A few hours after Jared lost his fight with the two thugs, he awoke to find himself in a hospital bed. His ribs were bandaged up, and only causing him mild discomfort when he moved his arm experimentally... This country is nothing but trouble...
"I see you're awake," a female voice said from the door, interrupting his thoughts. "You were a total mess when they brought you in."
Jared turned his head to see a young female doctor walk in with a PET in-hand. She walked over to a monitoring machine and stood for a moment while operating the PET... taking a look at his vital data perhaps? Jared had no clue...
After a few moments she began speaking again in a lecturing tone that Jared found absolutely obnoxious, "Well, Mr. Farnam, you're responding excellently to the nano-machine treatments. Of course, you'll have to remain here until tomorrow morning while your ribs finish mending, and I'd like to observe how you're doing with that concussion of yours... Nasty business those are... I'll simply have to insist that you refrain from walking about or moving your left arm too much until then. Understand?"
Jared noded... but instantly regretted it as he began to feel very dizzy... They really worked me over...
"Good. If you need anything, press the red button on the remote next to your right hand, and a nurse will come to help you. Just get some rest now." With that, the doctor left the room, closing the door behind her, and leaving Jared alone... staring through the window and out at the sky, silently turning over the day's events in his head... This just has not been my day... Bah, forget what happened to me! Damnit, I failed to protect Winter. I gotta...
With that thought, Jared decided, foolishly, to get out of bed and contact the police... But, this endeavor was doomed to fail, as his raised blood-bressure and heart-rate combined with his sudden motion caused him to become dizzy and bace himself against a console to stop himself from falling... the very same conscole that controlled the combination pain medicine and tranquilizer i-v drip... this caused the medicine to enter his blood, and, thanks to his heightened blood-pressure and heart-rate, took effect almost immediately... causing him to fall back into bed and quickly lose consciousness once again before he hurt himself...
The universe had a strange sense of humor.
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The next day, Jared was checked up on by the doctor again (as promised), was found fit, and given leave to exit the hospital....
While he was gathereing his meager belongings, he discovered a note had been left amongst them... That's odd... He began to read the note... Apparently someone had come from Sci-Lab to speak to him about his new job, but found him in a drug-induced coma. The note also gave him info on his new address, and asked him to check in with his new supervisor within the next couple of days. Sci-Lab had paid his hospital bill, but were planning on deducting that from his pay until the debt was cleared.
So, I'm assigned to Navi Research & Development, under the supervision of Division 5... Division 5? That's... strange. I thought Navi R&D was Division 7? Huh... Well, at least they told me where I live... Jared absently reached for his PET to look up a map for the address... and realized he didn't have one. Winter... He stood there for a moment before he shook himself and got his mind focused again... He began to inventory his remaining belongings... Alright, I've still got my Chips... And it looks like they didn't take the Speed Upgrade either. I'll need to get a PET and a generic Navi... ...his train of thought changed direction as he discovered that he had no money left... His mind went into problem solving mode... ...But, to do that I need money. So... yeah... looks like I'll need to go to Sci-Lab and manage without a Navi for the time being until I get paid... I'll have to do some free-lance PET tech support on the side so I can eat, in the mean time. Heh, time to get moving. With this, he gathered his belongings and left the hospital....
(To Sci-Lab)