Lord help me, I will never get used to that. Who: Jai and open to staff When: Noonish Where: Security offices, basement level Eventual language behind a cut.
Today was supposed to be Jai's day off, and he'd been enjoying it by sleeping in, until his phone started ringing an hour ago. Apparently they'd had a morning runner, and she'd broken a security guard's nose. Said security guard was now insisting he was in too much pain to finish the rest of his shift. Fantastic. Jai had dutifully risen to fill in, and he hadn't said a word of complaint. Oh, sure, he was thinking it rather loudly, but he knew the guy. He wasn't really a bad guy, and if it had been the other way around he probably would have done the same for Jai. Maybe.
Unfortunately, the guy was also the sort who would have forgotten his own head if it weren't attached. Jai headed to the infirmary to grab his walkie, and discovered the batteries were almost dead. Jai didn't complain here either, though he could have reminded him that these were supposed to be checked at the start of every shift. He just took it, wished him well, and headed back to the hotel to change them out.
He took the elevator down to the basement, not running into anyone as he headed into the empty security office. There was always the rumble of the washers and dryers in housekeeping, but Jai barely even noticed that anymore. He opened the storage locker at the end of the row, and pulled out the box of batteries. Empty. Frowning, he began rooting in the locker for another one. Nothing. "Well they've got to be somewhere, we need them," he thought aloud. Then he headed over to the small office fridge because, again, the guy he was relieving was kind of a flake and he'd found much stranger things in there in the past. He did find a book (...the hell?) and a half-eaten candy bar, but nothing else. Then he stood, turned, and found a softie standing not three feet in front of him.
"Christ on sale!" Jai blurted out, his balls retreating somewhere behind his kidneys as he jumped back. He slammed into the water cooler and took it down with him, landing on his back in an already large forming puddle of what was hopefully just water and not water and his own terror-stench piss. The softie didn't even blink. That was okay, Jai was blinking enough for the both of them. Though she'd been dead for years, he could hear his mother screaming at him about blasphemy. He responded to her without thinking about it, crossing himself and kissing the base of his thumb. Then he got a better look at the softie. She was holding a new package of batteries.
Deep breaths, he told himself, and that was what he did. "Thank you," he managed. "You can just... leave them on the bench." He knew most of the staff would have then asked them to clean up the mess he'd made, but he didn't. He hated asking them for anything, and would happily clean it up himself if it would mean he wouldn't have to be in a room alone with her any longer. The softie did as she was told and left the room, never once actually looking at Jai. He breathed a sigh of deep relief.