They heard the gun shot. One of their offices had just died. Ruth tried to keep her mind on the job, but it was no use. Who had died? Sam looked equally shocked, trying to keep back tears. Both looked anxiously at each other for support, waiting for Adam to start speaking again. Then came the announcement they had dreaded...
Who had died.
Adam spoke it, in his emotion-ridden voice, and they felt his grief alongside theirs. The pain of losing someone, the pain that they all felt.
"Danny's dead."
Sam immediately broke down in tears, simply repeating that it couldn't be him. Ruth stared at the screen, letting the information filter through her mind. He was dead, he was dead, he was dead, he was dead. Danny had died.
Ruth dragged herself back and forced herself to lock Danny's death away, in a box, until this was all over. Then she would have time to grieve. Her next priority was Sam. She sat next to her, trying her best to calm her down but she was so far gone... So far gone that when Zaf (who Ruth had forgotten was there,) approached with a hypodermic needle and asked silently for her permission she gave it.
She watched as he injected Sam with the sedation. First she seemed to sway, and then crumple on top of her desk. Zaf moved silently away and picked up a phone, calling for some people to take Sam away. Only after he had done that did Zaf look at Ruth again. She nodded, then sat back down at her desk, her back to Sam's still body. The pod doors opened and she heard, rather than saw, Sam's body being taken away. She would be subjected to a long period of counselling, and chances were, neither of them would see each other again. A small tear ran down Ruth's cheek as, for a moment, she mourned the death of her friend, and the loss of another.
