Drawing Blood

[Jude Walsh]

Jude didn't fancy herself a city girl. Born and raised on a farm, the woman tended to stray far, far away from the city until she had no choice. Having taken up the mantle from her parents begrudgingly, she had had more reasons to go into the city and she didn't quite like it.

Especially in this instance when she needed to see the doctor for her regular check-ups. After having to murder her infected family, Jude had wondered why she was spared the infection but she didn't leave it to chance. She made sure she had appointments every other month with one Dr. Paige even though she grumbled to herself every time she had to go for said appointments.

She had let her security personnel roam the city while she went to the hospital, a grim expression set on her face. "Dr. Paige." She nodded at the younger woman who had fortuitously walked into Jude's path. "I'm here for my medical."

[Erika Paige]

It was almost a little comical, albeit understandable, how many people were afraid of getting the Rot. Many of them had monthly or even weekly visits where they had the doctors check them out. Although there was little Erika and the others could do in order to check people for the illness - it wasn't as if they had the necessarily equipment or technology to check for any of those kind of things, she still accepted each and every one that wanted to come.

As long as she had the time, of course.

One of these people where a blonde farm girl - a little jaded, perhaps, but she was nice enough. Erika had grown rather fond of the girl over the years.

Looking up, Erika smiled warmly. "Jude," she greeted her, "I've been expecting you." She nodded towards a closed door. "Come on, while that room is still available."

[Jude Walsh]

It was nice that the young doctor always had a pleasant demeanour when Jude all but wanted to crawl into a pit rather than be subjected to what she knew was a completely arbitrary consultation. It was entirely possible that Jude knew there wasn't exactly a proper procedure the hospitals could give out when it came to the infection. Did that mean she would stop coming to the hospital?

Short answer, no.

She followed the doctor into the room and went to sit down on the chair available. "Thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule. I don't exactly trust the other doctors to know what they're doing."

Yes, Jude was delusional.

[Erika Paige]

Laughing, Erika closed the door behind them and shook her head. "It's quite alright. If it wasn't, I wouldn't be here," she offered gently and shrugged her shoulders. This was, perhaps unnecessarily, but she had to admit that she enjoyed these moments. As much as she loved saving lives and the like, she also felt an important part of the job was connecting with people.

She moved across the room and took a seat opposite of the girl. She'd always wondered what made the girl so scared. Naturally, everyone was scared of the infection to some degree, but this almost seemed... Personal.

She'd never ask, of course.

"How are you feeling today?"

[Jude Walsh]

Jude cracked a small smile. Despite their age gap, Jude being older, Dr. Paige seemed to have such a wizened aura about her that made Jude feel like a child. A safe and warm child being taken care of by an adult. The irony did not escape the twenty-six year old.

"I think I ate a bad egg last night but other than that I feel fine. Ish." She shrugged, rolling up her sleeve so the doctor could draw blood from her arm. Jude was confident that the hospital did not have the right equipment or resources to actually test out whether or not they could detect any abnormalities in her blood but logic and reason usually flew out the window for Jude when it came time for her doctor visits.

It was like she would conveniently block out that part of her brain just to go through this particular day.

[Erika Paige]

Nodding, Erika smiled at the other girl as she reached over to the trolley to get the equipment ready. She scooted closer to the girl when she offered her arm and swiped the small of her arm with a disinfectant piece of paper. She leaned in then to find the vein and reached for the needle and the small plastic container where they kept the blood.

The process was simple enough and they only needed two containers each, to get the necessarily tests (that they had the equipment for, anyways) done.

She lifted her walkie talkie and called in a nurse to come pick up the vials. "There you go," she said to the girl and offered her a smile.

[Jude Walsh]

Jude felt the needle pierce her skin but showed no signs of being affected. When the doctor was done, Jude curled her arm up to keep the cotton swab in place. "Thank you, Dr. Paige." Jude nodded. This was usually the part she didn't really know what to do with herself. The waiting for the results always met with an awkwardness in Jude that her former self would cringe at.

At first, she would ask the doctor how her husband was. But that grew tiring after a while. She sighed and cleared her throat. "Uh...lots of patients today?" Jude asked.