Episode: 7.12

--- Trish ---

“You alright?” She asked as Ozzy seemed to collapse against a wall. “You’ve been out of it for most of the day.”

“Yeah, um,” Ozzy took a breath before waving her off. “I’ve just had this… really bad headache all day…”

“Any idea what caused it?” She asked while rifling through a cabinet for some ibuprofen or aspirin.

“The trippy mists.” Ozzy offered, though it sounded more like a joke than anything else, so she rolled her eyes to play along.

“The mists won’t hurt you.” She assured him for what she was sure was the seventh time. “In fact, it’s been shown that it actually has mildly restorative properties.”

“I’ll believe that after I’ve read a report by someone who isn’t a hack.” The teen scoffed with no small amount of skepticism.

“And how will you know if someone is a hack or not?” She asked, finally finding a packet of ibuprofen underneath a small pile of paperwork she was pretty sure Mags was supposed to fill out.

“They’ll actually be known when you hear their name.” Ozzy answered easily enough.

“You’re what, sixteen? I doubt you can name a single modern scientist. And no, masks don’t count, no matter how cool their toys are.” She told him as she handed over the ibuprofen. “You need a water with that?”

“Nah.” Ozzy shook his head before opening the packet and downing the pills dry. “Let’s see… Jean Black and his studies on genetics, though he hasn’t published anything new in almost a decade, so he doesn’t really count.”

She blinked, not having expected him to take her up on that challenge. Nor to have an answer she would’ve accepted, given how much of a fan one of her professors had been of Black’s work.

“What about Alexander Walker? No, wait, it’s been like six years since his last pharmaceutical paper…” Ozzy frowned before grimacing. “Then again he was based out of Z-Town before it was Z-town. So, he might be dead…”

(That’d be a hit to the medical community, especially after he made the vaccine to that one flu strain…) That’d been an especially vicious strain.

“Gah, give me a minute…” Ozzy let out a frustrated growl as he ran a hand through his hair. “Emilia Adams? No, I think she was outed as a that one plant mask a couple of years ago… How about Abigail Richards? Wait, she’s an Arcane Scientist so wouldn’t that invalidate her?”

“Um,” She caught his attention before he could go any further. “Honestly, I would’ve accepted any of those people, and I don’t even know who the last two are!” She really didn’t, which begged the question, “Why does a sixteen-year-old kid know so many scientists?”

“My mom was a scientist.” The teenage runaway admitted, before freezing still.

Two green eyes locked onto her with a sort of panicked frenzy. A response she was kind of expecting, given how frequently Ozzy seemed to avoid talking about his life.

(Something apparently common in Deadmen if that book is anything to go by…)

“Any idea what you want for dinner?” She asked, completely side-stepping Ozzy’s slip up. After all, there were three things Jacob’s books made abundantly clear about dealing with a Deadman new or old. And they were to never ever make a Deadman discuss their life, death, or obsession.

From what she’d read all three of those options tended to end poorly.

“Um, I don’t know…?” Ozzy answered with a cautious sort of relief, as if she’d turn around and address his slip up at any moment.

“We can get takeout if you want?” She offered passively. “There’s this Chinese buffet place, on main that’s pretty decent.” Though Cassandra did get her banned when she tried pushing what counted as all you can eat.

(Eh, I’m sure they’ve forgotten by now.)

“Ah, Trish, I’m glad I caught you before you left.”

She turned, catching sight of the clinic’s Dr. Walters. A lanky man with dark hair and glasses, who’d been running the clinic for almost six years.

“Oh, did you need something?”

“Yes, I wanted to know if you’ve mixed the prescriptions for…” Walters trailed off with a frown as he caught sight of Ozzy, the teenage runaway looking a little out of place in his grungy dark blue hoodie and jeans.

(Actually, has he worn anything other than that outfit?) She could’ve sworn she’d given him some hand-me-downs that Jacob and Jackie had left behind when they had to leave the falls.

Deciding now wasn’t the time to bring it up, she coughed before nodding. “Yeah, I finished up the last of the custom orders a couple of hours ago, and I’ve packaged everything else for pick-up tomorrow.”

“Right, right…” Walters nodded, before turning to her with a terse smile. “Well, that was all. So, why don’t you two go ahead and head out. I’ll take care of closing up the clinic today.”

“If you’re sure.” She nodded, knowing there were still a couple of things she should take care of today, but not wanting to push Walters patience when he clearly wanted Ozzy gone.

After all Walters was technically her boss -(Not that he’s capable of firing me given how much I do around the clinic.)- and as such, he did have the final say in whether any of her guests were allowed to hang around the clinic or not.

A rule he’d only ever really enforced with the Rhodes twins after Mary pulled a knife on someone, she thought was trying to get handsy with Mags before realizing it was Maggie’s boyfriend.

(Honestly, we should’ve let her stab him…) A sentiment Mags tended to agree with whenever the topic of her cheating ex was brought up.

Either way the whole event had set a precedence, one that lead her to coming up with a hundred little errands she could send Ozzy on to make it look like he was helping around the clinic. Something she felt kept both Ozzy and Walters happy.

(Even if it sometimes looks like Walters is looking for a reason to throw Ozzy out…) Which again she couldn’t blame him for, having known what kind of people the Rhodes twins were.

(Bloody teeth, mad laughter, and cruel crimson eyes…)

(Yeah… bringing what was essentially a vampire to the clinic wasn’t my brightest move…)

“Come on,” She started, motioning for Ozzy to get up as she tried to gently rush the teen out of the clinic. “We’ll figure out what to do for dinner when we get to the car.”

“Uh, is everything, um, alright?” Ozzy asked a little warily once they’d gone outside. “You seem a little… tense?”

She gnawed on her lip for a moment, deciding whether she should be upfront with the teen, before sighing and shaking her head. “Yeah, Dr. Walters is just a little tense after this mishap one of my friends caused a while back.”

“So, what he thinks I’m going to stab someone or something?” The runaway scoffed as they got into her car.

(More or less…)

She was really glad neither Mag nor Walters had found out about the twins more Malice infused nature. It would have made things significantly harder to help Ozzy and any other runaways she came across. (Especially since Ozzy’s Deviancy has a similar issue…)

“Don’t worry about him.” She tried to console the young runaway. “If worst comes to, you can just… hang around the house until he calms down.”

Ozzy glanced down for a moment, before looking at her. “You’re really okay with me staying at your house alone?”

“Of course.” She assured him. “I just figured you wouldn’t want to be stuck there all day.”

“That’s…” Ozzy ran a hand over the back of his neck as he trailed off awkwardly.

She frowned, considering the fact that she’d basically been shoving a ton of busywork onto the runaway, and having him run around a town that, she was willing to admit, could be a little trippy to newcomers.

(Maybe… maybe I haven’t been giving him time to… decompress…)

That had been a part, albeit a small one, of why she’d been sending him out. In the hopes that the walks would do him some good and give him time to think.

(Though if the mists are messing with him, then might not be able to think to himself…)

“If you want you can take tomorrow off.” She finally offered.

“Huh?” Ozzy blinked at her, having been pulled out of his thoughts.

“Yeah, you know what, tomorrow you can stay home.” She told him, liking the idea the more she thought about it. “You can watch some TV, take a break, and just relax without anything to bring you down.”

Hopefully, it’d also get Walters and Mags to back off for a day or two, though she didn’t add that bit, since she was also hoping some alone time might do the Ozzy some good. After all, she was old enough to accept she was the oddity in hating the (silence) and that most people like their alone time.

(Besides I’ll still have Mags at work, so I won’t really be alone all day.)

And she was starting to hate her idea, and hope Ozzy wouldn’t take her up on it.