A/N: It's really kind of odd when I have the next few chapters planned out but if someone were to ask me where this is exactly going, I'm not entirely sure if I would have a clear answer to give. After an entire week of twelve-hour school days and pulling an accidental all-nighter, I'm surprised I can still hold a cohesive thought right now.

There seemed to be a moment of stillness as he looked back and forth between the two nurses in front of him; taking sharp note that they both seemed to share the same expression of… well currently not wanting to be there or even wanting to address him at that moment. Which was odd seeing as it was normally just Albert who did that kind of thing; Milianne was normally fairly calm around him despite the worst of the worst. She's the only nurse he knew who could hold a straight face when saying a patient suffered a complete cardiac arrest in the middle of the night for a second time; even after corrective surgery that kept him in the operating room for eight hours straight.

That wasn't an easy feat to do on her part and he had admired her for that.

But now… now something else seemed to be going on.

"Is there something I can help you with?" Ishida slowly questioned as he kept one hand on his office door; he hadn't even had the chance to unlock it yet before the two managed to catch his attention. Of course now they looked more ready to full-fledge run instead.

"Yes… well no… well not directly." Albert started; stumbling his way through an answer. "You see… you got a message shortly after you left yesterday and we were just coming by to drop it off."

"Is handling a message too difficult for you now?" he remarked, almost bitterly sarcastic but also kind of wanting to see a truth in it. "Look, if you wrote down the message, then just give it to me or tell me it; I have a busy schedule today and I'm already an hour behind. I can't risk standing in the hallway just to get a simple answer from you."

Milianne cleared her throat momentarily before she nodded. "Apparently after a small voting session and a close tie, the hospital has been nominated to host a… small committee 'event' for the city council."

It seemed to take a few long minutes for the words to properly function before he could get a clear grasp on them. "What do you mean we're hosting an event here?"

"Uh well… you see we were going to call you about it earlier but then things happened and we got sidetracked." Albert started, as he seemed to tug at the sleeves of his pale-blue scrubs. "But we had one of the city council members call earlier and since you weren't here, I took a note. And they said that they were looking into hosting a city council 'event' here since the hospital was considered a 'spotlight' for the city and we have some of the highest stats and ratings in the country-"

Like he really believed in all of that business 'jargon.' He probably would've laughed at the sheer stupidity of it if it didn't piss him off first and foremost. "That's basically a way for them to bullshit around saying 'Hey, remember when we increased the hospital funding two years ago? We had to change the city budget for you and you got a few new ambulances and heart monitors out of it; you also got to remodel your intensive care unit- can't forget about that.' I'm guessing after every other place turned them down so quickly, they panicked and figured we didn't have much to argue against when it comes down to the gritty details." He remarked with a harsh sigh. "Who the hell passed off on this? They should've called me at the least; I know for certain that they have my number."

"… Well apparently the hospital director passed off on it…"

For the love of-

Why the hell didn't he see that one coming?

"That was basically why we didn't want to tell you." Albert added.

He tried to keep himself in check and merely shook his head. "Of course, that would explain everything. Well… since the city council went over me, there's pretty much nothing I can do. It's risky though. To just, block off part of the hospital and we're going to have to cut some people off shifts and run a smaller staff in the background. I hope he doesn't expect me to be out there mingling around."

"Well actually he did mention something about introducing you-" Milianne started.

"No."

The woman didn't seem all too surprised by the answer and merely nodded along with him. "… You know what, we're just going to let you handle this. You seem to know what you want."

"What are you guys talking about over here?"

A quiet groan escaped him as he looked up to see Cirucci walking her way towards them; a couple of files tucked in one arm while her heels clicked needlessly against the floor. Even with how much time they had been spending together and… how seemingly comfortable they were around each other now… he still preferred if she wasn't at such an event. It just seemed to call for disaster on both their parts- he was still freshly aware of what happened during their last attempt at something serious. Maybe it was just an overreaction though… he just really didn't want to go through something like that again; not after they had worked so hard to get back on the right level again. "Nothing, it's just… something I have to try and deal with right now."

She cocked her head lightly to one side as she approached the small group; already able to tell that something about it tugged at her curiosity. As well, she could already tell that he didn't seem willing to tell her about it just yet. Still though… there wasn't someone here who was going to tell her otherwise or stop her from asking about it. Except for him, of course. "Like?"

"The city wants to host a party here." Albert answered.

Even better than what she first imagined. "… What kind of party?"

The older woman seemed to give a brief chuckle and a light wave of her hand before fingers moved to tuck aside a loose strand of hair. "Oh, just one of those outrageous kind of things. One of those extravagant parties where the only thing that cost more than an intestinal transplant is the bottle of wine for the evening." Milianne remarked.

He took swift note of her ease of expression and that faint spark in her eyes; it only spelled out bad news. And probably bad news for everyone involved. "You better not-"

"I need to get a new dress." Cirucci interrupted with a quick smirk in his direction. "Wanna go shopping together Milianne?"

"Can't think of someone better to go with?" the woman chuckled.

"Well my other shopping lady just had a baby and I don't think she wants to see me slip into a size two dress right now." she replied. "In fact… I think I already have the perfect accessories to go with the evening. When exactly is this 'event' happening?"

"I think they said they'd call back by the end of the week and set up a date for the whole thing; which gives us plenty of time to panic and rush off into chaos." Albert answered. "I'll probably try to wear my nice scrubs when that happens so if a misfortune happens, I'll die looking good."

He could only shake his head once more at the ongoing chatter before he finished unlocking his office door and stepped inside; gladly closing it behind him to cut off the voices without so much as excusing himself from the conversation. Well… this was a complete perfect way to start the day. First this whole 'event' business and then finding out that the only reason it was passed because of the hospital director agreeing to it. That in itself seemed like a set up.

Only Ryuken himself would pass on it just to screw with him.

It was probably some kind of… test of some sort just to drive his patience. And right now, he wasn't entirely sure if he wanted to pass or fail it. It was more tempting to try and size up the situation, somehow manage to turn it around but that called for a lot of effort and the man was probably expecting that from him already. He couldn't risk worrying about it right now though; there was still a schedule he had to keep and he was already behind on work. Maybe a little bit of solitude would help to ease his mind a bit and help him come back to the situation with a clean slate.


"You know it's rude for you to walk off when a lady's talking."

He barely glanced up at the remark as he continued his way down the corridor; flipping through paper after paper in hand as his eyes scanned for an important piece of detail that was necessary for his upcoming report. How exactly did the patient's stomach manage to rupture? A few broken blood vessels and minor swelling around the region hinted at a physical act but it could've been from some kind of fall or hit. Why were these notes so out of order? Who wrote them?

Pushing aside his office door with one shoulder, he continued on towards his desk with the hope to not run into anything along the way there. The sudden pressure of hands squeezing into his sides stopped him easily as he turned back towards the source- not that there was really a need to guess who it was. "What do you want?"

"I want a brand new dress to wear at this event, I want you to be my date and I want you to loosen up and try to have fun with the idea." Cirucci answered. "However, those wants are not limited to just those listed; there are plenty of other things to list off but then I would really miss out on all my hours for today."

He tried not to make a sarcastic remark back to her and only nodded in response. "Well… I'm sure you'll find a nice dress."

"Come on, Quincy… please?"

"No, I just… I don't like events like those and even if it's mandatory that I be there, I'll probably end up spending most of my time in my office; I'll probably bullshit a reason to."

She chuckled lightly at his response and moved her hands to lightly tangle in the open ends of his jacket; pulling him in closer to her. "That's fine. I can get that nice new dress and… we can both spend all night in here."