A night of chaos-5th floor

[a_poisoned_mind]

Everything was still on the 5th floor until the clock chimed 2 AM. Penny drew back the covers of her bed to go use the bathroom and have a cigarette.  She didn't bother to turn on a light, she usually didn't. She hadn't been out of her room much in the last few weeks. After using the bathroom she came back into the room and bumped into the side her

Comments

[l_cuddy_md]

The insomnia was back. Hardly surprising, Cuddy supposed. With all the stress she was under--some of it admittedly self-inflicted--her body was bound to be affected.

Rather than toss and turn uselessly in bed, she'd opted to take a walk. Maybe the exercise would help tire her enough to sleep, and there was always the potential of meeting another living soul--a fellow insomniac or someone who was simply a night owl. What she met encountered on the stairs instead was neither.

"It's Penny, isn't it?" she asked, taking in the blood soaked towel. "What on earth happened?"

[a_poisoned_mind]

Penny took a deep breath glad she had actually found someone. "It was dark in my room. Something broke and cut me. It's not self-inflicted, really." She said in a rush. "Quite frankly I don't deal well with pain...but fortunately it doesn't hurt at the moment, I don't know if that's because the nerve endings were severed or something or because I'm completely freaking out and my mind can't handle both things at once. Are you a doctor?"

[l_cuddy_md]

"I am a doctor, actually." Cuddy took a firm grip of Penny's arm and lifted the towel. A self-inflicted injury wouldn't have surprised her. Truthfully, she was a bit surprised there hadn't been any so far, whether intentionally suicidal or out of simple frustration. Or maybe there had been but no one had sought medical attention. Either way, Penny's wound didn't look like a suicide attempt so that was reassuring.

Cuddy firmly pressed the towel back against the wound. "I don't think it's too bad, but I'd like you to come to the clinic with me. I'm pretty sure it's going to need stitches."

[a_poisoned_mind]

"Stitches??" She moaned a little. "Fabulous." But she followed Cuddy to the clinic anyway, couldn't exactly stand there dripping blood over everything, though it would be cleaned up...not that she actually saw any janitorial staff, but she did notice her bed made when she got back sometimes or things straightened up. But she hadn't actually seen anything. Not even that creepy bell boy everyone talked about. Well, she had seen the bar tender...but he disappeared on a regular basis. Strange place.

[l_cuddy_md]

Cuddy had Penny sit on the end of the exam table while she gathered up the supplies she'd need. When she removed the towel again she could see the bleeding had slowed.

"You cut it pretty good, but it's not deep enough to damage any major blood vessels or nerves. It should heal up just fine," she said as she cleaned the wound. She reached for the syringe with the local anesthestic. It was going to take a few stitches and since Penny had already said she didn't do well with pain, Cuddy wanted to make sure the area was nice and numb before she started suturing.

"Why were you walking around in the dark anyway?"

[a_poisoned_mind]

Penny looked a bit sheepish, she wasn't afraid of the needle though. She never minded them, sometimes they tickled going in. She knew she was in the minority with that one. "I went to the bathroom and didn't think about putting the light on," She confessed. "And then I came back and I bumped into the dresser, the thing is, well, it was weird, but I know the dresser wasn't there when I went in...it couldn't have been. But I might just have gotten turned around or was still sleepy...I guess."

[l_cuddy_md]

Cuddy injected the anesthetic quickly, then pulled over the stool to sit on while she stitched. She puzzled over Penny's words as she waited for the anesthetic to take effect.

"You should probably turn on a light from now on. We're not really equipped for any major injuries." She wasn't really lecturing Penny. After all, she'd gotten up in the night plenty of times without turning on a light herself. She made a mental note to stop doing that.

"When you say the dresser wasn't there...are you suggesting the hotel was trying to hurt you?" That was a frightening thought.

[a_poisoned_mind]

The young woman was just placidly listening until that comment. "Hurt me? Why would the hotel try to hurt me? You don't think the hotel is malicious do you? I mean..." She thought about it for a moment. "I guess since it's given us everything but our freedom...maybe some other price must be paid..." She wondered about this. "I know Jack...one of the Jack's said something about figuring it out, but I haven't met most of the people here and I haven't been here all that long...do you think anyone might be able to answer the question?"

[l_cuddy_md]

"No. No, I wasn't trying to say the hotel is malicious. I thought that's what you meant." Cuddy gave a sharp shake of her head. It was too late at night, or early in the morning, for her to be theorizing about the hotel in any useful manner. "Sorry, just a misunderstanding. As far as I know, other than not allowing us to leave, the hotel hasn't shown any inclination to hurt any of the guests."

She picked up the needle and placed the first couple of stitches. "I'm pretty sure no one's come up with any hard answers yet. Lots of theories, but no real answers."

[a_poisoned_mind]

"Well, I know the dresser wasn't supposed to be two feet in front of the bathroom off the wall. So I think I have a very good case of it trying to hurt me. Maybe it's because I'm the only one not looking for a way out...but it likes torturing us. But everyone else is tortured trying to find a way out so it has to find new and ingenius to torture me." Cuddy was probably right in thinking it was too late or early because Penny was definitely going off the deep end here.

[l_cuddy_md]

"Whoa now, slow down." Cuddy finished the last few stitches quickly, worried that Penny was going to start freaking while she was in the middle of sewing her up.

Finished, she placed a calming hand on Penny's knee. "First, you're not the only one who's not interested in leaving. There are others who figure this is no worse, maybe even better, than what they had at home. And none of them has been attacked." Of course, she didn't know that for a fact, but in her experience the hotel had been all too eager to please its guests.

"Second...it was the middle of the night, it was dark...isn't it possible you just got disoriented?"

[a_poisoned_mind]

She blinked. "Uh no." She shook her head. "Two steps out of the bathroom isn't time enough to get disoriented." But she sighed. "But I guess it's possible. I kind of like the hotel torture theory though. A lot more interesting than the hotel-slavery theory others are operating on."

[l_cuddy_md]

"Honestly, I'm not crazy about either theory." Cuddy finished up by taping sterile gauze over the wound, then gathered up the trash and got up to take it to the garbage can in the corner.

She really hoped Penny was wrong because if the hotel was going to start playing those kinds of tricks, well, that was a new level of nasty and she wanted nothing to do with it.

"Has anything like this happened before tonight?"

[a_poisoned_mind]

The woman was thinking about it. "Well...when we were playing our strip poker game everyone just disappeared. I found out later they found themselves back in their bedrooms I guess. But that would definitely fall under the heading of torture...since I was this close to getting laid."

[l_cuddy_md]

Cuddy burst out laughing. "Okay, I'd have to agree that falls under the heading of torture." She could sympathize. Boy, could she sympathize. She'd been left wanting more than once in her life.

"I guess the question is--did the hotel intend it as torture, or did it have another reason for making everyone disappear? Because it's possible your...lack of fulfillment was an unintended side effect."

[a_poisoned_mind]

Penny shrugged. "That I don't know...I haven't really talked to the others...since that night. It was a wild night, believe me...nothing happened though, unfortunately." She sighed dramatically. "Don't think I'm complaining...it's just it's been a couple of months...and a girl has needs. I know you understand that. I kind of wish there was a male in this hotel that was like a well...slut." She knew there was a better term, but she couldn't think of it now. "I'm getting desperate enough to go find a guy and jump in the corridor."