Dan had been pouring himself a coffee when Hem let himself in. Their group was a hell of a lot more casual than any of the meetings he'd ever attended back home, and Dan tended to wander as he spoke since there was no official stage for him to stick to. This was an apartment, after all, and they were in a living room. So when Hem arrived, fumbling the door open and falling over a chair, Dan could see all of it. And he didn't need his Shine to know that Hem was completely blitzed out of his skull.
He glanced round at the rest of the group, and set his mug down. There weren't that many in the group, so he knew that everyone would have noticed Hem's arrival. He also knew that everyone paying attention to Hem would possibly make things worse, especially given just how shitty the other man was feeling. Dan poked at his dad and sent him a quick zip-zip.
(can you take over until i see how bad hem is? if he's okay to just sit and be quiet, it should only be a few minutes)
Dan carefully made his way over to sit beside Hem after that, his first aid training kicking in a little, just in case this got really bad. He could feel the vertigo and the nausea rolling around in his friend's stomach and mind, and his heart broke a little at the sight. Hem had been one of the first friends he'd made in this place, the first person he'd actually told about his Shine and the fact that there were books about him, and he thought of him as one of his best friends on the station. But he'd been different since he'd returned, and Dan had known that he wasn't as sober as he'd been before, that he was covering things up and acting like everything was fine.
Then again, Dan hadn't been at his best either, not sleeping properly for days on end and the snow fucking with his head, and he'd fucked up. He hadn't noticed Hem getting this bad, had he? Fuck.
He sat in the chair beside his friend, looked round at him and spoke quietly. "Hey. Do you want me to help you into the bathroom? You don't have to answer out loud, just think it and I'll hear," he told him, and reached over to put his hand over Hem's.