Finding Joy

CHAPTER 7: LOOK OUT

Lily whispered to Nick, "Say something."

"He's scary."

Lily glared at Nick and he gave in. "This apple juice is really good," Nick said, as he took another sip. He was nearly finished with his juice, so instead of a quiet sip, the silence was filled with the gargling of a straw sucking up a nearly empty juice box.

Lily slapped her forehead in frustration. "Really? That's all you could come up with?" She reached over and pinches Nick's ear. "I literally can't with you right now. "

"Ow! Lily, please I'm sorry!"

As she continued to fire out insults and as he continues to cry in pain and beg for mercy, Edan interrupted. "I'm looking for Joy. She said she would be here."

Lily, still holding onto Nick's ear, turned around and faced Edan. "Oh, um, the thing is, we're not sure either," said Lily. "We're in the Medical lab department, and she was heading towards the left of the hospital. Maybe you can check around there? "As Edan left to find Joy, Lily thought to herself, "Gosh Joy, of all the days you go missing. You missed out on a good one."

Joy was in the General Care department talking to Dr. Riley, the doctor who assigned her the Katie Owen case.

"Even my access is blocked!" exclaimed Dr. Riley. "Everything was fine when I checked last night!"

"Maybe that's why Mr. Owen came in today," said Joy. "He was furious, saying that we gave up on him and his daughter."

"No, you would never. I know how much this case means to you."

-

Joy's parents were old and frail. Her mother was always sick, and the doctors could not diagnose her. Just before applying to college, her mother passed and, shortly after, so did her father. She never learned what was wrong, and she was frustrated and crushed. However, in honor of her parents, she picked herself up and vowed to avenge her parents. She had to figure out what killed her parents so they could finally rest in peace. She decided to study medicine in college, because she, also, did not want another family to go through the same tragedy.

-

"Yeah, I never really found out what happened. I've been trying to investigate on my off time, but I was never able to find their records. There's a chance they were also lost in this mess, so that'll derail me even more." Joy paused for a moment, reorganized her thoughts, and asked Dr. Riley, "Anyways, did anything suspicious happen today?"

"I don't think so."

Joy sighed. "Ok, that's alright. I'll search around a bit. Let me know if someone strange comes by."

"Wait!" Dr. Riley exclaimed as she abruptly jumped out of her chair. "Now that I think about it, someone different did come by. A tech support told us to step outside our offices for a few minutes so they could fix our computers. I didn't think there was anything wrong with them, but I let him in anyway."

"Wait! I saw one come out of our lab too, and he looked like he was trying to cover his face as he was walking out. A tech support would know how to manipulate computers. Thanks! I'm going to find him and get to the bottom of this."

"Joy, why aren't you telling the higher ups?" Dr. Riley said in a low voice. "This problem is too big for either of us to handle."

"Remember what happened twenty years ago? I don't want our employees to get unnecessarily fired again. I'll find a way to take care of this before our CEO finds out."

Joy walked out of Dr. Riley's office and sees Edan leaning against the wall next to it.

"You weren't at the cafeteria."

"Shoot! I'm so sorry. I had something really important to take care of."

"More important than me?", Edan says as he walked up to Joy and lifted her chin.

Joy flinched- They're inches apart and she could feel his warm breath against her skin. She stared into his dark brown eyes, but instead of sensing the aura of a lover, she saw the eyes of a lion waiting to pounce.

Joy jerked her head to the side, releasing herself from his grasp. "No! I didn't mean it that way! "Wait, did you hear my conversation with Dr. Riley?"

"I got the jist of it."

"So you'll help right? You're the only one on the security team I know. You're the only one I can trust."

"I'm honored." said Edan. He thought to himself, "Not that you should trust me."

"Can you check the security footage from this morning? I need you to find the tech support. He's wearing a black hat, black coat, and Khakis. I think he's a little shorter than you if that helps. I'm going to look around too."

Joy frantically left, and Edan tried to call out to her. However, by then, Joy was already long gone. She finally came to a stop when she found Lily and Nick.

"Hey!" said Lily. "Where were you? That hot securi-"

Joy interrupted. "I need you to cover for me ok? Make sure our boss doesn't find out, or else I'm going to be dead meat again."

"O-ok" said Lily and Joy sprinted off again.

While Joy searched around the endless hallways of Winter, Edan walked to the CCTV room and let out a big sigh. "Why am I doing this? This wasn't part of the job."

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