30 minutes. That’s how long it had taken for Alicia to sign off on the last charts, shower, get changed into her regular clothes, Apparate to Bath to pick up the pack of ‘goodies’ of various nature that she had asked her mum to have ready for her, Apparate back to St. Mungo’s and take the lift up to the fourth floor.
Ever since Katie had been brought into the hospital, Alicia had made it a point to stop by and spent some time with her every day, even during the first days when she had been unconscious. She had found it an odd relief to find that her own mother had been worried too, but also found that it made that much easier to get carepackages together even with her hectic work schedule.
The curse Katie had been affected by, in itself, was bad, but curses broke or could be eased, so that wasn’t really what worried Alicia. No, she had every bit of faith that the Fourth Floor Healers could remove the damaging magic. What worried her was Katie, who about now – she figured – would be ready to crawl out of her skin for a change of scenery, not to mention the fact that her friend had withdrawn into herself and was rather erratic in her reactions.
Not knowing what was expecting her on the other side of the door, Alicia armed herself with a healthy dose of patience, knocked on the door before she eased it open and she stuck in her head. “Bells?” she asked, then went all the way inside, not stopping before she reached the bed, where she stopped and looked down at Katie. “What’s the going price for a hug these days?” she questioned with an arched eyebrow before she held out her arms to either have Katie get out of bed or signal that she could give her a hug in bed.