Fool's Rook [Closed]

[saronym]

Playing eye tag with his disagreeable brother-in-law, or however their relationship could be described now, was becoming quickly unamusing. Although he enjoyed making the doctor uncomfortable, Owen was beginning to wonder if he had found something wrong with his new (or old?) body. Despite several weeks of gaping mouths, bewildered eyes, and uncomfortable stares from other 'loved-ones' he had visited, he still wasn’t used to being an object of curiosity. Although he certainly liked being the center of attention, contemplating his mysterious resurrection was harrowing at best. Plus being a medical or physical or magical oddity was nothing more than tedious. 

In a word, Owen was bored. He was sprawled in the hospital bed, glad for something comfortable to lie on after sleeping in a borrowed car for days. He didn’t even mind the scratchy hospital gown that adorned his body. He purposefully neglected to cover himself with a blanket just to be that much more insufferable to the doctor. Long legs and a near scandalous length of masculine thigh were exposed by the ill-fitting gown, if the garment could even be called that. The arm with IV access was stretched out palm up; the other lazily tucked behind his head. 

His eyes followed Kama’s to the monitors and clip board when the other man looked away, refusing eye contact. Owen had been previously fascinated by his own heart rhythm on the monitor; but the beeps and bloops were grating to him now. It sort of emphasized the fact that he was always one failed beat away from the humiliation (or privilege, if he was an optimist) of a second death, which was the harrowing part of contemplating his resurrection.

He exhaled loudly at the replicated question. It was a sigh in the form of a complaint. Perhaps if Owen did try harder to remember he at least might be able to characterize what being dead felt like; what 'waking up' felt like. But any such efforts produced nothing but emotional distress that Owen was not comfortable with feeling. Also it damaged his pride a bit that he succumbed to mortal ending. Not that he could have helped that. Thus, he excused himself from any undue retrospective efforts. “Nope, not a thing. Memory is blank. But we’ve established that, yes?” Although he was exasperated with the medical questioning, Owen was shying away from asking the real questions, too. The where-is-my-wife? and is-she-safe/happy/well? and did-she-get-re-married/she-remained-celibate-right? questions he still wasn’t sure he was prepared to hear the answers for. So, for now at least, he didn’t ask.

“You’re a smart guy so I’m sure you have some brainy theories.” Owen wasn’t privy to any conversations Kama had about him. So he poked fun at what he assumed was the doctor’s ignorance more or less as a means to prolong their mutual avoidance of conversation concerning his once wife.