It's An Art Not Easily Mastered {Gabriel / Ravvi}

[Keri Rocha]

Riding: The art of keeping a horse between you and the ground. ~Author Unknown

The ambulance ride had taken what felt like a lifetime, but was actually only about a half an hour. Once inside the hospital, they took her straight into an xray room where she had to position her right side in endless amounts of different ways. Each time she had to shift her arm, it killed her, and had to be done using her left arm.

They waited in an exam room after the x-rays were taken, not expecting a doctor to come in for another half an hour or so. Keri sat on the raised bed type thing and leaned herself back against the wall, sitting up. She looked at the ground mostly, occasionally looking up at the single picture which was hung on the wall across from her.

The entire time, she couldn't help but think about what she'd say to Coach Hoefflin. He'd be pissed at her, but now that they had a good three or so reserves, maybe he'd just cast her aside and not care. This angered her almost as much as the thought that maybe he wouldn't throw her aside and instead yell at her and make her work harder. Either way, she didn't want to confront him.

What about Sam? She'd obviously try to cater to Keri's every need, and ask her all about what had happened; but Keri hated when people did that, it made her feel weak and useless. She then heard her phone buzz from the band on her calf and she glanced down to it, pulling it out and seeing who it was from. She sighed and put it away, only to hear it buzz three more times in the next five minutes. She finally threw it across the room and didn't blink once as it slammed against the wall. Sadly, the screen only cracked a bit, and that was the worst of the damage.

[Gabriel Reese]

Gabe had taken a bit of time, getting to the hospital. As the adult who was 'at the scene of the accident', he felt it was his responsibility to be there, but first, he had taken care of the horses. He thought Keri would have wanted her horse to be properly put up and he couldn't just leave the two animals in the arena. He'd taken a few extra minutes to unsaddle both horses, give them both a quick grooming, and had put both animals in their stalls with hay and water before leaving.

He didn't even take time to change from his riding clothes.

Gabe had been met with a bit of opposition from the hospital staff, but he wasn't who he was for nothing, and after several long minutes, he'd managed to bully/charm his way into the back by argueing that Keri had fallen with him in the ring, therefore it was his responsibility and no, he didn't know of a relative to call right then and there, but as he was staff at BRRA, it was his right and responsibility to attend the girl.

Honestly, he was surprised his arguments worked.

Gabriel cracked the door open right as, it seemed, the grl chcked her cellphone at the wall, and he quickly ducked back out from the doorway as the phone hit and fell. After a small silence, he opened the door back a crack and peeked inside before walking on in. "Is it safe to come in?" He said to the girl, picking up her phone to give back to her. The counselor knew that, by right, he shouldn't have been allowed back, and decided to answer that question before it even appeared, "The doctors and nurses here agree that as I'm staff at BRRA, and responsible for what happened earlier, I can be allowed back here even though I'm not family..." He shrugged, "Well, that and I couldn't give them a relative's number for them to call off the top f my head." He took a seat, "So, what's the verdict?" He asked, concern lacing his tone. "Don't worry about your horse. I put them both up before I came here."

[Keri Rocha]

She saw the door open just as the phone was flying at the wall and after a few moments, it cracked open again. She hoped it wasn't the doctor, as he would have probably called a psychiatrist before entering the room again. When she saw it was Gabriel, she sighed lightly, relieved. "C'mon in." She said to him before he opened it all the way. She was about to ask why he was back there, but he was one step ahead of her, and his answer caused her to laugh just a bit. "Well aren't you bad?" She laughed at him. He sat down and asked what the doctor had said about her and she shrugged. "They took the xrays but haven't told me anything yet. I'm waiting on the doctor to come back in and show them too me." She sighed to him. "Thank you." She said in response to him taking care of Cruise for her.

She looked down at the phone which he had handed back to her and heard it buzz again, which caused her to roll her eyes. If these people didn't stop blowing up her notifications and texting her non-stop, she'd call the police. She slipped it back into the phone holder and hoped it would quiet down. "You know they asked you for a family member because I wouldn't give them one, right?" She laughed lightly, shaking her head. "If my aunt finds out that the 'big monster' that my uncle helped me buy was the same horse to land me in the E.R., she drive a shot gun down here and shoot him, then give me a lecture about 'I told you so' and 'Riding is too dangerous for girls' and drag me by the ear back to her house." She sighed. She then shut up, realizing she'd never actually told anyone that she lived with her aunt and uncle.

[Gabriel Reese]

Gabe laughed slightly, though the concern in his eyes didn't diminish. He was beginning to feel bad, a he knew, in retrospect, that he should have stopped and lowered the jumps as soon as any student entered the arena to ride as well. "Yeah, I'm bad. Real bad." He said in an attempt to lighten his darkening mood. "It's not a problem, I could just leave the horses in the arena. Imagine the problems we'd be faced with if I had done so."

He took a few moments to glance around the small room. White, white... dismal... depressing... It was typical of a hospital room. Dreary, too bright of a white color, and just depressing in general. "So... I guess now we just wait, huh?"

Gabriel pulled his phone out when she put hers up and flipped it open, glancing at the time displayed on the screen. He hoped the hospital visit wouldn't take long, but he knew that that hope was in vain. Hopital visits always seemed to take half the night or more. "I figured something like that had happened." He said, nodding to her comment about him being asked for a relative's number because she'd refused to give one. He sat silently and listened to her words, grinning slightly at her ending. "I take it your aunt doesn't really approve of your riding?" He asked. Gabe already knew she lived with her aunt and uncle, it was on her file, and he, being who he was and doing what he did, had files on everyone, staff or student, at BRRA. "Y'know," He said, simply making conversation, "family is just odd like that. If you don't mind me asking, where are your parents?" He didn't think he'd seen much of anything mentioning her actual parents on her file, and he guessed it could be a conversation starter, though, a moment later he realized that it had sounded a bit to counseling-like and he quickly apologized. "Sorry, I didn't mean it like that... I'm just curious. Not trying to psycho-analyze you or anything..." He laughed.

[Keri Rocha]

She laughed at his words, shaking her head. He didn't seem like a bad guy, though she shouldn't say that, seeing as she barely knew him, and she'd never know his past, seeing as she rarely spoke of it at all.

She nodded to him when he said it was better the leaving them alone in the arena. "I don't even want to think what those two could manage if left alone. They'd probably wreak havoc on all of Blue Ridge." She said to him with a sigh. She knew North got destructive when bored, something he'd mentioned when they first met, and Cruise... Well, he was a mystery to her still, but she had a feeling he played a mean game of Follow The Leader, and with North leading, the end result would not be good.

As he looked around the room, she gripped the table tightly with her left hand, leaning her head back against the wall and closing her eyes tight. She counted to ten and then opened them back up, no longer seeing the black spots engulfing everything in the room. That was the second dizzy spell she'd gotten that day, but she didn't pay them too much mind, since they went away quickly.

She heard him laugh at her description of her Aunt's reaction if she would hear the news and couldn't decide if she was scared or amused by this. He had to have known about her parents, he being a school counsellor and all. She knew it was in her file somewhere, the question was how much of it was in there? He asked if her aunt really approved of her riding and she shook her head. "She thinks that horses are Satan's way of corrupting young girls. Just cause I missed church one sunday cause one of the mares I was working with was colicing pretty badly." She said with a roll of her eyes. As he asked about her parents, she answered her own question. She looked down to the ground for a few moments, wondering what she should say to that, how she could answer the school's newest counsellor without lying. He the. Said he hadn't meant for it to come out in a way that would make her feel like this was a session and she shook her head assuring him it was okay. "They're gone." She said finally, looking back up at him. "Have been for a while now."

[Gabriel Reese]

"Oh, they'd do more than that, I believe. North would probably plot to conquer the world and Cruise could be his second-in-command and recruit all the penguins from the Poles to be their army…" He trailed off and gave Keri a wide-eyed, innocent look. "I'm not crazy, by the way. Just imaginative."

Gabe started to say more, but was cut off by a polite cough from the doorway. He twisted his head slightly and went a little red upon seeing a doctor, one who had heard his previous words no doubt, from the look he was receiving from the man. Gabriel immediately adopted a polite smile and his attitude shifted from jokester to serious in a heartbeat. "Come in, come in, doctor." He called, glancing between the man and Keri. He hadn't seen Keri's dizzy spell.

The counselor shook the mans hand, and as he moved to the injured patient in the room, Gabe turned back to speak to her, as it was obvious the doctor was doing nothing besides greeting her at the moment. "Ah, sounds about right. Sounds a bit like my family, before… uh… before I got shipped off to military school." He said, thinking, then going on with his train of thought, "The disapproving about things, at least… My aunt used to disapprove what I did, but my uncle, I think he just disapproved me in general. Still does, come to think of it…" He said, tone kinda mystified-sounding.

Gabe started to say something else, but shut his mouth as the doctor introduced himself. He fell silent, listening and offering a silent support to Keri as the doctor started speaking.

---

Notes: Thought you may want to play the doc, as I dunno what all would be wrong and I don't want to be accused of god-modding your charrie, lol…

[Keri Rocha]

Keri laughed at his words, and then even more so at his facial expression following them up. She nodded her head slowly to him, holding back more laughs. "You keep telling people that, and maybe, one day, they'll actually believe you." She said to him with a small grin. He definitely was imaginative, which was most surprising because the room in which they were sitting was void of anything creative or stimulating. She gave him silent props on that.

She heard the cough from the doorway and saw a man who seemed to be dressed as though he was a doctor, and it took all she had in her not to laugh harder. He'd heard Gabriel's imagination running wild, and was definitely judging him. Keri held in the giggles with a straight lined smile which pulled tightly on her face as she wanted so badly to just laugh. She hadn't wanted to laugh in a while, and the feeling was good. Maybe if she held it in, it'd stay there.

She listened to Gabriel describe how her short description of her aunt and her explanation for where her parents were related to his own life. It was interesting, how similar their lives were, except her uncle pretty much approved of whatever she wanted to do, as long as it was legal. Aside from that deviation, she could honestly say she might have met the one person who could understand where she was coming from when speaking of family matters. Before she could respond, however, the man who had just walked in came over to shake her left hand, her good one, and introduce himself, so she settled with giving Gabriel a small smile of understanding instead. "My name is Doctor Crowley, it's nice to meet you." He said to her and then went over to the counter to sign into his computer and start placing the x rays on the lighted structure on the wall. "Nasty fall you took." He said to her as he turned on the light. "Luckily, most of the damage went to your right side. Your right forearm in broken, clean break, so it will heal nicely once we put it back together, and then you'll just have a cast to hold it in place while it sets itself again. He said while pointing to her bone in the first picture, where she could see two separated white bones. "Up here," He pointed to the next picture which showed what looked to be her shoulder, "You've got a small bone chip in your shoulder, but what's really concerning my is your collarbone." He said to her, showing her the next picture which showed a fairly skinny white bone compared to the rest of the images. "It's an awkward bone to heal in the first place, but yours is cracked in three places, and it doesn't look like they all happened at the same time." He said to her, which raised her eyebrow in confusion. "But it's never hurt before..." She said, shaking her head. How could it have been broken if she'd never felt the pain that came with it? "We're going to run a few tests if that's okay with you, just to rule out any medical possibilities that may have caused it. It could very simply be a stress fracture, but we'd like to make sure." He told her with a small smile. She nodded her head slowly, still perplexed at this fact. She looked down at the ground as he continued talking, saying how they'd reset her broken bones and then get her into the proper casts and slings before the tests were run, and finally he walked out, saying that a nurse would call for her later.

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ooc: haha, yeah, I've got a plan for this one

[Gabriel Reese]

Gabe merely smirked at the girl, glad that he'd succeeded in doing what he'd set out to do; distract her. He knew exactly how broken bones felt and he also knew that if one was simply left alone, the pain would become almost unbearable. He'd been there before. Gabe had always enjoyed having a friend with him whenever he was injured, as a teenager, simply because having a person to talk to and joke with took your mind off the pain, at least for a while. He did give the doctor a long look when the man entered the room and finally offered his name to the doctor before informing the guy that he was staff at BRRA and had been in the arena when the accident had taken place. Of course, Gabriel needn't have done so, as most of the doctors and nurses in the general area knew him from his argument that had resulted in him getting to sit with Keri while she was in the hospital when he wasn't related.

The man chose to sit back and just listen as the doctor spoke, though during his speech to Keri, Gabe grabbed a pen and tore a page from a reader's digest that was lying on the doctors desk and began writing what the man said down so he could add it to the girls file at a later date. He knew he'd probably get actual paperwork that informed him of the injuries later, but he preferred to write everything down now in case something was left off or not attended to. He did glance up as the doc mentioned Keri's collarbone, and his brows furrowed at the girls remark about it not bothering her before, but he wrote that information down as well. By the time he looked up from his torn out page, the doctor had left.

"Hope you don't mind me keeping a record of what the doctor says…" He said to her, trailing off and adopting a slightly confused look, "This is what I hate about hospitals… a simple, twenty minute procedure takes half the night. You need or want anything for pain, or did they already give you something? I'm sure if they didn't, I could get them to." He cracked his knuckles playfully. Gabe frowned, then brushed the thought away, "So, any ideas on what's up with your collarbone?" He finally asked her, not sure what else to say at the moment.

[Keri Rocha]

She waited at the doctor spoke, nodding and what not in return to all of the information he was giving her and then smiled to him lightly as he walked out and left them to wait for the nurse to come in and get her. She looked to Gabriel and saw he had a pen and paper out and was finishing up writing something down. She raised an eyebrow, wondering if he'd been doing that the entire time. She wasn't one of his students that came in to talk, which made her question it even more. Maybe he used it in case she ever did come in? She shrugged it off though, not commenting on it, letting him do what he wanted. She then heard his words and smiled to herself, he answered her question without her even asking. She shook her head in response.

He mentioned what he hated about hospitals, which is what everyone hated about hospitals, but she still nodded in agreement. She laughed when he asked if she wanted anything and cracked his knuckles, but then she saw his playful look wiped clear off his face and couldn't help but wonder why. "Thanks, but it's okay for now." She said to him with a shake of her head.

As he asked about her collar bone, she sighed shaking her head. "It's never hurt before, not even in practice." She said to him with a shrug of her left shoulder, even though that was a complete lie. Everything hurt during practice, but that was part of the sport. Pain meant you were doing it correctly. "Maybe I hurt it and didn't really feel it?" She offered, though it was a lame excuse, it was all she could come up with.

[Gabriel Reese]

Her nod of agreement had him grinning again, as he knew that most everyone hated waiting time in the hospitals. He'd been in and out of a few before for broken bones and the like, though in his teenage years, his injuries were most often the result of scraps and other fights with other people and the occasional authority figure that he tried to bust the teeth from. Gabe frowned again at those thoughts. Looking back on the way he'd acted then now, he really was surprised some of the 'charges' he'd been threatened with had never been pressed once he'd hit the majority. He could have easily spent the next ten or so years behind bars, and instead he was a counselor at a school, where, in his uncles words, he 'had free access to influence the poor kids minds and set them all down the criminal path'. Gabe did have to wonder, though, if it wasn't for his aunt… would his uncle have ever pressed charges on him? He'd been a right terror to the only family he had, instead of being grateful for taking him in when his dad was incarcerated for life before his birth and left his mom to give birth to him while in prison… His aunt and uncle had taken him in, and even when they could have given him up to an orphanage after his mom was released and essentially abandoned him before even knowing him… they'd kept him. Even then, as a young child he'd been a terror. Time to get off these thoughts… He thought as he realized his mood was growing darker with each passing thought.

"If you need anything, just let me know. I'll take it up with the nurses." He told Keri, tone a bit distant as he tried to shake the thoughts from his mind. He truly hated 'back-flashing' at times. Caused him too much regret. Before the girl could ask him about what was running through his mind, he spoke again, giving her a strained half-smile. "I'm ok, just… thinking." He said, faking a pleasant outlook for her sake. He wouldn't burden her down with his own issues, even if he was supposed to be over them. Guess things just stay with you, though…. He nodded to her, though, and moved his chair closer to where she was, so that it was easier to talk… and so he'd know if another doctor decided to stand in the doorway and stare at him like he was insane. "Might have… we'll just have to wait and see."

[Keri Rocha]

She heard right away just how far from focused he sounded as he spoke his words to her. She nodded slowly, keeping herself from questioning it out loud, forcing the questions to stay within her. Perhaps he was remembering things that reminded him of this day; this was normally what made her so quiet, but she'd never been on the other end of that reaction: the receiver of distance. She didn't let it get to her, however, as she slowly but surely went back to looking at the ground, occasionally squeezing the exam table's top "cushion", if it could even be considered such a thing, when feeling a strong pain hit from any little movement she made.

He then spoke up, interrupting her trance, with a halfhearted explanation to his spacey words. She smiled and shook her head. "Don't worry about it, happens a lot with me." She said to him with a shrug. They both had issues, and they knew it, but neither were going to willingly speak about them to each other, or so it seemed. Both Keri and Gabe could most likely sit in a room with their closest friend and not mention a word of their problems without revocation. They were just those kinds of people.

As he moved closer, she didn't quite flinch, but she did tense up a bit in her stomach and legs, unsure of his close proximity, without letting it show to him in any way, shape or form. She'd kept the same facial expression, her neutral one with her lower lip slightly pouting out a bit, and her eyes seeming sad, but still a bit wide-eyed. Her hands stayed where they were, not moving at all. The only thing that he could have possibly caught onto, if he had a microscope in his hand, was the fact that her ear had moved up just a bit on the side which he was sitting closest to; something which happened every time she was on edge. She gave him a small smile and nodded to his response. "Let's just hope Hoefflin doesn't storm in here before the nurses do." She laughed lightly, though it was a serious fear of hers that her coach would just barge in at any moment and start assaulting her with words of disgust and hatred.

[Gabriel Reese]

If he'd caught the squeezes she applied to the somewhat soft exam table, he didn't let on. Gabe had already asked if she wanted something for pain, and she'd said no... so he wasn't going to ask again. If she decided she wanted something, she'd tell him. Though he did raise an eyebrow and look pointedly at the hand that gripped the cushioning.

He didn't notice her tenseness, as he wasn't looking for it and she was already tense from the pain, he thought. Gabe eyed her in concern before leaning back, though he bit his bottom lip to keep from saying anything. He didn't want to push her since she was hurt and it was his fault. No matter what was said, he knew her fall from her horse had, in a way, been his fault and he was prepared to pay for the medical bills and take the blame. As he thought about the medical bills, he closed his eyes, a pained expression coming over his face. Hafta do it in payments...

"Don't worry about Hoefflin." Gabe told her, voice quiet. "If he says anything to you, just tell him to come and talk to me. As it was my fault you're in this shape, I'll take the blame. There's no need for him to go off on you over something you had no control over."

[Keri Rocha]

She didn't look over at him the entire time she clenched the table... or after for that matter. She wasn't one to know how bad pain had to be before any medication was given, seeing as she'd always just been told to tough it up, rub some dirt on it, and keep going. This was one of those times. She'd just keep going and stick it out.

As he sat closer to her, he could see that he was thinking, and when his facial expression changed, her eyebrows knit together for a moment, confused and slightly scared. What was wrong? Was he hurt? Should he be the one on this table? She didn't ask these questions, however, simply shoved them back into her filing cabinets of the brain and kept her mouth shut. It wasn't her place to ask if he was okay, especially because she could be completely misinterpreting this expression.


She raised an eyebrow as Gabriel spoke, shaking her head when she heard the rest of his sentence. "As if that was your fault. I'm the one who couldn't handle her dang horse." She said to him with a scoff, knowing that she should have had more control over Cruise and this whole thing could have been a mere nightmare one night.

She heard her phone start to ring and for a moment, she wondered if maybe her Aunt had found out, and was calling to talk to her about it. She hoped that wasn't the case, as she reached down for her phone again, just to check who it was, only to see the name that she'd tired so hard to forget and ignore, on her screen again. She sighed and shook her head, putting it away, for the umpteenth time.

It was then, as she was about to put her phone into her leg band again, that she heard the knock on the door and then looked up to see a woman enter. "Miss Rocha? Follow me if you would." She nodded her head towards Keri, whom stood up, placed her phone on the table, and walked out behind her. Before she got completely through the door, however, she turned back to Gabriel. "Really, it's not your fault at all." She then left and followed the woman to have her arm put into it's cast, and get the sling to help keep pressure off of her collarbone. While she was gone, the phone alerted that she had a new voice mail, and a few minutes later, it rang again, from the same number as before, only to go to voice mail again. Following that a series of text message alerts came through, all from the same person, and some others.