savetheearth | general clinic log

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general clinic log

Who: Drs. Solus or Strider, various patients.
What: Echo checkups
When: Whenever
Where: LSR clinic

The LSR clinic, despite its run-down, beat-up appearance, is actually fairly clean on the inside. Lit by white fluorescent lights, it's generally pretty empty, with the occasional non-network patient coming in to get something looked at. A volunteer is usually found running the front desk, organizing papers and responding to phone calls, while Dr. Solus and Dr. Strider take care of the actual medical business.

The waiting room is barebones compared to other clinics and medical practices - LSR doesn't have the money to get entertainments for the waiting patients, so all that's available are a few chairs.

When it's your turn for an appointment, whoever's at the desk will direct you down a hallway to the left, and you will meet one of the doctors.

[ooc: general clinic log! all checkups for crazy echoes can take place here. specify dr. solus or dr. strider in the subject line.]

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[He has his own. But he's also learned to look out for it in his patients]

[He feels terrible that this is all he can do for her, wishes he could do more. But he can't. Certainly not while he's internally freaking out, himself. It's a small gesture, but he hopes it helps.]

[He gathers up the file and stands, inconspicuously sliding a box of tissues from the back of the desk toward the center as he does.]

It's fine. Take as long as you need.

Leave the door open when you are ready.

[He leaves, easing the door shut after him. He'll hand her file off to the doctor--Dr. Solus, preferably, in light of the situation with Dr. Strider--and let him know that she is not ready to be seen yet but Ravi will let him know when she is.]

[He has other work to do, so he's not just standing in the hallway waiting for her, but he keeps an eye on the door and keeps checking back periodically.]

[he's such a good person. that's the first thing that Brooke lets herself think about after he leaves, after the door closes. it's also the last thing she thinks about before everything else comes flooding in and she finally breaks. she's spent most of her life trying to get into this profession, to help people in their darkest times and to make a name for herself as a compassionate human being. and now she's been... drafted into some war that she didn't even know existed at the beginning of summer, and it looks like the universe has finally upgraded its thousand-cuts policy.]

[she doesn't deserve this. but what "this" is, well. she doesn't deserve to lose her job, or her livelihood, or her arm, but she also doesn't feel like she deserves people like Ravi, or anybody she's friends with right now. who would? she's a mortician who can't even do her own job. she's a lush. yeah, social drinking, whatever, she's a barfly. no use dressing it up. hah. god. is she going to lose her arm? will she need special shirts from now on? it's almost hilarious. hilarious if she weren't sobbing openly into her hand.]

[she feels disgusting. she looks worse, at least in her mind. damn it, she's an adult, and adults don't do this. she's a professional businesswoman, she isn't supposed to be breaking down in a doctor's office because of something she doesn't have any control over. nothing makes sense anymore. grief is something she understands, but she's been lucky enough, for the most part, to only see it from the outside. other people are easy. other people have always been easy. when the lens turns inward... well, it's anybody's guess. even if Brooke had ever really thought she'd known herself, she has somebody else bubbling to the surface, and it's more than she can handle.]

[it's all just... so hard.]

[He gives her twenty minutes. After that he waffles between 'maybe I should check up on her' and 'maybe she's just not ready yet'. There's another five minutes of waffling, where even though he's inclined to assume she will open the door when she's ready to, he decides he's worried enough to check up on her anyway.]

[He returns to the exam room, leans against the door to listen for a response, and knocks lightly.] Brooke?

[wow. how long has it been? she'd just kind of... zoned out after she'd finished crying. the wall she'd been staring at before Ravi knocked wasn't particularly interesting, but it did its job of keeping her mind focused on the middle distance. she gets to her feet slowly and opens the door, averting her eyes at the owner of the familiar and too-kind voice.]

Hi. Sorry I took so long. [suddenly she's very acutely aware—and thankful—that she hadn't put on makeup today. the way she looks outside might match how she feels inside if she had. wow, could she be any more dramatic? probably. but she doesn't have the energy. at any rate, her eyes are red, and her eyelids are already looking kind of puffy when she decides to face her friend.]

I know you said the clinic probably can't make me a cast. [not to her specifications, at least, but what's the point of those when she can't move her arm on her own terms? she musters up what must be the last shred of hope in her body and pushes it into her words.] But... can you?

[He straightens away from the door once he hears her turning the handle and tries to pretend he wasn't leaning against it.]

Don't worry about it. [automatic. he notices that she looks like she's been crying, but pretends he hasn't.]

Ah--a real one, they could. But a fake one... [pause, his eyes drift away, he rubs his right elbow as he considers.] I can figure something out, I think.

[yeah, they're both doing a lot of pretending. right now, she's pretending the reason he looked away is for something other than how pathetic she must look to him. ugh, is this what it's like to be in the throes of... space depression seems like such a silly name. depression. doubt. that thing.]

[that last bit of hope scraped up from the bottom, though, it's pretty concentrated. she forces a smile through the haze of her mind.]

I could pay you for it, if you want. [she has insurance, but she might want to keep this particular claim off the record.] I don't expect any pro bono help.

[he looks back in time to see the smile, but he doesn't echo it. his brow furrows instead because he doesn't quite understand why she'd be offering to pay him when he thought it went without saying that he would be doing it for free.]

You don't need to pay me. You are a friend. [and also she's not working so it wouldn't even be fair to charge her]

[just because she isn't working doesn't mean she doesn't have rich-ass parents she could mooch off if she absolutely needed to, but she'd really already thought enough about that option enough for one day.]

Yeah, but this is your job. [she might sound emphatic, but she's not about to insist that she pay. speaking of things she'd already thought about enough today...] Thanks, though. It means a lot to me. I mean, this, and that you're still my friend, too.

[puzzled smile, he folds his arms, unfolds one to gesture vaguely to indicate the clinic, refolds it.] This is volunteer-work. I am here for free anyway. [maybe that will let her tell herself whatever she needs to tell herself to be comfortable with it?]

[he's not sure how to respond to being thanked for still being her friend. it sounds like an odd thing to thank someone for, but he understands the sentiment, he thinks, because he has had moments where he is just overwhelmingly grateful to his friends for not abandoning him.]

I don't make friends easily. So I do my best to keep the ones I have. [it's an attempt to reassure her that she doesn't need to worry about it]

Yeah... likewise. [she lets the subject of payment drop, at least for now. later on, once she figures out a way to get income again, she might "accidentally" leave a bag of money for Ravi somewhere.]

I have work friends, I guess, but I don't have people I really hang out with outside of work. Not that this is hanging out. [or that it's outside of work. she's still terrified of what could happen next, but she has this sense of relief slowly building inside her, too. she smiles down at Ravi, and this time it's not at all forced or hard-fought.] Once this blows over, we should, like, see a movie or something. And criticize all the medical procedures in it. Crap. What do people with normal jobs do for fun?

[wow they're even in the same boat about that. He has work friends, but the only person he really hangs out with beyond that is Alex. that is really depressing to think about...]

[So he is going to shove it out of mind for the moment.]

[he cocks his head and gives her a wry smile] If I have to give up picking apart terrible movies for fun to be normal, I'll pass.

A man of his principles. I like that.

[he really is doing a lot, even just by being here, to lift her spirits. if he's the only friend she makes around here? well, she'll consider her time very well spent.]

Do you drink? We could hit a bar instead. [this time, she's aware how much it might seem like she's asking him on a date, but... you know what, she feels confident enough that her intention is clear. she's starting to get comfortable with these happy, in-peace feelings.] Just, you know, celebrating normality. As normal as it gets, anyway.

[he does, but not much. drinking is a special occasion thing for him now, and that's what she's proposing, so...] Sure. I'd like that.

[it doesn't even occur to him that it might sound like she's asking him on a date. or that it sounds like he's accepting one. GOOD BECAUSE OTHERWISE THIS WOULD BE MEGA-AWKWARD RIGHT]

Cool. [just two friends going out to drink together. honestly, Brooke's proud of herself for arranging this kind of thing.]

So... okay, I guess the next question is, once I get the cast on, how long should it stay on? Since it's just for show and everything. I broke my wrist when I was a lot younger, but, well, bones don't heal as fast at this age. [jeez, girl, you're 24, chill with the melodrama.]

[skeptical eyebrow-arch] How old are you? [he is definitely older than her, so that's a little insulting]

Normally a cast stays on four to eight weeks, depending on the injury and patient. Since this is only for show, it can be as long as you like.

Old enough to have an unnatural stiffness in the joints. [she can't help but smirk.] I think six weeks sounds good. Right in the middle, plus I can... I guess I can use the time to try to find additional work. If I absolutely have to, I mean.

I can tell you right now, though, leaving the field isn't exactly the most appealing option. I like helping people.

[ 8| what are you like 25 tops? he'll just give her an unamused look and let it drop, though. (he'll realize that was a joke about the condition of her arm about 20 minutes from now)]

[the mention of her needing to find new work drags his mood straight back down to that anxiety he was trying to avoid thinking about, though. being forced to find a new career is a huge life change and he doesn't even know what he'd do if that happened to him.]

There are a lot of ways to help people.

[he would like to be more encouraging than that, but he just CAN'T DEAL atm, so he's going to cut this short instead] Are you ready for me to get the doctor, then?

Oh, wow, sorry. I totally forgot I was eating into time.

[she takes a couple steps back, her body almost instinctively trying to make itself look as small as possible. if she were in a better mood, she'd probably be able to tell that his reaction here is deliberate. now, she just feels like whatever it is that's rushing them along is her fault.]

Yeah, I'll... just wait here until the doctor's ready. Thanks for talking to me for this long. [nope, not really feeling the eye contact thing right now.] I'll, um, talk to you more later.

Don't worry about it. [he means that honestly.]

[he steps back, precursor to leaving] You can call or text me anytime you want to talk, alright? [that offer's actually a pretty big deal coming from him.]

[but he is just going to leave it at that and go off to fetch Dr. Solus now. bc CAN'T DEAL]

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