2010-03-04: Helping Hand

Starring:

Alexandra_V4icon.pngJanet_V4icon.png

Guest Starring:

Morris_V4icon.png

Date: March 4, 2010

Summary:

Alexandra is visited by a doctor.


"Log Title"

Building 27 — Governor's Island

Ah, back to the status quo. Following a few weeks free of the little cell and its restraints, Alex is…back in a little room, in restraints. For agent safety, she was assured, when they cuffed and shackled her, and moved her to a small room off the barracks main room. A plain little concrete room, with steel table and chair, it looks like it could just as easily be used for interrogations as it could for medical procedures. Or medical interrogations if you want to go that way.

For the moment, Alex just sits in the chair (cuffed, but not cuffed to the chair), waiting for this 'doctor' to show up. She hadn't asked to be seen or anything; rather, she was informed of the doctor's wishes to see her. That seemed odd at the moment, but…who's she to argue, really. There are a few things that might warrant some kind of medical attention, but those are mostly clearing up on their own.

The sound of an unusually perky voice can be heard down the hall. Janet makes no effort to silence herself on this topic, "— don't you think it's kind of overkill though, Morris? I mean, honestly, sick people aren't going to hurt their doctor — and I would never provide second rate care to anyone. Ever."

Tim Morris says nothing. Instead he just shakes his head and pads to the room's door and opens it, allowing the doctor to walk in.

Morris hangs in the doorway, a witness to everything going on. In a way, Janet is glad he's there; it's reassuring to have some measure of consistency in this place.

"Hello~" she chimes almost musically as she pads up to the 'patient', bag-in-hand. "I heard you're not doing very well, Dr. Lambert, what seems to be the trouble?"

Morris shoots Janet a warning look and shakes his head. The warning is silent. If she's going to make a difference she's going to have to listen to some of the rules.

Janet just rolls her eyes.

"Well…I ah…there's been nightmares. I can imagine you've heard about those…" Alex replies, jumping right into things. "Those are the only real problem. They'd disappeared for a few days when I got a chance to do some more normal work, but when that dried up, they came back. Prior to moving to the barracks, however, there had been rather nasty bruising and cuts on my wrists and ankles from these…shackles," she says, turning to glance at Morris in the doorway. "But they've mostly healed. As well as my nails, which I managed to break and shred by clawing the walls here the first few nights."

Something that isn't seen often in Building 27 spreads over Janet's face. Her eyes soften, her head tilts, and her eyebrows furrow. It's sympathy. True sympathy. Nothing staged or abusive. The expression lasts as Alex explains her situation.

"I'm Doctor McCarty. Let's see if we can't do something about those nightmares…" she pauses before adding, "I don't really think the shackles are necessary, if you want to hurt me, there's really little I can do considering to do my job I have to get freakishly close at times, but I get vetoed on such things." There's a moment's frown before it's replaced by a smile.

She glances at Morris and then back at Alex and shrugs. "My bodyguard. Sorry. He follows me everywhere. My own protection." She says with a toothy grin as she opens her bag, but she hesitates a moment. "So… tell me about this work that you were doing? What was it exactly?"

"It was just idle continuation of the things I'd been working on before I was so affectionately brought here." Crazy UPS chick with her package of doom, and what have you. She should've realized something was up when the delivery was so late in the evening. "Of course, there's only so much you can do with pencil and paper, when you're used to working with computer simulations and making visits to your projects in the field. Not to bore you, but, it was grossly inaccurate calculations regarding some of the industrial processing equipment I was designing."

Alexandra watches her carefully as she pulls open the bag, wary of what additional sorts of chemicals and drugs she may have to use in 'treating' her nightmares. However, there IS something different about Janet; she lacks that revulsion of the people here, however buried it may be in the other agents. She seems almost naively innocent of what's going on here, as her sympathetic look conveys that, rather than let these 'terrorists' rot, she wants to help. Maybe that's why Alex is opening up quite readily, and having a civil conversation.

"And the work helped?" Janet asks again as she arches an eyebrow. "I don't actually understand why we can't bring in a laptop for you… I… can recommend that maybe as like part of your treatment." With a lopsided grin she fishes through her bag of tricks and extracts an ambient. "I know it's not perfect and it doesn't guarantee a nightmare-less sleep, but it might help you at least get to sleep…"

She winks as she looks at she issues a warmer toothier grin that fades to all business moments later. "Do you need an ice pack? For your wrists or nails? I'm pretty sure I have…" she begins to fish through her bag, extracting random vials of medicine. "… oh come on…" she continues to fish, pulling out a package of tongue depressors, a baggie of cotton swabs, and more random vials of medication. "Ah ha! There it is!" she pulls out a chemical ice pack. "I knew it was here somewhere!" she announces with a grin.

"No…no, I think they're good now." To prove her point, Alex holds up her cuffed wrists to show the state of affairs. The metal cuffs are tight enough to ensure that they won't slide off, but the faint purplish color of healing bruises is clear under the surface. Wearing the cuffs isn't the problem; is was the bouts of screaming and struggling against the restraints firmly attached to the chair back in the individual cell.

With her palms up, she easily curls her fingers back, and shows the nails. They're shorter than they were, and she's done her best to file them down and smooth them out, but they remain a bit ragged. "An emery board would be a real lifesaver, but I don't know. They might consider that a dangerous weapon in the wrong hands. Same with a laptop, really. There's a lot of very specialized software I use anyway. Stuff that the company provides for employee use sort of stuff. It's not something you can go to an electronics shop and buy."

"Well, I can try anyways," Janet shrugs at the notion of the laptop. "I doubt they'll say yes, but it's worth asking, right?" She shrugs again before smiling broadly. "And if the emery board has no points…" she shifts her gaze to Morris who stares at her skeptically. "Morris doesn't agree." Her grin continues.

"Is there something else that could take your attention in a good way?" She sighs heavily, but continues to smile supportively. "And you're sure there's nothing else going on with you?" She winks again, but this time there's no other indication of anything. "No visions? Hallucinations? Fevers? Cough? Chest heaviness?" Her lips purse together.

Well, no. I can't say there's anything else out of the ordinary. Boredom. Worry. The night terrors. The same things I suspect every prisoner here is experiencing. Of course, unlike some, I might actually have a reason to be here," Alex confesses to Janet. When she looks at Morris, Alex does the same, raising her brows a little. "Really? An emery board? Have you never had a girlfriend?" she can't help but scold. But then, she turns back to the doctor.

"Well, in terms of the 'extra stuff,' I don't know that there's anything which would keep my attention in a good way. It might be nice to know how you all are handling my life outside this building, since I practically dropped off the face of the Earth. You know, I did have a family and a job before coming here. I'm sure they're a little concerned." And that's putting it lightly!

"A reason to be here?" Janet quirks as she raises an eyebrow. Morris steps a little further into the room, taking care to close the door behind him. She doesn't urge or contradict Alex, but the doctor doesn't exactly seem to believe that.

She lowers her voice further — to a whisper while hissing through clenched teeth. "If you tell me their names, I'll try to get in touch…" Her eyes soften more as Morris takes a step forward to place a hand on Janet's shoulder. She shrugs it away and shakes her head, indicating she's not finished yet. With a heavy sigh, Morris returns to his post — this side of the door.

"My parents…they're Tony and Julie. They own a bed and breakfast in New Orleans." Alex finds herself whispering, following Janet's lead as Morris is quite literally shrugged off. "As for why I'm here…" Alex begins, settling back into her chair with a wan, worn little smile of sorts on her lips, eyes closed. She runs her cuffed hands through her hair to get a few stray strands out of the way. "Didn't they tell you, doctor? I'm a murderer. Why do think I'm having nightmares? Another agent so dutifully made it a point to tell me about the widows I left."

Shaking her head, Janet disagrees, "You're not a murderer." Her cheeks flush. Morris had told her about Alex's file. Her voice is a whisper again, "You shouldn't feel guilty. You lot are in impossible circumstances." She reaches over to squeeze Alex's shoulder, still whispering. "And nightmares aren't a symptom of your guilt. They're a symptom of your humanity." She shrugs again before sighing and then mouthing the words, "I'm sorry."

Janet's response surprises Alex just a little bit. The whispering, the shoulder touch - they both seem a little out of place for an employee of this agency. "Sometimes I wonder…" she says to Janet, looking at her with wide eyes. "That's the scary part…" she starts out, but doesn't finish, as she has to turn her head away with tears already starting to well up. She's certainly had rather inhumane thoughts about what she'd do to some of the people who work here.

Janet turns to glances at the camera behind her and sighs again. Always watched. Fortunately, she's been really really quiet with her words. "Don't wonder. Know who you are. Dr. Lambert, you're good people," she continues to whisper. "Anyone would do the same if they had to." Pressing her lips together she gives Alex's shoulder another squeeze. "You … need to hold it together…." Her cheeks flush.

Alex manages to nod a little, but can't quite bring herself to look Janet square in the eyes. Rather, she just pats the back of the hand squeezing her shoulder with her cuffed hands. "T-thank you," she manages to force out. "I've been trying…but it seems like everyone's against us here. It's good to know that there's at least one person who can understand." Why, well, that escapes her. But it's a nice feeling nonetheless.

Janet issues Alex another faint smile before lowering her shoulder and backing up. "You're welcome," she whispers again. She backs up further and glances at the camera and then back at Alex. Now she's returned to her professional demeanour, "Dr. Lambert if you need anything… feel free to ask for me. I will be visiting the barracks to make rounds and I'll check up on you then." She issues the other woman a smile.

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