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Chapter Eight- All medical cases start somewhere...

...though this patient would disagree...

It wasn't the fact that the lights in the room were making her headache worse. Nor was it that her skin now felt like it had been blasted with sandpaper; the nurses having been relentless in an effort to get her clean. And, as she lay in the big comfortable mass of hospital bed, Arin Rae had to agree on one thing - she had definitely needed the shower. Between soda, the fountain and everything in between, the colour of the water that had come off of her had been almost as embarrassing to watch as the fact that the aforementioned nurses had insisted on assisting.

No, she could let all of that slide with the concession of flushing a few shades pinker. She could even excuse the stiff material of the hospitals patient garb where it touched her skin because, frankly, it was more comfortable than the horrible shorts belonging to Robyn, now safely stored in a plastic bag in the cabinet by her bed. What annoyed her more than anything was the droning voice of the doctor, who was talking to her in an upbeat happy way that accentuated his accent. She turned her head slightly on the pillow and looked out of the glass wall of the room, across the hall and at the small gathering of people sitting around Robyn's bed. The girl was asleep now and they appeared to be talking quietly as they waited. The other girl's room was a sort of pastel pink colour that seemed to extrude warmth whereas Arin's was a mix of blues and greys, it was cold and clinical, everything she hated about hospitals. Ironically it was as if the rooms matched the Doctor's who had admitted them both.

The female Doctor in question, Cameron, paused in her ministrations and was looking at her, causing Arin to realise that the Aussie doc had stopped rambling. She turned to look at them again. "Sorry, what?" she asked causing him to look up at Cameron and smile, pen patiently poised above his chart.

"Any changes in your appetite?" he repeated.

She shook her head only realising that this may be causing some issue with Cameron's task and promptly stopped, blushing. "No. My appetite is fine."

"All finished," Cameron added stepping away from the head of the bed and snapping her gloves off. "It was a small cut but deep. I've cleaned it and sealed it. We would want you to stay overnight for observation anyway regardless of what else is going on and you'll want to change the dressing in two days then again in four." She smiled, "it shouldn't leave a scar, you were really lucky but I bet you have a whopper of a headache."

Arin frowned and felt the ache in her head intensify as if summoned by Cameron's words. "Yeah, I do actually."

Cameron checked the monitor at the bedside a second. "I'll get you something to help with that and with the fever." She smiled again and walked away from them, sliding the door closed behind her.

Arin watched her first put her head into Robyn's room and check on things there. The smile was back as she quietly spoke to each person and checked Robyn. The room colour matched her perfectly. Again her attention was demanded by Chase. She looked over at him again and frowned trying to recall what he had asked this time. "Sorry, I wasn't paying attention."

Chase again smiled but did not look as patient as he had before, "I asked how your breathing was now?"

"It's fine," she replied, turning her head again to watch Cameron walk out of Robyn's room and away down the corridor towards the nurse's station. Her eyes locked with the those of Zen who sat across the hall. He had said nothing until both doctors had entered. When Chase had started asking inane questions the boy had gotten up and excused himself, saying he was going to check on their friend. However, now he looked...embarrassed? The expression confused her but she didn't have time to probe further because he broke eye contact and looked away; sitting with his back to the window. In Robyn's room she saw the other girl's grandmother, a formidable woman, start to berate her son, who stood at the foot of Robyn's bed, his head hung low. Most likely because the blame for his daughter's current predicament was being heaped upon his shoulders.