"You're welcome. ...Okay, serious conversation time and then I'll leave you alone to rest. Uh. One. Please don't ever do the mind control thing to anyone in this hospital ever again. Got it? You scared the crap out of Dr Beckett." 

Ma'ar is fully aware of that. 

:...I am sorry: 

"Also I'd rather you not read my private thoughts or anyone else's, but I get that you can't understand us otherwise, right? Okay. I...guess we'll just have to make sure anyone assigned to you knows that and agrees to it." 

Ma'ar isn't sure that he's gotten any of Marian's truly 'private' thoughts, unless her having treated the patient who was a criminal and murderer was meant to be a secret. Nearly all of her legible surface thoughts are about Healing - this world's bizarre variant of it, anyway - and half of them are incomprehensible to him. 

He nods, though. :If I am - more awake - can be careful. Only hear what you mean to say: 

"Huh. Neat. Well, we want you awake anyway, it's better for your recovery. Which, uh, brings me to the next thing. You're clearly not well enough to leave. We just had to do a lot of medical treatment to get you stabilized after you were upset. Your vital signs and blood sugars are all over the place. The doctor thinks you probably need another two days here. Do you understand?" 

Ma'ar nods. 

:Will you be here?: 

"Um. Tomorrow, yes, all day. Not overnight." 

Oh no he looks so sad about it. 

"You'll have a different nurse overnight who'll take just as good care of you," she promises. "Hmm. Does it help if I go talk to the charge nurse and see who's on tonight, and I can request the nurse I think you'll get along with best? I - would stay nearby, only, I didn't get much sleep last night and I really need to catch up." 

Of course. This is her job - and she does it well - but her professional duty is to all of her patients, not just him. She doesn't even know him. 

:I understand: 

"Good. I had another thing... Right. It seems like it's tiring for you to use telepathy? And you're still really weak. I think it'd be better if you didn't have to use it and tire yourself out constantly just to communicate basic things. I thought maybe I could make you a picture board? So the nurse can point out a picture of what they want to do, and you can point at pictures of things you need, like pain medicine or changing position. Does that seem like it would help?" 

It sounds confusing, and like a lot of extra work for her, but she's right. He shouldn't really be using his Gifts at all, right now. He nods.

"Good. Sounds like we have a plan." Marian smiles. "Uh, I don't want to leave you alone right now, but I do have a lot of documentation to catch up on. Is it okay if I go sit right there, on the other side of that window? I'll be able to see you and all your monitors, and I'll notice if you're trying to get my attention." She's not sure about explaining the concept of 'call bells' just yet. 

:Tube out soon?: Ma'ar presses. 

"I haven't forgotten! I know it's really uncomfortable. The doctor just wants to let you rest a bit, and make sure your vital signs are stable. I'll go bother him about it in half an hour?" 

Probably the best deal he's going to get. Ma'ar nods and wearily closes his eyes. Sleep is impossible, he's far too uncomfortable, but lying still and not thinking is still a vast relief. 

...And, it turns out, with the residual sedation in his system and the recent dose of morphine, sleep is less impossible than he thought. 

It feels like very little time has passed, but Marian is tapping his shoulder again, speaking to him in her foreign language, and he realizes that he's been dozing. 

Opening his eyes comes easier than before, though. 

It's 3:15 pm. Dr Beckett is about to leave - well, after she finishes her massive backlog of notes - but she wanted to see their patient through his extubation first. Even if he did mind-control her. 

She's nervous, entering the room again - okay, fine, she's feeling a little panicky - but she has to do this. Has to prove to herself that she can. And, well, she's heard the full story from Marian now. Poor man. No wonder he did all that. It sounds like he approximately thought he was a medical subject in something like one of those horrible Nazi concentration camp experiments. 

She takes a deep breath, and steps toward the bed, and looks back at Dr Prissan. 

Leaning on the doorframe, he smiles reassuringly at her. "Go on." 

She reaches out and takes Ma'ar's hand and forces herself to smile. 

"Hey. Ma'ar. You ready to have that tube taken out?" 

He turns his head on the pillow, makes eye contact. For the first time she's seen, he almost smiles. 

"Then let's do this! Here's what's going to happen, okay - I'm going to suction in your lungs one last time, and in your mouth a bit - sorry, I know, Marian says you don't like that, but it's important to make sure you don't choke on any of your saliva as we're pulling the tube out. I'm going to unhook it from the holder on your face, and pull the air out of the balloon that makes a seal in your windpipe, and then when I say 'now' I want you to cough really hard and I'll pull it right out. Does that make sense?" 

She went through all of that a bit fast, but Ma'ar thinks he followed it, at least the parts that need actions from him. He nods. 

"Okay. I'm going to listen to your lungs." 

She does this.

"Not too bad. You're a little bit crackly at the bases, but that's why I'm going to suction you." She picks up the suction tubing, shows it to him. "Are you ready?" 

He is NOT but he braces himself and nods.