Realm of Opportunity

3: Medical Bills

"Ohhh yeah... I remember this one time, Kandahar '09... nerve toxin. Just a whiff, but maaaaan... the pain lasted for weeks." He groaned.

The doctor nodded. "Good. Sturdy patients are best. Are you wounded?"

"No. where's Dotty?" I looked around.

Sadie appeared with Dotty on her shoulder, waving hastily. "She's fine. I'm mixing medicines in the next room." She reassured me, and left again.

The doctor chuckled. "Your cat likes you. Good. Hold him. You? Swallow." He poured the vial into Johnny's throat, and I held him as he immediately began kicking, trying to roll over for some reason.

"He's rolling, is he choking?" I asked.

"Drowning, actually... here." He shoved a long piece of green tubing down Jon's throat, and turned it once, immediately halting his struggles as he swallowed repeatedly.

"Well then." I muttered.

Then he started cutting open Johnny's stomach, to better see the wound, I guess, and I stopped watching, focusing on keeping him still.

---

"Alright, you can release him." That deep voice again.

I slowly released Johnny's chest, noting the bruises where my arms were. "He's... okay? Relatively?"

"Relatively. He's on the mend. Will be for a few weeks. Poison almost invaded his blood-stream, but I just kept draining him and replacing it to fix it. He's type AO, right? Too late now, I suppose, but it hasn't killed him yet, so-" he fingered the metal tags on Jack's neck.

"A/0 is his old Rank... not his blood type. But he's A Neg, yeah. Luckily." I chuckled.

"Rank? Military?"

"Used to be." I nodded. "He served 14 years."

The doctor nodded slowly. "The scars make sense, then. Well, let's talk the Bill, then."

I sighed. "What are we talking? He was poisoned, then you replaced his blood, did surgery-"

"Papa! Don't you dare!" Sadie growled, punching her father in the kidney.

I winced, but he just shrugged it off. "What? I'm a doctor, not a Charity!" He chuckled.

"You know damned well you don't charge people for life and death wounds! Only the Idiots, right?" She placed her hands on her hips.

He grumbled and washed his hands in a sink, avoiding her gaze. "Too much of your mother in you..." he muttered.

"I heard that!" She snapped.

He cleared his throat. "Well, seriously, though. I spent a lot of my resources to save him."

"I'll pay with labor, sir, but that's all I have. We're not... from around here. No local currency." I shrugged.

He hummed, scratching his chin. "Well... your cat likes you... so sure. Labor it is. And who's your God?"

I blinked slowly. "What?"

"What familia are you in?" He asked impatiently. "I have to file papers with them to make sure your absence isn't a problem."

I hummed. "I don't follow. I'm not from around here, as in not from this realm. My friend and I were chased through a portal by the Ant that got Jon."

He blinked slowly. "Oh. I see, then you'll have to register yourselves with Babel... alright, well, we're traveling that way for supplies in a week, so you and your friend can come with us when that comes around. Until then, I'll find odd jobs around the place for you."