Chapter Text
After closing and locking the door behind him, he immediately crashed on the couch, looking disheveled. Who knew that juggling two jobs at once was so difficult? At least one of them was simpler in terms of workload. He was tired but he still had some work to finish. As if on cue, he felt his phone ring in his pocket. He took it out and answered, placing his phone to his ear. “Hello..?”
“Hello, Secret Agent 13. How is your investigation at the hospital? You noted last week that the Intern seemed to warm up to the team. Anything else besides the freaky face and the way it speaks?”
Agent paused for a moment, swallowing saliva to stop himself to say anything. “…Well, recently we did have a large influx of ambulances. Um, they collapsed from exhaustion but nothing else really.”
“Any new anomalies?”
“..No. Not that I know of or noted.”
“Hm.. any research done on how they get sick?”
“No. I tried, but it’s the same old results. Although, I did find different results from normal patients versus patients who were possessed.. and straight anomalies versus patients who seemed normal, then turned into Mimics.”
There was a pause on the line which made him a little nervous.
“You mentioned the Intern collapsing due to exhaustion, and last week an ungodly sleep schedule that was nearly impossible to survive on its own. Are you positive it’s not an anomaly, or anything?”
Agent’s heart rate sped up, trying to keep his boss at bay. “Ahh.. a-about that- I’m.. still not entirely sure.. I keep a close eye on them but- can’t tell.”
“Alright… That’s all you have for a report?”
“Yes, sorry for the lack of info boss. It’s been pretty much the same for now, but it does seem like there’s a surge of anomalies somewhere. You may want to check on that. I’m not sure how much I can disclose incase- you know.”
“Right. Call me if anything surges, and I’ll check in next week.”
And.. the line went silent. He looked at his phone and turned it off, staring at the screen for a moment before getting his computer from under the coffee table, turning it on, and logging in. He needed to finish some reports for the hospital too. He opened some documents for patient stats, things that need to be refilled, things to be approved. He filled in everything as if on autopilot, but paused at something. It read:
“NOTICE - CONFIRMATION FOR TRIP TO…”
And, he closed it out. He didn’t really care for any sort of trips, nor could he. He had to stay back at the hospital to try and see what actually triggers anomalies. It’s been some grueling months, but the team- and Intern- makes it worth it for him. Maybe he could use Intern to research.. but he feels like that’s immoral for him. After filling out a few more stats, he opened some more documents and checked them before closing his computer. It’s been.. what, 20 minutes? Oh wow, time passed by quickly.
He got up to go to the kitchen and made a quick bowl of cereal.. just some knockoff Cheerios and milk, and he ate it fast, almost scarfing it down. Once he finished, he set the dishes in the sink, putting a little water in the bowl before walking away to his bathroom. He was very exhausted and wanted to get ready for bed asap. When he entered his bathroom, he began to brush his teeth, taking quick glances at the storage closet and noting small snippets of medical tape. He thought about it all while brushing, finishing with spitting out the toothpaste and rinsing with water and mouthwash. He then moved to his bedroom, got some pajamas, changed, and laid down in bed, tucking himself in. He set his alarm to 6:30am and turned to where Intern once was. He could only think of them, really. He missed them a lot and was very excited to see them at work tomorrow!
Ring, ring! Ring, ring!
Oh my god, who was calling at this hour..!? He grumbled and lazily turned over to grab his phone, answering it.
“Helloo..?”
A bit of silence.
“Hi, Assistant. How has the hospital been doing recently?”
“It’s been good, you already visited yesterday.. Harlow- it’s 10 pm, why are you calling at this god forsaken hour??”
“…Well, I only wanted to check in on your part. No misconduct from any employees?”
“No- if there was any I would’ve reported it to you already?” Agent sat up, annoyed and tired, but he needed to focus.
“True… And, how was Intern? I heard from the grapevine that you helped him recover.”
He paused for a moment, very flustered visibly but he kept his composure over the phone. “Um.. who told you? A-Also, yes. I didn’t have the heart to leave him at the hospital, so I took him home.”
“Hm.. Okay. No funny business?”
“N-No!?- And who told you!?” He was practically fuming, expecting it to be Nurse.
“Relax, I’m glad you took care of him. The staff likes to talk, you know that. I’m not mad at you. But if you’re going to continue this, you better protect him well- and I mean it.”
He relaxed a bit and sighed in relief. “..Yes boss.”
“Good. I’ll see you in three days.”
“What??-“
But before Agent could ask any more questions, the line went silent. He wasn’t expecting another consecutive check in, but oh well. He turned off his phone and finally was able to lay down and rest. He laid on his own pillow sideways, grabbing the pillow Intern laid on and hugging it. He closed his eyes and nuzzled his nose into the edge of the pillow as if it was Intern’s head, waiting to drift to sleep.
—
It was the next day and the alarm caught him off guard. He rushed to slap his alarm clock until it stopped beeping so loudly, and then he sat up to wake himself faster as he adjusted to the natural light of the morning. He liked having slightly sheer curtains as they helped him wake up more. He rubbed his eyes and sat at the edge of the bed to put his slippers on, repeating the same old routine of getting ready.
—
He was in the middle of helping direct an ambulance, shooting anomalies, trying to help treat critical patients. He was running from room to room, frantically making sure all the patients were safe. He helped the team get the right treatments, corrected any mistakes last minute before anybody died, scrubbed in on surgery, and he himself treated patients. The hospital was FULL with every room being taken, and ambulance patients waiting on rooms in the lobby. He was about to run to room 5 where Head Nurse was calling him.
“Come on, we don’t have much time Assistant!” She frantically waved him over.
“I’m trying to run!!” While in the process, he got attacked by an anomaly from behind (and from room 4) and he was trying to fight it. Head Nurse screamed, but she couldn’t do much because the patient was about to die, so she had to focus on that. He almost lost when he felt it suddenly jolt and jump off, fully still on the ground. He looked up to see Intern with a taser aimed at the anomaly. He looked a bit shaken and very worried.
“Doctor- you.. you’re hurt! Let Intern take care of you..” They rushed to Agent, holding their arm to look at the injuries.
“Psh, I-I’m fine.. there’s no need to worry.” Agent looked away, shaking his head softly. He was also stumbling some. But before he could do anything, Intern was already dragging him to the nearest room.
“Sit.” They pointed to the examination bed.
He reluctantly laid down, and it started looking through his injuries. He was nervous and tried not to think too much of it, but he felt a sharp pain in his chest.. the anomaly got to him deep, especially because it was by surprise. He applied pressure with one paw, which caught Intern’s attention. It gently grabbed his paw, moving it aside. There was a deeper wound there. Interned slowly unbuttoned his shirt only around the area to get a better look at it. Agent’s heart skipped a beat, trying not to freak out. Intern left the room and came back with some treatments, notably bandages and wound ointment.
“Shirt off.. Intern needs to patch up Doctor.”
Agent slowly took off his blazer, his tie, and his blouse, laying down in pain. Intern started treating the wounds, simply adding ointment to scratches, and covering deeper ones with bandages so they could heal better. Once it was done, it got a blanket from one of the cabinets and placed it over Agent’s body.
“..Stay. Doctor can put clothes on in some time, but Doctor must heal.” Intern was adjusting the blanket fully, face near Agent’s. It kissed his head very quick before sitting down next to him, leaning its head on the examination bed.
Agent was left speechless, unsure what to say. “..Thanks, bun.” He peeked a paw out from under the blanket, and Intern took it. The two sat in silence once more until Agent recovered. Once done, Intern got up and gently removed the blanket, helping him put his clothes back on bit by bit as he sat up. Agent was in pain, but he was alive. He had to drink some coffee quick before his sanity was too low.
But, Head Nurse saw the attack and already came in with a cup of coffee. “For you, Assistant. Seriously, thank you for taking the attack.. I already got attacked earlier. I’m fine now though.” She handed the coffee over to him as Intern was still fixing his blazer.
“Thanks, HN. I’m a bit shaken up but I’m fine too.” He took the coffee and sipped on it, slowly regaining his sanity. “How’s everyone else?”
“The rest of the patients are good, and everyone else got to regain their sanity.” Head Nurse glanced at Intern, then back at Agent. “I.. can leave you two alone until he’s done curing you.” Head Nurse then left without another word.
And so, the two were alone again. Agent made room for Intern to sit next to him, so it climbed up and leaned on him gently as to not cause any further injury. He should be fine by tomorrow.
Meanwhile, Nurse, Psychologist, and Surgeon were on break near the shop. They were discussing Agent and Intern.
Psychologist swung his coffee around. “Have you guys seen those two? They absolutely love each other, I wouldn’t be surprised if they were already dating, personally.”
“Pfft, as if Assistant has the nerve to admit it..” Surgeon used a lot of hand motions to exaggerate their words. “To me it seems like a situationship where they clearly love each other, but aren’t admitting it yet.”
Nurse nodded. “I saw them hugging to hell yesterday- they probably didn’t move for 10 minutes! They remind me of THOSE couples in theme park lines.”
“Oh don’t get me started on those people, they make me so mad!” Surgeon crossed their arms together.
“Well,” followed Psychologist, “the best thing to do in those situations is either look away or distract yourself. I get the frustration too, it’s simply unnecessary- but, animals will do what animals will do.”
“Sure, say that when two of them are making out and breathing down your neck.” Nurse rolled her eyes.
“Well- that’s a very different situation and it should be shut down!” He rubbed his nose bridge, which made the other two laugh.
“Honestly.. they’re very cute together I can’t lie, but my god I need them to actually focus.” Surgeon turned to Nurse, who nodded in agreement.
“Sometimes they get a little distracted, and over small things Assistant tends to.. over-attend to Intern sometimes, like he’s its personal attendant.. it’s quite silly to me.” She paused for a moment. “Honestly reminds me of HN and how attentive she is to patient’s needs. And I get it, being in a hospital is scary.”
Psychologist nodded along. “That’s why I instruct the rest of you to be similar with the patients, and I guess Intern already adopted that before anything because he’s still quite silent with patients.”
“Mhm,” agreed Surgeon. They then saw Paramedic come in with a fresh coffee brew, as his break just started. Surgeon was baffled. “Man- where’d you get that!?”
“..The coffee machine?” Paramedic was extremely confused.
“Oh.. so I missed it.” Disappointed, Surgeon leaned against the wall dramatically.
“Don’t worry, you’ll get some in a moment. The second machine is almost done.” Paramedic took a sip, savoring the wakening quality of fresh, piping hot black coffee.. with just a little sugar and creamer, maybe.
Surgeon got off the wall, dabbing Paramedic up. “Welp, I gotta go since my break’s over. See y’all!” They waved to everyone and they all waved back, saying bye at the same time.
—
It was once again night, and Intern was prepping the medical rooms for the night. Luckily, Paramedic helped it clean the floors and such, and it just needed to organize the area. Although, once he was done, he needed to go to Dr. Harlow’s office. It liked Harlow, he was like a parent figure to them. Harlow was more fascinated with them, obliged to be, after the Corporation ran tests on them. It was horrified of anesthesia of any kind, actually. even if it was irrational. So it scrubbed in after anesthesia was administered. But, not even Harlow knew that Intern stayed after hours.
Now that Intern was done, they made their way over to Harlow’s office and knocked, opening the door.
“Have a seat.” Harlow motioned to the chair near his desk, and they sat. “So, we need to check in really quick. How is it with you and Assistant? You two have created quite the buzz in the drama circle of everyone else.”
Intern sat there nervously, unsure what to say. “Good. Intern.. Intern likes Doctor very much.”
“Does he treat you well?”
Their face burned up. “..Yes.”
“Very well then, that’s all I needed to know. You’re dismissed.” Harlow turned around to pick up a journal and write down more formulas, trying to figure something out.
Intern quietly got up and left, making its way to the office. He signed out at 11:56 pm and repeated the same routine as always before going to bed, except with the new addition of the tie before sleeping. It was.. an eventful day, that’s for sure, and he wasn’t sure what was next. Tomorrow was the trip and it should be just him there. He closed his heavy eyes and drifted off to sleep.
—
Next day, another slow night.. yeah, night. The hospital was usually open in the mornings, but for now it was the afternoon and past that. She woke up earlier just to enjoy the morning without worrying about sleep or anybody coming in. This was one of the rare times he could actually enjoy himself. He put some coffee to brew and took some creamer out of the mini fridge, waiting for it to finish. One it dinged, she took the mug and put the creamer into it, then took one sip. It satisfied her sweet tooth, so she was quite happy with it. They put the creamer back and chugged the coffee quickly, setting down the mug firmly and gasping for breath. It went to go put down the shutters, ready to enjoy time to itself a little more, but they heard the bell from the door ring.