"Excuse me, it's time for your daily medicine."
It's now month three of Charlotte's one-month mermaid hospital stay. She's pretty sure this is the sixth nurse she's had caring for her – not because she's been a bad patient, but because they cotton on to the fact that the doctors have been "just making sure she's healthy" long past the point of reasonable doubt. At least this one quickly stopped second-guessing her dismissal of the letters that arrived with her regular dose of princess spit. She's pretty sure he's putting the pieces together.
"Thanks," she murmurs as she accepts the nurse's tray. "Tykithy, right?" She grimaces at the plastic-y bubble of Xiphiria's saliva, then pops it into her mouth and swallows as quickly as possible. The film has a way of clinging to the inside of her throat, but it isn't like she is particularly short on water to swallow under the ocean waves.
"That's right." He drifts at her bedside, watching as she adds the latest scrawled-and-sealed scrap of enchanted kelp to her growing pile. "You're pretty good at pronouncing Mer names. Have you been practicing?"
Charlotte shrugs, idly brushing her hair back away from her magically-added gills. "Not particularly."
The nurse makes a throaty noise of some sort. "Maybe it's a side-effect of being transformed for so long then..." He falls silent for a moment, then gestures to the stack of letters. "Should I ask what's in those? You seem... displeased by them."
"I have received far too many of them at this point. I stopped bothering after the first month, because like. Here, watch." She reaches over, snaps the seal on the latest missive, and gives it a quick skim. "This one's pledging her eternal love and loyalty, for the... apparently 10th time." She tosses it aside, grabs another, snaps the seal. "This one's about the fame and fortune that would come with marrying her." Toss, grab, snap. "This one's about... how many kids she wants us to have, apparently. I don't want to know how she thinks that's feasible." Toss, grab, snap. "Pledging herself to me again." Toss, grab, snap. "I think this is her idea of dirty talk? I swear, I'm never going to have a one-night stand again..."
Tykithy starts as she tosses that letter aside and settles back into her hospital bed. "Wait wait wait, run that by me again?"
"Mm? Oh, yeah, I'm here because I caught some mermaid STI, ghillie regis or something."
"Gileorrhesis?"
"That's the bitch. Lesson learned, don't cruise for mermaids at shore bars, especially when they're..." She trails off, suddenly acutely aware that maybe she shouldn't directly insult the princess that's currently keeping her alive in an underwater hospital. "... like this," she finishes lamely instead, gesturing at the mass of one-sided correspondence.
For his part, the nurse checks his watch, then eyes the last letter she discarded. "I should get back to my rounds, but do you mind if I take this one...?"
"Eh? Sure, knock yourself out. Can you actually toss the rest of these too?" Charlotte gathers up the pile, forcing it into something that at least can be held with one hand. "Might as well clear out space for the next week of letters."
Tykithy makes another noise as he accepts the unwieldy bundle. "Yeah, I gotcha. And..." He steals a glance towards the door, then leans in close to whisper. "I'll try to get you some help, honest."
"Mm." She doesn't bother hiding her skepticism. It's not like the king & queen of the merfolk are ignorant to her predicament, after all; in all likelihood they're the ones keeping her here. What could a lowly nurse do against the royal family? "Thanks, Tykithy," she says anyways, trying not to disparage his apparent sincerity.
The next day, it's a new nurse. Of course. "Excuse me, it's time for your daily medicine, along with an exciting letter..." Joy.
