"It helps if you talk about something else while we're running the tests," Foreman offered as he snapped the elastic of his surgical gloves firmly in place. There were assortments of spindling metal tools laid out on a table before Connyr's bed, a smooth blue cloth just beneath them. Tubes were literally crawling out of buckets and bags of all shapes and sizes and into his body, though by now he was numb to the sensation of the various liquids pumping dully through his small veins. Cameron was to Connyr's left, holding his hand tenderly as Chase (on his right) adjusted a few of the measurements on several of the machines.
"I don't really know what to talk about." The medicine had clearly been helping somewhat as his speech was now more cognitive – alert. He was able to hold a conversation now, though too ill to sit up on his own. About five stuffed pillows lay propped behind him, supporting his spine and neck as he watched with terrified fascination at all that surrounded him. "Ow," he winced as his fingertips gave a solid jerk, which Cameron did her best to hold still.
"Sorry about that," Foreman apologized. "I should've told you we started. Just take a few deep breaths for me and it'll be over before you know it and you can get some rest." Connyr's heart sped as he watched the clear pipes swell and fill with blood – his blood, scattering away from him.
"Why can't Otley be here for this?" Connyr whimpered with an obvious sense of confusion as he used his free hand to smooth back the fine whispers of hair that had fallen in front of his eyes. He wanted to be watching them at all moments; yet at the same time his mind was shrieking at him to look away. Perhaps it was some perverse desire to stay in control in a situation where he was literally as powerless as a newborn child. "She wouldn't have been in the way. Maybe you could just call her in?"
"Apparently House took her home for dinner, Connyr. She'll be back in the morning and you can always call her when we're done. It's just a matter of safety for the both of you. For all we know Otley could be carrying the very germ that's making you sick and so we just need to keep you by yourself for a little bit," Chase assured him as he reached over the bed to hand Foreman a clean hand towel. "Alright Connyr, this part is going to hurt – so take a deep breath for me." Squeezing Cameron's hand in a furious clutch, Connyr sucked in the air around him, cheeks ballooning like a puffer fish as his cheeks flamed crimson. Quickly, Foreman slid the tube from the skin and immediately pressed the towel against the opening of the miniscule knick he had created to insert the instrument just minutes before.
"There's some strong disinfectant on there so it's going to sting," Cameron warned as she caught Chase watching her from across the bed. The corners of her lips morphed upwards into the faintest of smiles, lashes fluttering briefly as if in some secret language only the two of them could comprehend. Chase tilted his chin with a blasé nod, his own cheeks turning a girlish shade of pink and he swiftly looked away, busying himself with the machines once more.
"Okay, Connyr. We just need to do one more procedure and then ask you a few questions and it'll all be done for tonight," Foreman said as he did his best to sound empathetic. "Cameron I'll need your help with this one. So – Chase can you hold his hand?"
"I'm fine," Connyr declared softly as he retracted his fingertips rather quickly from Cameron's and shoved them under the thin hospital sheets of the bed. Chase couldn't help but laugh out loud, adjusting the loop of his plaid tie as he feigned a distraught look.
"I don't bite, you know." There was still a chuckle resounding in his tone as he plopped down in the chair beside the bed. "Tell you what. How about I just talk to you while they're doing it and if you need a hand to grasp I'm right here and ready. Sound like a plan?" Connyr simply nodded, the pink muscle of his lower lip quivering as mercilessly as an earthquake roaming the cracks of the dried soil.
"Where are you from?" Connyr asked as he turned his head to focus solely on Chase. Despite his previous intentions of watching the entire process, he felt it best to avert his attention for this particular test. The mattress was hard and uncomfortable like someone had sewn miniature boulders into the seams and he was having difficulty getting settled, anxiously squirming about.
"I know these beds suck but we're going to need you to stay still," Cameron said almost as if reading Connyr's mind.
"Yeah well these may suck but you should try sleeping on a slab of wood for three months in a row on a moving bus," Connyr mumbled with a roll of his eyes, the memory clearly almost painfully humorous to think about. "Not to mention everybody around you smells like the worst mix of ass and feet because the shower always gets clogged about a week in and from then on out you hope and pray for even just five minutes of rain to stop and stand out in so you don't have to go to bed rank another night."
"Australia!" Chase seemed thoroughly put out that Connyr's question for him had been so quickly interrupted by Cameron and a slight scowl appeared on his delicate features.
"Alright Connyr, just keep an eye on Dr.Chase and this will all be over in a minute. You've got a lot of edema around your abdominal area and we just need to take a sample – see if it gives any clues as to what's causing it or even if it's something else altogether," Foreman stated calmly as he picked up on of the shining silver instruments that had been laying on that little table with the blue cloth. Connyr could feel his heart flicker and thrust at the sight of it glinting under the room's fluorescent lights.
"Is there something I should be talking about while he does this?" Connyr stared at Chase helplessly as Cameron began to numb the area where they were about to insert the needle. He wasn't looking, but Connyr could tell it was a lot larger than the ones they had been using before.
"We could talk about your girl if you want," Chase offered blindly, keeping his hands resting in his lap in case Connyr should need one or the other. "How does a famous star like yourself settle down into such a strong monogamous relationship? I mean, I would assume you've got girls, and probably boys too, just throwing themselves at you every chance they get. Isn't that why most people become rock stars? For the chicks and sex?"
Connyr smirked through the grimace that had already begun to form upon the contour of his mouth as Cameron pressed into his side with her gloved fingertips. It felt like someone was rubbing a balloon all over his skin. "Naw, man. That's just not me. The rest of the guys in the band are kind of like that I guess. I mean, I've seen what you're talking about. There's a bunch of people in the business that just aren't in it for the love of music. All they give a fuck about is the paycheck and the cars and seeing which girls they can take home with them and get photographed enough to end up in the tabloids the next day. It's pretty fucking sick, man."
"So you never were like that?"
"I mean, not really, no. I guess I went through a phase when we first hit it big but I think everybody goes through that. You're young; everybody all of a sudden knows your name and people fucking adore you. It goes to your head like nobody's business and you get paranoid that it's not going to last and you just want to stay on top. You become addicted to the high that is that lifestyle. So, yeah, I guess there was a better part of a year I was a spoiled brat but the important thing is to just grow out of it – you know? I mean, I sat down to write the second album and I had jack shit. All my experiences that year were hooking up with random fans, partying until I was drunk off my ass twenty four seven, and buying whatever the hell I felt like. I had nothing to write about. And that's when I was just like fuck this, I need to live." He let out a small yelp and readily pressed his face into the top pillow as Foreman stuck the needle into the bloated center of his belly, slowly drawing out clear fluid. "That hurts," Connyr moaned aloud into the down of the pillow. "Oh my God, please take it out."
"Almost done," Foreman murmured comfortingly and within the second, he was. "I just need to apply some pressure to the area for the next minute or so and you'll be set."
"Thanks," Connyr said though it struck him odd that he would be thanking someone that had just caused him a great deal of soreness.
"So when you realized you couldn't write the second album, is that when you and Otley got together?" Chase seemed positively fascinated by it all, his accent thicker than usual which often happened in moments of passionate focus.
"Are you sure you should be a doctor, Chase?" Cameron teased playfully as she grabbed a Styrofoam cup filled with chips of ice that had been sat upon the floor earlier in the day. "Maybe you should go work for one of those magazines you see at the supermarket when you're checking out." Chase ignored her, waiting intently for Connyr to answer.
"It's cool," Connyr dismissed Cameron's remark and continued. "People always want to know the weirdest stuff about me and I have no idea why. I'm probably more boring then half the population of the world and yet everyone still has a million questions. But you guys are doctors, yeah, so you have to ask questions so it's cool." He licked his lips as he paused, reaching for one of the ice chips in the cup Cameron was now holding. "No, Otley and I were friends before the band even got together. In fact, we were best friends the entire time and she usually came on tour with us whenever she had the chance. We even got her on the payroll for most of it – just said she was our cook or some shit like that. Honestly, she gets along with everyone in the band so nobody had a problem with having her around and she really does make some incredible food and when you're on the road and living on burgers and fries – the occasional real meal is incredible. She actually had a boyfriend for most of the years we were friends. It was two different ones actually, and then she was just single for awhile. That's when she really started staying with us on the tours – helping out and everything. She'd make sure we had all our shit packed together for the next morning if we got to sleep in the hotel for the night and if we ever had random girls stay over she would always make them breakfast and escort them out without the paparazzi getting shots of them. But, no, Otley and I didn't get together until the band went on our tour overseas. I still remember that by that point I'd put on a lot of weight, probably a little more than I weigh now and the guys had really been getting on my case about it – management too, everybody really. And I'd gone through shit since middle school about my body and even though I was almost ready for a breakdown at that point, the tour was too important to take some time off and get some help. So really I was on my own. And I remember there was this one night in Japan and we'd just finished the show and because of the schedule we didn't have time to stay in a hotel for the night so we had to get right back on the bus and head to the next location. The guys were just really laying it into me that I was eating too much and not looking the part. That whole scene it's just all about who can fit in the skinniest jeans and disguise their faces the most by piling on layer after layer of makeup – especially the guys. That's just not me. I'd be happy doing a show in sweats as long as I was still performing, you know? But so we'd been in each other's faces for way too long and I was just having, like, a peanut butter and jelly sandwich before I went to sleep when our bassist fucking snatched it out of my hands and threw it out the window. The worst part was - everyone but Otley just laughed. And I just remember being so fucking angry that just as the bus started heading off the main roads I just fucking puked all over the floor. Man, it was horrible."
Cameron looked completely shocked, passing him another ice chip as he swallowed the remainder of the first one.
"Thanks," he whispered as he placed the new one beneath the coral colored sponge that was his tongue. "Anyway, yeah. So of course the bus had to pull over immediately or else it would just get everywhere and if people hadn't been pissed at me before they were now. Everyone was just screaming at me like I was some huge disappointment, like I'd ruined everything. Then everybody started yelling at each other and honestly I think we were all just exhausted. Everyone kind of just wandered off the bus while they were cleaning it up and I couldn't take it and ended up laying down on one of the couches, sobbing like a fucking little girl. I mean there is self hatred and there is self hatred. I don't know, man. I just felt like I'd let everyone down just by being myself. And there was Otley, scolding the band as they walked off outside. Then she pranced over, her little bubbly self and quickly knelt down before me, rolled the hem of my shirt up just an inch or so and planted the biggest, sloppiest, silliest kiss smack dab on the middle of my stomach and I mean it was just the sweetest thing I'd ever seen. Looking me dead in the eyes without so much of a flinch she just fucking smiled; didn't say a word, man. Then she curled up on that couch with me, in my arms, and I swear it was like I suddenly knew I had something worth writing about and working for; like finally through all the bullshit there was some ounce of possible truth. I asked her out literally three minutes later while we were still waiting for shit to get cleaned and she ended up thinking I was kidding because we'd been friends for so long. I spent the rest of the night repeatedly begging her until she finally said yes. It took a couple of awkward date-dates, but we were meant to be; I shit you not." Inhaling, Connyr flashed a wan smile at the group of listening doctors before him. "So yeah, that's the story. Kind of lame, I know, but what can you do."
"So - that's a no on banging random girls every night, then?" Chase seemed a bit crestfallen, his dirty blonde bangs hovering against his forehead. Cameron seemed peeved at that question and bristled just slightly. Connyr laughed with embarrassment, clearly surprised he had been so open with a room full of strangers.
"Yeah, Dr.Chase. That's a no."