Chapter Text
Just another night shift at the hospital, were everything went smoothly and was under control with the keen eyes of the Secret Agent and Security guard, keeping their focus awake and alert sharp for any anomaly showing up.
The Inter was filing in some visitators while they were waiting for the coffee to be done, wanting to serve a warm one to their friend Barney as it would have warmed him up, given the low temperatures outside. Barney was gladly chatting with them, even if their only response was a twitch of a bigger smile or a small nod, his friend wasn't much of a talker...but they were still pleasant to talk to.
A beep could be heard as the coffee was ready, Intern was serving a cup of it to their friend and the nurse joined in the check-in room to pour a cup for herself too, happily joining their chit-chat.
They talked for a while, but eventually Barney had to leave, excusing himself as he had some "business" to do, thanking the Intern for their kindness and the Nurse for the chat. As they watched him leave, the Nurse started talking about how charismatic Barney seemed, which earned her an eye roll from the Secret Agent...the cat wasn't exactly fond of Barney.
He had always sensed something weird within him, maybe it was the subtle smell of something metallic mixed with something sharp and chemical, but it was overpowered by the strong scent of coffee beans...the others didn't have a much finer nose like him, but he was there in alert for them in case something did happen.
Crossing the threshold of the hospital, was a new figure that they had never seen before. They dressed sporty and had pinkish fur, similar to the Nurse's. Bright eyes, cap on their head that somewhat made them look boyish, and a smell of fresh paper and something sweet mingling in the clean-smelling air of the hospital.
They stopped at the check-in window, the Intern immediately approached the desk as the Secretary started browsing in the data files on the computer.
“Hello! I'm Elisabeth, you can call me Liz for short!” their voice was high-pitched and sounded very eager and friendly, their loud speaking making the Secret Agent look over the check-in window.
“I'm a newsreporter! Well...I was.” she continued, her tone drooping a bit.
“I'm here to ask you a favour...I think that something is wrong with one of the patients that regularly visits this hospital, and I tried to tell the others at work, but they didn't believe me! If I managed to get my proof, I could write the scoop of the year! So, I'm here to ask you if you could snap a picture with my camera when the patient checks-in.” she requested, her voice going back to cheerful as she clutched her camera in her hands.
The Intern and the Nurse exchanged a look, pondering if they should accept the odd yet interesting quest, they accepted, nodding at the newcomer, who squealed in delight.
“Thank you! Please be careful with my camera, it has UV lights, an advanced model perfect for to unmask anomalies! The patient I'm looking for is Emi Yoon. I count on you guys, I'll be back tomorrow!” she said, setting her camera on the desk, which was curiously eyed by the Secretary...he didn't want anything to do with this.
The Nurse and the Intern watched Liz exit the hospital, the dog took the camera carefully in her hands, moving it around and inspecting it.
“This looks awesome!” she said as she giggled, the Intern nodded at her words, agreeing with her. The advanced camera did look awesome.
“You shouldn't trust strangers so easily...” the Secret Agent commented, he had watched them for the whole interaction, and he was quite skeptical of his friends' side quest.
“Oh, come on! It's just a camera...what could possibly go wrong? We're detecting anomalies with this one, we're doing good!” the Nurse tried to uplift his grumpy mood, but all she earned was a scoff in reply.
Just as they finished talking, the Head Nurse walked out with her patient bandaged up and his visitator walking beside him.
“Quit it, you stupid rat...what did you come here for anyway?” he muttered, looking rather pissed, but the other just snickered at his mumbled words.
“What? You don't like the company of a friend?” the other replied, looking very short next to him.
“Please stop bickering, I had enough of you two during the whole treatment...” the Head Nurse pleaded with tensed up anger on her shoulders, the two hadn't stopped talking since they walked in room 1.
The Head Nurse led both of them to the check-in window to note down their leaving, she looked rather tired, so the Secretary set a cup with the last drops of warm coffee on the desk, next to her hand scribbling on paper, the Head Nurse muttered a small "thank you" under her breath as she was focused on the task at hand.
Once she was done, she set her pen down and looked at her patient, holding the warm cup of coffe in the other.
“Next time you start suffering from face paralysis and bad flu, get it treated immediately and don't wait an entire week...and for the love of god, start wearing scarves and hats during winter.” she scolded, taking a sip of her drink.
“Will do.” the patient replied, his face still a bit swollen from the treatment applied, also feeling extremely hot as he had to lay down with warm chamomile compresses on his face to lessen the face paralysis effects.
“You look and sound ridiculous...” the rat snarkly said, earning a harsh glare from his friend.
“I do not! Stop being a jerk—” the other tried to defend himself, his words slurring a bit and his face merely twitching in an angry expression as it was still suffering from the face paralysis the harsh cold had given him.
The Head Nurse sighed and walked into the check-in room to sit down for a bit while she enjoyed her coffee and her break, the Nurse's eyes lightening up in a bright idea.
“You guys happen to be here at the right time! A newsreporter gave us an advanced camera to identify anomalies, me and Intern want to try it out, are you up for a group photo?” she asked excitedly.
“I'm out.” the Head Nurse replied, before going back to her coffee.
“Well I'm out too.” the patient replied, adjusting his glasses.
“Oh, come on, have fun for once! Let's take that picture, it'll be quick.” his friend incouraged him, he was somewhat mocking him, he knew exactly that his friend wasn't exactly perfect-picture in his current state. Still, the patient begrudgingly groaned in agreement.
“Fine...let's take the picture.”
“Alright, a little bit to the left please...” the Secretary requested, looking at them through the lense of the advanced camera as they posed for their picture. Ron could barely put on a decent expression, Ratthew managed to get on his tip toes to fit in the frame and the Nurse was flashing a fun pose, the Intern had his usual unwavering smile.
“Ready? Say 'cheese'!” the Secretary said seconds before taking the picture, a slight purple-ish flash could be seen, the bright light startling the Intern.
The Polaroid started printing out the picture, it was pitchblack before the photo started to appear minutes later of shaking it around.
The colorful ink appeared, the group becoming more clear in the frame. The Head Nurse, who had been standing next the Secretary to enjoy the little show, took the picture out of his hands to take a look:
"Hmm...looks normal to me, nothing too extraordinary.” she blatantly commented.
“Maybe, that's because we aren't anomalies!” the Nurse cheerfully replied, coming next the Head Nurse to check their picture.
“You should hang a copy of this in your office...” the rat said, nudging his friend, who didn't satisfy him with an answer to his jabbing.
“Come on, now back to work.” the Head Nurse ordered, Ron exited the hospital and Ratthew sat in the Check-in office, talking the Intern's ear off while they checked in patients.
Another shift came, still crispy night air out but more manageable than the day before. Ron came in for checkup, this time with a scarf around his neck and a hat keeping his head and ears warm. The Nurse was sticking the picture they had left on the desk on the wall, next to the check-in window with some tape she brought from her apartment before going to work, the Intern watched her quietly.
The doors of the hospital opened, that fresh paper and sweet aroma could be smelled again as Liz walked in, looking eager and excited for her proof.
“Hey, it's me again! You took that picture, right?” she could barely restrain her excitement, jumping on her feet like a kid at Christmas Eve.
“Uh yeah, we asked our Security guard to take the picture!” the Nurse replied, but the Security guard coughed awkwardly.
“What's wrong?” she asked as she approached them.
“Well, I tried to take a picture of the patient you asked me...but the camera wasn't working, it kept saying 'no cartridge avaible'!” he whispered, trying to not be heard, not that Liz would have heard them as she was loudly talking to the Intern.
“Huh, really?”
“Yeah, I think the only one left was the one you used for the group photo yesterday...” the guard replied, scratching the back of his neck.
The Nurse's face paled, now she had to deal with bitter disappointment by their new friend who trusted them with their career success!
She sadly made her way to the check-in window, walking slower than usual, her weird demour quickly noticed by Liz.
“What's wrong?” she tilted her head curiously, her tail still wagging.
“Uhh, I think we failed at the task...we used the camera to take a group picture.” she ashamedly admitted, cheeks tainted red and hands fiddling.
Liz's expression dropped, her excitement seeping away and giving way to annoyance, her tail also stopped wagging.
“What? It had only one cartridge left! Do you know how much UV cartridges cost?!” she complained, harshly taking back the camera that was handed to her, now empty and useless, unfairly wasted.
“You wasted my camera, I'm getting out of here!” she said, before leaving the hospital and shutting the door behind her, storming away as patients in the waiting room eyed at her weirdly.
....at least they had a group photo now, hanging in the check-in room.