Hermann sat stiffly in the chair at his desk, his eyes not focusing from exhaustion and his hand still curled around his cane. Newton was seated in equal silence across the room, his forehead resting on the heel of his hands, elbows on his knees as he was bent forwards. Dust and debris was still all over him, his hair a tangled mess and his glasses broken, blood still ever so slowly seeping out of his mouth, nose and numerous cuts and scrapes. Hermann looked better, but not much. He was only bleeding from the nose, but that had long since stopped. He had wiped away some of it, but not much, his hair was rumpled as well, even after his feeble attempts to smooth it down.
Newt slowly lifted his head, looking over to where he could feel a dull buzzing originating. All he could do was stare for what seemed like the longest while. Herm had always seemed impervious to him, well, apart from any jibes or remarks that he shot, but other than that it always seemed like nothing got to him. And so naturally it shocked him to see the elder man not doing something. Even though Newt was known and regarded as the hyperactive one, Herm was almost never still just as much. He was always thinking, writing, typing, talking, eating or sleeping. Never not doing something. It all but shattered the idea of imperviousness to see him, well almost shell-shocked.
"How did we get here?" Newt asked in a weak, strained, cracking voice. "How did we end up like this? When I first joined the PPDC, and was assigned to the K-science division…I never imagined shit like this would happen to me."
"You never were a very good practically prepared man. Scientists should be prepared for any outcome." Hermann replied flatly. Newton frowned,
"So you're telling me you considered it a possibility that one day you'd drift with me and a Kaiju, get the practical shit beat out of you, and then basically save the world?" He asked incredulously, almost mockingly.
"Oh yes, I'm definitely sure I pondered it at some point." Herm replied sarcastically.
The biologist ignored the remark and groaned as the buzzing in his head intensified, dropping his head into his hands, clutching at his hair. Hermann spared him a glance, and then drawled rather tediously,
"If that doesn't go away I suggest you visit medical. Acute deafness is a possibility; not surprising how loud everything was today. Suppose this means you'll be playing that rubbish you call music even louder now."
"There's a definite difference between ringing from deafness and buzzing in the back of your head from who knows fucking where." Newt said, his voice escalating into an annoyed shout.
Hermann's eyes flicked at the words, but then dismissed it, and the possibility. Not sure whether he did so because he thought it was improbable, (even though it wasn't) or he detested the idea of sharing something more intimate that a lab with the Kaiju groupie.
"Then take some form of medication, just stop bothering me with your incessant whining." Newt glared at the back of his head before storming out of the lab in a furious haste, directed at the mathematician's complete lack of understand and care, slamming the door so hard behind him that it swung back open.
Doctor Gottlieb stared at the wall as he could feel a sense of hurt and anger flash in the back of his mind, neither being emotions of his own. He dropped his head into his hands and rubbed small remnants of life back into himself by massaging his temples.