Valentin gave a loud exhale and zeroed in on the doctor.  All that passed between them was a look, and Lawson knew enough of what he saw in the half demon to take his leave.  There was mostly a lot of waiting around to do, anyway.<br/><br/>As soon as they were alone, door shut, Val went over and pulled the covers back up over the damaged flesh of those legs.  He didn’t want to see it.  Not that he had a weak stomach, but because he hated seeing Charlie in such a state.  If only he’d been around when the weather turned ugly, he’d have gone to check on the boy a lot sooner.  He’d have at least drug him to a hotel and put him up for a while there while they figured something out.  Instead, he was now wondering how to help Charlie pick up the pieces.<br/><br/>“Charlie.  Take a look around you.  Do you honestly think that you could be a burden?  To<i>me</i>?” he asked, sitting down on the edge of the bed carefully.  “Besides, I have no intention of just cutting you loose the moment you’re able to walk out of here, so you can just get that out of your mind.”  It was a risk, allowing someone to stay there, even if only for a while.  There was plenty in the way of protection there in his home, yes, but evil could be cunning.  There had been a number of attacks focused directly at him over the years.  Whenever some demon or monster caught wind of him, they were ready to beat his door down to get at him.<br/><br/>“I want you to focus on recovery, not on whether or not I can support you, or if you’re being a nuisance.  I have more than the means, and I don’t think you could ever be the type to crowd me.” Val reached for the smaller man’s hand, holding it between his own.  It was an odd show of his feelings.  Usually he kept everything in and kept a calm and cook exterior when it came to things like this.  It very well could’ve been picked out as a weakness if an enemy saw it.  “Allow me to do this, for both our sakes.  If something happened to you after this because you decided to walk out of here, I would blame myself for letting you.”