[24th consult]

[dr_conscience]

There used to be a time when I had hope in the most hopeless of situations, when I found comfort in just being there for people who knew they were dying. I tried my damnedest, but sometimes there just wasn't a thing you could do to stop it. Make them comfortable, ease their pain, sure... sometimes you could delay the inevitable, but sooner or later, it catches up with most of them. But I still had hope, still felt like I was making a difference...

But I couldn't do that anymore. Not once things changed. What I had was taken from me, not by a disease, but by a person. A person that, to this day, I still don't know the identity of. What I was doing mattered, sure, but I couldn't do it anymore. Couldn't get up and go to work and face these people, tell them there was hope, or ease their pain. They'd already given up, and I was just in the trenches. I wasn't pioneering research or organizing experimental new procedures, wasn't doing anything vital to the field. So I left.

I guess the amount of death I deal with on a daily basis hasn't changed, but it's not the same now. I'm not fighting my battles with drugs and radiation, experimental therapies, or hoping to get some poor dying soul for whom nothing has worked into a clinical trial, the latest desperate maneuver of a research team fighting in vain against something we can only just begin to understand.

I save more lives now. And when I can't, I've actually got a chance of making the killer pay.

... well, there's an involved reverie for you. All inspired by the guy I get my coffee from calling me "Dr. Wilson" this morning. It's been a long time since I've answered to that. I'm not sure how he even got wind of it - not here.

Not that it matters. I've got things to do. A city to protect. It may not be the city I know, but it's the one I've got now.


[ooc: Genre switch!! ... which means I need to post in a day or so with Wilson actually being Wilson. He left medicine when his third wife was murdered (Yay, it didn't end in divorce for once! \o/) and became a cop. Yes. He's a rough cop on the edge with nothing left to lose. What the hell is wrong with me? I blame this. ALSO HE'S OUT PATROLLING SO FEEL FREE TO ACTION.]

Comments

[as_damaged]

But you are a doctor.

[crimes-chemo.livejournal.com]

Technically, sure. I always will be.

Practically, though? I don't think it matters much anymore.

CHEER UP EMO WILSON

[as_damaged]

Exactly. Even if you were... whatever you think you are.

Are you all right?

HE'S GOT NOTHING LEFT TO LOSE, OKAY?

[crimes-chemo.livejournal.com]

All right? Sure. As much I ever am.

SOB

[as_damaged]

Of course.

[crimes-chemo.livejournal.com]

Sorry. I shouldn't--

I'm fine.

How've you been?

[as_damaged]

All right. Overworked as usual, but Ange and I are going out on the town.

[Action]

[mis-match.livejournal.com]

[Emma has spent the past few days holed up in her room, trying to figure out how to operate the strange "network device" and waiting to wake up.

Eventually, though, the size of the room -- and the fact that it isn't really her own -- began to drive her mad. She needed out.

So now she's hurrying through the City streets, going nowhere in particular, hoping against hope that she will waken and this strange nightmare will end.]

[Action]

[crimes-chemo.livejournal.com]

[Wilson is out stalking the streets; quiet, alone, but alert, his eyes out as he takes in every detail of the bizarre metropolis. The streets are just gritty enough for his tastes, and though the buildings are a tad more imposing than he's used to, the population much larger, he's welcoming of the challenge.

Emma sticks out like a sore thumb, and not just because he's good at reading people. She's hardly assimilated, even by the standards of a world made up like a haphazard collage of other realities, and he can't help but notice that she seems to be wandering rather aimlessly. Having been walking across from her, he crosses the street and approaches her.]

Haven't been here long, have you?

[Action]

[mis-match.livejournal.com]

[Emma had noticed the man approaching her, and had debated whether to dodge him or allow him to approach. Uncharacteristically, her indecision made the decision for her.

So she smiled at him.]

Is it that obvious?

[Action]

[crimes-chemo.livejournal.com]

[He returns the smile, and though his is friendly, it's hardly got the happiness in it that such an expression should.]

A bit.

[He shrugs, then.]

Not that it's a bad thing. Whole City's nothing but a collection of those lifted out of one world or another, a forced gathering of the dislocated and the lost...

[He trails off then, gazing into the distance, though whether he's looking at anything is unclear.]

[Action]

[mis-match.livejournal.com]

[So she's heard, though she still can't bring herself to truly believe it.]

Have you been here long, then?

[Action]

[crimes-chemo.livejournal.com]

[Silence, for a few moments... at length, he looks back at her.]

Ages, feels like. It gets difficult to measure time here, easy to lose track of things, lose track of who you are and where you've been. Guess it's been two months since I got back. Spent six, seven months here before that.

[worksmart.livejournal.com]

Where were you before, CSI Princeton?

[crimes-chemo.livejournal.com]

Very funny, Chase.

It's not like television; glorifying the reality of what cops do, what we see every day. You're smart enough to know better than that.

[worksmart.livejournal.com]

Apparently television got it right about the monologues.

You're a cop?

[crimes-chemo.livejournal.com]

Have been for a while now.

Don't tell me they sent you home and brought you back from the past.

[worksmart.livejournal.com]

No, but days like this the idea sounds like a good one.

Why are you a cop?

[crimes-chemo.livejournal.com]

You know what happened.

[bufferprincess.livejournal.com]

Should I call you Jimmy still or Dr. Jimmy? I like Dr. Jimmy myself.

[crimes-chemo.livejournal.com]

Dr. Jimmy? Well, that's sort of got a ring to it, I admit. Not that it seems entirely accurate, these days.

[bufferprincess.livejournal.com]

Can I call you Dr. Jimmy anyway?

[crimes-chemo.livejournal.com]

If you'd really like to, I suppose you can.

[bufferprincess.livejournal.com]

Kay. You seem a little stressed though. Are you going to be okay?

[crimes-chemo.livejournal.com]

Stressed? Sure, I guess I am... usually am, really. No reason to worry about me, though.