[FIN] Some News

[BlackFireKitsune]

With the sound reduced a tad more and Zevran quickly slipping towards slumber once more, Abel carefully, gently rested the device back on the bed for now, and while his love slept he continued to hold his hand and keep watch over him.

Eventually a sound outside the curtains startled him out of what had been a peaceful, absent-minded reverie, and he looked up as if he could see through the curtains. Not that he could, of course. "Oh, yeah, come on in," Abel replied softly after a brief pause in which he glanced back down at his boyfriend on his bed, and added, "Zev's asleep." While he was sure Dith didn't (always) try to be loud, sometimes he.. well, he was. Sometimes quite loud, and even though Zevran had headphones in, he suspected they wouldn't keep out loud voices well at all, and the shorter blond needed as much rest as he could get.  

[TawnyAngel]

He knew 'so please keep it down you big Rhydon' when he heard it! The warning wasn't unwarranted.

Dith moved the curtain enough to step inside and greeted Abel with a smile as he then pushed it back into place. With work over for the day Dith had changed into a t-shirt and sweatpants, frankly mostly so people didn't try to stop him and ask him questions as they often did if you were in scrubs. Questions from people he didn't know was not something he wanted to deal with just now, and they wouldn't get a very intelligent answer from him anyway!

"Sorry I haven't been down to see you the last couple of days... Has it been a couple of days?" Dith said softly, and he frowned thoughtfully and scratched his jaw as he tried to work it out. After a few moments he shrugged and continued; "But I'm glad to see you up here instead of in the ICU now, Summer directed me to find you. How have you been?"  

[BlackFireKitsune]

Abel aimed a slightly weary, slightly tired smile at his friend as he entered - quietly, thankfully - and nodded his head. "I think it's been a couple of days, yeah, though it kinda feels like everything sort of runs together, y'know?" A couple of days ago Zevran had been shot, and Abel had no idea for a time whether he was alive or dead. A couple of days ago - perhaps more like a few than a couple - they'd been enjoying their date, worrying about their potentially short future... and confessing their feelings for one another. A lot could happen - and had happened - in just a couple of days. It didn't help that he wasn't sleeping much or as well as he could.

"I'm glad to be up here too. I'll miss everyone down in the ICU - Summer especially - but yeah, I'm glad he's moved up here. I'm..." The blond paused to think and to frown before he shrugged and continued on, his voice soft, "I'm okay. My ear still hurts but I'll live. And so will he," he added, his gaze shifting to his sleeping boyfriend's peaceful face, "which is the most important thing." Abel's gaze swept back up to Dith's a moment later, his weary smile still present. "How about you? Besides busy, I'm guessing." But not busy any longer, or at least not at the moment. Not dressed like that.  

[TawnyAngel]

Dith nodded seriously as Abel spoke and then sat down, carefully, in the spare plastic seat. "Busy," he agreed, "a lot has happened but it's been a pretty good couple of days for me. I will be going home soon but like I said, I wanted to come by and see how everything was." There was one thing that was still worrying him a little, namely what insurance Zevran had or didn't have. Now seemed like a good time to find out from Abel, before other people started asking him or Zevran the same question.

After a brief pause Dith hazarded; "Nobody has asked Zev to sign anything have they?" He didn't think that the nurses in the ICU would have allowed interruptions so petty but you never knew.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

"That's good -- both of those are good, actually, and thanks," the blond said, his smile warming a bit. "I appreciate you stopping by to see how he's doing. We're doing, I guess," he amended after a moment, then shrugged. Zevran was the injured one, after all - Abel hardly counted his ear, something he forgot about more often than not with how focused he was on his boyfriend, which was for the best because it usually meant he also forgot about the pain - so of course he was the more important one to check on.

Any thoughts on Zevran and his well-being were promptly derailed by Dith's question, one Abel hadn't expected, and he turned a mildly puzzled expression towards him. "No, not yet," he said with a shake of his head. "They've mostly been letting him sleep as much as possible. Why?" Sign... what? Nothing to do with the police, right? ..no, no, he doubted that. If the police were involved then one or the other of them would know by now, assuredly. Was it about the hospital, then? Waivers, or... oh no, he wasn't thinking of payment, was he? That absolutely was not something he wanted to think of yet, because he was sure there was absolutely no way either of them could afford it. Better to just not think of it until later, when they'd had time to get their feet back under them again.  

[TawnyAngel]

"Ah, good," Dith nodded, frowning a little as he considered the next question in his mental buffer. "At some point soon somebody on the more administrative side of things will want to know about his insurance... Does he have any?" He had been assuming that he did not, perhaps it was just the facial tattoos but he couldn't imagine Zevran having the kind of job that gave you a nice policy.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

Aaaand yep, there it was. It was a practical question though, he had to concede that much, even if he didn't want to. With a frown the blond's gaze once more dipped down to his boyfriend's face. All he could do was shake his head. Of course they'd want to know, but it was easier talking to Dith about it than some stranger. "No, he doesn't."  

[TawnyAngel]

Dith grunted and nodded again. "I thought he might not." Damn, he hoped he could fix this. If he couldn't then Zevran was going to be looking at a bill of three hundred k, maybe more. He really, really missed socialised healthcare. "Well next he wakes up tell him not to sign any agreements and don't you sign anything on his behalf either. I will..." Dith paused for a moment and then shrugged. "I will talk to some people tomorrow, call in some favours, I might be able to get something worked out."  

[BlackFireKitsune]

Abel shook his head once more but felt there wasn't much else he could really say on the subject, so he remained silent on it.

For a moment.

The next moment his gaze darted back up to Dith, his eyebrows lifting. Could he really--? "I couldn't ask you to do that," he said, swatting away the hope that surged up into his heart because how could he accept that? ...but then it wasn't his place to accept it, was it? "You've done so much for us both already, I..." No, it wasn't his place to accept or deny it, and if Dith really wanted to try and work something out then he would do so regardless of what Abel said or did -- or what Zevran said or did, were he awake to offer his own thoughts on the matter.

...but if Dith did work something out, it could mean less for Zevran to worry about, to repay, and that was a wonderful thing when he already had so much on his plate to stress over.  

[TawnyAngel]

Dith smiled wearily and spread his hands openly. "I have to give it a try. Sometimes hospitals will write off part, or all of a bill. Usually it's a combination of thinking there's little chance of getting much money back and it being," and now Dith frowned deeply, "the right sort of people, if you know what I mean." Ugh. "As an insider though I know the people to talk to about this, I'll get the best out of them I can." After everything that had happened, whatever the hell it had been, Zev and Abel didn't need to worry about money on top of it. No, one way or another he was going to fix this for his friends. It was damned unfair that it happened to anyone but to somebody he cared about? Not a chance. They were both young, just getting into their adult lives, how could he face himself knowing he had allowed crippling debt to land on Zevran, or more likely both of them if he knew Abel? He couldn't, plain and simple.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

"Well, that's..." Wonderful? Amazing? Generous? Amazing? "Kind of you," he said lamely, after floundering a bit to find a word to say that didn't sound so desperate, but it didn't quite convey how he really felt. "Amazing, really, and I'd appreciate it if you could. Even if you don't get anywhere, I appreciate you trying. Zev would too, I'm sure," he added with a glance down at his boyfriend, "or will when he finds out later. I.. haven't really given much thought to how much it'd cost - I've been trying not to think about it just yet - but I figured it'd be expensive. Really, really expensive, which is.. why I've been trying not to think about it. It's why I haven't talked to him about it yet either, he already has so much to think about and stress over, I don't want him to think about this too..." Or at least, not yet. They could cross that bridge when they came to it, and if Dith could help, then perhaps it'd be a shorter, smaller bridge than it would be otherwise.  

[TawnyAngel]

Trying not to think about it was a very, very understandable reaction. When there was nothing you could do about impending doom it didn't do you any favours to obsess over it, and when you had just been focused on survival in any case...

"I would be trying not to think about it too, and I hope I can help." Humm. It was office hours right now, perhaps he should... No, no he should come back tomorrow when he wasn't exhausted. Rushing right into things was tempting but not all that often the best option.

"But that aside," Dith smiled, doubting that Abel could easily put the worry away, "do you know how much longer Zev will have to stay here?" He still looked wan and washed out but a hundred times better than last Dith had seen him.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

Well, it was some small comfort to know his line of thought was shared were Dith in his position. "I hope so too; thank you for trying. And wanting to try," he added. He glanced down briefly to ensure Zevran's CD player was still playing, and once assured it was he looked back up at Dith with a small, wan smile.

That aside indeed, as if he could tuck away the weight hanging over them with such ease... "Ah, no," the blond admitted with a shake of his head, "I haven't had the chance to ask anyone yet, but I'm guessing probably around a week. Hopefully less," he added with another glance down at his sleeping boyfriend. "I know he'd like it to be less."  

[TawnyAngel]

"I hope so too, being a patient is no fun," Dith said with feeling, resisting the urge to rub the scarred side of his face as he spoke. "And you know that perfectly well yourself of course," he added with a wry smile to Abel. "Anything else you're short of? Information, supplies? It looks like you're well set with entertainment at least." Hopefully it would help the time pass more quickly for them both, and for Zev whenever Abel wasn't around.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

Dith's response made him chuckle a bit, his smile brightening as he shook his head. "It's no fun at all," he agreed with just as much feeling, "and I do know t hat quite well. More than I'd like to, but," the blond shrugged in lieu of ending his sentence properly. It was what it was. The question his friend posed required a bit more thought though, and he hummed while giving it due consideration before finally shaking his head, "No, I don't think so. Not anything you could give, at any rate," he added - things like rest, relaxation, a reprieve from all the awful things happening... No, Dith couldn't give those things, much as he might want to. "I think we're okay for now. Thanks though." Dith had already done so much for them both and had conveyed his intentions to do more, and still wanted to do more than that; he'd really need to find some way to repay him for his kindness.