Misunderstood Monsters

Chapter 41: Not Holding It Against You

Billy gulped. He knew that Dr. Collingwood probably wouldn't be mad at him for punching her across the room - it was an accident, after all - but he was still scared. He had promised to himself the moment he joined the Foundation to never let his temper get away from him, for fear that it would undo everything he had worked so hard for, only for that to happen. Right in front of and to his closest friend, no less! He could have killed her so easily, had that been a claw slash instead of a punch...

He walked like a robot to her room, barely remembering what room the nurse said she was in. The Foundation had been hesitant to allow him to see anyone recovering from injury, and he didn't doubt that he might get his privileges taken away again, but he had to see her, if only to make sure that her neck wasn't in two pieces.

When he entered her room she was just lying there, sleeping. He pulled up a chair and sat down next to her, not wanting to wake her up. He stared off into space, wondering how he was going to apologize-

"Billy?"

He jumped and looked around. Dr. Collingwood had awoken and was propping herself up.

"Hi," she said softly.

Billy put his head down and looked away. "H'lo," he murmured back.

She reached out to touch his arm. "Are you okay?"

"Well..." Billy took a deep breath. "I want to tell you that I'm really, really, really sorry for punching you a few days ago."

"It's alright. Just, next time, take a moment to calm yourself down before you break something."

The two were silent for a moment, before Billy spoke again.

"To be honest, I'm kind of wondering how you're always so d*mn calm all the time," Billy laughed. "You work in the same place as the two most obnoxious and insufferable people on the planet. How the h*ll does that not drive you insane?"

"Because I work with SCP-999?"

"Well, I guess that's part of it, but that's definitely not the entire reason."

She just shrugged. "I'm normally a pretty calm person."

"True. Seems like you're physically incapable of feeling anger at times."

"Oh, I definitely can. I was pretty mad at Dr. Logan for saying those things about John. I just don't understand why he would do that."

"Whelp, the one thing that a criminal and a kind person have in common is that they think everyone else is like them."

"By the way, where's John? Is he okay?"

"He's okay. He usually just shrugs off anything thrown at him, as long as it's not continually piled on over a long time. People bullying his friends, on the other hand..."