Sasha had used one of the door frames to do pull ups. It was hard to keep a good grip, and he would occasionally loose it and land on his feet. He would, however, go right back to it until the tips of his fingers had deep, purple indentations from the frame. Did it hurt? Of course it did. But Sasha was no stranger to pain, and small things like that hardly phased him anymore.

When he'd finished his last set, he started doing lunges. Legs were particularly hard to work out without the use of weights or equipment, so he would compensate by doing twice the amount of sets as he would have in an actual gym. It wasn't hard; he tended to just zone out when he exercised. It gave him something to do without having to focus too much, allowing him to think. He was positioned so that he could see the calendar he'd etched into the paint on the wall. No one seemed to have noticed his small act of vandalism yet; or maybe they just didn't give a shit. Even if they painted over it, he probably would just do it again. He was just a cantankerous asshole like that.

Sasha was halfway through his leg routine, and just starting to feel a bit of sweat, when someone knocked on the door. He paused, then straightened up. Sasha was sure that he'd heard the voice of that Irish doctor. Female, red haired, pretty attractive, spooky as hell. There was something about her that made him instinctively avoid her. He'd relied on his sense of character judgement for most of his career, and he could tell there was something off about that woman. She'd seemed nice at first; Sasha had even thought of her as one of the good ones. But then he'd happened to get a glance of her one day when he was struggling, yet again, with the guards over his lack of cooperation with his meds. She had been staring at the confrontation with this look in her eye. Sasha had seen a similar look in the eyes of people who placed bets at dog fighting rings. He got the sense that she got some kind of enjoyment out of the show.

Every now and then, he would see her give other patients that look. It would send a nasty chill up his spine. He didn't like playing gladiator any more than he liked playing lab rat.

After a moment of considering his options, which consisted only of A: open the door, or B: Stay in his room until she opened the door, he finally went to see what she wanted. Sasha strode over quietly and opened the door, staying behind the threshold. His cold, blue eyes stared down at the woman in question, his expression saying everything before he even opened his mouth.
"What do you want?"

She looked up at him, her grey eyes taking on the small smile of her lips. He was ready to put up a fight. She liked that.

"You've been keeping yourself very fit in here. If you would be willing to come to the medical offices once a week for monitoring, I can be sure to give you use of a few other materials to work out with. We want to be sure the health of our patients is our utmost priority, and I just need to be sure you aren't putting undue stress on your system. If it interests you, that would include a stress test on a treadmill. I don't imagine you've been able to fit cardio in lately."

Her smile widened into one of her most alluring. She didn't need him to do this. But she did want him to do this. And she would get him to, eventually. It would be so much easier if she could get him to do it of his own accord to start out with.

Bullshit. That was bullshit and he knew it. Sasha prided himself on few things, but he could damn sure tell when someone was lying straight to his face. He was willing to bet that these 'medical offices' happened to be downstairs, too. In fact, he knew good and well that the people here could care less about his actual mental health because he'd been put here, specifically, to be made to disappear. Of that, Sasha was certain. He doubted anyone could convince him otherwise.

Part of him was very tempted to call the doc out on this right here and now. To put an end to this game they kept playing. But the more sensible part of him knew that revealing his suspicions would only speed up their need to get rid of him. He was nothing but a piece of meat to these people, but he'd rather rot than get eaten.

He met her eyes evenly, his face not revealing a single emotion. He kept that same, stony, slightly frowning, expression that seemed to be stuck in place.

"No thanks."

As per usual, he was short and blunt with his words. He offered no explanation for his decline, nor an apology. In fact, he was half tempted to just shut the door right then and there. He didn't owe this woman anything.

She wanted him to do this. She had wanted him to choose to do it himself. Part of her had expected him to put up a fight, though, and she was thrilled to be right. He was one of the bigger challenges in the hospital. It would have been a little disappointing for him to make it so easy now.

If he wasn't going to do it himself, she would have to find a way to convince him. Or make him. The thought of making a man like this do anything got her fingers curling.

"Should you change your mind, just come by my office. I could even give you a look at the facilities you'd use if you do. The medical offices are right across the hall from me. Just the usual place where physicals are conducted. I promise, just a weekly test of your heart and blood pressure, and then you'll be back into the usual life." She looked him up and down. He was going to be perfect once she got her hands on him.

"Is there anything else you might be needing? I hope you're feeling alright. You look a little pale."

As she spoke, she gave him that look that made him feel like an animal at a zoo. She seemed to be actually concerned, or just really good at acting, when she asked if he was okay. But Sasha was no sick pet, in need of tending to. He was a perfectly healthy human being who really wanted to be left the hell alone.

Her comment about him looking pale was almost funny. He was always pale.

"I'm fine," He said curtly. He paused, then added. "I was kind of in the middle of something. I'd like to finish before dinner." Sasha made it blatantly obvious that he had no interest in talking to the doctor. She creeped him out a little bit and he really wanted nothing to do with her. Whatever scheme she was getting at here, he planned to resist every step of the way. And if his incidents with his meds were anything to go by, he was very good at resisting.

"Alright, I suppose that's fair then. Thanks for doing this for me."

Elizabeth watched as Josh exited the room with his loyal partner following closely behind. When they were both out of sight, she instantly decided that she didn't want to be locked up in her room for the rest of the afternoon, so she headed out to the hall and decided to roam around. Elizabeth didn't necessarily head out with a plan in mind, but instead, she wanted to get to know the hospital as well as she could. Not that she hadn't started on that already, but she didn't know the place quite like the back of her hand just yet.

Joshua walked down the hallway, hands in his pockets as he did so. Almost everyone knew why he had joined up. He was an asset given to this place in exchange for something the organization kept secret. He suspected it had something to do with the weird things happening in this here hospital. Although there really isn't much Joshua could do to retaliate so he just went with it. And so it wasn't really weird for him to go out of the hospital and call somebody. In fact, it had been a regular occurrence as of late, what with him reporting what had been happening every week depending if something significant happened or not.

The conversation was hushed though and the two in the conversation made sure that the call wasn't being listened into. It was brief, not even talking five minutes before Joshua hung up. He then took out the paper where the address was written. Soon. Walking towards the edge of the cliff, he ripped the paper and let the wind carry it towards the ocean.

Ichi barked once. The male looked at his dog who had been playing with a butterfly. A smile crept to his face before he walked down the path back to the hospital. It wasn't long until he got inside and began to patrol once more. Having finished his food earlier, he was free to do whatever he wanted for this break.

"Oh Josh!" A female guard called out to him and he stopped and turned to her. "Hey, how's it going?" Josh replied with a shrug. "Good huh? I saw one of the nurses come from Doc Greene's offices saying something along the lines of having this nurse in the clinic." Ha, this girl was a true gossiper even in this field of work. "Between you and me, I think she's talking about Nurse Nancy. You know her right?"

"Kind nurse, pretty new, in charge of most of the pills?"

"Yeah that one. You know how she has these episodes about her old injury. I think the other nurse is just jealous of how hard working she is." The guard continued before being called off by another guard. It was one of the Block heads. "Ah crap, gotta go. See 'ya later Josh."

With a nod of farewell, he started walking once more. Nurse Nancy inside the clinic huh? Joshua made his way to the aforementioned place and lo and behold, she was there. He nodded a greeting to one of the nurses there and then headed towards the lying nurse who had an arm slung over her eyes.

"Greetings Nurse Nancy. Just thought I'd tell you that one of the nurses may have filed a complaint because of you." A straight to the point giving of information. That's how Josh does things anyway.

@Inda

Dr. Brennan nodded.

"Certainly. I'll let you get back to your work out. But please- do reconsider my offer."

She turned and walked down the hallway, flashing a final smile at Sasha as she left. Dr. Brennan wanted him to survive what she had planned for him. It was a distorted sort of concern, but concern nonetheless. She had marked him as hers and she was going to be sure what was hers knew that it was.

@Metronome

*******************************************************************************

Nancy lifted her arm and looked at Josh.

"Hi Josh. Yeah, I kind of figured. It wouldn't have happened if I had kept my mouth shut. I hope Dr. Greene doesn't get on my case." Her back was starting to feel better. The muscles were mostly relaxed, and the dizziness that always accompanied the pain pills had subsided for the most part. Maybe it was time she got up.

Slowly, she rolled onto her side and propped herself up on her elbow, testing how her muscles felt. They felt... well, not great, but ok.

She finished sitting up. "If words already spreading around, I guess I'm in some hot water, huh? Could you help me off the bed?" She held her hands out to Josh with her question. "Standing up after these pills can sometimes lead to fights with gravity."

@Polaris North

"He didn't look angry earlier; I think you're fine." Josh said with a shrug. He couldn't really know if the guy was happy or not. He always had this smile plastered on his face whenever he was out and about so he couldn't really see what the guy was thinking most of the time. Doctor Greene would frown at times but that's about it. No reason why. He would just look like that.

Once she asked for help, he took her hands and helped her up, keeping a steady grip on her even after she was standing just in case she would stumble. "Bad day?" He asked. Although it was obvious, seeing as she was here in the clinic, but perhaps something happened which led to her injury acting up.

Once she would steady herself, he would retract his hands from her and then place them in his pockets.

"Thanks." Nancy felt steady on her feet, but she needed to eat. Part of the earlier problem was taking the pills on an empty stomach. She walked to the cabinet in the infirmary where they kept bags of chips for anyone with low blood sugar or who needed to take pills with food, and grabbed two bags before walking back to Joshua.

"Other than the back issue, no. Today has been just fine. I mean, I couldn't find Dr. Greene when I needed him so I could sign some new employee forms, but that was only a little irritating. I'll see him at the meeting today." She held out the second bag of chips to him. "I think I must have twisted in my sleep or something. Any word on what the meeting tonight is about?"

Sasha promptly shut the door as soon as the woman turned around to leave. He shook his head and he retook his position in the middle of the room to continue his lunge workout. The brief conversation had left him feeling unsettled. The sense of dread hung around in his stomach for the remainder of his exercises, all the way up until dinner time when it was replaced by hunger.

Sasha knew dinner would be served soon. If the cafeteria workers followed their usual routine, tonight was grilled chicken night. He kind of wanted to get down there before all that was left were the dry, hard chunks of white meat. He grabbed the book off of his bed and headed down towards the cafeteria. There was a small line already. Sasha silently picked up a tray and took a place in line behind a female patient. She was very meticulously looking over the pieces of meat, taking her sweet time before pointing out the one she wanted. He tried to refrain from rolling his eyes.

Once he got his food, Sasha went to find a table. He usually sat at the same one every day: all the way in the back, in the corner where no one else would feasibly sit with him. He wasn't much a talker, especially when he was trapped in this hell hole. Making new friends wasn't really his forte. Sasha was much more happy to sit, read, and eat his dinner slowly.

Joshua watched as Nancy began navigating around the clinic, going to one of the cabinets that held bags of chips. She took two and then went back to him. She began speaking again, replying to his question earlier. "I've seen him around." He mused. Nurse Nancy was new so she couldn't have possibly gotten the weird vibe from Doctor Greene yet. Or perhaps she has? It took Josh a good three days to find something off about him and this place. Then again, he was simply a guard and thus didn't have anything directly involved with the patients besides their safety (or well the staff's).

He then looked at the bag of chips before gratefully taking it. Well, he has snacks now for later. That's nice. He'll drop this off at his room after this exchange. "Guards don't really get to know much about the meetings. Only the most trusted ones are allowed to go in." He explained. "So no." He finalized. Might as well get the explanation out of the way even before she asks. As far as Joshua knew, the block leaders were the ones present in the meeting and leave the rest of the guards in the dark. He didn't mind. He just does his job anyway, no matter how twisted it would be.

@Inda

Nancy finished her chips a little quicker than might have been ladylike. She didn't care. She crumpled the bag and tossed it into the trash can.

"Oh, I didn't realize. I thought guards had to go, too. I guess someone has to keep everyone in line while we're chatting away, huh?" She looked up at the clock.

"Oh, crap! The dinner prep has started. Gotta get down to the cafeteria. I need to go help them out down there." Thankfully, she didn't have to handle the dinner pill line. She only needed to get into the kitchen and help get food to the patients and make sure everything ran as smoothly and quickly as possible by getting plates and trays to the dishwashers. Technically that was the duty of the kitchen staff, but when they were going to be losing a bunch of the nurses and head guards to the meeting at 5, they needed all hands on deck. Dinner would still be served during the meeting, and the more that was done before their numbers were cut, the better. Honestly, it was self serving- if she helped out now, there wouldn't be so much of a "Charlie-Foxtrot" waiting for her in the morning. She went to stand by the door, reluctant to go out just yet. It had been nice to be off her feet for some of the afternoon.

"Are you working the dinner hour or is your shift over soon? Any wild and crazy plans for the night?" She knew very well there wasn't much to do on the island. The employee wing, where their rooms were, housed a few extra amenities that the patients didn't get, but not much. Nancy was glad she had brought her collection of movies and a laptop here when she moved. Otherwise, she would have been bored out of her skull. She wasn't much of a reader for recreation. Her books pretty much all consisted of medical textbooks from college, some medical books she got after college, and a few medical periodicals. If she was reading, it was for studying purposes. She enjoyed movies to get her mind off of things.

************************************************************************

Dr. Brennan made her way in to the recreation room after checking in on the nurse handling the pharmacy for dinner- the new prescriptions weren't supposed to start until the morning. She stood in the doorway to the room, watching the patients inside playing board games or cards, reading some of the old magazines, and talking.

It was hard to keep the names and faces of so many patients straight. Add on the nurses, guards, orderlies, and kitchen staff, and most of the time she had to later on match the face to the records in her office. It was a necessary part of the work she did, though.

She wondered if Dr. Greene had reviewed the paperwork for any of the patients here yet. Some of them seemed quite promising. Dr. Brennan scribbled on her clipboard some notes about who to discuss with him later.

Given the day she'd had, Elizabeth was looking forward to dinner a lot more than the previous evenings. She was extremely hungry, and no longer feeling nauseated. After her shower, she made her way to the cafeteria. Along the way, she saw some familiar faces, including another patient who she had never personally met but somehow seemed to be paranoid beyond words all the time. He easily stood out to her, but she never felt like approaching him. Shit was already going down in that place, and Elizabeth wanted to stay out of it all. Someone like him would be running into trouble, not away from it.

"Hey you."

"Casey, hi!" Elizabeth turned around to greet her friend standing behind her in line, another patient who had been there nearly as long as she had. "I didn't see you there."

"Funny, I haven't seen you around all day today."

"Nobody likes a smart-ass, Case..."

Both women giggled as they moved forward in line. After they both got their food, they sat together in one of the tables farthest away from the entrance to enjoy their meal and chit chat about the latest news around the hospital.

Sasha's eyes dully read over the words in his book as he slowly delivered canned peas to his mouth via spoon. The food certainly left something to be desired. Sasha could liken it to the time he had spent a month in remote Siberia. Everything was shipped in; nothing fresh. The vegetables were canned and most of the meat had a little freezer burn taste to it. What he wouldn't give for a bowl of fresh cut fruit instead of the stuff they had the gall to dump out a can and call 'tropical mix'. He missed the mangoes from Mexico and the papayas from Brazil.

Even the drinks were pretty bad. For one, his pink lemonade had an alcohol content of 0.0%. The chemically aftertaste stuck around a bit too long.

When he'd finished his food, Sasha set his tray aside and continued to sit for a while. He liked a little background noise while he read, and often times his room was just too quiet. The subtle roar of the cafeteria was just enough white noise.

Joshua simply nodded at her realization. Once she spouted something about wanting to help with dinner, it made Joshua instinctively look at his watch. Hm, she was right. Dinner was closing in and so was that meeting with Doctor Greene. However, she stopped near the door as if reluctant to go out and help. He cocked his head slightly to the side, pondering why she had stopped in the first place. She looked like she wanted to hurry up there. He didn't question her reasons for wanting to hurry there though. While the kitchen staff would be enough, help from others were appreciated and it does have its merits.

"I wasn't." He replied before walking towards the door to exit, "But thanks to the meeting, I am now." The guards, while many, aren't really all that motivated to work. With the head guards inside the meeting, some were sure to slack off. But of course, some are stiff and unmoving until their shift has ended. Statues that remain looking after the patients. Then there were the other guards who relax when not in the hawk eyes of their superiors. Then there were guards like Joshua who look like they're slacking off but is doing their job quite well.

"Are you going or not? Because I definitely am." Joshua said. Ichi had already made his way out of the door and is patiently waiting for his master to exit with him so they could walk towards the dining room.

@Inda

@Eviledd1984 @Americore @Inda



Dr. Greene arched his brow at Kevin and looked down his nose at him curiously. "What have you heard?" he asked quietly as he watched the man before him become slightly uncomfortable. "Let's go to my office to discuss this. I have some paperwork and files to collect before the meeting anyway. The walls in this place seem to have ears and listen at the most inappropriate times," he stated menacingly. The truth was, he was the eyes and ears of this entire hospital, and he knew that almost everyone knew that.

They walked quietly to the back of the hospital where Greene's office was located. He picked up a few files that Dr. Brennan had placed on his door. Unlocking the door, he ushered Kevin inside and took a seat on the edge of his desk. "Now. What have you heard between the 'crazies' as you so accurately put it?"

His fingers drummed lightly on the wooden surface of his desk, his eyes scanning over the files in his lap. Xander, Davenport, Jocylin, Fredrick, Peterson, Sasha. He flipped through the papers briefly, waiting for Kevin to gather himself. Dr. Greene pulled out his cellphone and sent Dr. Brennan a brief text as Kevin spoke. 'Davenport. Jocylin. Sasha. Work on those first.'

---

Jo sat down at one of the tables and rolled her eyes at the man before her. "A one time favor. hmm." she pursed her lips and set up the checker board, giving Xander the red and leaving the black for herself. "I think I will have to consider that offer very carefully before I cash it in," she joked and made the first move.

She looked up and watched the red headed doctor, Dr. Brennan, gaze around the room and observe the patients quietly. Their eyes met momentarily before Jo looked away, refocusing on the game before her. The female doc made her feel just as creeped out as Doctor Greene did. Jo looked back at Xander and nodded over her shoulder. "Red head, ten o clock. Scoping out the place for new victims," she teased lightly, but she knew deep down that it was probably true.

@unfallenangel

"Eh well sorry to bother ya firstly doc...but i heard form some of the patients talking about escaping some of them wanting to use their powers to escape..." Kevin said rubbing the back of his head with a small smile on his face, Feeling still a bit uncomfortable around the good doctor since he knew that this guy knew alot was going on.

So perhaps he had heard some whispers of a escape but he was not sure if Dr. Green would be angry at him for trying to tell him this.

@unfallenangel

Xander returned a move in kind as he let his eyes wander toward Dr. Brennan. "It does appear that way. Oh boy I wonder if I make the cut?" He joked but said it in a more hushed tone. At this point people start getting paranoid about the employees of an asylum such as this. It doesn't take to long to start fitting the puzzle pieces together. His personal situation is what brought him here and by the looks of it many other's look pretty military themselves. In any other circumstance you could just assume that they would get locked up for something like, finding out a strange test facility existed in the middle of the desert. However, an Asylum? Jo was pretty spot on with making that joke on victim's being picked out. There was no way that wasn't the case at this point.

At this point though Xander figured it would be best to just keep a normal profile with everyone rather then let his mind wander down such twisted paths, "It would seem my dear that I have further brought you towards Check Mate! You are almost done for in this cat and mouse game we seem to be playing."

Dr. Brennan smiled at Jocilyn when their eyes met. She had just seen the text message from Dr. Greene. How appropriate.

I'll get started. She texted back.

She was concerned about Sasha, though. She hadn't anticipated Dr. Green choosing him yet. She thought she had time to prepare him. She would have to play her cards properly about him. She respected Dr. Greene a great deal. He had wonderful ideas and could find connections between things at such an amazing rate that she couldn't help but admire him. Despite all of that, she was still sure he moved a little too rapidly, not allowing the body enough time to adjust to the steps they had to take to make these experiments work. She didn't want her pet wheeled into the elevator.

She made some notes on her clipboard and exited the recreation room. She needed to think of a way to get Sasha into her facilities sooner rather than later. Playing slow wasn't going to be an option anymore.

Davenport and Jocilyn had been listed first. She would go in that order.

***************************************************************************************************

Nancy sighed and nodded, her afternoon for rest officially over. She left the infirmary and followed Joshua and Ichi to the cafeteria. Maybe Xander needed to take a prescription with dinner- she stopped herself. No. She wouldn't even be assisting with the pill line, she would be helping in the kitchen.

"It should be grilled chicken day." Nancy offered, making a boring attempt at making conversation. She shook her head and changed the subject.

"Do you know the patient named Sasha? He put up one hell of a fight last time he was supposed to take any medications, so I just kind of assumed he was one of the problem patients. He's the one who found me in the hallway and helped me get to the infirmary. He was really nice. But he had some weird ideas about this place. I'm kind of worried about him. Have you dealt with him at all?"