A medical emergency

[fadingworld]

A deep navy cloak hides his features and the more ornate tunic the courtesan usually wears to greet his clients. Mal hunches his shoulders and slides through the crowds hoping to avoid notice. He keeps his head down until he reaches the home of the doctor and wraps smartly on the door. "Open up," he calls in a voice that expects to be listened to.

How much time did he have? He could not have a client bleeding out. Not this one. Not one who had come to him for help, to be treated privately.

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[fadingworld]

It has given Mal a taste, to want to experience moments like this again. He smiles up, "I won't forget what it's felt like, or that you showed it to me."

He shifts his head away to let Regis move. "I will remember this any time my spirits are low."

[mandragoraspiritus]

"It was my pleasure," Regis says as he stands, finding that yes, it had been a pleasure. The simple pleasure of showing kindness to someone not used to it.

"I shall only be a moment," he promises as he takes out clean and dry clothers from a closet and then goes to another room to change.

[fadingworld]

Mal lies back, feeling drained. All he's done is take a few steps and get washed. It gives him an idea of how ill he's been over the past few days. He had come closest to his fear that he would die a courtesan.

He looks thoughtful when Regis comes back in. The man still gets a welcoming smile. "How long will it take me to recover from here?"

[mandragoraspiritus]

"I should say that you need to surrender yourself to a week of mostly bed rest," Regis says as he comes back into the room, still buttoning the last buttons of a clean shirt. "With some few excursions to stretch and test your legs. But this fever has thoroughly drained your body of resources and we shall need to rebuild them slowly. Recovery is not something to rush. Even after that week I would be rather reluctant to send you back to your establishment." Assuming its doors would even be open again at that point...

[fadingworld]

"I will have to go if it is open," Mal says quietly. "They will send someone to check on me when I can." His lips turn down a little but he's got a week. A week to relax and that is luxury in itself.

"If it isn't open..." Mal frowns to himself. Would he be sent elsewhere to work? "Oh well, I'll be told what is to happen when they come for a report on me."

[mandragoraspiritus]

Regis wanders over to the chair at Mal's bedside, sitting down and leaning forward, elbows on knees, his long fingers lightly interwoven.

"If they come for you sooner than I deem appropriate, I shall inform them that I will be keeping you here under my supervision until you are fit to return. Make no mistake, Mal, you have been very ill and though you are feeling better now you still are. I shall not have you endangering yourself and risking your recovery by exerting yourself too soon, be it that it takes a week or a month."

[fadingworld]

Mal bows his head feeling for a second overwhelmed by the simple kindness. To have his needs put above the House...it is going to take some getting used to.

He puts a hand on Regis arm. "Thank you," he says softly. "I will be a model patient for you."

[mandragoraspiritus]

Regis lets his stern and determined expression soften up into a smile as he pats the hand that lays on his arm. "I expect nothing less."

[fadingworld]

Mal really likes that smile, all the more because it is not permanently worn on Regis face. It's a real smile. He returns it with a genuine one of his own.

"Besides paying you, I have no idea how to reward you for taking me in and looking after me. And you do deserve something more."

[mandragoraspiritus]

"Let us save the worry for that for another day, shall we? I have enough coin to keep a roof over my head and food on my table, so I am in no pressing need for more. No, I would say that taking good care of yourself would go further in ways of repayment."

He rises, then, going to browse the shelves of books that line the walls in this room. "If you are serious about wanting to learn of the healing arts, then the time you will be spending in bed could be used for some reading."

[fadingworld]

Mal resolves to watch Regis and his home and find some way to say thank you. Something sweet and simple.

He props himself up on one elbow and studies the bookshelf himself. "I am, I have been reading the books from cover to cover that you left with me." He smiles, "I have the bedside manner down."

[mandragoraspiritus]

"Hah, yes, I'm sure you do. My own can be somewhat lacking at times, I have been told."

Regis runs the tip of a finger along the spines of the books and plucks out one, then two and three. These he carries over and sets on the nightstand. From the books Regis have lent him before, Mal should have a decent grasp of herbs and their usage, though some practical training on the harvesting, preservation and preparation of herbs would still need to be supplemented.

One of the books he brings now is a detailed study of the human anatomy, the other two of common illnesses, their causes and cures. Not light reading, perhaps, but useful. All books, like the ones Mal has borrowed before, have notes in the margins in Regis' sprawling hand.

[fadingworld]

"I have found nothing to complain about so far," Mal says easily. "Your presence has been comforting when I've woken up."

He glances at the books and choose the human anatomy one to curl up with. It will interest him to see where it differs from the lessons and focus he was given at the Rose Thorn.

He can't concentrate for long on the words and he does pause to ask some intelligent questions and to get Regis to trace where the bones would be on his arms.

[mandragoraspiritus]

Regis doesn't expect Mal to be able to actually study anything now. The young man is still tired from the illness, even more so than he thinks himself to be. When he asks about the bones in his arms, Regis decides to indulge him, starting from the shoulder joint and going downwards towards his fingers, counting out the bones as he goes. "The humerus, then the radius and ulna. Down in the wrist, the carpus bones; the lunate, pisiform, triquetrum, hamate..." He lists them all, right to the tips of Mal's fingers.

[fadingworld]

Mal follows every bit of it with fascination. With a few missteps and mispronunciations, he tries replicating it.


"Again please," he requests with a sweet smile and yawn. "I'd like to try and remember this the right way around."

[mandragoraspiritus]

"I think you shall be back asleep before I finish," Regis softly says but nevertheless does as asked. If it is a way to have Mal drift off to sleep then what harm is there. So once again his fingers move over Mal's arm, naming the long bones there, then far more slowly thumbing over Mal's wrist and hand, naming all the small bones there once more time.

[fadingworld]

The touches on his wrist bring a soft gasp from the half asleep Mal. Subconsciously it stirs a little something in him. But tiredness stops him from dwelling on it and he lets sleep wash over him.

Later when he wakes, he doesn't immediately draw attention to the fact that he's awake. He lies there peacefully, tracing over the spot on his wrist.

[mandragoraspiritus]

Regis knows right away when Mal awakes. There is a change in his heartbeat and the rhythm of his breathing that oh so sharp ears have no problem picking up on. He doesn't let in on knowing this, though, rather stays in his seat by the desk where he has been writing thoughts into a journal, humming softly on a slow little tune and leaving Mal to wake up in peace.

[fadingworld]

Mal's ears pick up the tune and after a little he begins to hum along too. Music has always brought him a sense of peace. He slowly sits up, leaning his back against the wall and arrange himself to look decent.

He smiles across at Regis, "Where did that tune come from?"

[mandragoraspiritus]

Regis glances up when Mal starts to move but then returns his eyes to the paper to finish what he's writing. "It is some folk tune or other, I'm sure. Just something I remember from when I was very young." He sands wipes the tip of his quill clean, then sands the ink to dry it before closing the book. He smiles, standing up. "So ages and ages ago, in other words. How are you feeling?"

[fadingworld]

"I like it," Mal says. He grins, "Do you feel that old?" He ducks the questions for the moment, his body aches sitting upright but he feels more relaxed this way. Lying flat on his back makes him feel a little helpless.

[mandragoraspiritus]

"I regret to say that often times I feel rather ancient." At least there are no signs of any physical aches or pains. Now in the lighter layers of indoors clothes it's clear he's in good shape, his posture is good and he moves with the ease of a man far many years younger than his appearance would place him.

[fadingworld]

Mal's expression softens. "I always thought age was a matter of heart," he says gently. "Not looks." And here perhaps he can help Regis, to bring some lightness back into his life over the next week.

He smiles, "You certainly don't look ancient, there is something very appealing about your looks.

[mandragoraspiritus]

Regis gives Mal a bit of a look as he leans in to feel for his temperature and feel his pulse. "I look like the aging man that I am, and I shan't pretend otherwise."

[fadingworld]

"You look attractive," Mal says firmly. "I like what I see, and I've been with enough people to have an opinion on it."

He shifts his weight trying to make himself more comfortable. "It's about the whole person to me."