[FIN] Deep Breaths

[TawnyAngel]

As Abel seemed to be a bit occupied Dith just nodded and replied; "You're welcome."

First came; //<3//

Then; //I know a guy. Waiting to hear back. You need anything brought over? I'm up now.//

And shortly after that; //I always wanted to say I know a guy. I thought about not saying that because its not the time but then I said it anyway.//  

[BlackFireKitsune]

At first he merely felt grateful but his final text gave him pause, and despite everything he couldn't help the brief, amused smile that formed. //You're such a dork. I don't need anything, thanks though. Heading back down to ICU in a minute//

After a moment or two he sent a second text: //<3//

With that done he pocketed his phone, polished off the rest of his coffee and looked over at Dith. "Is it too early to head down to the ICU again, d'you think?"  

[TawnyAngel]

It had been only a couple of hours but to Abel it must feel like a lifetime. "Let's go," Dith decided aloud as his eye finished scanning a paragraph on his laptop, which he then closed as he got to his feet. "They may not let you back in yet but it's not the start of my shift quite yet, which means I can go back with you and if Chakwas is busy I can introduce you to Dr. Solus. We can also find who is the Charge Nurse on shift and who is looking after Zevran." They would introduce themselves in due course anyway but by turning up and being large, slightly loud, and much known he could make that happen more quickly. Sometimes being built slightly off scale had its advantages.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

Ah, good, they were going! Brightening up a bit at the thought of going back finally - two hours had felt like far too long a time, even if he'd been asleep for half of it - and stood, ready to follow his friend. "I don't mind waiting a bit more, but I'd like to meet them if I can, yeah. Oh," he gestured with his mug before he forgot about it again, "d'you want me to wash this out first?"  

[TawnyAngel]

"Oh? No, don't worry," Dith waved Abel off with a smile. "Leave it on my desk, use it again when you're next in here. I'll wash it when I do mine, it's as easy to do one mug as two and it's on another floor so it's not worth going just now. If you want to toss cold coffee at all," he jerked a thumb a the window and grinned. "It's only over a flat roof of another bit of the building that's only the ground floor. Just check there's nobody out there before you pour it, I got a bollocking from the maintenance guys once."  

[BlackFireKitsune]

"Ah okay," he said with a nod as he moved to set the mug down as bid, and despite the whole morbid situation he couldn't help the small smile at his words. "I'll be careful if I do toss it out the window, I don't want to get yelled at for that. And thanks again for letting me stay in here," he said again, because he couldn't say it enough.  

[TawnyAngel]

Dith smiled and shrugged. "I'm happy I can help at least a bit." With Abel's family far away and Zevran's non existent somebody needed to fill the void of worried parental unit on the scene.

A couple of minutes later they were outside the ICU and then, once the cycle of hand cleansing was complete, they stepped inside. Everything was much the same as it had been earlier in the morning, a few people in the waiting room and a lot of staff moving around with purpose. Dr. Chakwas was nowhere to be seen but there was a very tall, excessively skinny bald man in a white coat speaking animatedly to a group of young people who were also wearing white coats. Dith gestured to the man and then, when he seemed to have caught his eye, waved.

"That would be Dr. Solus, second tallest doctor in the hospital," Dith said under his breath with a slight hint of amusement.

Dr. Solus finished up with the young doctors in short order and practically glided over to Dith and Abel. He blinked in a faintly amphibian manner and smiled. "Ah, Dima and friend. You must be connected to our Mr. X, Zevran? He's lucky, tough. Currently occupied. Do you need to know anything? We have rounds to do but they can wait a while."  

[BlackFireKitsune]

The walk down was short enough, thankfully, with as antsy as he was to get back to his boyfriend's side. Dr. Chakwas wasn't anywhere in sight but another doctor was, one who Dith promptly pointed out as the one they'd mentioned earlier. When Dr. Solus swept over to them and posed his question Abel nodded, offering a faint smile. "I am, yeah. Name's Abel, nice to meet you. Ah, Dr. Chakwas told me to come back about noon. How's he doing?"  

[TawnyAngel]

Dr. Solus sniffed thoughtfully and gestured with a large spidery hand, his gaze seemed to settle on Abel only incidentally as his dark eyes flicked around the place. "Quite well, lucky and tough as I said. A slight fever as of eleven hours thirty, we are adjusting medications to compensate. With luck this is a minor affliction, not pneumonia related to the intubation -" Solus sniffed again "- early for that to manifest but possible. No sign of inflammation at wound site, which is positive... Oh, and it is nice to meet you as well Abel."

Dith smiled wryly, clearly no surprised by the clipped and slightly odd phrasing, and gestured openly towards Abel. "Dr. Chakwas told Abel to expect a musical, I hope you'll follow through?"

"Oh?" Another exaggerated blink. "Well I can certainly do my best! I have been working on my Gilbert and Sullivan of the ICU. People don't usually want to hear me though."

"You can serenade me any time you like!" Dith chuckled.

"Oh I know." Solus blinked. "You're easy."  

[BlackFireKitsune]

Abel paid no mind to the rather disjointed phrasing as the man gave his response, though the fever that had developed in his absence bothered him. At least it wasn't bad... Or at least it didn't sound that bad, if it was only slight. Either way he kind of drifted back and forth in his speech, and the blond couldn't help but think he drifted around in a lot of ways with his life. Not that that was a bad thing, and he did seem nice so far; his interaction with Dith piqued his curiosity but he wasn't about to pose any questions. No, definitely not.

"I like musicals," he supplied probably unhelpfully, though his focus turned to Dr. Solus after a moment or two. "His fever isn't serious, is it? Or is it too early to tell?"  

[TawnyAngel]

Solus shook his head. "Not a cause for concern at the moment, probably minor. We're monitoring him closely so if anything doesn't look right we'll catch it early, sort it out. Now if you don't need anything else, should start my rounds. Nurse Johnson is charge nurse for the shift," he gestured into a nearby room where a stocky man in scrubs was speaking to a man and a woman, "anything non-urgent, ask him or one of his team."  

[BlackFireKitsune]

Well that was a relief, to be sure; not only were they not too concerned about it, even if it did turn out to be something worse they'd catch it quickly. Zev was being monitored 24/7 anyway so that was good. That was okay. "Alright, thank you," he said gratefully, making note of the nurse he gestured to in case he had any questions later.

Turning to Dith he asked, "D'you have to leave for your shift soon?"  

[TawnyAngel]

"Very well then. Expect I shall see you later." Dr. Solus nodded to Abel, to Dith, and then turned neatly on his heel and glided back over to the group of young doctors.

Dith smiled slightly and shook his head; as the saying went, you didn't have to be a bit weird to work here....

"Yes," Dith looked down at Abel and nodded in response to his question, "I should get going now really. I probably won't have time to come by during my shift but I'll catch up with you tomorrow if not before, alright?"  

[BlackFireKitsune]

Aaand there he went; Abel smiled faintly. "He seems nice," he noted aloud before focusing back on his friend. "Ah, okay, that's fair. I wouldn't want you to be late because you were hanging out with me down here too long. But yeah, I'll see you later sometime." If not later tonight or tomorrow morning, then quite possibly in his office at some point. Either way he offered his friend a small, grateful smile, "Thanks again for all your help, I really appreciate it."  

[TawnyAngel]

Dith clapped Abel firmly - but not too firmly - on the shoulder and returned his smile. "You're welcome. Take care of yourself okay? Go get water every couple of hours, grab a snack in the afternoon, eat something proper when visiting hours end if not before. See you later." There wasn't much else to say for now and so Dith gave Abel's shoulder a last squeeze and then turned to leave the ICU.