Nightshift 45: East Wing, Hall A [First Floor]

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(From here.)

Sean rounded the corner, Chris in tow, and skidded to a stop (fortunately not wearing shoes had helped him run faster, though his feet felt uncharacteristically dirty--the floors were clean, weren't they?). He looked around frantically in the dark for at least one glimpse of a member of the night staff. Nothing. He and Chris were on their own.

"Try the doors!" Sean instructed, letting go of Chris' hand to yank on the first door handle available. Locked. He tried the next one. Locked, too.

"Chris you remember what I said about that bruise being done myself?" Sean called over the frantic jiggling of doorhandles. "I lied--Schuldig did it while trying to get Artemis back. I'm sorry I didn't tell you sooner, but I'm afraid he's going to do it again!"

Comments

[kindalikedit]

If it was a car, then yeah, Rick might've had better luck and it wasn't just wishing he was some poor man's Bruce Campbell: getting into locked cars was kinda par for the course working in a garage 'cause it wasn't that rare of an instance where a customer would turn around to hand the car over to them so they could get to work...and discover they'd just locked their keys inside. Hell, he'd even had to help Matt once or twice like that, even when Matt kept dropping hints about the skill like he as regularly breaking into cars or something.

Rick patted down his pockets. He hadn't exactly thought to snag paperclips before while he was here and the only thing he had that was metal was the bowie knife, which was a bad idea to be flashing around even if Yuuko was a pretty cool chick.

"I got nothing. Could kick it open but it can't be as easy as it looks on the TV," Rick said, pausing and frowning at the door.

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"Don't know. Never tried it, myself." There wasn't exactly much call for kicking doors in back home, really. Yuuko imagined that she probably could, if she really wanted to, but at the same time, she didn't really want to. What could a doctor's office possibly have that would be worth the effort?

She leaned against the wall by the door, pretending toward a casualness that she didn't actually feel, and gave Rick an inquiring look. "Do you really want to get in there that much?" Maybe he had some kind of criminal record back home - but if so, the doctor wouldn't be the only one who knew about it, so there wasn't much point in trying to steal it from here. Or maybe he just felt like breaking in somewhere, just because he was bored. Who knew? "Does he have something particularly interesting?"

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"Doctor's not a guy," Rick said offhandedly, "Kisugi was acting like I wasn't gonna get outta here any time soon 'cause I couldn't face the facts. Well, I faced 'em, and I wanna see if she actually did anything or I was good to go and she was jerking my leg."

Studying the door, Rick had to say he wished he'd paid more attention to all the break-ins in the movies and stuff...although maybe that was all wrong and he'd just end up breaking his foot on an impulse and he wasn't gonna make it far with a busted foot. In all fairness, he could probably go without, but y'know, he never really had liked the doctor, even if she had some head-turning tits; her ice queen personality kind of killed any enjoyment of that right there on the spot when he swore she had it out for him the moment he walked in through that door.

That and the whole sedation thing.

Rick finally decided he'd have to give up. "I got no clue how to bust down doors. Don't wanna break something doing it wrong. Sorry 'bout the goose chase."

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Yuuko paused for a moment longer, eyeing the door with a thoughtful air. It might have been kind of entertaining to try, just to see if she could do it, but...this was a hospital. This was someone's office, she couldn't just go around damaging the doors for no good reason. It wasn't as though doors magically repaired themselves or whatever idiocy she'd been coming up with lately. The fact that there was no damage in the morning simply meant that what she'd thought had happened really hadn't.

She finally just shrugged, though, glancing back at Rick without bothering to straighten up from her casual lean. "I had no plans for the evening, anyway. I don't really care where we go, while I'm off avoiding my beauty sleep in the first place." After a momentary pause her grin turned a little sly, and she tilted her head to one side a bit. "Though some privacy might have been kind of nice..."

Sure, he seemed to want to go somewhere, but she didn't much want to go outside if she didn't have to. It was cold out there. And if they had a chance, maybe they could resume what had been interrupted earlier in the day?

Oh, Makoto would be annoyed as hell if he knew what she was thinking. But what he didn't know didn't hurt him, and she might as well enjoy herself while she bided her time before she went back home. Right? (Not to mention the fact that if she was thinking about that she could pretend not to pay attention to the ozone stink wafting down from the far end of the hall, on top of all the other stuff she had to be hallucinating at the moment.)

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Rick flashed her a grin in the dark. "My brother's got crap timing, if that's what you're talking about. It's like he's got a radar for worst possible time for walking in."

Any other time and he'd be suggesting they finish up what they started back at his place - well, room; "place" made it sound like he was all a big boy even when they stuck them in the goofy gray uniforms - but he figured if Yuuko wanted to come along on the car ride, if they even got one running, then there was always a rest stop or any place not here. Although Matt riding shotgun would make that kind awkward on just bout all fronts. Yeah, this was a lot of logistics he hadn't had to put a lot of thought into until now. Still, Rick was always up for some quick run, he just needed to be able to walk afterward, if he was gonna be honest.

Last thing he wanted to do was put Matt behind the wheel. Kid would probably just turn the car around on them.

Rick stepped away from the door, shifting the weight of his duffel bag from one shoulder to the other.

"Wonder what the odds are that Green back there got bored and left?" Funny thing about crazy people was you couldn't tell. Normal people would've wandered off if they weren't getting paid by the hour to play security guard. Another patient though? Yeah, he didn't know.

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That was disappointing, and Yuuko didn't bother to hide it. She didn't bother to dwell on it, either, though; it'd been an appealing thought, but it wasn't as though she'd set her heart on it. But...it still would've been fun. And a lot more interesting than wandering the hallways in search of a door to the outside.

She straightened up again, absently tucking a lock of hair behind one ear as she considered. From the way the girl in the front room had been acting, she seemed to think she was supposed to be guarding the door or something. And if that was the case, and with her luck, it wasn't likely she'd just get bored and wander off. And frankly, Yuuko had no interest whatsoever in encountering her again if she could avoid it.

"Doubt it. Could try one of the other doors instead." She cast a somewhat uneasy glance toward the other end of the hall. "Maybe not that one, though. It smells kind of like something electrical is going haywire down there, and...it's not something I really want to look into. There are doors to the courtyard through the cafeteria, or there's the rec field. The walls out there didn't look too high." Please let him say no to those; the last thing she wanted was to go out and climb walls in the cold.

[kindalikedit]

Yeah, he could see why she wouldn't wanna go that way - Rick smelled it too and they didn't want to walk into a bunch of livewires or whatever. Maybe that was why all the locks had failed, maybe they were automated or something. Didn't explain what the lights were doing on working in the rooms, but maybe they weren't hooked up to the same thing - he wasn't an electrician or nothing, so he could settle for just steering clear.

Although maybe if something was on fire, that was more of a reason to coax Matt to come with, in case it spread.

"Y'know, if someone's really on fire here, maybe we should go back and get my brother," Rick said, frowning. "Don't want something to happen when we're checking the exits."

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Ah, his brother again. Well, that was understandable enough. Yuuko didn't know where that smell was coming from, but it was strong enough that it did seem like maybe the wiring was about to go. Either that or lightning had just struck, but that was a little far-fetched even for someone like her. She couldn't smell smoke, but who knows when something would go up in flames?

"You have a point." Yuuko gave another glance toward the dark hall, then turned away back toward the front of the building again. "Where's your brother? Maybe we can find a staff member on the way and let them know what's going on." Even though they seemed...rather conspicuously absent tonight. If the doors were going to unlock and let people wander, shouldn't someone be keeping an eye on things?

I'll have to move us later tonight, about to leave for work

[kindalikedit]

"He's in M24," Rick was already moving, turning his back on the door as he flicked a glance at Yuuko. Even with the flashlight, he could barely make her face out, "Kinda surprised we haven't seen even an orderly or a janitor or something. You'd think a joint like this would have someone pulling graveyard shifts."

He took off down the hall, not jogging but definitely picking up the pace 'cause a lot of crap wasn't adding up and he wasn't sure if it was 'cause Mom would kill him if anything happened to Matt or if he still had some bleed-over with Dean's protectiveness. Okay, maybe he wasn't one hundred percent cured, but he figured most of it was good to go and getting protective over Matt for a change couldn't be a bad thing, even if it wasn't really him there. Rick checked to make sure Yuuko was still there (didn't want to turn around and see Green suddenly behind her like a friggen ninja) before continuing down to the end of the hall.

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