The light was bright, warm and welcoming as if it had been waiting and preparing itself just for this moment. With a great calm and peace there was nothing to be afraid of. No more being hungry or cold, he didn't even have to worry about the quality of his breath or if there were crease lines in his face from sleeping to long. Just perfect, everything was finely tuned to a state of perfection. His feet felt so light, as if he was walking on clouds...

"We're loosing him."
"Charge it up again."
"Clear!"

Warmth seeped from his body as the light blew away. Tranquility gone, peace gone, the chaos of beeps and to many voices merged into one massive disappointment. With no willpower or energy to open his eyes, it was in the darkness behind his eyelids that cold air slapped his face. With the movement of one of the EMTs, the light was soon shinning over his face again, though it didn't have that same warmth about to it.

Eyes rolling behind their closed shutters, the shadows lurked about in the brightness. Even with his eyes closed, there was a sense of acknowledgment bodies hovering over his body like a team of vultures. With little control over his body, Hokee didn't have much choice in the matter as air was forced down his lungs. Stale sterile air pushed through his nose and mouth deep down into his lungs.

"Kid's going to need blood."
"Find any ID?"

***

"Cops want to talk to him."
"They'd have better luck with salad."
"Not very promising there."
"Used the paddles more then sutures...."

***

There was a quiet humming of machines as Hokee's chest slowly expanded and contrasted. With a mask covering his face, air continued to pump into his lungs as an IV dripped down into his veins. Nurses walked in and out of the room, switching the IV bags and taking notes on his condition.

"Just a kid." Shaking her head, Nurse Jenny knew this was going to be another long agonizing shift. The ICU was a hard floor to work on, but it always was worse when the patients were kids, even if the kid was a teen.

His eyes were to heavy to open, and with the machine pumping his body, there was not much energy to spend. His normal smart mouthed retorts barely processed through the fog in his head. He didn't dare move at all, from the sounds around him, he was slowly becoming more aware of where he was. The beeping of the monitor, the hiss of the respirator, the hum of the overhead light but worse of all, the clicking of heels on the floor. Not the dainty type of babes in little black dresses, but the heavy sound of boots possibly. Occasionally there was the sound of something latching and unlatching, little did he know of an antsy officer just waiting for the moment for him to be fit enough to be carted away.

Damn fine legs...

It'd been by some miracle that Chase had talked his mother out of keeping him rooted to his seat. The waiting room was a boring place in which to be, particularly for a nine-year-old with an idle mind. At least Michael was here to suffer with him, but in all honesty, it did little to help redirect Chase's energy... Michael had a puzzle with him, which was sufficient enough to occupy his young mind. Chase, on the other hand, was full of energy. Chase had pleaded and begged with his mother to let him play with the complex, tabletop wire-and-bead maze that so many hospitals seemed to have. Gemma agreed.

Thus, Chase went on pretending that they were in some futuristic society in which the beads were flying cars. He had races down the independent "tracks", and tried to see how far he could launch the beads by tossing them forward. This lasted for the span of about ten minutes, before Chase once again found himself incredibly bored. Chase rose slowly, his gaze cutting towards his mother, and towards Michael, before sliding towards the hallway. There was a glimmer of mischief. Why couldn't they see Hokee yet? What was taking them so long? Chase huffed with impatience, cast a glance back to Gemma and Michael, and then began to casually wander towards the halls.

He'd find Hokee on his own. That was why they were all here, anyways. Gemma would know where they went. Chase meandered into the hallway, his gaze going towards the elevators. When the people at the front desk let the visitors in, they always went towards the elevator. Chase hit the button, and waited for the elevator to return to him. The nine-year-old decided that the best course of action would be to start on the second floor, check each room, then continue onward. It'd be slow, but at least he'd have something to do. Chase hummed, rocking on his feet, with his head craned backwards as he watched the light that tracked the elevator's progress descend numerically.

His eyes widened and the little boy looked down at the puzzle he’d been given. Eyes wide, Michael actually let a small smile grow on his face. This wasn’t really a normal thing, so it might have actually shocked her, but the puzzle was rather entertaining. He and Chase were sitting by a wooden structure with a bunch of squiggly metal things that had beads strung on them. They were kind of cool, and the puzzles on the side too, but his puzzle was more entertaining, and would cause a grown man issues. However, he was intent on solving such a thing.

The only reason he was okay with being here was because Chase was here. Chase saved him from being stuck in his room, and fruit gushers were now his favorite snack, even though the small squirt from them surprised him enough to almost throw them across the plane the first time that he got them. Michael shifted one of the pieces of his puzzle, wondering what would happen if he shifted it. He lifted his head to see if Chase was having fun, and it seemed that he was. He’d started to play with the beads on the wires. Content that Chase was alright with the situation, Michael felt himself make a small move to nod.

He turned back to his puzzle for a few moments, watching the metal clink with other pieces of metal. Most of these little puzzles really only had two, or maybe three pieces. Michaels puzzle had probably around ten. It was no small puzzle, and luckily it was lightweight. The brown-haired little boy slid his gloved hands through two loops that were formed, and lifted it to stare. He looked through the hoops for a moment, and saw the Chase was already by the elevator. Could people even move that quickly?

Well the answer was yes. Definitely yes. Michael was never the most athletic of boy’s, and so Chase had been a lot faster than him from day one. He tried to run around once, and then he stuck to reading comic books kind of near Chase when he was playing athletically. Comic books DID loose their purpose when you were stronger than some of the characters, however.

After a moment of lingering, Michael realized he was being abandoned. “Ah..!” No way. He didn’t want to be abandoned! He stood up and moved over to where Chase was standing quickly, almost tripping over himself. His puzzle was tucked safely to his chest. Michael looked at his feet, happy now that he was by the side of Chase once again, as he should be. The other people there were all…looking at him. Of course, Michael had no idea that this was due to the fact that he was a cute, shy little boy, playing with a puzzle they thought too difficult for him.

The elevator arrived with a faint *ding* and the doors slid open before Chase. The nine-year-old stepped aside to let those already within the elevator walk out, glancing back at the waiting area again.

Only to find Michael standing directly behind him, staring at his feet.

"I was bored," Chase said simply, "So I'm going to go find Hokee on my own."

Once the elevator was cleared, Chase stepped in and punched the button for the second floor, with Michael in-tow. Chase presumed that Michael was going to follow him, so he at least did the other boy the favor of telling him where they were going. The elevator slid to a stop, and the doors slid open once again. They were faced with a hall that branched in two directions, right and left, as they stepped out. Which way-? Left. There were more rooms with open doors to look through.

"Come on," Chase murmured, donning his human guise fluidly. The two set-off down the hall, with Chase twitching his head from left to right as he peered in through doorways in search of Hokee. This was going to take a while...

"Hey, you two!" a sharp, feminine voice said resolutely. Chase froze in his tracks, gaze sweeping back towards the speaker. She wore the garb of a nurse, and she looked like she meant business, "Where are your parents? You shouldn't be wandering the halls alone."

Chase looked at Michael, then looked at the nurse. Crud, now they were going to get sent back to the waiting room. Unless...

"We're here to see a friend," Chase explained, "But we got bored so we went for a walk, and now we're kinda lost and don't remember how to get back to his room. My mom's probably worried sick."

So Chase was bending the truth a little bit, by implying that they'd already been shown to Hokee's room. Whatever he needed to say to get them to where they wanted to go.

"Can you help us?"

The nurse decompressed faintly. It wasn't like the two boys had been causing any trouble. They were just lost, nothing more.

"Or course-- what's his name?"

Shoot. Chase wracked his brain, trying to recall that one time he'd turned into Hokee...

"Hokee," Chase said plainly, "Hokee Chogan."

The nurse instructed the two of them to follow her, and led them to the nurse's station. There, she asked the attendant to look Hokee's room up on the system, while the two children stood by patiently. She only addressed Chase when asking how Hokee's last names was spelled. Chase recited the spelling dutifully, and a few moments later, they determined where he was.

"Ah, you got off on the wrong floor," the nurse observed, "He's up on the third floor," she recited the room number, before deciding, "You know what? I'll take you to him."

"Thank you, ma'am," Chase said sweetly. The trio returned to the elevator, went up another floor, and the boys were led to the door of the room in which Hokee was being kept.

"That's odd," the nurse murmured, peeking in, "I don't see your mother in there."

Uh-oh. There was that small problem. Chase looked at Michael again.

"Was your mother really up here?"

She was catching-on.

"Please don't send us away," Chase whined, looking mournful. His eyes flickered with tints of sorrow, "He's my best friend. Practically my big brother. He got in a car accident, and he got hurt real bad, and I really, really want to just see him. We won't cause any trouble, I promise. I just want to see my brother."

The nurse was a softhearted one, because the sight of a child being practically in-tears seemed to do the trick. Her shoulders sagged slightly, and she shrugged, "Okay. I'll go make sure that he's up to seeing visitors. What's your name?"

"Chase," Chase replied, "And this is my friend, Michael."

His eyes were downcast the whole way, so he kept bumping into people, and just generally skirted around them, puzzle in the hands of a boy’s sweaty little palms. He looked up for once as the nurse opened a door for them. With a great sigh of relief, Michael slipped into the room. This time, before chase.

The hallways, to him, were an absolute nightmare. He didn’t look people in the eyes, and they were angry at him. But of course, they were the ones who made no sense, and didn’t act in the right way. A person who was bumped into was supposed to apologize then continue, but everyone was acting differently. It was causing the little boy to feel awkward and isolated, even near people he knew.

He had an issue with showing emotions sometimes, and this was one. It seemed, in fact, as though he wasn’t sympathetic. Michael was actually very, very scared. He’d never seen someone hurt this bad in a hospital. Ever. He actually didn’t really even like hospitals. They just kind of freaked him out. He looked at hokee, lying in the hospital bed, and he gulped. Michael, put in any emotional situation would start to babble.

The first thing that caught his eye was an item many referred to as a heart-rate monitor. Mumbling beneath his breath, he started to spout facts about it. Every fact he could muster. “This doesn’t just measure the pulse, or heart rate of a person in question. It shows temperature and their blood pressure you know, that way in case of any changes that happen to really any part of the patient it can be picked up by this so that monitoring could be taken to a whole new level. It’s also a model protected from interference of a defibrillator and there’s adult and child settings on it too. Quite…interesting.”

He trailed off, face red. Was that really right to say? Yeah. He could say that and it would be correct. It was helping the situation, right? He bit his lip and started to fidget with his puzzle. He didn’t even really know too many words to describe how he felt seeing Hokee on the bed layed out like that. Michaels brown hair, that really did need a trim, fell across his face as he once again looked to the floor. “All seems to be really normal…”

Three long days of constant poking and prodding, time was crawling slowly yet speeding past before his eyes quicker then he could comprehend what was really going on. This was the first day his eyelids hadn't felt like brick shutters, he could actually open his eyes slightly for short periods of time. There wasn't much to do while stuck on the bed, just lay there with his eyes shut and hope he could sleep away as much time as possible. It wasn't to hard to do that, especially since he was heavily medicated the first day or two.

The mask over his face had been replaced earlier in the day with the more simplistic hose shoved up into his nose. Annoying more then anything, the presence of it in his nostrils was like having a giant crispy booger lodged inside with no chance of removal. It was easier to sleep with hoses shoved up into his nose then it was with a mask on his face. Sure with medication that knocked him flat on his butt, it didn't make to much of a difference, but it felt better knowing if he wanted to roll over, he could.

Having a TV on would be nice, but at the same time he didn't feel much for flipping the channels or adjusting the volume. It was in the silence of the room he could at least be more aware of what was going on by listening. Keeping his eyes closed still for the most part, he could tell from even in the horrid condition he was in, it would only be a matter of time before he was forced awake and left to a million questions from the cops. He didn't feel good, why would he want to deal with cops?

With his body aching, he couldn't think about anything, he was to much of a muddled mess. It was in this almost comatose state he could hear the nurse outside trying to play body guard. Well try as much as she wanted to veer whoever it was away, it seemed like the empty hospital room would soon have visitors. Mark the day down in the calendar, people, someone actually might be coming to visit him who didn't want him thrown behind bars or worse.

The effort to take to concentrate was astronomical, though he did the best he could. Words about brother were said or something along the lines of that. Brother, well that sure wasn't for him. A nap might be a good thing to do right now, then he could work up the energy needed to bust free from the hospital and hopefully away from any cops that might be looking for him. The sooner he could do this stuck where he was the better.

A jumble of words frolicked about his feet from a voice he did not know in the slightest, but it seemed rather youngish. Was the newest doctor checking in on him the real life equivalent of Dougie Howsier...or whatever that kid star was on that TV show. One eye flickered open to catch a glimpse of who might be there.

Beep.....beep....beep..beep..beep.

He had to be seeing things, there was no way possible that he saw what he thought he saw. How did he know he was there, how could he have gotten there? Chase wasn't in the hospital, he wasn't there in the same room, and he most certainly didn't have another kid there with him. He was in the other car....he can't be....he... Attempting again to look, both eyes flickered about trying to stay open, he needed to see for himself, see that the kid was alive.

Finally, the two boys were able to muscle their way into the room. The nurse bent to their pleas, and Michael sauntered in ahead of Chase, eager to escape the halls. Chase briefly thanked the nurse, and followed his cohort in. Chase sauntered slowly into the room, his eyes wide as he surveyed the room. He'd never been in a hospital before. He was intrigued by the machines, and by the room as a whole. Michael began rambling, which made the taller boy jump faintly. Michael was usally so quiet, so when he did speak, it tended to make Chase jump. As if the younger of the two forgot that his friend could vocalize in such a way. Michael was going on about one of the machines to which Hokee was hooked-up, and Chase sauntered closer, for a better look. Michael was muttering, so Chase missed a small chunk of what he was saying.

>> “-in case of any changes that happen to really any part of the patient it can be picked up by this so that monitoring could be taken to a whole new level. It’s also a model protected from interference of a defibrillator and there’s adult and child settings on it too. Quite…interesting.”

Chase shifted his gaze to Hokee, and gave a mumbled, "Must be sleeping."

>> “All seems to be really normal…”

Chase nodded in agreement.

"Got a straw up his nose," Chase observed quietly, "Bet it goes straight up to his brain."

Given the situation, perhaps it wasn't the most reverent of sentiments, but Chase was equally as anxious as Michael, now that they were in the room. He hadn't expected Hokee to be all beaten-up like this. People went to hospitals to get better, so why wasn't Hokee all fixed yet? Hokee shouldn't have been laying in the bed, with that tranquil expression set against an injured body. He should have been running around the room, he should have been all-better. And, since Hokee wasn't all-better, Chase wasn't too sure what to do now.

Hokees' eyelashes fluttered, the melodic beeping of that machine that Michael had been rambling about picked up tempo. Chase glanced at Michael, his hands wedged tightly in his pockets. Maybe Hokee was waking up? If he was, Chase wasn't too sure of what to say. He didn't want to talk to Hokee, didn't want to touch him, because that would establish that the real Hokee was the one laying in the bed... that his friend really was hurt, and not all-better like he was supposed to be. He should have never snuck upstairs. Again, Hokee opened his eyes, or tried to. So... Chase should probably say something.

"Um... Hokee?" Chase inquired, "Are you awake?"

The question hung in the air, and Chase glanced back at Michael again.

"It's Chase," Chase announced, "And I brought a friend. His name's Michael. We came to see you, with Mama, but they were making us wait downstairs. So Michael and I snuck up."

Chase gave an uneasy smile, at this- his eyes lingered in the brown-orange-yellow range of anxiety, a feeling which he couldn't seem to swallow.

This definitely made Michael curious. A straw up his brain? “Maybe…he drinks milk from it so his brain doesn’t loose energy.” He’d never thought of it that way before. Scratching his head, Michael watched chase in his approach to Hokee. He didn’t really get what to say. It wasn’t really easy once he realized that Chase might actually be relying on him for support.

Michael’s nerves kicked in as well, and he looked up just slightly in order to meet chases eyes. There wasn’t much he knew how to do in comforting, but he just nodded.

Nodding and smiling made everything much better. It was in that movie with all the penguins and things. Biting his lip, he approached Hokee and touched his arm where there weren’t any bruises. It was all muscly still.

He quickly pulled away when Hokee’s eyelids fluttered. What did he do now? This wasn’t supposed to happen. The people in the hospital were supposed to be asleep, and then he could just interact with those that he knew. He’d heard that Hokee was really cool from chase before, but actually meeting him was an entirely different matter.

Instead of actually saying anything at first, he started to look at the images on the monitor. They were moving a bit faster, but he didn’t know how to tell if it was too fast or not. This was all so confusing! He gulped and blurted out what he thought would make it better. “Th-the thing is beeping faster.” Yup, Michael decided that the best thing to do in this situation was to say the most obvious thing in the room was happening, and hope that it made sense.

Hokee was bigger than him, and had more hair on him, but Michael was less afraid now that the bruises were easier to spot. After all, hokee was rather hurt, and he was kind of sleeping. Michael was hurt and sleeping ALL the time, so it was basically the same thing.

He kind of stood behind chase a little bit for a moment. “He’s got bruises too…” Not helpful at all, but the sympathy he had was rather hard to show.

Beep..beep..beep..

Between the fog and grog, there was no doubt at all, there was someone in the room with him, someone he actually knew who didn't have some fancy piece of paper slapped up onto a wall proclaiming their educational dominance over him. True he would have preferred the soft tender kisses upon his lustful flesh, but he doubted there was much swoon factor going for him in his current condition. Sure Cree liked things with wheels, but a hospital bed or wheelchair couldn't have the same priority as a good grease monkey car.

Beep...beep....beep...beep.

Chase was here with a friend. That explained the kid doctor voice he heard. At least he didn't have a ten year old doctor working on him. Big relief there. With the mentioning of sneaking off to find him, the corner of his lip twitched. The kid had galls. To make it better, he totally just ninja moved from Taylor with another kid. Chase had potential, if only he'd get over a few more thing, then he could have a doppelganger worth twice as much. If he didn't feel like uttermost crap, he'd suggest the kid to take his place now so he could get a head start breaking free from the place. Yet, that wouldn't work well...who knew if there were cops loitering about just waiting for him to get well enough to do anything. What a mess this was.

Beep...beep...beep.

The left hand which laid across his chest stirred slightly. The process took time, and his movements were not nimble. The pointer finger curled into itself to the point of the knuckle closer to the base of his hand next to his middle finger. Middle finger moved half the distance as the index finger before it was locked into place. Snuck up.... The other two fingers below his favored finger stayed in place. The thumb however made an accent up his chest pointing to his face. It wasn't much, but it was something.

Beep...beep...beep.

His eyes flickered a bit more. He certainly wasn't paralyzed on his arms, he could tell that much by being able to feel the small hand on his arm. It wasn't as soft as the late night nurse, but it was a big improvement over the gorilla hand doctor seemed to find it a fun game of flopping his hand over and back on him. There were muscles there in his hands and arms, just right now they were enjoying a bit of a morphine vacation compliments of the pretty nurse last night. Or at least he thought she was pretty from the sound of the voice. He had been to tender to really make much effort with her...and having a hose shoved up the nose did make things slightly awkward....

Both eyes just didn't want to stay open at the same time, it was just to much effort right now. With the drip of medications feeding into the vein on his arm, the world was a rather lovely place, not lovely but more manageable. Settling on just keeping one eye open, the other resumed its slumberous state. The arm with the IV stretched out the slightly curled fingers.

Beep..beep..beep.beep..beep

The open eye shifted towards the IV bag hanging above him. Drip. Drip. Drip. Pulling his lips apart, they clung together for a moment as the flesh peeled apart from itself. He hadn't attempted to talk yet, progress right now for him wasn't the best option, at least not apparent progress. The longer the nurses and doctors were left in the dark, the better his options were later. The mouth that normally sputtered out snarky comments groaned in protest as it moved from its solitary location. There wasn't much behind the words, the volume was low and airy. "Hey." The open eye flicked for a few moments before closing on itself.

Beep...beep.....beep..beep..beep..

Michael determined that the straw must have been so that Hokee could drink milk, which earned a grin from the youngest person there. That would... make sense, except for the fact that it hurt when milk came out your nose... it probably hurt even more to drink milk through it. And there was the fact that you would choke and sputter, but that was an irrelevant fact in the mind of an eight-year-old.

Hokee stirred, and the corner of his mouth twitched at Chase's reprot. So even in the sad shape that he was in, Hokee could hear him. His hand weakly curled into a "thumb's up," and the gesture gave Chase enough courage to draw a little closer. He'd been hanging back hesitantly, keeping his distance, but now he was drawing nearer. Hokee was really there, in the bed, which still worried Hokee.

Michael touched Hokee's arm lightly, but when the heartrate picked up, the other child stepped back, utilizing Chase as something of a human-shield. Chase stood just as stock-still as a shield would be.

>> “Th-the thing is beeping faster... He’s got bruises too…”

"It's okay," Chase assured the other boy, though he wasn't too certain, himself. Chase looked closer at the bed-ridden boy, searching for any outward signs of discomfort. Hokee was looking at them with one eye, and he didn't seem to be getting any worse. Not outwardly, "Hokee got hurt really badly. Bad enough to ride in an ambulance. So he'll have bruises. But now he's here, so they'll help him, and he'll be better."

Somehow, explaining the state of affairs to another child did something to cool Chases' own frayed nerves. He glanced from his cohort to Hokee once again, whose lips seemed to be readying themselves for speech.

>> "Hey."

"Hey," Chase echoed back, a smile still flickering uncertainly in his expression, while his eyes maintained a more consistent, anxious and fearful look to them. It would've been more apt to console Hokee in some form or fashion, but Chase wasn't that brave. He would come closer and stand at the bedside, as he did now. He'd be Michael's human-shield readily, and even talk to Hokee, but he would not touch him. Not unless given a go-ahead. But if also felt weird just standing there. Chase wriggled his arm so as to dislodge the loose sleeve of his hoodie, so that it concealed his hand up to his fingertips, and he touched Hokee's arm much in the fashion that Michael had, utilizing the sleeve as a partial shield against Hokee's genetic residue.

"How do you feel?" Chase inquired, apprehension apparent in his light, inquiring touch. He'd start there-- that was a run-of-the-mill question for someone who was sick, so he figured that it would work for the hospital-setting, too.

Michael’s eyes were slightly closed as he played through the situation. Chase was protecting him, so he was okay in that respect. The person named Hokee was so hurt that he had to go in an ambulance.

An ambulance was for when those really bad emergencies happened, so he was probably dying really badly when they got there. Michael slowly let his head move, just to the side of Chase’s, to look at Hokee.

If Hokee was seeing well, he might see a little boy, who was still a bit skinny for his size, with wide eyes staring at him. They were kind of scared, but Michael was in control. His gloved hands moving a little bit to fiddle with the puzzle he’d put in his pocket. Now, also in his pocket, was a little housewarming gift Michael brought.

For anyone else, it probably wouldn’t mean much to give this up, but it was Michael. He held up a little puzzle, another metal one, and then slowly put it on Hokee’s chest. There. That would entertain him. Seeing that Hokee could move his hand, the pale-skinned hand of the nine year old inched it over to the hand that made a thumb’s up sign a bit earlier.

He looked very concentrated, the metal clinking slightly as it finally hit Hokee’s hand. This actually caused a bit of triumph, but only for a second. Hokee was moving more now, so he’d better be wary. Just in case something was wrong. Michael hid behind Chase once again.

Was this Hokee person really nice to Chase? Chase didn’t normally like to touch anyone at all. He might have been afraid of germs or something, but he was touching Hokee right now. Michael’s head, spinning with new thoughts and ideas, was a bit confusing, but he reminded himself to keep calm. Looking at his covered hand, he nodded. Yup. Still perfectly in control.

“I’m Michael.” He mumbled behind Chase. The sympathy showed in his next bout of mumbling. Or rather, the sympathy was supposed to show. Often times it never really did. “If milk goes up the straw in your nose then your brains probably stronger than mine. I don’t drink milk and I can’t really even run much.”

He paused. What else would make things better? “I got you a puzzle. It’s mine but you can give it back when you’re better and everything.” He blinked. No wait. He was giving it as a gift. “Or it’s a gift. It makes a lot of things better and stuff.”

The silence drew on a bit too long for him so he started to mumble babble again out of sheer nerves.

“I’ve had bruises too and they hurted a lot but I never really went in an ambulance so you probably had worse bruises than I ever had in my entire life. Someone told me that bruises are because you don’t have any cuts so maybe your bruises are because it would be worse if you didn’t bleed so you just kind of got them instead.”

Most likely he wasn’t making any sense, but what with the beeping, and the activity going on near the room, it was better that he talked to fill up any doubts that he might have on the situation. And he’d even given Hokee a puzzle. What could be better?

He couldn't deny Chase the skills of observation, and he was vastly pleased most of the conversation needed to fill in his friend was done by Chase and not himself. It was to much work to keep his eyes open right now, holding a conversation of how and why he was in the condition he was in Nothing like having someone to do the grunt work for him. Now if only Chase would stay around and tell the nurses to hike up his dose, maybe scatter the cops for him....take his place in the bed so he could walk free.

There were so many words he could say right now to describe how he felt, though his mind gravitated towards one word in particular. Not a word he should use for kids, not that he cared much, but he tried to curb his tongue around the kid. There were synonyms he could use, but was it really worth it? Then there was always a snarky response or even a joke. What could he say with the least amount of effort?

While he was trying to think up a response, a voice came from behind Chase. Closing both his eyes, the refreshing feeling of his eyelids brought a slight sense of comfort. The voice spouting out endless streams of conversation was the same he heard earlier, the one he thought was possibly the youngest doctor on staff. While the kid continued to talk, he took advantage of the situation to regain his stream of effort to stay with the two of them.

His eyes flickered for a moment upon the sensation of something on his chest. The induced eyes went towards his chest where he felt the object. His chest rose and fell with his breathing. Though as the object was slowly pushed across his breast, he held his breath to watch. The flickering eyes slowly stayed open slightly through little slivers. It was a bit strange for a glove hand to push something across him, but it was something to watch.

Beep....beep.....beep..

The object was soon touching his hand and his fingers started to uncurl from the last position to touch it. Micheal....no, he was a Mikey. For some reason the babbling from his youthful mouth reminded him to much of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, he could almost hear the Orange turtle talking about straws and milk in the brains. It fit the kid perfectly....but that could be the medication tweaking his thoughts.

"Ace."

Maybe the Ace of the crapper. King of Crap, the high host of hellish history....

Beep..beep...beep.

His gaze drifted towards the machines. Taking what he could muster, he moved the arm with the IV towards the instruments. All he needed to do was find the button to push, get more morphine to push the edge away so he could handle the visitors he had. The tip of his fingers found it, but this was to much work. Wait...why was he doing all the work. There were four hands right there that could do it for him. All he needed to do was get them to push it. "Push it.....push.."

Hearing Michael speak from behind Chase was like bearing witness to active ventriloquy. Chase was the body, Michael was the speaker-- and boy, did Michael speak. He reiterated his name, even after Chase had introduced him. Then, much in the fashion of an anxious Michael, Mivhael went on about drinking milk with nose straws, and how he'd never tried such a thing. A puzzle was deposited on Hokee's chest, which Michael went on to describe as a gift, but not-really-a-gift.

There was a brief pause in which Chase, ever-silent, looked back to see if Michael had said what he had to.

Apparently he hadn't, for the smaller boy said a short spiel about bruises, before finally drifting into silence.

For the entirety of Michael's speech, Chase had been watching Hokee carefully, maintaining the look of fearful concern, and only drawing his gaze away to glance back at Michael.

>> "Ace."

Chase didn't know what "ace" meant, but it had to be really bad, judging by how Hokee looked. The eldest boy of the trio glanced around, surveying the machines that were clustered around his bed, before shifting his arm. Chase removed his hand from Hokee's arm, and burrowed it into his pocket. Clumsy fingers brushed a remote bearing a single button, but couldn't seem to grasp it.

>> "Push it.....push.."

Chase got the message. He shuffled over to the proximity of the remote, and plucked it up delicately. For a moment, he surveyed it, and then did as instructed, and pushed the button. On command, the I.V. twitched as fluid ventured down it. Chase followed the voyage with his eyes as the clear liquid trickled down the straw, and went straight in Hokee's arm.

"That was cool," Chase mumbled, looking at the remote. He had no grasp of what he'd just done, but opted to set the remote down nonetheless. He looked towards Hokee again, "Better?"

He looked at Hokee, with the puzzle on him. It hadn’t moved really from where he set it. He was tempted to move it closer, but that might be overstepping boundaries. Besides, if he put the puzzle on Hokee’s head, the milk couldn’t get to his brain.

Chase was there in front to protect him, and while Michael talked didn’t say a word. This was good because sometimes people interrupted him, which made him upset.

Truth be told, Michael was not as much like a nine year old as he was like a seven year old in how he acted. He hadn’t reached some conventional mile-stones either, like for instance, knowing that people who were barely conscious couldn’t solve the metallic puzzles instantly. It was a real easy one for him anyways. You just had to loop it around a few times in a few different ways.

Now he was itching to solve it for Hokee, to show him how easy it was, when he heard the person with the muscly arms speak again. What did “Ace” mean? He thought for a moment and then realized. Of course! “We don’t have cards…I never use them that much.” It was another mumble, even if he intended for it to be heard.

His brown hair so desperately needed a trim, and as he looked down, it fell across his face and skewed his vision. For the next minute and a half, Michael was trying to make it stop falling on his eyes when he looked down, and then finally just gave up. He’d ask for a haircut later. Or he’d just get scissors. Michael knew which parts bothered him anyways.

Hokee motioned to a button, and Chase pushed it. Michael saw the fluid drip down and his eyes widened. “Is…is that water for your arm?” This was a weird place. Michael knew about some hospital items, but others, like the contraption leading most certainly to his brain, and the thing with the water in it were foreign to him.

Why would he need water in his arm? Maybe it was a healing water. All he knew was that he should watch with rapt attention, in case something bad happened.

The eyes flickered and fought to watch the IV but the results soon came. Medication was a beautiful thing, something that he was very excited to have. Good thing he had someone to do the work for him. Relaxing for a moment, he could hear the questions being asked, and they sat in the air heavy for a moment while his brain sloshed about between his ears. It was difficult trying to keep everything straight, but he could do it...just concentration.

Beep......beep........beep.

"Cool huh?" Even with the fluttering and flickering of his eyes, he could see how both the boys seemed to be entranced by the IV sending the morphine down. Well this was kinda funny, Chase and Mikey liked the drugs going into his arm and well he had no complaints himself on getting a bit of relief from the agony his body screamed out.

He wasn't in perfect condition, but the medication was helping things out a bit. His finger s left the side of the remote and inched over to the gift left for him. It was a bit difficult to look at it on his chest while laying there, but why complain about something he didn't have any control over. Wait...he did have control, didn't the beds have adjusting stuff on it. "Mikey...want to make the bed move?" It was like he just ran a marathon. Talking, moving, since when did this become such hard work, oh yeah, when he crashed.

The hose in his nose was rather itchy, and annoying. The air that pushed up in there was dry, nothing to avoid rawness from forming. Sure it was helpful, but helpful didn't always mean something good. This reminded him very much of eating cooked carrots or doing homework. Both were supposed to be good for him, but he yet to find out exactly what made them great. Cook carrots tasted, disgusting and homework was a drag. Now making out with girls and tasting their lip gloss, those were things that were definitely good.

Letting his eyes rest for a moment, his head turned slightly. Looking around he noticed another bag hanging around. With a bit of a smirk he couldn't believe what he saw. Good thing his body hurt like hell, because if it didn't he was sure someones face would look pretty messed up. "Look.....I got......a pee......bag."