-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-
Tyrila Anios Presents:
Promise Me
A Trauma+Center Fanfic
Chapter One
-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-
"Promise me, Yvette. Promise you'll let Tatania into your home. I know you two haven't had the best of times, but please. She has nowhere else to go, and with what's happened she might have nowhere for the rest of her life. I can't take her."
"But Dad-"
"No buts Yvette. She's your sister. You are supposed to care. Do you have no emotion?"
"Dad-"
"This is an order! Keep your sister over there for however long it takes for this to get sorted out. I will not have this insolence! I know you're older now Yvette, but please. Take your sister. PROMISE ME!"
-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-
Yvette Karr gripped the steering wheel of her car like a stress buddy. Today was not going well. It was 9:15am, she was supposed to be at work fifteen minutes ago. Or even earlier. Never later. He'd made that clear as crystal on her first day and now here she was, breaking his "rules" and being late. Well it's not my fault that traffic around here, today, is moving at the pace of a snail. He'd hardly take that as an excuse, she knew that, but hopefully it would be enough of one to make him forget that she'd been late on two other occasions within the week (and it was only Wednesday).
She curled a small amount of her shoulder-length dark brown hair behind her ear, and fixed her eyes on the road. Still nothing.
The young woman was tempted to just park her car there and walk the rest of the way. But walking meant she'd have to drag a large amount of equipment and files with her, an impossible task for just about anyone. Finally the traffic moved. It began shifting slowly, like an injured leopard, but it began to move quicker and more confidently over time, shaking off the wound's pain. And what a wound it was - looking at the cause of the traffic sent shivers down Yvette's spine.
Two cars were piled up on top of one another, with a third crashed into the side. There were large scar marks, where the paint and been peeled off and the metal had buckled. Smashed glass was everywhere, winking at her in the morning sun, blood covering some of their edges, making their stare even more sinister. With a deep breath she looked closer at the cars and saw that some of the car's injuries were not crash-caused, but by human cause. A firefighter nearby was hacking at another part of the car (the boot) and suddenly there was a yell. Blood spurted out of the boot, with another few smashes of a hammer the boot opened. A Sheltie lay inside, its paw hanging off by a thread, its eyes rolled back into its head.
Yvette thought she was going to be sick. The scene was enough to turn even an iron stomach. Nausea crept at her, bugging her all the way down the road and around the corner until she finally couldn't take it. She braked hard, shoved the door open, stumbled out of the car and retched the remains of her breakfast into a nearby bush. So much for a sustaining breakfast.
Yvette groaned, got back in the car and made her way down the streets until she arrived at her destination. Along the way she tried not to think about the dog in the car. She tried not to think about what he was going to say when she turned up for work late again.
She especially tried to not think about the conversation with her dad the night before...
Caduceus USA loomed ahead of her, the windows shining in the sun. She peered up at it, then at her watch. 9:25am. Yvette was later than she had been the past two days. The car swung into the staff car park before coming to a halt, then she grabbed her files from the front seat and got out. "I'm going to need help with these things, and I certianly can't expect it from him..." she muttered to herself, shutting her car door with her foot and striding towards the entrance. The doors opened and she stepped into the spotless (as usual) lobby.
The head receptionist, Maggie, looked up. "Gosh, Yvette darlin'," she sighed in her southern Texas drawl, "You scared the livin' daylights outta me. I thought you weren't gonna turn up for work today." Yvette almost chuckled but instead let her mud-brown eyes speak her emotions, "No, I'd have called if I wasn't going to show...by the way, can you page Victor and tell him I'm here? I need his help with a few things."
"Sweetie pie, Victor won't help ya if you're this late. It's his little revenge I guess, for you being late and all."
Yvette sighed and turned towards the lift. Maggie began tapping on her computer for a few moments, then stopped, clicking a few things. A few moments passed while Yvette waited for the lift. He's going to kill me. I just know he's going to kill me. 9.27am, her watch read. Almost half an hour late. Shhhit.
"Yvette?"
"Hmm?" Yvette turned back to Maggie as she entered the lift backwards, clicking for the correct floor automatically.
"He's got your message sweetie, and he's not happy."
"Godspeed, Yvette!" the whole reception crew chanted as one, as the lift doors closed and the cables began pulling her up.
The lift moved swiftly and silently. It may have been quiet in the lift, but in Yvette's mind all hell was breaking loose. She was drowning in voices and images: I make everyone promise they will never be late to work...On your second day? After what I told you yesterday...don't worry about him, he's always like that, Victor...we don't know what his problem is at times...burden of being a self-proclaimed supergenius I guess...It was a mixed blessing to Yvette - if this one thing was dominating her mind she didn't have to think about other pressing matters, she couldn't. And the one pressing matter other than her being late that she didn't want to face right now was inevitable and coming quickly...
Bing...twentieth floor - Medical Supplies Six & Two, Secretaries Office 4, Operating Theatre 9, Patient Rooms 601-619, Research Lab One - her stop. It snapped her out of her reverie and into the real world. Breathing deeply, calming her raging heartbeat, she moved into the corridor fluidly, the door closing behind her as she walked out towards the main lane of the twentieth floor. This morning, as always, the corridor was full of nurses, doctors and secretaries, milling about and attending to their business. Yvette had no time for this - she darted in between them as she swam like greased lightning in between them, eventually getting so frustrated she yelled: "OUTTA MY WAY!" and put on a burst of speed. "Yvette's late again!" some nurses laughed; glaring at them Yvette bumped into Leslie, almost knocking her over - "Sorry Leslie but I'm late as all hell!"
"It's okay Yve-" but she couldn't finish her sentence before the brunette researcher sprinted on at full blast down the corridor.
Leslie blinked, getting up and patting her green hair back into position. "Jesus," Tyler Chase remarked, "That woman's almost as bad as Victor sometimes." He put a hand on her shoulder and continued: "And just why is she so late this time?"
"I don't know. But Victor isn't going to give her a warm welcome."
"Does he ever give anyone a warm welcome?"
-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-
"You're late. Again."
The remark pissed Yvette off immediatley, and if it hadn't come from Victor Niguel, Head of Medical Research at Caduceus USA, she would have punched him straight in the face. But since she was his assistant and all, she had to do her best to be civil.
Except today she really wasn't feeling civil. Or reasonable. Just stressed.
"Yes, Victor, I am late. You can blame the assholes who thought it would be a good idea to smash up their cars in a three-car pile up downtown. And the police. And the fire department. But you cannot, for once, blame me."
"Can't I?" That smirk on his face was so aggravating...and not to mention the fact that his almost evil chuckle was irritating. She found a lot about him very annoying. "You're lucky I'm in a halfway-decent mood." Yvette looked at him curiously. Maggie had told her that he'd been in he "hadn't been happy"...
"If you'd got here ten seconds earlier, I would have killed you. I'm only in said mood since Christopher has just finished last weeks final paperwork." Yvette breathed a sigh of relief. "I hate being in a good mood so early in the morning though." That was Victor alright - being a little git even at the best of times. "So you can get to work-"
"I need help with something though. It's the equipment that broke a week ago - my cousin finally got round to fixing it. He says it should be as good as new, even if there's one or two scratches on it. There's quite a bit, so I need your help bringing it up here."
"I'm BUSY Yvette. You know I have to go over the proposals today. And I haven't even started yet, because APPARENTLY I can't start until everyone on my team is present, and unfortunatley if one person, say you, is late, we have to mill around doing nothing until they get here." He said the last sentence very loudly - loud enough for every researcher on the team (Christopher, Damien, Trevor and Paul) as well as some people outside the still-open door to hear. Everyone was laughing, trying to stifle their laughs from her, some failing miserably - Paul was actually banging the desk with his fist in silent laughter. Yvette turned several shades of scarlet - she'd completley forgotten it was proposals day today, what with everything going on. She'd had it ringed on her calander, with a special reminder saying: "Whatever the hell you do don't be late!"
"...god...god dammit Victor..."
He smiled like a Cheshire Cat, his dark eyes glinting with amusement.
Today was not going to go well.
-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-
AN: HOLY CRAP I'M WRITING SOMETHING! And it's actually a halfway decent fanfic, not any old stuff. WHEE! And omigod VICTOR! My favourite Trauma Center character by far...not enough fanfics for him. Not enough ANYTHING for him. My message to Atlus: MORE VICTOR PLZ KKTHXBAI.
This fanfic will be updating irregularly, and I still don't know what's going to happen next chapter or not, never mind WRITE it. God...and I have way too much GCSE coursework to go on with. I will be writing the next chapter maybe over the weekend. If not, it'll wait until next Wednesday. I promise to have something up within the next two weeks though. I still have to write more of Blue Snow and I need to get Love's Embers 2 finished within the next year.
Time to write Blue Snow, chapter 2. Yay.
Tyrila Anios xxx