Mikhail looked up from his clipboard when he saw Herman walk into the room with an unknown female.
"Doctor, who is this?" he asked, adjusting his glasses.
"Mikhail, zhis is Doctor Gwen Vryn. Gwen zhis is Doctor Mikhail." Herman said.
Mikhail nodded and went back to work.
"He doesn't talk much," Herman commented. "Vhy don't you put your bag down somewhere and get started, we have lots of work to do."
The three eventually were able to determine the causes of death for the dead men and bag their bodies until they can be claimed by their next of kin and blah, blah, blah, legal stuff that is too technically challenging to be say and explain in well-depth.
"Phew! Is it usually this busy down here?" Gwen asked.
"I can't say, Frau Gwen. We just started working two weeks here."
"Really?"
"Ja, Mikhail and I vere just hired. My only guess is zhat the coroner that typically works here got overwhelmed by zhe amount of deceased, can't blame him though." the German said as he tossed his gloves in the trash. "Now let me turn zhese reports in so we can all go home, ja?"
Herman grabbed the lab reports and left, leaving Mikhail and Gwen alone in the autopsy room cleaning up
"Uh, so..Mikhail was it?" she asked as she wiped the examination tables.
"Da, but you can call me Misha as well," the Russian said as he put away the cleaned tools. "You are a phoenix?"
"Yes, I am."
He nodded. "In my home country, my family was enslaved and put in gulag, or work camp. One night, we revolted against evil men. As we escaped, guards cornered us and killed my father as he shielded us from the bullets. We only escaped death because a phoenix killed the guards, allowing us to escape. I do not know what happened to this phoenix, as he flew further into the gulag into battle."
"So where did little phoenix girl come from?" he asked.
Gwen rubbed the back of her neck. "North, but..."
"Iz ok, no need to tell Mikhail. Past is difficult for me to tell too," he interrupted.
The two cleaned in silence for a couple of minutes before Mikhail broke the silence. "Does doctor have place to stay?"
"Me? Well not really...prices for an apartment is way too high for me."
Mikhail stopped what he was doing and turned around. "Doctor has no home?"
"At the moment no...phoenixes don't really need houses anyways. We're birds too you know."
"NYET! This will not do! Doctor must have home!" he quickly finished cleaning and picked up up Gwen and threw her over her shoulder.
"Hey! Put me down!"
"Come! Little doctor friend can stay with us," the Russian boomed. "It is not right for doctor to stay in street!"
"Mishaaaaa, put me down!" she struggled from his grip, but miserably failed. "Can you pick my bag up at least...?"
Meanwhile...
"And that's the last of it..." Herman said as he gave the receptionist the last of the paperwork.
"Thank you doctor. I'll have it delivered to the NYPD."
"Zhank you." Herman was about to leave when the doors to the morgue opened up.
"Atten HUT!"
In came two policemen, one was a tall and well-built with his eyes covered by his hat. The other was a similarly built African American that had an eye-patch over one of his eyes and was drinking something out of a brown bottle.
"Hello Fritz!" the former said to Herman. "Got those reports?"
"She has zhem, Jane," Herman said and pointed to the receptionist. "And vould you tone down a bit?"
"I'll go and retrieve them!"
"Gah..."
The other man lowered the bottle before burping. "Ayy, so these lads got fucked up, didn't they doc?" he asked.
"Ja, Tavish. Just zhe same as zhe others."
The two officers were Officer Jane Doe and Tavish Degroot respectively. The two were New York's best street cops, though their methods could be questionable at some times. The two quickly became the doctor's best friends since they were the ones that often came to the morgue to get autopsy reports.
"Dunno about you two, but things have gotten pretty bad out there," the Scotsman said. "Protests have broken out, people been fighting, and the chief himself told us that we cannot go on patrols alone just fer our own safety."
"That is bunch of bullcrap!" Jane shouted back. "I do not need girly-girl back up whatsoever."
"Yeah, yeah, soldier boy."
'Attention all available units. We have a code seventeen in progress. Any units respond.'
"We're on it, lad." Tavish said into his radio. "Well, doc. We gotta go."
"To duty!" Jane said as he ran out the doors.
Tavish sighed and followed his partner out the door.
"They're quite the two, aren't they?" the receptionist said.
"Ja, zhey make things interesting."
"DOCTOR!"
Herman turned and saw Mikhal run into the lobby with Gwen over his shoulder.
"Vhat is it, Mikhail? Something happened?"
"Little bird doctor has no home!"
"You don't have a place to stay Frau Gwen?"
"No...well technically yes. I can turn into a bird...I don't need a "house" like you two."
"Nonsense! Everyone should have a home or a place to stay. Even though you're, technically, an animal, I doubt you should stay outside." Herman said. "Our place should be large enough..."
"But I'm a girl..."
"What do you-oh! I see, don't worry about zhat. Mikhail and I respect zhe privacy of zhe opposite gender."
"Da, I have three sisters who can beat bad men if they are naughty."
Gwen wanted to refuse, but it didn't seem that the two doctors were willing to give up, so she gave in. "Fine."
The doctors' apartment was in a quiet part of the city near the edges of New York. The building was an aging, four story apartment. A couple of small businesses were on each side of the said apartment.
"Frau Gwen," Herman said. "Have you aquatinted yourself with zhe city yet?"
"No, not really."
The three were drove up to the apartment in the van (it was their personal work van) and parked in front of it.
"Vell, like how most racial groups put themselves in certain parts of the city, like Chinatown and the Queens, zhis is zhe part were most of zhe cryptids live. This is called Crypton. Most of the residences zhat live here are cryptids, few humans live here."
"Why are you guys here?"
"Mainly because zhe rent was cheap, but also because majority of zhe cryptid population comes to us for most medical needs."
"They do?"
"Ja, most of zhem are poor and cannot afford healthcare, which means zhey cannot go to doctors or hospitals, stuff like zhat."
Gwen looked around, Herman was right it being a mostly cryptid area. A few of said creatures were seen around, a couple of centaurs, some harpies, and so on.
Their apartment was on the second floor, room 204 to be exact. The apartment room looked better on the inside than the outside. About four rooms were present, two bedrooms, a bathroom, and a living room/kitchen area.
"You can have my room bird doctor," Mikhail said. "I can sleep on couch."
Gwen started to protest, but before she could start the Russian held up his hand. "You are guest, it is only fair you get bed."
"Uh, thanks?"
"No problem, bird doctor."
Later...
"...and in local news there has been a spike in human murders occurring in the city, which is causing an uproar in the human population. Lyn Quinto with more info..."
"Gah, rubbish!" Herman said as he switched channels. "Can't the news talk about stuff less depressing?"
"Isn't that what news is for?" Mikhail asked.
It was late at night already, Gwen went to bed, leaving the two doctors alone in the living room watching the television.
"Right...how could I forget? Ugh zhis is just getting out of hand...vhat time is it?" he started to look at his watch when he heard a knock at the door. "Who may zhat be?"
He walked over to the front door and opened it. An old man with a wispy white beard, and wearing a blue bathrobe, black shorts and house slippers was standing in front of the door.
"Mr. Burner? Vhat are you doing here at this hour?" Mr. Burner was the apartment's landlord, and the two rarely saw the old man except when he collected rent. "I am sure we aren't behind on rent are we?"
"No, no, it's not that, but some happened here, we need you two."
"Vhy? What's going on?"
"Two cryptids just died in front of the apartment complex, I figured you two could check it out. I've called the police already."
"Vell, we have to let the police corner off the area first, but I guess we could check." Herman said as he adjusted his glasses. "Mikhail! Vould you quietly wake up Doctor Vryn, we have work to do."
A/N: Not very long, but it's something.
Till next time,
-D.W