Conference Room
"So- the reason of this meeting today..." Esha was taking in deep breaths- biting her lip and gulping, she couldn't get her words out. "There's a problem...uh..."
The other simply stared in confusion. The prisoner was hoping his third time at Resurgam wasn't causing the Chief concern.
"Come on already; we don't have all day...!" Gabriel and Maria both said at the same time, both very annoyed. One in a foul mood from running all the way here, the other grumpy from the frozen weather which enabled him to visiting the rooftop.
"Th-the..." Esha stuttered her way with the first word- signaling to the others that they should panic.
Dr. Tachibana and Dr. Freebird both tried to calm their Chief down. "Chief Patel, please, you may speak your mind..." "Is there a problem, Chief?"
"What, you're laying us off? Tell me first." Dr. Cunningham eagerly waited for Esha to spill the plain truth that he is given his retirement. Everyone knows he wanted one. "Stop acting all terrified, none of us are gonna bite...well, maybe one of us."
"Shut up." The paramedic delivered an unseen back-blow to the diagnostician. "You're not firing us, right?"
"N-no... not that." Esha shook her head strongly. "It's..."
"Cat or something died?" Gabriel's word made the Chief glare at him. "What? You sure are acting like it." He got elbowed by the paramedic. "Ow."
Dr. Tachibana disregarded her fellow doctor's remark. "If it is personal, you should be discussing this with closer individual..." She then continued, "There is a reason you have called for this gathering, correct?"
"It's...The..." Esha was seriously starting to cause concern- never before has the Chief shown distress and completely lost her composure.
CR-SO1 murmured, "If this is about me.. then I understand..." He prepared to hear words such as 'his last time here.'
Esha repeated the process of shaking her head and saying 'no.' The kid wasn't gonna get thrown away- he's the best they ever had.
"Ugh, tell us already!" Maria was growing impatient- Hank was nearby making sure she doesn't do anything else rash.
"RONI, do the talking for Esha. I'm tired of this staring contest." The room turned dark after Gabriel's words.
"Doctors, I believe Chief Patel is referring to the temporary absence of the hospital's internet access." The computer spoke as it showed a picture of a page with the 'page is unavailable' words in the center with 'please check your internet connection' right under.
"The internet is down-!" Esha's lost expression suddenly changed into frustration as she rephrased what the computer said.
"You aren't serious-?" Gabriel wasn't making fun of Esha- he, too, was freaking out. He can't entertain himself in the office without the internet- and he can't go to the rooftop to escape RONI.
Tomoe and CR-SO1 looked somewhat bewildered- one had no clue what the subject was and the other vaguely understands the situation. Hank seemed to not mind at all.
"What? That's all there was?" Maria was furious with her wasted time. "Why would I care?" She saw the Chief turn away angrily. "Stop wasting my time-!" The paramedic stomped out of the room, exasperated that she spent a whole five minutes for useless news.
Esha humphed at the leaving paramedic and looked at the other doctors. "We still have contact and stuff with the main computer here, but how am I supposed to do anything without the internet?"
Tomoe blinked several times. "This... is unfortunate... is there a way to... fix this problem?" She had no idea what she was talking about, so she hoped 'fix' was the right word.
"You can't fix the internet- you fix the connection, and those idiots say it'll take the whole day to repair the link!" Esha grumbled, knowing this doctor was foreign, she had to hold back the yelling.
"One day is better than nothing..." Hank slowly went around the Chief and out the door with Tomoe. "Thank you... for informing us..."
"Do they not realize how terrible this is? How am I supposed to work..?" Esha growled. "Anyway, lights." The room turned bright again with her command. "And why are you here?" She stared at the diagnostician. "Today, your first patient doesn't come until... after two."
"Uh..." Gabriel tilted his cigarette as he went towards the exit. "I... forgot. Later." He slipped outside and sped to his office.
"Really." Esha rolled her eyes. "Who cares." She turned to the surgeon in the corner. "So, kid... about your next operation..."
Dr. Cunningham's Office
He didn't forget anything.
He was supposed to spend his hours or so surfing the net, maybe call Derek or Naomi, too.
The one thing he did forget: Joshua.
"Great, RONI- do you have anything to entertain the kid with?" Gabriel relied on his assistant for most of his 'babysiting.' Because of Lisa's monetary issues, he has to deal with the kid- pretty much the opposite of what the divorce planned for. "Any games or something?"
"Doctor, the only game available offline is chess."
"Geez, I forgot." Gabriel leaned back on his chair and moaned, "Joy."
"Why do you always use the computer? Don't you have any friends to play with?" Joshua then began muddling to himself. "Well, maybe not play, but talk to?" The boy's amber eyes looked to the closed ones of the tired diagnostician.
"This is at the job kid, people are busy here." Dr. Cunningham groaned as his answer. "And I've got important stuff to do on the computer, if you have to know."
Joshua sat on the couch with a frown. "What's so important..?"
"Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, FanFiction- don't forget endless supply of games and movies and e-mail." Gabriel listed off nonchalantly. "But knowing a kid like you, you wouldn't know any of that."
"Um- I know! Is Facebook a book about a face on the computer..?"
Gabriel hid his smile and asked, "How about the others?" Let's see what the kid of the 'Master of Deduction' and figure out.
"Okay... I think you said something about a tube shaped like a 'u?'" Joshua had a finger to his chin in confusion. "And...a Twitter...I dunno, something to do... what does 'twit' mean?"
"The word 'twit' originates from-"
"Zip it, RONI. The boy only asked for the definition." Gabriel really wasn't in the mood for a dictionary entry from his mechanical assistant.
"The definition can be either a noun or verb; the noun form is a synonym of the word 'twerp' and the verb form is similar to the meaning of the word 'tease.'"
Joshua's eyes widened. "So... does 'Twitter' mean a person that teases? Doc, are you being mean to people..?"
"Yes, I spend my day making fun of people on the computer..." He saw the look of despair on Joshua and answered, "No, I don't. Your translation was wrong."
"Oh." The boy lowered his eyes. "So... what is it?"
Gabriel sighed. "I'm too tired explain, wait til you grow up." And Lisa would kill him if he told the kid about blogs and things like that- child safety on the internet.
"Aw..." Joshua looked to the computer next to the diagnostician's desk. "If you're too tired, then can that robot tell me?"
"It's-"
"In actuality, I am not a mobile cyborg as a casual toy one could find in modern stores. I am a computerized device specifically made to assist doctors such as Dr. Cunningham. And yes, I am able to explain matters such as this." RONI interrupted with her long boring explaination- though Gabriel has heard it every week of his life, Joshua was excited to hear the computer talk.
"RONI, I told you not to-"
"Ooh- then tell me what's 'Twitter!'" Joshua spoke excitedly. "And everything else the doc said!" The boy was starting to rock back and forth in the chair in excitement.
"The word 'twitter' can be either a noun or verb. The verb is intransitive and means to sing, chatter or giggle, it may also mean a high-pitched singing or to quiver. The noun form means a high-pitched song or chatter, it may also mean excitement."
Dr. Cunningham had a blank face.
"So, doc- you can sing in a really high voice? Wow..." Joshua then continued, ignoring Gabriel's weak objections. "So 'Twitter' is where you get to sing on the computer..?"
"No-! RONI, I thought the internet was down, how did you come up with this?" The diagnostician was close to a face-plam at his embarrassment.
"Doctor, the internet connect has not yet been made. I have already attempted 107 connections the past hour. The definition of the word 'twitter' was from the archive of dictionaries and thesauruses already installed in the database which I receive information from. The connection there is still functional."
Face-palm. "Ugh. No more speeches longer than a sentence, RONI."
"Dr. Cunningham, you may not know this, but it is highly crucial that you allow me to speak more than a mere sentence since this option may limit the amount of information you will receive at one time which would greatly affect your ability to perform in the diagnosis considering the percentage of times you refuse to listen and cooperate with my essential help."
"That's a really long sentence...!" Joshua clapped and jeered, "Doc, you have a really cool computer." He watched Gabriel stand up. "Huh? What's wrong, doc?"
The diagnostician tossed away his cigarette and opened the door to the hallway. He grabbed his jacket and car keys as he said to Joshua, "Get your stuff, kiddo. I'm taking you outside." He had enough talk with his computer.
"Really? Are we going to play in the snow or something..?"
"If we do- bring some for RONI to enjoy." Gabriel smirked at his computer. "RONI loves water."
"Dr. Cunningham-"
Joshua quickly found his jacket and slipped it on. "Okay, let's go then-!" He entered the hall and waved back at the computer. "Um... so...doc?"
"Huh? What?" Gabriel kept talking to try not to activate RONI's in-the-hall mechanism. "I was kidding back there. Esha doesn't want us bring snow inside."
"Oh, that's okay...but I still don't know- what is 'Twitter?' If I was wrong, then... what is it?"
Gabriel clenched his teeth. "Uh..." Back to where he started. "It's..."
"A chat-based website that-"
"I told you- no talking in the hall!" The diagnostician shouted up to the empty ceiling. "(Great job, Joshua.)"
"There is something else I wish to inform you-"
"Do it later! Don't you see we're busy here?" He picked up the pace with Joshua following, who was exclaiming 'cool its in the hall too.'
"It is of great importance."
Dr. Cunningham slowed down, realizing he still had long to go and his energy wasn't enough to make a full dash to the garage. "Ugh- fine, but only that...!"
"The internet connection has been reestablished."
"Now you tell me-!" The keys in Gabriel's hand dangled as he raised and lowered his arm in annoyance. "You always have such terrible timing, RONI."
Joshua looked up to the doctor. "What do we do now?"
This decision didn't take long at all. "...Forget it. I rather go use the terminals at the library."
"The library?" Joshua thought a little bit. He couldn't do anything in the hospital, so why not? "Okay, let's go."
"Sorry, RONI. The kid accepts- you've been rejected." With that said, Gabriel walked down the corridor with Joshua following behind steadily.
Geez, I'm running low on ideas...