Ma'ar looks blearily at the strange bag-contraption that Marian just put in his hand, and then lowers it to his lap. :Are you going now: 

"Soon. I came to introduce Nellie. ...Nellie, I think he needs to be touching you to talk to you." 

Nellie sidles around to the other side of the bed, clipboard with printed simple pictures in hand, and lays her hand over Ma'ar's. 

"Pleasure to meet you, sir. I've heard about your last day here from Marian, and a bit about your history. How are you feeling right now?" 

Ma'ar considers this. He's definitely feeling a lot of different things, most of them unpleasant, but he doesn't especially want to Mindspeak a lot of different words. :Tired: he settles with. 

"I believe it! You've had an adventurous day. Is just listening to me with telepathy easier for you than answering me that way?" She waits for his nod. "All right. So, I like to set goals with my patients. And your top goal for tonight is REST. So I'll try to ask yes-or-no questions as much as possible, and Marian made us these communication aides." 

There are a few different sheets. "Here, see, this one is for things you want or need - water, food, blanket, pain medicine, change position, have a bowel movement, get up, get back to bed, you get the picture. We can draw more in if we think of them - though, sorry, I draw like a five-year-old. This page is symptoms - pain, itching, shortness of breath, nausea - you can point on this picture of a body to where it hurts. And then this other one is for me to tell you what I want to do. We can use that if you're too tired to listen even. All that make sense?" 

The pictures are fairly self-evident. Probably he can figure it out even though he wasn't fully listening. He nods. 

"Good man. So, goal number one is REST. That comes first, and if you're feeling too tired for other goals, we won't push that tonight. But I do want to get you drinking liquids, and from there to eating again. That'll be goal number two. Our stretch goal for tonight is getting you sitting up on the side of the bed, but unless you're feeling real lively in the next few hours, I'll plan on that being first thing in the morning. Good?" 

That sounds like so many things. He is very thirsty, though. :Ice chips now?: 

"Yes, of course! And I'll be back with some water and juice for you in a few minutes. How bad is your headache right now -" probably a 0-10 pain scale is too much to explain right now. "No pain, just a little, medium, really bad, awful...?" 

Inconveniently, both considering this question and answering it make his head hurt more. :Medium: he settles on eventually. 

"...Hmm, I'll print another sheet with something you can point at. For now, you can use hand up higher for more pain, lower for less pain?" She demonstrates. "Does it hurt anywhere else? You can point out where and then use your hand to say how bad." 

Everything hurts. He's had worse, though. He sweeps his hand vaguely at his entire body and then lifts his hand a little. 

"Mmm, you're saying it hurts all over but only a bit?" She waits for his nod. "All right. I'm going to ask to doctor about giving you other painkillers, that won't make you so sleepy." 

Being drowsy all the time is convenient, though. It means he doesn't have to have thoughts or experience his body right now. :I did not mind: 

"Maybe not, but your lungs seem to mind some! I'm sorry - rest is our top goal tonight, but keeping you breathing well is still a high priority. If you're too out of it, I'm going to have to keep coming in here and poking you and making you cough." 

Uninterested nod. 

Nellie starts to open her mouth, and then closes it again. Right now, when he can barely communicate at all without wearing himself down even more, is NOT the time to prod this guy about his emotional state. 

(Ma'ar picks up flickers of this anyway, of course, but he's putting the bare minimum into Thoughtsensing, and only getting the loudest and most deliberate of her surface thoughts.) 

"...Oh, sorry, and one last thing. You're running a little warm so I have to steal the fancy heating blanket and give you a crappy hospital flannel one. I really am sorry about that." 

"Here, I stashed some." 

The two of them strip off the Bair Hugger and quickly get Ma'ar covered again, with a sheet (Marian picked it out specially, making sure it was an older, slightly worn one, soft from repeated laundering) and then two flannel blankets. Still not as much as a real duvet - Marian isn't sure how anyone sleeps like this, it's so unsatisfying - but layering gives it some heft. They slide him up in the bed and slip pillows behind his other side and Marian tucks him in. 

"Get some rest," she tells him. "I'll see you in the morning." 

Marian dims the lights but leaves the yellower small light by the sink on. She closes the blinds over his door, and half-lowers the window ones, but leaves his door ajar. They slip out. 

Marian flops down in her chair. "So, what's your impression? Just exhausted and sad about his life, or something more worrying?" 

Shrug. "Can't tell yet. I'd feel better if you get a glucose before you leave, though." 

Marian does. 

It's 77. She relays this to Nellie. 

"Trending down, but I reckon I've got time to bump it up with apple juice, no more mainlining sugar syrup straight to his heart. Guess we'll see." Nellie offers Marian a very sloppy faux salute. "Get out of here, girl. You'd better have had at least eight hours of sleep by the time I see you tomorrow." 

It's hard to even get annoyed with Nellie when she acts like your mom. She would be a really cool mom to have. 

Marian heads out. 

The new admit is crashy, but not enough that it's an emergency, so Nellie takes a full fifteen minutes at the computer, outlining her schedule for the night, noting down everything important to track. She assesses 199 first, since he's due for about twelve meds at 8 pm. 

And then she loads up a tray in the patient kitchen: a jug and a nice big styrofoam cup with a lid and straw, a variety of juice packs, and the least horrible flavours of Jello. And then she heads in to try to teach a lost wizard how to drink with a straw, which she's guessing he's never even seen before.