Comments | worksmart: 035 [VIDEO

worksmart

035 [VIDEO

May 09, 2010 05:29

[A few minutes off midnight and Chase is at a desk in the Diagnostics office. The papers spread out in front of him imply that he's at least been making an effort to catch up on charting but, bored and weary, for as long as the monitor has been on it's shown him doing nothing but tossing an oversized tennis ball from hand to hand ( Read more... )

stormy weather, mother cannot guide you, now you're on your own, cursed, chasing ghosts, mama's boy, mama chase, office, mothers call, haunted

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audio ][ peopletalktome May 9 2010, 12:41:40 UTC

Doctor Chase---?

[ the worried tone is as always stilted but she swallows further are-you-okay rambling down--- because obviously he's not ]

audio ][ worksmart May 9 2010, 23:36:36 UTC

[The caught breath at her voice breaking the momentary silence is sighed out as he leans into the device.]

Emma.

audio ][ peopletalktome May 10 2010, 22:54:26 UTC

I guess this is going to get old pretty quickly, but: are you...are you alright?

audio ][ worksmart May 11 2010, 04:20:18 UTC

[There's a bitten down pause, the usual easy reassurance not coming out like it should.]

Think you're used to this place, yet?

audio ][ peopletalktome May 11 2010, 04:30:03 UTC

[The pause here is very long.]

No, no I don't...I don't think...I don't think so.

Are you?

audio ][ worksmart May 11 2010, 05:00:32 UTC

...Not at all.

audio ][ peopletalktome May 11 2010, 05:08:44 UTC

[Here is the sound of rain as she moves closer to the window, only to shut it.]

It's hard to imagine.

[ (Being used to this place) ]

Today seemed...well, it...seemed pretty bad. And...I was only watching.

audio ][ worksmart May 11 2010, 05:29:50 UTC

[And yet some people seem to find it so easy. That's another thing Chase isn't sure he'll ever be used to.]

It wasn't fun. [And, quieter, on reflection.] It wasn't terrible.

audio ][ peopletalktome May 11 2010, 11:53:18 UTC

[Emma will lie disturbingly well to herself to get through the day here, a week, a month...but she knows the truth is that she has to lie just to get by. She is not the kind of person to ever be used to this or used to people being used to it.]

I know that...that this is personal--I mean, obviously it is but...what I mean is that I won't pry. Even if--- It doesn't seem right. But if you, if you need or want...something...

Of course I'm sure there are other people who you can turn to, and that's good, that's...to be expected.

...[ a short breath as she Stops herself ] But I guess I just don't want to walk away from a conversation like this without having offered.

So.

[And she is well aware that may have been a most counterproductive attempt at being unobtrusively helpful or an option for help, but she doesn't take it back. For all lack of smoothness, she does mean it, and that's what she tells herself...while cleaning a centimeter of imagined smudge on the window she just closed. The squeak may be audible.]

audio ][ worksmart May 11 2010, 22:52:42 UTC

[It's definitely not unobtrusive, if only for her stumbling efforts not to make this sound a big deal making it sound... exactly that. And Chase doesn't want a counsellor. He's seen her with the children in Pediatrics and knows he put two things together that fit when he suggested that to her, but he's not a child. He's been completely alone for ten years. Playing the parent himself for five before that.]

The curse was... using the voice of my mum. She died a long time ago. [And then he says that, and surprises himself.] I thought I'd have forgotten what she sounded like by now. Wasn't terrible to realise I was wrong.

audio ][ peopletalktome May 11 2010, 23:15:50 UTC

[There are a lot of things she could say here, and probably none of them are right while a lot of them are wrong, but she pauses long enough to decide something general doesn't belong here.]

I didn't...hear anything, myself. Can't...really decide if that's good or bad. Maybe it's neither.

[And pause.]

But I'm glad you were wrong, in...in this case.

[For your sake---because that's something no one should forget.]

audio ][ worksmart May 11 2010, 23:26:10 UTC

[There isn't really a right or wrong, or at least Chase couldn't hope to guess what they would be. He's to the point now where everything can be written off as just another weary, crappy day. Gotten through enough of those already.]

If you had heard anything, it would have been trying to get you to walk off a cliff. I think that means not hearing it is good.

audio ][ peopletalktome May 12 2010, 02:14:55 UTC

[The slightest utterance, not quite 'oh' but something like that, since obviously not knowing what was heard, she could only make guesses at the time.]

Probably, yes.

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