CHAPTER 12 - Insomnia

Claire stood in the imprinting room with Boyd hovering behind her as she examined Echo's arm, which she suspected was badly broken. Echo had been on an engagement with a police taskforce trying to uncover a drug smuggling operation and when their suspects had fled, Echo had pursued them. Despite her having been imprinted with ninja-like martial arts skills, the ensuing fight had left her with her bad break and her arm was bent at an unnatural angle.

Echo's imprint was a bold, courageous one and, although Claire knew that Echo had to be in pain, she hardly winced as Claire inspected her arm. Although Echo was calm, Boyd was pacing back and forth across the room, his fatherly concern more than evident.

"Is she going to be ok?" He asked Claire worriedly.

"She'll be fine once I've set her arm; but she'll probably have to be in a cast for around six weeks. Though, knowing Adelle, she'll pull some strings and get her an advanced surgery, so maybe only three weeks." Claire replied, hoping that her answer would placate the anxious handler. "The only question is whether we should treat her or wipe her first," Claire continued.

"Well, if Topher's going to take much longer to get out here then maybe we should treat her first." Boyd answered, glancing towards the door, no doubt wishing that Topher would hurry up and wipe Echo so that they could treat her arm.

"I've already called him twice," Claire told him, exasperatedly, "I'll try one last time, but he might be sleeping."

"I thought he was supposed to be here, ready to wipe actives coming back from engagements," Boyd said, his concern for Echo transforming into frustrated anger, which he was ready to take out on the nearest victim. Although Claire mostly agreed with Boyd, she had to stifle the stream of excuses that came to mind which would defend Topher. Why would she even want to defend him? She pushed the thoughts down and ducked into the office to call out to Topher again.

"You need to get out here now!"

Claire was about to give up and tell Echo and Boyd to come down to her office when Topher walked into the office. He was wearing a crumpled pair of jeans and a t-shirt, unlike his usual shirt and sweater-vest combination, and his hair was a wild untamed mess; the sure signs that he had been asleep. Claire watched as he rubbed his eyes tiredly and she wondered why he didn't dress like this more often. She was sure that she wasn't the only one who found those sweater-vests a total turn off.

"Doc?" Topher asked, interrupting Claire's mental sidetrack about Topher's clothes, "What's wrong?"

"Oh, Echo just got back from her engagement with a broken arm and I need you to wipe her as soon as possible so that I can treat it," Claire replied as she turned back to the imprinting room, uncomfortably aware that she had been staring at Topher and his bed-hair for a little to long.

As soon as Topher and Claire walked into the imprinting room, Boyd attacked Topher.

"Where have you been? What would have happened if something had gone really wrong? Something worse than this. Would you have just slept while… I don't know… Echo had a seizure or something?" Boyd shouted. Claire tried to convince herself that she agreed with him, that Topher had been neglecting his duty as programmer by sleeping on shift; but the way Topher just stood and let Boyd yell at him made her feel slightly sorry for the still drowsy man.

"Nice to see you too man-friend," Topher replied sarcastically before turning to Echo and gesturing to the chair. "Echo, would you like a treatment?" he asked in the calming, almost hypnotic voice he used on the dolls. That voice creeped Claire out and she often marveled at the way Topher's demeanor would totally change when he talked to the dolls. He would always become serene and convincing, like an assistant in a doctor's waiting room, assuring you that you would be seen in just a moment.

Echo sat down in the chair, wincing slightly as she laid her arms down on the arm rests. Topher pressed a few buttons on one of the consoles and then flicked a switch on the chair interface which made the chair lower Echo into a reclining position. Then the familiar purple-blue light flooded the room and Echo twitched slightly in the chair as all the memories from her engagement were wiped away. Claire watched Topher as he stared at Echo blankly. He looked exhausted, the light from the chair only accentuated the bags under his eyes and he looked emotionally drained without his typical enigmatic grin.

Boyd cleared his throat and Claire looked up in a panic, thinking that she had been caught staring at Topher; at Topher of all people. But Boyd's pointed expression was directed at Topher who had failed to notice that Echo's wipe was complete.

"Topher," she muttered and nudged him with her elbow. He glanced at her confusedly before realizing what was going on.

"Hello, Echo." He said quickly.

"Did I fall asleep?" Echo replied in the monotone that all of the actives used.

"For a little while," Topher replied, as per the post-wipe script.

"Shall I go now?" Echo inquired.

"If you like," Topher said, with a little less enthusiasm that usual. This seemed strange to Claire because Topher was very finicky about the post-wipe script and she had often heard him criticize his assistant Ivy for saying it without the right tone of voice.

There wasn't time for her to worry about Topher though, and she told herself that she shouldn't be worrying about him anyway; she hated him. At least she thought she did. She wasn't so sure about that lately as she had found that she actually enjoyed spending time with Topher, arguing about imprints and discussing the actives; so long as she didn't get close enough to smell his repulsive scent. Claire wasn't entirely sure what that scent was, shampoo? Cologne? Topher didn't really seem like a cologne sort of guy to her though. Not that it mattered. Not that any of this mattered. She was against everything he stood for, she hated him and that was that. Still, she wanted to check he was okay. After all, she reasoned, it wouldn't be good for the head programmer to collapse from sleep deprivation; and she was the house doctor, making sure everyone was okay was part of her job.

"Go on Echo. Boyd. You go down to my office, I'll be there in a minute to fix your arm," Claire said, hoping that they would leave so that she could have a word with Topher.

"Why," Boyd asked bemusedly, "Where are you going?"

"I'm just going to stay here for a bit. I want to check some of Echo's stats from the engagement so I know what to look for when I do her physical. I don't want to have to come back up here and double check the file." She replied. This explanation didn't quite seem to fool Boyd; but he just gave her a slight frown and left.

When Claire had watched Boyd and Echo walk down the stairs to the main floor she turned to Topher who was still gazing blankly at the chair.

"Topher?" she called softly. He jerked, surprised by her voice and looked up at her with blood shot eyes. "Topher are you okay?" she asked.

"Me?" he replied with a yawn, "I'm fine, perfect as can be. Why, Doc?"

"You look tired. Have you been sleeping alright?" she inquired, as all pretense that she wasn't worried, flew out the window. Topher looked at her with a puzzled, wary expression.

"I've been sleeping fine," he lied. Claire knew that he was lying, but if he didn't want to talk about it she wasn't going to press him.

"Okay," she replied, a professional, uncaring mask sliding over her features. "Forget I even asked," she murmured as she left for her office. If he didn't want to talk to her, then she had a doll to treat.