Faith is both the prison and the open hand [open]

[medicalmind]

Scarlet didn't leave the contagion lab often. She didn't have much of a reason to, beyond for sleep and meals (unlike Luis, she was still responsible enough about her health to go to sleep in her bunk) and she was content enough in that. Tonight was no real exception, and anyone who might actually be looking for her would find her tucked away in

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[notlewis]

It wasn't much of a surprise that Luis was still hard at work in his own little corner. He showed up at Scarlet's desk with a pile of papers in one hand and a small datapad on top of all the papers. Between the slight rasp in his voice and the red eyes behind his glasses, it was obvious he had clearly just gotten out of a long, long session of work.

"All the latest culture data for you, along with the records from quarantine last week, amiga," he announced. "The numbers are starting to blur together when I look at them, so I am probably done for the evening." Probably.

[medicalmind]

She'd actually been so lost in thought she hadn't actually heard Luis approach her desk and jerked a little when he talked, although she tried to downplay the motion by acting like she was stretching, dropping the photo on her desk and looking up at him. She raised her eyebrows at the overall tired look of her boss, managing to crack a slight smile when he announced he was probably done for the evening.

"Does that mean you're going to go upstairs and get some sleep or that you're going to go back to your desk, work for another two hours, and then pass out in the middle of your paperwork?"

[notlewis]

"I don't--" Luis started, but then paused. Wow... come to think of it, when was the last time he went up to his own room to go to sleep? It was always in the plans, but he could probably keep track of how many nights he slept in a bed on one hand. "Well, I don't always pass out on my paperwork," he said with a shrug. "I am just a person with a lot of inertia. I work best in long sittings, you know?"

Then he looked back towards his desk. "I did want to check one thing before I go, though."

[medicalmind]

Scarlet rolled her eyes at him, picking up the data pad from the top of the pile he'd just brought her and wagging it at him.

"If you're so tired you can't see straight whatever it is can wait until tomorrow." She knew he probably wasn't going to listen to her, but it was worth a shot. She glanced down at the data pad, before pointing with her other hand towards the door of the labs.

"Go to bed."

[notlewis]

"All right, all right, yes ma'am!" he said. "I'll go to bed."

Then he reached for the data pad in her hands and took it back, having a seat and starting to skim through the entries. "I'm just making sure I included this one report I had made up. It had a little abnormality I wanted to get your opinion on."

Oh jeez, here he went. Mindful to keep himself from thinking too much about science (lest he slide back into work-mode), he looked for some small talk. "What are you doing here so late anyway? You're not usually here at this hour."

[medicalmind]

As he sat down she let out a defeated sigh, leaning back in her chair to watch him. At his question, she frowned a little, shrugging her shoulders.

"Lost track of time, I guess. I was going over some of my old files on the Rage Virus."

[notlewis]

"Aah," he said with a rather solemn (and knowing) nod of his head. "I know what it's like to have a pet project like that..." Perhaps a little too well, even.

"Sometimes you think you should be spending my time on something to help in the present, but you just can't let it go, you know?"

[medicalmind]

Scarlet looked at Luis thoughtfully, her tongue in her cheek before leaning forward and propping her arms against the desk, picking through the stack of paperwork.

"If we ever have another outbreak it could very well become the present again, so I really haven't got any interest in stopping with my research. Besides we're kind of stagnate with Steve, right now." Poor kid.

[notlewis]

"Hey, hey, I understand completely," he said. Keeping himself busy on old research was better than sitting around doing nothing. And she was right-- Veronica was pretty stubbornly refusing to cooperate lately. He had been trying to culture something useful out of samples they grabbed from the kid's latest round of symptoms and progress was... maddeningly slow. That's what he was checking on the data pad at the moment.

"One of these days we'll spill something into something else and all of our problems will be solved," Luis murmured dreamily, still flipping through the data. "You'll see."

[medicalmind]

"That would be something," she sighed, laughing a little quietly under her breath while she went through the stack of papers. She absently bit her lip while she rifled through the work Luis had given her, before glancing up at him.

"I think at this rate we might have to resort to spilling things. I've never actually seen viruses capable of infecting such a wide array of species."

[notlewis]

"You're telling me," he sighed. "If it wasn't so dangerous and destructive I might find it interesting. And people have tried to find appropriate applications for these viruses... nothing ends well, as you might imagine."

Luis paused for a second, brushed his hair out of his face and set the data pad down for a moment to rub his eyes behind his glasses. "Maybe we should take some time off and then come back to try spilling things," he said, clearly joking. As if either of them would ever take time off. "I wouldn't say no to another night out."

[medicalmind]

Somehow she wasn't entirely surprised he decided to bring that up. She stared at him for a moment before her eyes drifted back to the papers in front of her.

"Is that what it'll take to get you to leave when I tell you to?" She didn't really like encouraging Luis's behavior, but, she was concerned for him.

[notlewis]

Luis finally reached the appropriate section of the data, squinting as he tried to read it-- but briefly glancing up at her answer.

He looked a little bit too impressed with himself for a moment. "That depends. Would you actually agree if it did?"

[medicalmind]

Scarlet arched an eyebrow, her eyes still on the papers.

"Maybe."

[notlewis]

He grinned the idiot grin of a high schooler. "Come on, Scarlet, I know you're not as much of a stick in the mud as you like to pretend."

[medicalmind]

She finally looked up at that, trying to keep a smile off her face, tilting her head to the side curiously.

"Oh, is that so?"