Nancy took the offered seat, catching a glimpse of the paper Elizabeth snatched up before tucking it away. "I understand just not having an appetite. It can be hard to make yourself eat sometimes, even though you know you should." She pulled the jellybeans out of her pocket, fairly sure that once Lt. Davenport was back from his appointment with Dr. Greene he wouldn't be allowed to eat. Appointments and procedures often resulted in patients being on strict diets as a result of the medication used or newly prescribed, sometimes because fasting blood tests were needed. She would just bring him the jellybeans tomorrow.

"Feel free to take these. Eat them one at a time, and sip some water. It won't fix the nausea, but it should help hold it off." She held the jellybeans out to Elizabeth. "We haven't really had a chance to talk. Do you prefer being called Elizabeth, Liz, Lizzie...? Something else?"

The doctor looked down at the man sitting in the chair before him and shook his head softly. “You suffer from PTSD, correct?” The man nodded, but said nothing. “You served seven tours with the US military?” Again the man nodded, but remained silent. “Do you have any family, relatives, wife, children, close friends?” Dr. Greene was fishing for anything at this point.

The man before him, Lt. Davenport, was an excellent sniper for the military when he served and retired with several medals and awards. Davenport shook his head. “No family at all?” Dr. Greene asked quietly and perched on the edge of his desk, studying the man sitting in front of him. Davenport again shook his head.

A smile smirk broke across the doctor’s face and he clapped his hands together. “Alright. I’m going to prescribe you some different medications and try a new and revolutionary treatment for PTSD for you. First thing tomorrow morning, the nurses will have your new medications and you will need to go to the hospital wing to get a full blood panel work up. I will send the orders over now. You may go.”

Doctor Greene waved the man away and smiled as the heavy wooden doors closed behind him. He seemed to be the perfect candidate for testing the serum for night vision and overall inhuman eyesight. As soon as the labs came back he would start experimenting. With skilled fingers, he pressed the intercom button and made an announcement throughout the entire hospital.

“All nurses and other medical personnel meet in my office at 6pm tonight. That is in 5 hours in case you don’t have a watch. Thank you.”

---

Jo kicked the toe of her white shoe against the white and blue tiles on the floor as she walked down the hallways. She nodded as she passed a few nurses and a guard. She wasn’t much to be social with them because she would just as soon put a blade through some of them than she would talk to them. She watched the dog, Ichi, cock its head to the side as one of the patients scratched behind his ear.

Her eyes searched the man’s that actually owned Ichi and determined that he wasn’t a threat for the time being. As she walked by, she nodded at them both. She couldn’t remember the patient’s name, but she remembered that Joshua owned the dog. “Being a good boy today, I see,” she joked lightly as Ichi wagged his tail from the affection.

Pausing momentarily to listen to the announcement from the good doctor, she shook her head again. “More good news for us, then,” she said and rolled her eyes. Jo knew that whenever Doctor Greene called for a meeting, the next few days were never good.

Xander perked up to listen to the call over the loud speaker. Another meeting for the staff huh? Probably talking about how to spice up the dinning facility! Oh boy he chuckled to himself as he noticed Jo. "A fellow dog lover I see? Ichi is definitely the most underpaid staff member in this whole facility I would say!" saying as he grinning at the dog, "Aren't you boy? You wanna get a raise don't you? That's right a solid 2 treats an hour would make you work harder huh?"

He had noticed Jo walk the halls before. Never really gotten a chance to talk to her but would always notice her observing the asylum and things going on. "I don't think I have had the pleasure of meeting you yet?" Motioning to Jo, "I'm Xander, but buds like Joshua here call me "People I wish I could be someday"."

@unfallenangel

Some time after breakfast

"Hm, okay." Elizabeth took a couple of the jellybeans offered to her and looked them over before biting into the one that was a bright shade of green. She always enjoyed lemon-lime/citrus flavored candies, ever since childhood. "Not bad," she added before taking a sip of water. "And you can call me Liz, if you'd like. Trust me, I prefer it to being called Ms. Kelton 90% of the time. Everyone around here is so formal to each other, or rather, they do a good job of portraying it as such." Elizabeth then proceeded to eat the yellow jellybean with a smile on her face. Even if it was only for a few minutes, she was enjoying the company of someone who legitimately cared about her.

"So do you mind if I call you Nancy? I mean, when we're not surrounded by the white-beards."

@Inda

Nancy watched Liz slowly eating the jellybeans, biting in to one at a time. It made her smile. Pretty much everyone else, including she herself, ate jellybeans several at a time. Sometimes by the handful.

"I would be honored if you called me Nancy. So what-" She was interrupted by the loudspeaker.

“All nurses and other medical personnel meet in my office at 6pm tonight. That is in 5 hours in case you don’t have a watch. Thank you.”

Nancy stood quickly, regretting it when her back protested and she gave a slight forward jerk. It was already 1pm! "Wow! Ok, I had no idea it was that late. I'm sorry to cut this short, but I've got some other things I have to do before that meeting." She was a little annoyed. She worked earlier in the day. By four or five she was supposed to be off and in her apartments in the west wing of Stillwater. This meeting meant that she would have to assist with dinner instead of wrapping her shift up so the entire staff would be ready for the meeting and not dealing with feeding everyone, that her day was going to be extended for the meeting and however long it took, and that she would still have to be up early for her shift tomorrow. There was no way she was getting through this day without a pain killer. Her back was hurting even more than it was earlier.

"How about tomorrow night you come to the game room around 8? We can continue chatting. I should be done playing checkers with Lt. Davenport by then."

@Xandrya

Sasha was in his room, the door left open. He didn't have much interest in socializing, as per usual. He was much more content to, instead, lay back on his cot and read his book. The battered the book that rested in his hands, titled "The Brothers Karamazov", was the only title he even vaguely recognized in the library. The reading material here was a bit dry.

The large man was situated on his back, propped up on the headboard of his bed and the flat pillow that had been issued to him. One arm rested behind his head and the other held the book open in front of him. His legs were stretched out and crossed at the ankles, hanging several inches off the bed. These cots hadn't been made with people of his stature in mind. Not that Sasha wasn't used to it by now.

He never bothered to complain, anyway. Something told him his criticism would go in one ear and out the other around here. Honestly, as far as trouble makers went, Sasha was pretty tame. He mostly just sat around quietly, either reading, brooding, or just thinking. He didn't stir up other patients or harass workers. He mostly kept to himself. In fact, the only time he ever caused trouble was during medicine rounds. Sasha had, from day one, flat out refused to take any and all pills prescribed to him. He hadn't taken pills before this place, and he damn sure wasn't going to now.

Most of the time, nurses would give up after he refused. After all, what were they going to do? Force him? But every now and then, he would get those few that would. The security team would be called, doctors would stand by, and everyone would make a fuss. It was pretty hard to make a man of his size and stature do something he didn't want to do. After such a show, he would typically be taken off the rounds list for a month or two before his name would slip back on there and it all started over again. In between those times, he was perfectly well behaved.

Sasha flipped a page in his book and read a few lines before his eyes wandered over the top. The guard with the dog was passing by the open door of his room, and one of the women was stopping to talk to the animal. Sasha didn't dislike dogs, but he found it strange for the animal to be used in such a facility. He had heard stories of gulag using such beasts, but not for what this dog was used for.

Sasha knew he should be grateful that the States hadn't deported him to his own country. This facility was a five star hotel compared to the prisons in his homeland. Nevertheless, he still didn't enjoy his time here. He would notice, every once and a while, that patients would go missing from their rooms. Where they went? No one seemed to know; or at least they pretended not to. Sasha could only wonder how long it would be before he found out the hard way.

"It's a date then," she added with a smile, getting off the bed to walk Nancy to the door. "But I gotta warn you, I play a mean game of blackjack if you ever feel like challenging me."

After she once more held the door open for Nancy and waved her goodbye, Elizabeth locked herself in her room again and began her daily exercise routine. Was she tired, moody, and nauseated? Absolutely, but those were just excuses in her mind. If she wasn't dying or throwing up, then she could afford to train, although there was a possibility that the latter may occur sooner rather than later due to the pills. But she did want to get her work-out out of the way before Josh showed up, whenever that was, if he would even bother.

Elizabeth started with push-ups, silently counting them until she would reach her desired number for the day, at which point she would move on to the next exercise.

@Americore

Jo raised her eyebrow and quirked her lips up into a smirk. "Pleasure. I'm Jocylin, but please call me Jo. Only my mother called me Jocylin." She laughed quietly at the dog as he wagged his tail at the word treat. "I'm sure anyone here would work harder for more treats. But I do agree. I think he is one of the best employees the hospital has. No offense." She looked over at Joshua and shrugged slightly. Jo put her hands in her pockets and looked from one man to the other, wondering if they had been noticing the strange things that had been happening the last few weeks, but she thought better of asking about it. "You're right though, I love dogs more than I do people."

"You're on." Nancy turned her grimace into a grin and walked out of the room toward the nurse's station on that floor. Each step brought her back a little more pain. She had waited too long to take a pain killer, she knew. She stopped walking and pulled the orange pill bottle out of her pocket, poured two pills into her palm and swallowed them dry. She tried to take another step and stumbled as she did so. The pain in her back was sharp and piercing, running up the muscles along her spine. She wanted to take a third pill, but she couldn't with the meeting coming up.

Instead, she rested her back against the cool wall and lowered herself onto the ground to sit betwen two cell doors. She hoped no one would walk by before she got herself back up. It was humiliating to be seen while in pain. She hated it.

"Jo huh, I like it," nodding his head to her, "Lord knows if I got treats in this place I might shut up a little more." Then Nancy's jelly beans she gave to him came to mind. I guess there are angels here that try and give us stuff to keep us more sane huh?
As he returned his face back to Jo's he replied, "It's hard to not love pups like this guy here more than people. Loyal, energetic, and loving. Well, Ichi here probably has his love side thanks to Joshua being a half decent owner. I guess." Shooting a wink at Joshua.Why do you do every joke that comes to your head huh? Because you think you miss 100% of the shots you don't take? That is supposed to be for other stuff, not jokes stupid. He was making fun of himself in his head, sort of his method of criticising his craft.
These meetings that came over the loud speaker had to make you wonder, on a conspiracy theory level, that some weird things would be discussed around that round table. Round table huh? Very few knights enter that room I would assume. Mostly demons and ghouls stake claim at that table.
@unfallenangel @Polaris North

Joshua nodded at Xander as the male thanked him. He fell silent as Jocilyn, or rather Jo, approached them. The two patients started to talk but the guard didn't mind. Although they were talking about Ichi. Underpaid huh? He'd like to think so as well. The dog's big and has to go on patrols with him so he'd need a lot of food. Unfortunately though, there isn't really much they could give right now. Even guards like him don't get enough food. They're treated like prisoners too anyway.

His ears perked up as Doctor Greene started to announce something. Hm? A meeting huh? That didn't spell anything too good for the patients, they have it rough. But he did notice that there are select few that drink more medicines than the others but he never really cared for it. He knelt down and then started pat Ichi. He took out a small treat and then gave it to Ichi.

He then looked at Jo, "None taken." Joshua looked back at Xander who had once more cracked a joke, to which he just shrugged in response.

@unfallenangel@Americore

Sasha returned to his book. He read quietly for a few more minutes, making it the end of his chapter before sticking his paper bookmark in the page and setting the book down. He was starting to feel a little cooped up. He hadn't done much today other than sit and read; it was probably time to move around a little. Sasha got up and stretched his arms out in front of him. Something in his back popped, giving him a small sensation of relief.

He headed out of his room, past the guard with the dog and the two patients with him. He didn't really have much interest in their conversation. Really, he just wanted to walk around a little.

Sasha wandered down several halls, pausing when he passed the rare windows to look outside. It always gave him a pang of misery when he saw the outside world. He missed traveling. He missed the action, the freedom, and most of all, the alcohol. What he wouldn't give for a bottle of vodka right now. Even just the cheap shit.

He tore his eyes away from the window that overlooked the ocean and headed down another long hallway. He was a bit startled to see someone crouched on the ground near the middle of it. Sasha paused and watched the person. Small frame, long dark hair, definitely female. Was that nurse Nancy? He remembered her mostly for their back and forth arguing over whether or not he would take his medicine, but he also knew that she was a kind person. Too kind to be left crouching in a hallway by herself. What the hell was she doing?

Sasha approached her, his steps surprisingly soft for someone his size. When he came to stand next to her, he looked down at her with concern.

"Are you okay?" He asked, his concern even hinting in his voice. Sasha wasn't a bad person. Distant, aloof, and stubborn as hell, but not bad per se. He certainly knew better than to let the nurse sit here alone in such a vulnerable position, obviously in pain.

Nancy glanced up at the voice, jumping a tiny bit and sending new waves of pain up her back. His footfalls had been so quiet she hadn't heard them. That, or the pain meds were kicking in. But probably the former. The meds hadn't even touched the pain yet, they needed a few more minutes to work.

Great. It was one of the arguers. The worst one. She had seen one of his outbursts before, had actually been the cause of the last one if she understood the issue properly. She wouldn't let him leave the cafeteria without taking his pills, back when she was trying to streamline the prescription process by keeping everyone in the cafeteria until they took their meds. Now she just settled into the way it had been before- if people skipped the pill line, then the nurses had to hand deliver the pills. At first she had hated doing it, thinking it wasted time and energy, but it was so much easier that she soon completely gave up on changing that process.

Nancy eyed Sasha warily, unsure of what he intended to do. Did he hold a grudge against her for calling the guards on him when he wouldn't take his pills? She had tried to make it up to him later, feeling she had gotten off to a bad start, but she got nervous and chickened out at the last minute. He was so big.

He looked concerned, though, and she hadn't had any issue with him since. She still felt guilty about not apologizing to him, though.

"I'll be fine. Just a little back pain. No big deal." She tried to stand, felt the way her muscles were reacting, and thought better of it, lowering herself back to the ground. In the pediatric ward of the hospital, Nancy remember being made to walk up and down the halls in the back brace as part of her physical therapy. The doctors told her that her spine was mostly healed, but she could still swear she felt the bones crunching as she moved. She was terrified that something she would do would cause her spine to break completely, leaving her unable to move ever again. She knew this wasn't going to happen now, not so many years after the wreck when she could do most things perfectly well. But when the pain starting slicing through her like it was now, those old fears always came back, no matter how unreasonable they were."

"Just an old back injury acting up." She tried smiling up at the Russian man through the furrowed brows she couldn't ever hide when her pain started really acting up. "Just had to take a moment. How are you feeling? Did you need something?"

@Metronome

The woman was clearly startled when he spoke. Sasha lifted his hands, showing he meant no harm. He was pretty used to that kind of reaction out of people, to be honest. As she spoke, Nancy tried to get back up before giving up and sinking back down. She was obviously in a lot of pain, and Sasha had no intention of leaving her here. She really should be in the infirmary, laying down.

"It doesn't look like 'no big deal'," He said, eyeing her expression. When she asked if he was okay, he gave a half hearted chuckle. "I'm not the one stuck on the floor, devotchka." Sasha held out a hand to help her up.

"I could try to align it for you if that would help; might relax the muscles." He was no chiropractor, but Sasha had learned to align backs fairly well during his many tours that involved sleeping on the ground or on shitty cots. Many of his men would complain of back pain, with no doctor for miles. It was a skill learned out of necessity if nothing else. "Or I could take you to the infirmary. One thing is for sure, sitting here hunched over like that isn't going to help." He may have sounded a bit harsh, but Sasha couldn't help it. He was never raised to sugar coat his words.

Nancy sighed audibly. She had not wanted to admit she needed to go to the infirmary. She had kept her back issues from causing any real issue so far in her job here, but this time it couldn't be helped.

She shook her head to the offer of aligning her back. She was terrified of chiropractors, probably because of how painful seeing one when she was out of the hospital had been. She hadn't been back to one since.

"No, thank you. I should probably just get myself to the infirmary." She tried to stand again from the position she was in, but it was no good. Even when she took Sasha's hand her muscles just wouldn't allow her to move that way. Slowly, she turned herself to the right and got her knees underneath her. Her breath was coming in a little easier now. She could feel the pills starting their slow work. Shakily, and using Sasha's hand for support, she got herself to her feet.

"I would really appreciate you helping me get to the infirmary. Thank you." She said, looking up. She didn't know how it would be taken for her to show up to the infirmary with a patient not to get him admitted, but for herself. Some of the nurses here were rather harsh, and she was afraid they would find some way of getting her into trouble for it.

Mind, if she didn't go to the infirmary and went to the nurses' station as late as she was, she would still end up in trouble. At least if there was a witness showing how she couldn't move properly, they might not take disciplinary action.

Sasha was glad she'd decided to listen to reason and go to the infirmary. There wasn't any shame in needing help, after all. He braced her by hooking one arm under her's. She was walking like a eighty something year old woman, which worried him a bit. She really did seem like a nice nurse, and he'd hate to see her hurt herself.

Sasha's mind wandered again as they slowly made their way to the infirmary. He started thinking about the meeting announcement he'd heard over the intercom earlier. He wondered what they talked about at those things. New and different ways to filet patients? He wondered if Nancy had anything to do with the disappearances. Or if she even knew about them. She seemed too tender hearted to do anything nefarious to her patients, but people could hide their true identities. Sasha had learned that if nothing else over the years.

He finally spoke up to break the silence. "So a meeting, hm?" He said, phrasing it more as a question. "Are they going to talk about why there are patients missing?" A very blunt question; he wasn't good about beating around bushes. It was times like these when Sasha's bold mouth got him in trouble. Hell, that was part of the reason he was in this place to start with.

Nancy looked up, startled. What did he mean, patients missing? Were patients getting out somehow?

"No, I don't think so. Probably just some house keeping stuff. You know, paperwork. Budgets. What do you mean missing patients?" Oh dear, there was the loose tongue the pain killers gave her. She needed to stop herself talking.

"I mean, some patients have gone home, sure. But I don't think the patients are missing. Maybe hiding." Let's be honest, Nancy had sensed things were strange here. Everyone was on edge. Like... everyone. More so than at a normal hospital. Some patients tended to distrust the nurses, the orderlies, the guards, sure. That was normal. But here it seemed like all of the patients held grudges against the staff.

"Like a civil war is going to break out." She found herself saying out loud.

"No, I mean... like... I don't know. People here just seem like they need to talk. I haven't seen any recreation events planned. Where I interned they did a karaoke night every other week. It was fun. People behaved better. The patients that are hiding would probably come out if we played some music." There was the problem. She had skipped breakfast, and had been taking so long getting her duties done she had missed her lunch break. She was on two pain killers on a totally empty stomach. She stumbled a little as her back began to relax a little more.

"I took a couple muscle relaxers for my back, they can make me really dizzy." Nancy shook her head, trying to clear it. "Sorry. What was I saying?"

Sasha easily caught the woman as she stumbled, putting her back on her feet. He stopped and turned her to face him, looking down at her with a stern expression. "A lot a bullshit," He replied. "You can't tell you haven't noticed the weird shit that goes on around here. The guy just down the hall from me was taken downstairs and he hasn't come back up. The lady on block B has been missing from her cell for two weeks; her stuff is still there. Have you not noticed that some of the people here don't have any business in a mental institution? Do you have any idea why I'm here? I'll give you a hint, it's not because I'm crazy."

Sasha stopped there. He straightened up a bit and started walked with her again, slowly. "Your doctor friend has some strange things going on here," He said, "I can't be the only one who's noticed. Lately I feel like I've been sitting on death row around here."

Sasha was nothing if not observant. In his line of work, a healthy dose of paranoia and observance paid off. But here, it only seemed to get people in trouble. He knew he was nothing but mentally sound, but he probably sounded pretty crazy while spouting off his conspiracy theories. He knew good and well why he was here: to keep him quiet. The US government had screwed up by hiring him and they wanted to cover their asses. But this nurse probably thought he was some war vet with mental issues.

"Don't tell anyone I said these things to you; it'll just get us both in trouble. Just keep your wits about you around here."

Nancy stopped abruptly, looking up at Sasha with wide eyes as he spoke.

He was right. She knew things here were weird. She had been picking up on a lot of odd things. Nothing she could put her finger on. Being an empathetic person only helped her connect to people's emotions. It just meant she was emotionally intelligent, more so than other people. It didn't mean she was psychic, but so often people thought that's what it meant. It made her feel like she might be seen as crazy if she ever talked about it. If she ever started asking questions about odd things she sensed but couldn't explain, with no hard evidence to point to. People in the medical field preferred cold, hard facts. They didn't take well to anything more intangible.

She nodded when he mentioned not bringing it up. She didn't want to be marked as a trouble maker, or anything else like that. But she was having a hard time wrapping her head around it- around the ominous "downstairs" she had heard mentioned but never been to, around the woman's room that was still full of her things.

She didn't want to believe it. If she did, it would meant that she had left one hell hole hospital for another. She would have gone from a hospital that let veterans suffer with wounds, post-traumatic stress disorder, chronic pain problems, current illnesses and old injuries suffer while bureaucracy held help just out of reach. If Sasha was right, then this place was doing the exact opposite. The thought made her stomach churn.

"I won't let anything happen to you." She didn't know why she said it. It just slipped out. Probably part of the loose tongue the meds gave her. Grandfather always told her she had a complex about wanting to save people because she couldn't save her parents after the wreck. Maybe he was right.

Sasha gave another dry laugh. He didn't think the nurse had any real power to stop whatever was going on. Nothing outside of a riot would end it. Sasha would be half temped to start an uprising if he thought anyone around here would be willing to risk it. It might just be worth it if they could escape whatever was happening below their feet.

But something told him that it would never happen.

He remained silent until they reached the infirmary. Sasha handed the nurse off to the workers there. "Get some rest," He said as he let go of her to allow the other nurses to take care of her. He stood there for a moment, then turned to leave. Talking to Nancy had helped him build a little more trust towards her.

He still wasn't taking her damn pills, though.

Sasha headed back out into the hallway. He wasn't sure what he'd do now. Maybe go back to his cell to read some more. Hopefully he wouldn't find any more staff members laying around the halls.