Blu's Apartment

[Blu]

The pillows and cushions on the sofa were flung away from their appointed places as the X-Files music continued to shrilly sound out from somewhere near by. Blu West cursed under her breath as she carried on searching, trying to find her cell. The young woman was already late for work – as seemed to be the case more and more these days, something she didn't really want to think about – and now she was going to be even later, just because she couldn't locate her phone.

Finally and with a small gasp of relief she pounced on the small black object, flipping it open, to her surprise managing to catch her friend on the other end before she gave up.

“Hey B! I was wondering if you're going to come out with us tonight. We're thinking of hitting Lunacy,” her friend chirped out, sounding rather tinny through the cell phone's speaker. Blu shrugged even though it couldn't be seen and turned back to her previous task, phone jammed between her ear and shoulder.

“Sounds great. Is it okay if I give you a heads up when I leave work about if I can come or not?” Blu asked, not wanting to commit herself if the work day was a bad one and she was too ill to actually come. Her friend snorted lightly before responding, the humour clear in her voice.

“You mean once you make sure you're mystery man hasn't got anything planned. Don't try to hide it, I know you have a guy. Sure, speak to you later.”

“Later,” Blu replied, pressing call end and sighing. A man in her life sounded really nice right about now but the closest she had was the vocal talents of Freddie Mercury and whoever else was on her iPod at the moment. She'd yet to actually come out and lie to her friends – if they thought a man then it was far better than the alternative.

She stared into the mirror, as she had been before the phone had interrupted her. Specifically at her hair, the dark locks tied into the normal twin ponytails. They looked perfectly normal still... but Blu had seen her hair brush and there was more hair than there should be. Sighing lightly she shook her head and stood, knowing she had to leave and get to work before she got fired.

Continued at; Central Community Police Station: Basement – Technicians' Office

[Blu]

Continued from: Building C: Flynn’s Apartment

Groaning, Blu collapsed onto her sofa, door safely shut and locked behind her. Most of the items from Flynn’s apartment lay in an untidy heap on the ground, Mica pawing at them and looking distinctly unimpressed that they were being treated in such a fashion. There was only one person who was allowed to pick up and then discard her toys and objects in such a way and that person had four legs and was a cat.

For once though, the young woman wasn’t paying any attention to Mica; who, with a final delicate snort of feline disgust wandered off, no doubt to explore the rest of the apartment. Blu’s thoughts were instead focused on Flynn, on where he could be now and on the way her body screamed in pain. She couldn’t go back into work this afternoon; Blu just couldn’t face going into work, never mind having to face those people who would ask about Flynn and if they could help and she just… couldn’t handle that.

Without moving from the sofa, she reached out, hand groping for her phone, intent on calling in and taking the afternoon off. Blu hadn’t taken a sick day in a long time and she felt after this morning, she was more then overdue it.

[Blu]

Her hot shower had not produced the desired results. Lying on the sofa, she had felt the pain in her body steadily increase, becoming more and more intense and in the end, Blu had moved and forced herself into a standing position so that the weight of her own body had not crushed her. She had showered, hot water streaming over her and for a few seconds at least, taking away the pain so that she could at least move her body without the agony.

Once she had stepped out of it and dressed again however, it was a different story. She sat in front of her mirror, tears threatening to break free as the warmth of the water faded away and her body began to seize up again.

“The human body sheds on average one hundred hairs a day; it’s perfectly normal, perfectly normal…” Blu whispered to herself, trying not to think about all the hair left behind in the shower or the clumps she was pulling out as she arraigned her hair back into its customary twin high pigtails. It was hard to make her fingers do the jobs she wanted them too, digits slow and unresponsive.

Blu needed help. As much as she hated it, hated herself, she needed more than the weak painkillers prescribed to her and there was only one way she could get something strong enough to at least take the edge off. Blu just wished there was another way as she stood, giving herself a critical look in the mirror. With her hair as it normally was, her ‘Goth’ like make-up and clothing it was impossible to tell that the paleness in her skin was anything more than cosmetics which suited her just fine.

She glanced around the apartment one last time, purse solid and comforting in her bag, along with her music although for once Blu didn’t feel like putting some one. “I’ll be back soon Mica,” she promised, a weak smile on her face at the sight of the cat curled around the small teddy Blu had dug out for her. It wouldn’t surprise her if she came back to find it in pieces. Sighing softly, she pulled open the door, ignoring the fresh wave of pain at the movement and set off.

Continued in: Alleys and Streets: Mozart St.

[Blu]

POST TIMESKIP

There was nobody else in the apartment with her; nobody to impress or put a show on for. Nobody to hide the truth from and work just that little bit harder to make sure her usual bubbly mood never once dipped into depression no matter how much it tried. But she was alone now bar a cat that was sleeping on her bed in the other room and with a soft sigh, Blu finally felt her mask slip. She leant against the side of her toilet, feeling the cool of the porcine against her flaming cheeks. Every part of her ached and shivered against her wll. Blu had the heating on high, enough so that she could be warm, she felt warm and yet at the same time, cold oh so cold. Shivering and sweating at the same time somehow and with every twitch another wave of pain rolled over her, reminding her of just how weak her body really was.

It would be time for another round of chemotherapy soon enough, another few days of even more vomiting and weakness, another few days of hiding herself away from the rest of the world in the hope that if she could just ignore things for long enough then the rest of the world would ignore her back. Perhaps she would even be able to put off having to make a choice about her hair. Blu knew she was being ridiculous in hesitating about shaving her hair clean off but if she finally did that then in some way it would be like admitting that this illness was beating her; the thick dark locks of hair on her head was one of her favourite things about her body and it burned inside to think that they were falling out so fast and that she would have to resort to a wig soon enough. Even the normal cheerful thought that wigs gave so much variety and enabled her to do things she couldn’t with her natural hair failed to lift her spirits.

Her body gave another small spasm, which in turn made her twist, stomach contracting as she threw up yet again, body protesting against the painful movement, the white foam that came out showing that her stomach had empted long ago. Her face was wet and as Blu blinked lazily, she realised that it wasn’t just sweat on her cheeks but tears as well – at some point she’d started to cry.