Disclaimer: None of this is mine…except for the idea? It's belongs to TPTB at USA & IPS.
AN: Another post-Argentina fic. Written back in November like the day before I was Texas Bar Results were to be released. And I was FREAKING out. Okay, so on with the probably disjoined and unbeta-ed reflection…
Tick…tick…tick…
Marshall Mann was no stranger to hospital. Being a US Marshall, especially in WITSEC, it was an unpleasant but grudgingly accepted part of the job. Being from a family of law enforcement officers, the waiting room was as familiar to him as any exam room.
Why are those clocks always so loud as they mark the seconds?
Try as he might, Marshall could pull no useless trivia from the back of his brain to answer the question that had been on his mind as he had watched every second pass for the last four hours.
144,000 seconds…
He had blocked out every other noise in the cramped waiting room - Raph's pacing that had started up once Marshall had stopped and Francesca had left, Jinx's quiet sniffles, and Brandi's nervous flipping of magazine pages. He only saw the clock and every second passing as he waited for news.
Tick…tick…tick…
Six hours now, and still no news.
216,000 seconds…
216,000 clicks of that damn clock. Enough for Marshall to know something wasn't right; something had happened in the operating room. Marshall felt himself aging with every tick. Felt his strength leave him a little more each time the doctor didn't show up with news.
Mary'd kick your ass if she knew you were doubting her fight, Mann. Get it together.
But he couldn't. He lived for each tick. The only constant other than his breath and his heartbeat right now.
"What's taking so long?" he heard Jinx mutter somewhat distantly.
He ignored. Focusing again on the clock.
Tick…tick…tick…
Finally seven hours, twenty three minutes, and fifty seven seconds after he set foot in the waiting room that looked the same no matter what hospital and what state you were in…
253,457 seconds…
"Are you Inspector Shannon's family?"
Tick…tick…tick…