GREG DECKER
Human
Posts: 198
Played by:
ANGE
Last seen May 2, 2024 18:05:04 GMT
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Post by GREG DECKER on Aug 15, 2022 19:28:55 GMT
A pushover Meredith Fell certainly wasn’t. She’d barely said a word when she’d first found him, but there’d been something in her expression that had told him that pushing wouldn’t give him freedom from her concerns – not for long at least. Stubbornness seemed to be in the water in this town and being the recipient of the benefits of it Deck didn’t feel as though he could throw it all aside. Batting hands trying to shove that help in another direction, the same way they’d done that morning out in the woods. The paramedics who’d arrived hadn’t listened to a word he’d said, and folks here would be just as deaf.
Deck sniffed, glancing down at his hand as he dropped it from his mouth. Like he would see Soph’s blood there still, the scarlet proof that he hadn’t kept his marriage vow – to love and to cherish, to protect. He hadn’t. Not that night and in the days since he’d fallen at so many hurdles in helping others that it was a wonder he was standing at all.
His gaze ticked back up to Meredith, to the amusement written all over her face like she wouldn’t need anyone else watching her back in this town. The vow might not’ve been there anymore, but there was still that pit in his stomach every time someone rolled in, torn up, bruised, their confidence – not so different to Meredith’s – shattered. He’d failed and it ate at him until Deck wasn’t sure how much was left. ”There’s more muscles there than there looks to be," he said hoarsely, the joke barely cracking. You needed more than that in this town, he was learning that more with every day he spent here.
There sure as hell wasn’t anything he’d done to earn the concern of the staff around him. They weren’t about to take no for an answer though. With each one he’d cracked the door and they were happy to charge right through and hold him up as he threatened to pitch over face first. The shell was crumbling after the day he’d had and Meredith was the one with her hand hovering there now. Ready to wrap it around his elbow, his fingers, to pick him up. When had he become the one who needed all of that?
When that world had collided with his own.
Sinking down, Deck ignored the sting in his palm. He planted his elbows against his knees, ducked his head to lace his fingers atop his head. Like he was holding his sanity down. It was a balloon in his skull, losing its weight as it filled with the hot air of hysteria, ready to float away out of the top of his skull. He made a small sound in his throat, something like a strained laugh. ”Since the beginning of what? Them? This town?” The violence that swept through the world – not just here – with an alarming regularity. ”They’re crazy. You get that right? … has to or not … you’ve got to be to crazy to want to throw yourself into that.” Hadn’t he heard the same thing about the military? It’s not your war. Why are you throwing yourself into a fight like that when you could be saving lives at home? Because he’d wanted to walk in his dad’s footsteps and save lives in a way that didn’t leave him chained to an ER.
Dark eyes blinked as he glanced around the room, as though he was seeing it for the first time. That was where he’d ended up, wasn’t it? Still saving lives, although they were carved apart by something more monstrous than even an IED. ”I don’t know if I can,” Deck rasped. He swallowed hard, shifting in his seat to study her more fully. ”How do they do it? I don’t know if I can just stand by and keep watching this. It needs to stop.” The idea that he could be the one to do it had that urge to laugh straining at his chest like it would burst through his ribs. He’d shot one … werewolf … and it had helped to shatter him for years. He'd practically peed his pants when a vampire had ordered him to hand over blood. What good would he be against anything else?
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Post by MEREDITH FELL on Oct 10, 2022 23:16:20 GMT
Catch Our Breath (with Greg Decker)
Funny how she had come there to get away from everything else but instead almost wished that she could be back in fray. There she had some measure of control. There she could predict what could come next. With him, given his current state she couldn't help but feel on edge. Especially now that the conversation had veered in the direction it had. She was not shy when it came to her family but it was hard to know who to tell the truth too and just how much to let slip. She didn't know his entire story, didn't know why he knew what he did. She had just enough information to say what she said and now she had to wonder what he would do with that information.
She could tell that he was taking it in, adding to what he knew, what he thought. There was a lot going on in that head of his and she wasn't sure that she would ever fully understand. Not unless he decided she could know. She would never push of course. She was good at prodding but when she met resistance for something like that she could back off respectfully.
This was so personal for him.
So she didn't really take it personally when he called her family crazy. She got that. In fact, she agreed. "The Fell's helped found this town. So from the beginning they knew --- well, not the very beginning. When violence touched their own they made a point to pay attention and have been paying attention ever since," she told him quietly. It was like a family burden, passed from one generation to the next. They weren't the only ones of course. The other Founding Families --- they knew too. "Someone has to know right? Just enough to try and mitigate the damage." She wasn't foolish enough to believe that they could save everyone (just like she knew she couldn't as a doctor; there would be loss but you did what you could to stop it). "Some things are out of our control."
He probably wouldn't like that answer given what he had said thus far. She could tell that he had fight in him and it was fueled by his pain, his anger. Both dangerous sources of course. Both libel to get him hurt or worse if he wasn't careful how he wielded what he knew.
"It does. I agree. It needs to stop but...when you're lower on the food chain, it's harder to fight back. I am not saying to just give up and accept anything, Deck. I am just saying if you go off half cocked, I could be trying to stitch you up instead," she said the last bit with a pointed look in his direction. He might not listen (she was almost betting on it) but she hoped that her words wouldn't be said in vain.
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GREG DECKER
Human
Posts: 198
Played by:
ANGE
Last seen May 2, 2024 18:05:04 GMT
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Post by GREG DECKER on Oct 22, 2022 18:57:35 GMT
This sort of stuff hadn’t woven its way through his entire life the same way it seemed to have done Meredith’s. Deck presumed that anybody born in this town practically had it in their bones, the weird, scary shit so ingrained in them that by the time they were adults none of it seemed strange anymore. Maybe that was the reason people stayed around here, they knew what was out there and for the most part either just lived amongst it, or knew how to avoid it. Clueless Doctor Decker didn’t, he’d stumbled right into the middle of it and now it felt a little like he was in a minefield – one wrong turn would leave him with someone draining him or tearing him apart.
The scars almost felt as though they were stinging in time with his fingers, like every heartbeat was reminding him of exactly how his life had suddenly slammed into whatever one all of these people were living. It had clawed its way in, taking Soph with it then, and again now, maybe taking his sanity with it one piece at a time. Deck shook his head slowly as looked up at Meredith from where he was practically balled up on the chair. She was so calm about it, the way she was whenever she rolled into a trauma, holding him together the way she did their patients.
He made another small sound, forcing himself to straighten up slightly, even if his fingers were still tangled in his hair. Deck had to clear his throat to get words out at all. ”So you take care of the ones who get violent? Or just clean up after them?” Attention meant that they had seen, had knew, and still they stuck around. He laughed hoarsely, wishing that he didn’t know. It had been easier in a way when he could bury his head in the sand and try and live life like he hadn’t killed the thing that had killed Sophia, the woman who’d done it. ”I don’t want to know. Trying to save people after this … it’s almost too much as it is.” Especially when panic set in. When things were out of his control.
That feeling spun in his stomach again, like a tornado ready to tear through his life again. There wasn’t much left for it to toss around, just the few small steps he’d taken in trying to build a life again – here of all of the damn places in the world. Almost shaken out of his stupor by it, Deck felt awareness seep back in. It left him feeling cold, like he’d plunged neck deep into ice water and was going to panic and drown in it.
He stood slowly, feeling Meredith’s eyes on him as he did. She was looking at him, like he was about to do something stupid. It didn’t matter that it was years since he’d fought hard enough against all help that he’d nearly torn himself apart getting away from it. ”I did before and I paid for it,” he said hoarsely. He had a life on his conscience and it didn’t matter that it had been to stop that thing from killing anybody else. It was still blood on his hands. Deck lifted his hands, like he was surrendering to Meredith’s warnings. ”I’m not stupid enough to rush out there and try and throw myself at anything. I don’t know what to do if it comes looking for me though.” It wasn’t like the vampire had given him much choice in the matter. How long would it be before she came looking for her next meal?
The door slammed open then, a nurse peering around it. He flinched, unable to help himself. The shudder ran through him, his heart beating fast in his throat again as the woman studied the two of them. ”Sorry. We’ve got a trauma coming in. We’re going to need a doc … either one of you…” She raised her brows, seeming to settle on Meredith, probably because she didn’t look like she was about to collapse.
Deck stood up, barely looking in Meredith’s direction but he nodded to her. He needed this, something to get his mind off of the tornado trying to whip it up. ”I’ll go … you should finish your coffee.” He took a couple of steps towards the door, after the disappearing nurse. ”Thanks … I promise, I’m not gonna go off half cocked, you’ve got my word on that Doctor Fell.” He nodded to her, his teeth clamped down when they wanted to chatter. His hands fisted, a small hiss rolling out of him as he turned away and broke into a jog out towards the ER and the trauma he hoped wasn’t going to be carrying claw or teeth marks.
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