Friday, August 7, 2009 – 9:36am – East End Free Clinic; Gotham City, New Jersey
She stepped inside the clinic gingerly as if she didn't belong there. The waiting room was surprisingly empty, but a general chatter of noise carried back through the hallway from the main room, hinting at a large amount of patients. Over the chatter, Leslie's voice carried from her office through the open door, anger causing it to rise above her normal volume.
"Although I trust your patchwork, with his medical history and especially after last year, I should be treating him from now on. There are only so many times he can get shot and then patched back up like a rag doll." A pause. "I don't care what he will think, he is as much of a son to me as he is to you. He will have to deal with it if he keeps insisting on running around like this. I know that you understand that I am only looking out for his well-being, whether or not it is an inconvenience to him." Another pause, followed by an exasperated sigh. "Fine. If you will not permit me to examine him, then I just must trust your history-laden patchwork. But if anything more serious happens again, I want you to call me."
She slammed the phone down, causing Ana to jump, not fully realizing just how closely she was listening. Who in the world could piss of Leslie so badly? The woman, though proud and strong, seemed impervious to such an emotion beyond the general capacity of society's ability to harm itself. The woman in the office currently sounded so different from the Leslie she met the other day.
But yet when she rounded the corner, it was still the same woman, all signs of anger gone from her face. In addition, as she registered who was standing in the waiting room, she offered a friendly smile. Ana returned it, as her smile instantly made her feel better, as Leslie spoke up, "Oh, hello dear. I wondered if that was you. I see you've come back for more," Leslie teased as she led the way back towards the main room.
"I had the day off," Ana said, which wasn't entirely a lie. When she had called in to Chris, ready to make up a bullshit excuse why she couldn't come to the set today, not ready to face Edward again so soon if he was there, he had informed her first that the production had been postponed indefinitely due to the bombings. This time for real. "Besides, I felt like you two could use the extra hand today."
Leslie glanced back at her with less of a smile than before. "Then thank you, darling." But as she glanced back, she did a once over and paused in the middle of the hallway. "Is everything alright, dear?"
Ana blinked, surprised that she could tell something was off. Well, the something that was off was growing into a number of things at this point and she was beginning to fail to keep them all straight. And then, with a quick nod, "Yes, of course. Everything's fine."
Leslie eyed her carefully before she resumed walking, as if she didn't believe it, but wasn't going to press the matter.
They emerged from the hall to a full room, where plenty of people remained standing around the spaced cots. Some beds were even shared by minor injuries.
"While nearly all of the bombed buildings were practically empty, the buildings next to the bombs are not as structurally secure as Wayne Enterprises built buildings. One of the apartment buildings next to that biology facility collapsed."
Ana blinked, astounded as she looked around. "At least you aren't dealing with the hospital bombing, right? They're being shipped to other hospitals."
"Yes," Leslie nodded as she headed towards a patient, Ana following. "If you want to look at it that way."
"Wait, Leslie, you said that the buildings bombed were Wayne Enterprises buildings. Not all of them were, were they?"
"If you do your research, darling, I'm sure you'll come up with that answer on your own," she commented over her shoulder as she sat next to two little girls curled up on a cot together with what looked to be their big brother standing guard.
Ana continued to follow, prepared to help in anyway her expired, out-of-state certifications would allow her to-aka, a lot of cleaning and supply-handling. After all, she had nothing else to do and helping kept her mind occupied.