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The lights on the ever so dirty old ceiling hums, the artificial light almost way too glaring to Secret Agent's golden eyes, causing his irises to contract and his head throb even harder than before. 'Ugh..' Agent's paws reach out to his head as if that would even help with the throbbing, almost devouring pain that strikes through his skull making his fur stand up uncomfortably, his ears pinned back and his tail lashing in annoyance behind him. The bell doesn't help.'Gosh..can these patients stop?' he thought, ignoring what they said in favor of focusing on checking them thoroughly.
Originally, Agent thought he'd stay home for the day—But he had gotten a call from Dr.Harlow that made him feel uneasy. The kind of uneasy that made thinking hurt even more than the headache that wrecked his aching temple. So he had decided to go to the hospital, even if he needed a sick day— It's bold of him to even assume that he could get a sick day with how understaffed the hospital is and he was a rather new hire.
It wouldn't be proper to not show up, especially if he got a call from the animal that hired him in the first place. So, Agent didn't really have much of a choice in the first place.
Doesn't change the amount of pain he's in though. And trust him, he had tried to drink coffee- the only other way to raise sanity in this forsaken hospital, but the pain doesn't leave. It stays there, constantly knocking on the walls of his skull and makes his vision spin. He grumbles under his breath, quickly making sure to not appear rude as he hands out the printed badge to the waiting patient. Of course Agent made sure that they're not an anomaly- His head might hurt to a huge extent but he's not about to risk his coworkers lives because of it.
However, Agent has never been more annoyed that neither of the Secretaries were available, although it might be a blessing in disguise.
Yes, Secret Agent hasn't been here for long at the hospital, however he already feels a certain way about animals that can't do their job right. Mistakes are normal,they happen. However it still annoys him regardless if its avoidable. He does trust the more tired looking Secretary though, not alot, but enough to not worry.
Come to think of it, if he had to choose who he trusts the most— Agent would choose his cousin, known in the hospital as the Head Nurse. She is a capable worker and he's proud of her. Even if the place the two of them work at is a hell hole with no thanks and mostly impatient patients.
At the end of the day, what matters is everyone's well being and for the hospital, it's lack of patient deaths. And for Agent, it's progress in his own mission. Although slow, due to him being limited to mostly the office- He manages to learn more through his own…ways. He is afterall a secret agent, disguised as a Clerk to everyone in the hospital, and his family. Of course unlike the hospital staff, his family know him by his name. Fortunately, this sorry excuse of a hospital has a rule of not knowing eachothers names. To Agent, it's quite efficient as he remains with his identity hidden, exception being his cousin.
Not like it matters, as the both of them have more than likely signed the same NDA, from his research it seems like the Animal Corp makes all of their employees sign one. Agent can guess why, he rolls his eyes.
The movement causing a sharp pain to spread through his head, forcing his eyes shut. 'Fuck..I forgot about this pain.' He reaches his paw out to his head, slightly opening his eyes, well eye. The other eye is doing everything it can to not function right. "Atleast there's no patients." he grumbles, getting out of the office. Unsurprisingly, Agent hasn't been much outside the office, the only time he had even gone far enough in the hospital was during his tour when he was first hired. He had always thought the hallways seemed more unsettling than normal, almost as if they were alive.
Which wouldn't be possible in a normal hospital—But this isn't a normal hospital. It's a hospital owned by Animal Corp. It's anything but normal. So perhaps it's not that strange that the hallways feel so different every now and then.. Agent ignores the way his fur stands up as he walks through till he ends up in the medical triage infront of one of the shelves. This is a hospital afterall, so perhaps there's something that could help with the headache? 'A sedative would be nice.' Agent thinks as he looks between the two items on the green shelf, he's not very knowledgeable in medicine. Primarily why he's not taking care of the patients and is infact checking them in instead.
After awhile of debating between the two items, his golden eyes land on the container with leaves in it. It seems fine, reaching his paw out to it, he says to himself "Eh, that's probably the painkiller medicine." He unscrews the lid and takes a few of the leaves in his mouth, chewing on them.
ᓚ₍ ^. ̫ .^₎ ? ₍ᐢ..ᐢ⑅₎𓈒
Their ears flicked lightly as they listened to the animal beside them "Intern, I appreciate your work ethic, but you should probably go to medical triage. I've got it covered here." Head Nurse says with the tone of an annoyed teacher, not even bothering to look up from her board. Intern nods and leaves the cat. Intern figured out quite early on that she isn't quite fond of them, not that it matters— They don't mind it.
Afterall, they are still a recent hire even if the title of a new hire was taken by their new colleague, Clerk. Their ears flick once more, they haven't necessarily seen Clerk much. Though..There is something strange about him, kind of? They tilt their head, closing their eyes as they walk through the corridor of medical triage until they nearly trip over a leg!
Shocked, Intern looks down to notice Clerk seemingly out of it. "C-Clerk?!" they exclaim, clumsily looking for a pulse on the black cat. Looking around to try and figure out what happened — 'An anomaly attack?' he doesn't have any injuries 'Did someone else attack him?' nothing seems like there was an attack.
After a little bit, Intern's eyes land on the herbs container, putting two and two together they realize something. 'Did…Did he—' "Did you eat the herbs?!" their thoughts escape their head in utter shock.
Their beady eyes completely terrified at what this entails, they hurriedly gather the semi conscious cat in their arms and take them to one of the empty rooms. They make not look like it, but they are quite physically strong. At the very least, enough to carry a high off his mind cat to a room. Intern sighs as they settle Clerk down on the bed, considering their options 'Either I take care of this alone, or I go and get Head Nurse…' Intern considers the latter option.
They can only guess what's inside the herb mix, but they've barely got any experience to actually help someone who seemingly ate all of them!
Intern prepares to walk out of the room when they feel a paw grabbing their hoodie, they tilt their head as they look behind them.
Golden molten eyes stare back into their dark beady ones, something in that look and almost too quiet purr makes them stay near the cat's side instead. It feels almost as if an unspoken plea was shared between them, a silent connection that only the two of them would understand. It makes Intern slightly freeze, but eventually they feel comforted by the purr that surrounds their hearing instead. A small part of Intern's brain tells them that this confirms it, but they push that thought back to where it came from. They shake their head, their suspicions don't matter right now. All that does matter is that Clerk is okay after this. Afterall, he is a new hire that should not die on one of their early shifts.. Intern looks side ways at that thought.
They sigh "As if I didn't nearly die aswell.." they mumble, their smile slightly faltering for a moment before returning back to their face. They had infact nearly died before when they first started out here. They didn't end up injured thankfully though.
Intern originally thought that Clerk at the very least knew something about the medicine on the shelves, considering that to some extent the two Secretaries do. Not that it's Intern's place to judge. They lean back on the chair that they pulled up to the hospital bed, looking up at the ceiling in thought 'I guess that means I'll have to teach em the difference huh?' It's not a bad thought..They could learn more about Clerk. Intern nods, it's a good idea!
Shouldn't Intern atleast try to get along with the new hire? They might know something aswell. Not that Intern can just straight up ask if they do..But they could use a friend.
If they could even become friends anyway, they're not quite hopeful.
Intern's ears flick at the rustling of annoyingly cheap bed sheets as their gaze turns from the ceiling to the cat. They freeze for a moment before collecting themselves "You woke—-" they stop themselves "Are you thirsty?" they end up asking instead.
Clerk hesitates before nodding "Water would be nice." he responds with a slightly hoarse voice. Intern guessed as much, they got up and walked over to the sink. Strangely thankful that this hospital even has sinks in the patient rooms. Even more thankful that someone seemed to have forgotten a glass here before. Intern looks at the glass for a moment. It's dirty. They clean the glass after a bit before returning to Clerk's side with a glass of water.
Unsurprisingly the cat had already sat up on the bed. 'He looks much smaller..Is it the perspective?' Intern ponders as he watches the cat gulp down the water in a matter of seconds.
'Guess he was thirsty' Intern thinks, mentally noting that down in their mind incase a patient ends up eating a whole container of herbs. It's unlikely, but it's better to learn from this experience. They are an intern afterall. 'Hm..Maybe I should make a patient eat a huge amount of herbs to study what could happen, hm..'
They ponder for a bit, looking distant till they hear the cat clearing his throat "Uh..Thanks.?" they can hear him say. Intern nods before asking a rather important question "You don't know anything about medicine do ya? Ya know, you should ask someone before taking mysterious things." they scratch their head 'This feels awkward..'
"Yeah, I didn't really want to bother anyone." Clerk responds to their surprise, they quickly respond "I doubt, ya would bother anyone."
Clerk stares at them for a minute, a very long silent minute. Eventually he opens his mouth again "How low is your sanity?" he asks, with slight concern. "My sanity?" Intern repeats, looking down at their watch "Quite low." they respond solemnly, somewhat distant.
Clerk sighs, getting up from the bed and grabbing their paw into his, this alerts Intern who quickly asks "What are you doin—" "Taking you to get coffee."
'Oh' They were so out of it that they didn't realize that they even needed coffee "Right." they mumble under their breath as they're dragged by the cat infront of them.
'He looks different from before.' Intern thinks absent mindedly 'Not that small anymore..Can I manage to switch like that too?' they ponder as they enter the office and have a mug of coffee pushed into their beige paws. Looking down, Intern notices the semi white paw that belongs to Clerk and their smile softens as they take the coffee, drinking it gratefully.
The dark liquid that tastes bitter than anything in the whole world brings back their sanity, clearing their mind. It feels better like this.
Intern gulps down the rest of the coffee before sighing softly, their smile returning "Thank you for the coffee. I honestly forgot" they scratch their head as they set down the mug near the coffee machine.
They see Clerk nod, his tone caring before it turns serious "Yeah, yeah. No problem at all. Uh..Let's not talk about what you saw."
Intern's ears flick as they nod a little too fast 'Yeah, lets not! I do not want to deal with this!' they could have sworn the air turned extremely cold.
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It's been a few days since that incident. Neither of them mentioned a single word, but Intern could swear that they feel eyes on them, if not the cameras every now and then. Today is no different, they feel like they're being watched.
Though, that sort of comes with the job at the hospital..It could be the hallways or even simply the corridor. At times, they could swear that the medicine shelves switch whenever they go for medicine to treat a patient.
Speaking of the medicine shelves, they were stuck restocking them. It's not a bad duty, it's quite calm and relaxing at times..Though the moment Intern opens one of the boxes and sees the herb containers they can't help but remember the way Clerk turned way too serious in the office. Until their mind wanders back to the time Clerk held onto their hoodie..
'Great…I thought I already forgot about it..' Intern grumbles in their mind, sighing..They stare at the herb containers a bit longer before shaking their head, getting up and walking for another box. 'I am not dealing with this.' they think, grabbing a different box with different medicine, hopefully!
And thankfully, it was a box with different medicine all together. Their smile widens a little as they proudly shake their ears, grabbing the medical items.
As their paw puts down one of the medical items on the shelves, Intern hears footsteps come closer to them "Oh, Intern! I noticed one herbs container missing. Do you know where it went?" Nurse asks, her fluffy ears slightly going forward as she checks her board that presumably has the medicine stocks listed.
Intern's paw freezes for a second "Nope, could it be in the box over there?" they tilt their head towards where they left the box filled with herb containers, resuming their work of placing their different box away from that disaster.
Nurse thinks for a moment "Oh, that could be it. Thank you, sweet pea!" she replies with a smile as she walks over to that box.
Intern internally sighs, it never gets better does it?