"Yeah. Really hard. There aren't a lot of sick or injured but there are so many mutants who need medical help in some way, check ups and screenings on top of the breaks and bruises of typical life. We're getting mutants from as far away as Pennsylvania, Maine, one even drove all the way from Georgia just so we could look at his broken foot. There just aren't enough nurses or doctors or mutants with healing abilities like me to see them all. There's already a six month wait for non critical patients," Josh blurted out all at once.
"We can't open another clinic because we had a hard enough time staffing the one we have and there's been some.... I don't want to call it trouble but the Sentinels came into the clinic last week looking for a mutant. Sabbah and the Sisters drove them off saying that they needed a warrant and they left, eventually, but there was this tension in the air. It could've gotten ugly fast if they'd had a hint or whiff of the guy they were looking for."
A rueful laugh cut through his verbal diarrhea. "I'm sorry. We don't even have our drinks yet and I'm already spilling my guts out like a poked pig. This just isn't talked about at the shelter or the clinic, about the Sentinels or the lack of manpower and space. Everyone knows it's there so we don't talk about it because there isn't much we can do. But yeah, I'm busy, between the clinic and the infirmary I'm pulling double sometimes triple shifts. Today's been my first day off in a long long time. How about you? How goes life as team leader?"
He leaned back to let the waitress pour him a mug of coffee from the carafe but he didn't look at her. He could still feel her glancing at him and his small burst of bravado from before had deserted him completely now.