As I whisper in your ear Who: Circe, NPCs (her attending, Nurse McKay and doctor at abortion clinic) Where: U of M hospital > Detroit When: The following events take place between 2 to 4 in the afternoon Warning: Well, mature themes such as abortion; some violence
Alexandria never went by the nurse’s station unless she had to. She didn’t like being around the nurses who got their degrees after four years and dawdled about like they were doctors or something. Not to mention that she was already in a foul mood from the hell that was interning. Back at the teaching hospital, they’d more or less learned to leave her alone and let her be at the lab. Here? Not so much. Her attending liked to order her about. Away from the lab and off to check everyone’s blood levels. Well, she wasn’t here to deal with patients, damnit. But he was getting her the patients she wanted and so she chose not to complain. Complaining wasn’t her cup of tea anyway. She hated whiners. Which was why she hated the nurse’s station. All the whining interns liked to hang out there as they avoided work. She ignored the surgery intern that tried to speak to her as she picked her patient’s chart up and overheard the head nurse grumbling over something.
“All of you need to find things better to do than leave inappropriate love notes on the board,” she muttered under her breath as she pulled a post-it off the board. Alexandria looked up as she sighed and a note caught her eye. The handwriting was unmistakable. Letting the lid of the chart drop close, she walked around the nurse’s counter and pulled the note off. Here to say hello - Ulysses. She turned to the head nurse, who was seemingly now the new official head of the censor committee of the communication board.
“Did you see the man who left this note?” Alexandria asked, raising the piece of paper so she could see.
“Please, I have much better things to do than organize your love life...” her eyes dropped to her name plate. “...Intern Gibbon.”
An eyebrow shot up. Not only was that a direct attack, it was completely erroneous. You didn’t go around calling a lawyer Lawyer So-and-So. “Doctor Gibbon,” Alexandria hissed right back. “And this is more important than the sordid love lives of those who would like to call themselves my colleagues. I’ll repeat myself. Did you see the man that left this note?”
“Look, Doctor Gibbon,” the nurse’s eyes dropped lower and saw the wedding ring. She looked up at Alexandria with a smirk. “I’m a nurse. I take care of patients. I don’t bother myself with married women having extramarital affairs. Considering you’re an intern and all, I’m kind of impressed you have the time to fuck aro--” she didn’t get to finish her sentence as Circe’s free hand raised and wrapped her hand around the woman’s throat, nails digging in deep. She pushed the woman backwards until the were up against the nearby wall. Bringing her cheek against the woman’s, Circe looked sideways at her face as she whispered a threat.
“Maggots shouldn’t speak like that,” she sang. “Like the birds stay away from the snake, so should the maggots learn when not to speak.”
Nurse McKay raised her arms to pull Circe’s hand away but only succeeded to bat at her wrist with futility. The nurse began to choke as Circe squeezed the life out of her. Watching as the other woman’s eyes started rolling into the back of her head, she hardly heard the screams from the other interns.
“Doctor Gibbon! Nurse McKay!” a bunch of yells erupted from behind Circe. Suddenly arms were around her, forcing her hand open as Nurse McKay sputtered and choked on the air she’d been begging for. She grabbed her throat as she doubled over and coughed maniacally. Circe let them pull her away but kept her eyes trained on the woman.
“Doctor Gibbon, I think it’s best if you went home for the rest of the day,” a hand was on her shoulder. She looked up and saw her attending nod. “I’ll take care of Nurse McKay,” he added before patting her shoulder again. Circe saw no reason to argue as she spun on her heel and walked away from the nurse’s station.
He’s in town. The running was more instinctual than planned and she found herself practically fleeing down the hallway of the hospital. It felt like the elevator was taking an eternity to get to her floor. Once inside, she pressed the button for the parking garage more times than was ever necessary. As the steel doors slid open, she rushed towards her car and slid inside with absolutely no clue where she was going. Gripping her steering wheel so hard her knuckles turned white, Circe leaned the back of her head against her seat while her eyes looked in her rearview mirror, as if to make sure he wasn’t following behind her. Convinced he wasn’t about to appear out of thin air, Circe closed her eyes as she fought to regain control of herself and her sanity. Her hands dropped into her lap as she eased into a calm.
Reopening her eyes, Circe looked down at her hands. At her rings. She reminded herself he was just a man. Just another man, nothing special about him. And all men could be made to bleed. Turning the engine on, she pulled out of her parking spot and drove towards Detroit. She had some business to take care of.
The place was cleaner than she’d expected it to be. From the way her patient’s mother had made it sound, it was a sleazy, backyard operation. It was a fairly decent-sized office building and while the women in the waiting area looked too far along to be safely doing anything about the life in their bellies now, that was not Circe’s worry. She approached the receptionist and requested to see any of the doctors immediately. She was in too much of a hurry to discuss further with the woman so she simply used her hypnotic powers and added that she was an intern who had business in mind. The receptionist left her desk and knocked on one of the doors before disappearing into a room for a second. She emerged with a man in a lab coat behind her.
“May I help you...Doctor Gibbon?” he asked, looking at her name plate. She had not bothered to change out of her work clothes.
“I understand you’re a very busy person...” Circe looked at his lapel but saw no name plate. “...but I need to speak with you regarding a very important manner if you have a few minutes.”
“Of course, always ready to help a colleague in the field,” he responded, motioning for Circe to come around and follow into the offices in the back. “You can call me Steve.”
Circe had absolutely no intention of calling this man anything. He led her into his office and closed the door behind them before sitting down behind a desk. Circe was straight to the point. “I want you to give me the children of the women in that waiting room and every procedure after that. You seem surprised.”
“I...I was expecting you needed a procedure yourself,” the doctor stammered. Circe snorted. I prefer my babies birthed and edible, not aborted, but thank you.
“No, I don’t require a procedure. I require bodies,” Circe responded before adding a smile to the end of that statement. “You’ll help me, won’t you? And you won’t tell anyone, will you?”
The abortionist continued to look at her with scandalized eyes before a slow nod accompanied glazed eyes. “Of course. We have six patients scheduled for the day. The last procedure is in two hours. You can come back then.”
Circe rose. It certainly wasn’t the way she usually did business. Already dead babies were not exactly her preferred choice but considering this wasn’t a need and more of a snack because the craving was becoming far too intense to ignore any longer, she’d take what she could. And if it kept her from attempting the suicidal and stealing a baby from the nursery at the hospital, she’d do it. Looking at her watch, Circe added the two hours it would take to get back to Scarlet Oak and the two hours she would have to spend in Detroit. She could be back home by eight or nine. That was fine. “Two hours, then.”