I get off the elevator quietly, walking steadily into the hallway. The tears are dry in my eyes; there are no more choked, keening cries left inside me. There are red lines slashed across my hands where I dug my nails into my palms, and red lines around my eyes.
The chair is still empty when I reach it, and I'm about to collapse onto it and fall asleep when I catch a glimpse of Eames's room.
It's empty.
My heart stops. Literally. I feel it shudder, skid, swerve like a careening car in a police chase, then skip a few beats. And then it races right up into my mouth, and I can't think for the emotions crashing down within me. Eames, Eames-
I whirl around and fly at the first doctor I see. "Doctor-there's a patient missing, she's not in her room-"
The doctor makes an impatient gesture and shoos me away. He charges off down the hallway with a clipboard in hand, leaving me in his wake. I turn on a small nurse with wide eyes as she clutches her files to her chest. No doubt she thinks I'm crazy. No doubt I am. "Excuse me, can you tell me-"
"I'm sorry, sir, ask somebody else!" And she scuttles off, strewing papers all over the ground.
I'm panicking. I don't care what happens, I don't care who thinks what, I just want to find her. I have to find her. Where the hell is she?
I grab the arm of a technician who's passing by. "Sir, please, you've got to help me, I'm looking for-"
The technician turns, and then he swears and tries furiously to shake me loose. But I've got a death grip on his arm, and there's nothing I want to do more than kill him right now. "You!"
I know it's short, I'm sorry! More next time!