The disorientation was expected. Elliot watched calmly, giving his friend a few moments to collect his thoughts and piece together whatever he remembered on his own. His eyes flicked to Evan’s when the man questioned who’d found him. “Yeah. Up in Guard Tower 2. You’re lucky I was in the midst of searching for Rae and I a place to have a date or else you might’ve been up there for a while…”
He canted his head to one side, waiting for Evan to assess how he felt, and quirked a half-smile when the answer came that he was confused. Elliot shrugged. He hadn’t been there before Evan passed out, so he couldn’t say what exactly had happened.
“It’s just to maintain your blood pressure; don’t worry,” he explained, motioning to the IV. He bobbed his head when Evan began telling him how he’d come to be passed out on the floor. “Sounds like a panic attack coupled with exhaustion. I warned you about working yourself too much, didn’t I? I was right, dude. How much rest have you had since we got back from Jersey City?”
More questions, plus the obvious clue that external stress factors (i.e. all the people who were hounding him) were also a culprit in this. When Evan tried to get out of the bed, Elliot shook his head and moved forward, pushing down firmly on his friend’s shoulders. “You’re not doing a damn thing other than resting right now. Keep doing this to yourself and the next time someone finds you, you might be dead, rather than unconscious, and we can’t have that.”
“As to how long you’ve been here,” Elliot continued, not removing his hands from Evan’s shoulders until he was sure the other man would stay put. “About four hours.”