writing on. ".. I see.." A slight /look/ is turned towards Gunn for a brief moment before Wes's attention drifts back to Fred.
Gunn is pushing himself up from the seat, not really wanting to be sitting down after such an ordeal. He's wired and probably should get some hunting on. "Nah, this is from a broken table." He pauses, realizing just how unmanly that makes him sound. "It was a really big table. Huge even." Waving his hand around, he doesn't even notice the look from Wesley. Instead, he's looking at Fred again and smiling. "Maybe next time we'll just order online, huh?"
"It certainly was a mean ole table," is what Fred says when she returns after cleaning up. Because Gunn needs to keep his manly image. Or at last have something to talk about for later. She's not sure what exactly else she can say about the worm other than it exploded and they were covered in goo, so she'll let the others talk until she gives Gunn a small smile. "I guess so. Though they don't have those handy measuring tape things online like they did at the Victoria's Secret. Turned everything into some sort of equation. I liked that."
"Truly a fierce sounding table at that. I hope you hit it back." Aaah. Sarcasm. Wesley gets up to sharpen the pencil again, and trying to put his mind back on the giant worm demon and not mental images of women (Fred in particular) shopping at Victoria's Secret. Loudly, he clears his throat, "So. Back to the worm. What else can you tell me? The more information I have the easier it is to narrow it down." Although, truth be told, he doesn't mind a challenge and hitting the books.
Gunn's feet are just drawing him closer to Fred, since her particular choice of conversation is more fun. Not that he doesn't want to find out about this whole Worm thing, but Victoria's Secret is just a much more relaxing conversation. "Next time? We steal one. Couldn't hurt to have on one the premises." And yes, more smiling from Gunn before he's drawn back to Wesley's boring conversationalism. "Uh. That's pretty much it. It didn't live long enough to give us its name and address." Snark.
Not thinking about these boys being, well, boys, Fred doesn't mind talking about Victoria's Secret. After all, Gunn just came back from helping her and Cordy shop there. Which is how they got into this predicament in the first place. "Um, it came up out of the ground and ate someone." That's all the information that she's got for Wesley that's more than 'it has teeth and it's grey'. But, it will have to do. "You can't steal from Victoria's Secret. Other people may need it. I'm sure that's something we could just make a regular tape measure do." Why are they talking about bra sizes?
"Tragic." Wesley has a talent of expressing the driest sense of sarcasm in a single word, and he taps into that quite fully right now. ".. I have research to do," he announces unnecessarily as he retreats into his office. Stuffy, intelligent, a gentleman, even he has his limits about less than proper office conversation. Inside his office, there is the more noticeable than necessary sound of him pulling books out and setting them on his desk.
Gunn blinks a bit, looking off after Wesley as he heads into his office. The sounds of obvious Huff come from such and he just shrugs it off. "Fred. You are somethin' else." Gunn checks the clock on the wall and frowns a little bit. "Hey. I gotta' get back home. Make sure my peoples are okay and intact." He takes a reluctant step towards the door. It's almost like he doesn't want to leave. "You gonna' be aight here with Reading Rainbore?" Gunn Pun!
"Did I say something?" Fred asks Gunn softly as she watches Wesley sulk off into his office. She's not sure if she said something wrong or if he's really just that intent on researching their exploding worm. She can't tell. Being told she's something else makes her smile at Gunn and shrug her shoulders again. "Thanks. Hopefully that something else is good…like tacos and pancakes and something and not the bad something else like big old maneating worm things." Then she nods her head. "Right. Well, tell 'em I hope they're okay, too." Because they helped save her and Cordelia. "Oh, I'll be fine. Wesley's really dedicated, isn't he?"
Gunn's steps are slow and reluctantly dedicated, if that's even possible. The door leading out into the streets of Los Angeles are very close. Too close. "Yes, Fred. A good somethin' else. Definitely." Realizing that these words could be misconstrued, he leaps at the subject change and tosses a glance at the office door. "Yeah, he is. That's why he's the Boss." Lingering. A little.
Since Gunn's lingering, Fred gives a look around at the lobby of the Hyperion and notices that the bags from Victoria's Secret are still down here. "That's good then. I like tacos and pancakes." She really really does. Moving forward, she scoops up the bags and smiles. "I should probably get this up to Cordelia. She was worried about them and all." Not more than everyone else, but she's seen how the woman worships clothes. "Be careful gettin' home."
Gunn holds his goo-stained hands out to his side and backs up, right towards the steps. "Hey, I just killed a giant worm with hairspray and a lighter. I think gettin' home should be a piece of cake." Except for the slight tripping over the steps as he stumbles towards the door. "I'll see you in the mornin'. Night." And he's swirling around on his heels to get his exit on. Mmm.
