A shock of cold water, and then suddenly the body beneath Gerard's went still. And oh, oh thank fuck. That was William. That was William looking back at him from what moments before had been empty, furious eyes. Gerard couldn't let his guard down yet, but he took all the changes in in increasing delight, the way William slowly blinked water out of his eyes and started shivering, the way the heat and electricity in the air fizzled out.
It was a bit startling when William abruptly let go of Gerard's wrists and flung himself backward, but Gerard couldn't really blame him: being pinned down like that was probably a pretty uncomfortable way to come back to yourself. Then William just huddled there with his hair wet and straggling into his eyes, staring over at Gabe with a miserable, lost expression. And Gerard's skin was probably starting to blister -- fucking, fucking silver -- but it wasn't anything that couldn't wait; the aloe would still be there later. He scooted down the bed slowly, smiling crookedly at William and raising his palms in case there was any vestigial fight response left.
"Hey, Bill," he said, low and cheerful. "Good to see you with us again, man." He summoned a dry blanket over from one of the other beds and cautiously leaned over to drape it around William's shoulders, taking note of all the visible injuries he could see as he did. Contusion to the head, some seriously bruised wrists, miscellaneous other small scratches and bruises. On top of that, the expenditure of energy, both magically and physically, had to have been fucking brutal. Gerard definitely needed to have somebody send out for a pot of coffee -- no, William was one of those weird tea-drinkers, wasn't he -- before this was all over.
"I know you probably want to curl up in a ball for about a thousand weeks and sleep," he said to William apologetically, settling into a cross-legged postion on the bed nearby. William might finally be back with them, but he definitely looked freaked the fuck out and Gerard thought it was best to stay close for a while longer. In case anything else happened, but also in case, well. In case William wanted some company. "But before you do pass out... do you have any idea why you might have come down with a case of the Veelas? We couldn't exactly ask before, but it would really help us figure out the best way to cleanse whatever's left out of your system."
Mentioning they also needed to determine whether whatever had affected William was contagious or likely to reoccur was probably a good way to cause a lot of blithering panic and unnecessary guilt at this point, so Gerard kept that part to himself for the time being.