Day 53: Doctor's Office 5 (Dr. Venkman) [Second Shift]
Venkman had a headache today. Sleep hadn't come easily last night, a rare thing for him. He had spent a while staring alternately at the ceiling above his bed and the insides of his eyelids, head filled with a mix of thoughts about Tuesday's sessions. By themselves, they hadn't been all that fruitful, but they had raised some niggling questions, Jimmy's in particular. The kid's bruises on their own shouldn't have been that notable; it was very possible Jimmy had fought with another patient and denied doing so. But then the nurses had to explain the bruises away with a suspiciously weak explanation like sheets. Sheets? Seriously?
Taking a quick look out at the patient population during fourth shift had yielded a look at even more bandages, far more than there should have been for just a mental hospital. Were the patients really that violent with each other? That clumsy/unaware of their surroundings? If he had to judge based on the sample of patients he had talked with so far, he doubted that. And even if they were, that made the staff look pretty bad for not being able to do more to stop it.
Then, as always, there was the prospect of looking up the file of Ingram's hole-in-the-head friend, whoever that was. He doubted that anything even close what Ingram described had occurred, but stories like that often had at least some grain of truth to them. In his own messed-up way, Ingram might have been trying to warn him about staff abuse of some kind. Combined with bizarre scheduling and quick patient releases, Venkman wondered.
By morning, though, the lack of sleep had really hit him. On top of that, it looked like one of the first shifts of the day was going to be with Danny Boy. Now he was just cranky. Staff abuse conspiracy or no, this was going to be a miserable day, Venkman could tell. And that was why he had put in a special request to the nurses. There was no way in hell he was going to be able to do two full sessions in one shift today. He needed to compress things, give himself some extra time for lunch. Whatever it took, he just wanted to do what he had to do and get it over with. Thus, Daniel, along with his new friend Harry, were going to be doing double-time with him today. Who knew? Maybe being able to split his attention between Daniel and this new guy would make the frustratingly bug-eyed man easier to deal with.
[L and Indiana Jones]
Taking a quick look out at the patient population during fourth shift had yielded a look at even more bandages, far more than there should have been for just a mental hospital. Were the patients really that violent with each other? That clumsy/unaware of their surroundings? If he had to judge based on the sample of patients he had talked with so far, he doubted that. And even if they were, that made the staff look pretty bad for not being able to do more to stop it.
Then, as always, there was the prospect of looking up the file of Ingram's hole-in-the-head friend, whoever that was. He doubted that anything even close what Ingram described had occurred, but stories like that often had at least some grain of truth to them. In his own messed-up way, Ingram might have been trying to warn him about staff abuse of some kind. Combined with bizarre scheduling and quick patient releases, Venkman wondered.
By morning, though, the lack of sleep had really hit him. On top of that, it looked like one of the first shifts of the day was going to be with Danny Boy. Now he was just cranky. Staff abuse conspiracy or no, this was going to be a miserable day, Venkman could tell. And that was why he had put in a special request to the nurses. There was no way in hell he was going to be able to do two full sessions in one shift today. He needed to compress things, give himself some extra time for lunch. Whatever it took, he just wanted to do what he had to do and get it over with. Thus, Daniel, along with his new friend Harry, were going to be doing double-time with him today. Who knew? Maybe being able to split his attention between Daniel and this new guy would make the frustratingly bug-eyed man easier to deal with.
[L and Indiana Jones]