Profession

The weekend

Fortunately, I had time for a quick shower before the boys showed up with food, takeout from the French bistro a couple blocks away. Yum. I was starving, and dug into the boeuf Bourguignon with crusty bread that they'd brought with enthusiasm. There wasn't much conversation as we chowed down, dogs included with their own meals, then we went into the game room and I served beer. I asked Wally how things were going with Linda, and he responded enthusiastically that he was just about ready to tell her about Velocity. Good news. They asked how the wedding planning was going, and laughed when I told them about the dresses.

"The new ones are very structured, very Deri. She doesn't mind suffering for beauty, but I do. And the wedding's going to be in summer, the dresses are heavy, it's going to be unpleasant," I grumped.

"Why not try to rein her in?" Jon wondered.

"You don't know Deri very well. Besides, it's her wedding, it's up to Grant to put his foot down. I don't want to spend the rest of my life with her bringing up my perceived failures as her maid of honor here and there."  I pinched the bridge of my nose. "They're not ugly, they're just not my taste, and it won't kill me to wear it. Probably. She wants a spectacle, which, I'm pretty sure she's getting." 

"I'm glad I don't have a sister," Wally muttered.

"Things go right with Linda, you'll be doing your own wedding planning," Jon told him, and Wally made a face that combined hope and repulsion nicely.

"At least your budget will put a cap on the excess," I said encouragingly. As far as I could tell, Deri was back to her old habit of not budgeting for the wedding and reception. "You'll be grateful; you can focus on the meaning of the service and having fun with your guests afterward rather than being part of a dog and pony show."

"Which are you?" Wally asked, grinning. "Dog or pony."

"Both," I decided. "I'm expected to pull a lot of weight, but I'm kind of a bitch about it." Both guys roared.

 "So how are your internships coming?" Wally asked. He frowned thoughtfully. "Last I knew, you just started in the ER. Are you done with that yet?"

"Yeah, that was interesting. We did that disaster exercise just before that was over. I'm onto my psych internship now."

"How's that going?" Jon asked. "Where are you?"

"Arkham. It's going pretty well, I'm halfway done." Jon choked on his beer. Wally thumped his back vigorously and unnecessarily.

"I didn't know that they took interns," Wally said interestedly.

"Rarely," I said. "I can see why, it's not the easiest placement in the city, but it's really eye-opening. It's easy to see why a facility like Arkham is needed, although I wish they'd update it, it's creepy. The patients need more help than we can provide, than is medically possible, actually. And on top of that, we've got some trouble with pneumonia right now, but staff is being tested regularly and we're taking precautions." Jon smiled suddenly.

"So I guess the Waynes pretty much have the run of the place. You during the day, the Bats at night." I laughed, but it did point out the rather mortifying fact that I'd had no trouble stealing those notes from patient files, maybe because I felt I had some right to it? I'd also had not a second thought about messing with the database, where I had absolutely no business being. I felt a little embarrassed about that, but it would probably pass quicker than it should. Maybe I shouldn't condemn the Bats so much. It was easy to take advantage of something when you had the skills, and apparently my conscience wasn't as well developed as I'd thought. I'd work on that just as soon as we had the Joker, Harley Quinn, and Scarecrow locked up somewhere. Preferably at Blackgate. "What are you going to when you're done there?"