"What the fuck is wrong with you," back to kissing Lucien.

"Don't stop kissing him! And you need guiding and I am running out of ways to give you significantly more. But the doctor thinks we shouldn't risk anything else without like, medical supplies given that you aren't improving."

"Mm."

But Lia will hold off on trying to figure out where to put the funnel.

(Well, that's not true. But she won't act on the thoughts.)

The paramedics force the door. They get all three espers in a pile onto the stretcher and into the vehicle, with a blanket draped over the lot of them against the prying eyes of the neighbors. One of them is very distracted by Lia's finger situation.

"I mean if you have a better way to transfer blood please go ahead - I won't expire from donating it though you'll probably only get a dribble if you drain me fully."

"We have the esper blood circulator at the hospital, and now we can't use it, because you've probably got yourself a ghastly blood infection and just because it can't hurt you doesn't mean it can't hurt her!"

"Oh I can stop if it's doing more good than bad - I don't get sick for anything short of a monster hitting me with something basically instant."

"I know who you are and I know you won't get sick. But since there's possible gut flora in your bloodstream now, we can't put any of your blood in your friend here's veins."

"Oh."

"I... think my body should get rid of that quick but I'm not sure. Also um, a few of Lucien's teeth are broken and his fingers inside of Lorica have shallow cuts."

"...well, let's hope we can get her stabilized before he needs emergency dental work. You're compatible with her, right, snuggle up on the side of her he's not occupying and get comfy."

Yes, she can do that.

"Should I take my hand out."

"They'll make you at the hospital but for now that's your lookout."

Lia takes her fingers out of Lorica.

Lorica doesn't comment on this because that would involve delatching from Lucien.

When they take the blood pressure cuff off her arm it's left a nasty bruise.

They get them to the hospital and rushed inside under the privacy blanket and find her a doctor stat and the doctor starts asking about her symptoms, doing his best to stick to yes-or-no questions so he can get anything out of "mm-hm" and "nn-nn". He has no trouble at all getting her consent to a blood transfusion - he sends someone out to see if they can score the specific units she donated the other day for an absolute minimum of complication. He wants Lia's assessment, as a compatible esper in physical contact, of how much backlash she's got and whether it's going up or down. He wants a history, too, and Lia's the only one who can talk.

"Higher than I've seen in someone except for her when she started awakening, it was higher earlier but it's barely falling anymore."

Lia can give what she knows of Lorica's history, which includes that Lorica is from another dimension and appeared in this body recently.

"So she shouldn't be done awakening yet, by rights - it's almost always seven days, if she's done this would be the shortest I ever heard of -" says the doctor -

Lorica extracts a hand from the cuddle pile to wave urgently.

"Lorica, you're very backlashed and need guiding more than -"

"Mmmmmmm!" says Lorica, making typey fingers, even though her joints are all inflamed like she's got the arthritis of someone five times her age, even though her muscles are all stabbing her with what might be lactic acid buildup or might just be stress tension, even though she's having to do all her breathing through her nose and her nose is by turns intolerably dry or clogged with panic-mucus, even though she feels like she's burning up with some sort of autoimmune fever. Her eyes are streaming, half her sweat glands have quit and the other half are overexcited, her ears are ringing, her teeth ache and her head is pounding and her skin is prickling like it's all in the process of committing post-sunburn suicide. Her gut has stopped cold and she's got a sharp cramp about it, her stomach is roiling, she's not sure she will not puke directly in Lucien's mouth, she's thirsty and faint and her heart rhythm is concerningly experimental, and pain, pain, pain, all over everywhere causeless sourceless pain -

But she is conscious. And she is sane.

The doctor gets the room's computer's keyboard within reach of her and she taps out one handed, pausing to shiver and to blink tears away so she can see where to place her fingers on the keys -

seconf trigggr. mental defense pwr

"- do you know what that means?" the doctor asks Lia.

"She has powers from her home dimension which she got from stress causing what they call a trigger event, so I guess she had a second one and got a mental defense power. Her backlash before was purely psychological as far as I can tell, maybe the new power covered it?"

"Covered it," says the doctor. "Okay. When is she due to be done awakening, do you know." A nurse comes in with oxygen and gets Lorica a cannula, working tolerably well around her cuddle partners.

"Tuesday between 3 to 4pm."

"Okay. Dear lord. I'm putting her on dialysis, I want liquid nutrition and hydration for her on the assumption she can't take anything by mouth and the same for her partner she's kissing because I don't want him to let up, we'll keep her on oxygen, I'm putting in a catheter for her, the two of you I'm going to want to maneuver onto bedpans when you have to pee so I can irrigate her bladder with compatible urine without anybody having to get out of bed - do we have a temperature -"

"Hundred point six."

"Not as bad as it could be, cold IV might bring it down. It's going to be a nightmare to find a vein with her down two units of blood, get started on that, take one in her hand. Any joy on finding the Red Cross's units -"

"Not yet."

"Well, I want them, her immune function can't be good. Venture, anything else we need to know?"

She's already mentioned the blood donations and the IV for electrolytes and everything else she could think of...

"You can take whatever fluid from me you can use and I'll survive - maybe not from my brain - but other than that no."

"More important than that is going to be bringing up backlash on her - I presume more compatible, am I right that he's more compatible? - partner."

"Yes, they were compatible from several paces away. He's Turnaround, can transport tagged people to him through obstacles and tags are contagious. Someone can touch him and tell him to tag them and then go far away and tap people twice and then he'll pull those people to him. He can typically handle a few dozen but is going to be hampered by his backlash making him think Lorica's condition is his fault."

"- isn't there anything he can do that won't fill her hospital room with dozens of people?"