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"Do we go inside, too?" Jenny asked.
Max sat down in the waiting room. "Oh! Are we in a doctor's office? But I thought the hurt pokemon was supposed to come here!"
"Yeah, well. That would be me."
Katrina instantly jumped off of his head. "You shoulda tolded me sooner! Did I hurt your head?!"
The Ampharos shrugged ambivolence.
"If it pleases you."
Jenny proceeded to enter the waiting room where Max and Katrina sat.
Shrugging at one another, Jacob and Derek went in, too.
Max glanced at them, silently acknowledging their presence.
"Are you all hurt, too?!" Katrina asked, speaking fast as usual but seeming concerned.
"I guess not," Jacob admitted. "But it kind of feels awkward to be waiting out there and not knowing what's going on."
"I understand the feeling," Max replied.
Katrina started running around the room, skidding and barely avoiding crashing into the walls.
Whether it was because of this or simply because he had chosen to, a Blaziken in a doctor's outfit (presumably, to mark him out as a doctor) entered the waiting-room.
"Next?"
Max stood up. "I think that's me," he said.
Katrina moved to follow him, but Max turned for a moment. "Could you stay here with them? I'm sure they could do without an ecstatic Mudkip in the room when they're healing me."
"Aw," she said, but stayed back.
"We're nice, too," Jacob said, exaggerating how hurt he sounded just a bit.
The doctor, meanwhile, began to lead Max to a room beyond this one, to where he was to be treated, it would seem.
Max followed the Blaziken.
"Well..." Jenny said, "I mean, he is right... I don't think they'd be able to do much."
"Do much of what? Healing? I don't stop anyone from healing! I'm a good pokemon! I wouldn't get in the way!"
Derek adopted a quizzical expression, amused and doubtful all at once.
"According to an X-ray, my rib is fractured," Max said to the Blaziken, though perhaps he already knew that. "The only medication that's been used is this painkiller." He held up the bottle containing the potion.
"Would you, now?" Jenny said. She thought for a moment. "Do you want to play a game?"
"Yeah! What kind of game do we get to play?!"
"See how long you can stay quiet. No talking. Starting now."
Jacob, not realising the ruse, also resolved to himself to remain quiet, to Derek's amusement.
"I see," the Blaziken told him. "Then there are a few options. This kind of thing could heal on its own, in time. Alternatively, we could apply the right kind of medicine to the bone itself, thought that would involve general anaesthetic, and cutting you open temporarily to get to it. There's also a third way, but it's highly experimental and mostly untested."
Katrina drew in breath and seemed to hold it. Jenny decided to stay quiet, too, so it wouldn't seem unfair to the Mudkip. She had assumed Jacob and Derek were doing the same.
Max thought for a moment. Well, I don't want to be cut open. So, it's either the first option, or... "What would that be?"