Title: MAGIC CEILING
Author: moonswirl
Rating: PG
Character: Dr. Saunders
Summary: SPOILERS up to 1x07. (Was discussing how she wasn't there in the episode and what it might have been like, so...) What happens to Dr. Saunders during the events of "Echoes"?
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She'd spent the last five minutes turning her eyes up toward the ceiling. She'd turn them back down and get back to work after a second or two, but then the seconds would tick by, and she'd be too tempted… She had to look again. The last couple of times, she'd look for a few seconds more. And then she looked again and she smiled and kept on looking. Prolonged staring, she discovered, made the motif in the ceiling… begin to move. She liked that. It made her smile.
She wasn't sure what had kept her from noticing it before; all she knew was that she'd seen it now, coming back from checking on November, at Topher's request. She'd walked back to her office, walked in, and there it was… the magic ceiling.
She lay down on her examination table so that she could look without straining her neck so much. She lay there, looking at the ceiling with a fascinated smile on her face, for about ten minutes before she realized something wasn't right… No one else was seeing it! She gasped, hopping off the table, landing squarely on her feet. "Woah… almost fell…" she breathed before dashing out into the hall, looking around for… someone, anyone…
"Where is everyone?" she spoke, disappointed. "Oh, wait!" she gasped, dramatically tapping the side of her head as she remembered most of them were out on the big mission. 'Not all of them though…' she thought with renewed excitement, remembering… "Topher!" she called as she saw him run by, some distance away. He stopped and turned to her. "Come here," she waved him over.
"Sorry, Doc, I…" he raised a finger.
"Topher, come!" she spoke, begging and waving her hands for him to follow. He still hesitated and, by then, she was hopping. "Please?" Finally, he huffed and walked over.
"What is it?" he asked, sounding hurried. She leaned in.
"Where are your pants?" she whispered, grinning. He shrugged, seeming to look for an answer. "Never mind, come on," she grabbed his hand and pulled him into her office. Once there, she pushed him to lie on the table, as she'd been.
"Woah, are we playing Doctor?" he looked around.
"No," she punched his arm with a chuckle. As he rubbed at it, mumbling to himself, she indicated the ceiling. "Look!"
"What's there?" he turned his eyes up.
"Look!" she insisted. After a moment, he went wide-eyed.
"Woah…" She smiled, looking up as well. "Cool ceiling… Gotta go!" he hopped off. She tried to say something, then frowned and shrugged her shoulders.
"Your loss…" she called after him, lying back down on the table, resuming her observation, for hours…
She didn't know what it was… was… It… Her mind appeared to be clearing, returning to normal. With that came the reason she'd found cause to fixate on the ceiling… she'd done it before…
Her hands reached to her face, fingers dragging ever so carefully across the scars on her face.
After the attack which had left the marks there… She'd laid there – on the ground, not the table – for twenty minutes… conscious, in shock… confused… She'd stared at the ceiling, watching the shapes warped by prolonged staring, because it was better than to think about what had just happened. Eventually though, she'd been found, helped off the ground.
Just the same now, she got off the table as Topher helped her. "That was interesting…" he spoke, breaking the silence.
"Did everyone get back okay?" she ignored the question as she straightened out her coat.
"Uh, yeah. Everyone's good and wiped and back to having a grand ol' time, here at Camp Dollhouse. There's painting and everything," he promised with 'grand' hand gestures.
"Well I should still check on them, make sure there wasn't…"
"Hey, are you alright?" he interrupted her. "Afraid you made a fool of yourself while we were off in la-la land? Did I mention, and please feel free never to mention it again, that I was prancing around here in my undies?"
"I'm fine. You can go." There was a pause.
"Alright. But, hey, if you need to talk, you know where to find me."
"Right," she nodded, still turned away. A moment later, she heard the door shut.
A few more seconds went by before she turned around again, facing the empty office. She turned her eyes down to the floor, the place where she'd laid. She turned her eyes up to the ceiling… She didn't see the shapes anymore, they were gone… Just a regular old ceiling. She gave her lab coat a final tug, and she got back to work.
THE END