HOME | DD

Description
body div#devskin0 hr { }

Chapter four

Her eyes widened slightly with fear as she locked her gaze onto his face. Pale, ash grey skin. Cheeks, stained by the black substance that constantly dripped from the empty pits he called eyes. No, not pits- she took a deep breath and hesitantly stepped closer to Jack. She wanted a better look at his, "Eyes", if that's what she could even call them. In response, his body tensed and he backed against the wall- hints of fear were still evident on his features. She tensed a bit herself as she drew nearer to him- but, her curiosity kept her walking towards him. When she came to stand in front of him, he was pressing against the wall as if he wanted to disappear into it. He was uncomfortable with her seeing his face- with her being so near to him during his moment of weakness. Slowly, she raised both her hands towards his face- he pulled his lips back in a snarl to reveal his pointed, carnivore teeth. She flinched a bit at the sight of them, then she took a shaky breath and moved her hands closer to his face. They both flinched when her fingers came into contact with his skin- and she snapped her eyes shut fearing that she was about to have her hands ripped off. Instead, she heard a shaken breath pass his lips, and she felt his stiff body relax a bit at her touch.

Hesitantly, she opened her eyes to look at him- he stared right back at her with a nervous expression on her face. For a few minutes, they were both still- save for the somewhat rapid movements of their chests as they breathed. Eventually though, she worked up the nerve to him- which made him flinch, only to relax again. First, she moved her fingers to touch the substance that dripped down his cheeks- it was thick and sticky like acrylic pain, but it was warm like blood. Slowly, she pulled one hand away from his face so that she could look at her fingers. She moved her thumb to smear the fluid around her fingers a bit so that she could feel it better. Then, Jack's hand suddenly came into view and she jumped a bit- she hadn't seen him move. She released a shaky breath as she looked at his hand- he was holding a piece of stained, white cloth. The stains appeared to be made by the substance she had on her fingers. For a moment, her eyes darted between the cloth, and his face- before she paused a moment to take a good look at his expression. He seemed nervous- but so was she. She was touching the face of someone who preferred humans as a food source, and he had tried to kill her a short while ago. Keeping her eyes on his face, she reached for the cloth.

He didn't hand it to her, but instead he held it and she rubbed her fingers against it to clean them. Then, he moved the cloth to the other side of his face- she pulled her hand off his cheeks to clean her fingers again. Then, he closed his eyes and wiped his cheeks- which revealed black stains. When she saw the stains, she more or less realized that the substance leaking from his eyes stained his skin black. That must have been why he had her clean her fingers, he didn't want them to turn black. Once his cheeks were clean, she went back to studying his face- now she seemed to be more comfortable touching him. He seemed a bit more at ease with her as well. This time, she went right for his eyes- or whatever it was she was looking at. He flinched a bit when he felt her fingers move to touch his eyelids, but other than that he seemed fine with her looking. She made sure to keep her touches light when she pulled down his bottom eyelid, and she gasped a bit in surprise. He did have eyes- or, at least something that worked like them. That explained why his eye sockets appeared too black to be empty- too deep for any light to be seen in them. There was something there- something he used as eyes. Whatever it was, it sucked all light away to so that nothing could reflect on its surface.

In a sense, it was as if he had two black holes in place of eyes. She pulled her hands away just as the black fluid began to pool in his eyelids, and he blinked a couple of times as she took a few small steps away from him. That had been, quite the experience.

"F... Food?..." Jack asked hesitantly as he looked at her, and she cast him a curious look in response. He wasn't going to eat her now, was he?

"W-what?..." She asked in response, her voice quiet and nervous as she eyed him. In response, he cautiously raised his hand and pointed towards the kitchen.

"You... Brought me food?... That pie..." Jack said nervously, an almost pained look appearing on his face as he did so. He was either afraid that she'd try to hurt him because of his recent flashback, or he was uncomfortable because he wasn't wearing his mask. Either way, she hated herself for having to use his PTSD against him the way she did- but it was either she did that or she got eaten. She glanced towards the kitchen and nodded.

"Yes, I did... It's still on the counter I need to clean out the fridge before I put it away." She said slowly, a bit of a scowl crossing her face at the idea of having to clean out a fridge currently filled with rotten meat. She was not looking forward to having to deal with that smell. She sighed and shook her head.
"Unless, you want some?..." She asked him hesitantly, her voice unsure and questioning. For a moment, Jack fidgeted a bit in discomfort. He shifted from foot to foot, and tried to keep his eyes on anything but her. He faked interest in the carpet for a few minutes before staring at the wall, then elsewhere. Then, after a while, he offered a hesitant nod cautiously looked at her.

"I... I'll eat..." Jack said nervously as he nodded, before he slowly slid down the wall to take a seat in his usual place on the floor. Then, he stared up at her and offered a shy smile- which pretty much made her inwardly cringe at the sight of his teeth. He didn't need a knife to kill people, not when he had a set of chompers that could put a shark to shame. She smiled back nervously in response, before she turned and made her way to the kitchen. Alright, shark was probably an overstatement. He had pointed teeth alright, but aside from that they seemed relatively human in structure. They weren't crooked or anything, and he kept them surprisingly clean. She quickly retrieved two plates and forks- she was going to eat with him since it would be a tad awkward for both of them if she just sat and watched him dine. Aside from how dangerously sharp his teeth appeared to be, he actually had a lovely smile. Or, at least she assumed he did- it was hard to tell when he seemed to be forcing it. She quickly cut two messy slices out of the pie and put one onto each plate, then she added a little extra to Jack's plate to make sure he ate enough. Once she had the plates ready, she took them and carried them out to where the man eater was sitting on the floor, and she carefully offered him a plate.

He hesitated a moment, before he slowly reached out and took his plate from her with both hands. Then, she sat down in front of him, and they engaged in a bit of a staring contest. She was the one to break eye contact when she glanced down at her plate to get some of the pie on her fork- it had dawned on her that he wouldn't eat anything precooked unless someone else tried it first. Why? Well, because he'd been given precooked food before at the hands of other caretakers- and a majority of the time, it had made him sick. Before long, he put two and two together and realized he'd been given contaminated food. So he decided that if he was to eat anything anyone made for him, they were going to have to eat a bite of it or two themselves. That in mind, the lifted a fork-full of the pie in front of her face, and she eyed the thick brown gravy and chunks of meat for a moment. Then, she pushed past her hesitation and put the food in her mouth- and relief flooded her when she didn't immediately gag. She'd never had steak and kidney pie before, but she knew people that did- and they all hated it. She'd more or less convinced herself that it wouldn't taste very appealing. To her surprise, it wasn't that bad. So she took another bite, which convinced Jack that the food was safe to eat- though he still seemed a bit hesitant as he took his first bite.

He made a slight face as he chewed, but didn't stop eating.

"How is it?" She asked quietly as she took another bite of the pie, and without realizing it she made a bit of a face herself. Next time she made steak and kidney pie, she had to remember not to add so much pepper- and it needed a little more salt. He took a moment to reply while he swallowed his food.

"It's... Palatable." Jack said calmly, before he took another bite. She sighed inwardly and put her fork down.

"Anything I can do to improve?" She questioned, her voice slightly louder than she'd intended on it being. He stared at her for a minute or so while he chewed his food, and after swallowing he put down his fork and sighed as he slumped against the wall.

"Nn... Less steak, and, don't cook it as long... I'd like the meat as close to raw as you can get it, if you can." Jack said slowly, as if he was unsure of whether or not he should be telling her how to make his food. Or rather, whether or not he was comfortable having her bring him precooked foods at all. After months of repeatedly getting sick because his caretakers brought him something homemade, he'd developed a strong distrust of anything brought to him that was "Ready to eat". She couldn't exactly blame him for that though.

"Alright, I can do that... Actually, I won't add any steak next time. I know you don't like it... Anything else?" She asked calmly as she picked her fork back up to resume eating. He chewed on the inside of his lip a bit as he thought over his next words, then he shrugged.

"Well, I... Don't like pepper, and, maybe thicken the gravy a bit." Jack said calmly, before he shoveled another bite of food into his mouth. She nodded slowly in response, to acknowledge that she'd been paying close attention, then she ate what was left of her food and waited for him to do the same. Once he was finished eating, she held out her hand and he handed her his plate, but he didn't let her take it right away. She cast him a curious look as he stared at her awkwardly.
"May I.. Have another piece?" He asked quietly, before he let go of his plate to let her take it. In response, she smiled slightly and nodded, before she stood and walked back into the kitchen. She put her dishes into the sink and gave them a quick rinse, before she retrieved another piece of pie and put it on Jack's plate. Then, she carried it back out to him and sat next to him after handing him his food. He tensed slightly because of how close they were, but he didn't make any attempts to move away from her. Instead, he just started to eat his food in silence. That silence, was short lived though- because she still needed to make sure he'd keep eating when she wasn't around.

"... Jack, you know I can't just leave and pretend none of this happened, right?..." She asked quietly as she eyed the floor intently to keep herself from looking at him. Thanks to how close she was sitting to Jack, she felt him flinch in response to her words, and she heard him drop his fork. No doubt his heart had skipped a beat or two as well.

"P-please... Don't send me to the infirmary!" Jack said in a panicked voice as he turned to look at her. She could feel him starting to tremble, he was so afraid- and in the end, he had every right to be scared. The doctors in the infirmary were freaks. Their methods of treatment were too dangerous, too inhumane to be accepted in normal hospitals. All of the doctors working in "The place", were the type who'd perform open heart surgery on their patient without putting them under anesthesia. They liked the screams of pain, and the struggling of a conscious patient- and that barely scratched the surface of how bad the doctors were. She sighed tiredly and turned to lock eyes with him- as expected, he looked absolutely terrified.

"I really don't want to do that Jack- but, if you won't eat, then I won't have a choice..." She said calmly, but with a bitter tone of voice as she looked at him. In response, he bit the inside of his lip again and broke eye contact with her to stare at his food. Then, he cautiously looked back at her.

"I... The food they have you give me... It makes me sick. I ca- I can't eat it..." Jack said in a sick sounding voice- his skin visibly paled at the idea of eating what she was telling him he had to eat. She sighed quietly and slumped against the wall, and for a long time it was completely silent in the room. Neither of them wanted to talk- she was too deep in thought, and he was nervously waiting for her to say something. Then, after a while, she took a deep breath and offered him a half smile.

"How about this... You promise to try and eat a little more for the time being, and I promise you'll get my kidneys once someone takes me out- and in the meantime, I'll see about getting you food a little more suited to your stomach. That sound fair?" She asked in as calm a voice as she could muster as she looked at him. Then, the room fell silent once more as she waited for him to give her a response. He continued to chew on his lip for a while as he thought things over, then he offered a nod and sighed.

"I can, try to eat... So long as you can bring me other foods from time to time... Just until you can get them to give me less processed foods.." Jack said quietly as he picked up his fork and began to pick at his pie a bit, before he shoveled a fork full of it into his mouth. She watched him eat for a moment, before she glanced at the clock- she'd been in there with him nearly two hours by that point. So it was high time she left to go and check in on her next patient. That in mind, she stood up and stretched a bit, before she walked over to pick up Jack's mask. Then, she turned around and handed it to him.

"Alright Jack, sounds like we've got ourselves a deal. Now, I'm going to get my paperwork, and fill out a few things, then I'm leaving. In the meantime, I'd suggest eating as much of that pie as you can, because I don't have time to clean out the fridge. I'll do that when I come back tonight." She said calmly as she went about the business of collecting the papers that had scattered across the floor when he'd attacked her. She quickly sorted them out and put them in the proper order, then she retrieved her pen and proceeded to fill out the routine paperwork. For the time being, she'd leave any questions regarding his health and weight blank- she wasn't required to fill them out unless there was a noticeable change anyways. As she filled out her paperwork, she remained aware of the fact that he kept his eyes on her. Seeing as Jack had some considerable trust issues, he probably believed that she was filling out the form that would get him sent to the infirmary- which meant he was contemplating whether or not he should act or let her do what she was doing. Once she finished her required forms, she sighed and pulled the intensive care form out of her paperwork and she held it out in front of him. His eyes visibly widened and he tensed in response- but aside from that, he remained in place. Then, while holding eye contact with him, she ripped the form in half- a long sigh of relief passed his lips. She tore the form to pieces, then crumpled them up into a mangled ball which she tossed into the trashcan at the far end of the room.

With that taken care off, she secured her paperwork to the clipboard, then she headed towards the door while she waved at Jack.

"See you in a few hours Jack." She said calmly as she punched in her code and stepped out the door, before she immediately started down the hall towards her superiors' office. She had to turn in her paperwork, and, she had a few things to discuss with her bosses before she went to pay her next patient a visit.

Description
body div#devskin0 hr { }

Chapter four

Her eyes widened slightly with fear as she locked her gaze onto his face. Pale, ash grey skin. Cheeks, stained by the black substance that constantly dripped from the empty pits he called eyes. No, not pits- she took a deep breath and hesitantly stepped closer to Jack. She wanted a better look at his, "Eyes", if that's what she could even call them. In response, his body tensed and he backed against the wall- hints of fear were still evident on his features. She tensed a bit herself as she drew nearer to him- but, her curiosity kept her walking towards him. When she came to stand in front of him, he was pressing against the wall as if he wanted to disappear into it. He was uncomfortable with her seeing his face- with her being so near to him during his moment of weakness. Slowly, she raised both her hands towards his face- he pulled his lips back in a snarl to reveal his pointed, carnivore teeth. She flinched a bit at the sight of them, then she took a shaky breath and moved her hands closer to his face. They both flinched when her fingers came into contact with his skin- and she snapped her eyes shut fearing that she was about to have her hands ripped off. Instead, she heard a shaken breath pass his lips, and she felt his stiff body relax a bit at her touch.

Hesitantly, she opened her eyes to look at him- he stared right back at her with a nervous expression on her face. For a few minutes, they were both still- save for the somewhat rapid movements of their chests as they breathed. Eventually though, she worked up the nerve to him- which made him flinch, only to relax again. First, she moved her fingers to touch the substance that dripped down his cheeks- it was thick and sticky like acrylic pain, but it was warm like blood. Slowly, she pulled one hand away from his face so that she could look at her fingers. She moved her thumb to smear the fluid around her fingers a bit so that she could feel it better. Then, Jack's hand suddenly came into view and she jumped a bit- she hadn't seen him move. She released a shaky breath as she looked at his hand- he was holding a piece of stained, white cloth. The stains appeared to be made by the substance she had on her fingers. For a moment, her eyes darted between the cloth, and his face- before she paused a moment to take a good look at his expression. He seemed nervous- but so was she. She was touching the face of someone who preferred humans as a food source, and he had tried to kill her a short while ago. Keeping her eyes on his face, she reached for the cloth.

He didn't hand it to her, but instead he held it and she rubbed her fingers against it to clean them. Then, he moved the cloth to the other side of his face- she pulled her hand off his cheeks to clean her fingers again. Then, he closed his eyes and wiped his cheeks- which revealed black stains. When she saw the stains, she more or less realized that the substance leaking from his eyes stained his skin black. That must have been why he had her clean her fingers, he didn't want them to turn black. Once his cheeks were clean, she went back to studying his face- now she seemed to be more comfortable touching him. He seemed a bit more at ease with her as well. This time, she went right for his eyes- or whatever it was she was looking at. He flinched a bit when he felt her fingers move to touch his eyelids, but other than that he seemed fine with her looking. She made sure to keep her touches light when she pulled down his bottom eyelid, and she gasped a bit in surprise. He did have eyes- or, at least something that worked like them. That explained why his eye sockets appeared too black to be empty- too deep for any light to be seen in them. There was something there- something he used as eyes. Whatever it was, it sucked all light away to so that nothing could reflect on its surface.

In a sense, it was as if he had two black holes in place of eyes. She pulled her hands away just as the black fluid began to pool in his eyelids, and he blinked a couple of times as she took a few small steps away from him. That had been, quite the experience.

"F... Food?..." Jack asked hesitantly as he looked at her, and she cast him a curious look in response. He wasn't going to eat her now, was he?

"W-what?..." She asked in response, her voice quiet and nervous as she eyed him. In response, he cautiously raised his hand and pointed towards the kitchen.

"You... Brought me food?... That pie..." Jack said nervously, an almost pained look appearing on his face as he did so. He was either afraid that she'd try to hurt him because of his recent flashback, or he was uncomfortable because he wasn't wearing his mask. Either way, she hated herself for having to use his PTSD against him the way she did- but it was either she did that or she got eaten. She glanced towards the kitchen and nodded.

"Yes, I did... It's still on the counter I need to clean out the fridge before I put it away." She said slowly, a bit of a scowl crossing her face at the idea of having to clean out a fridge currently filled with rotten meat. She was not looking forward to having to deal with that smell. She sighed and shook her head.
"Unless, you want some?..." She asked him hesitantly, her voice unsure and questioning. For a moment, Jack fidgeted a bit in discomfort. He shifted from foot to foot, and tried to keep his eyes on anything but her. He faked interest in the carpet for a few minutes before staring at the wall, then elsewhere. Then, after a while, he offered a hesitant nod cautiously looked at her.

"I... I'll eat..." Jack said nervously as he nodded, before he slowly slid down the wall to take a seat in his usual place on the floor. Then, he stared up at her and offered a shy smile- which pretty much made her inwardly cringe at the sight of his teeth. He didn't need a knife to kill people, not when he had a set of chompers that could put a shark to shame. She smiled back nervously in response, before she turned and made her way to the kitchen. Alright, shark was probably an overstatement. He had pointed teeth alright, but aside from that they seemed relatively human in structure. They weren't crooked or anything, and he kept them surprisingly clean. She quickly retrieved two plates and forks- she was going to eat with him since it would be a tad awkward for both of them if she just sat and watched him dine. Aside from how dangerously sharp his teeth appeared to be, he actually had a lovely smile. Or, at least she assumed he did- it was hard to tell when he seemed to be forcing it. She quickly cut two messy slices out of the pie and put one onto each plate, then she added a little extra to Jack's plate to make sure he ate enough. Once she had the plates ready, she took them and carried them out to where the man eater was sitting on the floor, and she carefully offered him a plate.

He hesitated a moment, before he slowly reached out and took his plate from her with both hands. Then, she sat down in front of him, and they engaged in a bit of a staring contest. She was the one to break eye contact when she glanced down at her plate to get some of the pie on her fork- it had dawned on her that he wouldn't eat anything precooked unless someone else tried it first. Why? Well, because he'd been given precooked food before at the hands of other caretakers- and a majority of the time, it had made him sick. Before long, he put two and two together and realized he'd been given contaminated food. So he decided that if he was to eat anything anyone made for him, they were going to have to eat a bite of it or two themselves. That in mind, the lifted a fork-full of the pie in front of her face, and she eyed the thick brown gravy and chunks of meat for a moment. Then, she pushed past her hesitation and put the food in her mouth- and relief flooded her when she didn't immediately gag. She'd never had steak and kidney pie before, but she knew people that did- and they all hated it. She'd more or less convinced herself that it wouldn't taste very appealing. To her surprise, it wasn't that bad. So she took another bite, which convinced Jack that the food was safe to eat- though he still seemed a bit hesitant as he took his first bite.

He made a slight face as he chewed, but didn't stop eating.

"How is it?" She asked quietly as she took another bite of the pie, and without realizing it she made a bit of a face herself. Next time she made steak and kidney pie, she had to remember not to add so much pepper- and it needed a little more salt. He took a moment to reply while he swallowed his food.

"It's... Palatable." Jack said calmly, before he took another bite. She sighed inwardly and put her fork down.

"Anything I can do to improve?" She questioned, her voice slightly louder than she'd intended on it being. He stared at her for a minute or so while he chewed his food, and after swallowing he put down his fork and sighed as he slumped against the wall.

"Nn... Less steak, and, don't cook it as long... I'd like the meat as close to raw as you can get it, if you can." Jack said slowly, as if he was unsure of whether or not he should be telling her how to make his food. Or rather, whether or not he was comfortable having her bring him precooked foods at all. After months of repeatedly getting sick because his caretakers brought him something homemade, he'd developed a strong distrust of anything brought to him that was "Ready to eat". She couldn't exactly blame him for that though.

"Alright, I can do that... Actually, I won't add any steak next time. I know you don't like it... Anything else?" She asked calmly as she picked her fork back up to resume eating. He chewed on the inside of his lip a bit as he thought over his next words, then he shrugged.

"Well, I... Don't like pepper, and, maybe thicken the gravy a bit." Jack said calmly, before he shoveled another bite of food into his mouth. She nodded slowly in response, to acknowledge that she'd been paying close attention, then she ate what was left of her food and waited for him to do the same. Once he was finished eating, she held out her hand and he handed her his plate, but he didn't let her take it right away. She cast him a curious look as he stared at her awkwardly.
"May I.. Have another piece?" He asked quietly, before he let go of his plate to let her take it. In response, she smiled slightly and nodded, before she stood and walked back into the kitchen. She put her dishes into the sink and gave them a quick rinse, before she retrieved another piece of pie and put it on Jack's plate. Then, she carried it back out to him and sat next to him after handing him his food. He tensed slightly because of how close they were, but he didn't make any attempts to move away from her. Instead, he just started to eat his food in silence. That silence, was short lived though- because she still needed to make sure he'd keep eating when she wasn't around.

"... Jack, you know I can't just leave and pretend none of this happened, right?..." She asked quietly as she eyed the floor intently to keep herself from looking at him. Thanks to how close she was sitting to Jack, she felt him flinch in response to her words, and she heard him drop his fork. No doubt his heart had skipped a beat or two as well.

"P-please... Don't send me to the infirmary!" Jack said in a panicked voice as he turned to look at her. She could feel him starting to tremble, he was so afraid- and in the end, he had every right to be scared. The doctors in the infirmary were freaks. Their methods of treatment were too dangerous, too inhumane to be accepted in normal hospitals. All of the doctors working in "The place", were the type who'd perform open heart surgery on their patient without putting them under anesthesia. They liked the screams of pain, and the struggling of a conscious patient- and that barely scratched the surface of how bad the doctors were. She sighed tiredly and turned to lock eyes with him- as expected, he looked absolutely terrified.

"I really don't want to do that Jack- but, if you won't eat, then I won't have a choice..." She said calmly, but with a bitter tone of voice as she looked at him. In response, he bit the inside of his lip again and broke eye contact with her to stare at his food. Then, he cautiously looked back at her.

"I... The food they have you give me... It makes me sick. I ca- I can't eat it..." Jack said in a sick sounding voice- his skin visibly paled at the idea of eating what she was telling him he had to eat. She sighed quietly and slumped against the wall, and for a long time it was completely silent in the room. Neither of them wanted to talk- she was too deep in thought, and he was nervously waiting for her to say something. Then, after a while, she took a deep breath and offered him a half smile.

"How about this... You promise to try and eat a little more for the time being, and I promise you'll get my kidneys once someone takes me out- and in the meantime, I'll see about getting you food a little more suited to your stomach. That sound fair?" She asked in as calm a voice as she could muster as she looked at him. Then, the room fell silent once more as she waited for him to give her a response. He continued to chew on his lip for a while as he thought things over, then he offered a nod and sighed.

"I can, try to eat... So long as you can bring me other foods from time to time... Just until you can get them to give me less processed foods.." Jack said quietly as he picked up his fork and began to pick at his pie a bit, before he shoveled a fork full of it into his mouth. She watched him eat for a moment, before she glanced at the clock- she'd been in there with him nearly two hours by that point. So it was high time she left to go and check in on her next patient. That in mind, she stood up and stretched a bit, before she walked over to pick up Jack's mask. Then, she turned around and handed it to him.

"Alright Jack, sounds like we've got ourselves a deal. Now, I'm going to get my paperwork, and fill out a few things, then I'm leaving. In the meantime, I'd suggest eating as much of that pie as you can, because I don't have time to clean out the fridge. I'll do that when I come back tonight." She said calmly as she went about the business of collecting the papers that had scattered across the floor when he'd attacked her. She quickly sorted them out and put them in the proper order, then she retrieved her pen and proceeded to fill out the routine paperwork. For the time being, she'd leave any questions regarding his health and weight blank- she wasn't required to fill them out unless there was a noticeable change anyways. As she filled out her paperwork, she remained aware of the fact that he kept his eyes on her. Seeing as Jack had some considerable trust issues, he probably believed that she was filling out the form that would get him sent to the infirmary- which meant he was contemplating whether or not he should act or let her do what she was doing. Once she finished her required forms, she sighed and pulled the intensive care form out of her paperwork and she held it out in front of him. His eyes visibly widened and he tensed in response- but aside from that, he remained in place. Then, while holding eye contact with him, she ripped the form in half- a long sigh of relief passed his lips. She tore the form to pieces, then crumpled them up into a mangled ball which she tossed into the trashcan at the far end of the room.

With that taken care off, she secured her paperwork to the clipboard, then she headed towards the door while she waved at Jack.

"See you in a few hours Jack." She said calmly as she punched in her code and stepped out the door, before she immediately started down the hall towards her superiors' office. She had to turn in her paperwork, and, she had a few things to discuss with her bosses before she went to pay her next patient a visit.