Profession

Ten days

I woke up the next morning to a gloomy sky. The meteorologists were forecasting rain and sleet into next week; a stationary front as parked over the city or some such. "I don't want to work today," I said to the dogs. Langley reminded me that it was just two more weeks, then the holiday season to look forward to. Thyra reminded me of the plans for my holiday party that Z was working on, making me smile. I was back this year and determined to have a great party. Z had an inquiry out to a band she said was up and coming; I hadn't been out enough to keep track, but she had great taste and I trusted her. I wanted to change the decorations a little this year, express the joy that I was feeling (when I was away from my internship, anyway) because I had a lot to be grateful for this year.  But there were also smaller things to look forward to as well; a dinner with Uncle Tony and Aunt Ann after work today, and Torunn had asked me to attend a dinner with Uncle Loki on Tuesday. He'd asked Grandma Alex to pass along a message that he would like to see his niece and would leave all arrangements to Torunn, so that she could feel comfortable and secure. Grandma had made dinner reservations at an exclusive restaurant in my name for us; Loki would be informed the hour before. Nobody really expected him to double-cross Torunn, but the presence of an outsider (me) and the venue (if he caused a scene, word would get out and he'd never be able to get a decent table in town again, which would matter to him, he'd be stuck with McDonalds and Applebees) were safeguards.

These were sufficient enticements to get me out of bed. Besides, I wasn't just going to quit now, so close to being done. I took a long shower as compensation, though, using the scent-free products I'd gotten to use for my internships; you didn't want to provoke a patient's allergies, be obtrusive in any way, and for psych patients, sometimes they associated smells with bad things, so it wasn't kind to risk that. The pups were going to stay home today, not wanting to go out in the much, so I grabbed my breakfast and coffee to go and left them dreaming. AI Tony and I chatted on the way out; he had taken over adjusting Bob's color in the trees and made sure that all traces of my signature perfume were out of the pod. I always felt really pampered when I was in my pod. I popped a tumbler of water into the chiller so I'd have a cold drink when I left; sometimes I forgot to drink enough water at work because my focus was completely outside myself. I crossed the bridge, my credentials passing me through the first checkpoint. The second checkpoint, inside the door, was new. The pneumonia test. I blew my lungful of air into the tester and proceeded to change to the uniform in the changing stall. Sure enough, someone had noticed.

"Why are you changing in there?" one of the nurses wanted to know. Most personnel didn't.

"After that suicide... I just like the sort of enclosure when I'm feeling kind of vulnerable. The uniform feels like a sort of protection," I explained, and it was true enough. I did feel vulnerable when I was changing, but it was an artifact of my paranoia days that I'd been trying to shed. But I still wanted to cover for the day I'd removed Strange's notes from the asylum. The nurses around me nodded sympathetically, and that was that. It's really nice to be working with people who understand your psychological snags. I went on to the staff meeting. Angie had a new and troubling statistic for us; one in five patients had pneumonia, a type that was proving very difficult to treat.

"The state board of health has called in the CDC," she said on a sigh. "They'll be here this afternoon. The state workers haven't been able to pinpoint the vector, what's transmitting this infection, so I want you to start wearing your gloves, masks, caps at all times. Shower once you get off shift before you leave the facility. We don't want this spreading outside. I expect that the CDC will have their own recommendations once they've more fully assessed the situation, and I expect that everyone will comply without issue." She drew a deep breath. "Over the weekend, we had two deaths from this infection, both in the general population. This is nothing to mess around with. And our task will be more complicated because Halloween falls on Friday this week." Most of the staff groaned. "For you new people, the patients always seem to act up more around the holiday. Some patients just like to cause a fuss, some identify with the spirit of mischief, others are set off by the machinations of the others, so be on your guard." Yay. Along with the others, I backtracked to the staff room, where I fussily cleaned off the face shield  before putting it on. The cap came out of the general supply, and we all had our own boxes of gloves and masks. I washed my hands thoroughly before snapping on a pair. Then to work.