:We do! I should probably have gotten on that earlier but, uh, it's been kind of hectic. Anyway I'll get you some liquid food and then I think I'll take my lunch break: 

:And solid food for me:

:Oh right, that reminds me - did anyone actually bring you the doughnuts that Dr Millinger got for you?: 

:Continuing as I do in ignorance of what a donut is, no:

:I'll go get them! And then I'll bring you some, uh, more savoury food from the cafeteria. Doughnuts are a dessert: 

She darts off, and comes back with a cardboard box. :Enjoy! Dr Millinger seems to have decided the way to thank you for fixing his patients is just to feed you constantly: 

:That will certainly do for now although eventually we are probably going to need, like, a house or something, when he's better enough to leave, and I might want to start drawing some kind of pay before that day arrives:

:Oh! I was actually just looking at apartments near the hospital - the travel agency I work for found me a place, but it's waaaaay at the top of the hill and I'm sick of biking home uphill after a 12-hour shift. I can look for you too... Uh, it sounds like that means you're planning to stay here longer and not go back to the magic world you came from right away?: 

:I'm not sure how long it will take them to reconstruct the travel artifact - it didn't come along on the trip - and even if they had one already handy we'd probably want some sort of base of operations here, we're not just going to fuck off never to be seen again!:

:Oh: Marian looks thoughtful for a moment, then smiles. :Good! I'm glad. Do you think you'll be able to bring more people with healing magic over, later? Ooh, and of course I'd be really excited to visit your world, if you wanted to do a trade or something...: 

:Visiting our world would be... complicated... and also I think you'd have a harder time adapting to a ward full of Gifted Healers than vice-versa because your machines wouldn't have anywhere to plug into the wall:

:Why would it be complicated–: 

Marian stops herself. 

:Sorry, I should get both of us food first, before I bug you with a lot of questions. But I am curious. About tons of things: 

:I'm not sure where to start explaining but I will give it a shot when you're back, if you want to eat here:

:...You know, why not. It'll be more restful than the break room, they're watching football in there again. I'll be back in ten minutes?: 

:Sure:

Marian is back ten minutes later! She delivers a little carton of high-calorie high-protein meal replacement shake for Leareth, and another sampling of various cafeteria options for Belrun, and she perches herself on the counter again and starts working on her own pizza. 

Belrun eats a grilled cheese triangle and Fetches a little bit of shake into Leareth to see how that settles before she starts on the other. :What do you most want to know?: she asks Marian.

:Wow. I don't even know where to start. I guess - who are you and Leareth? And, uh, why did Leareth need to be paranoid all the time in your world?: 

:Uh, I'm a microbiologist who worked at a university doing basic research on microbes until I met Leareth. He runs - an organization - I'm not actually sure how to describe it, its mandate is fairly flexible, but it's threatening to some parties and he has experienced kind of a lot of assassination attempts:

:Neat! Uh, what's medical research like in your world - is it all done with magic?: 

:I guess you could collect some kinds of statistics without it, and there are some Healing-assistants who aren't Gifted and mostly change sheets and bring people meals and stuff, but pretty much, yeah:

:Mmm: Marian bobs her head and smiles.

She wants to just ask a hundred questions about healing, but that probably shouldn't be her most urgent priority here. :Was, uh, was the thing that happened right before you ended up here an assassination attempt too? Or something else?: 

:It was, yeah, somebody sent a pack of monsters after us and Leareth triggered the artifact to get away but obviously it is not very considerate about elevation when it drops people. Also it left behind my magic horse, which is uncomfortable:

:Your...magic...horse...?: 

:They're called Companions and they bond to people, sort of like the bond me and Leareth have. It's uncomfortable to stretch that bond too far so I really wish she were here but it would probably have been even more awkward to try to bring a magic horse into this hospital looking for Leareth, plus presumably she would also have fallen and gotten hurt:

Marian nods. :I'm sorry, that does sound hard. ...Uh, can you say more about the sort of bond you and Leareth have? I don't think we have that here: