doctormicah (doctormicah) wrote in the_dome, @ 2013-07-23 20:14:00 |
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Entry tags: | 04-06-2017, micah, micah and nic, nic |
Something's Not Right
Who: Micah and Nic
Where: the hospital
When: morning
Micah was up at dawn, surprised at how much sleep he’d managed to get. He supposed that was because he was running on fumes before he’d been bit, and then he’d been bit on top of that. Waking had been jarring though. He was relieved that Nic was within reach, but that he could hear far more than usual, echoing in his head and smell the light bit of sweat on Nic’s skin despite the fact that he was farther away than normal.
Sitting up, Micah ran his hand through his hair, realizing belatedly that it was the arm he’d hurt, which was functioning far better than it had the night before. It hurt, like he hadn’t had anything for it, even if he had, but not nearly as much as he’d expected. Micah pulled at the bandage, looking at the damage under it, frowning at what he saw. It was healing. Rapidly. That was just weird.
Nic had continued to work throughout the night, relieved when things seemed to calm down as it got into the twilight hours. If people weren’t out, they couldn’t get bitten, so he was eventually able to pull up a cot beside Micah and crash. Whatever nervousness he might have had about others seeing them together wasn’t enough to pull him away, especially when Micah was hurt. He wasn’t a light sleeper, but in cases like this he was too in tune to the elements around him not to stir when Micah sat up. His eyes opened, watching Micah for a moment before speaking softly. “How’s it look?”
Micah glanced over at Nic, instantly feeling better about him being there and being awake. He reached out with his good hand to brush at Nic’s hairline, something sweet, just there because he wanted it to be. “Better than I expected?” he answered, but didn’t sound sure about it, pulling the rest of the bandage away to show Nic.
Nic smiled softly at the gesture. It was one of those little things he wasn’t used to, yet enjoyed. It gave him confidence in Micah, that they really cared for each other, that it wasn’t all in his head. He pushed up on one elbow to look at the injury, then frowned. “That’s... amazing.” Almost too much so. Punctures like the ones Micah had last night didn’t close up that fast.
Without being sure why Micah winced at Nic’s voice. He knew the other man wasn’t speaking loudly, but it sounded loud. Someone caught a corner with a cart or a gurney outside the room, and probably a ways down the hall, but he heard that too, glancing towards it with a frown. Actually, he could hear far more than he was used to in the quiet part of the hospital they were in. It took a moment to get his focus back on Nic, squinting slightly against the din in his head. “Yes. It’s weird.” His arm had been gashed up. It should have been bruised almost black and barely held together with the stitches, but instead, the bruises looked like they were still forming and the wounds weren’t nearly as angry as they could have been.
“What’s wrong?” Nic asked, noting Micah’s wince. It was possible he was hurt more than Nic had originally realized, his focus almost entirely on Micah’s arm. While that wound seemed to be healing far better than expected, he wanted to make sure that Micah was good as a whole. He sat up a little more and put hand to Micah’s forehead, checking for a fever. “You’re warm. How do you feel?”
Micah leaned into the touch, shaking his head a little. “It’s loud,” he said not sure how else to describe it. With Nic’s wrist as close to him as it was, Micah’s nose was flooded with the smell of the other man, gasping at it, almost choking on it. It was a smell he knew he liked, but not something he’d sensed to strongly before. “How warm?” The doctor in him took over for a moment, needing the information.
“Like your ears are ringing?” Nic asked, holding his hand there a moment longer before he rose to find a thermometer. “Too warm. I’m pretty sure you have a fever.” But Micah wasn’t acting like he did, which was kind of odd in Nic’s opinion. Most people with a fever were uncomfortable at least and almost always felt bad. Retrieving a thermometer, he handed it to Micah and sat back down on the cot.
“No,” Micah said shaking his head and rubbing his temple. “Like everything is loud. I can...hear more.” He was looking back towards another sound, a conversation headed down a different hallway and definitely not in the room they were in. He took the thermometer when it was offered, looking it over before sticking it under his tongue. He didn’t think he was feverish, he certainly didn’t feel that way, but what did he know?
“Maybe you need to pop your ears,” Nic said, though he couldn’t figure out why that might be the case. And didn’t that make things softer instead of louder? It had been a while since he’d changed altitude and needed to do it. He couldn’t think of any other reason Micah’s hearing would be so sensitive. “Have you ever heard of increased hearing ability as a symptom of something else?”
Micah shook his head. “That’s fine. No pressure, just...loud,” he mumbled around the thermometer before pulling it out to look at it and blinking twice at the reading. ”I’m seeing that wrong right?”
Nic took one look at the thermometer and began to freak out, not even worrying about Micah’s hearing sensitivity in comparison. His heart started beating faster and he reset the thermometer, giving it back to Micah. “That can’t be right. Mind doing it again?” Because otherwise they had a bigger problem... and Micah needed an ice bath.
“I don’t feel bad,” Micah pointed out before taking the thermometer again, looking at it instead of looking at Nic. He could hear Nic’s heartbeat pick up, which meant Nic was worried and the last thing that Micah wanted was for Nic to worry about him. It was so prevalent that he missed the part where he could hear Nic’s heartbeat from a few steps away.
“It’s got to be a mistake then,” Nic said, reaching up to brush Micah’s hair off his forehead. If he was that hot, he should be sweating, extremely uncomfortable, but Micah seemed fine. “Anything other than your ears bothering you?”
The touch was nice, soothing at least even though Micah didn’t feel bad. Well, there was a small headache starting, but that was probably from the hearing. He put the thermometer back under his tongue and looked up at Nic. “Smell.”
“Smell?” Nic asked, though he realized he’d have to wait a second before Micah could answer. “It smells like the hospital in here, but nothing too unusual.” People were hurt, but not many were sick, so it was mostly cleansers. Sometimes, if they’d just cleaned, that burned his nose.
Micah waited out the thermometer then pulled it out. “No. It smells like antiseptic and cleaner and you smell like sweat and a little bit of blood and you which is like massively overpowering.”
“Not a bad smell, I hope,” Nic said with a little bit of a smile. He was sure it was because he needed a shower after working all night, but then Micah was indicating he could smell more than usual. “Any better this time?” he asked, nodding towards the thermometer.
“No, not at all, just...more than usual,” Micah said, looking down at the thermometer. As he read it, his voice trailed off, not sure what to make of it. “No. It’s not.”
Nic took one look at the thermometer and shook his head. That couldn’t be right. It couldn’t. “I’d say the bite was infected, but it looks the opposite. You need to lay down and rest and, if it gets worse, we’ll run you a cold bath.”
“I know! It’s healing,” Micah said, looking at his arm and then looking at Nic.”I don’t..I can’t just lay here.” That didn’t feel right either. What the hell was wrong with him? He ran his hand through his hair, concern seeping into his stature. This was bad, wasn’t it? And yet good because his arm was fine. He really wasn’t trained for this kind of diagnostic work, but he wasn’t the only one was he? Without thinking more he was getting up, starting towards the door. “I need to see the charts of the other patients.”
“You have a fever!” Nic protested. Micah might be better equipped to handle the situation, but Nic wasn’t sure he’d take as good a care of himself as he might another patient. Then again, it might help to know if other people were experiencing the same kind of symptoms. What if this was some new kind of disease? As that thought turned over in his mind, he thought of his cousin, who’d suffered a bite of her own. “What if it’s something we haven’t seen before? What if it’s a kind of... medical anomaly?”
"Which is what I'm worried about," Micah said, shaking his head. He was already halfway to the nurses' station when he stopped, hit hard with smells and sounds.
Nic hurried after him, not sure what to expect, and he took Micah by the arm as he came to a halt in the hallway. “There’s something I should probably tell you,” he said, voice low. “Something unusual and--- and unexplainable.”
Micah was waving Nic's voice off, even if it was low because all at once it was too much. Too loud. Too scented. Everything smelled. It took a moment but Micah managed to lock on to one scent for the moment, Nic. He blinked at the other man twice before finally understanding what he was saying. "Tell me what?"
This wasn’t the kind of thing Nic wanted to discuss in the hallway. In fact, he’d have left it completely alone if he wasn’t afraid something similar might happen to Micah. A wolf wasn’t the same as a bat, but what did he know when it came to supernatural creatures? He had some guesses, the kind that made him feel like a crazy man, and he wasn’t willing to voice them if Micah blew off what he already knew to be fact. “My cousin got bitten by a bat, but she didn’t die. Instead she-- she changed. What if this is something similar?”
Micah's focus was absolute shit right now. He knew that Nic was saying something important, but with everything else, he couldn't beat around things. "Speak plainly," he said, but unlike his normal demeanor, an edge of a demand slipped into his voice.
Nic’s jaw tightened, but he held his ground, meeting Micah’s eyes as he spoke. “She has no heartbeat and direct sunlight catches her on fire. She’s not a zombie and her wounds heal immediately. And she grew fangs.” He’d let Micah draw his own conclusions. It was easier to throw the facts out there than say ‘my cousin’s a vampire’.
Micah stared for a long few moments at Nic. The whimsical side of him went right to vampire. He'd seen enough late night tv to land there. The doctor tried to rationalize, tried to find another solution. "Nic..."
“It sounds ridiculous. You’d have to see her to believe it. But I’m telling you because I think there’s a possibility that there’s something else going on here,” Nic said, his brow creased with worry. “With a fever as high as yours, you should feel miserable. You should be lying down, not wandering the halls to check on patients. But you said you feel fine, so... I’m worried about you.”
Micah was listening, trying to process that. If bats turned people into vampires, then wolves would turn people into werewolves or something worse. But Nic was right. He should feel awful, but he didn't. Minus the headache from the sounds and smells, he didn't. That concern coming from Nic triggered something deeper than expected, some urge to protect the other man. "I'm going to be fine. I promise. There were others. They were healing faster than they should, as well. I'm going to be fine."
Nic was quiet as he looked back at Micah, not sure what else he could say to make Micah understand. He was worried. More than worried. It was one thing when it was just a wolf bite, but now things seemed different. “...okay,” he finally said, his fingers slowly loosening their hold on Micah’s arm. “Just be careful. Tell me if anything changes. And... don’t tell anyone about my cousin. Even if you think I’m crazy.”
Micah rubbed at his temple again, then leaned in more, nose close to his hair, taking a short breath. The smell was intense, but something he found he enjoyed. “I will. I’m going to figure this out. Thank you for taking care of me.” He touched Nic’s arm, just a graze. “I won’t tell anyone. It’s crazy, but I don’t think you’re crazy.”
It was such a little thing, the way Micah leaned into him and touched his arm, yet it gave Nic goosebumps from head to toe. He wanted more time with Micah, wanted to stand by him and make sure he was okay, but he was beginning to learn that Micah within the hospital was a force not to be stopped. He’d been lucky to get the man to rest for a bit, but he wasn’t going to prevent him from seeing to his patients now that he’d rested. “Let me know what you find out,” Nic said. “And if there’s anything I can do to help.” Hopefully people would be more careful today and he’d be able to help out in the hospital.
It was strange, hearing Nic react to him, catching that slight change in his scent, his heart rate change. Strange, but good. He didn’t like feeling this, feeling these things, but it still got to him that Nic just reacted like that. “There’ll always be something. But I will. I’ll see you later, yes?”
“Of course,” Nic said, reaching for Micah’s hand and giving it a small squeeze. It wasn’t the kiss he wanted to give him, but it was a start. “Let me know when you’re done today. If things calm down, maybe you can even make it home.” To his home or Micah’s, Nic didn’t care, so long as he could be there.
It wasn’t the kiss the Micah wanted either, but it would do for now. He knew how Nic felt and it wasn’t worth making it worse, just to get what he wanted. “I can only hope.” That was what he wanted, a night with Nic again. After this, he might even consider taking a day off.