"Fine, I won't ask you about this now. But we're going out for tequila shots tonight and I do want to hear everything." 

"Um. ...Do you need a turn or anything." 

"You know what, sure. Poor guy's been flat on his back for days at this point, too unstable." 

Hopefully whatever Deskyl did cured incipient bedsores as well. 

"All right. Uh, and do you want help calling the family and telling them." 

"Huh. You're being helpful today. I think I'd better make the call, I've got context, but if you feel like parking your butt here and watching my numbers for me, that'd be great." 

Sure, she can do that. Probably DZ will come get her if their pod needs anything, and Elaine is there anyway, being away for a while seems fine. 

The unit, at this point, is very busy but in a quiet-bustle sort of way, not chaos. 

A few minutes after Marian departed the pod, a woman in a suit skirt arrives on the unit. Looks around. "Social work here? For room 113, patient name...Forty-One, Orange? That can't be– oh, right, it's the temp name." 

     "Her actual name is Deskyl," Elaine mutters without looking up from her charting. "Marian's her nurse but she's helping out in another pod, should I go find her." 

"- No, no, that's all right. I can go speak with the patient myself." The social worker approaches and knocks politely on the room door. 

DZ opens it; Deskyl is meditating on the bed. "Yes ma'am?"

"My name is Katie Harris. I'm a social worker at the hospital and I was hoping to speak with Ms, er, Deskyl? Is now a good tim...?" 

She trails off sort of midword as she absorbs the fact that the person talking to her looks exactly like a humanoid robot. 

"Master Deskyl isn't available, ma'am, but I might be able to answer some of your questions."

Frown. "Is there a different time I could come back, when she would be available?" 

    "- one moment, ma'am."

She goes to Deskyl and touches her gently on the knee; Deskyl's eyes open, hand twitching toward her 'saber, and she glances over to take in the woman at the door before signing to the robot.

    "You can come in, ma'am," DZ reports at the end of the exchange.

She hesitates for a moment, then accepts the invitation and delicately steps in. Points at a chair in the corner. "Is it all right if I have a seat?" 

    "Yes ma'am." DZ goes to get it and move it to a suitable spot.

Katie sits down. 

"So. I'm here because your nurse put in a request. She wrote that -" oh right this is the weird one, "- that you aren't from this country and have no way of going home, and that you'll need support finding housing and local services? And also that you - escaped an abusive situation before this." 

'By teleporting' according to the consult notes but, for lack of any better plan, she's going to sort of quietly ignore that part for now. 

    "...yes ma'am?"

"So I'm here to talk about those a bit and find out what you need going forward. First, we have an abuse questionnaire to run through, to get more information on that. May I start there?" 

Deskyl's hand twitches toward her 'saber again as DZ translates.

    "May I ask what you mean by abuse, ma'am?"

She seems a bit startled by this. "Right. I, uh..." 

A pause, then she goes on, a bit haltingly and with a tone like she's trying to remember a textbook. 

"- I mean, fundamentally what we mean by abuse is, someone deliberately harming another person - physically, or emotionally, or in other ways. Uh, often when they're in a position of power so the abused person can't freely leave the situation. Um, does that help at all?" 

    "Not especially, ma'am. One moment, please." The translation is straightforward; what would you like me to do?

...we're not going to talk about that. You can see what she has to say about housing and whatever. For recon - we'll figure out our own thing.

    All right. "Master Deskyl isn't interested in talking about that, ma'am."

"I, um, all...right...?" The social worker seems pretty thrown off-balance by this, but she doesn't argue. "Let me get out the list of resources we can refer you to – oh, uh, does either of you read English or do you need accommodations for that -?" 

"I read English, ma'am."

"- Really? I thought they, uh, didn't speak English where both of you came from." 

"They don't, ma'am, I learned it here."

"In a day?" She's so baffled, but she clears her throat and goes on. "I, uh, anyway, this is a list of phone numbers - these ones are shelters, the ones I'm circling are specifically for women, this phone number will get you a community social worker who can help you look for longer-term housing..."