Broke Down Baby Doll (Open)

Guest

"You are broken,' the voice weaved through the thin line between his dreams and his memories. "You are broken, and I am the only one who can fix you." It had been so long since he'd heard her voice, so long since he'd been anywhere close to where she was. It often felt to him that the beginning of his childhood had been one, long dream; like an elongated nightmare that had somehow become real. But it couldn't have been a dream, could it have? Every fall, every scrape, every sickening pit down in his stomach. It had all felt so real. And she had promised that she would take all of the pain away. But all she had ever done was make it worse.

He remembered the day that they'd taken her away. One of the doctors, perhaps the one with the blue eyes, had given word to local authorities about theories that somehow seemed to make perfect sense; theories that painted the woman in the light of someone who should never see light again. Men in suits came to their home, insisting that she was sick. And that even though she was sick, she was a monster, and that her sickness was making Avalon sick.

He remembered being told, for the first time in his life, that he was not broken. The time he'd fallen off of the kitchen counter and broken his arm because mama had asked him to grab the frying pan from the top shelf. That time that he'd eaten a cookie and ended up in the hospital for a week. Gwen. Everything that the young boy had thought was his fault. It had all been hers, because she was sick.

The moment when the nightmares became memories was the moment that she'd gone away. He'd been given over to a young couple, two men with the biggest smiles he'd ever seen, and they gave him a million memories that he could be proud of, not afraid of. They had mended him. Even though he'd never been physically fixed, his mentality had been healed.

Avalon had decided, from an early age, that this was what he wanted to give to those around him. He wanted to look into the eyes of someone who was broken, someone who was hopeless, and he wanted to tell them that their nightmares could become a memory.

He stood in the entry way of St.Mungo's, not all to sure of what he was there for. He was not sick and he was not injured, but there was a fire inside of him that had led him here. Perhaps he could ask someone if there was any way he could volunteer; if there were any way he could help. He wondered if they would let a fifteen-year-old volunteer at a hospital. Surely he would mess up somehow. But surely he wouldn't.

So he stood there, trying to weigh the pro's and cons of stepping inside.

Guest

Adrián was running late that morning, which was not a good sign for him, really. His alarm clock had not gone off, which was normally something that just didn't happen in his life time. Still, the young man had dressed in his work clothes quickly, before hurrying down the road to the hospital. He could have apparated, but in all honesty he didn't like doing it with a clear head, let alone when he was stressing out completely.

As the young man came closer to the hospital, his head in his phone as he walked, checking his messages and emails that had come in over night, he'd missed that someone was stood in his path, and ended up walking in to someone. Managing to catch both himself, and the person before either one of them fell, Adrián looked up from his phone to see a young boy before him.

"Uh, I'm so sorry. I was looking at my phone and not where I was going..." The Spaniard explained, hoping that there wouldn't be a scene made from the accident. "Are you waiting for someone?" Adrián asked, because the boy didn't quite look old enough to be here by himself -- though, Adrián reflected, he always thought children were too young to do things by themselves, it was something that came with caring for children as intensely as he did.

There wasn't much more Adrián could add, either, he was late for work, but children had always been something he had a soft spot for.

Guest

Avalon was far gone into his thoughts when he felt the body of an older man collide with his. A small bit of laughter escaped from his mouth, as the boy noticed that the perpetrator had not meant to cause the collision. His head had been in his phone, as most people's were nowadays. Avalon had run into similar situations with his phone before, but only once or twice. He carried a small black flip phone for texting and calling purposes only and, as he only had three people maximum that he needed to text, the boy very rarely got caught up in his conversations.

This man, Avalon was sure, had some important messages. More important than those of a student anyways. He'd scurried to the door like someone who knew what he was doing, definitely indicating that he worked here. Another indicator of his working at the hospital would be the way he dressed but that had not been the first thing Avalon noticed.

"It's not a problem," Avalon assured him, offering a warm smile. Avalon was fifteen, but he did not carry himself as someone who had only had fifteen years of experience. He knew how to speak to adults as an equal. When the man asked if he was waiting for someone, his Spanish accent evident in his words, Avalon shrugged. Had he been waiting for something? Or was he just standing there?

"Just thinking," he responded. He was sure that this would be an odd response as to what he was doing standing outside of a hospital, but that was exactly what he was doing.

"Do you work here?" he inquired, knowing the answer already but figuring that it would be nice to ask.

"I was wondering if the hospital offered any volunteer opportunities." He could have expanded upon the statement; he could have explained how much the hospital had done for him. But he left it at that.

Guest

The assurance that it was okay -- having bumped in to the kid -- made Adrián give the boy a small smile to say thank you. He honestly didn't have the time for a heated argument about how he should watch where he was going, get his head out of his phone, or any other argument that could be thought of from this situation.

The answer to Adrián's question though, about what the boy was doing, brought a small frown to Adrián's features. Thinking. Outside of a hospital. To say that Adrián was a little bit worried about this notion would have been an understatement, in truth, but he decided to keep his worries to himself, instead waiting for the possibility of more information instead.

"Yes, I work in the pediatric ward." Adrián supplied the boy, though he hadn't been asked for his specific role, he thought it might help to know that Adrián was a specialist in this field.

The next question made Adrián pause for a moment, looking in to the building then back at the boy before him. Of course, the hospital worked with many volunteers, without volunteers half of the hospital would likely be understaffed, but what could a boy -- who definitely could not be eighteen -- want with being a volunteer at the hospital. "I... How about you come in, and we'll have a proper talk in my office?" Adrián offered the boy, because he wasn't sure what the boy wanted, and talking on the streets was most certainly not the right place for offering someone a job at the hospital.

Guest

Avalon watched closely as the man's lips curled upwards for a moment before deflating back one more to something that was not quite a smile but not quite a frown. He wondered if his statement had been worrisome, though it had not been meant to be. It was not something unusual, to stand outside of a building and think. Or, at least he hadn't thought it to be unusual. This was not that first time that he'd used St.Mungos as a thinking spot, but it was the first time that he'd been acknowledged.

"Thank you," He responded, smiling at the man's area of expertise. Avalon had a soft spot for pediatric healers and doctors, partly due to Gwen and partly due to himself. In his life, the boy had been through many altercations in which he would not have survived without someone like the man in front of him.

For the better (or worse) half of his life, Avalon's closest friends had been doctors in the pediatric ward. After the fourth or so visit, they knew him by face. The doctors used to bring him toys and candy in order to make him smile, especially once Gwen started to get really sick. There was still a chest in his room somewhere that held his gifts.

One birthday, a male nurse brought him a small doll with a broken arm. The doll was fair skinned with dark brown hair, accompanied by emerald eyes with more life than any doll he'd ever seen before. The doll had to legs and two feet, but it had only one arm. It had been odd, having a baby doll with only its left arm in tact. But Avalon had never questioned why the nurse had given him a broken doll. He hadn't cared.

In the present, the male doctor was inviting Avalon into his office to discuss. Avalon grimaced mentally. Had he embarrassed the man? Perhaps he did not want to be seen talking to a child when he did not need to be talking to a child.

"You have questions," Avalon suggested, knowing that there was sure to be at least one thing on the man's mind.

Guest

The point of him having questions was one that Adrián simply nodded in response to. There was nothing to add there, and Adrián was not going to dally around the point, either. So, Adrián reached out for the door, and pulled it open, motioning for the boy to head in in front of him.

What the kid was expecting, Adrián couldn't be sure, but they would soon get to the bottom on this. "Head up to the fourth floor, take a left when you come out of the elevator, and my office is the third on the write. Healer García." Adrián explained, following the boy in and veering off to the left to sign himself in, and get a quick update on the patients he'd left the previous day.

After that, he checked by one his senior's offices, getting some info on volunteering, before Adrián headed to his office.

"So, let's start simple." Adrián told the boy, motioning for him to take a seat as Adrián moved to sit the other side of his desk. "What's your name?" Adrián asked politely, because that was the easiest of questions to ask, from there, this was likely going to get a little bit more complicated.

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