2019-11-15 - The Kidney Kidnapping Flu

It's been two days since Ellis was picked up on Elm Street, apparently peeled up off of someones drive next to his own vomit, suffering from severe dehydration, flu like symptoms, and raving in a dangerous fever. Ellis isn't exactly a stranger to the EMTs of Gray Harbor, so one of them tipped Yule off as soon as they could after Ellis was admitted. Most of his sleep has been disrupted between the nightmares and the liquids coming out of all the wrong places. Natalia and No are lucky this germ grenade got out of the house while he could (to infect the world!).

Currently he has fluids running through an IV to his hand and the hospital staff has been somehow getting him on his antipsychotics and other medications. He's pale, curled up under the blankets with a damp sheen at his forehead. According to the chart, patient was found clutching a pill bottle quarter filled with orange tic tacs.

It's a fine balance to strike between concern and staying out of the way of someone needing both their sleep and nurses and doctors needing to do their job, but it's finally calmed enough that Yule has come to slip into the room. Of course he had let the family know once he knew, and now? They've gotten texts saying it should be fine to visit whenever they can make the time.

It's the chart he goes to first, picked up and flipped through to see what they've managed to do, scrutinized with a care that only a brother or sister could muster up. "Fucking tic tacs?" He can be heard muttering, though it's with a touch of mild amusement, and then those brown eyes lift to check on the IVs. Of course the nurses are on top of it, but some habits are just hard to avoid.

Natalia of course, has been here for a few hours now, sitting in the corner, a book in hand. She occasionally gazes up at her brother as he sleeps, her forehead dimpled with worry. She is trying not to show it though, valiantly offering conversation to any of the nurses who pass by, letting them spoil her with tiny cartons of orange juice and ginger ale. She was given a nice knitted cover about an hour ago, and she is curled up and comfortable at her perch. She texted the clan, informed them of Ellis' issues, and waited for the wagons to circle.

Of course Yule is the first one to pull up on his 'horse'. She doesn't speak from the corner right away, she'll let him get huffy first, it's his right as the oldest. "Noelle does that to him sometimes, you realize?" She says, speaking up from her place. "You should talk to her about that, maybe."

Natalia would have heard some disturbing sleep talking when Ellis was able to stay asleep long enough to dream, but Ellis hasn't seemed to acknowledge any of it. He groans and goes into a coughing fit. "Abs of steel, here I come," he says in an exhausted voice. He's got a sort of muted, hazy look to his eyes, like someone who is more watching things go on, not necessarily present, doing them. "I didn't make it to the-to the-" Whatever Ellis is looking for in his brain, he can't find it. "They weren't tic tacs. They were my meds," he insists, but how would he know. He's been taking tic tacs. "I keep telling them that and they don't listen." He sighs.

"Yeah?" That amusement drains from Yule when Natalia explains the likely source of that faux medication, "I will. If he's trying to stay on top of stuff, she shouldn't be doing shit like that." It's a couple of other flips through chart, and then it is tucked back down at the foot of the bed, "It's all right Ellis. You were really dehydrated. Whatever flu you have? Really took it out of you. You are in good hands now, though." Yule reassures him, only offering a quick aside about the medicine. "It's all right. We will make sure it's filled up for you when they discharge you. The more important question is," Up his arms lift, crossing over his chest, and there is a faint smile that creases those features of the man, a check to see just how much of Ellis' wit and humor has come back, yet. "Which EMT answered the 9-1-1 call?"

Natalia groans softly, rolling her eyes at the final question. Remind him, why don't you? She gazes at her book, flipping through a few pages before she starts to read again. "I'm going to stick around here until he gets the thumbs up for release. I've been nagging the nurses. He can recover in my bed." She'll sleep on the couch. "Thanks for coming by Yule, because fuck if I understood anything on any of those charts." She didn't really ask for them to be explained, because she knew Yule would understand it. "How has work been, busy?" She asks the elder Duchannes, lifting her eyes from the book to let them settle on him.

"Someone stuffed me full of cotton balls and jello," which might be a show of his humor if Ellis didn't sound so miserable while he was saying it. "Are these ones going to taste like the good vitamins?" That's what he used to call the Flintstones vitamins as a kid. "How should I know?" He doesn't even sound belligerent when he answers Yule. "I think I was unconscious." Ellis looks back over to Natalia hazily as he talks.

"You don't want to rush it, Nat. I get it, but he was severely dehydrated, and until he gets it all back? It'll be difficult for him to move around much." A soft snort comes from Yule at the question of the good vitamins, and the man promises, "I'll stuff each one into a gummy bear personally, if you want." It's the man's answer about just how out of it he was that has a look of concern flickering to his features, "Body with kidneys missing, taken after. Man, you 'd see that stuff in New York now and again, organ harvesting. But here?" His head shakes a bit, before a sheepish smile is flashed towards their sister as it dawns on him she? Probably really doesn't want to know details. "Yeah, busy. If you are sticking it here, anything you need me to do back at the trailer?"

Yes Yule, that is a look of horror on Natalia's face. She stares up at her older brother, hands stiff on the book. She looks like she might tear the thing apart. "Well they won't release him until he's ready to be released, and I'm not leaving until he is." She glances over at Ellis, frowning slightly. "Did they check to make sure his kidneys were still in there?" She asks quietly, trying not to disturb him too much. She takes a sip of paper cartoned orange juice. "Ask No if she will make dinner for the next few nights, or bring it home. That's all I need really. Text me here if an emergency comes up at the park? That's about it."

Not to mention every time they take him off of one of his medications being used to reduce the fever to a safe level, it rages right back up. "Gummy bears are nice." Ellis turns his attention slowly back onto Yule, horrified, sheet white, but he was already halfway to that color anyways. "THEY TOOK MY KIDNEYS?! Those guys said they were my friends. They said they'd take care of me. IS THIS WHAT THEY MEANT?!" He tries to push up. "Where are they?" He's looking in places that are too small for people to be, so he must be talking about his kidneys. He looks at the trays, the lunch tray, Natalia's purse. WHERE.

Down Yule's eyes close for a long moment in that look only big brothers can muster up. "Your kidneys are fine, Ellis. You still have both of them. Promise. Still inside of you. Safely." Those brown eyes open, flashing his little brother a familiar look of, 'I will strap you down to the bed personally if I have to', and then his focus turns towards Natalia. "Yeah, I can do that. Imagine it'll be take out, and I'll give a hand if she needs it. Besides, with Ellis here? The park is safer than it ever has been." A flash of a brief smile at that, before he glances back to Ellis to see if he's calmed back down.

"Ellis, lay your ass down on that bed." Natalia snaps, using her "Mom" voice. She takes a deep breath, stares at Yule and shakes her head slowly. She gets up, walks over to the bed and puts both hands on Ellis to keep him down on the bed. "Why don't we get you some yummy jello, huh?" She asks, and then she turns to walk out of the room to find a nurse. She'll let Yule clean up the mess he's made while she finds food for her picky little brother, and some for herself as well.

There's a rap-rap on the door, knuckles a request for entry. The blonde attached to them doesn't wait, wandering in wearing civvies: a pair of fitted bootcut jeans that look like they came out of a thrift store in the late-90s, complete with ripped out knees. She wears a white off-the-shoulder slouchy sweater in a fuzzy knit, maybe angora. It shows off her tanned shoulder and about the upper third of her tattooed sleeve on her left arm. H. Everly Sutton wander in wearing a pair of flip flops regardless of the weather. A pair of mirrored aviators is tucked up into her hair. She wears winged liner, but sheer powder foundation, and little else in the way of makeup save a matte red lipstick. Her hazel eyes survey the scene for a beat, thumbs hooking into her pockets.

"Is it time for his sedation jab already?" Sutton checks a watch she's not actually wearing. Bare wrist. Her gaze skims over the other Duchannes in evidence. Her smile is for Natalia, though her gaze lingers on Yule. For some reason.

"You're fucking lying," Ellis suddenly accuses Yule, ignoring Mom-voice. He never ignores Mom-voice without acknowledging it in some way. First few days back on his meds aren't always easy normally. Both Yule and Natalia have been here countless times before. "You're just like No. You probably know the broker. Tipped him off that he better get to me before disease does?" He rambles. It's not very flattering, but then nothing about Ellis' state right now is very flattering. "I told you they stuffed me with jello. Shit. How many times to I have to repeat myself," he says with increased agitation.

Sutton just happens to walk in right at the right time, disrupting all momentum in Ellis' paranoid delusional thought process. He still bunches his eyebrows into a suspicious squint at her.

Natalia had arrived with jello and a few other foods right before Sutton arrived and then Ellis is raising his voice. "Broker? Disease?" Nat is clearly lost here, and though she has heard it before, she hears something new every time. "You said cotton balls." His bigger sister counters, because she had to fight for this jello and damn it, someone is going to fucking eat it. Probably her. She holds out a hand toward Sutton. "Are you his doctor?" She asks pleasantly, aiming a quiet smile over at the blonde as she sets down the jello. Don't be fooled, Natalia Duchannes is ready to snatch it back up if Ellis tries to throw it, she would love to see her brother try.

"Yeah?" Comes the rhetorical snap from Yule. He's dressed in a pair of dark khakis and a t-shirt, likely having just stepped out of his own 'work clothes' from the morgue in the basement of the hospital. "I'll take them out right here and show them to you." His chin tucks down, flashing Ellis a look, "I know," Fucking jello, right? That, at least, will get all the sympathy in the world from his older brother. And when Nat steps out, his voice lowers, "What do you /really/ want to eat?" Ever so innocent.

But then Sutton arrives, and his head tips, looking over towards the EMT. "Hey. Yeah, probably. Come on in. Saw you at the coffee shop with Ellis the other day, didn't I?" There is something in that faint smile, ever so coy, and then he plucks up that chart again when their sister returns, all the better to hide behind.

"Family?" Sutton makes her way over to the bed, slipping past Yule to stand on the opposite side from Natalia. "That Jello is insidious stuff. I hate the green flavor. It's like why does this stuff taste like somebody dropped it on the floor of a truck stop and then smashed it back into the cup?" She laughs softly, "No, pet. Paramedic with GHFD. I heard Ellis was brought in." She reaches over to take Natalia's hand across El's prone form. "You did see me the other day at the coffee shop." This is to Yule, but she's not looking at him.

"Did they give you the Tamiflu, love?" She asks this looking down at poor, delirious Ellis. Her free hand comes up and she touches his neck. Ostensibly to check El's pulse, but the backs of her fingers are what find his skin first, her hands cool from the iced chai she just drank and disposed of in the corridor. "That shit makes me hallucinate." She glances over when Yule picks up the chart. Her mouth twitches, but she doesn't smile. Not quite.

"He sold my kidneys and now he's going to harvest them for transport because he /failed/ before," Ellis explains to Sutton. To him, this is actually real, even if it's every bit as hysterical as his ploys for attention. "I know you wanted to narcan me but this hideous disease," flu, "and my kin got to me first. They took away my meds and at one point had me strapped down, but they know I'm way too weak right now to leave," he admits and then falls back on his bed, in a sweaty exhausted mess, holding where he thinks his kidneys are but they are just where his love handles will eventually come in some day. He shakes his head. "She's in on it too." He clearly has no idea what's been going on for the last 48 hours or more. His heartbeat is elevated, likely from the stress and outright fear. It's not hard to tell he has a fever.

Natalia gazes at Ellis, swallowing hard before she aims what could be an apologetic look in Sutton's direction. She takes a step back, close to Yule, her voice quiet. "What do we do now?" She will take his opinion for the moment, before the doctor comes in and starts to toss around opinions of his own. Her arms come up and she folds them tightly over her chest, worry writ on her features. "I need to talk to Noelle." She pulls her phone out and starts to tap her fingers on the screen, taking a few steps away from Ellis' bed.

"Thought so," It's an idle thought by the man peering over that chart, and when it is lowered there is that calm, lazy expression that's normally on his face. "Yeah, family. Natalia," A hand lifts to motion towards his sister at that before he explains, "I'm Yule. It's," A beat of a pause, just enough to show he has to think about it. "Sutton, yeah? That's right. Paramedic. The one he really was fascinated with." Despite that casual, conversational tone, his gaze is on the monitor, and specifically that elevated heartbeat, though he can't tell anything about the fever. "Ellis. Listen, you know none of us would do anything to you, and if something happened to your kindeys? I'd give you one of my own." Every bit of a solemn promise in that, before he glances over to his sister, voice lowering a bit. "We'll get a nurse if he doesn't calm. Looks like it wouldn't be the first time over the past couple of days they had to give him a mild sedative. It'll be fine." He assures.

"Oh, did he?" Sutton mms. "I think you have a bit of a fever. I do think the staff would have noticed if he ferried away your organs." She hms, very seriously. "Let me see your hands... you look stable. Would you drink some water for me? I really would like to have the chance to Narcan you one day. It's one of my favorite life-saving techniques." She speaks softly, words quietly assuring, that funny little accent rounding off some of her words with a distinctly English slant.

"Fascination just means he has excellent taste. You do, don't you?" First half to Yule, second half to Ellis. That's not confusing at all! "He's a little elevated, a little agitated, a little feverish, but that's nothing some fluids, rest, and downers won't solve. You could use an edible, pet, but they don't really pass those out here. Would you like a little magic in your IV? I could ask around for some. Only if you like, though." Magic would be a sedative, or saline, if he calms enough on his own. Nothing wrong with the offer, not that she can actually treat anyone here. It's more about the talking.

When Natalia goes out of view, Ellis' eyes sort of float around where he can see as if searching for her. They find Yule, go back to Sutton and then back to Yule. "So you'll give me one of yours?" It may not have shattered the delusion, but at least it seems to be pacifying the man. "Okay," which is what his mind needs to start letting go. "You promise?" he insists, lifting his head to stare Yule down.

Ellis arches his brows, not really following all this talk about the other day as if he's not even really bothering or can't be bothered. He tries to follow the other conversation, the part about his health. "This place sucks. Yes. Give me whatever makes the nightmares go away. Jesus if I could have made it to the bridge I would have had edibles," he laments.

Natalia is tapping on her phone, and the angry look on her face probably means she's tapping angrily at her little sister. She grunts and grumbles as she texts, and glances back toward Ellis when he starts to calm down. She mouths a 'thank you' toward Sutton and doubles down on her texting. Yule can handle Ellis until she handles the other twin.

Down the cart comes, no longer needed, slid onto the foot of the bed so the actual doctors and nurses can make use of it. "I promise." Comes Yule's confirmation, his eyes steadily holding ELlis' until his brother looks away to focus on Sutton. "Looks like you are in good hands, brother. Certain she can find someone. Lucky man," That draws a flash of a wink to his younger sibling, encouraging him to focus on the paramedic settled right by his side. Is that a faint ghost of a thankful smile towards the blonde? It's brief, and maybe it wasn't ever there to begin with.

With things looking all for the better, he takes a couple of steps away and closer towards Natalia. "I know that look," He murmurs, before adding on, "Have half a shift to finish. I don't think he'll be out by then, so just," It's a glance down to her phone, and then back up, "Yeah. Just let me know what I need to gripe at her about."

Sutton does have a habit of talking a little too much when she's trying to calm the agitated patients, but it's a good sign that Ellis was able to latch onto something she said and follow it through. The bridge, huh? She glances back at Yule and Natalia, doesn't say anything about it. She smiles a little smile and chin-up nods to Nat. She looks busy with the phone, and the expression on her face has the paramedic looking over at the prone and sweaty Duchannes.

She leans over the bed a little more, checks Ellis' eyes visually, then nods. "I'll see if I can rustle up something for you." She has done absolutely nothing medical, but the blonde talks a good game. "I had this flu already, a few weeks back. It isn't fun. Keep thinking happy thoughts, pretty eyes. I'll be back with a nurse to give you something happy-making."

Sutton's voodoo is working enough, keeping the sharp and scary parts at bay for the man. Ellis has squared a kidney for when his are taken, and only Ellis would be /okay/ with this, as if facing the possible extraction of an organ were something he was familiar with. He looks over at Yule as if needing to keep an eye on him. "Okay. Okay...thanks." Best thing someone can do in Ellis' eyes is hook him up and that's exactly what this angel has promised to do. "Pretty eyes," he repeats and closes his eyes purposefully. "I want the dreamless sleep. Remember okay? It's really fucking important," he emphasizes to the poor EMT. Maybe at some point in the future he'll be more coherent. One could hope.

Natalia moves to settle in her chair, now that Ellis is calm she can keep an eye on him from her perch. She draws her blanket over her legs and continues to tap on her phone, the anger not as potent now, but still there. She leaves the jello in harms way, mostly because Ellis is seemingly going to sleep.

"All right. I should get back to work. Just text me if you have questions, Nat. Good to meet you again, Sutton. Glad you happened to hear about it, sure he appreciates it, even in his state." That faint smile is flashed towards her once more before Yule turns, starting to head towards the door. One last glance is cast over his shoulders to make sure that his little brother is drifting off, or at least still quite settled, and then he'll head on out, leaving him in the quiet needed to rest.

"I think that can be arranged, pet." Softly, she says that. She knows. She knows what comes with those flu symptoms. None of it is good. "Drink you rwater and breathe your breaths and I'll be right back with you." Sutton retreats out of the room, and she's gone for a little bit. She pauses in the hall, then turns her head. "Henry!" She steps out of the doorway and goes after her favorite nurse.

"Stay frosty, bellypuncher," one can hear the blonde saying, possibly to Yule, in the hall. Technically that's slang for morticians, but he's close enough, right?

Ellis has a hard time staying still. That's not new, though Sutton does seem to have an effect on the man. He scoots up so he sit up and then takes the water and holds it up to the light. Then he takes a taste, swishing a sip around in his mouth like it's a mouthwash. He watches Yule and Sutton retreat, laying back again, water cup down by his hip as he watches the comings and goings. Then he looks over to Natalia and her fervent texting. "Sorry. I didn't mean to end up in here," he says in a moment of lucidity. The fever probably broke, but it won't be the end of it all, and it doesn't release him from the clutches of is other issues. Sutton's been a nice bandaid, but usually Ellis just has to ride these things out till his meds get adjusted properly back to full dose.