ways_infirmary | (no subject)

(no subject)

Wells woke briefly last night, long enough to look over at Annie and ask what she was doing there, but before she could answer he muttered something about blueberry cheesecake and dropped off again. He's asleep now. So's she.

Zuko's knife is still on the nightstand beside his bed.

It's not inconceivable that he could wake.

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There was a familiar figure walking around the infirmary. Brief look of concern at this patient, and a cursory glanceover at the chart.

...WTF?

Exposure to aerosolised colloidal silver solution resulting in tonic-clonic seizure, convulsion, unconsciousness, cyanosis, tachycardia (possible pre-existing condition), rales, and rapid-onset pulmonary oedema. Patient was semiconscious upon arrival, passed out within twenty minutes, and has remained so since.

A later added note indicates: Patient briefly regained consciousness as of 4 AM last night, spoke a few words, then fell unconscious again. Oedema significantly reduced as of ten AM.

In the back of her mind, she could just picture Mulder commenting about werewolves and silver. Hard to believe. But how could one argue with this evidence? Then again, dangerous substance to anyone to inhale into the lungs.

She copied some of the information to her personal notes for study.

Also likely plans to test blood samples if she ever got her hands on some.

Colloidal silver, Scully would likely find out later, was not generally dangerous to humans per se unless they insisted on swallowing it on an ongoing basis- in which case it might well induce the condition known as argyria. The data on inhaled silver solution, however, would be almost nonexistent. Generally, people weren't that stupid.

Possibly something about her presence penetrates whatever fog Wells is wandering in; he stirs, mumbling something, and gets one eye partway open.

Scully was definitely planning to research it further later on.

In the meantime...

"Sergeant? Sorry if I woke you."

"Mfh."

His eye closes and he shakes his head.

"Had to get out of there anyway," he mutters. He sounds, frankly, like about fifty years of a two-pack-a-day habit suddenly sprung itself on him all at once.

Scully frowned, and she asked, "Out of where exactly? Do you know where you are?"

"Been running," Wells says, still not opening his eyes. "'s hard, gettin' any sort of footing on sand."

He starts to say something else, but the breath catches in his throat and turns into a long, deep, distinctly horrible cough.

"Easy. You should rest. Save your strength for now," Scully cautioned.

He snorts, smiling crookedly. "Bugger that shit for a game of soldiers," Wells says, waving one hand as widely as he can. "Got my papers. Getting the fuck out of this desert shithole."

Here then is Svava, quietly walking into the infirmary, heading over to Wells' bed.

She thought he would be out by now. A worried, incomprehensiable glance to the medical chart at the foot of the bed, before walking up to take a closer, careful look at him. He looks slightly better, yes-

Svava sighs quietly, then looks to Annie.

She's just about waking up herself; Annie yawns, stretching her arms over her head. "I'm up, I'm up," she murmurs. "Who's there?"

"Oh- its just me, Annie. Svava." Quietly, with a faint smile. "I thought I'd come and see how he was doing. How are you, though?"

"He's getting better, actually," says Annie. "He's been talking. It only makes sense about half the time, but he's been talking."

She rolls her head from side to side to work out the crick in her neck. "All right, I suppose. I think Cooper will be along shortly to chase me out in search of food."

"He does look better than before. I'm glad." Svava nods, looking back to Wells for a moment.

"Though, Cooper would probably be right. You should be eating. I can go and get you something, if you'd like?"

Annie thinks for a bit, then shakes her head. "I should probably get out of here every so often for my own good," she says. "Listening to him cough as the lung swelling goes down does no good for my state of mental health. But thank you."

Her lips twitch, and Svava nods carefully, looking around the infirmary. "Quite good to get out, for some time." She takes a deep breath.

"They- I never caught how they did that with the silver, so it could be breathed in."

Annie sighs.

"It's called colloidal silver," she says quietly. "There's a way to produce super-fine particles of silver and suspend them in water with a few other chemicals. It's used in air filtration, and sometimes it's used to clean up germs- it's a good germ-killer on a flat surface, but it's awful inside people. British Airways uses it on their planes. I suppose the Army bought some and just put it into spray-pumps for- that room."

"... Then it was planned specifically for a werewolf." Svava blinks, frowning. "But if they had one, wouldn't that have killed whoever they did have?" She bites her lip, then shrugs.

"Considering all that they were doing there, it shouldn't be a surprise that they had such things."

"They installed the devices as a control measure in case their subject got loose," Annie says bitterly. "Cooper pulled quite a few files out of there. One of them had the plans for their study-room in it."

She glances sidelong at Harry, but her husband is sill asleep.

"... I'm quite glad I and Archie were able to go along and help on this. Though too bad we all didn't blow the place up completely. The more I hear about future times..." Svava takes a deep breath, and sighs.

"Well. They got the files, and he will be fine, and none of us were hurt much- I would say things went as well as were hoped for. Could have been better, of course- but..."

"I'm not really sure blowing it up entirely would have done as much good as one might like," Annie says. "There's a very good chance it would only have spread the soil-sickness on the wind, from what little I know of things. At least Harry's planning on holding the government to ransom if they don't shut down the programme. Thank you for helping in that- you and your husband both."

"... perhaps it wouldnt' have been good to do logically, but... dammit. It would have felt good." Svava mutters slightly, then shrugs.

"You're welcome. We've helped with things like that before, when there's been good reason. This certainly was." A deep breath, and Svava smiles.

"He'll have to come back to tell everyone how things go with the government."

"I will," Annie promises. "Believe me, I will."

"Thank you." Svava gives her a nod and a smile.

She glances to Wells, then back to Annie. "Is there anything I can get for you, or help with?"

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