"Mm. It is a pretty morbid condition overall, isn't it."

"Well I had to die-or-whatever to get to it, so yeah."

"Just in general, drinking blood, being undead, the sun thing, it's all very—thematically appropriate."

"Woo," he says. "At least I'm not a thematically incoherent vampire, wouldn't that be terrible." Snort.

"...depends on the thematic break, but we've been over this."

"Yeah." Shrug. "How's your mom doing?"

"She's alright—somewhat miffed that I'm hanging out with you but, like, you did take a look at her and she kinda forgave you very quickly and then I sent her a copy of the recording and she revised that but concluded it wasn't your fault anyway if the kind of stuff going on in your head was similar to what was going on in hers when she automatically forgave you."

Nod. "Sorry," he shrugs. "Again."

"It's alright, like I said, this is mostly the universe ducking with us."

"– Yeah," he nods. "… We should probably see if my blood acts like normal human blood at some point, see if it congeals the same way and needs a fridge and special storage conditions."

"Ooh, yeah, good idea."

"Uh, I feel sort of weird saying this, but if you or your mom want any for healing purposes, like if she's not totally healed, I don't know how bad it is and we haven't actually tested how well my blood works on large injuries, I can give you blood."

"That's oddly cute. Thanks."

Smile.

And soon enough they reach the hospital.

So Theo parks and gets out of the car and then locks it once Sadde's out and towards– reception, he supposes? – they go.

In they go!

The receptionist smiles at them then the smile freezes.

"Hi," he says. "Did I just speak to you on the phone?"

Her eyes flick towards Sadde then rest on Theo's face again. "I believe so, Mr. Owens."

"Do you have an ID to confirm me against, or records or something? – I don't know what the protocol is on 'woke up in the morgue, left, stayed home for a bit, is now coming to say they're not dead'."

"There, um, isn't one." She looks thoroughly lost. "The doctors will want to examine you—"

"– I'd really rather not if it's all the same, thanks."

How charming he is, isn't he. At least he sounds like he probably knows what he wants.

"But you could be sick, and—I'm going to call a doctor to—"

"I'm sure I'll be fine," he says. "I can come back later if I notice any other symptoms."

Like dropping dead again, like he already did, but y'know.

"Oh. If you're sure. Won't you, um, want your belongings...?"