Chapter 65

Adam left shortly after to head to his next destination, the doctor's office. He needed to know how Deccanus was doing.

When he got there the doctor was casually reading a magazine with a toothpick in her mouth while she sat at the counter, presumably waiting for a patient to show up.

"Excuse me, Doctor?" Adam said as he called out to her gently.

"Hm?" She hummed as she looked up from her magazine to see Adam. "Oh, the vault boy with the bleeding man." She said as she put her magazine. "I assume you are here to check on your friend." Adam nodded.

"Yes, did he make it?"

"He did." She said as she stood up and walked to the door from before, opening it a moment later. Adam followed her inside and saw Deccanus tightly wrapped in gauze with a blood pack attached to his arm. But he was very clearly breathing.

"He's doing fine now." She said as she rolled the toothpick from the left side of her mouth to the right. "Though he's in a medically induced coma right now, he needs the rest, so no, I can't wake him for the time being, you will just need to be satisfied he's alive." She said with a slightly biting tone, as if anticipating stupid requests.

"I understand." Adam said calmly as he looked at Deccanus for a few moments longer and then back at her. 

"Will he… are you going to let him stay here?" Adam asked, uncertain if he was going to have to lug an unconscious deccanus to his room with him or not.

"Yes." She said curtly. "I'm not going to throw out a paying patient when he can't even walk. He's going to need to stay here for a bit while I make sure he's healing properly anyway. But the moment he is healed he will have to leave the bed."

"Alright, thank you for saving him." She shrugged.

"You paid me." She said casually as she gently pushed Adam out of the room and then locked the door behind her.

"Still, he might be dead if it weren't for you."

"No, he would be dead if it weren't for me." She said with a raised eyebrow.

"Still, Thank you." Adam offered her his hand to shake, she looked at it for a moment, sighed, and then shook it. 

While he was shaking her hand he saw she had a nametag on, one he had never been cognizant of since every time until now he had something else on his mind.

"Doctor Yewon?" Adam said, a bit surprised.

"Yes? That's me." She said, confused why Adam was reading her name tag now and acting surprised.

"Oh, I met a friend of yours, from Naper." Adam chuckled. "Doctor Abbas, he said hello." Her expression immediately soured when Abbas' name came out.

"Friend? Hardly." She said as she crossed her arms and walked over to the chair nearby. "That bastard has nothing to do with me." she paused for a moment as she pulled out the toothpick and threw it in the trash. "If I'd known you knew him, I would have charged you more." She said with some disgust.

"So… there's some bad blood between you two?" Adam asked, curiosity now piqued. 

"Bad Blood? Oh no, I hate his guts." She scowled. 

"Did he like… steal your research or something?"

"Oh no. Nothing so mundane." She said her voice dripped with ire. "That bastard ran out on me. Me, his fiance." Adam was immediately taken aback, the level of development here was beyond expectations.

"I uh… didn't know.." Adam said not even sure how to follow that up.

"I can tell." She said as she leaned back in her chair a bit and sighed. "Well whatever, the bastard is out of my life now, don't say his name again in my presence and we won't have any problems." She said with a note of finality.

"I understand…" Adam said, deciding to let the matter drop entirely. "So um… when do you think Deccanus will be on his feet again?" He said quickly, choosing to change the subject.

"A few days." She said with a shrug. "He's got good vitality so he will heal up fine, he just needs a few more infusions and some more time to rest. If not on his feet, he will be fine to move around in a limited fashion in a few days."

"Alright, thank you again." Adam said with a warm smile.

"Bah." She said dismissively with the wave of her hand. "I did what I was paid to do."

"Oh! Do you have a minute to chat?" Adam said, deciding to follow it up with a completely different conversation, hoping to get answers to some questions he has had. She looked around the empty room emphatically.

"Oh no, I can't. Sorry. I look soooo busy." She said sarcastically. "But I'm seriously not a fan of idle chatter so don't make it long."

"What can you tell me about The Guild?" Adam said, trying to get right to the point. He was told to stay away from them but it would help to know a bit more about them to do so.

"Oh them? They are just thugs." She said with a shrug. 

"How so? I heard they collect taxes?" he asked.

"That's exactly why. Thugs collect taxes." She said with certainty. "Besides I pay taxes to the Mayor and then the guild on top of it, they are all thugs if you ask me."

"Then why do you stay if you hate paying so much?"

"Have you gotten a good look at this town? It's absolutely teeming with folks. Both residents and outsiders. Someone gets a runny nose I can charge as much as I want as one of two doctors here. Besides I ain't leaving outside the walls, id die." She said casually. "A pay cut is well worth the money I do make." She reached for a fidget toy on her desk, some sort of multi jointed piece of plastic she could toy with in her hand, and played with it while talking with Adam.

"How did they even get all that power?" Adam continued, curious.

"Don't know." She shrugged. "Been that way for a long ass time, longer than I know. Far as I'm aware it's always been that way. But I think they probably did what all men with power do, got greedy. " She shrugged. "Whatever, not worth fighting."

Adam nodded.

"How long have you been in Midway?"

"Since I was a little girl." She said as she glanced over at a Nuka Cola analogue clock on her wall and then put the fidget toy down. "And that's enough chatting time for me for today, thank you for your business, come back in a few days to see your friend." She said, ending the conversation abruptly.

"Oh…. well alright." Adam said, choosing to be respectful of her wishes. "I'll be back then."

"Mhm." She said with an uninterested tone as she grabbed her magazine and went back to reading.

Adam turned and left heading to his next destination for the day.