So, everyone likes Charon right? I hope you do. Because he'll be coming up eventually. Just wanna clear that up that he'll be a pretty major character.
The next day, Halune went about her work as usual. She had to untangle herself from Butch once more and got ready, feeling a little weird that she and Butch had kissed last night. She hadn't expected the fire and the want that she'd feel when kissing her childhood enemy. Butch's words came back to her then. If they had met under different circumstances and their lives hadn't been that way... what then? She briefly wondered if they would have dated of their own accord. If maybe they would have ended up together anyway. She shook her head and left for work, sighing softly to herself as she closed the door behind her.
In the hall, she passed the Overseer. He narrowed his eyes at her and she clenched her jaw and forced herself to look straight ahead as she passed him. Thankfully, he said nothing.
Reaching the clinic, she dropped her purse off in the break room and immediately checked for the assignment chart. She didn't find one. Her dad always filled one out.
She walked into his office to see him and Jonah talking in hushed tones.
"Hey," She greeted when her father looked up sharply. "Uh, there's no assignment chart. What did you want me to do?"
"Oh, I'm sorry about that sweetie." Her father stood up, waving Jonah off. "I must have forgotten. Let's go see."
The rest of the day went much like that. In their down time, Jonah and her father would talk quietly to themselves and almost ignore her completely. She tried to tell herself that it didn't bother her, but she knew that it sort of did.
The day was slow and grueling without her typical chatter with her father and Jonah. She kept trying to joke around, tossing gloves or crumpled paper towels, but they just chuckled and went back to talking.
It made her feel like a child. No, not right now sweetie. The adults are talking.
Angrily, she tidied the bedsheets on the nearest cot.
All at once, the clinic erupted in noise.
There were two security guards dragging Ellen Deloria in, holding her body between the two of them with an arm wrapped around the shoulders of each of them.
Halune gasped and immediately rolled one of the cots over so they could place her on it.
Finally, her father and Jonah stopped talking and got serious. They all gathered around and began asking questions.
Several hours later, everyone relaxed.
Mrs. Deloria was stable. Apparently she had suffered from alcohol poisoning and needed her whole system flushed and was in dire need of real hydration.
Halune leaned against the counter, watching her father rearrange their tools. Ellen was still unconscious, but was safe for the time being.
"You should probably tell Butch," Her father murmured. "Did you need me to come with?"
"No," Halune answered quickly. "It'll look bad if both of us go. He'll think she's dead or something. Can I go now?"
Her father nodded and gave her hand a quick squeeze. She smiled and squeezed his hand back, turning to go.
Her pace was brisk as she made her way down the steel corridors to the shop where Butch worked.
She walked in to see him finishing up a haircut. Some girl. They were the only two in the shop.
Halune politely moved to the waiting section and tucked herself in the corner chair and read a magazine.
Butch and the woman talked and joked as he finished up the last of her hair cut, holding a mirror for her to see her whole head.
She cooed at how pretty it made her look and ruffled a hand through it.
Butch was smiling lightly as he undid the cape and dusted the hair off of the woman, hands trailing too close to her chest.
Halune's chest burned uncomfortably as she watched.
"Thank you Butch," the other woman whispered as she stood and turned.
They obviously hadn't even noticed Halune enter the room.
The woman leaned up on her tip toes and planted a light kiss on Butch's lips shyly before moving to leave.
Halune hesitated, wondering if she should make a scene in front of whoever this girl was.
She felt tricked. She would have been fine with this, if he wouldn't have tried to form any kind of relationship with her.
She stood, slapping the magazine on the table next to her.
The two of them turned in surprise to notice her standing there, arms crossed over her lab coat, glasses perched on her nose so she could glare at them over the frames.
"Shit," she heard Butch whisper. "You should go. Now." He gave the girl a nudge on the shoulder and she stumbled out of the shop, wide eyes locked on Halune in an emotion she couldn't read, or didn't care to read.
Once as the girl was gone, she directed her gaze to Butch.
"Look," He said, as if he was going to explain himself.
She didn't even want to hear it. She already knew what was going on. He was only happy with Halune because he still got whoever he wanted anyway. Her nostrils flared slightly as she took in a sharp breath, cutting him off. "It doesn't fucking matter. There was never anything between you and I anyway, was there?"
His eyes widened a fraction before he took several steps closer to her, his palms facing the ceiling as if in surrender.
"I don't care," She continued. "Your mom's in the hospital."
That stopped him cold in his tracks.
His mind processed what she had said before he blinked several times, opened his mouth, then closed it again.
"She's...?"
"In the clinic. She drank too much. You should go check on her. She's stable though. There's also evidence of long term liver damage." She turned to go. "You should go see her."
She strode from the clinic and headed straight for her old apartment with her father.
So, uh, this went in a direction I did not expect at all.