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"Just breathe, Rae," Cynthia assured the man in the wheelchair who had dark circles under his eyes. He nodded frantically, his neck twitching as his chest heaved, and he squeezed her hand, as he stared at the clock ticking in the corner of the wall.
"I don't want to talk to them," Rae said, mostly to himself rather than to his friend. After the nurses finished interrogating him about his high blood pressure, fast pulse, cold hands and low body mass, he was just about ready to climb out a window and run away. Well, he would, if his body didn't ache as much, and he wasn't so nauseous and dizzy.
When the doctor finally walked in, after what seemed like hours, even though the minute hand had made barely a quarter of a loop around the clock's circumference, Rae squeezed Cynthia's hand even tighter. The doctor was a woman -- while in most cases such as Rae's, this would have been a relief, for the former actor it was nothing but yet another stressor.
"You speak," he whispered to Cynthia. "There's no way I'm telling that woman anything."
"I don't know everything that happened to you," she reasoned.
"So what? You know enough!" he urged.
The doctor walked up to the two of them and extended a friendly hand to Rae.
"Hi! I'm Dr. Charli Bloomer-Burke. Is your name Raegan Raymonds?"
"Yeah."
"Excellent, and your birthday is February sixth, is that right?"
"Yes," he mumbled, starting to get a bit impatient.
"Okay, wonderful. Now, from what I understand, according to my notes here, you have tachycardia, hypertension, a severe headache, and some nausea, is that all correct?"
"I don't know," he finally snapped. "I don't know any of those words. Now leave me alone!"
Dr. Bloomer-Burke smiled sympathetically, looking at Cynthia to see if she had any additional information.
"He was poisoned," she explained. "I gave him some naloxone to help him when I first found him. He's my old coworker back at Ruby Entertainment. His wife, Sarah May, had been abusing him for years now. But he wouldn't leave her."
"It's good that you brought him here," Dr. Bloomer-Burke said. "And wow, Rae, I am so sorry about that! As a mandated reporter, I need to report her--"
"NO!" Rae exclaimed, his hands clenching into fists. "Please, don't report Sarah..."