The loss of Newt's voice in his ears was by far much worse than Thomas imagined. The medicine for the spinal meningitis may have saved his life but the damage to his hearing was irreversible. Not being able to listen to Newt humming along to the radio or rambling on about the idiots he had to put up with at work seemed like an enormous loss in comparison. What was he supposed to do now without all of that? Newt clutched at his hand, his face a mask of bravery to keep himself from cracking, too. He scratched something quickly into the notebook he bought at the hospital gift shop and handed it to Thomas.
I love you. We'll figure this out once your 100% healthy. Thomas gave him a grateful squeeze of the hand for the small encouragement and beckoned Newt closer with his finer for a kiss. A doctor bustled in with a stack of papers tucked under his arm, his lips moving but only a few garbled noises reached Thomas' mind that sounded like he was listening to someone talk under water. Newt nodded in understanding and every so often he would speak as well. The doctor never looked directly at Thomas during the conversation while Newt looked like he attempted to bring the attention to him. Thomas cleared his throat (or at least it felt like he did) but he still went otherwise unnoticed. Giving up, he cautiously used his voice to grab their attention.
"Excuse me, what is going on?" he managed to rasp out after days of not using his voice and the awkwardness of not hearing the words himself. The doctor finally turned to Thomas, eyebrows raised, almost surprised at Thomas' question. He said something quickly that Thomas couldn't manage to grasp with his poor lip reading skills. Newt grabbed at the notebook again from Thomas' lap and wrote out an explanation quickly.
He wants to see if hearing aids could help you. If not, a cochlear implant could restore some of your hearing but its surgery and expensive.
Thomas shook his head as he pointed to the word surgery. The doctor spoke again to Newt, going back to ignoring Thomas in bed.
"Hey!" Thomas shouted as he banged his hand on the small table next to the bed. The doctor jumped a good foot in the air at the sudden surprise. "I want a patient advocate. Now!" Newt looked at him with a mix of surprise and pride on his face while to doctor's face turned from surprise to anger. He fled the room in a rush, leaving Thomas with Newt. Thomas took the pen from Newt and began to write.
I don't want you to have to make the decisions for me. I want to decide what I want to do once I get the information I need from the doctor, not from you later. I've got questions for him, too. Newt kissed him gently on the corner of his mouth, understanding in his eyes. God above, Thomas loved Newt more if possible from that one look, and he was grateful to have him through it all.