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Tianara followed him, not quite hovering but certainly looking somewhat anxious. The nerves eased as the nurse gave them directions, and by the time they went to the elevator Tianara had regained her bouncy step. "Nah, that won't be hard at all," she said confidently. "Kiro's very..." A smile flashed across her face. "Persuasive, you might say. Especially for humans." The smile dimmed a little as she thought of something. "Most of the time."

As the elevator started moving, she jumped. This was her first time in an elevator in her own skin. "We...what is this?" she asked, fascinated. It dinged as the door opened, and Tianara started again, but she hurried out all the same. She gave the door a distrustful look as she passed, as though she thought it might bite her.

Dismissing it, she flashed Joshua a smile. "Come on!" she said, almost dancing with impatience as she made her way to room 204. "This is the right one, right?" Without actually waiting for his agreement, she pushed the door open.

Tianara had already claimed the little visitor's chair closest to the bed. Kiro was awake, and seemed pleased to see her. They babbled on in their own language for a moment or two, Kiro's face growing more serious all the time. Finally, he shook his head and changed to English - perhaps he'd noted Joshua's expression. "She's probably right, Tianara. If Mother's heard about this...and then with my own injuries, she'll be frantic. I doubt she'll let you out of her sight until it's all over."

The girl shook her head resolutely. "No, she'll let me. She has to, Kiro. I need to be here - I wouldn't be any help at home. But that's not the point." She reached over and lightly patted her brother's hand. "Joshua and I want to take you home. I'm afraid what might happen to you, alone here."

Kiro looked contemplative. "It might be a good idea," he admitted at last. "The healing would go faster, certainly."

Tianara glanced at Joshua before looking back at Kiro. "So, do you think you can persuade the doctors to let you out?"

Kiro smiled wryly. "Give me twenty minutes and a good headache."

Kiro and Tianara both looked at him as though mildly surprised. "No," said Kiro, even as Tianara said, "Yes." Then they glanced at one another. "Well, there might be..." began the man, and Tianara said, "I mean, not really, but..." Then Tianara shook her head. "You tell him, Kiro. We mean the same thing, I think, but I doubt he'll get it."

"There is another way besides letting me do the persuasion," said Kiro, "but it's much more difficult and time-consuming. You and Tianara would also have to bear the worst of it, and you're both exhausted - I can see it, and I've got a concussion. Much easier to let me handle it, trust me."

He rang the bell for the nurse that sat beside the door, leaving all further discussion out of it. Tianara got up and moved to the back of the room, gesturing to Joshua to follow.

Tianara shrugged. "Channeling," she said briefly. Realizing after a moment that this probably wasn't sufficient explanation, she said, "Persuasion isn't just talking. It's something that some merfolk do. As far as I know, Kiro is the only ocean child who's been able to pick it up. He can sort of...I guess influence the way people are thinking, or what they feel, at least to an extent. If a doctor came in and checked on him, and he wanted to persuade them he was well - the way he made them think he was worse off than he was earlier - he would actually be able to make them believe that he was well. Do you get it?"

Not waiting to hear if he did or not - she wanted to finish explaining - she continued, "Channeling is essentially the same thing, only harder. Since Kiro and I are related by magic - we have the same clan magic in us - he could channel his persuasive power through to me, and I could do it. But I'm not very good at using it, and it's a lot more strain on both him and me. Considering he's injured, he'd probably have to draw energy off us both to open the channel at all. So just letting him do it is by far the easier way."

Looking a little uncertain, she asked, "Okay?"

Just then, a nurse came back in with a chart and a doctor. While they'd been talking, the woman had come in and spoken to Kiro, and now she and the doctor were conversing, with Kiro occasionally adding a word or two in.

After about twenty minutes of everyone checking machines, the doctor shook his head and walked across to speak to Tianara and Joshua. "It's amazing," he said simply. "Amazing. I've never seen such a recovery before in my life. Your," and here he spoke to Tianara, "brother, is it? He's a very lucky young man."

He paused, then continued. "He's requested to go home, and to be honest, given his current physical condition, I can't see any reason why we should keep him. His head injury still worries me a little, however. Do you live with your brother?"

"Yes," replied Tianara immediately.

"All right. Well, I'd like you to make sure he doesn't exert himself too much and gets a lot of rest. If he complains of dizziness or headaches, bring him to the doctor and they'll check him over. Aside from that, I think he's good to go. If you two would like to wait for him downstairs, we'll get him checked out and all that."

"Thank you," said Tianara sincerely. "Come on, Joshua. We'll wait."

Although Tianara narrowed her eyes at him, her lips still quirked slightly. "Oh, shush," she said agreeably, following Joshua into the elevator. But if Joshua looked carefully, he would still catch her eyeing the elevator in distrust. "So what is this thing?" she asked once the doors closed behind them. "Is it magic? The rooms seem to move around to suit it. But I thought you said that humans had no magic."

It was a very strange object, and Tianara was practically bursting with questions, even as she examined walls and floor and the buttons. "Do these start the magic?" she asked, looking them over curiously.

((OOC: You know the drill. Last thing you remember. Go. razz ))

((The last thing I remember was when Mac dove down into the water. Nya I'm helpless atm))