jennifer.livejournal.com ([identity profile] jennifer.livejournal.com) wrote in [community profile] damned_lounge2008-10-31 12:11 am
Entry tags:

Oktoberfest '08 Entry: A Day in the Life, by Jen

Title: A Day in the Life
Author: [livejournal.com profile] jennifer
Betas: [livejournal.com profile] david_grana took a look at the first half or so. The second half is all my doing.
Word Count: 2174
Rating: PG at most.
Characters: Various OCs, Head Nurse Lydia, Martin Landel, House, Wilson, Washu, Maggie Burroughs, Allelujah, Ophelia, Minato, Yukari, Phoenix, Falis, the Xenomorph, Hitsugaya, Celes, brief references to Mikami, Chidori, Akihiko, Mitsuru, Brennan, and Billy/Dr. Horrible
Summary: The doctors that perform M-U and SC are just as human as the rest of us.
Notes: I eschewed paragraph format in favor of something more akin to diary format. May contain crack in copious quantities. May also contain references to the background music I used for writing this. Also, my apologies to those who I discussed my other fic idea with. It just wasn't coming together, though I do intend to TRY and finish one day.



6 AM: Wake up. Hit the snooze button.

6:05 AM: Hit the snooze button again.

6:10 AM: Decide I can't ignore the alarm any longer. Stumble out of bed, shower, and dress.

6:45 AM: Read newspaper headlines while having first cup of coffee.

6:58 AM: Put the coffee cup in the sink, pull on my lab coat and a coat over that.

7 AM: Lock the door to my apartment.

7:02 AM: Pull out of the apartment complex parking lot.

7:17 AM: Stuck in traffic on the freeway.

7:30 AM: Finally get to my exit. I glance at the time, and decide that I do have the time for a Starbucks run. Excellent. Pull up to the drive-through, and place my usual order: a triple venti vanilla latte, extra hot, with whipped cream, and a blueberry muffin.

7:40 AM: Actually obtain my latte and muffin. Glare at the people behind the counter as I leave - shame I can't get them admitted to the Institute. I'd have such fun with them.

8:07 AM: Arrive at Landel's Institute. Greet Sam, the security guard at the front gate. We chat for a few minutes. Such a nice man; it was almost tempting to insist that we couldn't possibly have to turn him into that just so we'd have one more monster to turn loose on the grounds at night. Of course, I didn't.

8:14 AM: Find that someone has parked in my reserved parking spot. Sigh. Take the spot next to it. Hope House doesn't notice.

8:20 AM: Arrive at my office, turn on the computer.

8:22 AM: Open Outlook.

8:23 AM: 24 new emails. 18 of these are from Dr. Martin Landel. Only one of them is anything of substance. The rest are email forwards. Sigh. Begin deleting each of the forwards, and hope he doesn't decide to ask me why I never forward anything he sends me. The last doctor who told him he didn't like forwarding spam messages on to others wound up as a patient a few days later. Shame about poor Dr. Crane; the man had such potential to be a great member of staff...

8:28 AM: Inbox is pruned to a reasonable six new messages. Two are agendas, one for the private staff meeting and one for the morbidity and mortality conference. One is a passive-aggressive email from House stating that he needs his reserved parking spot. One is a question about a technique used in a past CM-US trial. One is a note from the pharmacy, stating that the special drugs I've asked them to compound are ready. I'm impressed - they're always punctual, of course, but I hadn't expected them to be quite so fast. I don't need them immediately - not for another day, at the bare minimum. Reply, asking if they managed to procure the little glass vials for one of the drugs, and the gun they go into. I'm sure they did, of course, but it never hurts to check.

8:32 AM: Oh, excellent, they did get the little glass vials and the gun they fit into. That means I'll be able to use that drug the next time I perform surgery. I could use a needle, of course, but these things work best when administered correctly.

8:35 AM: Reply to House, stating that if we all stuck to our own parking places, there would be no need to take others'. Knew I should have taken Wilson's spot instead.

8:40 AM: Passive-aggressive reply #2 from House. Ignore it. Wonder how easy it would be to replace his cane with one that will fall out from under him under the right amount of pressure.

8:45 AM: The mystery of who it is that took my parking spot has been solved. I should have known it was Dr. Washu - the bumper sticker saying 'My other car is a spaceship' should been a dead giveaway. I can't exactly retaliate, though. The last person that tried doing something to her car was never seen again. She really should join us on the more...interesting side of the Institute. I don't know why she wasn't approached for that, rather than standard therapy. We get the better toys!

8:57 AM: Debate skipping out on the staff meeting in order to get work done. I still have case studies to write up, and I need to run a few simulations.

8:59 AM: Decide that's not a wise idea. Sigh heavily, grab a legal pad and my favorite sparkly gel pen, which just so happens to have been confiscated from a patient upon their arrival into the Institute, and head on down to the conference room. At least I'm not the last one to arrive. Jenkins, Jenkins, Jenkins, will you ever learn to be on time?

9:01 AM: I can't believe Landel has the nerve to lecture us about inappropriate use of workplace email. Bastard.

9:05 AM: Now, this is the interesting part of the meeting: the time where we talk about all the new patients who are coming in. I flip to a new page of my legal pad, and begin taking copious notes. I'm not sure why I do; we get a full dossier on each new patient. It seems more...satisfying, somehow, to take my own notes. It's more personal, and I get to underline the more interesting details. Oh, and there are lots of those this time around. Four new patients from one world - the gothic lolita, the dominatrix princess, the socially awkward boxer - and oooh. They finally tracked down the blue-haired boy with that interesting, interesting ability. I'd love to get my hands on him; I'm sure he would be an excellent trial subject. Underline his name, put asterisks next to it.

The presentation rolls on; we have one formerly cybernetic patient, one former superhero...oh, and someone who just begs for a dose of Special Counseling. Ophelia, you're not as delicate as the Shakespearean heroine, but that delicacy doesn't suit a warrior with your specific talents and temperament. Oh, yes, we'll give you your sword back; show us that Rippling Sword technique you devised. The photographs don't do it justice. We can't do it too soon, of course, but I look forward to when we can.

By the time I'm able to make myself pay attention again, we've passed a few more patients. I'm a bit surprised to hear that we're admitting two more doctors into the institute, as patients - though one claims to be a doctor of horribology? Interesting...

9:40 AM: That part of the meeting is over. It's an interesting crop of new patients; it always is, but I'm particularly impressed this time around. We're moving on now - it's time to make the decision as to who we'll pull for Special Counseling tonight. It's so hard to make these calls, with so many deserving candidates. It's even harder not to cackle at this point in the meeting. Dr. Landel frowns on anyone besides him laughing like that during the private staff meetings, though, so I refrain. We eventually narrow it down to ten, and take a vote. Disappointing that we're not going to give the Takeba girl her Evoker back tonight, but it's for the best. It will be much more satisfying once her teammates are able to see her.

10:00 AM: End of the meeting. Jenkins gets pulled aside by Landel. I suppose we'll be looking for a new doctor to join our team now. Good riddance to bad rubbish; the question is, of course, what will become of him now. I suppose we'll find out before too long.

10:15 AM: Time to get cracking on those case studies.

10:30 AM: No, really, time to get cracking, self...oh, fine. I suppose I can play one more game of solitaire first.

10:45 AM: Finally close solitaire, take out my notes, and open up Word. I don't know what will happen if I don't get these case studies done today, but I don't want to find out.

11:15 AM: Need more coffee. It's probably not healthy to drink as much of it as I do, but my job requires me to work such odd hours that I can't help relying on it. At least I go home and sleep at night. Poor Dr. Burroughs looks just awful from all the caffeine and other stimulants she takes to keep from sleeping. We all know why she doesn't sleep, of course. She might be able to hide it from the other therapy doctors, but she can't hide it from everyone.

11:18 AM: Coffee is obtained.

12:00 PM: That's one case study done. I stand and stretch, then I ponder lunch. I decide to wait a bit - while I am tempted, I do need to get more work done.

12:05 PM: Email from HR about the Institute's intramural softball team. Delete it without reading it - how many times have I told Natalie in HR I'm not interested? She just won't take no for an answer.

1 PM: The second case study flowed much more easily than the first. I email them off to Landel.

1:02 PM: Okay, now it's time for lunch. Check the intranet site for the employee lunch menu, and decide I'll just go for soup and a sandwich instead of the hot entree. It's not that I don't like lasagna, but no one makes it like my mother does.

1:15 PM: Find an empty seat, and am joined a moment later by Dr. Smith. We start chatting. He's just as excited about the new blood coming in as the rest of us are, but he hides it better than most.

2:00 PM: Off to the lab for two hours of running simulations for M-U trials before the morbidity and mortality conference at 4.

2:30 PM: Interrupted in the middle of work by a knock at the lab door. Head Nurse Lydia is an unexpected visitor - but she comes bearing good news. I'm going to be taking care of one of the Special Counseling patients tonight. I smile widely.

3:00 PM: It's always fun to see a simulation work the way I intended it to, yes. I know it's not an M-U trial night tonight, but I'm looking forward to performing the experiment on Allelujah Haptism. I grin widely, and begin the second simulation.

3:45 PM: I'm finished with the second simulation early. I'm really terribly pleased with the way it went. I may not get to perform the experiment for some time, but I daresay it will be interesting to see how Phoenix Wright reacts to it. By finishing early, this gives me time to get more coffee before the meeting.

3:55 PM: Coffee is obtained, and I step into the auditorium. I'm glad I'm off the hook today. It wasn't even an interesting patient that died during that one M-U trial. I don't think I've ever been so embarrassed in all my time working at Landel's Institute as I was the day I had to present the results of that trial.

4:00 PM: The conference begins. Roberts is up first - I'm surprised, until he explains that he's going to be explaining what happened to the Xenomorph a few nights ago. Him and his strange creatures from other planets...but I suppose we're all a bit obsessed with strange creatures of some sort. It goes with the job.

I'm even more surprised when he goes on to explain that a patient was able to kill his precious alien. We knew we had some very skilled fighters, but I must say, I'm impressed with Princess Alita Forland's performance.

Two new members of staff are next. Apparently, they're involved with some of the...lesser-known patients in the Institute. One of their patients died due to an unfortunate overdose of drugs during the process that we use for Special Counseling. I wince when I hear the second woman begin to speak - she lost a patient during M-U, too.

The rest of the conference is uneventful - discussion of the injuries patients suffered while taking down Special Counseling patients, and then discussion of injuries patients inflicted on each other. We also take a minute to discuss the sedative cocktail we give to patients - apparently Hitsugaya Toshiro had an unfortunate reaction in the visitors' lobby. We decide that this is an isolated incident, and it doesn't merit changing any of the components of the cocktail. We'll continue to monitor for any other adverse reactions.

5:00 PM: Finally, that conference is over. I stand up and turn to leave. I have time to get some dinner before I need to be back - the rule on personnel not being allowed on the premises after dark does not apply to doctors involved in M-U or Special Counseling.

??? PM: Greet one General Celes Chere. I finally unleash the cackle I've been holding back all day. She struggles against her restraints, but she won't do that much longer. I grin, and give her the first dose of the drugs.

[identity profile] kanara.livejournal.com 2008-10-31 04:30 am (UTC)(link)
I <3 you, Jen!

[identity profile] zalia.livejournal.com 2008-10-31 04:43 am (UTC)(link)
That was awesome <3 So much love *grins*

[identity profile] shallweplay.livejournal.com 2008-10-31 09:21 am (UTC)(link)
Love for all the new patients! May they all eventually be able to experience the "fun" of SC and MU. ;)

*snerk* "Doctor of Horribology." XD

Anyway, great job! I love a good diaryfic. <3

[identity profile] shallweplay.livejournal.com 2008-10-31 05:45 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh no, not at all! I did a happy double-take when I saw her name on the list of characters, and then was filled with schoolgirl glee when I came to her part. :3 If she ever gets SC, you bet you'll be seeing some Rippling Sword action (albeit holding back a bit so that she doesn't slice the patients to ribbons).

[identity profile] justice-to-a-t.livejournal.com 2008-10-31 03:21 pm (UTC)(link)
One hopes that a certain someone never discovers the uses for which his pen is now being used. >(

<3

[identity profile] orenda33.livejournal.com 2008-11-01 06:53 am (UTC)(link)
...So I totally named my fic almost the same thing and never noticed you already used it.

Sorry, was unintentional! ^^;;

[identity profile] miltia.livejournal.com 2008-11-01 10:03 pm (UTC)(link)
Hee, that was awesome, Jen! ♥ And that's totally why Crane got stuck back as a patient. XD

[identity profile] lady-angelina.livejournal.com 2008-11-02 03:17 am (UTC)(link)
Very, very nice! :D I love these "day in the life" stories, and this one does a great job of humanizing this staff member. And I thought it was great how you incorporated one of this Night Shift's SC patients, too!

Btw, I do hope you'll get to finish that other fic someday, if you can get it to work. ^__^
Edited 2008-11-02 03:19 (UTC)