post-fight wrap up

[merryeccentricities]

It's usually a quiet job, working in the infirmary-- which is fine by Joly, given what it can mean when a doctor's busy.

But a little post-brawl patchup, well, that's no great sign of catastrophe. He smiles cheerfully enough at the two men who limp into the infirmary. "Harry! I'm glad you've come in. And-- excuse me, I don't think we've met. I'm Joly. If you would both have a seat--?" He gestures to two separate examining tables.



((OOC: post-fight infirmary visit for the two Harrys!))

Comments

[merryeccentricities]

Joly is smiling again-- this all sounds like friends making up after a fight. He studies Hal's split lip for a moment. "Mm- no lasting damage there, I think. I'll put a patch on it-- set that nose, too-- and it'll be fine in a week or so."

He looks over at Harry's black eye and still-swollen face. "Still, I think you'd both better be careful with your romances until then."

It's...sort of a joke! But really, guys. Come on. Don't make out with mending jaws and stitches. Joly doesn't have to spell this out, does he?

...He's going to have to, isn't he. "So just go easy on the kissing --" and yes, other things "--for the next week or so, too, all right?" This is said to both and neither of them. Look at all this open space Joly has to talk to!

[harryhotspur]

First things first: Harry is not embarrassed about Feuilly, or anything he is doing with Feuilly. In fact, it would not have even occurred to him until very recently that their friendship was anything except a perfectly ordinary, if very close, friendship. And the only reason he had for refraining from mentioning Feuilly to Hal was concern that Hal might-- do something. Bother him. Something.

But here, now, still feeling slightly dazed and dizzy, Hal right over there-- when his thoughts immediately jump to Feuilly when Joly mentions romance, he feels his cheeks growing hot and red. Well, maybe there's enough general bruisedness happening that no one can tell? After all-- ha ha-- what does he have to do with kissing! His wife is in England!

[never_promised]

What indeed?

To be sure, the doctor's speech is indirect enough that it can be taken as a general joke aimed at young men, and Hal more than half takes it as such. But. Really. Harry Percy's romances. Really.

He's giving Harry an I'm-all-ears look, but it's probably obscured by Joly's business with his nose. "--Now we see that your future medicine is no great miracle after all, and lies as hardly on the patient as ever. Go easy on the kissing, he says, as easy as any priest!"

[merryeccentricities]

"My father will be so pleased to hear of my conversion." Yes, it's a joke. Joly knows he's absolutely debauched by his family's standards. (He may not be able to openly say so without passing out from awkwardness, but he totally is!) "But--" he sets Hal's nose quick a quick movement "I think you'll be breaking your vows within ten days."

The business of cleaning up and patching the rest of Hal's minor injuries involves what's probably a confusing array of ointments and potions to people who don't know what all the bottles are. Still it's quick, and relatively painless, in Joly's experience.

And there are painkillers now! That aren't even going to make anyone pass out! When he's sure the liquid banage on Hal's lip has set, he hands him a couple of pills and a glass of water. "Take that--it's for the swelling, and a painkiller. And--that's it! Eat something, don't drink any alcohol until tomorrow morning, try not to punch anyone for a few days. Not such a very strict order, is it?"

[harryhotspur]

"A full day and not one drink? O, you have decreed a burden indeed."

Listen, Harry is trying to play nice, but if Joly keeps giving him these perfect openings to judge Hal, how is he supposed to resist?

[never_promised]

Ow--hey--his nose--okay, fine, that is better.

Enough better that he can shoot Harry a properly annoyed look. "And what dost thou drink here, Percy? Milk and honeyed barley-water?" No, but really, what else is there for a man to drink? "I thank you, Doctor; I will mind your bidding as docile as any little lamb. But I had no idea 'twas such a hardship for Percy to keep from kissing and such gentle sports."

[merryeccentricities]

"I'm sure you'll both break many hearts with the news. -- Listen, ask Bar for soft drinks or tea, or milk. But no alcohol until tomorrow. I know, I'd miss it too, but if you mix alcohol with those pills, the effect will be reversed, your blood vessels will swell up like an overfull bladder, and you'll wake up feeling like every hangover you've had has come back at once. You'll be three times as sick for twice as long." Joly is smiling cheerfully as he says all this. It's a simplification, but it's just medical information! "So do stick to other drinks, all right? --Harry, can you stay here a little longer? I want to look at your scans again." He's sure there was a minor concussion in there.

[harryhotspur]

"'tis no hardship," Harry mutters, glaring at Hal. It's not! It's really so totally not.

"Ay, ay, I can stay," he says to Joly. Because he has nowhere else to be! Because he has no one to not make out with, duh.

[never_promised]

"...soft drinks. And tea." Right. Right.

Hal scratches his head a moment before dropping into an elegant bow to Joly. "I thank you again, Doctor. And Percy, do thou let me treat you to a cup of tea, when thou art at liberty. I do promise not to kiss thee."

[merryeccentricities]

Joly is surprised into bowing politely back. "I'm glad to meet you, Harry of Monmouth. Come back if you start feeling strange at all! Even a minor thing; it's always worth checking. And I'm sure I'll see you around Milliways."

After Monmouth's gone, Joly turns back to Harry. "Are you feeling all right? You looked a little dizzy for a moment."

[harryhotspur]

"And so I was," Harry agrees. "I was struck a blow or two-- but 'twill quickly pass, I do not doubt. But I must thank you again for this kindly care," he adds, considering the other matter settled.

[merryeccentricities]

If there's some other matter than his fellow patrons being injured, it's rather passed Joly by. "A moment or two isn't so bad, but you've had a minor concussion-- probably nothing, if you're feeling good enough to walk around and talk, but a concussion can get worse fast. I could ask you to stay overnight for observation, but I think that really would be a bit much to bear." Just guessing here. Based on what little he knows of Harry. A Wild Hypothesis.

"But I don't want to send you off alone either. If you start feeling confused, or pass out, then you'll hardly be able to call for help about it. Can you stay with someone overnight? Feuilly, maybe? I know you've become close friends." And Joly is honestly not making any implications! He just doesn't want you blacking out in your soup, Harry.

[harryhotspur]

"I, ah--" Was very likely going to spend the night with Feuilly anyway. "--I shall seek him out. And hope I shall have no need to so prevail upon him. I--" He laughs, sheepish. "Well, methinks he shall chide me well for this, and well shall I deserve it."

[merryeccentricities]

Joly grins a little and presses Harry's shoulder. "Well, you can scold him back, after all.--Here, let me finish getting you cleaned up." Harry's got nothing else but some almost- minor scrapes and bruises, but it's still seems foolish to let anything with a chance of infection stay untreated.

[harryhotspur]

Right, that.

"I shall speak of it to him," he says, a little more seriously than Joly's light comment probably merited. But it does trouble him, that Feuilly would be hurt and wouldn't say. "Though the harm that may come of it in such a place may be small-- well, it is as you say. I would see him well, for I love him well."

[merryeccentricities]

Joly beams at him for that. "Which shows excellent judgement on your part. But don't worry about it too much, all right? That's my job, after all. You wouldn't drive me to idleness, would you?"

[harryhotspur]

Harry snorts. "Why, you are not of Monmouth's race of princely idlers, that love nothing more than a day barren of all industry?"

[merryeccentricities]

Joly laughs. "I don't mind the odd industry-barren afternoon, but it grows dull very soon. Why, who is he, anyway?"

[harryhotspur]

If Harry were a good friend, he'd respect Hal's obvious (though inexplicable, to Harry's mind) wish not to reveal his identity to most people he meets.

Fortunately, Harry is not.

"Why, he is heir to the throne of England," Harry says. "Prince of Wales, he. Henry, of that name the fifth-- or shall be."

[merryeccentricities]

And if Hal were still here, Joly would be controlling his expression to stay professional and polite.

He's not, so Harry can see a devotedly republican Frenchman's reaction to hearing that he was just secretly chatting with a King of England who, historically ,invaded France. "That was--will be-- King Henry V?!?"

[harryhotspur]

That reaction is deeply, deeply gratifying. He and Hal may have punched out some of their differences, but that doesn't mean he's suddenly on board with the house of Lancaster.

"So he will," Harry says. "Though of course I know not when, nor how, nor what shall come of it."

[merryeccentricities]

Joly's still a little rattled. "'No outside business!' No outside business, I know, I know, but such a thing--" Joly shakes his head. "Well. Well, here, it can't matter. A patient's a patient. ​But thank you for telling me before I meet him again outside. --Are you two, er...?" Going to try and kill each other extra again? Buddies? What is happening here, Harry.

[harryhotspur]

Er, indeed. Harry has no idea. This is why they had to go punch each other, it was easier than trying to articulate the things standing between them.

"--all is well," he says at last. "Such things as made us enemies here matter not. W-what--" Oh, this is harder to say and believe. He killed me, but it's fine? "What is done, is done. And so it must be."

[merryeccentricities]

Joly hasn't had as much chance to know Harry as some of his friends; but he does understand something of the problem being talked around.What's done is done, indeed. Impulsively, if still carefully, he hugs Harry for a moment, and pats him on the shoulder, smiling, as he lets go. "Thank you for not giving me reason to visit the cells again, then. I'm sure there was more than enough provocation!"

[harryhotspur]

He's startled by the hug, but he'll accept it readily.

"We took great care to remain out of sight," Harry says dryly. "And 'twas indeed all done by mutual consent. The letter of the law, if not, perhaps, the very spirit."