the rationalizations, flawless
And if the Pakistani goes ahead and offers Demerol again Gately won’t resist. And who the fuck’ll be able to blame him, after all. Why should he have to resist?
Context
The Disease's case for the exception, built airtight from true premises: a genuine Grade-II trauma, a professional in a white coat, pain that will demonstrably worsen, nobody left to blame him — every clause accurate, the conclusion a relapse. And the cruelest turn is the last, where the caution itself gets reframed as the sickness, the fear of the trigger recast as paranoia, so that refusing looks like the symptom and using looks like sanity.