"Yes, yes I am here! It's me!" Before having thought of the words they had left him. Did Lucy hear him? Was it cruel to let himself believe she had? Again, her eyes passed him without seeing. He waited for her to answer. She checked over her shoulder a few times and shook her head before turning on her heels to leave. No... Please come back...
But she wouldn't. What reason did she have? She picked up her clipboard and snapped the mirror back into place. On her way out, Clay followed. There was no point hiding his expression. She wouldn't see it anyway. Just as she closed the door to his room, she was interrupted by a chiming noise. At first Clay didn't know what it was, but she instinctively flipped her cell phone from her pocket and glanced down at the screen. Clay didn't see the name, but she cleared her throat and answered.
"Hey," her casual tone suggested it was a friend. Clay strained to hear the other half of the conversation, but couldn't catch any words. "Yeah. No, I'm alright. No. I found it. His room. Yeah. I know. I'm okay. Really, I'm okay." Her sudden stops implied she was being interrupted on the other end. Whoever it was must be concerned. "I know. Thanks. What was the name? No, not yet. In a few days. No, it's the twentieth today. A week after his funeral." Without realizing it he leaned closer, knowing the conversation was about him. Did he really sleep for that long? Just now, he must have been gone for a week. He started to build a time line from her conversation.
"Yeah, the Tiber, I know. Four days before they found him. I know. The ceremony was okay. He was cremated when they recovered it, I think he had wanted to be buried though." His body was thrown into the Tiber River? The thought nauseated him. No wonder he had been cremated after that. Four days underwater... The mental image was too much. Lucy paused a moment, listening. With her free hand she shuffled around the papers on her clipboard. "No, not yet. It'll be ready. No... Who told you that?" She didn't sound annoyed, just surprised. Expecting the conversation to last a while, Clay took a seat near the Animus. It couldn't hurt him anymore, but it still creeped him out. The dull lights continued to move up and down it, despite it being offline. It was like it had a pulse.
"Not really. It took a while, and my shirt was ruined. I tried using that spot cleaner you got me. No, not on blood stains." Was she talking about his blood? "What? I thought you weren't doing those anymore. Oh. I guess. Yeah, that makes sense. No, no it's fine." She pinched the phone with her shoulder to free her other hand and started up her computer. "I'm checking. Hold on, it has to log me in first." Silence. Clay waited, making himself comfortable in the chair. It could be quite a nice seat when it wasn't accompanied by threats, he realized. "Nope. Just give me a second." She tapped in her password and pulled up some screens. Clay leaned forward to read it. Nonsense to him, but he took as much of it to memory as he could. "Yeah, Doctor Sung had to change her number. What? No. Ask her yourself. No. I'm not just going to give it to you!" Her tone was joking again, drawing out a thin smile from Clay. It was good to see her happy. "What, and rob you of the chance to ask? Never." She signed out of the computer and headed to the door, Clay at her heels as always.
"No way. Nope. Not happening. I don't care how many cherries you put on top! Yeah, I'd rather watch you ask her again. Maybe that's why she changed it in the first place." Clay kept behind her in the hall, quietly listening. Who was she talking to? "Alright. Good luck with that. Yeah? Oh, me too. I'll talk to you soon. Thanks, Daniel. Bye." She clicked it shut and returned the phone to her pocket. The name clicked in Clay's mind and he caught himself smiling again. Daniel Cross? It had been ages since he had heard from him. Last time must have been more than three months ago, he had come to Clay's room with a pack of cigarettes after a particularly rough session. Somehow, Clay got the feeling Daniel knew what it was like. Through the bleed effect Daniel had patiently waited it out before returning to the conversation. And he never talked down to him after. They had finished off the entire box that night, and Daniel had promised to split another one some other day. When he had left, Clay had to wonder if anyone knew he had stopped by, or even if it was allowed. Clay didn't think he was a Templar agent, anyway. He seemed too good for that. Maybe he was a doctor or something.
Clay's thoughts were interrupted when Lucy stopped at the end of the hall. All the way at the end here, there wasn't much traffic. A nice window above an end table and single chair. What was this for? Just decorative? Lucy flipped back her page of doodles and a few other blank pages before stopping at a form. She clicked the pen a couple times, skimming over the filled out areas. Again, mostly nonsense to Clay. Looked like a medical chart, but it was incomplete. Seeing Lucy with that pen was a little disturbing, truth be told. How could she even hold it, having seen it covered in blood just a few weeks ago? The form she was skimming had less than half of the blanks filled in, but it seemed to make sense to her anyway. She crossed out a couple of check boxes and wrote a "17" at the top. Seventeen what? Clay didn't have to think for long to know. Subject Seventeen was already being located, barely two weeks after his death.
It would be sickening if he had anything left to make feel sick.