jumpthegun | IC Inbox (v1.0)

Dr. Watson. I hate to trouble you, but a word, if you will. About some mutual friends of ours.

[He is not happy doing this, but he will get to the point of it, eventually. At least he sounds reasonably well, for once?]

[If Angel and/or Rhys are dead again, so help him God. John sounds on edge when he replies.]

Has someone been injured?

No, nothing acute has happened. I can reassure you of that much at least. [Take what good news you can get, buddy.]

But I've had to part ways with Angel and Rhys, and I suspect they both aren't doing well. That is, I know Rhys isn't - it seems he's in considerable pain, though I'm not sure of the exact cause. Angel...

[He hesitates. Will have to impress upon John the importance of Not Fussing, but...]

I think she's ill. Familiar symptoms, fever, coughing. Mild, as far as I can tell, but I keep seeing the same around town, on the network. I can't write it off.

[Nothing acute means something chronic. John just waits for the other shoe to drop.]

MN Poisoning. It's something Mr. Miller mentioned in his replies, I saw. The symptoms some people have been getting seem to tie back to MN. There are other manifestations of it, too. [John sighs.] That's why Rhys is in pain and Angel's sick. Dunno why some people don't experience it at all, though. Might be some are just more susceptible?

Yes... I thought so.

[He's silent for a little while after that, brooding on the thought. It had been lodged in his mind ever since he woke at the morgue and realised revival hadn't healed him. Watson's confirmation is really a last nail in a coffin.]

We know that people have different levels of MN - it's tied to use of the nanomachines, medical intervention, revivals, and the like. But this is not my area of expertise in which to try to discern any pattern. I can only describe what I've observed. And... [he lets out a slow, carefully controlled breath.] Pardon my no doubt appalling ignorance, but it is not actually possible for poisoning to be contagious, is it?

Thankfully, no. Not in the sneeze and catch it sense. It is, however, possible for two people to be poisoned around about the same time if they're exposed to the same poison. Like drinking from a contaminated well. One person might get sick first, but the other might catch the same thing. There's no vector, though. Just direct poisoning.

I don't imagine MN poisoning would be contagious if it's to do with what's in the blood. Not unless we were doing transfusions between people. [And that has its own set of problems. But talking of blood...]

Listen, Beckett, Angel did just contact me asking about how much blood someone could safely lose in a day. You tell me you've just broken away from her and Rhys... I remember the look you had when I was having that nosebleed. It's getting worse, isn't it?

Small mercies. Good. I was afraid that... well. Something ridiculous. [He's a little embarrassed by that appalling ignorance, still. It takes him a moment to parse John's question.]

Angel did - I should have expected as much. [A bit of exasperation. They're very much alike in this, Angel and him.] The thirst is more intense, yes. If anything, I suspect it's to do with me feeling overall better, otherwise. This isn't the first I've had to deal with it. I'll need a few days to find my balance again, that's all.

Are you sure that's all you need? I can talk to Eve, see if she might be able to do something like... supply you with some blood packs to get you through the worst of it. You know this might be MN Poisoning, too, right? It manifests in strange ways - people experiencing pain, sickness, mania. Reckon there are other things, as well.

Has the need for blood ever been this bad since you've been here?

Not since I've been here, no. [He speaks slowly now, thinking back. He'd be dismissive - in a guarded way - but as soon as John mentions MN poisoning he gets a sinking feeling. Getting better, he'd thought...]

Our old friend Stitches did mention - even before the lobotomy incident - that he is suffering from some effects on his mind, and trying to pin the cause. Perhaps it grabs us where we are, as you say, susceptible... in which case, the worst of it is likely to be the new normal.

Yeah. He was manic from the moment I met him. He wasn't doing as bad for a while there. Something kicked it into overdrive. I would never have brought him with me to see everyone if I'd thought he was so out of control. [John's just having strikingly bad luck lately on gauging how far people will go.]

Stein's gotten better to an extent, though. After he died, the mania seemed to drop off. I'm not sure why, though. Maybe the Admin can spare MN scrubbers sometimes?

I doubt anyone could have anticipated just what happened. [Considering how utterly mad it was. Not Watson's fault. He makes a brief thoughtful, but not hopeful sound.]

Possible, but not reliable. Of course it is also possible that both he and I are merely looking for excuses for our problems... but let's cut to the quick. In your professional opinion, is there anything that can be done?

For a vampire craving blood? That's not really a medical question I'm equipped to have an opinion on. Maybe? I'd been meaning to ask you: I can request that Eve supply blood bags to you. Dunno if that will work or they'll have it... but it might at least take the edge off. Beyond that it would be working on your self-control, making sure you're with someone who can physically control you if you go into a frenzy again.

I don't really see the admin ruling that a good use of resources... no. Leave the craving to me, doctor, I have plenty of experience with it. [His voice has a slight, but definite defensive edge. None of them understand better than him what he is dealing with. And none of them have ever truly had to try to control a vampire in a hunger frenzy. They don't know what it means.]

I mean about the MN poisoning conundrum as a whole. At least another way to gather information, perhaps?

[John is dubious, but Beckett has managed to control himself up to this point.]

Mr. Miller mentioned there being MN scrubbers of some sort available. With the way some people's symptoms wax and wane, there's got to be a way for us to allocate some resources to that. I'm not sure what we can do to really gather information when we don't have access to equipment. House has that microscope like we talked about. Maybe comparing what your blood looks like to the shots they took last time? We might be able to see some visible changes, but I'm not sure how likely that is. Worth a shot, though.

House and I don't play well together. [A mix of emotions there: annoyance, flippancy, maybe regret.] but I'm sure he wouldn't object to such a trial if he did have any of my blood from before. Alas, he did not. Perhaps I'll propose to him that he try this with someone else over time... though nothing would be more frustrating than knowing what is happening, without being able to do anything about it.

[That's still the case even with him and his conflicted feelings on searching and finding answers. He can only imagine how bad it would be for the rest of them.]

But you, as a doctor, might as well petition the admin on having some access to those scrubbers. Worth a shot, as you say.

Does anyone play well with him? [John just sounds exasperated.] I meant more us just doing it ourselves unless he's been lugging that microscope about. Reckon that'd get heavy. I'd store it somewhere, if I were him. Probably hospital or the clinic.

That's really not a bad idea, actually. I'll see if she'd be willing. We've found out it never hurts to ask.

[And Eve had mentioned that possibility of adjusting Bucky's issues so that he wasn't so violent and murderous.]

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ITT HILARITY IN HINDSIGHT

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