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[ninefox]

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[ninefox]

Jedao gave it time. Life is strange, and life is long, and certainly there are more distractions here than on the barge. When it became obvious Quentin wasn't coming, Jedao checked back at his hotel, to find him missing there as well.

There's a message, already waiting, just in case, hoping horribly that it's only him: If you've changed your mind, I hope you know that of course I respect your decision, but I will always value your company.

Less passive aggressive than you don't need to avoid me. The temptation to include a threat for anyone else reading was unprofessionally strong, but he didn't. Not sense warning anyone. A new reply comes almost immediately.

Thank you for letting me know. Is Mister Coldwater awake now?

cw drugs

[magician_king]

She doesn't feel obligated to reply to that. Instead, a few hours after that, he types, and sends-

awake

ok

drugs

This from Quention, who capitalizes, uses punctuation, and occasionally semi colons while texting. It's all using his pinky finger, so it's painstakingly slow going.

Re: cw drugs

[ninefox]

After ten minutes without a response, he considers the pros and cons of being polite, and giving whoever has the communicator a request for audio or visual confirmation that Quentin is actually present, not captive, and receiving care more resembling the barge's medical ethics than the hexarchate's. Giving them a chance to prove honesty and good intentions before Jedao infiltrates a hospital. And if they aren't, that's more warning that someone not only cares, but is suspicious.

He decides against it.

Of course, if they're liars, they might as easily be lying about the location, so he canvases the hospital with as much patience as he can spare, and infiltrates quietly. The volume and diversity of people moving in and out is easy to melt into, and he observes procedures as he goes. On the plus side, nothing that gets his hackles up; on the other hand, if Quentin has been taken somewhere else, Jedao has few enough leads.

Forty minutes after the first message, Jedao slides into Quentin's room wearing garish violet scrubs, rolling a cart with actual medical supplies on top and other supplies underneath.

[magician_king]

Quentin has fallen back asleep. His communicator is next to him on the table, and he looks exactly like everyone has ever looked who came out of surgery and got put on a morphine drip. His hands are bandaged, his chart gives specifics- index fingers severed, cleanly. Shock, panic attacks.

Prognosis looks good, at least.

[ninefox]

Jedao flips through it all, neatly assessing, before he lets himself have any reaction. There isn't a chair, so he crumples into a corner, back to the wall, one leg underneath him. Not because he actually expects it to be any use at this point, needing to spring up quickly, but the habit of preparedness is thin comfort.

[magician_king]

It's a few more hours before he wakes up. A couple of nurses come and and go, but all is quiet and normal and not sinister.

He opens his eyes and stares at the ceiling, completely unaware that he's not alone.

[ninefox]

The change in Quentin's breathing is muted a little by the drugs, but it's not as though Jedao has been paying attention to much else.

"I found you," he says, in lieu of I'm sorry for sneaking into your hospital room, because he isn't. "Let me know if you'd like me to fetch anything."

He doesn't say I was worried. Maybe it's obvious, but that doesn't mean he has to be obnoxious about it. His feelings are his problem; Quentin has enough.

[magician_king]

"Hi."

Says Quentin, in surprise, then his brow creases;

"Are you a doctor now?"

He's a little high.

[ninefox]

He unfolds, comes to stand next to the bedside. The shadow, heedless as ever of directional light sources, falls in front of him, so that the fox seems to curl up on Quentin's sheets.

"Not really. I just thought it might easier not to wake up alone."

Not his reason for coming, but half of his reason for staying.

[magician_king]

He smiles up at him, and reaches down, resting a bandaged hand on the head of the fox.

He's happy to see him.

"You should see the other guy."

[ninefox]

That pulls a small smile out of him.

"I'm sure. You knocked me on my ass, remember that?"

[magician_king]

"Jedao."

There's no nice way to point out he'd done that as easily as blinking, that this had been hard.

"How did you find me?"

[ninefox]

He more or less knows, or can guess; he said it half to just to remind himself.

"Someone sent me a message on your communicator."

[magician_king]

"Oh."

He says, and looks up his arm, tracing the IV, then looking back up at Jedao.

"Break me out of here?"

[ninefox]

"If that's what you want me to do, then I will," he agrees evenly. "Although I want to repeat for the record that I am definitely not a real doctor. Field medicine yes, surgery no."

[magician_king]

"I don't like it here."

He reasons, and looks him in the eyes.

"I don't want to be here. Break me out?"

Doesn't matter if it's dumb. Please just save him.

[ninefox]

As long as he's sure, Jedao will take his word for it.

"Yes, dear," Jedao says, and drops a kiss on Quentin's forehead.

"One, would you like an extra pump of your painkillers before I disconnect you, and two, are you too tired and/or high to walk? I can get a chair, no problem. It would take a little longer but be slightly less conspicuous than staggering."

[magician_king]

"Yes please. Let's bring all the drugs with us."

He proposes, glancing around them, trying gamely to push himself up to sit.

"You do heists way better than me."

[ninefox]

"Don't get too excited, I haven't looped all your monitors yet,"Jedao says, giving Quentin the button for his morphine and producing a set of tiny tools and opens up the back of the gently beeping machine recording Quentin's pulse and blood pressure.

[magician_king]

"You're way more detailed than me. I'd have just yanked them out and run."

He admits, pressing the button and watching Jedao begin fiddling.

"It's nice to know a professional."

[ninefox]

"The best heist is one where no one knows anything is missing," he says sagely. "Much less stressful than a chase."

He's about 80% sure that given the diversity of clientele likely to pass through this institution, they could just sign out all above-board with assurances that Quentin had someone to watch out for him during his remaining convalescence, but Quentin asked for a heist, and Jedao did come prepared enough to indulge him.

He's forcibly muffled momentarily by holding some of his tools in his mouth while he works with others. There's a momentary hitch in the heartbeat beeps, but when Jedao leans around to look at the monitor, the rhythm has resumed steadily.

[magician_king]

Quentin watches him from the bed, until he realizes he's closed his eyes. These are the good drugs.

He's half dreaming by the time the heartbeat hitches, and the break in rhythm makes him look back up, now much more of a passive party on this adventure.

[ninefox]

Jedao has scribbled plausible sounding release information onto Quentin's chart. It won't hold up under scrutiny, let along in conjunction with the scrambled monitors, but it'll be good for some extra confusion, and by then they'll be long gone. He removes the attachments and then the IV, his touch gentle but firm and steady. He presses a bandage from his own kit after disposing of the needle. It looks almost like skin, and Jedao trusts it better. He drops another kiss on Quentin's forehead, taking in the state of him.

"You can rest. I'm going to get a chair to take you out of here. I'll be back in just a few minutes, alright darling?"

[magician_king]

He closes his eyes as he's told, and skips out of reality again, just skimming along like a stone. He's smiling, too. How often do you ask someone to rescue you and they put on a hospital heist for you?

[ninefox]

Soon enough he's back, gently lifting Quentin to move him to the chair.

"Hey, darling. We'll be out soon. Did you give them your hotel address, can you remember?"