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spiltcandycoatedpunkblood · 6 months

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Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Adventures of Tintin (2011) Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Relationships: Milou | Snowy & Tintin, Archibald Haddock & Tintin Characters: Tintin (Tintin), Archibald Haddock, Milou | Snowy, Ivan Ivanovitch Sakharine, only spoken about - Character, Original Male Character(s), Original Female Character(s), Briefly mentioned - Character Additional Tags: Hospitals, Hospitalization, Medical Inaccuracies, possibly...i did this for the drama, Medical Conditions, Chronic Illness, Hypothermia, Major Illness, Beds, Sleep, Sleepiness, Coma, Ambiguous/Open Ending, Protectiveness, Carrying, Unconsciousness, Delirium, Fainting, Nonverbal Communication, Fear, Darkness, Worry, Fear of Death, Near Death Experiences, Near Death, Doctors & Physicians, Attempted Murder, Internal Monologue, Trauma, Affection, Rescue, Revenge, Vandalism, Exhaustion, Father-Son Relationship, Self-Esteem Issues, Guilt, Headaches & Migraines, Fluff and Angst, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Psychological Trauma, Vulnerability, References to Drugs, Medicinal Drug Use, Arguing, Whump, Whumptober, Whumptober 2023, no.26, Sometimes I get so tired I don’t even know myself., seeing double, You look awful., no.31, I thought that I was getting better., Take it easy. Series: Part 14 of Tintin Whumptober 2023, Part 5 of under the pressure, we're drowning together Summary: "He could swear the captain saw him with his eyes open, if only a bit. He wouldn’t be surprised that he kept seeing him around. He clung to him, feeling like if he was dead or dying, he was still feeling his presence, or still desiring his attention enough to keep thinking about him even in the position he was trapped in.

It felt like it had been an eternity drifting around. Was this his fate for the rest of his life? Did Sakharine finally manage to do something that no enemy of his had done before? Had he come back and successfully exacted some form of revenge on the people that had tried to put him behind bars for good? This couldn’t be it. This couldn’t be how he went out, even if he did expect it to a very good degree in his dangerous life.

He could smell plastic, he felt cool air around him and soft linen beneath him and draped over him. It was all too familiar. He couldn’t be dead, could he?"

#whumptober2023 #no.26 #Sometimes I get so tired I don’t even know myself.#seeing double #You look awful.#no.31 #I thought that I was getting better.#Take it easy.#the adventures of tintin #fic #illness tw #death tw #drugs tw #hospitals tw #fanfiction #writing #archive of our own #two left to go!!!#and i've finished one series which i'm so happy with

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aparticularbandit · 11 months

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Take A Sad Song and Make It Better - Chapter Five

Summary: Miles almost hit Duke when he left Andi’s place. He didn’t stay to make sure that Andi actually died. What if, in all of the attempts to get into the house, one of them heard the car still rumbling in the garage? What if Andi didn’t die?

Chapter Rating: T. Fic Rating: T. TW: Hospital scenario.

AO3

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“Babe. I know you wanna be here.”

Lionel overhears Duke’s gruff voice as he starts across the parking lot to the hospital, straightening his shirt and trying to make sure that he doesn’t look like he just ransacked someone’s house. Because he didn’t, technically. He didn’t take anything because he didn’t find anything. Which is maybe the worst of the options.

His hands clench into fists and then relax as he shoves them into his pockets.

“Babe. She doesn’t even know you.”

Duke stands with one arm crossed and the other holding his phone to his ear. He’s right, of course. Andi doesn’t know who Duke’s latest arm candy is. Lionel barely remembers her name – it’s something to do with some sort of alcohol – Bourbon, maybe? – but she’d only been on their trips since Andi stopped joining them, so they’ve never met.

Lionel taps Duke’s shoulder, pulls down his mask, and mouths, Room number? He waits as Duke shifts his phone to his other hand and signs – actually hand signs because Andi had taught all of them a few signs back when Miles decided their annual get-together should involve scuba diving years ago, in the early days – something so quick that Lionel almost misses it. His brow furrows, and this time, Lionel catches it, then gives Duke a nod and a thumbs up.

“Babe, I’d love for you to be here, but I gotta know the scope first—”

Whiskey, Lionel remember as he steps through the doors without a snap of his fingers, Duke’s voice getting cut off with the close of the doors behind him. Her name is Whiskey. Just the sort of thing someone like Duke would want a shot of when he’s sick.

That’s not fair, Lionel can hear Andi say from far, far away. You can’t assume they’re all bimbos, Lionel. Those girls play a smarter game than you think.

Lionel remembers rolling his eyes. The last one – actually named Candy – had less sense than Birdie, and he can only handle one idiot at a time. Not that Birdie’s an idiot. He loves Birdie, he does, but sometimes her lack of the good sense anyone should have makes him queasy. But it meant that he’d spent most of his time avoiding Duke’s literal Candy and not getting to know her.

Andi just raised her eyebrows, gave him that look that said he was being blind and not seeing everything the way she did, and nudged his arm with her elbow. C’mon. Let’s get drunk, and then you won’t care.

And she was right. He hadn’t.

(A few months later, and Lionel was discussing the problems of this Klear bullshit with Andi while she reassured him that she had everything under control. And look how that had turned out.)

Lionel shifts his mask a bit before rapping on Andi’s door with one knuckle. Shave and a haircut—

The answer, much softer, from within – Two bits – Claire probably tapping it out on the wood of her chair before standing and opening the door to him.

It’s a small thing, but anyone in their little group could have done it. Any of them but Miles, who still could have but had never been part of that little joke. It was before his time, when they’d all met up at Andi’s place for a movie, the first time they’d met anywhere other than the Glass Onion as a full group. She had Who Framed Roger Rabbit pulled out, which came out when most of them were in second or third grade, and had been a point of horror for poor Duke, who had been a little younger than the rest of them when he first saw it (which led to him cowering, shaking, hiding against Birdie when the poor shoe got dipped). But by the end of it, they’d all had their characters – Lionel was Eddie, Claire Dolores, Duke Benny the Cab, Andi was Jessica Rabbit, and Birdie was the titular Roger – because that fit each of them so well.

At the time, anyway.

(Miles hated it because he’d never had a character. If the suspicions Lionel has are right – the ones he keeps trying to ignore – than Miles did – and does – have a character. Judge Doom.)

Claire opens the door, and Lionel, pulling on the old memory, gives her a wry little smile. “Hey, Dolores.” He nods to Andi. “How’s our dear Jessica doing?”

At his words, Andi’s brow furrows. She makes a small sound of discontent, and then her brow smooths back out, as though nothing had changed at all.

Claire turns back at the sound, stares at her, and then lets out a little breath before slipping out and shutting the door behind her. “They won’t let more than one of us sit with her at a time,” she says, her voice slightly muffled by her mask. “Covid restrictions. You know.”

“I know.” Lionel nods twice, his gaze only leaving Andi once the door shuts and blocks her from his view. His fingers clench reflexively, and his head lowers. “It wasn’t there, Claire.” He lowers his voice even more than his head, so soft that it’s barely above a whisper. He isn’t sure how Claire can hear him through the mask, but she’s always had impressive hearing. “The envelope,” he says, specifying, before repeating, “it wasn’t there.”

Claire doesn’t respond, and for a moment, Lionel can pretend that she didn’t hear him at all. Then he glances up and sees how ashen her face is, how wide her eyes are, and that faint way she shudders as though she is trying not to do so. “Claire.” He wraps his arms around her by instinct alone and pulls her against him. “It’s going to be okay,” he lies, because there’s no way he can know how all of this is going to turn out. But it’s a comfort, it’s an attempt at comfort, and she bows to it, leans her head against his shoulder, and lets herself quiver with the anxiety attack he knew would come. He runs a hand through her dark, thick hair. “It’s going to be okay.”

“You don’t have to lie to me, Lionel,” Claire whispers, the words muddied by her mask. She shivers against him. “You don’t have to say it will be okay when we both have nothing to tell us it will.”

Lionel nods and just holds her tighter against him.

Which, honestly, should be enough. They should be able to have this moment. Duke’s outside, still on the phone. He’s here. Andi’s still in her bed, not quite awake. That should be it.

Except.

“Oh, honestly, do you two have to do that here, too?”

Lionel doesn’t even raise his head. “Birdie,” he groans, “how did I get here before you?”

“We stopped at a Burger King for a salad.” Birdie steps closer, heels of her shoes sharp on the hospital tile. “Got you a burger, too. And one of those slushies Claire likes so much.” Her head tilts behind her as Lionel finally looks up. “Left the chocolate milkshake Whopper combo with Duke. He really needed that.” Her brow furrows as she holds another milkshake aloft. “Milkshake for Andi, too. She’s awake now, yeah?”

Claire slips out of Lionel’s arms and wraps her own around herself as she looks up at Birdie. “There’s…a lot you don’t know, Bird.” She brushes her hair back behind one ear, and for a moment, it looks like she’s regained some of her color. “Lionel, you should go see her,” she says before passing him to Birdie, “while I catch her up.”

She meets his eyes briefly, and he hears what she doesn’t say.

Don’t say anything about the envelope.

Just as silently, he agrees.

“So,” Claire says, gently guiding Birdie away from Andi’s room, “where’s Peg?”

Birdie shrugs. “She said something about wanting to wait in the car, but I think she just wanted to see Duke eat his combo all at once.” She grimaces and props one hand on her hip. “You know, he told me he couldn’t have milkshakes anymore! But I see him drink shakes all the time on his little YouTube show.”

“Those are protein shakes, Bird.”

“There’s protein in milkshakes, too!” Birdie’s eyes widen.

Claire gives her a look. Stares at her. Examines her. Birdie isn’t a great actress, but she was a model. Even if she wasn’t a bodybuilder, she should know that someone like Duke, who is focused on maintaining a muscular physique, wouldn’t want a milkshake or anything else that could potentially ruin that. “Birdie, don’t you lie to me.”

All at once, Birdie giggles, her nose scrunching up in that way she does when she’s the most excited, that way that Claire finds adorable, that way that has made it hard for her to ever think less of Birdie, despite everything else. “You’re right,” she says, giving Claire a little shove. “But he’s still out there – how does he call it? – scarfing it down!”

Well, sure, Claire thinks but doesn’t say. Give Duke a Whopper, and he’s all over it. Especially when he’s having a rough day. And today? It’s been a rough day for all of them. Even Birdie, who wouldn’t so much as look at a Burger King on her worst days, unless she needed something to make her feel better – even if it is just a salad. Just like Birdie to pull her feelings on what she doesn’t know to use by buying comfort food for everyone else. She reaches out, takes her cherry slushie (extra-large, because when it comes to comfort food, calories don’t count), and leads Birdie back outside so they can talk clearly without masks.

As Claire takes her mask half-off, letting it hang from her ear, she gives Birdie a little nod. “Surprised to see you in one of those,” she says before taking the first drink of her slushie and immediately relaxing.

“Peg had an extra one in the car.”

Something tells Claire that Peg has a lot of extra masks in the car because Birdie probably forgets them everywhere they go and throws them away without even thinking about washing them (and is probably especially picky about which ones she wears in the first place).

“So what’s going on with Andi?” Birdie asks, leaning in conspiratorially, holding half of her mask away from her ruby red lips. “You said she wasn’t awake? She’s still not awake? I thought we were just going to check on her, and then there’s all this don’t tell Miles and don’t come here, and it’s all very confusing.” Her brows furrow. “I know my birthday’s coming up, but dragging me all the way out to a hospital for a surprise party is not what I’d call a good time—”

“It’s not, Birdie. It’s not,” Claire interrupts, cutting off the rambling that she knows from experience is just as much Birdie’s way of covering her own uncertainty as it is her attempt to stem her fear. “When we got there – to Andi’s house – the new one – all of the lights were out, and the doors were all locked, but we….” She swallows, tastes the cherry on her own lips, and forces herself to keep going, “We heard a car going in the garage.”

Birdie’s brows furrow even deeper, and her gaze drops as she tries to puzzle through things. “That doesn’t make any sense,” she says, tapping a finger on her cheek. “You don’t leave a car running in the garage.” Her eyes widen, and she meets Claire’s eyes with her own green ones. “She didn’t back into the door, did she?”

Claire shakes her head. “No, she was….” She swallows again, harder this time, around a rising lump in her throat. “We think she wanted to die.”

Or someone wanted to kill her, she thinks but refuses to believe and absolutely refuses to say to Birdie.

Birdie stares at Claire. Just stares at her. “Andi?” she says in a voice like an echo. “Wanted to die?” She giggles, lips pulled back into her normal smile. “Why would she ever do that? You’ve got the wrong girl!” She reaches over, slaps Claire’s arm, still all smiles. "No, really, Claire. What’s going on?”

Claire stares at her. She can’t think of any other way to explain it. So she takes a deep breath in, pushes her hand through her hair, and lets out a heartfelt sigh. “I don’t know,” she says, and her shoulders start to shake again – this time not from panic, but from the weight of everything that has happened in the past twenty-four hours. “I don’t know, I don’t—”

When she looks up, Birdie’s smile falters. It’s a quick flinch of a thing, a stutter, quicker than the flash on the paparazzi cameras that tend to follow both of them on the odd occasion, even quicker than the ones that surrounded their entire crew during Andi’s trial against Miles. Unlike that moment, it doesn’t slip, doesn’t fall, regains its standing – that grin that is so naturally Birdie at her best. “Right. So we just have to convince her to not die!”

Claire chuckles, wipes away the tears that were gathering under her eye, and nearly smiles. “Sure, Bird. Convince her not to die. We are just the people to do that.”

“Doesn’t look like there’s anyone else!” Birdie grabs Claire’s hand and gives it a squeeze. “We just have to be there when she wakes up!” She tugs Claire back down the hallway then stops and turns back to her, brow furrowing. “…so why do we need to wake her up, again?”

#bandit fic #make it better with the glass onion fam #glass onion #claire debella #lionel toussaint #birdie jay #tw hospital #hospital tw #tw hospitals #hospitals tw #duke cody

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