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As a “doctor”, as his boss likes to call him, Krash can see a sick person from a mile away, especially when they are suffering from Blue Lung.
So yesterday, when he noticed Andi struggling not to cough and the visible bags under her eyes, he knew, and it looked like she was trying to hide it from everyone else. Knowing her, Andi probably doesn’t want Frankie or anyone else to worry about her, or feel like a burden when they need to fix Gwen.
Krash is sure it’s mostly the latter.
Okay, maybe he panicked a little too. He knew Andi from school, and he had a huge crush on her during that time. He still has now that he has seen her again, if Krash is honest with himself.
No, as a former acquaintance of hers, he won’t let her hide this from him.
“You’re sick.” Krash flatly points out once he managed to get her alone in the room with him. Andi and Frankie have returned to his workplace to check up on that dead dude to somehow replace his memory if he’s still alive somehow. Krash hasn’t figured it out yet, but he can worry about that later.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Andi tries to play dumb, but he isn’t buying it. He has seen her signs the moment she walked through the door today, so there’s no point in trying to deny it.
“Have you seen the bags under your eyes?” Krash asks her, as if it isn’t visible on her face. They have a hint of blue too, now that he actually looks at her…
He grabs a glass Petri dish from one of his drawers, taking the lid off before holding it out in front of her.
“Spit.”
Andi glances at the Petri dish, cringing for a quick moment before complying. Having the sample, Krash puts the lid back on and takes a look at it.
Her saliva has blue slime in it, a sign of the first stage of the disease, just as he thought and dreaded.
“Please, don’t tell Frankie.” Andi pleads with him. Her best friend already has enough on her plate to deal with. Her hallucinations, repairing Gwen, and her shit boss Sparky.
Krash wipes the sweat from his face with his hand, cursing under his breath. Just why did Frankie have to involve her in this mess?
If he had it his way, he would throw that dead dude’s body into the nearest dumpster right then and there and focus on finding a cure or a matching lung transplant for Andi. But he can’t, as much as he wants to. Frankie made him promise not to tell her anything, and he has a shitty boss to keep happy.
“Only if you call that phone number.” Krash only says, looking straight at her. It’s the only condition he has for her, and he hopes she will comply for once. “I don’t want you to die, Andi.”
She’s taken aback by his tone, not having expected him to sound so stern, so worried about her. Back in school, he was always the cool guy, the guy who remained level-headed while under pressure while she barely functioned. He taught her how to keep her cool, or at least tried to. It’s something Andi is still grateful for, more than she thought she was.
But now, seeing him be this worried about her, it makes her come back to her senses.
“Okay…” Andi complies, glancing away from him. Maybe Krash is right. She can’t help Frankie and Gwen if she can’t help herself, if she can’t say or do anything without coughing every two minutes.
With that, she leaves the room, leaving Krash alone again. He leans back in his chair, sighing in hopelessness as if he already lost her.
He can only hope she will make that call…