[FIN] Deep Breaths

[TawnyAngel]

"You needed it," Dith observed as he got to his feet and stretched out his back and shoulders. "You probably also need a drink," he added as he moved to the little table of bits and pieces and filled a glass from the same bottle he'd used to fill the kettle earlier. "Here," he crossed the room to Abel and presented it, "you don't need dehydration on top of everything else.... How are you feeling?" He knew the answer wouldn't be good, if Abel was honest anyway, but what kind of bad would he admit to?  

[BlackFireKitsune]

"Ah, I can't really deny that I guess," he said ruefully as he stretched out his shoulders a bit, then flopped his arms back into his lap. Isaac had made the probably wise decision to curl up beside him this time, just in case. Ah, water; the blond accepted it gratefully. "Thank you. Yeah I don't really need dehydration too..." On top of exhaustion and self-induced starvation, though to be fair he was trying to prevent the latter. He didn't usually, but this time he wanted to. Zevran would want him to.

How was he feeling, though... Abel frowned as he took a long sip of water to give himself time to think. "Worried," he said after he'd swallowed and had a moment to think, and focused his gaze down at the contents of his glass. "Anxious, afraid. I just... I just want him to be okay."  

[TawnyAngel]

"Mmmh." Dith nodded agreement with Abel's simple wish and sat down on the other end of the sofa looking down at his large hands. "You had a pretty close call yourself Abel, has anyone had a look at your ear since last night? An infection would be even worse than dehydration." Somebody, or somebodies, had very nearly killed both of them. Who, and why? Much as he was concerned for Abel's boyfriend it was these questions that kept running around in his mind.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

When Dith pointed it out like that he couldn't help but realize that he probably had - not as close as Zevran, and in some ways much closer - and almost subconsciously one hand lifted to gingerly touch the bandage over his ear. They'd given him something for it the night before but that had long since worn off and he just... hadn't thought about it since then. Perhaps having such a huge source of stress and anxiety weighing him down numbed the dull, aching pain he could feel in it now. "Ah... That's fair." He didn't say which point was fair but continued, "No one's looked at it since we came in last night, no."  

[TawnyAngel]

Somehow this did not surprise him. Finding somebody who had time to look at it within the next forty five minutes was... well it was possible but it would be quicker and easier if he did it himself. Anyway, it would give them a chance to talk.

Dith made a bass rumbling noise that a Rhydon wouldn't have been ashamed of and got to his feet. "Alright; hang on here a minute and I'll get some supplies and look for you, much quicker than trying to get looked at in minor injuries." Again, he shouldn't but at this point what the hell. "Grab another coffee or more water if you want, I won't be long," he said as he headed to the door.

There was a supply closet not far down the hall and nobody inside to comment on his grabbing the few bits and pieces he needed; gloves, fresh dressing, tape, and a cadexomer iodine wipe all in their individual packages. The day they installed cctv by all the supply closets was the day 75% of the staff found themselves receiving strongly worded letters, but Dith reasoned he and 99% of those 75% had more than earned such little things though unpaid overtime anyway.

With the slightly pilfered, definitely deserved items in his pockets Dith made his way back to his office and beeped back in.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

The noise that rumbled up from Dith's throat made it perfectly clear how he felt about the matter of Abel not getting his ear checked on since the night before, but really it had only been... well by now it had been quite a few hours but still less than twelve, so surely it wasn't that big a deal? Maybe it was to him because he was a doctor. Still, the offer surprised him and it showed plainly on his face, but Dith was out of the room again before he could think to counter or argue the point at all. Well.... well. To be fair he'd much rather someone he knew and was familiar and comfortable with to check on it as opposed to someone else - and in a more sterile, uncomfortable environment - so it was probably for the best he let him do it anyway. Plus he had the distinct impression Dith would do it whether he wanted him to or not.

While water was good it wouldn't do much to help him stay awake, so once he'd gotten over the initial surprise at his sudden decision and departure, Abel stood and moved to get himself another coffee - that he would actually finish this time - though by the time Dith returned he'd only gotten as far as reaching the kettle and set it to boil. "I'm pretty sure I know what you're gonna say already but I feel obligated to say it just the same," he began as he got a readied a mug, "but you don't have to check out my ear or anything, you've helped me so much already. Both of us," he amended a moment later, his voice softening just a tad.  

[TawnyAngel]

Dith perched on the arm of the sofa beside Abel and pushed his sleeves back. He had been about to put on the gloves when his young friend spoke, and he paused in the action of opening the package to give Abel's shoulder a squeeze. "I think you need somebody to fuss over you a bit at the moment," he replied. He didn't remember where Abel's family lived, maybe he'd never asked, but he gathered they weren't in Kodo to provide support as they'd no doubt want to.

Once he had the gloves on Dith carefully removed the old dressing and put them into the bag his gloves had come out. "Looks okay," he informed Abel as he inspected the wound. "They gave you a couple of neat sutures but you'll have a bit of a hole when it heals up. It will sting a bit as I clean it, sorry about that." Dith fetched out the iodine wipe and scare to carefully clean the area. "You can probably take care of this yourself now at home, the sutures are the dissolving kind so you don't need to come back for removal."  

[BlackFireKitsune]

His coffee was ready in short order, and once he stirred it a bit he returned to the couch with mug in hand.

Dith's statement made him open his mouth to argue, think better of it, then shut it again as he stared down at the mug in his hands. "I'm sure my mom would agree with that," he noted aloud, his gaze never leaving the steaming coffee as he spoke, and as Dith began to tend to his wound. It was still very much tender and painful, fresh as it was, and as much as he tried to suppress the instinct he couldn't help but flinch once or twice. Cleaning it would be even worse, he was sure... oh well. "At least it looks okay," he said for want of something to say about it. "Thanks for checking it for me. I really do appreciate all your help, I just..." He frowned a bit as he licked his lips a little uncertainly. It was difficult to properly convey gratitude with anxiety and fear weighing him down as much as it was, but he didn't want Dith to think him ungrateful or anything. Maybe he'd be satisfied with that.  

[TawnyAngel]

Once he was satisfied with how the wound looked Dith taped the new dressing in place and shoved all of the things he'd used into the first plastic bag. "You don't need to say anything, I understand," he assured Abel and gave his shoulder another brief squeeze. He saw people as lost and afraid as Abel looked every day either struggling to convey how they felt or struggling to hide it, sometimes seemingly both at words; to say what they wanted to but not to show it.

Dith rose from his seat on the arm of the couch and tossed the bag of bits into the bin. Another coffee sounded good to him too and so he went over to top up the dregs of his last cup with fresh hot water, more coffee and more milk powder. As he stirred away the milk-lumps he turned back to Abel, and now he found that he was struggling to think of anything to say himself. Would Abel have mentioned it if whoever had done this was still prowling around? He honestly didn't know; if Abel thought admitting it might lead to trouble for himself of Zevran he might not. How the hell was he supposed to ask about that though?

After a slight pause Dith asked; "Were any of your pokemon hurt at all?" If so he guessed not badly or Abel would be worrying about them too.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

Oh, yep, cleaning hurt. Abel winced but tried his best to stay as still as he could until Dith finished, and once he had he sighed softly and took a sip from his mug. "Thanks," he said gratefully. It hurt and burned and ached now but that was fine; he could probably even ignore it with enough gritting his teeth and distractions.

Like conversations.

Abel was in the middle of another sip of coffee when Dith posed his question, so he shook his head first and a moment or two later he added, "No, they're all fine. Just worried."  

[TawnyAngel]

Dith glanced at the subdued Butterfree on the back of the sofa and nodded. "Good, I'm glad they're not injured."

Perhaps he should just ask. It wasn't his job to ask but it wasn't his job to do any of what he was doing at the moment so perhaps it didn't matter.

Dith sighed, rubbed the scarred side of his face and looked at Abel again. "Abel what happened? What keeps happening? You've been in here twice in the last year or so and now this? The first time I believed it was just bad luck, the second time I had trouble doing so but now... I'm worried about you."  

[BlackFireKitsune]

Oh.

Perhaps he should've expected the question - actually in retrospect he absolutely should've expected it - but hearing it still caught him off guard and he stared somewhat fretfully down into his coffee before taking a sip. "This was different," he said after he'd swallowed, not wanting to meet Dith's gaze. "The first two times were bad luck," which wasn't exactly a lie, just not the whole truth but it was something he would never admit to anyone else, especially with as complicated as it was, "but this was... it's.. complicated." s**t, both were complicated. But he'd already admitted this much and Taavi had seemed satisfied with the vague answer he'd been given, so perhaps Dith would be too. ...maybe. If he wasn't satisfied with what he'd said so far; somehow Abel expected he wouldn't be and would press further but a guy could hope, right?  

[TawnyAngel]

Complicated.

Bad luck, and complicated.

Dith opened his mouth to say something, realised he hadn't thought about it at all and closed his mouth again. He sighed. He sipped at his coffee, a bit too hot to drink properly yet but small sips were okay.

"Complicated," Dith echoed after a few moments of considered silence. "And if you're going home tonight might things get 'complicated' again? Might complicated turn up here? Some people had a very good try at killing both of you but you've not made any mention of involving the police... not that I blame you for that - " Dith scowled darkly, he trusted the average officer of the law as far as he could hurl a Snorlax. "- but that you haven't mentioned it, haven't mentioned it on any of the three occasions, makes me wonder even more than your series of bad luck itself."  

[BlackFireKitsune]

For the second time that morning Abel had lost his desire for the coffee in his hands.

With a quiet sigh he freed one hand to rub it over his face. "It won't, not for me. I'm fine, it's..." It's what? Dith was obviously incredibly suspicious now, maybe even of them, maybe worried about the hospital and its staff - his coworker's he obviously liked and respected and whose company he enjoyed - and his unhelpful broken answers probably weren't making things any better. Good job Abel, way to go. Spectacular performance.

The blond exhaled through his nose and wrapped both hands around his mug as he frowned down into the coffee within. "Zevran isn't from Kodo. He's not from anywhere I'd ever heard of before I met him, and from what he's told me about it it's not somewhere I ever want to go, for a brief visit or otherwise. It's... it's a different sort of place - very different, a lot less friendly even with Team Rocket here - and it's one that doesn't trust outsiders. Doesn't like them. It likes its own people who want to leave - or actually do leave - even less. Zevran left and I'm glad he did because his life is so much better here, he's actually happy here, and while I'm sure most everyone there thought he'd died there were obviously some who thought otherwise, so they hunted him down here and tried to get him to go back," he explained, taking a break for a moment to breathe, to gather his thoughts, and to take another sip of his coffee. "He didn't want to go back and I will never blame him for not wanting to, but they did. They shot him for saying no, and they shot at me for trying to protect him. Our Pokémon ran them off and I'm sincerely hoping they think he died. I don't want to involve the police," here his expression soured as if he'd just tasted something particularly unpleasant and his hands tensed around his mug, "because if they found out - if his name or a picture of him or both got out - then they would know he lived, and I've no doubt they'd come hunt him down again to finish the job."

After a pause he looked up to finally meet Dith's gaze, his own expression level. "Does that answer your question?"  

[TawnyAngel]

Well. That answered that question then, more or less.

Dith nodded at Abel, took another careful sip of his coffee and allowed his gaze to drift away to one of the pictures on the wall. "I see." It sounded as though the issued was probably resolved.... Probably. If the people who had come here had believed him alive when others had not to begin with though might they still think he'd survived? "I think it does, and I hope you're right. You think these people left Kodo? I only wonder if, even if they believe he died, if they might have a grudge against you."