Blood: 12
Physically examined by Hojo
Today was shaping up to be a good day. Feeling good after the telephone call to Emma the previous day, Evan found a renewed spring in his step as he climbed the stairs to the office. It was nice to have that business out of the way. If only he could do all the things he had wanted to do in life before he died, that would make his week. So he found himself humming as he hit the door open with his backside and danced over to collapse in his chair and throw his feet up to rest on the pile of papers waiting there.
At that point the colour drained from his face to see Tessi sitting across the room at his own desk, cradling his chin in his hands, watching him. "Good... morning, Tess."
Tessi merely smiled, crossing his legs under the desk, "Good morning, Evan. I would ask how you are, but I can see for myself."
"We're all entitled to good days, Tessi." Evan retorted, forcing the shakes of embarrassment from his voice and sorting through his papers in an attempt to look business-like.
"I gotcha. So, you did okay yesterday with mine and Rose's trainees?"
Evan looked up from his work briefly, frowning in thought before remembering how yesterday, pre-phone call had played out. "Oh, no. I sorted something out. Reno took your two." The look on Tessi's face said it all. "Don' look at me like that. Reno is an experienced Turk with the advantage of fresh field work."
"He also holds the title of chugga-champ at the Kalm beer festival. Evan, Reno can't even pronounce responsible properly, and you let him loose on the newbies?"
"I told you. I have the utmost respect for his abilities."
Tessi snorted, leaning hard on his elbows and reaching for his desk tidy as though about to throw it at Evan's stupid head, "You're lyin' out your ass!"
"I'd prefer it if you were to keep such words to yourself. I don't appreciate profanity in my office." Tessi said nothing to that,lowering his eyes to stare at the report sheet in front of him. Evan was the boss, and what he said was law. "Anyway, it's just you and me this morning. Rose is in this afternoon."
"Why? She doing Rufus' dry cleaning?" The venom in that question was not lost on Evan, though he chose to ignore it,
"Her bike needs repairs actually. She's taking the morning off to sort it out. That, and she's got her physical today."
"Why doesn't she just take it to a mechanic?"
"Because she likes to do things herself. It saves money."
Tessi never got the chance to point out the flaws in Evan's answer, a knock at the door startling him into silence. "Come." Evan said, engrossing himself in his papers once more. He snapped to attention immediately as Heidegger entered. "Sir."
"Good morning, Evan. I won't stay long." What a shame, "I came down to tell you to expect a delivery this afternoon. New uniforms are on their way down here for the three of you. I thought we should put up a united front, so I arranged some blue uniforms for you three." He looked around, suddenly aware of Rose's absence. "Where is Miss Jennings?"
"I gave her the morning off, Sir. She had been over worked recently and has some issues to take care of." Heidegger grunted at Evan's answer, taking a seat on the edge of the head Turk's desk,
"Well, I trust she will be here this afternoon?"
"Yes sir."
"Good. I want a word with her."
That didn't sound good. "If I may be so bold, Sir, what about?"
Heidegger picked up Evan's rubix cube and began fiddling with it. "Her orders when the three of you are turned loose on the streets. Nothing for you to really worry about."
That answer served only to intrigue Evan further, but he said nothing more on the subject, taking his cube from Heidegger and solving it in three turns. "There's a knack to it." He explained, setting it back beside his desk tidy and leaning on his elbows.
"I see. Tell her that I want to see her when she comes in, would you?"
"Will do."
Why did this always take so long? Rose asked herself that question every time she was sat on this examination table, her sleeve rolled up, waiting for a blood sample to be taken. She hated physicals; couldn't stand being poked and prodded and jabbed with needles. Surely it wasn't necessary?
What's more, Hojo was the one doing the examining. Yes, he was a pleasant enough conversationalist, but there was something about him which set her on edge. Never mind his reputation as being a bit unhinged, he creeped her out. Possibly because he was always so glad to see her. Especially today.
Right now he was scribbling down her height and weight, muttering something to himself about how short she was. There was nothing wrong with being 5'4 tall, and besides, he should keep his opinions to himself.
"Are we almost done?" She asked with a sigh, rubbing the crook of her elbow in anticipation of the blood sample.
"Yes, yes. Almost." He set his notes aside and took a needle from his lab coat pocket. Rose eyed it in distaste,
"Are you sure that's clean? I don't want to catch anything."
Hojo chuckled at that, examining it purely to set her even more on edge. "Of course it's clean. We wouldn't want you coming down with any of the viruses I have in here. They would do you no good at all." He shook his head, "No, no. We want you fit and healthy."
If he was trying to disturb her, he was doing a good job. None the less, she sat still as he grabbed her arm and took his precious blood sample. She had never liked needles, that was something Hojo knew and remembered, turning his back to her to take the blood.
Rose said nothing, biting her lip until the stinging subsided.
"There," Hojo said, looking at the needle closely, "that wasn't so bad, was it?"
"Give me your definition of bad and we'll compare notes."
"You complain almost as much as Sephiroth used to. Almost, but not quite as much."
Rose couldn't help but wonder what was going through his head. Whenever Hojo took a blood sample it was as though all his Christmases had come at once. "Here." He presented her with some cotton wool pads. She took them without a word, pressing one onto her elbow. "You're done now. As usual you are in perfect health. If there's anything wrong, it's that you're slightly under your optimum weight, but that doesn't matter. I'll send you the results of your blood test in the next week."
Rose nodded, sliding off the table onto her feet, dabbing at her elbow. She had always had quite thin blood. Hojo thrust a piece of paper at her, "Give this to Mr. McCarnon."
"All right." She folded it and put it in her jacket pocket.
Watching her leave, Hojo shook his head, turning back to the examination table and the blood sample. Miss Jennings was always a pleasure to work with, unlike some Turks he knew...
"RENO!"
The red head lengthened his stride, stuffing his hands roughly in his pockets and whistling the tune of 'Jimmy crack corn'. There was only one thing this could be about...
Iowa bolted down the corridor, snatching his night stick from his belt and flipping it open. Oh, this would be sweet. Lovely, sweet revenge. He was unprepared when Reno collapsed almost bonelessly to the floor and curled into a ball, sending him tripping onto the polished floor just outside the active Turks' office.
He sat up, rubbing his elbow tenderly, somewhat lost as to what had just happened. Reno clucked his tongue, shaking his head in the most condescending way he could. "What you doing down there?"
"You stole my PHS from my locker, while I was in the shower, didn't you?"
"I'm not saying anything without an attorney present."
"Dammit! You sent a message to Crysta, proclaiming my undying love for her, didn't you?"
Reno drew his fingers across his lips, "Zip."
"Then she came up to me and kicked me in the balls!"
"Ooh." Now that had to hurt.
"You're a bastard."
"I know."
Iowa got to his feet, brushing off his uniform and glowering at Reno. "You know what it feels like to be kicked in the balls!"
"Do I?"
Enough was enough. As if getting kicked in the balls wasn't bad enough, Crysta now thought he had a thing for her. The woman was a bitch, simple as. She had no desire to let him have a 'thing' for her. She hated him, he hated her, that was the clear cut working relationship they had.
She didn't like anything, except her shotgun. And hunting. They were the only things she did like. "Prepare to die."
Reno sighed, moving aside and narrowly missing Iowa's night stick to his head. It was Rose who got the full force of it in the shoulder.
Iowa pulled up short, opening his mouth to say something, but managing only a drawling croak. Rose clutched her shoulder, staring at it in disbelief. Were people trying to get on her nerves today or was it just her?
Reno hissed, stepping back a little. He knew Rose, had done for a long time and when she snapped she went with a crack. He was not disappointed.
She looked round at Iowa with an intensity unlike anything he had seen before, forcing him to step back as Reno did. The thing which set people on edge about Rose was her eyes. They were green, but glowed ever so slightly, not even enough to normally be seen in lit rooms. Unless she was angry. Nobody was sure why, even she had no idea what the reason for it was, but when they visibly glowed it was time to run. Right now was one of those times.
"Iowa." He nodded. She stepped forward, nose to nose with him and grabbed his tie, yanking him down to her level, "If you ever, ever do something like that to me again," she spat through her teeth, "I will personally break both your legs and ensure that you never see another day. Understood?"
"Yes, ma'am."
"Good." Without warning she snatched his arm, bending it up behind his back and rushing him into the wall, forcing his cheek against it and kicking his knees out from under him, "I have not had the best few days, and you have successfully worsened them with your stupidity. Do you want me to kill you?"
"No, ma'am."
"What?"
"I said no, ma'am!"
"You had better be sincere, because I would love to shoot you right now." She exhailed, breathing out as much of her anger as she could in one go. "Now," she muttered, "get out of my sight."
Iowa did as he was told, getting to his feet and walking off down the corridor. Rose would yell at him if he ran. She hated seeing people running in corridors for some reason.
"Don't you dare cross paths with me again today!" She called after him. Once satisfied he was out of sight, she cradled her shoulder, taking slow breaths. Reno put his hands in his pockets, looking round and down at her with raised eyebrows.
"You wonder why trainees call you 'that real serious bitch'?"
She chose not to hear that, flapping her arm like some sort of pathetic bird, attempting to circle her shoulder but pulling it back with a yelp. "Little bastard's fractured something."
"You okay?" He went to take hold of her arm, but Rose pulled it away.
"I'm fine. Evan can fix it for me. Just be stiff for the next few days."
"Good. You're made of tougher stuff than syndicate boy can break."
She managed a smile at that. "Thank you for your concern, Reno." With that, she went on her way down the corridor to the Senior Turks' office.
Reno watched her go, his head cocked to one side in his only thoughtful expression of the day so far. In all the time he had known Rose she had been hot-tempered. You wouldn't think so to look at her, always so calm and quiet as she was. That made him think.
He had first met Rose way back when he was ten. She was nine then, and the shyest little thing you could ever imagine. Trey had told him not to intimidate her, and not to make fun of her. That was strange, he usually encouraged making fun of people; loved doing it himself, but Rose was off limits in that respect.
Despite 'knowing of' each other, they had never been friends. Passing acquaintances, yes, but not friends. She accepted him more than liked him, it seemed – he could talk to her when she was angry without getting his head bitten off, and could poke fun at her without getting thrown against a wall – and he accepted her in turn. What a weird relationship they had.
Oh well, no time for standing around in the corridor all day. Things to do, places to go, jammy donuts to eat before Rude could get them. Stretching and mewling like some kind of choking cat, Reno turned on his muddy heel and strolled into the Turk's office.
(NOTE: A very segmented chapter for you, like a worm. I'm using what I know of Before Crisis in this re-write, and as such two of the characters, Rod Male and Shotgun Female. Yeah, I gave them names because they kind of need them, so they're Iowa and Crysta-Bel. They're the only two I have any kind of insight into their characters without playing the game from watching Last Order. For those of you who don't know, Iowa was part of the gang world, and got caught sneaking into the Shinra building by Reno, and Crysta is a hunter. That's information from their bios, so it's not a spoiler, fear not.
And yes, Hojo does do Rose's physicals. He does them for all the Turks. We all know Hojo, the man likes to study humans.)