Francis glanced at her from the corner of his eye, before turning back to the doctor. "So, can I leave in the morning." The woman waited patiently.
"If everything goes well, yes," the doctor responded. Poppy looked over to the woman. "Okay. Yes. I'll take it."
The woman handed her the phone, and a low voice spoke to Poppy. "Hello. I just would like to ask you a few questions to clear things up. Are you available to answer currently?"
"I am," Poppy said, tugging a lock of her hair nervously. (Is Poppy supposed to tell him the real story or the fake story?)
(The fake one.) "When you found the ambassador, what was his current state?" he questioned, the sound of a pen tapped in the background.
"He was in his cell," she said. "Uh... Annoyed. Frustrated. Wanted to get out. Wasn't really injured though."
"Did you come across any other Caedis members before he was killed? And did he say anything strange or suspicious?"
"Well, we had disguised ourselves as a scouting crew when we came in, and so we did alencounter a few," Poppy said uncertainly. "As for the ambassador, I mean, he was a little strange, but what can you expect? He was locked up there for weeks."
He paused a moment, the sound of pen scratching paper arose. "And last question. How did the ambassador get killed exactly?"
Poppy hesitated. "The Caedis killed him," she said, frowning. "He was shot off the roof during the attack." She tried to keep the story as true as possible, but she felt badly about lying. She didn't see how the truth would hurt, but the woman's warning was ringing in her head and she kept quiet about it.
"I see. Thank you for your time." The phone made a beep and the voice silenced. Francis looked at her. "Anything important?"
Poppy hesitated for a moment, and then took the phone away from her ear and returned it to the woman. "No, not really," she said as they walked into the hospital room. Computers stood by a bed already made up for Francis and there was a sofa, probably for guests and family. Their room had a huge window that looked out across the government base, and late afternoon light streamed in. Had it really only been this morning that they had packed up their tent? Was it really only last night that they had looked through branches up at the Northern Lights? To Poppy, it felt like days had passed. Weeks. Months. She turned back to Francis with a shrug. "He just wanted to know about the mission," she said. The medics turned to Francis expectantly. "Sir," the doctor said. "Can you get up to the bed by yourself?" Poppy raised an eyebrow and grinned at Francis, her expression teasing him.
Francis scoffed. "Can I get up to the bed? I could run a marathon right now." He easily got up, sat on the bed, and checked his watch.
The doctor laughed. "Let's hold off on that for now," he said easily. He began to do various check ups on Francis, checking his bones, prodding him in various places. "Does that hurt?" he would ask. "How about that?" Poppy sat on the sofa and waited, taking great amusement in Francis' check up.
Francis mostly replied with no, and a few "a bit", but nothing particularly bad at the time. He shot a glare at Poppy, frowning.
She noticed his glaring and pointed at herself in mock surprise. She shrugged cheekily but when the doctor turned to look at her, she adopted the air of worried focus. He turned back to Francis, and Poppy resumed grinning. "He fell pretty hard when he was hit," she said eventually, grinning mischievously over at Francis. "Maybe you should check the bruises on his side, and make sure everything's okay?" The doctor obliged, and Poppy covered her mouth with her hand to keep her laughter over Francis' obvious discomfort in.
He crossed his arms. "My side is fine, thank you. I have no sharp pains there." He shied away from any prodding.
The doctor scribbled on his clipboard, and then clicked his pen and tucked it behind his ear. "Well, sir, looks like everything is in working order. We're going to keep you overnight for examination, and then you'll be good to go. Do you have any questions I can answer before I go tend to some other patients?"
Francis shook his head, and protectively turned away. "Hmm. Is it normal to feel light-headed after being struck by electricity?"
