:Of course:

And Marian troops back across the hall and relays this to Belrun.

:I'm on it. Uh, but do let me know if he might get worse, I will be very dramatically incapacitated if he dies:

:Oh. Fuck. Uh, thank you for telling me - of course I'll get you right away if anything changes, but he seems - he looked really proud about you helping us: 

It was ADORABLE and the two of them are quickly becoming her new favourite patient-and-spouse couple. 

"Dr Millinger?" she says out loud. "My guy in 113 is in a lot of pain but he's maxed on fentanyl and he does better when he's not on too much of the Versed - what can I do...?" 

The doctor is busy working with Alice on setting up for a chest tube placement. "Hmm? What's he on?" 

"Two hundred an hour." 

"Whoa!" His eyebrows go up. "That's an elephant dose. Maybe he's developing some resistance to it? It'd be fast, but, well. He's a weird dude, isn't he." Dr Millinger frowns. "Try hydromorphone, then. 1 or 2 mg, every...hmm...I'll say every hour but please exert common sense about it. Put in the verbal order for me, I'm kind of busy." He's already slipping on a new pair of sterile gloves. 

"Right, yes, of course." 

Leareth is very relieved to see Marian, and stops her with a :nevermind: when she tries to think at him to explain what she's giving him and why; he is not at all up for more Thoughtsensing right now. 

It's a vast relief when the new drug hits him. It also makes him feel very dizzy and drowsy, and kind of nauseated - he's not sure what would even happen if his body tries to throw up right now, whether it would have anywhere to go or get stuck behind the stupid tube - but the headache goes from 'intolerable' to uncomfortable-but-bearable, at least as long as he lies still and keeps his eyes closed and doesn't try to use his Gifts. 

Marian pats his shoulder. :You're doing so well: 

She considers trying to explain the concept of a call bell for him, but on reflection he doesn't seem to want to use his telepathy - it looks like it hurts him to do it, which kind of makes sense, if he has to use his brain and he's very concussed - and maybe it'll be easier if she waits for Belrun, who can speak his language. 

She goes to see her other patient. 

Alice's much-worse-off patient is, very gradually, doing a little better! His kidneys already look noticeably more alive to Belrun's mage-sight; getting them actually functioning-in-earnest will take longer, but progress is happening. The chest tubes are shoved in, one on each side, and an impressive quantity of straw-coloured translucent liquid drains out into the same sort of little box as the one Leareth has. His blood oxygen and circulation are being mostly carried by the machine, but with that help, are doing really well actually. His heart, given a chance to take it easy and rest and recuperate a little, is now beating smoothly and steadily again. 

His condition is still dire and wouldn't be survivable for more than two minutes without all the machines, but the trend is starting to point toward improvement. 

Belrun is kind of zoned out, focused on the kidneys, otherwise drooping noticeably.

Some indeterminate interval of time later, Marian is tapping her shoulder. "Belrun, Belrun, hey."

She switches to thinking-loudly once Belrun's eyes are focusing on her. :You look beat. And he's doing better. I got you a personal pizza at the cafeteria, and I tracked down an armchair that's sort of convertable to a bed - you should eat something and then maybe take a nap in Leareth's room? He's asleep right now, he's doing well:  

:Can it be close enough that we can hold hands while I sleep? We're lifebonded and I will probably be able to low-key send him energy even asleep:

Awwwwwwwwwwww they are ADORABLE. 

:Yeah, of course - I'll just need to move some things around in the room so you won't be in my way...: 

She considerately offers Belrun her arm in case she's tired enough to be unsteady on her feet. 

An arm is better than a stick. She hobbles over to Leareth's room and eats her entire pizza crust and all and needs an explanation of the plumbing and then crashes hard, hand in hand with him like otters.

Awwww. 

At some point Marian really needs to clarify what on earth 'lifebonded' means, but right now she is going to SIT DOWN at the computer by the desk and catch up on multiple hours of charting. Things keep happening!!! She wants fewer things to happen!!! It's somehow already past 4pm and her head hurts, probably from dehydration. She gets herself some water. 

Leareth starts squirming and grimacing again about 90 minutes after his bonus pain meds. 

He's obviously still drowsy but he's on a ventilator so it's not like it matters too much (and in fact it makes her life MUCH simpler), and it seems like maybe Belrun feels what he's feeling? And Belrun is exhausted and deserves her rest. 

Marian quickly preps and gives him more of the hydromorphone before her patient can wake Belrun up with his distress. 

At about 4:30 pm, the charge nurse swings by and asks her if she can stay for an extra four hours. "As long as you can, really - we had two people call in sick tonight and the unit acuity is way up, we're so short." 

"...Uh right yes of course." Her patient is great and interesting and his wife/girlfriend is SO COOL; she's very glad not to be in Alice's shoes today, Alice's patient is terrible.

She thinks. "Can you watch our pod for a couple minutes so I can get another coffee, in that case?" She's had, like, five coffees today, and normally she would stop well before this point because she wants to SLEEP tonight, but if she's going to be here until midnight then she'll need the boost. 

...

She gets her coffee and chugs it while marathoning through all her neglected charting and gives her poor neglected coma patient his suppertime meds via feeding tube - while musing about Belrun's possible ability to do the same thing by telekinesis, that's also SO COOL - and then helps Elaine turn both of her people and give shot-by-tattoo-artist dude an enema because he hasn't pooped in five days. 

And then Alice hurries over. "Marian? Is your patient's wi– oh, she's sleeping." 

"What is it?" 

"My guy's throwing a lot of arrhythmias again. Which isn't going to kill him because he's on a bypass, but - well, we just did a tropopin and it's way up, I think he's really having a MI for real this time, if he loses too much viable heart tissue then we're not getting him through this..." 

Marian takes a deep breath. Glances at the time. It's past 5:30; Belrun's had a couple of hours of sleep, plus a meal, and if she's not up for it then probably she'll be able to fall asleep again easily. 

"I'll ask if she can try something," she says, and goes in to gently tap Belrun's shoulder. 

"Mmf?"