Mary walks through the seemingly endless corridors to find Dr. James Delguard. Concerns about the hospital echoed in her mind. She hasn't seen a patient, nor any other people apart from James. She couldn't be that early, could she? She couldn't be that early that no other doctor, nurse or patient have entered the building, surely? Concerns turned into worries. Mary didn't want to be here unless there was a point for her to be here. She wanted to help people, that's why she entered the medical field. She wanted to rid the world, or at least a small part of the world, from sickness. She wanted to know why she was here if there hasn't been anyone inside apart from her and James. She wanted to use her medical abilities, and if she didn't have a patient to help, then what was the point of her being here? She wanted to help.
She wanted to know how her mother was.
She wanted to say to her that everything is okay.
She wanted to see her joeys again.
She wanted to see her friends again.
She wanted to see Damien again.
She wanted to go home.
Another corridor. Those thoughts didn't go away. Another corridor. Those thoughts were still there. Another corridor... Another corridor... Another corridor...
James paced around his "office". He got way to ahead of himself, he realised the problems that he had to face. James finally realised the situation that he put himself in when he changed Jess. If he introduced something to Mary that he had changed, the possibility of her not believing the lies was 50/50. To James, even 50/50 wasn't good. It was even worse than wasn't good, this could completely ruin everything that he has worked for. His nanobots, his containers of animal hybrid clothing, Mary, everything. He needed to find a solution, he needed to think of a solution, he desperately wanted a solution. He was honestly scared to lose Mary, not only was she James' first successful animal/human hybrid, James felt like he was in a position of power, playing "Dr." James Delguard. Every step he took, he tried to come up with a plan, one that could fix the current issues facing him at the moment. Every other step, he thought that plan wouldn't work and went back to brainstorming a bunch of other solutions for the problem. He was too excited by the fact that Jess changing was a success that he forgot about anything that could possibly backfire. He was too focused on the transformation and having her as a nurse that he forgot about any details that could ruin him in the future. He had only one solution and he didn't even believe if it would work, but he had nothing else.
He left the "office", and immediately heard the distant paw-steps of Mary down the corridor. James put on the bravest face he could and walked towards Mary. Mary looked around, trying to find if anyone else was here, but found James. Mary tried to hide her concerned, worried, yet slightly angry face from James by putting on a brave face. For either of them, it didn't quite work. "Hi, Mary" James said, softly. "Hi, Doct- oh, sorry. Hi, James" Mary said, slightly nervous "Um...James?". James thought that this was it, everything was going to fall apart, because he didn't think about his experiment backfiring. "I have been wondering...". "Here it comes" James thought. "...about the shortage of staff and patients". "There it is" James thought. James had to think about a response while Mary was still discussing her concerns about what she has experienced so far. It had to be believable, and it had to be short. He had no other option then say the first thing that popped into his mind. "Well, it is rather early, Mary. Most of the patients don't come here for, at least, another half an hour" James said, trying his hardest to feel like he was lying straight at Mary's furry face. He wasn't wrong, though. Mary did woke up very early, the day was barely starting when Mary hopped out of bed and got dressed. Even though James didn't know it at the time, he did have a good excuse not to talk about "staff shortages", he barely knew what time it was anyway. "Oh, um, I'm sorry. I'm just a bit concerned about it. I mean, I haven't seen any other peop-" Mary said, before being cut off by James. "It's okay, I understand. The doctors, nurses and the other staff members will come eventually. You were just a bit luckier, it is a long trip down to get here". Mary blushed with embarrassment, she felt horrible about bringing up the subject, hoping that he wouldn't lose any sort of respect from James.
James had only one solution to solving the details issue. "Anyway, flu season is coming very soon, so both staff and patients have to have a flu shot" he said. The solution was very simple, but could easily backfire at any point. The "flu shot" was filled with modified nanobots, ones that will stick to Mary's mind. Any nanobot alterations that will happen (images, objects, people) she'll believe immediately via wireless signals from the previous nanobots. James was doubtful about if it would work, but he had thought of no other solution. It was this or nothing. "I've already had mine, so the rest of the staff have to have theirs" James said, trying to keep his professional facade. Mary's concerns added more to her confusion at James' statement. What staff? It felt like she was the only other staff member. Was there other members of staffs that James didn't mention before? He did mention that other staff members were coming, but did that mean there were some actually inside? "James, I h-" Mary tried to say, before being cut off by James. "We will talk turkey later, I'll see you in the examination room" James replied. As much as she wanted to talk back, Mary didn't, she just went quiet. She didn't want to embarrass herself. She slightly hung her head and walked to the examination room.
James walked back to his office just to have a moment of clarity about what he was about to do. He clearly didn't want his chance to have his experiment go awry now. He solemnly turned to his computer, staring at the pre-programmed algorithm for the advanced nanobots upon the screen. He steps forward towards the computer. He looks down, taking a moment in silence to mentally cross his fingers in luck. He raised his gaze to see above his head. Nanobots, contained in a heavy-duty tank glass cylinder, squirming about, looking like a living metallic paint creature. He picks up an empty syringe on his desk, opens it and begins to pour the updated nanobots like a soft serve ice-cream. James didn't feel like doing what he had to. It felt like this idea was band-aiding the current problem he was facing. James felt low. Very low. He wanted his experiment to go completely right, without any problems, without any faults, without any flaws, he wanted to feel proud about an experiment he had been calculating and excessively thinking about for years. With a deep breath, he closed the syringe, pushing out any bubbles that the syringe caught. He just couldn't help but stare at it, contemplating his decisions. Did he what to do this? Does he actually want the experiment to fail, just out of morbid curiosity? What would he do then? Tell her that she was actually an unemployed young female adult just trying to get a job and not an anthropomorphic kangaroo who has a family and a degree in medicine? James didn't know what to decide upon. Continuing his experiment or documenting the results of the error. He wiped the specks of sweat starting to push out through his pores with his other hand. He finally decided what he should do.
Continue.
Mary was inside the mirrored examination room, sitting on the bed that was in the centre of the room. Her feet on one side, her tail on the other. She was patiently waiting for James to enter the room so she could finally ask him about the "other members of staff" that are around the building. She couldn't hear anything apart from her breath going in and out. No mumbles from staff members, no squeaks from the janitor's mop across the tiled floor, honestly any sound coming from the building that wasn't her or James would have been surprising, but there was nothing. Not a click nor a tick. Mary was just ready to walk out of the examination room, just to peer out and see if there was actually anyone inside this building, until she heard the echoed footsteps upon the tiles. She knew it was going to be James, it couldn't be anyone else, could it? As the footsteps slowly gained in volume, Mary was starting to question if it was James coming through the examination room's doorway. Alas, as the shadow across the wall started to slide across the walls, Mary knew that she shouldn't get her hope's up. James tried to keep his professional facade, just enough for this "flu shot" so he can get back into his office and think of solutions. Mary feels like her hope and happiness just went numb, her facial expressions becoming solemn and sad, just by the sight of James walking in with the flu shot. She felt worried, even though she has had several flu shots before, maybe even slightly nervous. "Alright, Mary..." James said. Mary didn't reply, she just put her hands around herself and tensed up. "...ready to start the procedure?". Mary sighed and nodded. "Okay" James replied "I'm just going to get the rubbing alcohol". James walked over to the cabinets, over by the right side of the mirrored walls. Opening the cabinets, he reached out to grab the rubbing alcohol and some small pads of cotton. Closing the cabinet door behind him, James returned to Mary. Mary looked down at the floor, still holding herself, thinking about home, about her family, her friends, how she misses them dearly. Mary was almost misty-eyed, another moment of confusion about her job, about the workers, and she would burst into tears in seconds. James, noticing the sadness in her eyes, didn't say another word. He wanted this to be quick and easy, so Mary wouldn't leave and find out about her "life". He pulled out one of the pads of cotton, put it on the open bottle of rubbing alcohol and began to slowly turn the bottle, dosing the pad in the alcohol. He turned the bottle back and placed it onto the closest thing that he could place it on. He turned back to Mary, still sitting there, misty-eyed. James walked towards her, and started to find a place on her right arm to rub the alcohol into. He couldn't find anything, he couldn't navigate his way through her forest of fur. "Maybe that was good spot? Wait, where is it? Did I lose it? There's another good spot, maybe? Where was it? He-No, not there. Where is anything?" James was muttering under his breath as he tries his hardest to find a single spot of skin that he could rub the alcohol into. Mary wondered why this had taken so long, rubbing alcohol on her arm wouldn't have been that hard. She turned to see James. James was struggling even harder to find a single patch of skin on her whole entire arm. The misty-eyed tears left her eyes, the tenseness in her body started to ease back, she couldn't help but smile at the sight of James trying to rub the alcohol. It reminded her so much of her children trying their hardest to do something but they couldn't figure out what was happening or what to do next, so she would always come to them if they looked confused or slightly aggravated to help them out, no matter how small or big the problem was, she would always help out. From there, Mary reminded herself of why she was here. People needed help, that's what she was here to do, and it looked like patients, from the sight of James, aren't the only ones who needed her help. "Here" Mary said, in a motherly tone of voice, placing her paw on her arm, trying to spread out the fur enough to find a spot. James looked back at Mary and smiled, as a means of a "thank you". There was now a decent amount of skin there to rub the alcohol into, so James began to rub the soaked pad onto her pinkish-grey skin. Placing the needle against Mary's skin made James question what he was doing. Was this right? Was this fair? Was this for the greater good? These thoughts circled around as he questioned his own accomplishments, but this was his only option, or else the other option is to take a long walk to the green mile.
He couldn't wait any longer.
He had to do it.
Mary felt the twinge of pain as the needle entered her skin and the "liquid" entered the bloodstream, but it felt stranger than usual. For some reason, it felt like there was tiny specs of something inside, little bumps of something, like James injected jam into her bloodstream, all the seeds going through while the rest is liquid. James removed the needle from her skin and gave Mary a pad to push against the entry point, not that it would make any difference considering the nanobots already have sealed up the skin wound, but it was enough to keep the illusion of a flu shot. Mary carefully placed the pad where the skin patch was, but the feeling over something small bumping around her bloodstream didn't really go away. "James?" Mary asked, but the feeling of the bits bouncing around subsided. "Yes?" James replied. "Oh, never mind, it's...it's stopped now" Mary stated. Whatever anxiety James had also subsided, the nanobots were nearly completely connected to Mary, all he had to do was wait for a sign that the nanobots are fully installed in Mary's brain-stem. Mary was confused by what happened with her flu shot. How was there bumps? "I guess I haven't felt the liquid go through since I was a teenager" Mary thought. James continued to wait. Somehow, Mary's vision went a little funny. Her eyes felt like they were hit with Vaseline, everything started to become blurry so quickly. Finally, she felt like something at the back of her mind was building up pain and the feeling went closer and closer, faster and faster until a sharp pain immediately hit her head. Mary winced, a small painful whimper left her lips.
"The sign. The headache was the sign" James thought "The nanobots are now finished". James felt ecstatic, his plan to fix the personality problem was almost finished.
"Are you alright, Mary?" James asked, hiding his knowingly smug face. Mary rubbed her head "I-I'm fine, Doct- sorry. I'm fine, James, just a headache". "Alright, just as long as you're okay" James softly spoke. Mary turned to face James, nodded and smiled, while one hand is rubbing her head and another holding the cotton pad on her arm. "I've got something for you, wait here and I'll get them for you" James said. He turned and walked to his office. Mary stood there, waiting. Somehow, Mary felt different. She felt relieved, she felt like she was a new person. She rediscovered her purpose in life, her purpose for being here. She couldn't help but smile by what she has rediscovered, she felt better about herself, and more confident about being at this workplace.
James was rushing to his office, small beads of sweat starting to form on his forehead, darting through the light green corridors towards the door. He almost belted the door as he charged towards it. Scanning the room, he found the transformed pictures and grabbed as many as he could before running out of the office with handfuls of the changed photos. Another corridor. This was it. Another corridor. His current problems with Jess's transformation was solved. Another corridor... Another corridor... Another corridor...
She was puzzled by what James would mean by "them". Were they the staff? Or at least half of the staff? There didn't seem to be anyone behind him, leaving her even more confused. Mary saw James, puffed out with handfuls of photos, walk through the doorway. "While doing the security scans..." James wheezed, trying to catch his breath "...I found these in your bags. I thought you might want to see them again". Mary got off the bed, making sure that she didn't bruise her table when getting down, and walked towards James. He placed the photos upon the nearest table in the room. Mary peered over James's shoulder. "Photos?" Mary thought "Why would I have photos? Photos of what?". A slowly building painful vibration started to return to Mary's mind. "Ow, the headaches back again" Mary thought, rubbing the top left of her furry forehead. James moved away from the photos to give Mary a better look, mentally crossing his fingers, praying that this worked and didn't backfire. "I don't understand, what are these, David?" Mary asked. James felt his heart droop down to his stomach, yet he kept his straight-forward, professional face to hide the several panicking thoughts running through his head. Struggling to find another solution, he just said on a whim "Have a look". Mary reached out and grabbed the first photo that was on top of the pile. Lifting it into her view, she saw a photo of a young kangaroo, a young fennec fox and a young man. They sort of looked familiar to someone Mary knew, or she didn't know them at all, but something felt familiar. The kangaroo looked familiar as well, she looked like someone she's seen before, but she wasn't too sure. Mary didn't know what to say, were these just random photos that James picked out? The building pain in Mary's head started to grow a bit more. "Uh... t-thank you? James, are these yours?" Mary asked, continuing to rub her sore head. James realised that he had to do more than just show her the pictures. "They're yours, Mary. They were in your bags when I did the security check" James replied. "They're mine?" Mary thought "How would they... they... the-th-t-y-ye-yes... yes... I remember now... But I don't know what of. They look familiar but I can't remember them". James saw from Mary's blank expression that the nanobots had started changing what Mary thought of the photos, slowly starting to create fake memories for her, but it clearly wasn't enough for her to believe them. He knew that he had to ease in the "memories" for Mary to believe them. James pointed at one of the people in the image, the young kangaroo in the loose blue jacket "Surely, you know her, right?". Mary's thoughts continued to change "Well, no I don't, James, I don't know...who...wait...no, I do...I do know...I just can't...remember...her name...". James continued to ease in the change "It's you, Mary. The kangaroo in the middle is you". Mary's mind was abuzz, as soon as James said her name when showing the girl in the middle of the photo, her mind started to create a vision of what happened in the "memory". "It's... me..." Mary said, while slowly moving her paw towards herself in the photo "I was... young... then...". James nodded, trying to continue the change in memory. "There's also Mark and Jenny" James said, pointing to the young man and young fennec fox either side of Mary "Your friends, remember?". "Mark?... Jenny?... Yes... I remember... Mark... Jenny... my friends..." Mary said in a trance-like state. Mary's mind started to create not only the vision of what happened but also the story behind it. "It was my 18th..." Mary started to reminisce "We were on an overseas trip that our school provided us... It was Italy... I remember now...". Mary slowly grabbed another photo, and another, and another, going through them, trying to remember more about what happened, moving about as she told her "story". "My friends were so supportive of me that day... They knew that I had a rough year... I had to take care of my mother... I didn't have much free time... Every day was some sort of work... I was so worried about being away from my mother... so far away from her..." Mary looked on through the photos that she had in her paws, slowly glazing through them while the nanobots continue to create the memories of her friends. James continued to ease her "memories" into Mary's mind. "What did they do to make that day special?" James asked. Mary looked down at the photos. For some reason, her headache would seem to die down when she looked at them. "It was the afternoon... I was studying... Mark and Jenny... invited me..." Mary continued to reminisce. "Invited you?" James asked. "Invited me... to go out... I didn't feel like going out... or celebrating... my birthday... They... invited me... to get something to eat..." Mary's thoughts started to cement the fake memories that were entering her mind. "I was hungry... so I went with them... They planned this whole journey during the trip... of what we were going to do on my birthday... We had traditional Italian pizza... I had my first drink of alcohol... I didn't want more than one glass... We talked and we talked... Mark tried to ask a girl out... he was almost successful... but they didn't get to do much during the trip... he had to study which took up most of his time that he could of spent with her...Then we spent the rest of the day... sitting by the pier... watching the sunset... the yellows, oranges, reds and purples were so beautiful in the sky... I felt like I could stay there forever... That's when I took the photo... It was one of the best things that has ever happened to me...". Mary's headache stopped. James knew that the memories had fully been "installed" into her mind. Mary stood in the centre of the room, still in a trance-like state. "Mary?" James tried to wake her up from the trance "Are you okay?". Mary shook her head slightly and immediately blushed in embarrassment "Oh, sorry James. This usually happens when I try to reminisce. I'm sorry". "No, don't apologise, It's fine. It's nice to hear a story about you, Mary" James replied. James noticed that Mary let go of the cotton pad "Oh, I see that you've been all healed up". Mary tried to look at her arm, but most of her fur did cover the "mark" left by the "flu shot". "Alright, since that is now over, I'll pass over your luggage to you. Could you please wait outside of my office?" James asked. Mary didn't have time to answer as James already cut her off. "Thank you". James said, and with that he walked off to return to his office. Mary was stunned by how James left. She looked back to her photos left on the table, flipping through each one, smiling at the memories she had with Mark and Jenny all those years ago...
Mary was a bit annoyed waiting outside of James's office, he still hadn't answered her question, so she had to do something she never expected to do to a professional like James, to use her stern mother voice. James walked out with items that he'd collected from Jess's and her friends bags that he thought were perfect for Mary and placed them by Mary's feet. He looked up, expecting Mary to help him carry the box, only to see Mary, arms folded, narrowed eyes glaze upon him. "James" Mary said, sternly. "Yes, Mary?" James replied. "We need to talk" Mary said, tapping her left foot on the tiled floor. "What about?" James asked. Mary gave a piercing stank eye to James "You know". "I'm sorry, Mary, but I don't" James said, trying to act all innocent while inside his head he was panicking and afraid Mary will just kick his ribs open. "The staff" Mary replied. James mentally rolled his eyes. "Mary, this is were the staff are" James explained to Mary "As you know, half of the staff are still yet to come. The others have other things going on. The other doctors are set up in Peru, they are currently working with other doctors with a surgery of a young little boy with a brain tumour. The other nurses are currently in Britain at the moment, collaborating with the NHS. The janitors here are helping other janitors because of a strike that has happened recently because of how some of them have been treated, thankfully we treat out janitors with respect so our janitor is just helping out people rather than going on strike themselves. The allied health professionals are out helping people in Bali, and the assistants and volunteers are currently on holiday". Mary was stunned by his response. She didn't think about what the other staff may be doing. "I'm sorry, James, I didn't really-" Mary whimpered. "Mary, it's okay. Don't worry...
...the others will come soon".