[SpringsSong]

Also known as, Spring still fails at titling things.


Taliña Nadaline Lanwë.  Human form.

She drew in a breath as she approached the doors of the hospital, barely catching the low whirring sound that they made as they slid open at her approach.  Her sword was hanging from her hip, and she held her head high as she approached the reception desk, her eyes full of purpose.

"I have an appointment with Dr. Luminare," she said.

"Name, miss?" the receptionist asked.

"Taliña Lanwë," Tali said.  The receptionist hit a few keys on the keyboard, looking intently at the screen before giving a slight nod.

"And the reason for the visit is...?" the receptionist asked.

"Er... it's a personal reason.  He's aware of why I need to see him," she said.  She had called him the day before on his personal phone to schedule the appointment, and he'd told her to come in the next day.  After looking at her for a few moments, the receptionist nodded.

"Have a seat, and one of his nurses will come and take you back to a room to see him," the receptionist said, and Tali nodded, moving into the waiting area and picking up a magazine.

[Rainbowfox Ari]

After a fifteen minute wait, a youngish-looking male nurse wearing blue puppies on his uniform came down, and called her name. "Taliña Lanwë?" He looked around for a moment, and spotted her. "Hey there, will you please come with me?"

He led her into a rather modest office with a scale and height chart affixed to the wall. The rest of the place was spotless of medical paraphernalia, with no goofy medical charts, or 'how to eat right' instruction pictures on the walls. Instead, there was a ridiculously-neat desk, upon which sat a stacked pile of paperwork, a keyboard, and a single desktop computer. There was a long shelf on the wall beside the desk, but it was veritably a ghost-town. A filing cabinet was at the end of the shelving, behind the desk, and nestled into the left corner. On top of that was the single concession that Luminare allowed himself to a blank, sterile environment. A plush, although anatomically correct, heart was propped up on top of it, within easy reach. No photos, no charts, nothing laying out. Luminare liked to keep a clean space, apparently.

The nurse motioned to one of the two comfortable chairs in front of the desk. "Please... have a seat. The doctor will be with you momentarily."

With that, the nurse bowed, smiled, and left. He was replaced about five minutes later by a partially-worn looking Luminare, who shut and locked the door behind him, and pulled the privacy shades over the glass door of the office. He also drew the shades to the outside, and turned on the light, seating himself in the chair behind the desk.

"This hospital doesn't have a file for you, so I'm going to have to make one, Tali." he said, apologetically. "It's policy. But... other than that... You never did tell me why you needed the appointment. It's been... what... four weeks? At least? Hang on, wait..." He pulled up a calendar on his computer. "Six weeks, actually. Since we've... erm... seen each other." The whole 'waking up naked beside your best friend' thing apparently was still fresh in his mind, as he went bright red just talking about 'seeing' her.

[SpringsSong]

When her name was called, Taliña set down the magazine she had been looking at (to be fair, she was more skimming over it than actually reading it) and stood up, following the nurse.  Once she was in the office, she couldn't help but chuckle.  The office certainly how she expected Luminare's office to be: clean, no-nonsense, and she couldn't help but smile at the heart that was on his desk.

When Luminare came into the office, Tali turned and offered a smile, nodding when he said that he would have to make a file for her, since the hospital did not have one for her.  "Of course.  I wouldn't expect anything less--although my medical history is mostly mundane, thankfully," she said, offering a slight chuckle.

When he said that she'd never specified the reason why she needed the appointment, she shifted slightly in the chair.  "Well, the reason I didn't say... was because I wasn't completely sure, and I didn't want to make something out of nothing, you know?" she said, punctuated with a nervous chuckle as she noticed the bright red shade that came to Luminare's face.

"I... would like you to run some tests for me," she said.  "To... confirm a suspicion I have."

[Rainbowfox Ari]

Immediately, Luminare's brow knit in concern, and he pulled a blank chart from the filing cabinet behind his desk, writing what he knew on it. He'd ask her all the relevant questions later. "I'm really hoping you're not speaking about what I think you're speaking about... but I'll be happy to give you a once-over and run some tests... I will have to ask, though... if you've eaten today. Because if you have, I can't run a CBC on your blood."

He opened up a drawer in the desk, and drew out another sheaf of papers, shuffling them together, and stapling them onto the stack he had been writing on. "Paperwork is half this job, I swear." he muttered, before putting the whole stapled stack into a manila folder, and wrote Tali's full name on the tab.

"First of all, though... tell me what this suspicion is? Regardless of the tests that need to be done, I'll probably be performing an exam anyway to fill out some of this information... or, I could have one of my female interns do it, if you'd prefer..." He figured he'd just as soon leave the option open.

[SpringsSong]

"Well, let's hope that my veins will cooperate enough in giving blood, 'cause I couldn't even bring myself to eat anything this morning," Tali said, chuckling grimly.  She watched as he shuffled the papers together, offering a sympathetic smile when he said that paperwork was half of the job.

When he asked her what her suspicion was, she bit her lip and lowered her head slightly.  "Well, um... like you said, it's been six weeks since... well, that," she said haltingly.  "And... well, certain things are a little... later than I'd like to admit.  Maybe it's just me worrying, and the stress from the war messing with my system, but... I want to be sure."

When he said that he could have one of his female interns perform the exam, Tali found herself shaking her head.  "I... would rather you did this, Luminare.  As... as my friend, I'd much rather you did this.  Maybe that's just the fact that we are such close friends talking, but..." she said, letting the statement hang slightly.

[Rainbowfox Ari]

Luminare had been sipping some coffee he'd brought in and set on his desk, but he almost did a spit-take. Forcing himself to swallow instead, he set the mug down, and gave Tali a long, hard look. "Okay, so that leaves very little options in the matter." he said quietly. "I'll go ahead and... order the blood tests." he said slowly, standing to grab another paper from the filing cabinet. "Do you want to do the blood draw first? Or the exam first? I'm pretty good with needles, so it shouldn't hurt too much, but I'm not going to lie to you and say it won't."

He scribbled something on the paper, and stapled it to another sheet, writing some things down in neat, concise script. "Regardless, we should head to the exam room." he said, picking up the file and the sheet. "Follow me, Tali. We'll use the private one."

Leading her slowly, he came to a blue door in the hallway, and used a key from his pocket to unlock it, pushing it open so she could enter. The room looked as though it could be set up for virtually anything, although right now, all the machines were pushed to the sides, and the exam table was set in the center.

[SpringsSong]

"If it won't interfere with the exam, then let's do the blood tests first," Tali said, nodding slightly.  "Get the part that's the most likely to hurt and leave bruises that last for a week over with first, and go onto the other stuff later."

Tali followed him without hesitation towards the exam room.  She was not surprised that there would be a private exam room within his hospital, but when she saw it, she couldn't help but look around at the different machines and equipment in the room.

"So... where do you need me?" she asked, shifting her weight from foot to foot.  Even if they weren't the tallest of heels, her feet were already screaming at her for having chosen to wear them instead of flats.

[Rainbowfox Ari]

"You can lay down. I know you need to." he said, motioning to the exam table. "I'll just get the stuff for a blood draw from the nurse's station. Oh... and take off those heels." He smiled a bit. "You look fine without them, and they look extremely uncomfortable. I'll... need you to disrobe." He canted to a folded hospital gown on the chair beside the exam table. This one was made of actual cloth - not that flimsy stuff you saw in most clinics. It was also a soft spring green. "Take everything but your underwear off, and put that on, and... umm..." He found himself blushing profusely, which wasn't good for his image. Clearing his throat, he pointedly avoided looking at her. "Put that on, and hop onto the exam table. I'll be in with the draw stuff in a moment."

He quickly left the private exam room, and shut the door, putting a hand to his racing heart. If she was what she thought she was, then what? What was he supposed to do? He couldn't let himself think of that right now, though, as he walked to the nurse's station to get a blood-draw cart, wheeling it back to the exam room. Obviously, he'd take care of her. Make sure everything was okay. She was his best friend, after all. That hadn't changed. Even... in light of everything else.

[SpringsSong]

"Thank you," Tali said, immediately taking her heels off and placing them where they would be out of the way.  Of course, the "thank you" had been a response to both things that Luminare had said, even if her immediate response had been with the heels.  When he said that she would need to disrobe and indicated the gown on the chair beside the table, she gave a slight nod and said, "All right.  At least it's actual cloth, instead of that flimsy paper crap they use in other places."

She was not blind to the fact that he was avoiding looking at her, and she, too, found it hard to meet his gaze right away.  As soon as he left the room, she began to undress, folding her clothes nicely and placing them in her purse, which she stored next to her shoes.  She slipped the gown on and situated herself on the exam table, sitting with her legs dangling over the edge.  She could hear her own heart beating rapidly, and she had to will herself to breathe slower to try and bring her heart rate back to normal--or as normal as it could be right now.

She sat there, waiting patiently for Luminare to return to the exam room, her back ramrod straight and her hands folded on her lap.

[Rainbowfox Ari]

Luminare had... mostly... regained his composure by the time he came back in. He'd also picked up a clipboard with a blank sheet to jot things down on. Wheeling the entire assembly into the exam room, he closed the door behind him, and locked it with a number combination, a precaution he had on all six of his private exam rooms. "Alright.. We'll get your blood-pressure, then your blood, and I'll give you a once-over." he said, marking something on the clipboard, and tucking the pen back into his pocket. "I'm told I'm good with needles, but I'm sorry, Tali. This is still probably going to hurt. Blood-pressure first, though." he explained, wheeling a stool over, and plunking down on it.

Usually, he had a nurse do this... but he wasn't seeing anyone else today, and Tali was important to him. He grabbed a cuff that was her size, and wrapped it around her arm. "Try and relax." he murmured, settling her arm against his own side as he adjusted the cuff, and closed it. This wasn't an automatic one - he didn't trust those. Holding the air-pump in one hand, and taking his stethoscope off from around his neck, putting it in his ears with the other, he slid the disc against her artery, and took her blood-pressure... twice, to make sure he got it right the first time. Jotting down the numbers, he noticed it was... a bit high. That could, and probably was going to, be the nerves. It didn't take a rocket-scientist to see Tali was very, very tense.

"A bit high, but that's... probably expected." he said with a soft chuckle. "Alright. Let's get this over with. It'll be quick, at least. And I'll try and minimize the pain."

He wheeled the cart, over to the exam table, taking a look at her arm after he grabbed it lightly, feeling around for a vein. Thankfully, she had easy-to-find ones... they were just thin. He popped a squeeze-ball into her hand that looked like the heart on his desk. "Give that a couple of good squeezes for me."

While she did that, he picked up the smallest butterfly needle they had, and managed to hit the vein the first time, drawing back slightly to get the blood to flow. Obviously he was good at this from ease of long practice, but a needle was a needle even though he was trying to be gentle. He needed four vials for this - and he watched them fill as he tried to keep her talking.

"Why didn't Yuki come in with you? He's supposed to come in for a checkup every couple of months. If he's avoiding, I'm going to be storming over there to see him when we're done."

[SpringsSong]

When Luminare came back into the room, Tali looked up and watched him as he moved the assembly into the room, closed and locked the door, and wrote something before putting the pen back in his pocket.  She gave a slight chuckle as she said, "I've died and come back to life before, Luminare--in the previous war.  The manner in which I was killed would make a needle seem like it was nothing at all."

As he took her blood pressure, she tried her best not to tense up too much.  However, she was still tense regardless--and that fact showed in the blood pressure result that Luminare got, and she chuckled along with him as she nodded.  When he said that he would take her blood and that she would need to squeeze the heart-shaped stress ball, she nodded and gripped it tightly in her hand.

"I would have dragged Yuki along with me, but he hasn't come back from the battlefield yet," she said.  "I'm not sure why, but either way, he'll be back, and when he does, then I'll be dragging him here," she said, chuckling slightly.  Yuki insisted that he didn't need to go see doctors--that such things weren't necessary in Lucain packs, like they normally lived in--but Tali was going to make sure that he was kept in good health.

[Rainbowfox Ari]

"Yes, well... Bravado aside." Lumi said with a shrug, getting the last vial of blood, and slipping the needle out, replacing it with a gauze pad and some medical tape to hold it in place while he marked the vials, and wheeled them over to the laboratory window to the side of the room. Most of his rooms didn't have direct access to the lab behind the wall, but this was not most rooms, and Tali was not most patients. He put the vials in the door, and sighed, headed back over to her, and wheeling close enough so that he could talk without having to raise his voice.

"Now that that's over with... Most of the other routine questions will be answered by the bloodtests, but I want to know so I can... make a correct diagnosis. Have you been... intimate... with Yuki in the past couple weeks?" half of him was hoping the answer was yes. Half of him was hoping the answer was no. He was sorely tempted to punch that half in the face. "And have you experienced cramps, nausea, vomiting, headaches, or general muscle ache in the last week or so?" He had to rule out other causes for her... concern. Although he was a smart man, and was very sure of at least what she thought was going on. "After that, we'll do the general examination, and I'll send you home with some flyers. ... That's all I can do until the lab test results come back. I don't, and wouldn't, trust those 'home' tests, Tali. They're wildly inaccurate compared to an actual blood-test."