Silence Falls

Jack had no idea why he was doing this for his patient, Bert, but at least he couldn’t get into any form of trouble by doing him this small favor. Better than helping him escape a hospital that’s under heavy guard. The male Orderly swung open the door to enter a ward of roving, weeping, and incoherent women. He let out a sigh before heading towards the nurse’s station except he didn’t get far before a female Orderly by the name of Rachel stepped into his path. Jack held back a groan and smiled tightly. “Hello Rachel, how are you doing today?”

“Fine, thanks for asking. And you?” Rachel asked distrustfully, her eyes inspecting him up and down.

Jack's eyes narrowed back at her. “I’m fine, erm...why are you looking at me like I’m up to no good?”

“Because you must be if you’re in the female ward? What do you want? To get your dick wet with one of the patients?” Rachel questioned, tapping her clipboard of names against to her chest.

Jack deterred his eyes away in repulsion to her allegation. “Christ, Rachel! Cut that shit out and let me through, will you? I’m not gonna keep reminding you that that was Charlie’s doing, not me! Now if you don’t mind, I need to check your patients list real quick.”

Rachel chuckled. “And why on earth do you need to see my patient’s list?”

“Because the head doctor asked me to check on your list for him. One of the guys at our ward had started gossiping about you behind your back, saying you don’t keep your logs straight and had misplaced a patient outside of your ward a couple of times.” Jack lied, positive she’d fall for it. Rachel was a beautiful young lady that had to have everything perfect because of her OCD. Everyone knew that to get under her skin all you had to do was insult her work performance.

“WHAT!? That’s fucking bullshit!” Rachel barked viciously, garnering some patient’s attention.

Jack deposited his hands on her shoulder to hush her. “I know! It's total fucking bullshit, and I believe you! But the head doctor wants proof. So, I’m not here to fuck with you, Rachel, I want to prove you’re right. I’m on your side, okay?”

Rachel calmed her breathing before giving him a nod and leading the way to the small nurse’s station. The fuming nurse retrieved a notebook from the filing cabinets beside the table and handed it to him. Jack gave her a cursory thanks before ‘browsing’ through the book, all the while with Rachel peering over his shoulder.

Jack awkwardly eyed Rachel. “Um, could I have some space? It makes me nervous when people stand over me when I'm trying to concentrate, you know?” Rachel let out a scoff, but reluctantly left him to his obligation. Jack hastily started flipping through pages, only looking for names with the letter O. Upon finding the meager section, the young Orderly meticulously skimmed through the list and located the patient and her room number. “Perfect.” Jack mumbled under his breath. Wanting to make sure nosey Rachel was gone, he stuck his head out to survey his surroundings. He didn’t spot her.

Jack then fast-walks to Otep’s room, trying to appear like he was in the girl’s ward on official business. Passing Orderlies glanced at him as they strolled by, but never gave off a hint of suspicion. As he was passing a patient’s room with its door open, he caught sight of a young blonde girl standing menacingly over another girl, clenching her by her left wrist. The poor brunette was crying her eyes out in terror, occasionally twitching violently as she flounder over her words. Jack halted in his tracks, and stepped into that very room to help. He wasn’t sure how the Orderlies over here handled their patients, so he approached with some caution.

“N-No I t-t-tried going through t-the ve-vents once! They w-were welded s-shut! I d-don’t know what e-else to te-tell you!” The fragile brunette wailed to the blonde listening to her stammer. Jack couldn't stand it anymore.

“Hey, what do you think you’re doing?” Jack demanded, standing a few feet behind the blonde. The brunette started panting heavily in relief at his arrival.

The young blonde let go of her wrist and gradually turned, her face impassive. “Nothing, why?”

“It doesn’t look like nothing to me.” Jack retorted, his eyes moving to the girl cowering behind the blonde, vigorously scratching at her neck like there were bugs crawling under her skin.

“YOU can go. Go on, get out of here!” Jack urged her, watching her warily stand up before elbowing past her aggressor, howling down the hall.

“What’s your name, young lady?” Jack inquired, crossing his arms over his chest to appear authoritative.

The young blonde didn’t show any sign of being intimidated. “Otep.”

Jack was taken aback. This was the Otep he was supposed to be looking for? Why didn’t Bert tell him she was just another one of these bullies that torment their fellow patients? For a second there Jack had been prepared to run all through the girl's ward looking for this ‘innocent’ sane young lady. Needing to make sense of this, Jack asked. “You’re Bert’s Otep?”

Otep looked him up and down before replying. “The one and only.”

“What the hell were you doing tormenting that girl just now? What’s wrong with you? I was under the impression that you were a nice girl, not some harasser!” Jack exclaimed sternly, not understanding how she could be affiliated with his patients when she was the complete opposite of them.

“I was merely chatting, is all. Did Bert send you?” Otep queried, setting her hands on her hips.

Jack was once again surprised. How on earth did she know that Bert asked him to come here? There was no way she could have known that! Starting to get a little freaked out at her detached attitude, her deadpan face, and at the possible fact she might be able to read minds, Jack demanded. “How did you know that?”

“You’re a male Orderly. You guys don’t come in here except to fix the plumbing or rape one of us. You aren’t anywhere near the plumbing systems nor are you trying to tear my clothes off so you must be here for another reason. I’ve been watching how things go down around here so I know you have to be here because of Bert.” Otep clarified.

Bert never told me how smart she was, Jack thought before clearing his throat. “Yeah well, he wants you to know he’s fine. All of your friends are fine, in fact.”

“I already know they are. You’re their Orderly after all, and the fact that you haven’t come over here to beat me or fuck me tells me that you’ve gotta be a real man. That's a rarity around here.” Otep predicted right once again, making Jack uncomfortable. “You can tell him that we’re fine here too. Thank you for taking the time out of your schedule to find me, Jack.” She thanked him, earning a nod in return before he turned and exited the room. Otep had a feeling they’d see each other again real soon.