060][ VIDEO

[worksmart]

[The good doctor Chase has been caught at the nurses station by someone wanting to chek the notes on a new admission. Behind her several other nurses lean over the desk to listen.

Chase examines the chart he's given, and addresses the staff gravely.

In song.]

I'm fucking Matt Damon

Comments

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[adamantined]

[This conga line of faces is accompanied mostly by silence -

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[worksmart]

[It's a joke, just a joke -on- him, he suspects.]

Well strip the bark right off a tree and just hand it this way
Don't even need a drink of water to make the headache go away
Give me a sugar pill and watch me just rattle down the street

Acetaminophen you see the medicine
Oh girl you have no faith in medicine

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[adamantined]

[In a way this offers odd insight: it's always interesting to see what music floats around a person's head. Still, she's not really sure how to respond to that. Laughing doesn't seem to be helping, so she's quiet, lips pressed together, for a moment until she says the first thing that comes to mind in response, half-distracted by the embarrassment of saying it all.]

Well, I don't need no doctor to tear me all apart.

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[worksmart]

[He's quiet, and probably for the first time the corner of his mouth betrays him with the curl of a smile.]

Lights will guide you home, and ignite your bones,
And I will try to fix you.

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[adamantined]

If you never try then you'll never know. [Brushed off with a soft snort.] Coldplay is too current to be cool, you know.

[He'll miss the tight press of her lips to hide the small tilt there. The camera is jumbled - dark fabric of the couch and another shot of the ceiling before it settles and focuses. Claire balances her chin in one hand, elbow digging into a cushion.]

I don't know anymore doctor songs. None that I can think of off the top of my head anyway.

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[worksmart]

[Oh he does. His slightly pitiful expression says he knows so many more. But nothing seems urgent to make itself known, so he props up the phone against the computer monitor and leans his chin on his hand.

Well, maybe it was the 'too current' comment.]

Wish I could shut my playboy mouth.
How'd I turn my shirt inside out? Inside out, right.
Control your poison babe
Roses have thorns they say.
And we're all gettin' hosed tonight.
What's going on on the floor?
I love this record baby, but I can't see straight anymore.
Keep it cool what's the name of this club?
I can't remember but it's alright, alright.

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[adamantined]

[Chin balanced on a pillow now, Claire squeezes her eyes shut in momentary mortification and lets her laugh out as a sharp exhale through her nose. It's less pronounced by that pillow.]

I'm disgusted with you for even knowing that. Next you'll be doing Britney.

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[worksmart]

[Who's apartment does she think he heard it in! Harumph]

I should be so lucky,
lucky lucky lucky,
I should be so lucky, love.

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[adamantined]

[She can't help what comes on her iPod when it's set to shuffle!]

I don't think it goes like that.

[If her face is flushed at all, it's with the concentrated effort of holding back more laughter. (Cursed or not, it's hardly every day you get sang to.)]

And I think I should turn this off or something.

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[worksmart]

[But she's the only one he can serenade without feeling like a creep.]

Don't leave me this way.
I can't survive ... I can't stay alive, without your love.
Oh baby. Don't leave me this way, no.
I can't exist ... I'll surely miss your tender kiss.
Don't leave me this way.

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[adamantined]

You realize if I stay on the line, you're gonna have to deal with me laughing at some point whether you like it or not, right? [The pillow falls as Claire gets up, and the focus slips as she lifts the camera and, out of sight, says:] Hang on.

[Disconnect, black screen -

- It's several minutes before she returns, this time establishing a connection with her laptop as opposed to the small pocket device she's had for three years. The scenery hasn't changed, but it's admittedly easier to have a conversation when you don't have to worry about your method of doing so slipping down into a couch cushion. If this could technically be called a conversation.]

So are you taking requests?

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[worksmart]

[He's looking thoughtful by the time she gets back, and whether this is somehow a reply to the requests question, or permission to laugh, who knows.]

You put the lime in the coconut and drink it all up
Put the lime in the coconut and drink it all up
You put the lime in the coconut and drink it all up
Put the lime in the coconut; you're such a silly one
You put the lime in the coconut and drink 'em both together
Put the lime in the coconut and you feel better
Put the lime in the coconut and drink 'em all down
You put the lime in the coconut and call me in the mornin'

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[adamantined]

[While laughing, loudly, she'll spare him the embarrassment of this conversation by making it private. No promises for any of the other ones that he's having right now. Don't think that she hasn't noticed.

Under her breath as she goes about this, she sings, 'On the bed, on the floor, on a towel by the door...']

I didn't request that. [She settles back and considers the screen.] What's your favorite song?

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[worksmart]

[He's thinking classic rock. Look at him, he's obviously thinking classic rock. And it's a tough choice. However, when he opens his mouth to go with one option, he gets this.]

Běží liška k Táboru,
nese pytel zázvoru.
Ježek za ní pospíchá,
že jí pytel rozpíchá.
Běž zajíčku běž za ní,
přeber jí to koření.
Liška se mu schovala,
ještě se mu vysmála.

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[adamantined]

[She's expecting, waiting for with a knowing grin, classic rock. Jethro Tull, or even something modern but still more suited to the tastes that she's picked up on and come to like, simply by virtue of being around him and nosing through his things. She isn't expecting something that she can't understand, and her expression should reflect that.]

That sounds like some kind of nursery rhyme. [Her Czech isn't exactly up to snuff, and it's hard to ask questions when your answers are gotten in the most roundabout way possible.] English translation? You can always just nod or shake your head, unless you have to reply in song.

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[worksmart]

[Nodding is something he hadn't thought of. Give him a minute. He bends down, head out of sight, with a swooshy sound of marker against paper the only indication of what he's about to hold up.]

looks like I can also use signs.

[Addendum. Scribbled quickly.]

The fox on the road to Taboru.