Patrols and Reports

Antfarm found this doctor without too much guidance. It's good for him to get back on his feet, even if he had to deal with the urchins. The students were just as curious, but ever since Wolfgang, they've been a little less anxious to investigate neighbors. The air in St Helen's will do him some good, and I can leave supplies at his camp when he is on his hikes. Far enough away that the children won't have time to pester him constantly, but close enough he can get into Shanghai to see Dr Beck, it's a good spot.

The trip to Caledon meant I could not patrol as often as I used to, so I have some catching up to do. That Gloom creature was new. The children, urchins or students, are at risk until we can put this one down. Dr Beck is trying to get some information from the remains of the one found. He has more experience in this kind of investigation... and he's having flashbacks in the middle of things. I don't know him well enough yet to help with those. I'll have to sound him out on non-traditional therapies.

The therapeutic regimen he set for himself is not going to do him any good in the long run. He hasn't taken any sever damages yet, and he's still healthy enough that I'm not worried yet. His mind is till mostly intact, and his neurological reactions are still solid enough to treat others. I still trust him more than Roundtree, because even with his ghosts, he's still trying to care for the slum-dwellers.

Mama also had problems with Shanghai, centered around something in the hotel. I went over her notes, and something has moved into Dragonlands since my last patrol there. I can see why she is weirded out by it. I am going to see what Greenie can make of it, because this should be safe enough territory.

Unfolding the Past, Wrapping the Present

Unfolding the Past, Wrapping the Present

That drizzly morning where I stormed into the sanitarium, seemingly for the first time in weeks, I was not in the mood to deal with polite guidelines of behavior. I'm not quite sure I remember everything I called Roundtree, but some of it was medically impossible (even for mad science) and I was kinda loud. The police had taken that nurse off to whatever they thought was safe, and Mack seemed fine with me not physically threatening the doctor. "What sort of hospital are you running where the staff can go off the deep end and you DON'T BLOODY WELL NOTICE?!?!"

He got huffy, and was about to bring out the I Am The Doctor voice, and I cut him off. "I do not give a damn what you think you were doing, I am taking him out of here before the rest of your staff decides he needs 'help'." Hayes pitched in, babbling about how he could not be moved, and the nurses murmuring it was all so unseemly, but they couldn't find Ward Sister Grace to tell me off.

About half my rage was an act. Yeah, I was angry, and it really was a shoddy way to treat them, but the main thing was keeping my wings mantled and the claws extended. I needed some physical space for the shields to work, here. I had a thread of a connection to Mr Antfarm, stepping his pain reactions off, and channeling the energy to boost his immune system, increase the healing of his wounds and give him some strength. I had enough of padding around the rules of maintaining the status quo of the local medical standards. They were doing less for him than we had been able to manage in Steelhead.

Sweeping the hospital for more energy sources, I started to get the residuals from Nurse Rain's activities from the day. It was worse than they thought. "...and where is your Ward Dragon? Where was she when all of this was happening?" The nurses that had been under Sister Grace began muttering. From their whispers, Sister Grace had not been in the dorm that night, and I knew from when I was hiding here that she never left the campus. No lover, no family to visit, her whole life was the hospital, and yet and Sister Grace was no-where on the grounds. I also knew, from the negative pool of energy in the basement, something was very wrong.

Mack looked like he was about to drop, but his day shift counterpart Daniel had just shown up, and they were having a hurried conference in the back of the crowd. They peeled off down the wards with about a half-dozen of the younger nurses and all but the two burliest of the orderlies. Those two were flanking Roundtree like goombahs backing a don as we argued back-and-forth about his medical qualifications.

About ten minutes later, a shriek went up from the basement, and soon after, Watchman Daniel pelted up the stairs. I was just able to pull my working shields in when he reached me and grabbed my wrist. I nearly pulled back and decked him, but he was radiating more concentration than fear. He turned my hand over, and inspected my talons, then he took a sniff of the back of my hand. "I di'n think so, but I had't be sure. We need you to stick around, jus' th' same."

Ignoring Roundtree's demands for information, I nodded, "I will stay in arm's reach of you while we wait for the police."

Hours later, the police cleared me, when they found the coal shovel, and the hand-prints in the blood that were smaller than mine. True, I am a shape-shifter, but the hands were also the size of Nurse Rain's. The Caledon investigator looked me over, and shook his head, "Na, you've not been in the basement, I think. I know how to contact you, Dr Belfire." That was a shock, as I hadn't even told my parents I had passed my boards. I had the oddest feeling he was taking my family history just by glancing over my clothes. The small pin on his lapel depicting an open book gave me a clue where he might be getting his information, but at least he was clearing me of the murders.

Yes, murders. They found two separate scenes of carnage, one in the laundry, and one in the boiler room. No bodies yet, though they were shutting down the boiler to see if anything was left. The hospital was short-staffed, and it seemed the staff was dwindling more with each new revelation.

In all of the confusion, we managed to get everyone clear of room fifteen, long enough for someone to dress and slip away. It was the least I could do for him, as the staff still would not release him to me. I still have the thread attached to him, so I can find him later when we get a doctor for him. Father is not available, and Vater is more of a neurosurgical specialist, so I hope I can drag Beck out of whatever memory-dampening stupor he's dug himself into this week.

Short Commercial Break

Look, I have to edit a lot of words Ladies aren't supposed to use in Steamlands Society from my next bit of my journal. I was (language redacted) upset with that (language redacted) medical professional, Dr Roundtree, and my parents read this. True, of the five of them only three would notice, and Mama might say something about it.

So go look at this entry about the Dragonlands rentals. I was there for a visit after returning to Steelhead to, erm... I have to check the statute of limitations on this one... just go read, then visit the Dragonlady and get yourself a place to sleep. I wasn't there, you didn't see me.

Angel of Mercy, Angel of Death

I had to switch to a nocturnal schedule to monitor him properly. The hospital is bustling most of the day, and after watching the movements of the staff, I can just about mimic their patterns to further disguise my appearance. Shape-shifting into someone they expect to see takes practice, but not a great deal of energy. All it took was a firmer sense of self, and a strong need.

Being an under nurse in this place is absolute hell. It is a wonder anyone stays. We have to get that new guy in the slums straightened out enough to run a hospital full time. It's a wonder anyone survives this place. It's clean enough, and the science is usually sound, but there is so little contact it is a wonder if the diagnoses are right half the time. I had enough in the first day to switch to night watch.

Hiding in the attic was the only way, but this time I was close enough to react when the ward alarm went off a scant hour before dawn. Still wearing the seeming of one of the under nurses, I slipped past the ward nurse and into room fifteen.

The room was dark, and I wondered how a human navigated it - unless they were intimately familiar with the room layout. But of course, this one did know, she was supposed to be here.

As the figure reached into her cloak and pulled out her tools, I heard her murmur, “There, there, Mr Antfarm. I’m here to help you. You’ll be better soon. Let me take your pain away.” Her voice was gentle as the rain outside.

Grabbing her wrist before she could dose him, I growled, "That is enough of that, sister."

She shrieked, and stabbed at me with the pipette. Not the harridan that ruled the floor, this was the tweenie that got sent down today! In my surprise, I lost my hold on my shape, reverting to my default.

Well, of course that was a surprise for her. Cross-dimensional beings are not unknown here, but finding a bat-winged, fanged figure with glowing blue eyes holding your arm in a dark room will be startling to lots of people. As romantic as her notions about killing people as a mercy to them were, it was too much for her. She fainted dead away.

The commotion was bound to bring someone, and I had to make a quick choice. Nurse Rain was not authorized to be on this floor, but I was not even authorized to be in the building. Discretion being the better part of valor, I blended back into the shadows and shifted between planes to the stairwell.

When the night nurse came in holding her lamp aloft, saying sotto voce, "What goes on here?" there was naught to see but Mr Antfarm, and Nurse Rain, clutching her bottle of opium. I slipped back into my guise as an under nurse and quickly retraced my steps to the room. The evidence was there, and the night nurse was thankfully a sharp one. She barely glanced at me, ordering me to get the watchman and the doctor on call.

Luckily, I didn't have far to go to get Mack, as her screech had been heard downstairs as well. He was on hand to help restrain Nurse Rain as she came out of her faint, babbling about demons keeping her from her duty. The doctor on call was not Roundtree, but one of his students. This one had studied a year in Vienna, much to Antfarm's luck, and was able to sign her into one of the observation rooms. He noted the opium bottle, and her hysteria, and managed to write up a neat assessment dismissing her report of seeing me as hallucination, caused by her conscience and possible drug abuse.

All this went on without any need for me to guide it, and I stopped in to see Mr Antfarm. He had not gotten any further dosages, and his eyes tracked me well enough. I let my eyes show through the seeming, and told him, "I will make sure you get better, but I can't promise there will be no pain. I will do my best, though."

Downstairs, in a broom closet on the ground floor, I shifted back to my default, taking time to pull together my formal suit to confront Roundtree as soon as he got to the hospital.

The State of Medicine

Roundtree may be an unfeeling bastard, but at least he is competent within the field of medicine. Pity he can't seem to manage the staff.

Sleeping on the roof is as close as I can get to my charge, seeing as how I am not a relative, and my medical credentials do not translate here. Besides, I had only made it into the internship program before this started. Since there is a pixie squatter in the belltower, I have to stick to the battlements. Once it snows I should see about getting into the attics, if he is still here.

I nearly missed the one overdosing Antfarm, because her aura was one of the ones who belonged there. I had a choice of slipping between planes to catch her, or diverting the opium syrup to a less harmful spot. Even the small displacement from his mouth to the spot under his cot was draining, enough so I lost the trace of her (I think it was female) as soon as she left his room.

This is no longer just a medical issue. Getting around the night watchman was too easy, so I felt there was the need to install wards around his room, taking a moment for a check of his vital signs. A quick sweep of his room, placing a listening device or two, and taking a sample of the syrup on the floor took as little time as I had between the watchman's rounds. The footstep at the end of the hall reminded me I should not be here outside the visiting hour, and forestalled me from changing his bandages. I slipped between planes and resumed my watch from the roof.

The more I visit here, the more I feel the need to build a proper clinic.

The Dreaming One

He is stable enough to be moved, at least on this plane. I wish I could take him to the Infirmary, but his hold on this reality is too thin to make the transition safely. We have seen nothing of the sheriff's cousin, and since Father was exiled, we haven't got a medical facility. Regency Hospital is not what it used to be, and that just leaves the Tam San. I honestly don't like the idea, but he is being moved to Caledon.

I am going with him, of course. The sanitarium staff did care for Uncle Gus well enough when he was lost in Aunt Gem's mind, but the director has not had more cross-planar experience by now. His injuries are more extensive than Uncle Gus's. The Regency Hospital deals with the injuries to Caledonians well enough, and Lady Darkling is his sponsor there. She was distressed to find out the bottled lightning had any part in the fire. Rengerin tells me it was just another link in the causality chain, but not the key reason for the accident.

Another reason to go is I am responsible for him. He was injured in the house of my father, as a guest. I must honor the law, and do my best by the ger. He believed himself to be Zaide, but it was not out of malice. The taistealaí will be honored.

Mama's assistant arranged airship passage for us, as that would be the best way to move him. I also asked her to keep an eye out for those searching for him. I do not know if he has any family, but there are several people interested in him. The ones that have not come forward to ask after him in his convalescence are the ones that worry me.

Lifting off into the pre-dawn light, I locked the door to the cabin and settled in to nap beside his bunk, trying to reach him through his travels.

The Parts Inbetween

He knows who he is, and is not, at last.

Though he hangs in the balance, not really here and not truly gone, he knows his beginnings. I am not a telepath, so I am unable to tell you his story, but he radiates peaceful contentment in his comatose state.

Soaking him in the trough filled with the burn ointments has made caring for him a delicate process. There were a few spots where his skin was burned away completely, but there is still a chance he will survive. It mostly depends on if he decides to wake up.

Rengerin tried to give me a report on what she found in the ruins, but I have honestly been too tired to focus on anything but his injuries. Tensai hasn't thrown me out of the sick room, yet. My sleeping on the pallet here has freed her up to manage Steelhead.

Could I have stopped him? What more should I have done to protect him?