I bet she would have been compat with Chaos but too late :(

Can't literally any esper guide any other even if they don't all find it all as sexually gratifying? Why is there so much focus on which pairings are pleasurable?

You should really be in touch with an agency about this, they know non-public backlashes.

...he thanks the third one for their suggestion, and emails a few different agencies to explain the situation. (He's so tired).

The agencies are interested in helping out with this! Suspected awakenings you can't get anybody out to a hospital to poke but a documented color change, that's official enough to be precious. They will need to sign some forms about not sharing anything they learn about private backlashes and they can start sending guesses.

Yeah, they can both sign the forms.

The first guess flinches when he touches Kani's hand and shakes it like she gave him a static shock, which, well, at least that means she's an esper.

The second one takes her hand, shrugs, and has an incompatible blood type and another appointment soon.

The third one is teleported in all the way from Toronto. She comes with her own preexisting partner, and she waits in the cab while the partner comes out to give them a briefing. He wants to see the copies of the forms they signed about private backlashes please?

They're right here, signed and dated, all in order.

Epione's partner examines them in detail.

Then he looks up and makes very serious eye contact. "My partner's backlash is that she loses coping skills," he says. "In principle, if absolutely everything is going perfectly, she'll be fine even at high levels, at least till it's enough to hurt directly. In practice she'll eventually get an itch or hear a noise she doesn't like. Her power is symptom management - she does things like suppress nausea in patients so that their doctors can use drugs that cause it and get their conditions treated more aggressively, or do anesthesia without the side effects. She might be able to use this on your daughter's backlash directly, but then she'll be backlashed and if either of you or your daughter triggers her then I'm going to haul her back into the cab and leave. But it would be faster, both by making the guiding faster and by hopefully making it possible for your daughter to tell us what's going on while still at a high level. Do you want her to try this, or just go in at what little she's carrying now?"

They look at each other, and then back to him.

Dave breaks the silence. "We of course will be quiet and still when you need us to be, but we can't really promise that our daughter will do the same when she wakes up from her multi week coma in an unfamiliar place. If her crying out would result in you leaving, I don't think we want your partner to use her power?"

Pete nods.

"All right, I'll tell her not to until she can negotiate directly with her. Anything else we need to know in light of this? You have a pushy nurse who's in to adjust things every twenty minutes? Phone in there that might ring? IV that keeps kinking and making the machine beep? Loud radiator? I can't usually get her to zero outside of long weekends."

Dave looks at Pete, who closes his eyes to think. 

"Never heard a phone ring, the IV bag has been well-behaved, the HVAC is a heat pump and I haven't heard any coil whine from it. Not remembering other noises... Dave, can you message Dr Ixi about a Do Not Disturb sign for the do-" 

    "Already on it," he replies, not looking up from his phone.

Pete opens his eyes. "Anything else before we get started? Would you like some coffee?" 

"I would love some coffee."

Pete will lead him to the coffee room, then. 

(Dr. Ixi writes "DO NOT DISTURB!! SENSITIVE TREATMENT IN PROCESS - IXI" in big letters on a sheet of paper and tapes it to the door)

And when her partner has checked over the room, and the path between there and the taxi, then he goes and gets Epione.

She's dressed in scrubs and a labcoat, but the cuffs of the coat are turned to halfway up her forearm and she doesn't have a badge or lanyard, just her codename embroidered on her coat pocket. She walks with a slow, thoughtful gait while her partner holds her right hand in both of his at once. Sometimes she closes her eyes and stops suddenly and then moves on after a moment. But she gets there eventually.

The girl on the bed is unconscious and breathing softly. She's got an IV line on her right hand and a stuffed weiner dog on her chest, which she's giving a one-handed hug. She doesn't stir when Epione enters the room. 

Epione uses her free hand to, first, gently brush her fingertip against the back of the kid's hand.

That's a compatible esper! (She doesn't react to the touch.)

Epione nods to her partner. She sits on the edge of the bed, shrugs off her labcoat, and slowly, carefully, pausing every now and then to check in with herself, gets her whole arm lined up with Kani's.

 She has a lot of backlash that needs draining, but she's not going anywhere. 

Epione settles in, gradually, and closes her eyes, and her partner eventually puts on a podcast about whales and guards the door, and everything is calm.

After several minutes, Kani stirs. Her eyes don't open, but her grip on Ms Weiner tightens, and then - 

Her backlash spikes up, and she stills.

"She's using her power," Epione reports. Her partner texts the dads.