Wha-hic. What is-hic. What is this-hic... [Ray/Michael/Gabe]

It was the weirdest thing going on this Monday morning—there he was, in the middle of lunch, and all of a sudden May came out of nowhere and ran right into him. He nearly choked on his nachos, but that wasn’t the worst of it. Right after he gulped the rest of it down, he was stricken with this horribly annoying curse. The devil itself placed its clawed fingers in his lungs, and the chill had made it literally cringe at his touch. The first few hiccups were bad enough, but then it didn’t stop. He went through his ENTIRE work day with the hiccups; hiccup after hiccup after hiccup. People were giving him strange, unneeded looks, and he didn’t want to go into the inn for the night if it would keep everybody up.


”Hic. Maybe it’s someth- hic. Someth-hic. Something ser-hic. Oh nevermin-hic!” He slapped the back of his head as he paced back and forth in front of Dr.Cunningham’s office. He knew Michael, yes, but wouldn’t this be embarrassing to ask him about? Sure, he was a doctor and all, and he only wanted the darn things to stop…


But the hiccups?! The hiccups. He was going to pay for an appointment because he had something as simple and devilish as, gasp, the hiccups. Groaning, he decided to go inside instead of let everyone around him suffer from his hiccup fate. There was someone at the front desk, he didn’t know who it was, but he managed to somehow fit in some doctor’s schedule. In case Michael wasn’t actually in here at these evening hours…

Michael was staying at Gabe's until the Inn was rebuilt or he was allowed to walk and work again. The medical office was pretty comfy. For some reason something told him to go to the entrance of the medical office at night. He didn't officially work here, he just helped out it was kinda like a part time job kinda thing. Once he got through the hallway he saw Ray just hiccuping every single five seconds. What was with this guy all of a sudden?

"Ray? You okay?" He asked concerned, wheeling closer to him. No one hiccuped this much. It only lasted about an hour. Usually, no one knew what was the cause of hiccups. But they do occur when you laugh too much or you just choked on something and just swallowed it.

He heard a wheelchair creaking up behind him as he was seated in the waiting room, being told that the doctor might not be in for a while since he came in at odd hours. He was willing to wait though, since he doubted that he could go back to the inn and sleep anyways. What a cruel invention the hiccup was, honestly. He never had them this bad as a kid, but he heard stories about them. There was a rumor he once heard in high school that there was a man that had the hiccups for a full 46 years before they mysteriously vanished one night. Geez, if he ended up like one of those poor souls, he would rather have his lungs replaced.

”Nothing-hic serious-hic like before-hic hic hic.” His face flushed a bright red in embarrassment as he covered his mouth with a tissue. Even with his mouth closed, you could see his body jumping up and down from each suppressed hiccup.

”Guaranteed-hic that it’s-hic even more annoying-hic though-hic.” He lowered his head, still feeling bad about the whole thing. It was the kind of story that you could laugh about later, but going through it sucked. A lot.

Michael listened to Ray. If he hiccuped this much, it was a little serious. Usually normal hiccups just came and left but he was a little concerned on how this lasted and how it happened. "Tell me, When did this happen and how did it start?" He asked looking up at Ray who was taller than him now since the surgeon was in his wheelchair.

Realizing they were still in the lobby he just thought he could bother Gabe for a couple minutes and help this poor soul out here. "Follow me, Lemme see If I can get Dr. Cunningham to also help you out here. We can't examine you out in the lobby, no?" He said laughing a bit. He turned his wheelchair around and headed towards where Gabriel usually was. Once he got to the door he gently knocked on the door.
"Dr. Cunningham, We have a patient with a hiccup problem," He said through the door.

Ray didn’t like the way that Michael asked him that question, and it showed on his face. Anxiety and worry; all bunched up into one concentrated ball of emotions. What if this really was serious, like that person he heard about in the rumors? His imagination was going wild, but he sighed through the hiccups as he remembered the question. That was the most important thing to do with now; answer that question and let the doctor worry for him.

”It started arou-hic, around noon. I was-hic, eating and some girl-hic bumped into-hic me while eating. I almost choked-hic.” He could still feel the uncomfortable texture of the cheesy nachos sliding down his throat. Now that had scared him.

’Well, yeah you can’t examine me here…but please, please don’t make me wear a hospital gown.’ He thought with his arms crossed, following Michael with slow footsteps. A guy could only move so fast in a wheelchair, but the doctor appeared to be doing a lot better since the last time he saw him. ”That name rings a bell.” He thought out loud, but honestly had no idea where he heard it before.

As usual Gabriel was amusing himself in his office playing a game of solitare. Not much was really happening and it was a pretty slow day. It was harder to play his card game with a broken arm, but it wasn't that hard to do his job still. His wrist was broken in the storm, but it he only had to use a short cast that was mainly where his wrist was, so he could move his arm freely when needed. Not that he needed to do that, that much.

There was a sudden knock at his door, which surprised him and sent his cards flying. There went his game--but it probably was going to end soon if he had a patient. The thought of him being almost done and then his cards getting scattered did annoy him though. Neitherless, he went to the door and opened it to see Micheal and the guy that was trapped under the rubble with him.

"Hey," Gabriel greeted to the two guys at his doorway. "A hiccup problem, eh?"

[[ o.o' I didn't think that it was my turn to reply. I'm sorry. ]]

When the door opened, there was a familiar face that was there to greet him. So that was where he first heard the name, Gabe was Michael's doctor buddy that he met during that Forget-Me-Not incident. An extra glance into the room from what Gabe allowed him showed him quite a bit of disorder within the room. He couldn't tell what was going on, but there were small pieces of paper all over the place.

"...hic. Yes." He replied sheepishly, feeling a bit embarassed over the situation. It seemed so silly right now, and he was sure that he was wasting the doctor's time. Also there was that medical bill to worry about, which was going to be a pain in the neck.

Michael listened to Ray. It started around noon? Usually it takes about five minutes for hiccups to go away or less. Poor guy. He was just eating then someone bumped into him. Accidents happen. Almost choking was serious. "We'll see what we can do," He said.

Soon, Gabriel opened the door. A professional diagnostician would help in this situation. The surgeon looked at Ray. He seemed slightly embarassed. Usually patients with small problems like these worry about wasting their time. he didn't know about gabe but Michael had nothing to do. He figurede he would help in this situation.

Ray hicupped his awnser and Gabriel help but be amused. It would be interesting to hear him talk if after every word he hicupped. Since Gabe knew the guy much he would bug him too much with speaking since it probably bug the man to hear his voice like this. It was going to be easy to solve this problem since not many things could be wrong with his diaphram at his age.

"Come into my office and I'll see what I can do," Gabriel said motioning to on of the three empty chairs in the room. Hicups were caused by the diaphram. The thing is that there is a mix up in the signals to the diaphram from excitment or even eating. The important part was the nerve signals were messed up and causing his diaphram to move randomly at certain times causing the hicups. Normally if someone holds their breath long enough they can 'reset' their diaphram movements to get rid of the hicups. The other option was scaring the life out of them. "I take it you've tried holding your breath and drinking something since you're here."

Ray looked over at Michael, seeing him with a calm expression made him feel slightly better. Especially since he was the closest thing to a friend around the area. He nodded solemnly as he seated himself in one of the chairs, a little crunching sound escaped from below him when he did. Eh, guess he sat on some papers or something. Since it was in a chair, it couldn't of been that important, so he didn't move.

"Yeah, hic." This time he covered his mouth, mostly as a reflex, but continued with his bold efforts in order to speak properly. "I tri-hic tried the usual cures hic. Even drinking water hic, upside down. hic. Got me some wierd looks, hic." He chuckled at the latter satement, recalling Popuri's confused expression has he attempted to gulp down a cup of water in the middle of his bagger shift. She promptly left the store and he didn't blame her.

"Give it to me straight, doc. How serious is it?" He gulped as he asked the dreaded question. Seriously, just how bad was his condition? What if his lungs started to hurt with all of these hiccups? Or if he suddenly lost his ability to breathe?! Or...or...ugh. This sucked.