Another Emergency

[Morven]

Sage was not surprised, but also not concerned, apparently. Though perhaps that was the disconnect of the medication numbing his reactions. "The previous time you were in the ER this week - it was also because you fell unconscious?"
She didn't anticipate good news from the medical records. A brain tumour, perhaps, or some other serious neurological disorder. Why had he even been discharged? Let alone travelled all that way alone. If treatment was in Moscow she understood the necessity, but not the risk.

Morven was quiet a moment while she assessed the files, fingers moving lightly over the screen. Her brows rose, but otherwise she was careful to maintain a neutral expression. Though it was difficult to stop her gaze from hardening when she understood how old he'd been when the surgery had been performed. That sort of hardware wired into a brain was difficult enough to contemplate as it was, let alone to imagine such an experiment being inflicted on a small child.

"This implant. It's degrading. And the only way to assess the damage is surgery?"
Marcil's instructions made sense now. There was very little any regular hospital could do besides keep him comfortable, and the scans implied a terminal outcome if nothing was done to repair the tech. It couldn't be removed; it had been there far too long, and in a still developing brain.

She paused, frowning. She'd told Soren she wouldn't take risks with patient safety -- and she meant it. But here was a patient likely to die without drastic surgery and specialist care; who might even die in spite of it. And potentially there was something she could do to help. It made her fingers itch with the desire to embrace the gift, but morality tempered the urge. She needed time to consider it.

Previously she'd only ever used the threads to aid her during surgery, and neither the patient nor her colleagues were aware of it at the time. Her only conscious patient had been Soren, and he had been both in an unofficial capacity and had understood what the power was -- and the potential risks. Ascendancy's announcement offered a new perspective to the general public, but it hardly meant she could go around flaunting gifts no one really understood; not in her profession and trusted position. And yet here was a situation in which she might make a marked difference to someone's survival. It was precisely the sort of thing Ephraim had hinted at, though she doubted his motives were quite so altruistic.

"There's little this hospital can do for you, Mr Parker, besides continue to ease your pain. But I'll make sure someone calls your friend."