Better Late Than Never

[morethanmyth]

The yetis and elves had been extremely welcoming when they arrived back at the Pole. As soon as they shook themselves out of their shock at how battered they'd looked, they'd immediately brought out the blankets, spare clothes, first aid kits, food and drinks. Cocoa was pressed into people's hands whether they wanted it or not.

"Blughbloghughblug?"

"Out of nowhere. In broad daylight, no less," Katherine said to one of the yetis, holding her half-finished cup of hot cocoa in her hands. "It goes without saying that this is very, very bad."

"Ooghughaugh. Blughooghablorgblurgh?"

"Oh, well, that may be because they're still tethered to their worlds to a degree." She looked to the others. "He said someone named Wonder Woman, a Mr. Stark, and some undead fellow that had stayed behind at the Pole disappeared while you were meeting with me. I suppose that supports my hypothesis about the trans-dimensional tethering."

It had been a little while now since they'd returned and there was still no sign of Jack and Bunny. It was obviously bothering Katherine. In between her idle chatter with the yetis, who seemed to regard with her great fondness, she was pacing back and forth through the area that had been made into a "common area" while they'd been away. It was comfortable, full of plush red couches and cushions and tables for them to sit at to eat. Board games in many varieties had been stacked around.

The yetis were on standby, ready to get anything they needed, or show those who hadn't seen the Pole yet around.

"They should be back by now. I don't know why they're not back by now. Maybe the lindworms gave them trouble. Perhaps they had to take shelter in the Warren."

She chugged down her cocoa like someone else might nervously down a shot of whisky and then went for a refill.

[ooc: This is just for a few minutes of post-fight mingling and then the return of Jack and Bunny, then it'll be free-threading after this.]

Comments

[animalhats]

Molly, if she were thinking about it, would feel she had showed admirable restraint thus far, her hands pressed over her mouth so she wouldn't scream or sob and distract Nico or Jack or anybody who should be focusing on Bunny. Which had the added bonus of giving her hands something to do so she didn't get in the way trying to cling to Bunny.

But once he cracked a joke at Jack, that was when her brain decided he'd be okay, and she quite unintentionally let out a sort of keening half-sob, which she followed up by dropping to the ground and bursting into moderately hysterical tears.

He was okay. She could get upset and distract people now without anything bad that might happen being her fault.

[letskicksomeice]

Jack stopped singing.

"What kind of bucket? Do you mean the kind of bucket I'm gonna hit you in the head with if you keep making fun of my singing? That kind of bucket?"

Apparently the two of them were very bad at maintaining melodrama.

Jack still looked like he was near tears, but they at least looked more like tears of relief that Bunny was okay enough to joke around.

"I thought we were having a Moment here. You're not supposed to crack jokes in the middle of a Moment."

Jack sniffed and leaned down to press his forehead against Bunny's.

That was when Molly started crying and Jack remembered they had an audience.

"It's okay," he said, looking over at her, conflicted over his urge to comfort her when he also didn't want to let go of Bunny. "He's okay."

He sounded like he was trying to reassure himself just as much as anyone else.

[animalhats]

"I kn-know," Molly said, hiccupping through her tears and clearly trying to stop even though that obviously wasn't happening just yet. "B-but I was so sc-scared he was gonna die like-- like Gert!"

Her tears come back in force and she buries her face in her hands trying to hide from everybody. Even if she was scared and it's totally acceptable to be crying after all that, part of her is completely mortified that she's crying in front of everybody.

Especially Howard. He'll probably make fun of her for it.

[madeforthis]

Zac had been watching the whole thing unfold while on pins and needles, but thankfully it was over quickly - if a bit nasty in the process. Nothing terribly new to him, though.

Molly, however...well, that was an appropriate reaction. And seeing as the person she seemed close to was busy with healing Bunny, Zac decides to take it upon himself to try and do a little defusing. He plods over to where Molly is, and pats her back a bit as he stoops down. "Hey, it's alright - if Mister Bunny there has held out this long against everything so far, I got a feeling he can take most anything the bad guys can throw at him."

[mywarrenmyrules]

Bunny let Jack go with a squeeze to his arm.

They probably weren't done hugging and staving off panic, but there was a kid in distress and that was enough to get them to both put their problems aside for the moment.

"Listen to Zac, Molly, he's got the right of it. Bouncing back's my middle name. Little bloodsucker like that? We've got bigger mosquitoes in Oz."

He shouldered himself up so he could see Molly, his pains mostly faded to a dull ache, aside from his still-burned paw.

Nico wasn't moving, and for a moment her blank stare ignited his concern. "Nico. Sheila. You with us?" He flexed his burnt paw slightly. "You can take a rest. I'll be fine."

He started to stand, then wavered and fell back into a crouch against Jack. He slipped back to the ground with a groan. "Just- just gimme a minute down here. I'll be right."

Not as fast as he might pretend, for Molly and Nico's sake, but they didn't need to know that.

[letskicksomeice]

"Hey hey, whoa! Who said you were allowed to be vertical?" Jack said, as Bunny tried - and failed - to stand up.

Cradling him again, Jack held on a bit more firmly this time, hoping to preclude any other attempts at bravado.

"Stay still for a few minutes, take some deep breaths, and then we'll have Phil and the guys help you to a room."

[mywarrenmyrules]

"C'mon Jack, I can hop it off."

Not that he was putting up a serious fight. He was due for a good long rest after this, if he could get one, but at the very least he could find a quiet corner to curl up in himself. Once the kids were reassured. He tried to sit up - very slowly this time.

"What are you going to do, sit on me? You have hollow bones."

[spellitonce]

Nico took a deep, shuddering breath and the violet flames snapped off like someone had thrown a switch. She staggered to her feet, her torn sleeve peeling stickily away from her arm where she'd bled on it, and moved through the crowd to throw her arms around Molly.

When Bunny spoke again, she pinned him with a furious bright-eyed glare that looked fit to take off a couple layers of the skin he'd just grown back with her help.

"Come on, Molly," she said quietly to the girl in her arms. "It's okay. Let's-- let's just go get more cookies or something."

[letskicksomeice]

Oy, that was some glare, but Jack understood why Bunny was getting it. He needed to sit his fluffy butt down and not undo all her hard work, especially after he gave everyone such a scare.

"I'm not going to sit on you, I'm gonna do this."

Jack very gently belly-flopped across Bunny's stomach, bearing him back to the floor with his body weight. That meant, unfortunately, that he was bleeding on him a little but that had slowed to a trickle anyway.

"Stop trying to move, at least for a few minutes. I can do this aaall day."

Mostly because he was hurt and exhausted and didn't feel like moving anyway.

[animalhats]

Molly accepted Zac's comfort and quieted down (though she didn't stop crying entirely) at Bunny's reassurance, but she didn't really seem to start calming down until Nico was wrapped around her.

She turned and buried her face in Nico's chest, but she didn't start crying harder, and her breathing seemed to even out. Familiar arms were a comfort, clearly.

"Yeah," she mumbled, and pulled back to wipe her nose on her sleeve. "In a second." She got up and stalked over to Bunny and Jack in the middle of their half-hearted not-really-a-scuffle.

"Hey," she says firmly, crossing her arms over her chest. "You just got half eaten by an evil bug and then set on fire. You gotta sit still for like an hour at least." She lifted her chin, challenging him to argue. "I know, my parents were doctors."

[madeforthis]

A faint chuckle leaves the green goo-man as Molly essentially sasses the Easter Bunny for his own good. He pushes back up on both feet, and plants his hands on his hips. "The kids do have a point there. Bouncing back can't happen without the right amount of rest."

[mywarrenmyrules]

The half-hearted scuffle was really more like quarter-hearted. Bunny sprawled back on the ground when Jack sprawled across him, lifting his unburnt paw to ruffle Jack's hair. He kept it there, the gesture almost unconscious.

Nico's glare kept him from delivering his next joke to Jack. They'd been jesting their way through the darkness for such a long time now, it was easy to forget that not everyone coped best by not taking a bad situation seriously.

This was serious, of course. He'd have to thank Nico for rising to the occasion, later, and apologize for putting that kind of pressure on her. In the moment, he'd been focused on eliminating the threat, but he'd had no real way to know if she was able to uphold that kind of healing magic before he'd given her a lot more damage to heal.

Later, when he'd rested. As per Molly's demands - which, he suspected as he considered the sniffling but stalwart child, he might not be capable of refusing. Especially if they continued to be so sensible.

He raised his brows in silent agreement with Zac, before looking back at Molly. "If you say so, little Sheila." He nodded, solemnly. "I'll do it."

It was easy to take her seriously when she was so right. He had every intention of sitting still for more than an hour - though his pride still twinged as a set of yetis broke through the ranks carrying a stretcher. He was conscious, and mostly repaired. They could at least give him the dignity of a shoulder to lean on.

He looked at Molly, his expression deeply set-upon. He pointed to the stretcher. "Do I have to?"

[animalhats]

"Yeah-huh," Molly says. "Or I can carry you," Sure, she needs a nap and she knows it, but she can manage carrying a 6-foot talking rabbit to a bed without passing out.

Her nose is still running a little, and she sniffles and scrubs at her nose again with her sleeve. ...Yeah, if she hadn't needed a clean shirt already, she would now.

[mywarrenmyrules]

If Nico hadn't mentioned Molly breaking walls to get to her, and if not for all the stunts she'd pulled back with the falling coaster, he might have questioned how she was going to do that.

"Think maybe you could get this off me first?" He ruffled Jack's hair where the frost spirit still lay stubbornly across him.

[animalhats]

Molly grins a little, and her eyes light up pink. "No problem," she says.

And proceeds to pick up Bunny with Jack draped over top of him. With no apparent effort required. She may take the opportunity to press her face into an un-injured patch of fur on Bunny's side, just for a second. He's okay. Thank goodness.

Then she turns her grin up at the yetis. "Where should I put him?"

[letskicksomeice]

"...You know, I'm pretty sure we actually had dignity once," Jack said awkwardly from the top of the Guardian pile Molly was carrying.

He would have gotten off, but that would've meant an awkward stumble to the ground since he wasn't holding his staff anymore and he really was almost too tired to move himself.

One of the Yetis stepped forward to show Molly the way.

[mywarrenmyrules]

"I used to have dignity," Bunny snarked back to Jack. "Then you showed up."

But all snark aside, this . . . was touching. He could, in theory, have been recuperating alone in the warren, and that would have had its own upsides. Grass to lie on, the sound of spring in his ears, and his dignity intact.

On the other hand, it also would have meant a long, long recovery, with no one to help him recover. And he had already done that, many times before, for many centuries in the past. He wasn't used to being carried around when he was six feet tall, but he couldn't complain about it. Molly's unabashed sweetness was a rarity. When she buried her face in his fur, he patted her hair gently. He'd protected her, but scared her in the process. The hitch in his breath was slight, but there.

The yetis lead her to a yet-unoccupied room, with a neatly turned-down bed that looked far too soft for his liking. He eyed it without complaint, glancing around the room for a corner to curl up in instead.