Whilst having dinner, Arcturus mused that his departure was a bit abrupt for his patient. Then again, he had work to do. Johann could surely take care of himself - he wasn't going to mother patients that much when he still had a two-foot high pile of paperwork to clear before the end of the week.

He returned to the floor and did a quick round of the wards before returning to his office. After having a few drops of Wit-Sharpening Potion, he heartily tackled the work, bent on getting at least half of it done before the night was over. It did depend on having no complications throughout the night, but he hadn't had any trouble lately whenever he was on the night shifts.

So it felt like it was too soon when a knock sounded on his door, followed by a frantic nurse who, without being asked, informed him of the noise from the room to which Johann had been assigned. Arcturus stared at her for a full thirty seconds before dropping his quill and making his way to the aforementioned room without questioning the nurse. What was there to question? The book had warned of withdrawal.

Life, the healers who worked on this floor and the fortune (or misfortune, depending on perspective) of not being actually there when the task was assigned, though, meant that Arcturus hadn't exactly dealt with many addiction cases. At best all he could rely on now was his ability to stay calm and patient, his knowledge and his experience.

He arrived at the door just in time to hear the familiar voice of Johann through the wood. Arcturus made sure his wand was available - tucked inside his sleeve - and then gestured to the worried nurse to follow him just in case. With a deep breath, he strode in, nurse in tow, one hand near his wand-bearing sleeve.

Johann was kneeling on the bed, near-drenched in sweat and sobbing violently. Arcturus automatically turned to the nurse. "Draught of Peace, enough to calm him down but not put him to sleep."

"Not a Sleeping Draught? Or even a Dreamless--"

"None of those are even entering this room on my watch!" The nurse winced; Arcturus realised he had raised his voice and adjusted his tone. "They're banned from here. Get what I told you to get, now."

As the nurse practically fled - Arcturus guessed she was probably new or inexperienced - he turned back to his patient. He spotted Johann's wand nearby and silently picked it up, tucking it into his other sleeve as he spoke.

"Mr Storm? Mr Storm, can you hear me?" Arcturus gripped the man's shoulders firmly, trying to see if he could make it through to the man. He didn't think Johann could, but it was worth a shot.

The yelling quickly attracted Joy. The healer was walking through the halls, towards the stairs to head to grab something to drink before doing inventory and leaving. "What in the name of Merlin is going on in there?" Joy asked in a worried tone to a healer hurrying by.

The healer seemed frazzled. "Mr. Storm seems feverish, he's acting mad."

"Hallucinations. I knew those would start soon. That poor man." Joy watched the healer rush off, before deciding she'd go in to help. Right in the middle of the hallway the witch took the form of a white doe, her clothes disappearing. It wasn't unusual for the healer to be seen in her animagus form visiting patients, animals naturally calmed people better than people did.

The white doe turned the door knob with her mouth, something she had become accustomed to doing. She pushed the door open with the weight of her body, giving a usual soft grunt of greeting to the healer that was already with Johann. Joy hurried over to the distressed man, using her forelegs to prop herself on the bed.

She bleated to get Johann's attention, before nuzzling and licking his neck. They were basic things she did to try and calm patients, acting like an over-sized dog.

twenty-five four by four
you know what will keep us quiet
but you need us, we've been here all along
sixteen five by five
you can't drown us out without

"You're all I can hear!" Johann howled - to his internal voices, though his response externally sounded like a direct response to the healer who had seized Johann's shoulders.

His eyes were still screwed shut and his body tense as he tore at his hair, unable to shut up the voices in his head. The voices that had always been there, but in daily life babbled usefully, were a conscience. They kept him awake at night, like two miniatures sat upon each shoulder, discussing topics of magic, culture, language and abstract concepts. They were company.

Nine six by six,
blow your head to pieces Johann
Four seven by seven

But untreated by the sleeping potion, and what with the increasing exhaustion and strain they were now turning against him, beating him down until he wanted to tear his ears off and find his wand and damn well stun himself this time, bother the consequences.

The bleating of the deer didn't get an initial reaction but a moment later the foreign interruption caused Johann's eyes to fly open, just as a warm, damp nose met his neck and a tongue lapped against the fevered sweat upon it.

Struggling against a strange hold upon him other than his tense muscles, Johann's eyes stared from the odd white animal into Hollingbury's eyes, fearful.

He thrashed out with a forearm, regretfully in the direction of the animal, believing it to be a fiction of his rattled mind. His flailing hand landed on the male healer's wrist, the hand of which was attached to Johann's shoulder firmly, and the only thing stopping him leaping from the bed at that moment and hiding beneath it.

"They are deafening me." The patient tried to explain in desperate tones, shaking his head from side to side, "I can't get them to stop!"

His black curly hair was plastered to his head with sweat, and what colour there had been had drained from his complexion. He had a strange, tunnel-like vision of panic.

With a trembling hand, their patient pointed in the direction of where the doe had been half climbed onto his bed,
"I am seeing things that aren't there. Please you have to let me have some."

By some, he meant the sleeping potion.

and one eight by eight
you'll not be rid of us so easily
two hundred and four in all

The appearance of Joy made Arcturus jump. No, it wasn't the fact that a deer was now leaning against the bed, it was the fact that his superior was present and without advance warning. Arcturus was used to Joy in her Patronus form - so much, in fact, that when a visitor had pointed out there was a deer in the hospital, his first response was "Don't worry, she won't bite."

She wasn't anything to worry about. Johann, on the other hand...

"You're all I can hear!"

When he lashed out at the deer, Arcturus tried to get some control over him by pushing him back, but was a little too slow. Johann was struggling, thrashing; the man was stronger than him and the healer was having some difficulty from preventing Johann from hitting him in the face from his wild flailing.

"They are deafening me. I can't get them to stop!"

"Mr Storm, listen to me." Arcturus' voice was firmer, slightly deeper and far more assertive than his normal tone. "You're going to be fine. You're going to be fine. They won't hurt you." His grip tightened on the man's shoulders. "Relax. Nothing is going to hurt you. I'm here."

"I am seeing things that aren't there. Please, you have to let me have some."

Arcturus briefly glanced at Joy, wondering if this was the right time for her to be in that form. "It will be fine, Mr Storm. She won't hurt you, you won't get into trouble. And you will get something, I promise!"

He turned his head towards the open door as the nurse hurried back in and came to a stop, gaping at the sight of the deer. "Pour some and bring it over here, don't just stand there!" he snapped. "You'll be seeing weirder things, this isn't half of it!"

Holding the glass like it was the last vestige of sanity left in this room, Arcturus offered it cautiously to Johann while keeping his hand on the man's shoulder. "Drink this slowly, it will make them go away. Just take your time, stay calm. They won't do anything to you, I promise."

The doe reared when a hand shot out towards her, before tipping and toppling to the ground. Her back hit the floor hard, surely whoever was on the floor below could hear her. Joy was used to the added weight being distributed on all fours, but it always took her longer to fully adapt to a deer's instincts, like balance. She gave an injured grunt, rolling to the side and shakily standing again.

The Healer-in-Training entered as Joy took her first steps back towards the patient's bed, turning to see her stare. The doe snorted. She was, after all, the woman's boss, not someone to be looked at like an alien! She considered changing back right there so she was treated a person once more, but decided to not attempt to confuse Johann farther.

She turned her heel, or back of hoof, on the woman. The white animal went over to her fellow healer and lightly butt him in the side, then jerked her head from Arcturus to the Healer-in-Training. Joy shook her head at him, trying to non-verbally tell him to not be so harsh.

Joy retreated to the side of the bed she'd been at before, using her head and a foreleg to keep him sitting up. She made a few noises a mother doe would make to her fawns, though they were barely as relaxing to a human.

"It will be fine, Mr Storm. She won't hurt you, you won't get into trouble. And you will get something, I promise!" Arcturus assured Johann, still holding his shoulders. The patient released his grip on the healer's wrist and his hands formed a prayer to confer his thanks.

Badger hair lies

Johann's head continued to protest but the noise in the room was competing with it. The door opened and another person appeared carrying a bottle. Her shock at his appearance set the voices into a flap.

"Pour some and bring it over here, don't just stand there! You'll be seeing weirder things, this isn't half of it!"

Don't drink it, don't drink it!

Arcturus offered him a poured turquoise potion that didn't look familiar.
"Drink this slowly, it will make them go away. Just take your time, stay calm. They won't do anything to you, I promise."

We will, we already have.
Liar, liar!

Johann's shaky hands grasped the vessel clumsily and he suddenly caught sight of the deer again and his eyes widened. But instead of thrashing about, he chucked back the contents of the glass, not heeding the instruction of drinking it slowly at all. Anything to shut it all out.

Blinking and shaking his head slowly his hands fumbled the glass back to hands that came forward. Still kneeling and he ended up on a tilt away from the deer, his shoulder pressing into Hollingbury's grip as the relief of others and some form of potion treatment provided some mental reassurance. His fevered forehead headed towards the man's shoulder. From an onlooker it might appear the badger haired man had Johann in an awkward embrace, but his patient was not fully aware of how he had ended up.

Futile!

The voices were still there but their vigour was lessening as he drew a shuddered breath, suddenly aware of how cool the sweat upon his skin was making his body. A curious noise was in the air, a braying?

"Tell me that you can see that animal?" Johann asked from his awkward posture, this time his arm not flailing but pointing at Joy's transformed state with a trembling hand.

"What was that potion? It wasn't sleeping potion. I have to have it - you don't understand, they won't leave me alone without it." His hands found his face, tears of relief breaking from his shadowed dark blue eyes. 

There was, by now, a lot of things going on for Arcturus to consider. His general reaction was to stay calm, because he recognised that his actual panic made him a frantic, flustered and disorganised person. Right now, though, he was wishing he could be allowed to panic.

First, he got headbutted by his superior after snapping at the woman. Arcturus sighed, he got the point. It was probably because his normally rock-hard patience was cracking a little. He nodded to the deer in acknowledgment, as much as this looked ridiculous to the poor woman and most likely Johann.

Speaking of Johann, the man downed the dose faster than Arcturus could even blink. He got the glass from the man before he dropped it and gave it back to the healer-in-training nearby; he still needed both his hands for this job, specifically to give the man some physical support. Johann was leaning towards him, away from the deer, looking a tad terrified at the animal standing in the room.

"Hush, Johann, it's nothing to worry about." Arcturus only used his patients' first names during exceptional circumstances and this was one of them, along with a gentle and reassuring tone reserved for such cases. "It's my superior. She's an Animagus. She usually changes to this form to soothe people, but...maybe this is not the time."

The last part of that sentence was aimed at her, although not in a stern or angry way. Arcturus just looked worriedly concerned as he shook his head at her slightly, before turning back to Johann. "I'm sorry, but I can't give you the sleeping potion, Johann. If you want those voices gone for good, you must go without. Just believe us when we say that you'll be better off without it, because we know you will. Those voices don't care about you, but we do. Just trust me."

The deer backed up as Johann tilted forward on Arcturus, walking over to the foot of the bed. Joy looked at the patient's sweat-covered skin, taking in the effect of withdrawal from the Sleeping Potion. What a shame he hadn't been taken from the nasty stuff earlier.

Johann questioned Joy's existence, and the doe again snorted, coming as close to a laugh as a deer could. The white creature once again came onto the bed, her forelegs resting on the edge of the mattress. As if understanding what the man had just said to the healer, the deer nodded.

Joy looked at Arcturus as he responded, her head tilted to one side. Her ears lowered, in sadness rather than anger, when she was mentioned as superior to him. It was when he looked at her that the doe's ears perked back up. Right before the two, her form changed. Fur was replaced with skin. The hooves of her forelegs separated into fingers. Her ears disappeared under her now dark hair. Now a woman stood hunched over the bed, fully clothed in Healer uniform.

"The doe has ears," was the first thing the woman said as she straighten. Her tone was calm, hinted with amusement. "And Arcturus, you know I've asked to not be address as 'my superior'. I do not desire nor require such a title."

Now she was back in her boring human body, and again had the duties her job entailed. She drew her handkerchief and sat beside Johann, wiping his tears. "Arcturus is right. The voices are only part of the withdrawal, along with any other hallucinations you might experience. But it'll be over soon enough, and then you'll never have to go through it again."

Joy paused, thinking. "If you would like, I can have an hourly dose of Wit-Sharpening Potion given. I'm sure that will help your mind distinguish real from imaginary." The healer knew very well this was the best she could offer, and she was sure her co-worker knew the same.

"I'm sorry, but I can't give you the sleeping potion, Johann. If you want those voices gone for good, you must go without. Just believe us when we say that you'll be better off without it, because we know you will. Those voices don't care about you, but we do. Just trust me."

Johann became aware that his legs were numb from the way he was sat, as the potion began to work he unsteadily withdrew a little from Arcturus, looking unsure and suddenly a little more aware of where he'd ended up. He felt absolutely terrible in all directions.

"Arcturus is right. The voices are only part of the withdrawal, along with any other hallucinations you might experience. But it'll be over soon enough, and then you'll never have to go through it again."

The doe was healer Torret, and Johann couldn't help but feel relieved to have it revealed. He had been so very sure the strange animal had been all in his head at first. She was reaching to wipe his face a little and he obliged, bewildered.

"If you would like, I can have an hourly dose of Wit-Sharpening Potion given. I'm sure that will help your mind distinguish real from imaginary."

"I'm sorry - I, its hard to think… when they're shouting in my head." Johann explained, words slowly coming forth. He paused, his head tilted as if he were straining to hear something outside the room, but the voices were more distant again - still there, still churning, but as if behind doors.

"I just hadn't… expected to see… that right then, amongst it all. I hadn't meant you harm. Perhaps… perhaps that might be a good idea before you have to bind me to the bed for your safety."

Their patient's eyes were heavily lidded, and he made efforts to rearrange his legs with slow, unsteady movements. Surely he could not be far off sleep from pure exhaustion now, Johann reasoned with his mind. It was so hard to think, so hard to move.

All of a sudden he found himself lying down without intending to, all in a bit of a rush. He had no energy to protest. That was probably why Hollingbury had said to drink the potion slowly. Too late now.

"But what…" He asked, now looking at both the healers from a horizontal position, "What if I don't want them to go away?"

"And Arcturus, you know I've asked to not be address as 'my superior'. I do not desire nor require such a title."

"Apologies." He didn't push it further, they had more important things to see to. Maybe later on.

"What if I don't want them to go away?"

For a moment, Arcturus had a fleeting urge to be as sarcastic as possible to reply his question. It fled when Johann fell back onto the bed; as much as he knew what was going to happen, he hadn't expected it to be that soon. He may not have managed to predict Johann's fall, but at least he can rearrange the covers. After all that, he would be surprised if Johann wasn't tired.

"If you really want them to stay, you might as well condition yourself to keep those voices without the addiction," he said pointedly. "But for now, I really don't see any benefit to have those voices. All they do is torment you, from what we've seen."

Joy chuckled at the patient's comments. "We certainly aren't going to bind you to anything. I'm sure having a sharper mind will help you from sporadic outbursts of confusion and violence." She went over to the place where patient notes for those located in that ward were, leafing through to find Johann's.

The thud of Johann against the bed made the healer turn her head in alarm, but when she noticed he was still on the bed she went back to the files, looking over a page about the treatment she had instructed he was given. Arcturus could handle this question. Technically, the witch wasn't even supposed to be tending to him, answering such things.

Removing a quill from her pocket, Joy scrawled on the empty prescriptions section:

Wit-Sharpening Potion

3 doses a day
Doses given at 8:00 am, 12:00 pm, 5:00 pm. One dose per scheduled dosing.
Additional half dose may be given if patient is clearly going through hallucinations.

Joy replaced the files and walked back to the bed. "Come now Mr. Storm. Don't you worry about a thing, we'll take care of all of it. Just rest. If you're feeling tired try to sleep." She stroked the man's hair affectionately. "You'll be fine."

She went over to Arcturus, lowering her voice. "I would ask that you stay with Johann until another healer arrives. I don't know why a healer-in-training was left alone with him, but I'll be talking to whoever was supposed to be in charge of her tonight. Good luck."

It was all Joy said before nodding a good-bye to both men and leaving.

"If you really want them to stay, you might as well condition yourself to keep those voices without the addiction, but for now, I really don't see any benefit to have those voices. All they do is torment you, from what we've seen."

"Torment… I suppose they do of late." Johann mused, his head had just about begun to give up again, what with the voices quelled a little by the potion.

"Come now Mr. Storm. Don't you worry about a thing, we'll take care of all of it. Just rest. If you're feeling tired try to sleep." His eyes closed as Torret stroked his hair. It reminded him so vividly of being little. "You'll be fine."

Then she went. Johann curled himself a little into a ball, feeling heavy once more, and cracked an eye open to check who was in the room still.

"Does she have a lot of children?" He asked sleepily, yawning. "Forever patting and stroking and cooing. The deer thing was just, unexpected. You don't turn into anything do you? Not going to wake up and see a .. badger.. am I?"

He yawned again, eyes closing. Sleep was naturally on the way for the first time in a very long time, whether he liked it or not.

"I would ask that you stay with Johann until another healer arrives. I don't know why a healer-in-training was left alone with him, but I'll be talking to whoever was supposed to be in charge of her tonight. Good luck."

He nodded, silently grateful for her wish of luck. But as he looked back to his patient when Joy slipped noiselessly out of the room, he didn't think Johann would give him any trouble for the rest of the night.

"She has kids, yes." Arcturus absently pulled the covers over him as he answered the tired man's question. "Rest assured, Mr Storm - I'm no animagus, and I have no plans to be one."

He stood back quietly. Johann looked snug and comfortable under the covers, and, for the first time since he was here, he looked peaceful. Arcturus drew his wand from his sleeve and waved it; the light in the room slowly dimmed to darkness once more. As he tucked it back into its rightful place, he felt Johann's wand in his other sleeve and resolved to keep it safe once he was back in his office; that is, not in his sleeve.

Despite what had transpired for the past few hours, Arcturus gave a small smile at his peaceful patient. For now, it would be quiet and hopefully the man could finally get what he needed without drugging himself. His voice was a gentle whisper then, as he turned to leave.

"Good night, Mr Storm."