A tour of sorts [[Combeferre]]

[adifferentlife]

Sybil was serious about her offer to show Henri about the city should he wish, and the hospital and college in particular. There's a cafe at the college she's suggested they meet at, a place where the tea is finally acceptable after a year of her patronage. It's a beautiful day, there's a crispness in the air that can only herald the onset of autumn. She loves this weather, it's her favourite time of year, and something she's very glad still happens here in Darrow.

She has a table outside, a pot of tea sitting half-empty in front of her. The sun is warm enough that she's slung her cardigan over the back of her chair in a manner she considers rather haphazard even still. Her notes for pharmacology lay in front of her, mostly untouched. It's too nice a day to study and she's rather looking forward to the company she's been promised.

Comments

[jaimemieux]

Combeferre nodded. Aside from the strict (and, Combeferre always thought, nonsensical) divide between physicians and surgeons, no such divisions had existed in his own time. "Even the structure is different than I knew," he observed thoughtfully. "Though with so much more information to learn, I understand the need."

It wasn't the most romantic turn of the conversation. But if Combeferre thought there was something strange about discussing the nature of medicine directly after asking a woman to did, he made no sign. He was too caught up in the moment for that.

[adifferentlife]

"There are many different specialisations. In fact, there are doctors for each of the different types of cancer that they know, and the treatments can vary as well." Not a great deal from what she has seen, it seems to Sybil they are all fairly similar. But then again, that is one area where she feels still an outsider, her focus of study much more general.

She doesn't mind the turn of conversation, pausing them in the hall as a doctor and technician put x-rays into lightboxes. This is exciting in its own way, and it's something that they are sharing, which she enjoys as well. "It looks like a broken fibula," she says softly.

[jaimemieux]

Combeferre nodded eagerly, eyes sharp as he watched the doctors examine the images. He had to resist approaching to speak with them; even in medical school, he had too often interrupted a lecture with questions, or attempted to direct the discussion in a dissection room to something more substantive than anatomy. Perhaps he would have an opportunity, some other time, to learn all these men (and women!) had to teach.

"I must return to school." With a shake of his head and a small laugh, Combeferre realized he had spoken aloud. But he had spoken from the heart, too - for all his misgivings, the tour had solidified in him his wish to return to this world.

[adifferentlife]

His words are a pleasure to hear, clasping her hands and smiling widely at his pronouncement. "I understand. There is something about this place, about what they know and all I could hope to do to help heal people. So much to learn."

The pleasure of learning for its own sake is something she's begun to love here, too, though a spark of it always existed in her.

[jaimemieux]

"Precisely," Combeferre said, his eyes bright with their shared understanding. "And without you, I might not have had the opportunity to see all this. Merci." He offered a playful bow, though he knew how ridiculous such a thing would look in their surroundings. A passing orderly even shot him a baffled look.

Combeferre couldn't say that he cared.

[adifferentlife]

Nor did Sybil, her curtsey a well-practiced movement, though she had little chance to use them these days. “Abientot, but you give me too much credit.”

Sybil nods toward the elevator, thinking their tour very likely nearing a close. “Should you like to see anything else? Or would you perhaps care to walk me home?”

[jaimemieux]

Combeferre might have stayed there all day, had he been allowed, peering into every exam room, asking a thousand questions about every apparatus and piece of technology, wondering about methods, and diagnosis, and work habits of the people who worked here. But now, something else entirely had a pull over him - or someone else, more accurately. "I would be delighted to walk you home," he told her, smiling brightly.

[adifferentlife]

“Good,” Sybil responds with a pleased smile, the thrill in her stomach as earlier making a reappearance. The elevator is quick, as is returning the badge. “Or rather, I’m pleased that you’re pleased, but if I started in on that, we might go on forever without an end.”

[jaimemieux]

"You speak as though you know me well already," Combeferre said with a sly grin. This time, as they exited the hospital, he offered Sybil his arm with significantly less hesitation. "Let me thank you again for the tour. It was very... edifying."

[adifferentlife]

The difference is noticeable and one that she likes. There's a sweetness about Henri that she likes, as well as an enthusiasm for things she understands. "Perhaps I have an inkling."

She slips her hand through his arm easily. "I am glad, and for more than a professional reason, I have to admit."

[jaimemieux]

"As am I." Combeferre smiled playfully. "It is very good to find a friend in this strange new world, I think. If I may call you a friend." His eyes twinkled, half teasing.

[adifferentlife]

"You may, if I might do the same?" It's a pleasant walk to the town, down a slight hill and Sybil is in no rush for it to end. "It will get less strange, with time, and that is strange in itself."

[jaimemieux]

"Indeed." Combeferre sighed. "It... tips the world over, being here. Just a bit. I think I could believe almost anything now." That was a bit of an exaggeration for someone with such a skeptical mind, but it was fairly close to the truth. He had traveled through time, he had seen technology that seemed to dance on the edge between science and magic, he had met a Roman gladiator, and a little girl ghost, and an angel, for God's sake. And all in the course of scarcely two weeks. Here, doubt was something to be applied meagerly.

[adifferentlife]

Sybil only wished it was all a joy. She hesitates for a moment, unsure of how to broach the subject. "It is not all pleasant. This place... It can perform tricks almost. Cruel ones."

[jaimemieux]

"Of course-" Combeferre began to say, but something in Sybil's expression gave him pause. No world was ever perfect, and he had read something of the problems caused by new technologies. But... "Tricks?" He frowned. "Very sorry, I do not know what you mean."

[adifferentlife]

"There are times when it presents us with challenges. Horrors even." She doesn't care to seem melodramatic but still she rolls up her left sleeve to above her elbow, showing where a criss cross of scars is well-healed and just starting to fade. "Sometimes we find ourselves other places, places that defy explanation more than this one. These are from bug-like creatures on one visit. Other times the frightening things come here."

[jaimemieux]

His stomach tightened uncomfortably when Sybil showed the scars along her arm. He touched her forearm gently, but immediately pulled away with an apologetic murmur - even knowing they were there seemed invasive somehow. "Other places?" Combeferre looked at her in confusion, though perhaps that should not have sounded so strange after appearing in Darrow. "Were you brought there by someone. Or- some power?"

[adifferentlife]

"We don't know. The same thing that brings us here?" She doesn't flinch, but once he moved his hand away Sybil rolls her sleeve back. "It seems every few months something strange happens. I have no better explanation."

[jaimemieux]

"That is quite unsettling," Combeferre admitted softly. It was one thing to be dropped here without warning, and quite another to be tossed about like a ship in a storm, thrown in the path of monsters, and mayhem, and worse.

He licked his lips and looked at Sybil. "I am very sorry to hear that you were part of something of that nature."

[adifferentlife]

It is enough, for now, for him to think it the once. She nods, and tries again for a smile though it pales in comparison to those of earlier. "Thank you. I am lucky, still. Things could have been much worse. I have my health, and my life, and it makes me appreciate those so much more."

[jaimemieux]

Combeferre still frowned as he searched Sybil's face, as though he might find there some explanation of the tragedy that lay behind her eyes. It had been easy for him to think of Darrow as a safe place, especially compared to the Paris he had left behind, but now he had to question that assessment. This newfound knowledge was helpful, yes; he only wished he had not received it from such a tragic source.

He gave Sybil's arm in his a gentle squeeze. "Let us not end our afternoon on such a low note, d'accord? Tell me, Miss Crawley, do you enjoy the theater, by chance?"

[adifferentlife]

His effort to lighten the conversation is a welcome one, and her smile grows more genuine. "I do enjoy the theater, though I've barely been here."

[jaimemieux]

Combeferre nodded, pleased. "I have wanted to learn more about it. The theater here is very different, I imagine." But it would be fascinating, he was sure. "We might go, if you wanted. After that dinner."

[adifferentlife]

"That would be lovely," Sybil answers honestly, slowing as they near the corner next to her building. "I think we should do that."

[jaimemieux]

"Good. Good." Combeferre's blush was fainter this time, but still pinked his cheeks. "Is this where I leave you?" Ridiculous as he knew it was, he found himself a bit disappointed by the idea.