The door jarred Erin awake and she sat up slowly, blinking her eyes at the bright white room. She always hated hospitals, they reeked of death and change and other scary things that she hated thinking about. Ivy had left awhile ago, but it was a long walk from the Market District, so she didn't anticipate her too soon. Most coaches in the city were helping the injured, anyway, something Erin wouldn't begrudge them.
Blinking her eyes a few more times, she smiled lazily at Jake as he entered the room. Ivy had left him at the door. She had things to attend to, yes, and she knew that Erin and Jake needed some time. Erin smiled when she saw him, he looked good. Rested. Uninjured. And though he carried a heavy expression, it was a joy to see him.
"Jake..." Her voice was still scratchy, but it was there. With a wince, she pulled herself up more, the leg hanging in the sling in front of her swaying a little. Her face and arms were a bit scratched up, but other than that, she didn't look too bad. Just pale, tired and small. Very small. The bed was for an adult, and Erin? She was the size of a child. "You're here."
"Hey, dolly." Jakes voice was soft, caring. Erin recognized it from the last time she sat in a hospital, and it made her wince a little. It was the voice of guilt and concern. Uncertainty of what to do. "You okay?"
"Yeah, come here." She pushed herself over a little to make room on her bed for him. "I'm fine. I wanted to see you." Her smile was wide and easy as she waited for him to come in the room. Carefully Jake removed his hat and set it on the chair by the door. He left his coat there, too, and his boots clicked softly on the tile floor.
"I'm so sorry, dolly... I slept through our lunch date and I reckon that I had been there, maybe--"
"Oh, Jake..." Erin just shook her head a bit to stop him from speaking anymore. "It happens, and had you been there, you could have-- but, really, there was nothing anyone could have done, and you're here now, and that's all that matters." Her arms were held out, the wrist wrapped in nothing but an ace bandage. She wanted to put her arms around him and feel he was real. Softly he perched on the side of her bed and let her try to hug him. He leaned in a bit, reaching with a hand to brush some matted hair from her forehead. Jake's fingers lingered there, just at her temple, in a kind of caress.
"I'm so glad you're okay." He muttered it softly, just over a whisper, before he leaned in to hug her as gently as possible. His face was pressed into her hair, and though it had the faint scent of gunpowder and smoke, it also held the smell of her shampoo, and he breathed it in deep. "I thought for a moment, if you hadn't been, and I had slept through it.." he leaned back to look at her again, his eyes looking perhaps a little glassy.
"Shh, shh. I'm okay. We're okay... Jake." she paused after she said his name. "Jacob..." A touch of a smile at his real name. "I had a dream.. when i was down there, in the rubble... You mean a lot to me, you know that, right? That... I mean it, it's not--" Jake cut Erin off with a kiss. It wasn't anything passionate or needy, just a careful, sweet caring thing. It was as intimate as a moment between two people could get while they were still clothed.
"I know, dolly." There was a pause, then, and it even looked like her face may have fallen a touch. "You mean a lot to me, too." Though his jaw clenched a bit, and Erin could tell he was angry. Like when she showed him the mark she carried from her time with Anubis, he was trying to control his temper. "I'll come stay with you while you're healing. Or you stay with me."
"Come with me to Tabula Rassa? I don't want to abandon Charlie, but she can't take care of me on her own..." Erin smiled a little, pressing her forehead to his. "Stay here tonight? I can't close my eyes without seeing..."
"I'll be here." Again he ran his fingers over her forehead. "Long as you want me to, dolly." Erin smiled again, the pain in her eyes easing a little.
"Hold me awhile? Carefully... but... I just need another person there." Her eyes were pleading, and again, she looked like a small child in the large bed.
"Of course." Erin moved over the best she could, and Jake, after removing his boots, eased himself onto the bed and gently wrapped his arms around her. With his face pressed into her neck,and her lips on his temple, they slept that way for at least part of the night.