Who: Bea Rodríguez and Daniela Diaz Where: Dani's quarters, the UMCB What: Bea arrives at Dani's place to stay for a few days When: backdated to 1/7
This may have been a mistake.
The room was too small, for one thing. Yes, three people had somehow squished in here once, but Dani had spread out since her roommates left her. Now that Bea and her belongings were added into the mix too, it was distinctly cramped, despite the space Dani had made for her. Or maybe it was her mental space that felt cramped. As someone who valued her privacy, suddenly having that disturbed was going to take some getting used to.
It was only for a few days, she reminded herself, and most of her time was taken up in the lab anyway. In all likelihood, she and Bea would probably spend not more than a few hours in each other’s presence. And Pete was a friend -- one of her few friends -- and so Dani would persevere. He'd been on hand, at least, to make introductions and get them past that first, awkward stage.
Closing the door behind Pete’s exit, she turned to face Bea and gave her guest a tight, but not completely unfriendly, smile. “I suppose that's that. If there's anything you need, let me know, and I'll see what I can do about getting it for you.”
Bea, she assumed, would want a little time to settle in, and so Dani planned to let her have that opportunity.
Bea, too, was feeling the claustrophobia of being in this room with Dani. Back at Fox Grove she shared one of the old math classrooms with one other person so a bed in the corner of an old hospital room was a bit of a downgrade. Despite that, she was still grateful for Dani’s hospitality. Plus, there were some definite bright spots--
“I can’t believe there’s a real bed in here. And a working bathroom. I forget how nice it is here!” Bea said, jumping up onto the mattress, appreciating the bounce. She might have to investigate jumping on the bed once Dani was gone. “Have you lived here since, y’know, the zombies?”
“The bathroom is definitely a perk,” Dani acknowledged. She started toward her own bed, but the idea of sitting there, facing Bea while they talked, suddenly brought back a host of half-forgotten memories: dorm life, high school slumber parties, sharing a room with her sisters. She opted for her desk chair instead. It was wedged at the foot of her bed now, and in order to be able to look at Bea, she had to sit sideways in it, with the edge of the desk bumping against her ribs. It still felt more natural, though, given all the time she spent working and studying in this spot.
“But yes,” Dani added, smoothing her hands across her lap, straightening wrinkles that didn't exist. “I came to the hospital straight away when it all started, and once it was apparent we wouldn't be going anywhere, this is the room I was assigned. Pete and the other doctors have nicer quarters, but given the circumstances, that seems fair. Were you always at the school?”
Bea continued to look around the room as Dani spoke, taking in the appearance of the place. She thought it was nice… She’d been in Pete’s room before and it was also nice, but she didn’t necessarily think that it was much better. Though she was homesick for Fox Grove and all her friends, at least this place was meant to have people sleeping and living in it.
“Yeah, I was there when the city really started going crazy,” Bea confirmed. “Seemed safer to just stay. And I never found my parents. We lived a bit outside of Austin. My mom actually worked here at UMCB but I think she was off work the day stuff was happening so if she’s still alive, I assume she’s with my dad and grandparents.”
It was sad to think about, but it was a reality Bea had been dealing with for the past two years. There wasn’t anything she could do to change it, so she may as well keep living her life as best she could.
Dani at least had the sense not to point out that Bea’s parents were more than likely not alive. Just as her own family members were not. For a long time she had clung to the false hope that someone might have survived, but eventually logic won out. Even if she did have a sibling or a parent still in the world somewhere, the odds were stacked against ever seeing them again. One way or another, they were all simply gone. The how of it hardly mattered. Anyway, her situation was hardly unique.
Glancing down at her lap, Dani pursed her lips together as she nodded in response to Bea’s comment. “I presume you had Pete search the hospital’s records to make sure they weren’t in residence? Packed in like we are, it would be easy to miss someone.”
“Yeah, he looked for me but didn’t find them,” Bea said with a shrug. “And I mean, I’ve been here a bunch in the past two years and I never saw any of them during that time. So I guess they’re just, you know, somewhere else or whatever.”
Sensing that they needed a change in the topic of conversation, she asked, “Did you know Pete before all this happened?”
Just as glad for the conversation to turn away from the tragic, Dani shook her head. Her hands shifted as she answered, fingertips tracing along the edge of the makeshift desk in a slightly uneasy gesture. Polite small talk: not her strongest suit.
“No, I met him after, once I started not just living here but working too. A lot of the doctors have awful personalities, but he’s actually got a good heart under all that swagger. He knows his stuff too.” A smirk spread across her face, and she slid a glance over at Bea. “Don’t tell him I said so, though. He doesn’t need the encouragement, frankly.”
“Your secret is safe with me,” Bea grinned. “I could tell when we were at Luckenbach that he was a good doctor and shadowing him now makes that even more obvious. It’s also made me realize he’s got a bit of an ego, but that might not be a completely bad thing. Especially when you’ve got the knowledge and skill to back it up, you know?”
“Nothing wrong with confidence,” Dani agreed, with a nod. Crossing that thin line between self-assurance and cockiness was a habit of her own as well. Maybe that had something to do with why she and Pete got along -- they both had an egotistical streak.
Returning, Bea’s smile with her own slightly less broad one, Dani reflected that, by some miracle, they’d managed to hold several minutes of conversation without either of them saying something to alienate the other. Of course, you couldn’t gauge the whole of the next few days on such a brief exchange, but it was better than she’d expected, frankly.