(closed) the doctors and the nurses, they adore me so

[landing_lights]

Who: Ade Bennett and Luka Kovač
When: Mid-April
Where: ADI medical labs
Summary: Luka meets the man with miracle blood.
Warnings: Medical tests, blood, likely discussion of infectious disease

[ Over the past couple of weeks, Ade has become something of a regular at the ADI medical labs. It seems like every other day, there’s another blood test, another follow-up, another revelation from the doctors. C’nataat is no longer a permanent infection. C’nataat retains its ability to regenerate damaged and diseased cells. Certain lab animals infected with c’nataat show signs of distress, including attempts at self-harm. With each test, there's a new muddle of emotions: relief, joy, confusion, horror. And yet, the doctors keep calling him back and Ade keeps showing up. He doesn’t blame them for their thoroughness—it’s not every day a patient walks in with a literal cure-all running through his veins.

He’s sitting out in the waiting room now with a juice box and a packet of biscuits. They’d drawn more blood than usual today—the doctors want to start testing the effects of higher volume transfusions—and the lab technicians had insisted Ade observe the standard recovery procedure. The one drawing the blood had even taped the bit of gauze to his arm afterward, likely forgetting that the puncture would have healed the second the needle was pulled from his vein. There’s something strangely bittersweet about it; for all their tests on animals, the doctors here don’t seem to have fully grasped what it means for a human to be a host to c’nataat. To them, Ade is still a person who might get hurt, sick, or drained; the gulf between him and them is hidden behind his still-very-human exterior.

He supposes he should be grateful that he’s still considered a patient rather than a lab rat—though, he can’t help but feel some guilt for what his blood might be doing to their actual laboratory animals. Ade had asked if he could keep the rats when they’re done with the last round of tests. He’s still waiting to hear back about that.

For now, he sips his juice and “recovers,” watching the next fifteen or so minutes tick by on the waiting room clock. ]

Comments

[cuttypie]

[And quite suddenly he realizes this actually is going to happen. He knows he should be afraid, he knows he has no idea what this is going to actually entail, how much fear he's going to have to put up with, what it's even going to do to him especially in the long term, but he doesn't care. Not when he can save lives.

Not when he's already been terrified within an inch of his life. He's already lost everything once, what more can they take from him?]

Cold storage, right. And what the smallest dose is necessary so that we maximize the use out of the supply. [He's already calculating how much he's going to need, how much he needs for patients, if there's a way he can set up a test to quickly check for c'nataat in the blood like a blood glucose test.

There's a slight smile, a weak joke now that he's suddenly energized with the possibilities of saving people.]

You sure you're up for this? I feel like a little bit of a vampire plotting to steal your blood away.

[landing_lights]

[ Is he up for this? The question gives Ade the same little revelation as Luka—that this is actually happening, that they're perilously close to turning theory into reality. Instant healing in a syringe, just within reach. It's as alluring as it is terrifying. ]

The way I see it, [ Ade says slowly. ] You'll only be using it for extreme cases. And if you can save them from dying, you might actually be taking fear out of this world. Not like there's much scarier than death, for most of us.

[ He'd seen that for himself with Lindsay, who had chosen an eternity at the bottom of the sea over execution. The fear of dying, the fear of losing loved ones—he's seen what it does to people. He's seen what it did to him after he'd lost Shan. He can't think of a more profound comfort than being able to take that fear away. ]

Anyway, I've got plenty of blood to give. More than most people. [ He nods to Luka. ] You're the one who's going to be most at risk here. So... just know I won't think any less of you if this ends up being a one-time thing. Because right now, the only ones who know how bad it gets are the rats.

[ And Ade and Luka both know how they'd reacted. ]

[cuttypie]

[Luka nods, slowly, the magnitude of what they are about to do reaching him. It's a literal miracle, somehow, something he certainly never thought he'd see in his lifetime, and here they were, trying to outwit supernatural Entities in order to save lives.

And he'd pay the price for it, over and over again. But it would be so worth it.]

The Entities probably won't like that, but maybe this time we can finally beat them at their game. See how they like it.

[He rubs the back of his head, a sad, sort of sheepish smile. Yeah, now he's the lab rat.

Poor rats.]

I have already experienced my worst fear. I don't think there's much else they can do to me.

[landing_lights]

Your worst fear can still grind you down, [ Ade says softly. ] Even if you've felt it a thousand times before.

[ He understands both sides of it: pushing through one's fear to save another's life and being paralyzed by it, controlled by it. In some ways, he's chosen both of them more than once as a marine—the choice to place himself in harm's way, even in those scenarios that he knows will leave him in a state of utter terror in the aftermath. Even so, it's not a choice he'd wish on anyone else.

He sighs, leaning back in his chair. ] Guess we'll take it one step at a time. [ He smiles, wanly. ] Just go easy on yourself, yeah? You seem like a good doc. It'd tear me up if I drove you mad.