"They long to be close to you."

[livingthelowlife]

Who: Ethan Marshall and Callum MacDonald
What: Extended connections
Where: Infectious Diseases Unit, Mount Sinai
When: Follows THIS

So, this was going to be a heavy case to be working on. Not that all of Ethan's patients weren't heavy cases, but this one was another special case. One of Jesse's new brothers, a twin, had presented with concerning symptoms indicating infection. Because he had literally just gotten off the plane from Africa, Alex's call was to put him straight into isolation in case he was highly infectious. They also did a range of blood tests on his twin, who had close exposure to him since he arrived back on US soil. All of Casey's test came back clear.

Callum, however, had bacterial encephalitis caused by malaria. Which meant that he didn't need to be in isolated, but he was still seriously sick and needed treatment. The encephalitis meant he had to be joint-managed with neuro so Ethan was assigned his case. It was just incredibly strange with Jesse being his best friend, and it was Ethan who discovered the error in his paternal bloodline. As a result of that, Jesse discovered he had a whole other family, including twin brothers and a sister. Ethan knew it was a mindfuck for him, and now Callum was ill, it would be extra stress.

Callum had been in and out of consciousness. The dangerously high fever had caused him to hallucinate, and there was a minor seizure when he first presented. He was awake now and Ethan was simply checking how he was doing so he could let Jesse and his family know his progress. This was the first time Ethan was seeing him while he was awake, though.

"Hi, Callum. My name's Ethan. I'm your neurologist assigned to you. I'm also Jesse's best friend, if that at all helps ease your mind about any of this," he told him gently.

Comments

[actionthisday]

Callum had never felt this sick in his life. He had never thrown up this much in his life, and that was including the disastrous pub crawl he went on in London when he and Case went backpacking around Britain and Australia the summer before he commenced at Harvard. He had been so sick after that whole milestone, but that didn't even touch this. This was his first time in hospital too, and it wasn't fun. He had IV lines stuck in him, and an array of other stuff that he had no clue on what it was doing. He just felt completely rotten to the point he didn't even have the energy to wish he wasn't in hospital.

"Jesse..." he mumbled, closing his eyes for a moment or two because his mind was so foggy, like it was barely working. "Right, Jesse. The guy who's my brother. Sorry... that's just all... lot t'get used to, you know? Probably a lot f'him too. Am I dying? I feel like I'm dying..."