Lanny Zelkovii

The young man had yet to call Johann or James, and figured he'd wait as long as he could afford before he talked with either men - for now, he needed to find some help and get treated as low key as possible, and pray that Cassidy's uncle didn't spot him before that. Hobbling in with a hand clutched over his bleeding midsection, Lanny stalked through the ER doors and headed straight for the front desk, hunched over a little against the pain that made his mind almost dizzy with the intensity of it, "Need a little help here." It certainly wasn't the first time the co-lead had been shot, but the fire in his belly was enough to turn his words into a short hiss as he held his breath on and off, trying his best not to aggravate the wound any more than all of his walking was.

Dr. Laura Marachek

The young woman at the desk looked up attentively at the younger Zelkovii as he spoke, and seeing the set look of determination on his face, offset by what looked like something almot like nausea, she stood up - and saw the blossom of red that had seeped through his sweater. "This way sir," she murmured instantly, not reaching a hand to help him, but keeping close by just in case he needed help. Unfortunately for Lanny, in such a small hospital, there was only one doctor on duty, and after the woman at the desk had shown him to an exam room, the familiar salt-and-pepper covered head leaned in the door, and instantly scowled. "Mr. Zelkovii - I thought you were in with Miss Jones. What'd you-" Her words stopped, seeing the wound he was clutching at, and her words came back in a scolding tone as she began to dig out the tools she needed to numb the area so she could see about removing the bullet. "I can tell you don't want to live to see your daughter born, Zelkovii - this is definitely an efficient way to go about that."

Lanny Zelkovii

Wanting to get out of any main hallways or rooms as quickly as he could, Lanny trudged along after the nurse obediently enough and declined any help that might be offered. When he reached the room however, the young man gratefully sank down on the table, stooping over a little and setting his jaw tight against the grind of pain. He didn't notice the scowl until the familiar voice caught his attention and he jerked his head up in surprise - "Just an accident." He mumbled this just under his breath, figuring it was no use trying to make up some extravagant story to explain how he'd wound up with a bullet in his gut, since most people knew who he was and what activities he was engaged in. What he did worry about was Cassidy, and to cover that aspect, he spoke in a firmer voice as she went about gathering the tools, "I don't want her informed about this just yet. There's no need to upset her any."

Laura Marachek

Clucking at him with her tongue, she filled a syringe with an analgesic and turned toward him, the business end of it pointed firmly in his direction as she instructed him gruffly, "Lift your shirt out of the way and hold still." Waiting until he'd obeyed, she deftly poked the needle into him as close as she dared to the wound without causing more pain - and her hand was steady, and her touch deft. It hardly felt like he was getting a shot at all. To his firm, almost threatening words, she gave him a look over the top of her spectacles as she leaned back again and answered him in a completely calm way, "If you do just exactly as I say and give me no trouble about fixing this for you, I won't tell her. So hold still." And on that much ceremony, she began preparing to remove the metal invader, pulling out tools as she waited for the medicine to take effect.

Lanny Zelkovii

Lanny obliged, and lifted his stained shirt with a small grimace to go with the pain. Entirely unlike the officer who frequently was after him, the young man had no trouble looking down at the wound, or bracing for the needle and the much appreciated analgesics that it delivered. "Deal." Lanny leaned back a little, so that his back was against the wall, and focused on a more even breath to get his nerves back in order and push the pain aside. When finally the drugs began to kick in, Lanny was able to focus more on thoughts of Cassidy, and what exactly he was going to tell her and Johann.

Dr. Laura Marachek

Lanny's agreement met with the physician's nod of approval. "It's so much easier for me when my patients cooperate," she murmured, prodding gently just once as his middle to be sure he was numb before she reached for a small pair of forceps. As she poked these into the wound and began gently feeling around for the bullet, she murmured, "Do you know how lucky you are, Mr. Zelkovii - another two inches to the left and it would've had your liver, and then you would've been in a real mess. Wait now - here's the little bugger." Despite the numbing medication, he might feel a lot of pressure when finally the instrument tapped the metal end of the bullet. "You are so lucky this isn't one of those ones with the exploding heads," she informed him, tsking a little under her breath and instructing him, "Brace yourself, boy - this won't hurt, but it won't be the most comfortable thing you've ever felt either."

Lanny Zelkovii

After being in so many scuffles and several very close calls, Lanny almost forgot that he could very well have been killed, had the bullet strayed too far in any direction and struck a vital structure. Still, he mentally shrugged over her warning over how close he'd come to some serious trouble, and merely watched the procedure as calmly as if it wasn't him who was having a bullet removed. After all, the prospect of facing Cassidy, Johan, and James was considerably more nerve-wracking for him than this. That is, until the forceps found the bullet, and the unexpected sensation made his eyes go wide in surprise. Reflexively, one hand clutched at the edge of the table, while the other balled into a fist at his side, "I'll just need some stitches, right?"

Dr. Laura Marachek

"And about three week's worth of recovery," the doctor confirmed with a nod, giving him only a moment to brace himself before she gently but quickly grabbed hold of the projectile and wedged it out of his being. This was followed quickly by gauze and some applied pressure to staunch the bleeding. "You're not to stretch over your head for that amount of time, and you're not to lift anything for two weeks after that. Don't swivel - turn your whole body." Listing out that firm round of rules, she pulled up the gauze to check the bleeding, and seemed to decide that was well enough, for she removed it and replaced it with a fresh bundle, now injecting something to fight infection and inflammation, and threading a needle. "In the meantime, you'll see me every two hours to have the bandage changed until further notice - and if that means I have to come into Miss Jones' room and fetch you, I'll do that, clear?" As she said this, she unceremoniously began to sew up the wound with practiced pokes as the needle wedged in and out of flesh and reunited torn tissues.

Lanny Zelkovii

'Three weeks?!' He should have known that the recovery time wouldn't be a short, simple thing, and he though he nodded to the rules she was laying down, his mind track was repealing them all. 'A week will be good enough.' He didn't dare say this out loud, and went on to tense a little when the projectile was pulled out. Making a brief face at the unpleasant pressure, Lanny relaxed just as quickly, "Every two hours...? Alright, fine... I'll do that." How he was going to excuse himself from the room ever two hours was quite the problem, but as he thought about it, it wasn't quite as problematic of how he'd explain about Conan getting away. "I can at least walk, can't I? I'm not riding in a wheelchair."

Dr. Laura Marachek

"That's not a topic for discussion." Laura's face looked up and fixed him with her firm glare, as though she knew without being told that he had no intention of following the first instruction. "If you start up going right back to what you always do before it's safe, even my permission won't save you from wheelchair time - you won't be able to walk. Don't think I don't know young men - I've got a son about your age, maybe a little older, and you should have seen him when they removed his appendix - getting about, making himself worse til he had to be hospitalized and bedbound for a week." With the stitches now in place, she now wound a length of bandaging around his middle to keep the gauze in place, and leaned back from her work, telling him, "You can walk - slowly, and with as little movement in your waist as possible. See you in two hours, Mr. Zelkovii."

Lanny Zelkovii

A subtle frown encompassed his features when she called him out on his intentions, and proceeded to lecture him on exactly what was going to happen if he saw fit to disobey the rules she'd set out for him. "That won't be happening to me." Being Mr. Invincible again, Lanny muttered this next, almost dismissively to the doctor, and went silent as she finished up the stitching and applied the bandages. He remained wordless until she'd finished up and gave him clearance to stand and walk, and only then did he respond with a prompt, "Two hours, I'll be here." After all, he had to be compliant, if he expected her to hold up the deal they'd made, not that he really expected to get past this without first getting caught.

It was a chore to move slowly, though at least the analgesic allowed him to walk a little straighter than before, so that he wasn't so hunched over as he had been before. Before he ever got to Cassidy's room, the young man made a trip to his vehicle to rummage up a new shirt, and spent his time walking from their to the woman's room in deep thought - yet by the time he finally did reach her room, he hadn't come up with any great story. Aligning his thoughts and bucking up to put on a casual facade, Lanny eased open the door and stepped inside; his first task was to see whether or not Johann was there, and if Cassidy were asleep or not.

Cassidy*Others

He was fortunate in that, when he opened the door, the darkness of the room and the sound of soft breathing revealed that Cassidy was still asleep, getting in some much-needed rest and staying blessedly free of any withdrawal symptoms, for now. He was again fortunate in the fact that the sun had shifted - Cass' room had an eastern window, so now that it was early afternoon, the sun had moved over to the other side of the building, leaving her room less well-lit than it had been this morning. That kept anyone from seeing clearly how he was standing oddly to compensate for the wound. But his fortune ended there. "I expected you some hours ago, Lanny - I suspect you encountered some difficulty." Johann's voice was a whisper that could barely be heard, even in the stillness of the room - an effort not to wake the resting young woman, just yet.

Lanny Zelkovii

Lanny didn't linger too long at the door, only enough to set his focus and take as deep a breath he dared, and to hold it as he crossed the room and sat himself in the chair next to Cassidy's bed. There was no way he could go about this in a normal way, and he cursed mentally at the strain he felt in turning himself about to get seated. Knowing that Johann had to have noticed it, Lanny spoke to belay any questions that might come up, "I fell; muddied my shirt up too." At least, it accounted for his change in attire, "He got away... shot him alright, but- yeah, there were some difficulties."

Johann*Others

The older man didn't comment further on Lanny's change in appearance; instead he turned his eyes to Cass, being sure she didn't wake up as the young man sat down. And though one arm drew up slowly to partially hide her face in a child-like way, she never did wake. After a moment, Johann ventured, "She's been asleep the whole time you've been gone. I shooed the nurse out of here twice - she's a persistent cuss. Her iron's holding steady." Offering that unprompted update on the girl's condition, he then turned his attention to Lanny's words. "You take such a simple word as 'difficulties' and make it a much darker thing, Lanny. What sort of information did you glean from him?"

Lanny Zelkovii

Relieved that he'd gotten through the initial entrance without getting caught with the wound, Lanny found it easy to rest fully back against the chair, and mildly muse over how the hospital at least had some comfortable furniture. Realizing how tired he was, Lanny allowed his muscles to relax entirely, a feat made very simple when he couldn't feel the gnawing pain in his gut at the moment, "Iron's up? That's a good sign. As long as she takes her pills like she should, hopefully we won't be back here for at least a few more months." It was both a sincere statement to show how glad he was to hear the good news, and an ill-fated attempt to steer Johann away from the talk of Conan. A low, ragged sigh came before his reply, "He suggested we've got another enemy after us. He claims he didn't send the note - but who else would have done it? The kid is just trying to throw us off his trail; likely trying to shake us up and have a go at getting Randy back."

Johann

It was hard to tell what Johann was thinking in the semi-darkness of the room; it looked like his eyes snapped together a bit as he asked evenly, "And you didn't find out from him just who this 'other person' was?" His tones were perhaps a little defensive - he didn't like that Conan had escaped, but the little discussion he and Lanny had earlier had about the young man's feelings for Cass kept Johann's voice from going beyond concern and mild annoyance. "Want to tell me what happened to stop you from getting that information? Because I know perfectly well that you want that information very badly."

Lanny Zelkovii

The weariness was catching up on him as all the adrenaline faded from his system, and the fatigue of his injury and worry took their toll. He couldn't keep up with his story, or focus his mind enough to guide himself to any reasonable lie. The young man closed his eyes for a long moment, going silent as he sought in a futile attempt to answer Johann without telling him the full truth. When absolutely nothing came to mind, Lanny bit the bullet and replied a little testily, "A third party showed up. Shot at us both - that's how Conan got away. Whoever the shooter was, they took off before I could find out who they were."

Johann

"Which explains why you moved like an old man when you came in," Johann answered dryly, though he didn't scold the younger man for the deception. Instead, he eyed the subtle way that more of Lanny's weight shifted to lay against the seat, and the blurry movement of his face in the dark that indicated to Johann that Lanny was more tired than he was letting on. Finally, he murmured, "Alright - that's enough for now. If you look like that when she wakes up, all your efforts at covering up this little incident will be void. Best get you some shut eye - you're a better liar when you've had a bit of sleep." His tone was something of warmth and almost fondness as he said that, but it was unclear whether that was directed at Cass, or at Lanny himself. Rather than elaborate on it, he murmured, "I'll keep guard of the room for now. Get you in a couple hours before she wakes up."

Lanny Zelkovii

He might have put more effort into it if it had been Cassidy he was talking too, though he was bound to get caught by either of them when he tried lying. Lanny rolled his head to the side, letting the weight of it rest lazily against the cushion of the chair, rather like an upright pillow, "Sleep sounds good... thanks." Counting himself lucky that Johann was letting him get some shut eye, rather than take advantage of his fatigue and pry for information that he was too tired to try and cover up, Lanny extended his appreciation. It didn't take much for him to roll his head the other way, tucking it down slightly as heavy lids drooped down. In a few minutes, he was out.