ways_infirmary | post-fight wrap up

Exactly--they're limping in together, so it can't be too bad.

The tall one is staring about himself, obviously a newcomer to the infirmary; only belatedly does he nod to Joly. "O, I am also Harry, of London." He glances over at Harry Percy and makes a slightly rueful face. All right, fine. "Harry Monmouth. You are--you are a physician?"

From the way he's gone back to gazing at the blinking lights, it's not Joly he doubts but the entire place.

Edited 2015-11-19 23:35 (UTC)

"He is," Harry says, probably more offended on Joly's behalf than Joly is himself. He makes his way up onto the table with uncharacteristic clumsiness, and he's feeling rather dizzy again by the time he gets up.

Joly isn't offended at all! The Infirmary is well worth boggling at. "Yes, this is the infirmary; isn't it magnificent? --And yes, I'm one of the doctors here. Joly, formerly of Paris, but I've been at Milliways for a while now. Feel free to ask any questions, Monsieur-- ah, Monmouth?" He's not sure that's quite right, but it...might be?

He makes some mental notes, watching Harry stumble to his table.
"-- Harry, I'm going to take some readings on you first." He's already starting to unpack some little devices that probably look very strange indeed to the Harrys. "Try to sit quietly while this is running, all right?"

A French physician, no less. A French Moorish physician? Well, and why not?

Probably he's supposed to be sitting on that other table, but he wanders over to stare at the doctor's devices. "These are no leeches and cups!"

Why not! Right! (Joly would actually be fairly impressed by Hal's acceptance of the situation, there, if he knew. He's met with worse, from people who should really know better, in his own time.)

He beams at Hal's reaction. "Not a one!" he was surprised at first too! "--Oh, though leeches at least are quite useful, in the right setting. But here we have other tools to do all that physicians in my time--or, I think, yours-- tried to do. It's all quite reliable-- I'll explain as I go, if you like. You're-- from about Harry's year, yes?"

"We are of a time and place," he agrees. "Or we have been." One of them gets to go back to London, and the other--doesn't.

It strikes him that he's making himself awfully free with Harry Percy's space, gawking at the doctor's work; he steps back a pace or two and leans against the other exam table. "Neither of us is gravely hurt, I promise you."

Joly has his doubts in that direction-- Harry has the look of a few strong hits to the head too many, and Hal's holding his wrist very carefully indeed-- but he just smiles at Hal's assurance. "Still, it was sensible of you both to come here. If you're not badly hurt, then it won't take long--and if you are, you'll see, it still won't take long! This place really does have some advantages over our times. --Here, have a seat, let me look at that wrist." He's already got an entirely different machine out, one of the portable scanners.

"'Twas Percy's thought, to come here." He makes a face at Percy, with some sympathy in it. "No doubt from care for me."

All right, all right, he'll be a good little prince and sit on the table. And stifle a groan when he has to put weight on his wrist. "And what is your year, Doctor?"

Joly beams at Harry with approval. "And very right! I wish all my friends would be so sensible-- and my patients, too. Here, Harry, hold still a few minutes longer--" He stations a pair of swinging panels on either side of Harry's head. "Just checking on that jaw, all right? And making sure everything else is sound."

When he's sure the scan is coming in clear, he turns back to Hal. "My year? 1832.That was my last year in France. Here, hold out that arm?" Hal clearly has other injuries, but that seems to be the main thing paining him.

"1832? O, I have met Bahorel--" And oh, right, that's why the doctor seems vaguely familiar: they've met, but Hal was Cesario and Joly was Thor at the time. Well. "--I have met Bahorel; is he friend to you?"

....And what did the doctor just put on Percy's face? Hal holds out his arm, staring over at the other table.

"Bahorel? Oh yes, he's an excellent friend! We came over on more or less the same diligence, hah. How did you meet?" ...Not in some way that introduced Hal to the infirmary earlier, so probably a good thing, right?

Joly follows the line of Hal's stare. "It's a scanner. "It can see the bones, under the surface, and look for breaks and cracks. That one's for the head and body. This is another, and I'll use it on your wrist. You see? I turn it on, and these lights come on--" He moves the scanner carefully over the length of Hal's forearm "- and if you look at this screen--I'll show you in a moment-- you can see the bones yourself and--ah, yes, you've a small fracture. Well, that needn't be a great difficulty here! Keep that arm still."

The wrist brace he brings over may at least look identifiable to Hal. "I'll set that straight, and then heal the bone--I've done this before, it takes a few minutes, but I hope you've the time!"

Edited 2015-11-20 02:29 (UTC)

Right, Harry's been trying to be good and keep still as he was ordered, but at that, he has to speak up.

"Heal it, say you?" he asks. "Not-- bind it, set it?"

Ah, well, Harry's been being very quiet. And it's a good sign that he's alert enough to ask questions!

"Heal it!" Joly is still professional, but he's also obviously delighted. "I've mended a few cracked bones before." He finishes setting Hal's wrist before coming over to check the results of Harry's scan. "Here, let's see-- ah, yes, small fracture in that jaw. Let me see, I'll need to make you a mouthpiece to hold your jaw right." Back to Hal, he says "And I'm going to give you the same scan, just to be sure."

He sets the scanner plates up and gets the machine running again, then starts setting in the information to make the necessary brace. "--You were sparring?" It's not at all a suspicious question-- more like asking a friend coming in soaking wet if it's raining outside.

Really? He brings a hand curiously up to his jaw.

"--after a fashion," Harry says in answer to the question. It's not a lie, so it doesn't sound like one, but it doesn't entirely sound like the truth, either. "And grew, perhaps, too boisterous in our practice."

Joly only grins at that. "Well, it happens. You had the sense to come here after, that's the important thing. I should have you lecture Feuilly for me."

Is that a furtive glance towards Hal at Feuilly's name? Surely not.

"Is he remiss in such matters?" Harry asks. He's still gingerly poking at his own jaw, until-- oh ow, sure, there it is.

"Mmm." It's a slightly distracted assent, as Joly finishes the data entry, only to look up and see Harry poking at his jaw. "ah, don't do that!--I wouldn't have guessed it, but during that whole thing with the spell-- well, you know, Feuilly and Bahorel switched, and Bahorel says apparently it's so, and well--" Joly laughs again. "--Bahorel would know! He's his own sort of expert in that."

And Feuilly's not, which is probably why he'd fail to recognize how serious some injuries can be.

Harry lowers his hand back into his lap sheepishly. He was just curious! He didn't think Hal could hit that hard! Then again, maybe it happened when his head smacked against the ground. ...or that tree. Er.

"I doubt not that Bahorel is," Harry says. He'll be forgiven, under the circumstances, for taking an extra moment or two to piece thoughts together, for there's a small pause before he adds, "--but dost mean Feuilly bears some injury now?"

Does he sound worried? No, that's not worried, that's-- friendly concern?

Edited 2015-11-20 03:46 (UTC)

Friendly concern works for Joly! "Oh, on the way to being mended now-- I did look-- but I would like to see how your sparring practices run. And-well, I thought to have a word with both of you, but you clearly know--to tell you there's no need to ignore any injury, we really can set anything mending here faster than you'd think. And why hurt longer than you have to? Ah--! There."

The scanner's sending in Hal's information now, too. "You don't seem to have any serious head injuries, M. Monmouth; but we can fix those cuts and bruises so you can head home in a couple days and not have to explain anything to the people on your side of the Door, I think.--And Harry-- there's the mouthpiece, all made." Joly collects a smooth plastic sort of toothguard from another machine. See? Fast!

Harry's frown deepens at that. He'd certainly never meant to cause Feuilly actual injury in their practice. And he'd always hoped-- assumed, really-- that Feuilly would tell him if he had. He almost says as much, but the completion of Joly's scan brings his attention back to Hal's presence.

"Ay, Monsieur Monmouth." (Sorry, Joly, that title makes him grin.) "Though sure thou couldst devise some tale fantastical-- of being set upon by thieves, perchance."

Edited 2015-11-20 04:10 (UTC)

"Yea, thieves," he says readily. "We did but fight some thieves, Percy and I. And...we in our humors, being sorely provoked" he continues, with a sidelong look at Harry, something that's a little bit apology and a little bit mischief, "Did perchance hit harder than we knew, the both of us. And the thieves. --Marry, but who is thy friend Feuilly? A fierce swordsman, to keep practice with thee."

Hey, if Harry's going to call him Monsieur Monmouth, Hal is going to ask him about his friends. That's how people relate to each other, right? "I thank you, Doctor. 'Tis plain the future holds many wonders, but 'tis equally plain that the universities and physicians of Paris are wonders themselves."

It's clearly a set piece of courtesy, but not at all an insincere one.

Joly is still working while the Harrys argue. "Here, Harry, we'll mend your jaw first, all right? Take this and bite like--" Joly makes a face to demonstrate, and checks a screen-- "Right,that's it. Now you'll really have to not talk; keep your jaw set like that until I tell you."

The banter seems fairly normal to Joly! Right, there's obviously history there. But Harry's given him no indication that Monmouth is a danger, and surely he would?

...Or maybe it's warning enough that Monmouth doesn't know about Feuilly, when Harry so obviously keeps close company with. Given his own guesses about just how close that company is, and some of the things he's kept secret himself in the past, Joly's inclined to assume Harry has his reasons for it.

"Feuilly's a dear friend, also from Paris. He's one of the best and bravest men." So fair warning if you were leading to some sort of strange mockery of Feuilly, Hal.

"But Paris knew little of the medicine available here, I'm truly sorry to say." Really, it's maddening. "Our school was one of the best, but even so-- I suspect what I learned there had much in common with the treatments you know from your own time." And hadn't it driven him mad to know it, in his life in Paris.

But here-- here, he has the bone-setter out, and he's already carefully setting it to mending the crack in Harry's jaw. "So you know I was a doctor-- what's your life on the other side of the Door?" Presumably some sort of knight-type person, if Harry knows him? But Milliways can make for unusual acquaintances.

Right, Harry, bite like that and don't talk! Hal's grinning at him. He's not even trying to hide it.

So. A dear friend of the doctor's, fine. One of the best and bravest men. Gosh, well, it certainly sounds as though there's nothing at all to mock there. Hal turns his grin into a sober nod, and listens to Joly. "Should it not have much in common, doctor, your Paris medicine and ours of England? Are we so very muddle-headed?" Sure, it's four hundred years in the future, but has medicine really changed all that much in Europe?

He's not altogether sure how to answer Joly's question about his life, under the circumstances; he scratches his jaw and laughs a little. "Percy will tell you I am a tavern idler. Certainly I am no physician, nor no scholar."

Edited 2015-11-20 15:58 (UTC)

And Percy, of course, can't tell Joly anything right now. Which in this instance is irritating, but at least means he is spares having to elaborate further on the subject of Feuilly.

Joly's watching his work and doesn't see the grin, but he's already sort of assumed it. Whatever else Monmouth is, he's already clearly the sort of person to grin about this kind of situation.

Which is fine! So are many of Joly's friends! And Joly's smiling himself a little in recognition of it. "Well, I've idled in a few taverns myself. -- No, no, I think there were many brilliant scholars in your day, as there were in mine. But with medicine,of course, any of us would want to learn as quickly as we could."

And Joly sometimes thinks those past scholars would have been horrified, to learn how little the science had advanced in the centuries; that the difference between his time and theirs should have been greater, at least as far as the difference in the science a hundred years after his own life.

But that's not something to say to patients while the work's being done. It takes a few minutes longer; and then Joly has Harry open his jaw carefully enough to give him the mouth-guard, and hands him a small piece of bent plastic in return. "Keep this between your back teeth--yes, that's right-- for about ten minutes. But you can talk again, as long as you hold it there." And he should be able to talk; he'll have enough leeway for that. "And don't go poking at your jaw just yet!" That last comment is an afterthought, and Joly smiles as he says it, but...really, Harry. Don't.

Turning to Hal, he says "All right, I'm going to mend that wrist, and then I'll check you both to make sure there's nothing serious we're missing. So say something if it feels strange, but otherwise try to stay still. Here we go--!" The machine hums on again.

Edited 2015-11-20 16:27 (UTC)

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