He huffed a short breath through his nose. “Lucid. Noted.” He pressed two fingers along the back of my skull and I hissed. “Sorry. The concussion is mild. You took a hard knock buteverything checks out, Viktor. No lasting effects.”
I let out a slow breath.
“I want you back here in twenty-four hours.” He set the iPad down. “I’m starting an IV. Your core temp took a hit and you are dehydrated.”
Daniel glanced across the room at Sam. “I’m guessing you want to take him to your room while he recovers.”
A single nod.
The cannula went into the back of my left hand with a small sharp sting. The drip line ran clear. Daniel taped it down with two strips of medical tape and hung the bag on the hook above the bed.
I turned my head. Sam was in the chair against the opposite wall, forearms resting on his knees. He was not looking at anything in the room. He was looking at me. Our eyes met and held for a moment before I looked at the ceiling.
“Daniel.” I kept my voice even. “The pilot who flew in. How did you even manage to get a medevac out here that fast?”
Daniel was typing something on his iPad. He did not look up. “Rest now. That’s not your concern.”
“It is a little bit my concern. I was the one in the basket.”
“Viktor.” He set the iPad down and looked at me with the particular expression he reserved for patients who were pushing their luck. “Rest.”
I looked at him for another moment. He looked back, entirely unmoved. I let it go.
“Okay. But did you check Sam?”
“Going to do it now.”
The drip ran. Daniel moved around the clinic, running his tests on Sam, and logging away on his iPad. They spoke in low murmurs and it felt soothing to my ears.
“Hey.” I looked back at the ceiling. “Don’t use any of this for your NASA research. These are not accurate vitals.”
I heard a snort. “If you’re worried about that, you’re definitely fine.”
Finally I asked the question that I was too afraid to know the answer to. “Are they going to fire me?”
“Who?” Daniel asked at the same as Sam said, “No.”
I kept my eyes on the ceiling. “I didn’t finish the study. We barely got started. You know how hard it is to get funding…and I just blew it away.”
“No, you didn’t. You had a medical crisis. It happens,” Daniel appeared at my bedside.
“We will go back.” Sam came over to stand next to Daniel.
“We will?” I asked with hope in my voice.
He nodded. “Accidents happen. We are in Antarctica.”
“And you will come too?”
“Yes.” He said with no hesitation.
I blew a breath. If he was willing to do it again then I was okay. We were okay. I hadn’t destroyed our friendship and whatever else we had started…
The ceiling started to feel very far away.
“Daniel.” My voice came out slower than I intended. “Why am I getting sleepy again?”
He checked the drip line, checked my pupils with a small light. “Mild sedative. I added it to the drip. You need a few hours before I discharge you.”
