# What If Chapter 5

Chapter 5
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The ER was finally quiet, the frenzied activity of Reed’s arrival having finally been triaged as necessary. Anon sat alone in the waiting room, filling out medical forms as he waited for more information about Reed. The EMT’s had to keep Reed’s heart beating manually the whole ride over, and Anon couldn’t get the image of Reed just…collapsing, out of his mind. The forms themselves didn’t help; a dense network of liability clauses and pre-existing conditions that Anon could only guess at. Reed of course didn’t have any medical insurance, but Anon was more than happy to provide his own when prompted by the stern-faced nurse. Heaving another sign, Anon returned to the forms, attempting to make heads-or-tails of them.
“Does the affiliate, or any of the affiliated, posses or maintain, herewith to the best of the provider’s knowledge, an amount of provincial care not exceeding the maximum deductible amount as described in line… uhghhhhh!” Anon threw his head back in disgust. He must have read that line a dozen times, his eyes sliding disinterestedly off it each time. He just wanted to make sure Reed was okay, alive and hopefully stable, before continuing his pursuit of Lucy. Glancing at his watch, Anon realized it had only been an hour since Reed had collapsed in his arms; to him, it had felt like a day.
“Naser would know how to fill out these forms, he always wanted to go into medicine,” Anon said to the empty pastel-wallpapered room, the smell of stale disinfectant his only companion. Thinking about Lucy’s brother made Anon wince. He hadn’t tried Naser on the phone yet, to ask for help, but considering what Ripley and Lucy had said today, he didn’t think Naser would be any wiser about what Lucy was doing. Anon hoped that wherever Lucy was, she was okay: A hospital is no place to be alone.
“Sir, have you finished the paperwork?” A kind-faced Stego nurse interrupted Anon’s thoughts, her gaze friendly. Anon was thankful it wasn’t the same nurse who had handed him the intake paperwork in the first place, see hadn’t been pleased by Reed’s smell as he was wheeled into her ER.
“Almost, but I’ve got a few-“ Anon’s questions were halted by a quick smile from the nurse.
“Excellent! The doctor has a few questions for you, regarding the patient, could you please follow me, sir?” Brisky, the nurse stepped away, not caring to look back to see if Anon was following. Scrambling after her, the intake paperwork still clutched in one hand, Anon hoped these questions wouldn’t take too long. Careful to keep close to the nurse as she lead him down one winding corridor after another, Anon felt his mind wandering once more to the thought of Lucy being hurt, laying alone in a sterile hospital room, no one in her life to offer their support. Anon said a silent prayer to Raptor Jesus that his thoughts wouldn’t come true.
“Just in there, sir,” said the nurse, nodding to a door labeled “E-102” before turning quickly back the way they had come from. The door to the room was heavy, wide enough to fit an overly large hospital bed through, and as Anon shouldered his way through, the last person he expected to be there turned to face him: Naser, in a white doctor’s coat and everything, checking on Reed’s vitals.
“So,” Naser said, turning back to Reed and leaving Anon gaping in the doorway. “It is you. Never thought I would see your face around here again, Anon.” Naser’s voice sounded strained, as if he was keeping something inside of him on a tight leash. Punching a few keys on Reed’s monitor, he crossed around to the foot of the bed, scribbling something on Reed’s chart before replacing it in the cradle on the bedframe. “It’s been what, five, six years?”
Anon had finally worked enough moisture into his mouth to respond. “Naser, I didn’t…What are you doing here, shouldn’t you be at-“
“At medical school?” Naser cut him off, crossing his arms underneath the badge fastened in his pocket. “Yeah, I already graduated from pre-med, took me two-and-a-half years. I guess it’s some sort of record.” Naser’s dejected tone made it very clear what he thought of that record. “I’m just doing my internship back home, here at good ol’ Volcaldera General.” Still standing at the foot of the bed, Naser had made no move to welcome Anon.
Anon smiled weakly, hoping to ease the tension that hung thick upon the air. Stepping into the small room, he let the door swing shut, soundless on its hydraulic piston. “That’s great man, seriously. I’m glad to see you, I need your-“
“NO!” Naser’s shout made Anon jump. Leveling a finger at Anon’s chest, Naser’s voice was low and hot, his anger apparent. “Do you know what you put me through, what you put Fang through?! She…THEY loved you man, and when you said what you said on the beach that day, it was like you drove a, a wedge or something, between all of us!” Anon could only keep silent under Naser’s onslaught, watching that finger as it stabbed repeatedly towards him. “They didn’t get along with Mom, or Dad, or me in the first place, but after you and them broke up, it was like she was done! Done with everyone, all of her family! And guess who had to take responsibility for making amends, huh? Who Mom and Dad pushed again and again to get her back, who couldn’t even breathe in his own life without Mom bursting into tears about her little “Pirate Princess”? Ugh!” Naser’s hands clenched the air, his eyes staring unknowingly at them as he pushed his emotions down a troubled part of his past. “Without her, everything fell on me, everything! I had to be twice as good as I was before, I couldn’t possibly do anything I wanted to, lest I end up like them! That’s why I graduated so early, why I had about two hours of sleep every night for two. Whole. YEARS!”
Suddenly, Naser had crossed the space separating them, seizing Anon’s jacket front in both hands. “Because of you, Fang is broken, and it nearly broke ME! Oh, how I wanted to hate them, to hate you, especially you, for what the two of you did to me, for what you caused!” Naser’s eyes were wide, his golden eyes narrowing into slits as he pressed his face closer to Anon. “And where am I now? In fucking Volcaldera General! Even when I hate them, I STILL can’t leave them alone, Anon, and do you know why? Because I LOVE them, damnit!” Anon could say nothing but watch as Naser’s anger deflated all at once, like a balloon with hole poked in it. Suddenly there were tears in Naser’s eyes, running heedlessly down his cheeks.
“I could’ve gone anywhere, Anon, anywhere I wanted to! Hospitals were lining up to accept me, and where do I pick? An entry-level place like Volcaldera General, just so I could be close to them. Do you know I check the ER log every single day, dreading I’ll see their name on the intake log? Do you know what it’s like, the only communication you can have with your own sibling to be if you find out they’ve been stabbed, or raped, or, or, or DEAD, on some fucking intake log?!” Naser was still gripping the front of Anon’s jacket as he leaned his head onto Anon’s shoulder, devolving into wordless sobs as Anon gingerly grabbed him in a comforting hug, hands move awkwardly around his wings.
Anon didn’t know what to say, letting Naser instead sob into his shoulder, his clothes already wet with tears. The Lucy he knew had made up with her family in the five years they were away, her relationship with her brother mended. For Naser to react this way… Anon knew at that moment that this wasn’t some practical joke that everyone was playing on him, no: This was something much, much worse. Something had happened to him, not to Lucy, not to everyone else. He was like a different person to those around him, a stranger transported as if by magic into wretched lives. Looking over the sobbing form of Naser, Anon caught his reflection in a polished cabinet, saw himself as the people around him must have seen him for the first time.
“I’m… I’m sorry Naser, for what I said all those years ago. I, uh, can’t remember what I said, but I know whatever it was it must’ve been awful. Nothing I can say or do will make up for those years you lost, for the pain you must feel for losing her, but I just want to say that the Anon who said those things, is dead. I’m a different person now.” Anon moved the still-sniffling Naser off his shoulder, holding his hands on the other man’s shoulders and fixing him with a level glance. “Look at my eyes, Naser. I love your sister, love her with everything I am. Maybe I didn’t back then, I don’t know, but I realized that I want to be with her, want to keep her safe, help her heal. Can you help me, Naser? Can we help her heal?”
Naser’s eyes widened as Anon spoke, his half-formed retort dying on his lips as Anon continued. At first, Naser couldn’t understand what was happening, why the man who had crushed Fang’s heart all those years ago had suddenly reappears, had suddenly confessed that he loved them. But as Naser searched in Anon’s eyes for any semblance of a lie, however small, all that he was able to find, was love.
Nodding, Naser scraped a sleeve across his face, mopping up equal parts tears and snot. “Y-yeah, I’ll help you Anon,” he said with a shaking voice, grabbing Anon’s hand as it still rested on his shoulder. “Maybe you can help them, maybe not, but I’d like to believe you can, anyways.” Anon’s face softened into a smile as he released Naser’s shoulders, patting him in what Anon considered a brotherly way. “Besides, they told me you took Reed in, that’s got to count for something, right?”
Anon felt like shit right then: This whole time, he had completely forgotten whose bed they were standing next to! “Shit, Reed! Naser, is he going to be okay? He seemed pretty bad when they took him in.” For the first time, Anon glanced down at the pink raptor, a clean hospital gown covering his skeletal frame as an IV line dripped what were probably life-saving fluids into his veins.
“He’s pretty roughed up, and high on a drug cocktail that frankly should’ve already killed him, but he should live. Give him some time to detox, and he’ll be back to normal.” Naser paused as both of them considered Reed in his normal state. “Ok, well he’ll be okay, I can say that.” Anon clapped Naser on the back in thanks, returning the younger man’s smile.
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“Good. Now let’s go help Lucy.”