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Henry knew the routine of the lab almost down to the second, it had never changed, at least, not since he’d been pushed into the role of Orderly, sure, there had been more children brought into the lab, but, to his memory, nothing else ever changed, and today, like every other day for the past 20 odd years, was still no different.
This day, Henry noted as he eyes lingered on the small clock hung high on the rainbow room wall, was what he deemed ‘medical day’, check-ups were weekly, but every four months was bloodwork. Usually on these days, Henry would be worried about himself, unusually, he had a different thing to worry about entirely, something that he wanted to help with, and something he hoped Brenner would actually take seriously.
He lowered his eyes from the clock, focusing instead on the boy sitting in the farthest corner from him at the covered little tables, focused on drawing, 014. 014 had been having nightmares for a time now, even at his young age of only something like 5, and he lent heavily on Henry, he was the only consistent, genuinely caring worker in the building to the children, he knew all too well exactly what they were going through. This trust 014 had in him made Henry very aware of the struggle the boy was enduring, and earlier that day 014 had given him a drawing, a drawing that, to everyone else looked like nothing, a red coloured page, but, to Henry’s eye, when he looked close, a familiar silhouette stood out, a silhouette that looked exactly like The Creature, then the nightmares made a little more sense.
His thoughts came to a sudden halt as the double doors were pushed open, and in strode Brenner, his eyes scanning over the room, over his perfect little experiments. Henry couldn’t help but scowl subtly at his presence, his own self preservation kicking in once again as those cold eyes landed on him, subconsciously he straightened his posture, lifting his shoulders and turning one foot a little more inwards, dropping that scowl in favour of his usual, soft, calm, almost solemn expression.
“Peter, come here.” Brenner ordered, lifting a hand and pointing at him, snapping his fingers, then pointing down at the ground by his side, beckoning him over and catching the attention briefly of a few of the children nearby, Henry took a slow, deep, quiet breath through his nose at the gesture, something about it mixed with that name made him feel subhuman, but he couldn’t tell if it was those things, or just his tainted view of the man and every little action he made. He let his hands fall from his front to his side as he crossed the room to join him by the door without so much as a word, catching 014’s eye as he turned to watch the interaction and waved from his seat. Henry turned his head and waved timidly back as Brenner turned, and he followed him silently out of the rainbow room, with a wave of his hand, two other Orderlies fell into place behind Henry, trapping him loosely, and ensuring he fell in line.
“It will only be a moment, Peter.” Brenner said with a sickly sweet undertone, a glance over his shoulder and a mocking smile, all of which Henry was all too familiar with. With narrowed eyes, he nodded, and the small group of four walked without further conversation, the short distance gave him another few minutes to debate his next course of action, he recognised The Creature in 014’s drawing, it was hard to miss after this long of a time. Henry was torn, on one hand he wanted to tell Brenner, try and plead for him to help 014 and free him from the curse he was all too familiar with, but, The Creature wasn’t happy with him trying to tell anyone of its presence, it was relentless and unforgiving when he slipped up, just as the lab was. On the other hand he had a small spark of hope, maybe, just maybe The Creature was branching out, getting the others to open their eyes and help him, help him escape this place.
It was only a short walk to the mixed medical and science part of the lab, it was separate from the medical wing, the rooms were massive, high tech equipment and machines lined every wall, beds, chairs, things hanging from the ceiling or bolted to the floor, Henry knew a few of them, but only by what they did. Brenner walked calmly into a slightly smaller room, sterile and somewhat empty in comparison to so many of the other rooms here, there was a surgical table to the left, a trolley on wheels and a chair. In the centre of the room was another chair, this one was bolted down, bigger, leather restraints hanging from the arms, it reminded Henry of a long time ago, when he got 001 marked into his wrist, still, he stepped into the room, urged forward with a slight nudge from one of the two people behind him.
Brenner waved his hand again, signalling to the other Orderlies to stop and stay where they were just by the door to keep an eye on it, to guard it in the case of emergency.
“Take a seat.” The warmth in his tone was gone, the act dropped, the sickly sweetness giving way to ice. Henry stepped forward and sat in the chair, no matter how many times he did, he still felt a stir of anger, upset, fear. He hated it. He put his hands in his lap, turning his eyes down as he unbuttoned the cuff of his button-up around one wrist dutifully, his eyes catching on the folded paper peeking from his own pocket. With another moment of hesitance, he spoke, his gaze returning to the man setting up the equipment he needed.
“014.. “ he started warily, immediately gulping to cover over the subtle shake in his voice, he was not scared of him. “he had another nightmare.. “ it wasn’t the first time he had brought this up to Brenner, but with the added context he feared it was more important now. Brenner turned in his own chair and rolled it closer to the chair Henry was sitting in, standing and placing a single sensor on each temple; the full headpiece didn’t work with his hair. Brenner tsked softly at the other man's slight leaning away, a very weak attempt at protest. Henry didn’t see the point in the sensors, his powers were null, there was nothing there to track. Brenner’s eyes fixed back on his face at the mention of one of the others, and in turn Henry turned his eyes back to his hands in his lap, clasped together firmly.
“..Poor thing, there's always something up with that one, hm?” Brenner let out a light chuckle, sitting back down on the chair and pushing himself back to the desk, making sure the machine was up and running with no bumps or issues.
"Don't you think you should be doing something to help him with it..” Henry pushed further as he rolled up his sleeve to above his elbow. He reached into his pocket and took out the page 014 had given him, he unfolded it, straightening it out slightly.
“And do what exactly?” Brenner shot back, frowning as he half turned to look back at the other man, his eyes focusing on the paper in his hand. Henry turned the page around, away from himself, showing Brenner the mess of dark red layered crayon. Brenner reached and took it from his fingers, sighing and squinting as he tried to make out what it even was.
“This is just a coloured page” he almost laughed, folding it up again and putting it on the table as he moved back over to Henry’s side, a Henry who was not best pleased by that shoddy answer. Brenner reached and fixed his exposed arm to the arm of the chair with the heavy duty leather belt before continuing. “I’m looking after 17 kids Peter, I’m sure you out of everyone can see how busy and difficult it gets” he locked the second restraint in place, giving both a test tug. “I don’t have time to take care of nightmares, they’re a part of life.. You know that, if you think it’s such a big deal you can figure it out and come back to me.”
Henry couldn’t help but seethe, his hands balling into loose fists as he muttered under his breath. He knew what it was like to endure the nightmares the creature gave him, he’d been having them since he was only 8 years old himself, he just wanted to make 014’s life a little less miserable in this place. He looked down at his needle scarred arm as the area was sterilised skillfully.
“He's a skittish kid, he's going to get scared.” Brenner said as he put the cotton aside and grabbed a rubber armband, putting it around Henry’s upper arm and tightening it painfully, ignoring the subsequent wincing. “What was that you said?” He questioned further as he checked his veins a few times.
Henry paused, weighing his options now, the ice under him was thinning the more he pushed this, he could tell, Brenner’s patience was running thin. “You’re no help” He hissed, against his better judgement, maybe it was the uncomfortable squeezing that tipped him, either way, he knew he’d fucked it when Brenner froze, he didn’t get angry like a normal person, and that scared Henry more than he wanted to admit, he stayed calm, he stayed sweet, and he got into your head, threats felt much more dangerous. As Brenner reached into a nearby drawer, Henry braced himself, quickly leaning practically out of the chair as a small taser was lifted close to his torso, followed with a thinly veiled warning.
“The ice you’re on is thinning quickly, Peter.” Brenner’s voice was almost too still as he spoke, his thumb hovering over the button for a brief moment. “Watch yourself.” He pulled it back and put it back in the drawer with a clatter. With that warning, Henry gave up fighting, but it didn’t stop his swelling anger.
Henry bounced his leg restlessly as he watched the needle and vials get prepared, and he tried in vain to will his powers to work again, to snap the restraints, kill the man on the spot. “Control yourself.” Brenner said bluntly as he noticed a slight wave in the reading. Henry looked at him, then back at the needle sucking in a deep breath as Brenner moved closer and holding it. Brenner aimed carefully before pressing the point in with precision, dragging a pained whine from Henry, who clenched his jaw and let out the breath with one heavy huff.
Two vials filled up quickly, and soon, Brenner removed the needle, pressing a cotton swab to the slight injury and taping it down with a nod, he stood once more, turning off the machine, taking the sensors off and lastly undoing the restraints, turning after to label the vials wordlessly. Henry cupped a hand over the swab taped to his arm, trying to draw his focus away from the stinging pain, only succeeding when Brenner spoke once again. “Get rid of that when you head back” He grabbed the folded paper from the medical desk and dropped it on Henry’s lap “I need you to help bring the younger ones here, they need their tests done.”
Henry stared down at the paper in his lap, rolling his sleeve down with immense care as before he picked it up with his non-aching arm, holding it tight and glancing at Brenner as he got closer, gritting his teeth, a part of him wanted to yell and lash out at him, it had for a long time, but in the past that only ever ended in misfortune for him.
"I don't want to go back to the rainbow room.. My arm hurts.. " he said simply, it was a pathetic excuse, he just didn't want to go back to that room and lie to 014, lie to him and tell him that Papa cared, that Papa wouldn’t let him keep dealing with this. He kept his eyes on the floor, his fist tight on the paper in his hand. Brenner scoffed.
“It’ll fade in a few minutes..” He looked away from the other vials he was setting up, looking back at him with a raised eyebrow “Would you prefer I ask someone else?” Henry knew what he was insinuating, none of the other Orderlies treated any of them with care, they were harsh, firm and nowhere near as gentle, as 001, he knew. He stood and put the drawing back in his pocket, defeated.
Henry kept quiet as he walked towards the door. “Why is this nightmare thing bothering you so much?” Brenner questioned, turning a little to look at him as he stopped.
“Why does it matter? You won’t care regardless” Henry replied.
“Just because I think it's unimportant doesn’t mean I don't care”
“If you cared, you’d think it's important.”