"'Caaaause," he yawns, "I'm on drugs I don't wanna be on and you're asking me things I don't wanna tell you?"

"You don't want to be on what you're on? Is it anything besides painkillers?"

"Nope. But fuck painkillers," he says, more sharply and less slowly than he has said anything else since she came in. His voice slows down and softens again as he adds, "I like being in pain, most of the time, and I don't like being stoned."

He grins at her. "I like you. You're nice. Thanks for coming to visit. I didn't think anybody would."

"Robin said she and Ethan dropped in on you."

"Yeah, I was surprised about them too," he laughs. "Ethan never comes to visit."

"Maybe Robin's a good influence on him."

"Must be it," he agrees.

"Wait, never visits you, or never visits you in the hospital?"

"Oh. Neither," says Trouble, shrugging.

"You're in the hospital that often?"

He grins. "How often is often? Once in a while. And I've known Ethan for like a year."

"I'm not in the hospital more than once a year."

Trouble giggles.

"And I am very accident-prone."

"I'm not," says Trouble, his eyes drifting closed.

"Yeah. Robin said 'someone' did it."

"Skip it," he sighs.

"She also mentioned you said that, yeah."

He nods tiredly.

"It would probably be wrong to take advantage of you being high to figure you out more than you wish to be figured out, I suppose."

"Probably," says Trouble. "Is that gonna stop you?"

"Things being wrong generally does, yeah."

He smiles wryly. "Good for you."