Awakening

"The work of a saint is never done.", the doctor said to himself. It was just something he muttered whenever the day or his job started to get to him.

He was Dr. Carlos Marco, a 40 something diagnostic physician. His hair was greying and his eyes were nearly black in color, and his years of service in the medical feild had begun to show in the lines of his face. He was also the lone doctor in this middle of no where town where he ran his 'fabulous' private practice. His business wasn't exactly thriving though.

Oh but it hadn't always been like this, Carlos had once been a resident doctor at a public practice in the city. There he had spent his time toiling away to keep old people alive a couple more days at a time, and also the occasional 'saveable' patient. It hadn't been what he had expected straight out of med school, but it had certainly been more gratifying than this thankless job. But despite his years of service there he had never moved up the ranks, which was basically the reason he had decided on opening this practice. Well that and-

Just then the door to his office opened, rousing him from his thoughts.

"Carlos it's closing time, ready to go?" , the pretty middle-aged nurse asked smiling. She had green eyes and short sandy-brown hair. Carlos smiled back, then checked his watch.

"5 o-clock already, time sure does fly when you're doing nothing." , Carlos sighed. The nurse frowned at that.

"Don't be so pessimistic! We're the only ones keeping this town healthy!" Of course she would say something like that.

"Vanessa, I know that," , it was, after all, the only reason he hadn't left yet ,"It's just we only barely make enough money to live on in this village. We should have picked a bigger village."

Vanessa Cruz, now Venessa Marko, because she was his wife. They had met working at their old jobs in the city, and after they finally got married they had looked around the country for a nice small town to open a doctor's office and live out their golden years. That had been the plan anyway. Instead they ended up in this no where town doing mostly charity cases,

treating mountain lion attacks and taking in travelers injured in the desert. Now it wasn't that he was cruel, of course he enjoyed helping the needy. Its just that he was too old for this, this was supposed to be their time. Instead they were just scraping by giving out free treatments and accepting services and perishables instead of money.

"You can't put a price on charity, Carlos." , she kissed him on the forehead, "I think I'm heading straight back home, you?"

Carlos smiled, she was the Mother Teresa of the two of them. Of course it was her idea to set up shop here, and she loved it too. That was the only thing that made this bearable actually. But if he ever found someone willing to take his place, they would be out of here in a second. Too bad that wasn't incredibly likely.

"No, I'm going to check on our little charity case before I leave. We'll be back to the house a bit later." , Carlos said, rising from his desk.

"Ellis? Why didn't you do that earlier?" ,she looked puzzled.

"I forgot." , he shrugged.

"Nobody comes in all day and you forget." , she crossed her arms. A smug smile on her face.

"Yes, I'm stupid okay? Now could you go and get dinner ready by the time we get home?" , he asked.

"Of course, don't take to long though. It's just another check up right?" , she looked mildly concerned.

"Of course." , he kissed her goodbye and walked to the room where Ellis was waiting. It was the waiting room in the lobby, Ellis liked to watch the TV. Or at least seemed too, it was hard to tell with that one. Anyways only the lobby had a tv in this building.

"Sorry to keep you waiting Ellis." , Carlos smiled merrily. He prided himself on his bedside manner, and Ellis had become something like a foster child to him and his wife ever since the incident that brought them together.

"... Ellis..." , that was all the kid was capable of saying, sadly enough.

Ellis had a mild case of Catatonia, in that the kid was always 'zoned out' and could only say 'Ellis'. Which is why they used that as the name. Ellis had been with them for three months now, ever since the police found and brought the kid here. Ellis had had a gun shot wound and been left to bake in the sun for nearly an entire day. Other weapons and strange debree

had been found around the area, according to the officers. They had been led to the area by the sounds of automatic weapon fire. It was pretty safe to assume some kind of criminal activity had been underfoot. Hard to say way some white kid had been wrapped up in that, but all told it still baffled Carlos that Ellis had survived all that. By all rights, the kid should have died from those wounds and conditions. It was almost 'super human' to survive that kind of truama.

He had yet to find any family or friends of the kid.

Carlos looked at the television Ellis was watching, just some news report. The kid was dressed in some shabby clothing his wife had managed to scrunge up, they couldn't afford anything better.

"Do you feel like saying anything today, besides 'Ellis' that is?" , the doctor asked looking the kid in the eyes.

" ... Ellis?" , the kid looked at him for a second before turning back to the screen.

"Alright, but do you thing we could go to the examining room for this?" , He tried to move Ellis but to no avail. The kid was tough, even if Vanessa was here to help it wouldn't be much use in trying. Carlos sighed and started the examination in the lobby. He checked Ellis's vitals, reflexes, temperature, the whole nine yards. Or at least as much as he could do in this little office, truth be told the kid should really be looked over in a real hospital by specialists. But it wasn't something Carlos could afford to provide Ellis with.

Luckily the kid didn't give him any more trouble and he finished up the examination quickly enough. Though as he finished he paused at the kid's strange bracelets. They were too small to be slipped off, and there was no way to clip them apart. He had even messed up a good pair of bolt cutters trying to remove them to no avail, what the heck were they?

"Okay we can go home now, I think Vanessa's cooking tacos tonight! Those are your favorite right?" , Carlos smiled as he looked the kid in the face. The kid was staring intently at the screen though. "What is it?" he asked as he looked to find out.

It was some kind of crime report apperantly. Two big thugs had shot up a restaurant or something, though it appeared no one was injured. Not really that interesting. But the crooks were trying to get off by saying they were just bounty hunters attempting to bring in a contract. But the news reporter said that this excuse wouldn't be viable because they had already determined the identity of the so called bounty as being someone recently removed from the wanted list. They even put the wanted picture on screen, and it was a young girl!

"Oh they have no excuse! I hope the judge throws the book at them, going to those lengths to apprehend a little girl!" , Carlos roared, he hated criminals. He guessed Ellis did too considering what happened to him. He looked at the kid to see the most freightening face that Ellis had ever made.

"Ellis!" , it was the loudest the kid had ever said it.

"What's the matter?", Carlos looked at the screen , "Hey, that girl has the same name as you... do you recognize her?" He tried not to get his hopes up, but this was amazing! The kid was having a real reaction to the picture. Maybe today was the day he said something besides 'Ellis'!

"Ellis! ELLIS!... Ellis ... oh Ellis." , the kid got on his knees really close to the set.

"You said oh! Please say something else quick!" , the doctor was beside himself with joy.

"... I love you Ellis... " , the kid said as the report ended. He then rose and his demeanor seemed to change completely, his face gained an annoyed look as he turned toward the doctor, "..."

"... Are you alright Ellis?" , the doctor asked, this was such a strange developement. The kid started grabbing at one of his bracelets, then hesitated. He dropped his hands back to his sides and smiled.

"I'm going to go find Ellis, goodbye." , the kid turned and walked out of the office, and he kept walking til he was out of sight.

It had occured to Carlos to stop him and try to talk to the kid, but that look he had given him. It had chilled Carlos to the bone. He had only seen a look like that one time before, back in the E.R. of his old hospital. From a criminal who had shot up a bar and hurt a bunch of people. A look of pure malice.

Carlos shivered, then ran back home.

He wondered how he was going to explain this to Vanessa.
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{authors's notes: How long did it take you to figure out it wasn't Ellis? Anyways, I may leave this as a one-shot unless you guys really like it. If you do like it, please give me any suggestions! I'm thinking about making this a multi-ending fic. Anyways I basically wrote this because I felt the ending for L.A. in the series lacked closure, and because no one has written an L.A. fanfic here yet.}