2019-08-16 - Yay! Probably Found A Roommate!

A couple of days of orientation later, Hailey emerges from the haze of HR meetings and on-boarding crap into the world of actual doctor-stuff. Which means she's been seen around on the actual hospital floor a good bit the last day and a half, getting the lay of the land, slotting herself into her new role. She and Abby have crossed naturally crossed paths, but it's all been professionally so far.

Now! Now it's time for a breather. Working that shift no one wants - 3pm to 3am - means Hailey gets to take a break around seven in the evening, and she has flopped herself into the staff break-room, looking longingly at the ratty old sofa that lives there. Someone in here ahead of her put the TV on Netflix - Stranger Things! - and then left, so that's on in the background while she tacks a three-by-five post card to the corkboard by the door. It says: LOOKING FOR A ROOM TO RENT. New in town. Not crazy. Work here. Please call Hailey - ###-###-####.

"I'm starting to develop a complex," she tells no one at all, sighing gustily.

Even in a few casual professional encounters, Abby is friendly. "Welcome to Gray Harbor, Doctor, welcome to Addington Memorial, how are you settling in, how do you feel about the weather?" Not all at once, but all it takes is a brief opening for her to be friendly at people before moving on to her next task.

She seems a little distracted now that she's not tending to any patients, and sort of wanders aimlessly into the break room a distant, pensive look on her face, in her light blue scrubs with the puffy happy clouds on them. She deftly avoids bumping into Hailey as she moves to the board, though for a moment it seems she's looking right through the doctor, off in wherever land. "Oh. Hi! Hello, Doctor, hmmmm..." she trails off to peer at the corkboard and hums to herself, planting a hand under her chin. "How do you feel about cats?"

Scrubs are all the rage at the hospital. Hailey's do not have spiffy clouds on them, hers are just the boring ones that residents wear. She has absolutely told Abby at least once how much she likes her scrubs, though, because she's also friendly! And a little jealous of the patterned scrubs. "Oh. Hi! Hello, Abby," she answers right back, unintentionally coming up with the same intonation and everything. Despite that she's looking right at the notice that she just posted herself, she doesn't seem to be able to immediately place the question, and blinks a few times. "On a philosophical level or as a species or...? Because I was reading somewhere that cats actually have remarkably complex brains, folded like ours and everything."

It takes Abby a second to actually register the question in response to her question, blinking away from the board to stare at Hailey with a small, intrigued frown. "On a philosophical level? Is that a thing? Ohh, did any famous philosophers write anything about cats?" Her eyes widen in excitement at the quotability potential of it all. She blinks again and raises a hand to touch the side of her head at the mention of complex, folded brains. "What? Oh, no. I meant, like, do you have any allergies? Or maybe you just don't like living with a cat. Some people don't even if they're not allergic, of course. Maybe they're more dog people, for example," she muses.

Slowly, like she's really picking her words with care here, Hailey answers that first round of questions with, "I... don't... know? We could check?" She waves her phone in one hand, demonstrating where they would check, but doesn't immediately start punching the screen or anything. Instead, she lowers it when the 'what?' question follows-up. "Oh! Right. Because of - " Her forehead lowers to the note-card, and everything clicks into place with this whole conversation. "I'm not allergic to anything. Well, except penicillin. Which is pretty funny, right?" 'Cause doctor? Anyway. "Why?" New eagerness brightens her expression! "Do you know someone who has a cat and a room to rent?!"

"I'm sure some famous philosopher must've had a cat," Abby asserts. Confidently. And then moves back to the board with a nod. "Right! Because of the..." She gestures towards the note, and reaches out to lightly tap a finger on it, just in case. And now that they're both having the same conversation she smiles. "I do!" And then, to clarify. "I mean, I don't just know someone. I actually have a cat and a room to rent. Kind of. I had been looking into renting a room, anyway. I haven't actually posted anything anywhere yet. But I have a spare room and I'm not doing anything with it so I thought I might as well."

"Plato's cat?" Beat. "Sounds like a band-name." Hailey plucks at the front of her scrubs-top, as if imagining said band-name screen-printed onto her shirt. Then she smooths that top, resting her weight on her back foot while her fingers twist together, just to give them something to do that doesn't involve folding them into an attitude of pleading. "You do?!" Yeah, the folded hands may also have something to do with keeping herself from attacking Abby with a hug (which would be way-premature in this conversation, but she's so happy with the mere prospect). "I would be a great roommate. I'm quiet, I really don't like creepy-crawly things so you can trust that I would never leave out anything that would attract them, I have a job - " She looks around the break room of said job. " - that makes it so I have no personal life, so I wouldn't have loud parties or anything."

"I do!" Abby smiles, then furrows her brow slightly while she listens, and digs out her own phone after a beat. "Well, it's - I'll need to tidy a bit. I think I may have some pictures..." She says while listening, glancing up. "It's on Spruce Street. It's not very big or anything. It has two bathrooms so you could have one." She frowns mildly, scrolling through her phone, then turns it over to show Hailey some pictures of a room. The pictures aren't very good, and the light is a little dim. It's definitely a room, though! There's even a bed, and the door to a closet, and that's about it. It looks freshly painted, but there are some boxes piled up in a corner, apparently she's used it for storage. "I'm pretty quiet, too. I think. No one's ever complained! Well, Chickpea complains a bit. That's my cat."

Hailey is a hair's breadth from jumping up and down and clapping her hands, the excitement is real! She crowds over to view the phone pictures, glued to them like she's looking at something way more exciting than an empty room. "Spruce Street. That's not Elm Street," she mumbles brilliantly, thus sharing the entirety of her knowledge about Gray Harbor. "Oh my goodness, this would be so perfect. If you do really want or need someone to live with, I mean. I don't want to just shoulder my way into your house." With the hope practically bubbling out of her. "But I really would shoulder my way into your house if I thought that would work, I'm just that desperate. Well, your house and Chickpea's house. That's a cute name for a cat, do you call him Garbanzo Bean ever? Because I would."

Abby smiles, scrolling down to pictures of a small yard, the grass a little threadbare in places. "No, it's not Elm Street. It's a quiet street, there's a lot of families and - well, you can google map it if you want! It's not the fancy part of town, but, if it was, I couldn't afford it." She holds her hands up in a shrug and thumbs through her phone, beaming a smile over at Hailey. "I really could use a little rent. The place was kind of a bargain, but it's still touch and go when I get hit with any extras I wasn't counting on at the end of the month, you know?" She makes a face at this, then turns the phone's screen in Hailey's direction again. It's a cat picture. "This is Chickpea. Well, she's a girl and I feel like Garbanzo is more of a boy's name, though? But I've called her Garbage Bean! When I'm really mad at her." She whispers that part in confidence.

"Oh my word, look at her little face." When Hailey grows up, she is going to be a doctor, everyone. Right now, she is busy swooning over this cat picture, steadying Abby's phone with one hand and tucking her own lip in between her teeth with the other. It's lip-biting cuteness! "It's like someone folded it in fourths and - ahm, I mean, like the parts of it line up diagonally?" Whatever, she's making sense to herself, even if it's not really coming through clearly. Withdrawing her hand from the phone with the pictures on it, chewing on her lip to try not to beam ear-to-ear, she asks, "Can I. Pretty please. Rent your spare room from you and Garbage Bean? You would be saving my life." No, seriously! "Because I'm almost positive I have had a coffee-date with the serial killer by now, just trying to find a dang roommate."

"Right!? It's like a checkered pattern. Like you could line up a bunch of pictures of her face and do a chessboard." After scrolling through a handful more pictures of Chickpea in a wide assortment of poses, Abby holds her hands up in the air, using her hands to draw out the chessboard before confessing in a quieter voice, "I tried but I'm not good enough at photoshop." Then she drops her hands down again, anchoring them on her hips and giving Hailey a questioning look above a bright warm smile. "Shouldn't you look at it, first? And shouldn't we discuss..." she waves a hand vaguely around, "...practical things? Rent and things like that."

No, seriously. "I am so glad you knew what I meant." About folding the cat's face in fourths. Hailey, with the delight, winds up blinking confusedly about all those practical things. But somehow manages not to turn beet red when she's called on the zero-to-sixty version of roommate-finding, just one quick flash of pink-cheeks and it's over. "I mean. Yes. Probably. I'm just - " Fuck it, she goes for the hug here. Abby's free to shove her on her skinny ass, but will otherwise get a pair of arms around her neck. "You're not a serial killer, I'm so happy!"

It's really terrible that her joy is merited in this instance.

Abby doesn't shove, just sticks her arms out, caught by surprise, before responding by returning the hug with a little squish. "That you know of!" She still counters the serial killer thing, but she would definitely make for a very cheerful and warm serial killer, going by the smile on her face. Nonetheless, after the squeeze, she pulls back and looks Hailey in the eye. "You still have to come see the house first and everything. What if it has deadly mold? Or - what if - I don't know, what if it was next to a bullhorn factory? A haunted bullhorn factory." Those are the worst. She sighs, rolls her eyes, and brightens up her smile again. "I was worried about who I'd let in to live there, to be honest, that's one of the reasons I've been hesitating on putting up an ad."

Abigail Reed: First person to take Kill 'Em With Kindness literally?

"Yes," says Hailey seriously, pulling her shirt straight again after the hug, looking duly chagrined for the abrupt PDA. "Sorry," she adds to that end, crinkling her nose. "It's not those things, right? A moldy old house next to a haunted bullhorn factory? Because, ahm, I would probably still want to live there? But I might not be keen to sign a long-term lease." Her smile is all tentatively amused, teehee? "You didn't just want to invite a stranger into your house? Whyever not! It's not like there's a serial killer on the loose." They've talked about that a lot already, so she clasps her hands together again (BEHAVE!) and tosses in, "Or tattooed bikers with man-eating pythons."

Abby rests her hands on her hips, unbothered by the abrupt PDA or the wrinkliness of her scrubs. "Oh, don't be," she says in response to Hailey's apology, then frowns faintly. "Not really. Well, t's kind of old, but it's in pretty good shape. It's not really really old, it's like, 70s old? 80s? Early 80s? It had a tiny infiltration problem with the roof but I had that fixed. Which is another reason I could use the money!" She admits this with a small sigh, then crooks her nose. "I do have Chickpea for protection." And here Abby shows the back of her hand, complete with a recent set of healing scratches. Maybe it's protection in the same sense as the mob offers protection. "Right? But I didn't want to sound too awful in the ad, either."

"Do you own the house? Or you rent it?" To be paying for the roof is likely why Abby is asking. As for the age of the house, she just sort of bats her hand dismissively through the air. At her age? The difference between the 70s and the 80s is negligible; it's all ancient history. There's a momentary wash of sympathy for the scratches, tinged with humor still, even when her eyes sort of half-unfocus - looking more through Abby than at her. When they refocus again, lifting to Abby's, they do so beneath furrowed brows. "Ahm, so. I know we haven't signed anything or anything, and this is a little bit personal, but." She takes a sneaky glance around the apparently abandoned-for-life breakroom here. "What can you do?" The way she temple-taps tries to imply something.

"With how much I pay the bank, it's more like they own it and I'm just living there on borrowed time!" Abby says, cheerfully. "So I guess I'd technically be your landlady, but I live there, so if anything breaks then I had better fix it, right?" She cringes ever so slightly, then looks curiously at Hailey as the doctor stares at her. She frowns slightly, and her beaming smile softens as the conversation turns to possibly serious, personal matters. The answer is a big blank stare, eyebrows arched. "What can I... do? Besides the nursing? Oh, I like to cook, so it wouldn't be any more trouble cooking for two sometimes." She tries.

Awkward~! Hailey shuffles a few steps aside, ostensibly so she can pull down the card she just pinned to the cork-board but also because it means she can arrange herself so she can see if anyone comes through the door while they're talking. Turning the card over in her hands, which constantly seem to need something to keep themselves occupied, she chews her lip through Abby's totally straightforward reply, really just gnawing on that thing. "No, I mean. Mm. What can you do?" Yeah, Hailey; you said that already, try something else. "Like."

What a waste of a perfectly good roll.

She holds up the card, peering through the tiny pin-hole in the top of it... until the tiny pinhole closes itself up, and the card is all whole again, leaving her lowering it to peek over the top at Abby. "I unbreak things."

"I can sew a little?" Abby tries again. She clearly doesn't have a clue what Hailey is talking about, but smiles patiently nonetheless, waiting for an explanation. A tiny crease spreads on her brow as Hailey holds up the card. "I can... print cards?" It's the best she can do in this peculiar game of charades, with that same friendly, neutrally expectant look on her face.

Then that thing does that thing. And the tiny crease on Abby's brow turns into slightly wider and deeper creases. The smile stays on, just a little tighter. "Now how did you do that? Is that a trick? Are you a magician? I can get out of handcuffs and things like that, but probably not a box if you were looking for an assistant! Haha." She manages to keep her voice even and friendly though she's clearly a little on edge, trying to reason her way through the display. "That wasn't a trick, was it? Is this because of that mutant mountain cat?"

Hailey absolutely intends to circle back around and answer all Abby's other questions, but first: "What mutant mountain cat?" This is news to her! She looks duly freaked out by it, pulling the card slowly down from her face and peering uncertainly at Abby without it in between them. (Sure, she just psychic-fixed a notecard, but MUTANT MOUNTAIN CATS!) "Is that a real thing?!"

"I don't really know what's a real thing anymore, to be perfectly honest with you!" Abby smiles. "It's big and it's very ugly but it makes friends with little girls. And it likes ham and cheese sandwiches. Apparently. Also, don't tell Dr. Nathan I had a sandwich. He thinks I'm doing keto." This is all delivered in the same cheerfully conversational tone, though the casualness is getting a little frayed at the edges. "Is /that/ a real thing?" She helpfully points a finger at the card and tries to squint at it.

Okay, Hailey's right there along with big and very ugly, but she blinks and recoils from 'makes friends with little girls.' Like, wherever she thought Abby was going with that description, ti definitely wasn't down that road. "It does what now?" She winds up chewing on the corner of the card with her front teeth, pulling tiny shreds off - so why she bothered to fix the pinhole is a totally freaking mystery. "No. I mean, yes. It's a real thing. It's - you can't? Can you move things or read people or..." Equal parts confusion and apology muddy up her expression when she looks at all-smiles Abby.

"What can you do?" Like repeating the same question with even more stress on the end will make it clearer somehow.

"She fed him. I don't really know," Abby says with a tiny shrug. Then, the furrows on her brow deepen while she stares at Hailey in growing perplexity. "No? No. No, I can't! I can't do anything like that. I can't shoot beams out of my eyes, either. Why would I be able to do anything like that? Most people can't do those things, I'm pretty sure!" She spreads her hands out in a rather more emphatic shrug, then touches a hand to her face. "I'm not even sure what you just did. Or how you did it. I once got a feeling my mother was going to call me and then she did, but I'm pretty sure that's not even in the same league, is it? Why would I think I can do - what? Things?"

This would have to be the time when someone else finally decides to come into the breakroom - a couple of the guys that work in the lab, both of whom blow by Abby and Hailey without so much as a glance, all set to take control of the TV. Despite them not paying attention, Hailey still chews her lip and watches them. "How about this," she begins, pulling one last piece off the corner of the card with her teeth before she tears it in half. A pen comes from somewhere - her pocket or off a table or whatever, it's not important - and she writes her number on the back of the card, holding it out to Abby.

"That's my number. Text me yours, and we can make a date to come see the house? And I can, ahhhhhm, explain to you. About the card trick. In private." She's like the subtlest person ever.

Abby still flashes the new arrivals a smile as they go by, before settling her mildly fraught attention back on Hailey. Even as calm and unflinchingly pleasant as she is, it's obvious she's beyond confused and into mildly perturbed by the entire conversation. Or maybe it's the giant mutant cat. Or maybe it's both. She accepts the car and flips it over to look at the number, then gets out her phone, some of the tension bleeding off her smile. "Sure? Sure! I can do that. I'll text you the address too, so you can snoop it on Google!" She suggests, phone in hand, quickly tapping away the number and speeding off a hurried text.

Yep, there goes Hailey's phone, buzzing right on cue with that incoming text. She glances at it, like she wasn't just standing there talking to the person that texted her, then clicks the little 'go back to sleep' button on the side of the phone. With a quick breath and a smile that isn't quite lighting her eyes the way it should, she says, "Okay, I'll look at the board and find some time when we're both not working for a house-tour? And, yeah, just don't get too freaked out if you see a little blue Corolla scoping out your house between now and then, it's probably just me." Probably. "Sorry to - " Something. " - and then just run out. But I'll definitely be in touch."

While the lab-guys get the TV tuned to some obnoxious show and park in front of it, guffawing.

"I should go back to work."

Abby tucks her phone away and claps her hand. "Sure! That's fine. I don't know where you're staying, so it might be more complicated for you, so just let me know when it's a good time, then." The nurse smiles, and just scratches lightly at the nape of her neck, giving Hailey a longer, curious look. She'll be thinking about the conversation for a while longer, but she's putting on an amiable front anyhow.

Before Hailey actually goes, Abby leans in and drops her voice to a quietly reassuring tone, "And don't worry! The only cat around there is Chickpea. The other one was up in Firefly Forest." Then she winks. "Oh. Right. I should... actually I just have to go fetch some labs and file a report, but I guess that needs doing too." She pats herself down, pulls out some kind of folded paperwork, waves it around, and is on her hurried way.