The hospital was a number of ordeals all wrapped into one. Though Malcolm Gold as a patient recovered faster than expected, for the first night it looked a lot more like he was going to come out of it with a lot more damage. 'Miraculous' would be a word that might get thrown around, as within a couple days he had most of his dexterity and speech back.

Doctors said that it must have been caught quickly. But for the fact that Malcolm Gold was cagey at best and uncooperative at worst, it was a success story for that wing that might not be forgotten.

He seemed surprised that Hopper had followed along. But the visitor he had before he managed to get up there probably shocked him more. The most he had let on was that yes, something had happened, and he left it at that.

He needed his magic back. Because as much as doctors who did not understand what they were seeing attributed all this to stress, he knew it was more because what made him the Dark One was still inside him. But without the means to control it or let it thrive, it was just sitting in his body like a disease.

Preparing for discharge and quite glad to be shot of this place, Gold was very much almost exactly as he had been left before the incident. Perhaps the limp was a little more pronounced, but that could have been agitation over anything else.

"Did you give any thought at all to how you're getting back over the town line before following me, Doctor?"