It's Good To Talk [open]

[Dr. Nathan Reed]

It wasn't nearly busy enough yet in the little café, but the clubs at that time wouldn't have been much better. Drumming his fingers anxiously against the table he was seated at - a good one where he had the perfect view of people coming in and going out - Nathan thought about how unfortunate it was that he had failed to make sure that the time between work ending and the clubs opening was filled with some sort of activity.

Short-sightedness, unusual as it was, was to blame for that. He'd thought he might end up with maybe one or two emergency appointments or have lots of paperwork to do, which was the norm. Instead, it turned out to be a surprisingly slow day for him, and much of the paperwork he had to get done was actually done. On time!

He had to wonder if it was because of his latest employee. Griff Jones hadn't been around that long but already, patients were requesting to see him. Sometimes even upon arriving and being asked to come into Nathan's office. If it wasn't so incredible he'd have been insulted. And besides, they all shared the work load equally for the most part. He couldn't make Griff take all of the patients, and no matter how hard they cried, not every patient could go in to see just one doctor. Still, he the effect he seemed to be having was rather spectacular. He was very, very lucky to have snapped him up.

Perhaps he should have asked the man if he wanted to come out for a drink. Normally he would have, but he was too busy staring at the pile of finished paperwork on his desk and wondering where all the extra time had come from, and by then everyone had left.

And now, to fill in all that extra time, he needed a distraction.

Anything, really. He didn't care what happened. New friends, old friends, a brawl. It didn't matter. Anything that would rid him of this crippling boredom. Otherwise it was himself and Google Chrome alone all evening, and that... that would just be sad.

[Tim Lyne]

Tim came into the Kafe, looking around almost frantically. In fact, Tim looked very much like he was looking for someone in particular. At last, he noticed a man, an older man, sitting alone at a table. Tim raised a hand, grinned, waved, and headed over to the table. He slid across from the other man, still smiling, and talking amiably.

"Look, I need you to cover for me. There's this girl that I might have said the wrong thing for, and I'm technically supposed to be in a very important meeting right now. You look important, or something, so I need you to work with me here," Tim said all this without hardly a break, his smile simply sliding from his face, replaced with a serious expression. He placed his hands on the table, fingers splayed, and attempted to look the serious businessman.

In reality, Tim looked more like a guy who'd spent the last few days wearing the same suit. It was rumbled, gray with some blue splashed appealingly here and there. But, yeah, definitely something that Tim had slept in, most likely for several days. In fact, he'd just gotten off a fairly long haul recruiting people, and had spent most of his time since arriving doing his usual.

Meaning handing out his number to girls and wondering why the hell there was a faerie outfit in his closet.

"So what do you do anyway?" asked Tim, leaning forward. "You know, just so I can get my cover story straight and all."

[Dr. Nathan Reed]

As he watched the door, attempting to maintain eye contact with anyone for more than five uncomfortable seconds, a flustered looking younger male came in. The second their eyes met, Nathan knew that the next few minutes at the very least were going to be somewhat entertaining. From the familiar wave to the way he walked over, the doctor recognised that little hint of desperation. Well, he had hoped for something to happen.

As expected, the other man sat down in front of him and explained to him a familiar sounding situation. He allowed himself a reserved sort of smile, like that of someone glad that the person they'd been waiting for had finally arrived and the meeting could start. He was happy to play along, of course, but he wouldn't be throwing the kid too many bones. "Oh, and we're off to a very good start. Hello to you, too; I'm Nathan. Nathan Reed." He held his hand out as though the handshake was a polite formality rather than a friendly and sincere greeting.

Asked what it was he did, he held a smirk back. "I'm a doctor," he said, the professional smile never leaving his face. "I own the local clinic. So you'd better come up with something to do with that because I won't help you." Well, you had to learn to make up crap on the spot, didn't you? Besides... he seemed like the type who forced himself into those kinds of situations all the time, the kinds of situations that meant playing a role so you didn't lose face. Silently, Nathan thanked whatever power there was in the cosmos that he'd always had the common sense to have his story straight before it was necessary to have one.

[Tim Lyne]

"Oh wow, you're actually going along with--I mean, yes, I'm Timothy Lyne, Tim, actually," said Tim, taking the offered handshake. Seriously, he hadn't thought of opening with his name at least? Bad form, Timmy. You should at least give your co-conspirator a name, especially if you were springing something on him. Tim leaned back, looking thoughtful, his brain struggling to come up with a last minute plan here.

"A doctor? Sooooo, Dr. Reed? Is that real? You don't work at Sacred Heart or--nevermind," said Tim, he waved his hand. Doctor, doctor, that was definitely something he could work with. There was the whole STD cover up, though that was likely to spread. Or maybe some kind of contagious disease. Nah, too viral. He needed something doable. Penis reduction surgery? No, that was a stretch.

"You know, I actually can't remember when I last got a checku--no, wait, I got all physicaled and stuff when I joined my latest job," said Tim. He tapped his finger on his chin, thinking. "Didn't really help with the headaches and the buzzing and stuff. I don't suppose you can come up with a--"

The buzzing. It drew Tim's attention, and he could just tell; he just knew.

"Oh man, you're one of us! You do, something," Tim wiggled his fingers. "That's cool. Does it help with the job or something? That's why I do what I do."

The only reason. Well, that and his maturity. Obviously.

[Dr. Nathan Reed]

"Oh come now, look more grateful, Tim," the doctor said, his smile never faltering, his eyes giving a spark of amusement. "I could have better things to do with my time, after all." That all depended on how they interacted, and at the slightest hint of Tim thinking he had the upper hand at all he would bid the man farewell and go home to Google Chrome after all.

"I'm sorry, you wanted me to stay, right?" he asked, a slight warning in his tone. He had never watched Scrubs but this stranger wasn't the first to point out the name. How Nathan felt for all the Dr. Watsons in the world. "Nathan Benjamin Reed is the name I was given at birth. How was I to know that after I finished my studies, someone would use my commonplace surname for a fictional character, hmm? Would you prefer it if I made up a name? Dr. Reginald Snowflake, perhaps?" Irritated? Not at all, but he did want the boy to think that he might just up and leave at any moment. Ah the joys of Schadenfreude.

Just as the other man began to ask if Nathan would actually help him, he interrupted himself and described the doctor as 'one of us'. Well if that didn't make the condition of 'meta-human' sound like a cult he didn't know what did.

"I suppose it could if it wasn't more likely to kill me," he said dryly, clasping his hands together on the table. "Disease manipulator. Occasionally I do take the minor diseases into myself and let them run their course but for the most part it's fairly useless. You must then have some sort of meta detection power, if I'm not mistaken." Or he was telepathic and had simply invaded his mind. Damned telepaths.

[Tim Lyne]

"I'm all kinds of grateful. I'll be even more grateful if this actually works,' said Tim. He turned, noting that the woman he'd been avoiding was standing outside, glaring at him through the glass. Surely she could see that he hadn't ditched her for another attractive woman (though that wouldn't have been bad), but instead wound up with Dr. Reed.

"Dr. Snowflake? See, now that's much more believable," said Tim, proving just how much of the conversation he'd actually been paying attention to. He was looking back at Dr. Snowflake now, nodding. The other guy seemed, well, he seemed a little annoyed, but no more than most, and Tim could deal with a little annoyed over what was waiting for him outside.

Disease manipulator. Take diseases into himself. "So, you did pick a job that you could use your ability for," said Tim, gesturing with his finger. "Still, sounds, uh, helpful. Definitely more than mine."

To which Tim was nodding just a few seconds later. "Got it in one. I'm a meta detector. Got this buzz thing whenever a meta's around, and I can, like point at them and stuff. It's useful for parties and for recruiting, not for much else. Got the problem with headaches and stuff though, but I've already got drugs for that."

Tim was half tempted to pull them out and ask if Dr. Snowflake had better ones. Hammel was willing to foot most of Tim's medical bills, especially regarding any side effects of his ability, so Tim was more than willing to take advantage. Besides, just talking about it was starting to make Tim's head ache.

No longer resisting, Tim drew out a small pill container, popped up the lid, grabbed a water on the table, and took a few of the pills. Again, he'd stopped counting how many he took a while ago, and didn't seem to stop and think that he was sitting across from someone who would likely be paying a lot more attention to such things.

[Dr. Nathan Reed]

He was torn as to whether he should look outside at whoever the boy had ditched - the glance he gave through the window was enough to let him know that she was standing there and was probably not the happiest of bunnies. On the one hand, looking outside and following his gaze was almost certain to make her suspicious. What reason would he have to look out at her if he wasn't expecting to see someone else? But on the other... what if the woman recognised him? Not just through his profession, but through behaving in a fashion probably similar to Mr. Lyne. In the end, he chose to surreptitiously re-position himself so that he was sitting looking away from the window. It sacrificed his perfect view of the door way, but as long as Tim was hanging around he supposed he wouldn't be needing it for a while.

"Yeah, I'm not going with 'Dr. Snowflake' all evening," he said, and punctuated his protest with a drink from his glass. "You'll just have to go with Dr. Reed." It wasn't like, should he decide to return to the woman later, he couldn't just then find his clinic and prove that it existed. But then perhaps he should have stayed with Snowflake, just so that it would be hard for him to defend himself later on.

"Helpful, sure," he agreed, allowing himself to relax and still manage to look as though this was just a meeting and nothing more. "But it only goes so far." It would be perfect if he had a secondary power, like advanced immunity, but instead it went the other way.

Realising that Mr. Lyne worked for the school, he allowed the tiniest of genuine smiles, but whether it was one of nostalgia or of amusement was difficult for even Nathan to say. As the recruiter pulled out a small container, he rested his head on one cupped hand and watched with what could have been called 'interest'.

"Is that aspirin?" he asked, squinting at the label before they were put away. "Good gracious, how many of those do you take?" What he probably needed was a prescription for something stronger. Why he hadn't asked sooner was a mystery but then this one's brains probably weren't between his ears so much as somewhere else.

[Tim Lyne]

"Whatever you say, 'Dr. Reed,'" said Tim, even providing the air quotes. Because in Tim's mind, things had already been decided. Really, he had more important things to worry about. Like the girl prowling around outside and looking in the glass at him. Didn't this look important enough? Maybe Tim should have found someone in a suit.

"Tell me about it," muttered Tim. He returned his attention back to Dr. Snowflake, grinning at the older man. "Maybe you should team up with someone with super powers against catching colds or something. Could cure cancer like that."

Tim shrugged. Like he knew enough about medicine to offer more commentary than that. Unless Dr. Snowflake offered a cure for the buzzing, Tim didn't really care. Even then, he'd probably think twice before signing up. No, that was a lie. Even a hint at "we can stop the buzzing for a while" was enough for Tim.

"I wish," said Tim. He set the bottle down, turning it so that the label showed. Not that the label was horribly accurate, but it was a start. "I've been on 'scripts since the power manifested. I'm nearly always buzzing, and that kinda thing gives you a headache. Gets worse here than anywhere else, but I can't get a job anywhere else, so..."

Tim shrugged, then set his hand back at the table. Another turn, and yep, the girl was still there. Persistent pain.

"Don't worry. I'm sure it's just killing me or something. Unless you know of some way to fix it or get it to stop?" Tim looked back at Dr. Snowflake, not able to fully hide his hope at that. Just because every other doctor said no...