6005/Breaking the Gift Ban

Breaking the Gift Ban
Date of Scene:	16 December 2018
Location:	New York City
Synopsis:	Rhodey manages to infiltrate the bastion that is Steve's recovery room. Eat your heart out, Ocean's Eleven - music's on the table tonight.
Cast of Characters:	Captain America, War Machine

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Captain America has posed:
Frabjous day! They have removed the sedative bag from Steve's IV and now the super-soldier is left to remain on bedrest for one more evening. He's perkier than last seen a good number of times over and raring to get out from beneath the hospital sheets. After all...there have been updates here and there as to the whereabouts of the Winter Soldier and he's got to try to beat others to the punch. His belief that one Bucky Barnes is beneath that facade is well-known by now.

He's managed to be sitting up of his own accord at this point. The sutures are healing well. He'll have to come back and have them removed in a few days, but even Doctor Keighley is impressed at how fast the man is healing. This late in the evening, the medical bay is again quiet. No one's minding the desk by the recovery room, but as always, the security team minds the cameras in the hallway. Steve mulls over paper reports given to him by Tony on matters, frowning tiredly down at them. Bedrest is the pits.

War Machine has posed:
     The doornob to the room jiggles slightly before the door opens in the middle of a sentence from Rhodes. The man is out of uniform dressed down in that simple bomber jacket and black pants. There's not really much of note about the clothing, it's not even designer, then again he doesn't really make designer clothes money.

     The view of his head is one in profile allowing that bright smile to be seen as he carries on whatever conversation was happening outside the room. "out the window for as much as he talks it up." A laugh and a smile coming from him as he walks over.

     His jacket is a bit... puffier... then normal. "Just next time ask him about the fishing trip we took over towards Cairo if you want a fun one." Closing the door behind himself Rhodes walks over towards cap.

     "Heard you're almost up to full speed" He says in a calm voice most the smile having gone from his face as he's got a bit of a serious stance. Looking over Cap it's clear he's at least a little mad about the situation. A single hand reaching over to the jacket as he takes it off from his shoulders beginning to pull something out from it. "Hard to get a straight answer but what's your take?"

Captain America has posed:
With his senses not dulled, the approach of the conversation outside the door, muted as it is, catches Steve's attention. He pauses with one piece of paper half-turned from the small bundle and eyes the door in his usual semi-wary state, mild as his expression is. A quick shuffling of the pages and he clips them together again to place them face-down on his side table, beneath the near-pound of jellybeans given to him by Jessica Drew on a drugged request.

He recognizes the face that comes through the door however and grins, those dimples showing up. "Ready to be out of this place," he confirms to Rhodes. "Daytime TV really is a mind-rot." His gaze falls to the reach inside the jacket briefly, but out of curiosity, not concern. The gift ban remains despite multiple attempts to bring cheer to the Captain. Rhodes' second question brings back the weary yet obstinate set of his jaw. He nods.

"That he's out there and he's going to try again. If he's not going to come for me directly, it'll be doing after others. Indirect, to try and lure me out." It's clear as he says this that he's convinced that gamble might well work.

War Machine has posed:
     There's a pause in Rhodes movements as he's ruffling round in the jacket. It's a brief one but one that's noticeable. He gives a silent nod. What he pulls out of the jacket is at first a small horn. Rhodes sets it on the table next to cap, and then pulls out a wooden box.

     "Well the good news is" As Rhodes pulls out one wooden leg after the next setting the box down at rough waist level."You tend to pick friends who have a bit of a knack" Slowly twisting the horn into place. "For taking care of themselves."

     Another reach into his jacket pulls out a hand crank. "You're fairly smart that way." He tosses it once in his hand before threading it into place.

Captain America has posed:
A soft 'hmph' of a laugh from Steve. "Thanks, Rhodes, good to know I've got some sense somewhere in here," and he briefly taps at his temple with one finger. The movement's already smoother and more coordinated than yesterday, proof of the serum in his body at work. He watches the man's actions, intrigued despite himself.

"Is that...?" He deliberately leaves the questioning hanging, having recognized a few of the parts already.

War Machine has posed:
     "Going to get me beat half to death by Dr.Keighley?" Rhodes finishes the sentence for cap without letting it hang for very long. His jacket by this point is much less over stuffed than it was before a bit of the interior stitching now pulled clean out. "Why yes it is."

     There's a long pause from Rhodes as he lowers one hand down onto the bed frame in order to support himself as he lifts up his left leg. Pulling up the pant leg slightly he undoes the shoelace and starts fiddling about with one of the loops that would hold said lace in place. "You know sometimes I worry Tony's starting to rub off on me."

     He shakes his head, reaching into that loop and pulling out a small bit of metal, hidden within. "They put metal detectors out there to make sure we weren't trying to sneak anything in." He explains while hooking that needle into place on the Gramophone.

     Rhodes finally moves over to a nearby potted plant. Pulling up the ficus there's a manila envelope. "Got you locked down tighter than Fort Knox." The plant gets sat back down where it was.

Captain America has posed:
"I dunno if I'd be worried about Doctor Keighley," Steve replies as he cranes his head to watch that piece of metal appear from inside Rhodes' shoe. "It'll be the nurse who'll be out for you. Nurse Danika." He frowns, his lips slowly lifting at the corners into what'll eventually be an incredulous smile by the time the other man's walking over to the potted plant.

That's when a small horse-laugh escapes the Captain, but how his abdominals twang is well worth the wince afterwards. No painkiller yet. "Fort Knox'll have some answering to do if anyone finds out about this here," and he gestures at the completed gramophone. Of course he waiting to see what's in the padded beige-gold envelope.

War Machine has posed:
     "Got no idea how much planning went into this." Rhodes comments as he undoes the little cloth tie around the manila envelope, again no metal used on the envelope itself. This whole thing has been handled to a T. "If you've seen oceans eleven just imagine that but with less car chases and more buying people on the janitorial staff lunch."

     He pauses for a moment. "Alright so it's almost nothing like that but still." He pulls out an old looking record still in its sleeve there's a signature on the front of it, but the light shining off it makes it hard to read.

     Rhodes pulls out a record from within the sleeve, a signature right on the label of the record itself as well. He places it down with care and winds the Gramophone with care. "I'll be honest I'm less worried about either of them then I am who they might hand me over to." A smile crossing Rhodes face as he places down the record and Bing Crosby's voice fills the room, singing My Blue Heaven.

     The quality may have worn a bit with age, but the song never gets quite old. Rhodes comes back to a stand after winding it up a bit more making sure it's got enough to keep it going through the song.

     "I also snagged Cowboy Songs, and Ballad for Americans, but this is the only one I was able to get signed." Rhodes adds after a few moments placing his hands down into his pockets after setting the envelope and the record sleeve down onto the table beside his bed. "Don't worry, I snuck those in too just so you wouldn't be stuck with one song."

Captain America has posed:
The Captain has to think for a second or two as to whether or not he's seen this film - Ocean's Eleven... He watches the old record appear and it seems his memory is jogged, though whether the appearance of the record has anything to truly do with it isn't certain.

"James, you of all people should know, in this place, there's always someone watching," he quips, twisting a line from Mister Ocean himself to fit the situation. When the easy bounce and jazzy upkicks of the big band strains come out of the gramophone, Steve just about grins from ear to ear.

"Music soothes the savage beast //and// the soul," he murmurs. "Been a long time since I've heard that song." One can see him mouth a few of the lyrics without actually committing to singing along with good old Bing. "And you got it signed to boot." He leans over to look at the record as it spins, still dimpling on one side of his lips. "Definitely right out of Ocean's Eleven. You able to tell me who you bought lunch for so I can thank them too?" Rhodes gets a sly side-look; Steve might want in on all the fun, if only to help run interference in the end.

War Machine has posed:
     "Me and a few of the other vets." Rhodes says with a bit of a smirk as it becomes perhaps a bit more clear he isn't exactly keen on giving away his cohorts. "After all." Said before a short pause. "Why waste those cute little tricks the army taught us just because it's sort of peaceful now?" Firing back a quote of his own as his hands go out of his pocket. Looking back down at his watch to see what his timing is like.

     "Either way, it looks like my window is closing." Said seemingly out of nowhere. He reaches into his jacket for one last item. Pulling it out it's certainly round like caps shield, but that object in Rhodes hand isn't nearly quite as round as it should be. The way its painted is an amateur job at best, and it looks like it was cracked in half at one point and taped back together. "Got you a replacement Shield while I was shopping for these." He throws it over that short distance to the bed while throwing his jacket back on now that it's a bit less bulky.

     The first guess could easily be that his niece made the thing. After all it looks like something the young girl could make. There was certainly effort put into it, but again it's far from professional.

     His hands go down into the pockets of that bomber jacket. "Just don't go using it to break your fall if you jump out from any windows." Rhodes double checking his time as the smart watch beeps the message popping up on it just reading Tango inbound T -30.

     "Yeah less time than I though, but like I said fort knox." Rhodes starts off in a bit of a leasurly pace towards the door, not really pausing for much in the way of chatter as he tries to look like he's NOT doing his best to outrun the nurse.

     On the shield in faded writing near that handle clearly made for a child is just the name Rhodes July 1980 written in long faded wax crayon.

Captain America has posed:
By the cheeky twist of Steve's grin, he gets it -- alright, no giving up the comrades of this evening's escapade. It's probably better in the long run, since someone's going to inevitably ask the Captain how the gramophone managed to appear in his room.

"A replacement shield?" The shield's right where it ought to be, stowed away safely behind SHIELD doors and walls and...various sundry protections. The man looks nonplussed for a second even as he reaches out to try and catch the light papier mache buckler. It bounces off his fingertips and he reaches carefully for it as to not strain his torso. He's visibly bemused as he looks it over, eyes scanning over the surface, before he flips it over to the backside to reveal the name and date. He gives Rhodes a wry little smile as he watches the man try and outrace the return of dread Nurse Danika. "I'll do my best to avoid anything more than a story at most," he tosses back, along with a pretty damn earnest, "Thanks, Rhodes."

The gramophone needs to be wound again, but Steve dutifully does it anyways and then settles back against the mound of pillows. Bing sings again about whippoorwills and his blue-blue heaven and for the first time since surgery, it's peaceful in that recovery room.