simon_doctor | (no subject)

(no subject)

Jordie,

I don't know whether I just did something spectacularly stupid or just avoided doing something spectacularly stupid. Possibly both.

How's your week been?

Simon

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Some security measures might not be a bad plan." Wry.

"I'm considering asking for some." He shakes his head. "It might be overstepping my authority to arrange for my own independent security force."

Jordie snorts. "Might?"

"Might." Wry. "That's part of the problem. I don't know if I've explained that aspect of this place before --"

(He's pretty sure Jordie understood his circumlocution about the infirmary; he's hesitant to say anything more explicit over a wave.)

"-- but there's really very little that's actually against the law here."

"Tam. You want to start your own army."

Jordie says this slow and deliberate, with an air of are you fucking kidding me?

"No," he says, startled and somewhat indignant. "Are you insane? That's a terrible idea. I'm just saying it wouldn't be breaking any law if I did."

"Well, if you're not going to do it -- what are you going to do?"

"I'll probably speak to the regular local security. Ask them to assign someone to keep an extra eye on the infirmary."

So the privatized army. Because that never goes wrong.

"Over some cannabis?" Jordie's eyebrows have ratcheted up a notch. "Have you considered instructing patients not to take candy from strangers, instead?"

"The cannabis isn't the problem." He sounds mildly irked.

"No, it's not." Jordie just sounds mild.

Beat.

"All right. From what I've told you so far, what do you see as the problem?"

"Well." Jordie runs a hand through his hair. "How often do people show up in that infirmary offering a second line of treatment?"

In an unconscious near-echo of the gesture, Simon rubs his forehead again. "I don't recall it ever happening before. Not without speaking to one of the doctors. Of course, that could just mean it's happened before and gone unnoticed."

"...has anybody died?"

"That I suspect we would have noticed. No."

"Any reason not to post signs saying don't feed the patients without asking a physician?"

"I may do that. I'm not sure that would have stopped this particular case, but it might stop others."

"You think that's maybe a better place to go before you go for the private army?"

"The trouble is, there's two different problems. Keeping people from unintentionally endangering the patients, and ... dealing with this man in particular."

A little quieter: "You didn't see him, Jordie. When I say he was angry ..."

Jordie waits.

"Have you ever talked with someone and ..." Trying to find the words; his hand makes a small grasping motion in the air, palm up. "And just felt a tremendous potential for violence? Like they're consciously holding back from punching something?"

"Yeah," Jordie says.

His expression doesn't change.

"It was like that."

He rubs a hand across his mouth, half-consciously.

"So why?"

Calm.

"Was it aimed at you? Did he know the patient?"