[FIN] Nothing Is Fine

[BlackFireKitsune]

Hours had gone by, he realized somewhat distantly, but everything had blended together so much that it felt surreal, like a terrible, painful nightmare that he couldn't wake up from. Rather than dwell on what had happened, Abel instead opted to withdraw into himself as much as possible, effectively shutting down outwardly. Paramedics had arrived and moved him to an ambulance; he moved as much as he could in his current state (which wasn't much given he couldn't stand on his own), responded readily (more or less) to questions they posed, but other than that he remained quiet and mournful.

Once at the hospital they whisked him away for diagnostics; tests were taken, x-rays performed, and he found himself poked and prodded far more often than he felt necessary given how much pain the actions elicited each time. Eventually he was wheeled into a small, quiet room and told to expect a doctor 'soon' - not that he knew how soon was 'soon' - before the nurse left and shut the door. Left alone to his own devices, Abel sighed lightly and leaned his head back against the stretcher - or maybe it had a different name? He wasn't too sure - and as he reached a hand up to gingerly touch the bruised side of his face, he endeavored to focus on the pain from his injuries rather than the pain in his heart.  

[TawnyAngel]

It was a normal enough day, which was as much as to say he'd started his shift two hours ago and hadn't had time to catch a breath since. Nothing too tragic had happened so far though so, good overall? "So what do we have here?" Dith asked as Helen passed him a chart; the dainty dark-skinned woman pointed down the hall and they set off together.

"Male in his mid twenties, came in a couple of hours ago," the nurse began with a faint frown. "Got himself beaten up-"

"Why? And by?"

Helen shrugged; "Don't know."

Dith shrugged too, it wasn't actually all that important from their point of view. "Nothing too serious?" he asked, it was quicker to ask than to scan the notes and plus he tended to bump into people if he walked and read these days with the lack of peripheral vision.

"Punctuated lung, concussion, two broken ribs are the main things but no sign of pneumothorax at present, though he's a smoker so-"

"Mmh, heightened risk," Dith agreed before Helen even finished.

"Right," Helen nodded. "Other than that there's a lot of bruising but no internal bleeds. Basically you don't need to do anything," she flashed a grin, "just give him the run down, let him know he's staying in at least until morning in case any issues develop with his lung."

"Orders received," Dith replied with a grin, saluting the small woman with the clipboard of notes. "He came in alone?" he added as an afterthought.

"No, he had a friend with him but once he was admitted he ran off to look for a missing Espeon?" Helen gave an expressive shrug. "He left his number, asked us to call if anything major came up. We haven't got any contacts for the patient's family, so." Another shrug. "He's in there," Helen gestured to a door before asking; "You on for poker on Wednesday? Johnny can't come but the rest of the usual gang are."

"Sure," Dith chuckled and nodded, "you can all fleece me. Again."

"That's the idea," Helen smirked, clapped Dith on the elbow - about as high as she could comfortably reach - and set off again towards the next disaster.

Dith snorted, shook his head and knocked on the door. Only then did he actually glance down at the chart in order to check the patient's name.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

Voices filtered in through the heavy door now and again, but Abel paid them no mind; he couldn't understand anything any of them said anyway, so he merely ignored them for now. Aaand yep, the area around his eye still hurt, he noted as he flinched at his own touch. His jaw was sore too on one side, and no doubt, the blond thought somewhat bitterly, there was a bruise developing there too. He didn't really understand why black eyes appeared so much faster than other bruises. Maybe it--

A knock at the door pulled him from his thoughts and his hand lifted from his face momentarily as he glanced in that direction. As far as he'd experienced, doctors knocked just a moment or two before entering, they didn't usually wait for an invitation. This one seemed to though, based on the slowly lengthening silence in which no one opened the door. "Come in?" Abel asked more than stated, his voice hoarse and uncertain if that was what was expected of him.  

[TawnyAngel]

Ah, good, they were awake-

What? Dith frowned at the name on the chart. Abel Gray? Surely not, there were probably a lot of people with that name? But the other facts fitted....

Well there was only one way to find out; Dith opened the door, stepped inside, pushed it shut again and.... Yes, there was Abel and he looked like s**t.

Dith smiled gently and crossed the room to stand beside the bed. "Well, if you wanted to hang out you only had to say. You didn't have to come see me at work." Looming was not ever the thing to do to people so he pulled over the plasticity chair and sat down; it creaked slightly in protest. "I just read your name on the chart but I thought- I hoped it wasn't you until I opened the door. How do you feel? I mean, what sort of grade of terrible?"

Abel. Somebody had beaten up one of his friends! If he found out who that was he-! Probably ought to hand them over to proper authorities but he wanted to hurt them.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

Ah, there they wer--

Abel's surprise manifested in his expression as the doctor entered the room. What were the odds it would be the only one he knew? Probably incredibly slim, but his head ached too much for him to want to think about it too much. A faintly amused smile flickered all too briefly across his face at the jest; he couldn't summon the will or energy for much more than that. "It wasn't on purpose, trust me," he replied, and though his choice of words were meant to be humorous, his tones and expression lacked any sort of mirth. His voice was quiet and strained as he struggled to speak in a way that hurt the least. With a soft frown he moved his hand away from his face and dropped it down beside him, instead taking to absently clenching and unclenching his fist. How did he feel indeed. "Like the worst kind of terrible," he finally replied.  

[TawnyAngel]

The worst; right, his friend had gone to look for a missing Espeon, which was Isaac. With Isaac missing.... Yeah, the worst kind of terrible.

Dith gave a heavy sigh and then spent a moment trying to prioritize information. After a few moments of thought he led with; "Your friend went to look for Isaac, did you know that? I have notes," he waved them, "But personal information is obviously lacking." And next? "Ah, do you have insurance?" He knew Abel had a job but that didn't mean that he was insured, and if he wasn't... well there were things to sort out over and above actual health issues.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

Mention of Isaac drew his brows together and etched a quiet frown into his features, while internally his stomach lurched and a cold, sick feeling of dread wash over him. His mouth moved to speak but no sound came out; he tried again a moment later and said simply, "Yeah." Whether that was to his knowledge of Taavi searching for Isaac or if he had insurance, if not both, he gave no indication.  

[TawnyAngel]

He wasn't sure what response he'd expected. ...Some response? That would have been a start.

Dith looked down at Abel's chart. "Well. You've got a punctured lung, a concussion, and two broken ribs. We need to keep you in for observation.... Which thing were you saying yeah to? Or was it both?" He really wanted to ask what had happened but this bit needed to be sorted out first of all.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

He exhaled through his nose and raised his hand to gently rub at the non-bruised half of his face. "Um," he started uncertainly, shutting his eyes, "both. How long's observation?"  

[TawnyAngel]

Ah, concussed Abel was concussed and also Isaac was missing. Why was Isaac missing? What had happened? Perhaps this nameless friend of Abel's could shed light? He had the number, it wouldn't be totally unprofessional of him to call in a private capacity. Both of them cared about Abel afterall.

"At least until morning, quite probably the afternoon," Dith supplied after a brief pause in which his flicked through the notes, they'd gone through another doctor's hands before his but Shara was gone for the night now so all he had to go by was her tidy tiny script.

Dith sighed, hung the chart on the end of the bed and lent back in his chair with a slight creak. "So can you tell me what happened? Was this... random?"  

[BlackFireKitsune]

Afternoon... What time was it? It had been late enough when he went out with Alyssa, and he had a vague feeling that at least a couple hours had passed, but what time was it now? He really wasn't sure. It wasn't morning yet obviously, but... "Alright," he said with a quiet sigh as he dropped his hand back to his side and mentally prepared himself for his apparently broken ribs to hurt more while he spoke. "I don't get into fights for fun on a regular basis, if that's what you're asking. Yeah, it was random; I got jumped on my way home."  

[TawnyAngel]

"I didn't think you did Abel," Dith replied with another faint smile and a shake of his head. "I was only.... Mmmh, perhaps I expect organized trouble too much these days." He was a lot happier here on Kodo than he had been for months, maybe years before arriving but he was also a lot more paranoid. Was it paranoid if it actually did happen a lot though? Beside the point right now, there were more immediate things to think about.

"You're going to involve the police?" Dith asked after a slight pause in which he got his brain on track. "This was... ah.... Well they didn't take your wallet or your phone. Perhaps they were scared off?" Or perhaps they'd had a different target, Isaac was a very lovely Espeon. Had they targeted Abel specifically to take him? If so that probably boded ill for Isaac; best case scenario - if he was correct about this - Isaac was sold alive on the black market to a collector. Worst case scenario he was sold... well.... For a moment he imagined it being Viktor who had been taken, Viktor potentially made into a purse or a set of gloves, and a cold shiver ran down his spine.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

Organized trouble? What did that mean? After pondering it for all of three seconds, in deference the pain fogging his mind he stopped and instead asked, "What d'you mean, organized trouble?" Given enough time and effort he was sure he could've puzzled out what Dith meant, but he didn't really care enough for the headache that would worsen.

Police, police... The blond didn't bother to hide the brief, disdainful quirk of his upper lip at the thought. What good would they be? "Probably," he said as he absently plucked at the stretcher beneath him, frowning. Scared off? Try as he might, he couldn't think of anything that would've done so. Maybe something after he'd lost consciousness, but... "They might've, I dunno. If something did," he theorized as he rubbed a hand over his face, "then it happened after they knocked me out."  

[TawnyAngel]

Dith gave one of his patented expressive shrugs and gestured to his face. "This sort of thing. Heh," he smiled wryly, "but I suppose you're probably too smart to get tangled up in crap like that."

Business Dima, business! Why was he chatting away like this?

"Anyway don't worry about any of that for now," Dith frowned at himself and shook his head, "I shouldn't even have brought it up, I'm sorry." This was why they didn't let you treat people you knew! No harm done really he supposed but he shouldn't have gone into any of that, it was unprofessional and unhelpful right now he suspected. "The point is that you will be fine but when you're released you should have somebody stay over with you for a while, just to keep an eye on you. Is there anyone you can ask?"  

[BlackFireKitsune]

A crease worked itself between his eyebrows as he tried to puzzle out the meaning of Dith's gesture. The answer was there, he knew it was, but it made his head hurt too much to think on it for very long. It would come to him later, he was sure - probably. For the moment he was happy to set it aside, especially when told to do so, and he started to shake his head to similarly dismiss Dith's apology, but he stopped partway through with a slight grimace. Note to self: Don't do that. "S'fine," he said instead.

Was there someone he could ask to stay with him? That matter hardly needed thinking over; Taavi was still with him, and even if he was supposed to leave the next day, he could simply ask him to stay longer. He'd probably agree, anyway, but he found himself feeling hesitant and reluctant to do so. Alyssa hadn't seem at all put off and there was a distinct possibility she was going to mess with Taavi if he stayed... Although really, in all likelihood if he did leave she'd probably still mess with him, just not quite as easily. What was the point? A few moments passed in which a soft frown settled in his expression before he finally realized he'd been quiet far too long, so he replied simply, "There is, yeah." It still left him with a bad taste in his mouth though... Or maybe that was the blood. Maybe both.