#|| don't tell me this is living 'cause it feels like a disease;; c: dakota ||

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Rhett hated the doctor. It was such a waste of time and yet there, there he was. He was at a party with some acquaintances and, apparently, he fell unconscious at some point and they didn't know what to do, so they dragged his ass to the ER. He wished they hadn't. Rhett didn't have the money for it but they didn't care about that, did they? They were just 'concerned for his safety' or whatever. How cliche. As he laid in the bed with his hands folded over his stomach, he stared off at the ceiling, counting the dots until he heard someone walk in. Immediately, he felt nervous. White coat syndrome.

"That's me. A child of the night." He smiled and sat up a bit. Rhett swallowed a lump that had grown in his throat and he rubbed at his eyes before she shined that bright light into them, "Uh...well, yeah." He mentioned, "A couple times." But Rhett knew it was just exhaustion. He didn't sleep much, if ever. And that mixed with the fact he barely ate and shot up heroin every waking moment of his life left him pretty suspectable to that, "But it's fine." He smiled, "Really. My friends just freaked out. I don't...need to be here."

              A man, 31 years old. Reason of his admittance? A syncope. That was what the chart said.. it was 3am in the morning, Dakota barely had any sleep during her shift and was not just tired, but exhausted. Yet as she entered into the exam room, she immediately put herself back together. Anemia, low blood pressure, that was a given considering just how undernourished and pale the man was. “Rhett Matthews? Kind of unusual vampire name,” the doctor slightly teased as she pulled the chair to the bed he was sitting at. “I’m Dakota and as I read here, you lost your consciousness. Has that ever happened before, Rhett?” She took the bright light out of her medical coat quickly checking his eyes.

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The male just sighed softly as she spoke. He probably looked like he wasn't listening, but he was. He recognized that doctors were there to help, he did. But the thing was that he didn't need the help. He was fine. Everything was fine. Everything was always fine. Hearing that he was going to have to stay the night his head fell backwards and he groaned quietly. That was the last thing he wanted. It wasn't like he had money to afford this stupid ER visit that was entirely unneccessary.

His gaze narrowed just a bit when she mentioned his addiction and immediately, the Brit felt his shoulders tense. Even if it was obvious to some people that he was, indeed, a heroin addict, he didn't like it just thrown around like that willy nilly. He didn't say anything, however. Rhett just flipped his left arm over and he presented it to her, "Go ahead." He mumbled, turning his gaze down, "I can go home tomorrow morning, right?" Rhett asked, his tongue dragging along his bottom lip.

             “That would tell me how I can help you, Mr. Vampire,” Dakota put his chart at the bed next to him as she continued to observe him, wondering what made him choose the path that would lead to his downfall. There were many options, many stories behind every addiction, yet none of them were the same, were they? “Because my job is to help you, no matter of what you do or not do, Rhett,” she concealed her words with a kind smile. “I can help your body, if only for a moment. IV will be a must tonight, you know that? And I do understand you don’t want to do a blood test, but I don’t need a blood test to know you’re addicted to heroin. However, I do need it to help you.. if only for tonight. Don’t worry,” she stood up from her chair, “I won’t lecture you because I’m certain you know all about your addiction, consequences, rehabs.. but,” the doctor walked over to the cabinet behind her, “I do want to help you.. now or tomorrow or in a month, I’m here. After all, it’s not so bad to have a doctor by your side, is it?” 

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"Perfect." Rhett mumbled softly. A few hours, he could go home and pretend none of this every happened. Sure, that was going to be much easier said than done with Alara around considering she was the one that found him. But he was damn well going to try after taking a few days off of work. That was probably a solid idea, right? Right... His brows furrowed as the doctor explained her plan for the rest of the visit. He wanted to tell her she was just going to waste her money but that felt rude...but then again, so did just letting it happen. It was really a weird catch 22. Maybe he could give the supplements to his roommate.

His gaze shifted towards Dakota for a moment at her next statement and luckily, they were interrupted by a nurse. Rhett sighed heavily and laid back onto the exam table, folding his arms across his face. He just wanted to go home. Dakota had a job to do, however, and he was sure that if she pumped him full of whatever she was planning, she would at least feel better about the whole experience so it was the least he could do. He cleared his throat and dropped his arms, folding them across his chest as he laid there, "Why do you care so much?" He asked once the nurse left, idly licking his lips, "There's a bunch of other people who could use it. Why me?"

        Dakota nodded more to herself than to him, but it didn’t take her long to give her thoughts a physical presence. “You can go home in two hours even, three top, there’s no reason for me keep you in the hospital when we both know what’s the reason behind your syncope,” paging the nurse desk, she took a deep breath as she once again took a seat in front of the blond. “We’ll take your blood out, you’ll get IV, and considering you’re anemic, I’ll prescribe you iron and some vitamin C, and then we’ll walk over to pharmacy across the hospital and I’ll buy you some supplements. That’s about it.” The young doctor softly smiled. “Not so bad, huh? But,” her smile vanished, “you have to promise me you’ll let me be there, Rhett. To help you in any way I can - when you need and want.” At that moment, the nurse walked in and Dakota stood up while saying to nurse what she needed to do. 

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Rhett just nodded and pressed his lips into a small smile nodding. Joking was often his defense mechanism but right now? He didn't really have it in him. He didn't like to examined and yet, there he was. He knew that Alara was just being kind when she brought him there, but she didn't have to. He would have woken up eventually and everything would have been fine. The doctor commented on his bloodshot eyes and he chuckled, "Yeah. Well, child of the night, remember?" He added in, rubbing his hands together nervously.

It took just about everything in his soul not to groan loudly when she mentioned doing a blood test. He knew that was coming. And when she got the results, it would point to the obvious. Rhett hated being complicated, he really did, but he didn't want to be there in the first place, "I uh... I don't want to." The Brit said, folding his arms across boney chest, "What would that tell you anyway? It was exhaustion. You can't mark exhaustion in blood."

         “So, this is an exam of the vampire,” Dakota paraphrased the famous novel and even more famous movie to which she effortlessly smiled. A child of the night.. a slightly nervous, incredibly pale man. To say he was thinner than he should be would be an obvious comment. “What is fine, that you fell unconscious or that your friends brought you here, Rhett? Because I think the former isn’t really fine,” but she wasn’t scolding him - that was never her approach. She knew it wasn’t easy for patients to come to the hospital so she was trying to do all in her power to make it easier for them, which often meant talking in a slightly teasing manner. “Bloodshot eyes.. hmm..” softly smiling, she observed the man in front of her, carefully reading his face, her eyes traveling down to his neck.. scabs, huh? The doctor’s eyes lowered to his torso and to his sides where his hands were resting. There was no doubt in her mind there was a reason behind his fainting. “How about we take your blood out? Just to see if everything is really fine.” A dark, life-threatening reason he couldn’t live without.. “Left or right arm? You choose.”