Sacrifices - Chapter 2
Rating: PG 13(ish?)
Summary: Dan mopes about and Hebert has found a new work-buddy. Also creepiness.
Dan sat on a folding chair, a refugee from the public school system that groaned in protest of his every move. Even the furniture in this place never shut up.
He sat next to a heavily-pregnant girl who gave him shy glances from behind her curtain of hair, and a young man trying to disguise the fact that he was soliciting money for drugs. He hadn’t talked to Herbert in a week, only seeing glimpses of him when he nodded off in a chair or came by to brusquely demand an update on Dan’s condition. Dan’s feet itched and he wanted to walk somewhere, anywhere away from this place.
“-so yeah, if you give me the twenty I can go out and this- this guy can get us the pizza,” the young man next to him stammered, picking at a spot on his forearm that showed little sign of healing.
Dan rolled his eyes, and the pregnant girl giggled. Herbert appeared to be quite smitten with the doctor in charge of the free clinic. That was a bad sign. Herbert never got interested in something unless someone had died for it. The only thing stopping Dan from going out to corral West’s interests was his total lack of direction in the city.
“-it’s really good pizza, trust me-“
He had been unable to take long walks before, physical activity brought on throbbing headaches. Today, though, he felt good enough. He was ready to try.
“-the guy only makes it after, y’know, after midnight, so if I leave right now I can score us some-“
“Really?” Dan abruptly turned to the young man, who cringed under the sudden attention.
“You want money to buy pizza, right? Just pizza?”
The young man nodded, terror in his eyes.
“Welllll,” Dan drawled, chin in hand, “I suppose I could go for some pizza, but I hate that expensive stuff. Why not just go to Domino’s? We can split an order of meat-lover’s. I’ll give you five bucks for it.”
The young man stared at Dan, his mouth trying and failing to form words.
“Or maybe we should just call off the pizza entirely, huh?” Dan put an arm around his shoulder. “It’s seems like too much trouble just for a little food. No one needs pizza that much, right?”
The young man eyed Dan’s arm like a rearing cobra.
“Yeah,” he stammered out, “yeah, I can see your point I’m- I think I’ll go outside. For a smoke.”
While Dan’s new friend wove down the hall shakily, Dan heard someone chuckle behind him.
“We try to keep ‘em clean here,” John said, “key word: try. At least I put forth the effort. Doc’s too wrapped up in his work to really notice these things. But I guess that’s why I’m here.”
Dan felt a twinge of sympathy.
John dropped into the vacated seat. The pregnant girl excused herself and waddled away, supporting her belly. They both watched her go.
“It makes me sad sometimes, y’know?” John whispered, “We try so hard here, but it’s always an uphill battle. The doc can never get funding for this place, pays for it out of his own pocket. City fathers wanted respectability, names, crap like that, but if we did that we wouldn’t see half the people we do now. People see us as a safe place, even if it’s only temporary. I’d like to keep it that way.”
Dan gazed down the hall, at the motley collection of lost souls that loitered around the front door. “I know how you feel. The only thing separating us from them is luck, and that’s it. There’s no reason they should be treated any differently because of that.”
John sighed. “My point exactly. What makes you think of something like that?”
Dan shrugged limply.
It was a thought he had often, usually while gazing on some poor bastard sprawled over a table, prepared to become the next candidate for reanimation. West, working beside him, never gave their subjects more than a glance. Always the efficient surgeon, West left the philosophy to Dan.
“And what does the good doctor work on,” Dan wondered aloud, “that keeps him away for such long stretches? For a guy so dedicated, he doesn’t seem to be here a whole lot.”
John grinned cheekily, standing up. “The doc has his secrets and I have mine. We’re both here as much as possible; too much according to Robert.”
“Robert?”
“Yeah,” John laughed, “you remember what I said about the doc being a heartbreaker right? Robert thinks I’ve gone and lost my heart to him. I’m no stranger to jealousy, trust me.”
Dan laughed uneasily. It wasn’t jealousy that fueled his concern for West, but fear of something far more sinister. Not that he’d admit that.
John checked his watch and sighed. “Well, I have to go apply some analgesic cream. See you later?”
“Actually, I was wondering if you wanted to, um, hang out later?” Dan felt a blush creeping up his cheeks.
John chuckled and shook his head. “You are too cute, you know that?” he glanced at his watch again. “What do you want to do?”
“Oh, nothing major,” Dan stammered, “just walk around, see the sights. I’ve never been here before.”
John nodded. “Sure. But I want you to recover a little first. In a few days, Dan.”
He nodded, trying not to feel disappointed.
“I just wanted to see where the doc hangs his hat, that’s all.”
“Sorry buddy,” John sighed “his hat doesn’t hang anywhere near here. They have an estate out past Forest Hill, pretty swank place. Alfie’s old money, can’t stand the city.”
Dan decided to travel as far as he could, and went to stand on the stoop. From his view, he could see the whole street, from several working girls and their gentleman procurer to a suspiciously well-dressed man who was peering at Dan from behind his newspaper. Dan gave a broad smile and flashed the peace sign. The man colored slightly and folded up his newspaper; he hurried away after checking his watchless wrist. Dan giggled a little and sat down on the curb.
The day wore on as he people-watched. A small collection of crumpled bills and coins had started by his shoeless feet. As the sun hung heavy and orange in the sky and glared across the bay to him, Dan grew tired of the noise and swept up his donations, venturing back inside. He decided to call it a night and went back to his room.
~`~`~`~
Dan’s bed looked cool and inviting. Perhaps that was why Herbert had nodded off on it.
“Oh dear,” John said from the doorway, “he must have been tired.”
They stood, watching West snore gently, pillowed on his arm.
“Should we wake him up?”
Dan considered, and shook his head. “Nah. Let’s go get some coffee.”
The clinic’s break room doubled as the supply closet and bathroom. Still, they had a surprisingly good java blend. Dan sat on a deflated sofa and sipped a passable roast while John conversed with a leathery old man, who had more wrinkles than Dan thought was possible on a human being. He caught Dan’s sidelong glance and grinned at him, showing a mouthful of black teeth. Dan took a swig of coffee and tried not to feel disturbed.
John concluded their discussion and thumped himself down beside Dan. The old man left with a satisfied smile, giving them a little wave as he shut the door behind him. Dan tried to stave off the severe case of creeps that the old man gave him and took another sip.
“Sounds like Howard is really helping out around the lab. Has he had prior experience?”
Dan’s conscience chewed at him as he answered, “um, a little. We used to be med students.”
John’s eyes widened. “No shit? That explains a little. What happened, did you burn out?”
“…something like that.”
“I hear you,” John said, lightly punching his shoulder, “I was in UCLA and they kept pushing the ‘disconnect’ thing, wanted me to treat my patients at arm’s length.”
“Really?” Dan felt a small flush of understanding. “Me too! And they always stressed the time limit-”
“-for pretty much everything,” John finished. “God, I hate that. I can see why you left, the medical industry is no place for empathy right now.”
Dan snorted. “Yeah, I got into medical school because I wanted to help people…” he trailed off. He really did have such noble intentions once, didn’t he? He could see himself in John, the man he had once thought himself to be.
“Me too.” John collected their cups and deposited them in a cement sink. “I had to take a break when they cut my scholarship, though. I was just trying to take a summer job and, well…”
He gestured from wall to wall and laughed. Dan chuckled too, though he understood all too well being stuck in a situation you couldn’t leave. In for a penny, in for a pound...
John left again to supervise an inoculation, and Dan found himself back in the waiting room. The same girl scooted up to him, peering at him shyly though her curtain of hair.
“Here we are again,” he chuckled and ground his toe into the floor, “but I don’t see our friend.”
“He’s not here,” the girl murmured with a strange, lilting accent, “he went with Surama.”
“What?”
“Surama,” the girl explained, pointing to the door, “Surama calls him and he go.”
All Dan could do was nod.
~`~`~`~
Herbert was awake by the time he slipped back into his room. Running a hand through his greasy hair, West gave Dan a nod of acknowledgement. Dan tried not to be irritated with him. Didn’t work.
“Where the hell have you been?”
“Working.” West slipped on his glasses and headed for the door. Dan blocked the way with his body, unwilling to let this be another of Herbert’s one-word discussions.
“What the hell have you been doing for so long with that- that- doctor? Do you even care how I’ve been doing the past few days? I almost died because of you, is it too much to ask that you show the least bit of concern?”
“Dan, how could you know what I’ve been doing for the past few days? You’ve been unconscious.”
Herbert, ever the voice of reason. But Dan wasn’t going to back down, not this time.
“The fact still remains that you’ve been out playing around while I’ve come back from the brink of death!”
“Dramatic as ever. I’ve been involved in highly important research, hardly playing,” He stressed the last word with contempt.
“What research? What could possibly be so important that you’d put aside our work for it?”
Herbert twisted his mouth slightly. “I didn’t know you cared so much about our work, Dan. I wish I could tell you what was so important about it, I really do, but secrecy is needed for now. While you recover, you’d best…focus on other things. Try not to stress.”
West gazed at him from behind his glasses, like a specimen. Dan knew that’s what he was to Herbert. A specimen, to be studied and dissected, but tossed once he was done.
“Sure,” Dan said hollowly, “I should probably just rest and leave the work up to the doctors. Good night, West.”
Dan turned and flung himself heavily on the bed, working the sheet up over his body and facing deliberately away from the other man. After a moment he heard steps receding from the room and sighed. He wasn’t the least bit tired. He got back up and strode to the window. His room was below street level, so he actually had to drag a chair to the wall in order to reach it. Dan yanked on the window cord, sending the blinds speeding up to the top of the window and revealing the well-dressed man from earlier. He had been leaning heavily on the window with his hands cupped around his face, and he started back at the sudden movement. Dan stared blankly at the man for a moment before extending a hand towards him, middle finger held high. The man stared back at him through the glass, face devoid of emotion, before he got up and his expensive loafers retreated from Dan’s range of vision.
Dan slept with his back to the window that night.
~`~`~
Note: I’m sorry I took so long to write this chapter. I suck, I know. This chapter took longer than expected because I wrote and re-wrote it. I wasn’t happy with any of it, characterization, pacing, you name it; I probably deleted it at least once.(and I still hate it) I promise the pace will pick up by the next chapter, poke me if I lie.