Closed Tender Care (Valerius, Verin)

[Amolina]

Timestamp: Day 35 Winter 513 AV
Location: NMSS Research Location

The NMSS activities had started during the winter and there had been a lot of marketing of how honorable it was to volunteer for tests meant to improve the sanitary conditions and health in Ravok.

There had been volunteers, mostly from an old folks home nearby, but so far the tests had been very cautious, as Valerius, Amolina and Inoadar found it best to not make any mistakes. It woldn't do if the very first volunteers started to speak about bad experiences.

But it remained for them to treat people for real. Just giving people tea and coffee, lots of chat and socialization, painkillers against headache and general caretaking was good for the image as a nice place for elderly folks to gather in, while they did a good deed for Ravok - but it wasn't getting the researchers anywhere. They hadn't progressed much when it came to giving true medical care.

However, they felt sure that sooner or later somebody would turn up and need somewhat more demanding help from the doctor (and nurse)...

[Verin Rush]

A man walked through the bricked and wooden passages of Ravok towards the outskirts of the Noble District. His clothes were dark, as was the grey rag wrapped around his hand which, if any passers-by were to look closely enough, they would notice certain patches of the material were darker, and had a slight crimson taint; the rag (because that was all it was now) was stained by blood. There was no foul play; the wound, which was an accident, had been self-inflicted. Verin had been fiddling with his tamo daggers, a gift from his father, but he had never had much time for the head of the Rush household, so, at sixteen, Verin had flung the present aside, out of spite. It was only recently that he had come to show an interest in learning how to use them, and his most recent attempt had not gone well. He couldn’t even claim an amazing feat in practising: he hadn’t been throwing them in the air and trying to deflect them, as if learning to defend himself from an attacker. He hadn’t even been trying to sharpen them, so long had they say there, never having been used. All he had done was drop one of the damn things. Foolishly, perhaps, he had leant down to try to catch it, and he had succeeded, but he had caught the blade, which was sharp enough to slice through the thin layers of skin on the palm of his hand. The cut was by no means fatal, but it was deep enough to bleed a significant amount and, as he was completely ignorant of the world of medicine, he had decided to have it looked at by a professional. As for many Ravokians, word had reached Verin of a new research centre, one which apparently offered healing services to people. The blond didn’t know much about it, other than it’s location, but he had decided to go there, rather than the more established Healing Hand. Though he did not have work later on today, he did not have the patience to waste time at the other place of healing, knowing full well that half of Ravok would also have ailments they wished to have seen to. He was hoping that this new location would be quieter, and he would be seen faster. At least, that’s what he would tell the staff. In truth, he knew that the Healing Hand was endorsed to an extent by the Black Sun; it would not do well for Verin to need medical attention for such folly. The man was stubborn and would rather bleed out than be seen as weak, clumsy and unworthy in the eyes of the organisation he so wished to join. He squeezed his hand tight for a moment, another attempt to stem the bleeding, which was hot against the rag and his hand, and he glanced up at the building in front of him. He assumed this was the one, knowing that he was in the right location. Pale blue eyes dropped down to look at the hand, which rested at an angle against his chest, supported by his other, uninjured, hand. He wondered whether or not it was actually worth going inside, and if he actually needed treatment. The blood was beginning to slow, he imagined, though he didn’t actually open the rag to check, lest the flow start afresh. The wound would heal on it’s own, though – he would have a scar there, yes, but it would heal. The only real worry was if the wound would become infected before it had the chance to heal… Sighing to himself, he walked forward and pushed the door open before walking inside.

[Amolina]

Amolina was sitting at her desk, in the left “half” of the reception room, organizing notes. She took the notes about each subject from the pile of paper slips with not yet organized notes and looked them through to ensure that all the information was there.

If something was missing she threw the note in a box named “to be completed”. But if everything seemed to be correct, she took the quill, dipped it in ink, and taking care to write as well as she could she copied the information to the subject ledger.

She wore her white linen nurse outfit and her dark brown hair was put up the serious nurse style she favored when she was working. Not that there was much to do at the moment. And Amolina was grateful for that : some of the elderly visitors could be quite troublesome and there was no end to how much attention they seemed to need.

She looked up when the blond man entered - why, it was one of the Rush twins, hard to tell which one, as she hadn’t seen any of them around for a while. She didn’t know them so well, but they weren't strangers either.

Verin? Venser? Ve…eh… Rush.

“Mr Rush …”. She settled for the family name in order to avoid guessing at the wrong brother. And then she saw that the way he held his hand. “Are you injured?”

While she listened to his explanation she made him sit down on a chair. She took the quill again, dipped it in more ink, and on an empty slip of paper she wrote : “V. Rush” and “Injured hand”. If she had been a real nurse and not just an actress in a nurse outfit she might have asked to have a look at the wound. But as it was, she was going to let the doctor do it.

Now, where was Valerius ? Had he snuck into the lab to use it alone, without Nolan Parnell watching like a hawk over the equipment ? Or was he taking a nap in the guest bedroom? She found it best to call for him, so she went the doors on the middle of the back wall of the room. First she knocked on the lab door and then she knocked on the guest bedroom door : “We have a patient” she announced.

There was a door between the bedroom and the lab too, so patients could be moved without disturbing visitors in the reception room. Whatever Valerius had been doing in any of the two rooms, he could come out from any of the two doors.

While they waited for the doctor she chatted a bit with Rush about things like the weather and the general events in the city.

[Valerius Nitrozian]

Valerius had indeed snuck into the lab to use it alone. When Nolan Parnell was nearby, the Nitrozian could rarely do what he wanted – even though he had financed it with his money! As Amolina knocked on the door, he frowned – he had being interrupted – but opened nevertheless. A patient? He hoped that it wasn’t another of those senile people from the old folks home. He couldn’t stand old people. They were ugly, and they smelled bad.

Fortunately Rhysol had decided to have mercy on him that day and spare him the sight of another wrinkled face that was covered with age spots. Their newest patient was fairly pleasant to look at, and at least at first glance he seemed to be of normal intelligence. And thus Valerius put on a polite and professional expression and stepped out of the lab and walked over to him.

Valerius had spent most of his time experimenting on Kelvic – he had practiced very little real medicine – but he looked as if he knew what he was doing. He looked very self confident. Most doctors were dressed in white, but white just didn’t suit the vain young man, and thus he was dressed in a black suit. It was a suit that looked as if you could practice medicine in it without completely ruining it though.

„I’m Valerius Nitrozian – Doctor Nitrozian“, he introduced himself. He had to admit, he rather liked playing the part of a doctor, a person that people admired and respected. It was so much better than being Doctor Alzelin’s assistant. “Can I take a look at the wound, Mister …?“

[Verin Rush]

A smile fell onto his lips as he watched Amolina struggle to find his name. They knew each other, but it was fair to assume that she would get mixed up between the identical twins; many did. He let her sweat it out, though – if he was to be embarrassed, so could she. “That’s why I’m here.” He answered her question simply as he raised his bound hand, which was still clearly bleeding, as proof of his presence here. Placing it back in his lap, he massaged it lightly, trying to alleviate some of the pain as Amolina walks away. When she returned from contacting the doctor, he nodded at her words; he was happy to wait, as long as he would be seen faster than if he had gone to the Healing Hand. “I didn’t know you were working here?” The interest wasn’t feigned; last he had heard, she was over at the Kelvic Research Institute, working for them. He glanced around; this place looked like it was just getting up and running. “You’re aware that I’m not Kevic.. right?” He teased as he heard a door opening and he turned to see a man walking towards them He was surprised when the man introduced himself as Doctor Nitrozian; the man wasn’t in the typical garb of a medical practitioner, though Verin had to admit that he did look smart, crisp and professional. He wondered why a Nitrozian, of all people, would have an interest in healing the sick and injured. “I should have done more research before waltzing through those doors,” he admonished himself. “Doctor Nitrozian. A pleasure. Verin Rush. I would offer my hand but…” He smiled wryly as he showed his bound right extremity to the man. At the request to let him view said injury, Verin nodded and gingerly began to remove the sodden rag from his hand, revealing a large horizontal gash which had gone deep enough to cut through some of his flesh. On each of his four fingers, there were cuts also, though not as deep, where the other edge of the blade had sliced through a few layers of the skin. The bleeding began afresh, though, “The bleeding’s slowed down a bit now. But it’s bled a lot, and I wanted to be sure of avoiding an infection.” He said softly, by way of explanation.

[Amolina]

“Hmmm…but are you totally sure you aren’t Kelvic ? ” Amolina teased back, smiling too. “I have been working a bit at KRI now and then, that’s how I met Doctor Nitrozian and got to be part time nurse here” she added more seriously. “Don’t worry. We only treat humans. It’s a real doctor, not a vet. You are in safe hands. ”

When she heard Verin introduce himself to Valerius, Amolina took the quill again, dipped it in ink and wrote “Verin” in an empty space on the paper slip. There. Now she knew which of the Rush twins they were dealing with. Verin.

She watched while Verin removed the rag from his hand. The hand was bleeding from a deep gash on the palm and cuts on his fingers. Acting like she was an experienced nurse and used to watch injuries without wincing, she smiled encouragingly at Verin and waited for Valerius to proceed. She guessed it was time to take Verin into the lab and take care of the wound there. It wouldn’t do to get blood on everything in the lobby and office room. And perhaps the gush would need to get stitches?

Though Valerius was the doctor and would do the more advanced medical work, Amolina wanted to do her job and carry out the basic care, so she decided to take an initiative and give Verin painkillers.

They had the pills in the lab. The question was : how many would be needed ? She liked Verin and didn’t want him to suffer so she didn’t want to make the painkiller drink to weak. Then again, she didn’t want to make it too strong either. The problem was that she didn’t know the proper dose. When the usual visitors complained on headache she used to give them only one pill, which was always enough, as they didn’t have headache at all, they just wanted to be taken care of. One pill seemed to be a very weak dose, as nobody ever seemed to be affected by it.

At some point she had heard Nolan Parnell say something about how they could save money if they used sugar pills instead of real painkillers as the subjects were just faking. Amolina had been against it thought, and said they couldn’t afford to get a bad reputation if somebody revealed that they used fake medicines. She didn’t know if Parnell had spoken with Valerius about this. Amolina hadn’t heard anything more about it.

She had used lots of the painkiller pills lately, as they seemed to have become quite popular. The box was empty. She had to fetch a new one from the store shelves. As Parnell was fanatical about the lab everything was well organized, so she found it at once, a small box with handmade pills that could be taken as they were or dissolved in water. She was used to dissolve them in water though, so took a mug and poured some water in it.

If one pill wasn’t enough to affect a frail old lady like Anita Lark-Mazetti much, then it was far from enough for Verin. Anita would likely need at least two pills to get a stronger effect … so Amolina guessed Verin might need four. She dissolved four pills in the water and after hesitating a bit she dissolved one more. Five. That ought to be a good dose, she thought.

All this had been done quickly. She came back with the painkiller drink nearly at once, and with a reassuring smile she offered it to Verin. “If you would like to take something against the pain you can drink this. It’s five painkiller pills in it. “

[Valerius Nitrozian]

Valerius didn’t reply as Verin said that it was „a pleasure“, but just looked at the man in a certain way, as if he thought him slightly insane for making such a statement. A pleasure? Really? The treatment he was going to give Verin was potentially painful. There was nothing pleasant about it.

„There is no need for you to offer your hand“, he remarked. „This isn’t about being polite and observing certain social rules, but taking care of your wound.“ Valerius disliked shaking other people’s hands anyway, especially if he was in a place where people were likely sick, such as the Sanitary Station or any random hospital.

He took a close look at the gash on Verin’s hand that was rather deep and arched an eyebrow. „How did that happen?“ he wanted to know before he told Verin, „Follow me into the lab please. Nurse Moletta …“ He turned to Amolina. „Mister Rush will need stitches. Could you please prepare a needle, thread and some bandages while I disinfect his wound?“

It was then that he noticed that Amolina had dissolved a few pills in a glass of water and was offering that to Verin now. „Miss Moletta“, he spoke. „I want to talk to you after Mister Rush has left us.“ He believed that the dose, while unlikely to be harmful, was a bit too high. He wouldn’t mention it in front of their patient though as there was a chance that Mister Rush would then proceed to tell everybody how incompetent the people at the Sanitary Station were and ruin their reputation forever.

„Mister Rush?“ He went into the lab, expecting the man to follow him. Once he was there, he cleaned his hands carefully before he took a bottle with a mixture that had antispetic and disinfectant properties. „I will wipe your wound with this here now. It will sting a little, but you must not pull your hand away. If the wound isn’t cleaned properly, it may become infected.“

[Verin Rush]

Verin's expression did not falter as he heard Doctor Nitrozian speak to him. He wasn't particularly surprised to find a potential heir to the Nitrozian wealth acting a little disparaging towards him, but he was surprised to find it happening in such a situation. The man's bedside manner was definitely not something to boast about, Verin decided, especially if the stories about this place were true - if they were treating primarily older patients, patients close to their ends, he would hope that the man was at least kind to them, and humoured whatever strange fantasy the patients imagined up. But he said none of this, knowing that Valerius was used to dealing with Kelvics over at the Research Institute. Those creatures didn't, in Verin's opinion, need as much kind interaction as Valerius' new human patients, so it was something he could overlook. It was very possible that the man was not out of the habit of dealing with the less than human creatures yet. As Doctor Nitrozian bent down to examine his palm, Verin did, however, cast his gaze over to Amolina and raise a brow, his smile widening towards his friend in obvious amusement. He accepted the cocktail of painkillers with gratitude. He wasn't in any amount of severe pain; it hurt, yes, but it was moderate. He allowed Amolina to do her job, though, deciding that she knew better than he what he needed. The taste was foul and he grimaces as he tried to finish all of the liquid. “I suppose they make it taste awful so that we don't want too much of the stuff,” he said as he handed the cup back to Amolina, his attention drawn by Valerius speaking. Loath to admit what had actually happened, the elder Rush offered a variation of the truth, “An incident involving a tamo dagger, I caught one at the wrong angle. I have them with me if you need to inspect them...” There was no need to admit that he had only caught it because he had foolishly dropped it in the first place. Though he was sure that both Valerius and Amolina would be professional and maintain his privacy, he didn't want anything to slip and have the story of how Verin had injured himself run around the elite of the city. If he was to get where he needed to get, that would never do. Nodding, he kept the rag beneath his now open hand, so as to not get blood on the floor, and followed Doctor Nitrozian into the room. He nodded again at the man's words of experiencing pain but said nothing as he tensed his stomach. For some reason, whenever he and his brother would clean each other's open wounds up as children, he found it helped to tense his muscles. By no stretch of the imagination did Verin had a high pain threshold, but it was higher than the average citizen, he imagined. A little sting on a small wound on the palm of his had would not cause his legs to buckle. “Do what you must, Doctor.”

[Amolina]

Amolina wondered what Valeris meant when he said he wanted to speak to her after Verin Rush had left. Perhaps he wanted to discuss the case in more detail in a way that wasn’t possible in front of a patient with an urgent need of help? Once upon a time Valerius had said that he might be persuaded to teach her about medicine and research, but so far this hadn’t happened. But maybe he planned to teach her things today.

She hoped so. It had been easy to deal with the volunteer test subjects from the old folks home, as they weren’t ill or injured and mainly just needed her to be a nice hostess. But this situation wasn’t that easy. Verin’s need of medical care was real and Valerius’ orders required her to really carry out the tasks of a nurse, not just wear a white dress and smile. She had already discovered that she wasn’t even sure what was the correct dose of painkillers for Verin.

She watched Verin swallow the painkiller drink. There. Hopefully it would make the pain of having the hand disinfected and properly treated bearable. She smiled encouragingly at him.

And now she had to prepare needle and thread for the stiches Valerius was going to give Verin, and bandages to wrap around the wound afterwards. The sad truth was that there hadn’t been any time for training at this, so Amolina’s “knowledge” about medicine and a nurse's work consisted of no more than vague imaginations.

She looked at Valerius and for a tick she was tempted to ask questions. But then she thought of how it could make her come off as ignorant and worthless as a nurse in front of Verin. She didn’t want him to think her incompetent, for numerous reasons. She had her own personal reputation to think of, but also the reputation of the project, and the reputation of the Nitrozian family name.

“Yes doctor Nitrozian” she said instead, making her facial expression composed, serious and professional. Her voice was firm and calm. Truth was, she vinced inwardly at the thought of sewing in Verin’s hand. She felt slightly nauseated when she imagined how it would look and how it would feel (for Verin), but she didn’t show anything, as she really wasn’t going to give Valerius reason to think her squeamish.

After this efficient answer, Amolina proceeded to the preparations she had been asked to do. She searched the medical treatment items and found threads of several thicknesses. This was unexpected. Thread had sounded very easy, but now it had already become complicated. She glanced at Valerius but he was busy working too and she felt a bit foolish for not even knowing wich thread he wanted. She took the decision herself. The finest thread seemed weak…the thickest one seemed clumsy, so she took the medium thick thread and hoped it would fit all purposes.

Now it was time for the needle. She searched the medical treatment equipment again and found a set of needles arranged after size, in a small box. There she stopped…the needles weren’t looking like the usual sewing needle tailors used - the medical treatment needles were curved, and for a chime she just stared at them. Had they been given defect needles ?

She glanced at Valerius, but once again she decided to abstain from questions. The curved needles were the only needles they had anyway, so she was going to prepare one of them. There were five different sizes of needles, from very thin to somewhat robust. She wasn’t sure which size they needed for Verin's injury, so she did like people tend to do when they don’t know : she settled for the needle in the middle.

She cut a piece of thread, not knowing if the length was right, and took the medical needle out from it’s place in the small box. Then she held the needle up in front of her and aimed at its eye with the end of the thread. It was a bit more tricky than she had thought, but soon she had the needle and thread ready.

And now to the bandages. There were rolls of plain linen bandages…again of different sizes. The broader ones were obviously too much for a hand. She picked a roll of bandage that she thought would be possible to wrap a hand in and added it to the things she had been asked for. She put them on a small metal plate. It looked very neat, in her own opinion.

While she did this, Valerius had prepared the disinfection and seemed ready to start it. He was looking cool and competent like he certainly didn't doubt his ability to treat the wound. Amolina went to stand at his side, holding the needle and thread and the bandages at ready on the small plate. She smiled reassuringly at Verin.

[Valerius Nitrozian]

„Actually that’s not the reason“, Valerius informed Verin as his patient talked about how he supposed they made the medicine taste awful so that they didn’t want too much of the stuff. „Taste is just secondary. It is more important that the medicine is effective.“

As Verin told him that the wound had been caused by a tamo dagger that he had caught at the wrong angle, Valerius arched an eyebrow. He wasn’t entirely sure what a tamo dagger looked like, but it seemed as if the man was overly clumsy. „I hope you’ll catch your daggers at the right angle from now on“, he remarked. „I don’t want to have to stitch you again.“

As Verin told him to do what he had to – even though he theoretically didn’t have to do anything – Valerius put some of the antiseptic on a clean piece of cloth and wiped the wound with it. It did indeed sting – more than a little – despite the painkiller Amolina had given him.

Valerius did of course not care about it. To him proper treatment of Verin’s wound was more important than whatever his patient might be feeling.

Once the wound was properly cleaned, Valerius took the needle and thread from Amolina. He didn’t smile reassuringly. He’d leave that up to her. She was the actress. „I’m going to stitch the wound now“, he informed Verin and did just that. He didn’t work very fast even though Verin probably wanted to get it over with. It was more important to him that it was done properly.

Finally he was done and cut the leftover thread away. „You will have to visit me again when the wound is healed“, he informed Verin. „I will have to remove the thread then. Now raise your arm so that I can bandage it properly.“