Missing Pieces
Jenny was restless. It was unnerving, the silence in her mind. It actually allowed her to hear her own thoughts above any other extraneous noise and that was a strange feeling.

She caught herself looking at people in a new light, how everyone looked so different without that sparkle around them, the lack of radiating light that told Jenny how healthy they were, how close to death.

She was at the hospital again, sitting in the waiting room and waiting for Alec to come onto his lunch break so that they could go and get food, or coffee, or something. She had already had a fairly good conversation with one of the nurses about anti-psychotics and she had spoken to a couple of patients, but that itch underneath her skin was crawling, knowing that she should be able to see and hear more than she could was unsettling. It was wrong in so many ways; why couldn't she hear them? Those idle thoughts that plagued the minds of everyone? And what had happened that meant she couldn't see people's lives anymore?

She supposed she should be grateful? She was normal now. She was better. Fixed. Whatever her father wanted to call it, she wasn't a freak anymore. But she wasn't special anymore either. As much as her 'gift' had plagued her, she missed it. She didn't like the silence.

"Excuse me," she said of a passing nurse, "Do you know where Dr Reed is?"

"Why?" The nurse - whose name was Marcie Hutchings - asked, not unkindly. She knew Jenny - she had seen her around.

"Well, I'm supposed to be meeting him so we can go and grab some lunch when he gets a break." she explained, the coherent sentence and thought undisturbed by the usual buzzing in her mind.

Nurse Hutchings gave Jenny a smile. "If I see him, sweetie, I'll let him know." If she seemed surprised at the coherent woman in front of her, then she didn't let it show. Instead, she just put her pen in her pocket and moved away from the plastic chairs (Jenny thought they were extremely uncomfortable) and towards the ward.

Alec hadn't been lying in his text message conversation with Toby, the hospital had literally gone insane. People had come in with the weirdest of complaints, expecting the doctors to be able to put together their psyches. Last time Alec checked he was an actual doctor not a shrink. Ugh, shrinks. He had finally extracted himself from the massive influx of people and into the locker room so he could change out of his work related clothing and into something more comfortable for lunch, a lunch he was having with Jenny who had sounded really freaked out on the phone.

He slammed the door of his locker and stepped out, barely avoiding a Mrs Carson, she'd come in earlier with complaints about hearing loss, but as far as Alec could tell there was nothing wrong with her. She just wouldn't leave him alone. Oh, to be four feet tall. Alec hid in the shadow of a nearby doorway and waited until the coast was clear before he attempted sneaking out.

Alec spotted Jenny straight away and without so much as stopping he clasped her arm in his hand and hurried her to her feet. "C'mon, we gotta move." He turned his head and chanced a look over his shoulder. "Oh, shit, I think she spotted me." He picked up the pace until the pair of them were almost running, but not quite. It was only when they were out of the hospital and a fair distance away that Alec let go of Jenny and breathed out slowly, very relieved.

"Sorry about that, it's been..." He waved a hand absently. "Crazy today."

Jenny looked over her shoulder as she was all but dragged out of the hospital. She wondered how they were running from, and she couldn't help but laugh at the sudden rush that Alec insisted on them leaving the hospital in. She rubbed her upper arm when he let go, unable to feel that familiar prickling of goosebumps. It was perturbing.

"It's alright. Crazy how?" she asked, tipping her head at him as they walked, a much slower pace she was glad to say. Her legs were nowhere near as long as Alec's and it was hard enough keeping up with him normally, let alone when he was power-walking (or nearly running, as the case had been). "You do look kinda frazzled." It was a gentle tease.

Even the way she spoke seemed less... spacey. Like she was more sure of the words that were coming from her mouth, that she knew they were her own rather than someone else's just being channelled thought her lips. "Who were we running from?" she added after a moment. Normally, she wouldn't have had to ask. A thought as urgent as that would have wandered into her head uninvited.

Alec might have been frazzled, but he wasn't frazzled enough to overlook the difference in Jenny. She seemed more... together, and that sounded bad, he knew that, but it was true. She was usually a little on the vague side, distracted by the thoughts of other people. This Jenny seemed composed in a way Alec had never seen her in the time he'd known her.

"You feeling okay?" He asked, ignoring her questions in favour of inquiring about her health.

"You didn't answer my question," Jenny pointed out before she just shrugged. She rubbed the back of her neck and dropped her head, kicking a stone on the pavement and watching it bounce ahead of them. It went off the sidewalk and onto the road, stopped when it got rolled over by the wheel of a car.

Was she feeling okay? "I don't know," she finally answered, honestly. "Something bad happened, and now I can't hear anything. Or see anything. And look-" she stopped walking and tugged Alec to a halt. She rolled up her sleeve and then reached out to touch him. No goosebumps lifted on her arm. "-nothing."

"Huh," Alec muttered as he watched Jenny's skin and didn't see the normal spread of goosebumps that she usually got whenever she touched him. "That is weird." He lifted a hand and scrubbed his fingers through his short hair, tips catching on a few freckles that happened to be on the side of his neck.

"When did it start?" Alec chanced a look at the hospital and decided that they needed to start walking now, before Mrs Carson caught sight of him. him.

"Isn't it?" Jenny rubbed her arm before she pulled down her sleeve. "I don't like it very much, it's too quiet. When you've always had the sounds of other people in your mind and then suddenly they're gone, it's... strange. Taking some getting used to." She offered a sad smile. "I actually miss it."

She spotted him looking back at the hospital. "Are we needing to move again?" she asked, "Who are we running away from?"

She then supposed she had to answer his question. "The day that I phone you. Or maybe before... I don't know, my memory's a little... hazy. I woke up in an alley. I had a bruise on my shoulder that looked like I'd been given an injection, but like it had been shoved in rather than injected. Like a tranquiliser or something. I got given one of those once in my thigh, it left a similar bruise."

"A woman called Mrs Carson," Alec muttered. "She came in about a problem with her hearing, but there's nothing wrong with it, and she won't accept that answer. Total hypochondriac."

He began away from the hospital. "I know a place not too far away from him, does great pizza." Alec's brow furrowed at what Jenny had to say. "An injection? Do you remember letting somebody get that close to you?" It sounded like somebody had drugged her.

Alec slipped his hands into the pockets of his jeans and waited at the crossing for the lights to turn red.

"Huh, hypochondriacs are the worst. People like that watch the TV and then decide that they've got whatever current virus is doing the rounds. I think they just love scaring themselves, don't you? Or maybe it's an attention seeking thing, they're lonely and want some reason for the people they care about to flock around them?" Jenny pushed the button again and then slid her hands up into her sleeves to keep her fingers warm.

"Pizza is good," she agreed. It might be nice to go into a restaurant and be able to focus on the food and conversation. "Though, I won't be able to mentally traumatise you this time around." She winked as the crossing lights flicked to 'walk'.

She shook her head. "I don't remember letting anyone get that close," she admitted, "Like I said, it's hazy. I remember being in some kind of basement. And there was a guy in a hat. He had all these shelves, and on it were bottles with lights in them, at least, they looked like lights." She shrugged. "That sounds even more crazy than what I usually come out with, right?" she laughed.

"Well," Alec drawled with a smirk. "That's always good to know."

He listened to her story and arched an eyebrow, it did sound pretty crazy. "I wasn't going to say anything," Alec remarked with a chuckle and shake of his head. "But if you've suddenly stopped hearing and seeing things then it stands to reason that something must have happened in those hazy moments."

Alec opened the door to the restaurant for Jenny and stepped in behind her, asking for a table for two. "Wonder if it's happened to anybody else?"

Jenny shrugged, "I feel like a part of me is missing." And she did, it was like there was an emptiness inside of her, something that she needed to get back before she lost herself completely. There was a fear there, what if she never got it back?

The waiter crossed over, picking up two menus and asking the pair to follow him, weaving expertly through the tables, showing them to their table.

Once they were seated, Jenny looked at the menu. "It is... nice, though. I suppose. I can hear myself think again. That hasn't happened for a long time." She smiled, then looked concerned, "Whatever did this, it didn't get you too, did it?" She hadn't thought to ask Alec, if it had happened to her, and maybe to other people too, perhaps this person - this man in a hat - would be coming after him

Alec thanked the waiter for the menus and then scratched at his ear, lifting his shoulders into a shrug. "I don't know? I don't have my thing figured out just yet." He decided he'd order a coffee and maybe that pepperoni pizza that this place was so famous for. "I don't recall getting jumped on with somebody wielding an injection so I think I'm safe."

He placed the menu down and tapped his fingers against the table, unaware he was doing it. "Whatever happened to you there has to be a way for it to be reversed but I don't know any injections in the medical world that can take something like that away so I'm thinking we're talking..." Alec looked around before leaning in to whisper, "Supernatural."

Jenny glanced over the menu again, running her finger down it to help her focus on it, though she found that she didn't need the extra help. It was a strange feeling. "I'm sure if there was an injection in the medical world, my parents would have found it." She gave a rueful smile.

She lifted her shoulders. "I- It's just taking some getting used to. I want it back, even though I guess I'm normal now." She glanced up and around the people sat at the restaurant, wondering what it would be like to hear what they were thinking. Trying to enjoy not being able to hear it. It did feel like there was an emptiness where something ought to be. Like there was something missing. "So, how was work crazy today?"

"I don't think there is such a thing as normal," Alec pointed out with a shake of his head. "If you think about it we're all individuals with strengths and weaknesses, what I like somebody else won't like or will think is weird, nobody's the same and I don't think any of us are normal. A lot of people will look at... the Brady Bunch for example and think that's normal, but if you look at it really closely, they're all way too close and nobody thinks like that. Normal? I think not."

Alec rubbed at the side of his neck, seeking out knots of tension. "Just this sudden influx of people that have apparently gone mad overnight. I swear it's like the entire city woke up and decided that they needed medical care straight away."

Jenny blinked at Alec's Brady Bunch reference. She didn't think he was anywhere near old enough to have watched that when it was on TV. It was shown in the 1960s. Unless he watched repeats, she supposed. But still, it had never been on when she was younger. She saw the movie once, it was on some kind of lame TV channel early afternoon before she had been banned from the rec room because it was too stimulating. She could barely remember it, though, so she decided it was better not to comment.

"There isn't a set normal, you're right, but- I mean, there's something close to what everyone else thinks to be normal." She looked at Alec as he rubbed his neck. "Sore? ...Huh, that's weird. So it's been busy rather than crazy, unless you've had an influx of mental patients all demanding medical care?"

"Normal's overrated," Alec shared with a smile.

He turned his head and made an order of both food and drink when the waiter came over to see if they were ready. Alec passed the menu back and waited until Jenny had made her order and the waiter had gone away to give direction to the kitchen to continue speaking.

"Busy, crazy, it all works." He yawned and apologised for it. "Long shifts, gotta love them."

Jenny made her order and wriggled in the seat. "Normal sucks, usually."

She shrugged and leaned back in the chair once she was comfortable again. "No need to apologise, I know how tough it can be when you're working long shifts. Some of the doctors that used to look after me did the same thing, thirteen or fourteen hours before they got to go home. No wonder they were grumpy. At least you're not grumpy."

"I try my best," Alec commented with a wry smile. He wet his lower lip and then tapped his fingers against the table again, unable to keep his hand still. "I plan to do a lot of sleeping when I get home and maybe go for a late night ride, clear my head."

"Sleeping is good," Jenny agreed, "I love sleeping." She reached out and touched his hand with hers, kind of liking the fact that she didn't break out on goosebumps. There was something nice about her skin not tingling being near him. She squeezed his hand. "The hospital'll still be there when you get back." she pointed out, unsure of what was making him so restless. "Are you always this twitchy or are you waiting for a hit of something?" she asked with a small smile, trying to be light about it.

Alec chuckled and shook his head. "I'm usually quite twitchy, unable to sit still for very long. My mom said I kicked a lot in the womb so she should have known I would turn out to be a fidget." He eventually stilled his hand and just breathed out slowly, offering a quirky smile along with a shrug of his shoulders. "Might be a good idea to visit that Thoth place, it seems to be a focal point for the weird and supernatural. Could maybe point you in the right direction?"

Jenny pulled her hand back once Alec stopped twitching. "Aah, a compulsive fidget." she smiled and leaned back again as the waiter returned with their drinks. "My mom never told me what I was like when I was a baby. I guess that means I was well behaved."

That Thoth place? She lifted an eyebrow. "That Thoth place?" she repeated, "What place is 'that Thoth place'?"

"Didn't you see the news?" Alec asked with a lift of his eyebrow. "Thoth's bookstore or library, it was all over the news a while back. Run by some guy who knows a lot about the supernatural and apparently he had or has a vampire employed there. Big drama."

The waiter came over with their drinks and assured them that their food would be arriving shortly.

"I figure it could be a good place for you to go."

"A vampire?" Jenny asked, "Really? Was he a bad vampire or a good one?" she tipped her head, "I didn't see the news... I- I don't know if I was still in the hospital..." She rubbed the back of her neck. "I don't remember reading about it. But that's cool, if he wants to hire a vampire, as long as the guy's a nice one like the Avery guy I met, then it can't be all that bad."

She nodded, "Have you thought about going?" she asked, "If it's, y'know, a good place for supernatural stuff."

Alec tried to recall if the news report gave any names of the vampire, but he blanked completely. "You'd hope so. It would be pretty counterproductive for a business owner to hire a vampire that would sooner chow down on the customers than help them find the right book."

He picked up his coffee and shook his head. "Can't say that I have. Not sure I want to explore whatever the hell happened to me with a complete stranger in a bookstore. Your thing could be more... widespread than mine."

Jenny rolled her eyes. "But you should ask. You could do the whole hypothetical 'my friend' thing." she lifted her shoulders, "Or you could ask Toby to go looking for you if you didn't want to? But you should look into it. I know it kind of freaks you out but it's better for you to understand it so you know what your limits are so that it doesn't nearly kill you again." She was oddly rational, considering how she normally was.

Alec had been about to say something when the food arrived and he chose to focus on that instead. "How about we eat and just enjoy the fact I actually have some time off? Talk about something else, huh?" He'd deal with his... gift whenever he felt like it, not when other people told him to deal with it.

"Don't think I'm gonna forget you dodged the bullet this time." Jenny said with small smile. She settled to poke at her food, taking a deep breath and inhaling the food. "It smells great." The pizza she had chosen was a Hawaiian style one, ham and pineapple.

She used her fingers and picked up a piece of pineapple and popped it into her mouth, chewing on it thoughtfully. "So what do you wanna talk about?"

"Anything that doesn't revolve around me," Alec said with a nod of his head. He took a bite of his pizza and swallowed another mouthful of coffee. "Deal?" He winked at Jenny and settled into a relatively easy and completely meaningless conversation about the most recent reality show based around people living with vampiric relatives.

Irrelevant conversation, Alec could do that.

The irrelevant conversation continued for about half the meal before Jenny felt it prudent to ask; "Hey, Alec?" Once she had his attention, she glanced over at the waitress that had been just about undressing him with her eyes since they sat down and then back at her dinner companion, "Do you have a girlfriend?"

She didn't need to be psychic to know what that woman was thinking. And without everything else around to distract her, it hadn't escaped her notice how... good looking Alec was. But she was sure he knew it. She wondered how she had missed it before, but then before she had been enticed by the lights around him, the iridescent sparkle of power. "I know we weren't gonna talk about you, but y'know..."

Alec lifted an eyebrow at the sudden very out of the blue question and he cleared his throat, shaking his head. "No, no girlfriend. Woefully single." He chuckled and picked up his coffee, shrugging his shoulders. "My work's pretty demanding, never had a lot of luck with women in the past."

"What makes you ask?"

"'Not a lot of luck with women 'cause of your job?" Jenny asked, smiling to herself at the lifting of his eyebrow. She did so enjoy throwing curved balls to him. He was so fun. "Because the waitress over there, don't look now, she's got a blue headband in and sandy coloured hair, has been checking you out. I think in her mind you guys have already had a couple of visits to the bathroom or supply closet or wherever it's happening nowadays."

She picked up her soda and took a sip, grinning at Alec over the rim of the glass. "Don't need to be psychic to know what she wants."

"Mmm, sexy." Alec said with a wink, completely joking as he'd had a couple public sex experiences and in all honesty they had been pretty exciting. Totally fitted in with his whole adrenaline kick.

He scratched at his forearm and rolled his eyes. "My job's demanding, not a lot of women are willing to share, especially when predominantly my head's in the hospital. It would take a remarkable woman to keep me distracted for long."

"I can't imagine having sex in a supply closet would be a lot of fun." Jenny offered. "All with the poles and the shelves and stuff..." Then again, she had no experience whatsoever in that field. She had never even been kissed (except once by one of the other patients, Syd, who was so out of it on his anti-psychotics that it wasn't even a kiss, more that he just slobbered on her face and then fainted in front of her).

She took another sip of her drink and then put it on the table, drawing patterns in the condensation that clung to the edge of the glass with one long finger. "True, hospital comes first and all that. It sucks you haven't found someone that understands that." She laughed softly, "You make yourself sound like such high maintenance."

"Oh, it is." Alec got this look on his face accompanied by a smile that would have told Jenny pyshic or no psychic power he had some experience in that area.

Alec was quiet for a moment. "Being a doctor, it's my life passion, you know? If the woman I'm with can't appreciate that then she doesn't know me and shouldn't be with me."

He eyed their table. "I think we're done here, don't you?" Alec asked for the bill and once it arrived he dug out his wallet, covering the meal and adding a tip for the waiter as well. "And I'm paying for this, no arguing."

Jenny's cheeks coloured a little at the smile. "Is it now?" she rolled her eyes, "Why am I not surprised? It's the thrill of maybe getting caught, right?"

She nodded, finishing off her soda and idly flicking the condensation between her hands. "Yeah, it's like me being with someone who didn't understand about, you know, what I could do. Except that I can't anymore. Someone who doesn't love you for everything about you doesn't deserve you and all that, right?"

Instead of arguing, though, because Jenny knew all too well that wouldn't get her anywhere, she fanned herself with her napkin, lips curled into the tiniest of smirks. "Why Dr Reed," she started, "I do believe you're spoiling me."

"Exactly," Alec confirmed with a nod of his head. "It's a hell of a rush."

Alec rose to his feet and pushed his chair underneath the table, nodding his head in agreement to everything that Jenny had to say. "Yeah, you should be with somebody who appreciates you for everything you are, strengths, flaws, unique abilities and all. We just have yet to find somebody like that."

He glanced over his shoulder in the direction of the waitress before turning his attention back to Jenny. "Brat," he muttered warmly as he lightly nudged her with his shoulder as he walked past her to get to the door.

Jenny looked over at the waitress and grinned at her as she saw the brunette watching Alec walk out. She then turned on her heel and ran after him, reaching up to flick his ear. Twice for good measure. "Don't call me a brat, you jerk," she complained, though she clearly loved the light-hearted nature of their banter.

A couple were coming in just as Jenny and Alec reached the door, and the man held it open for them. Jenny offered him a beaming smile and slid through into the street, sliding away from Alec before he could retaliate for the flicking, yelping a little at the sudden cold wind. She fumbled with her jacket, trying to do it up again. "Gah, cold." Of course, she stopped right outside the door, so if there was to be retaliation, she was defenceless, busy doing up her coat.

Alec pulled a face and reached up to rub at his ear, even going so far as to pout about it. There was indeed retaliation in form of his hand in her hair and there was even ruffling, lots of ruffling.

"Catch me if you can," he hollered as sure enough he took off at a sprint.

Jenny's hair took to the ruffling like Alec's hand was static electricity and its carefully neat and tidy strands descended into something resembling chaos. She gasped, playfully outraged as she spun on her heel to see Alec disappearing.

"HEY!" she yelled after him, taking off at a sprint after him, "That's CHEATING!" He was taller than her and had longer legs and, clearly, was a lot fitter. Though, she was no quitter, that was for sure. She ran after him, he had to get to a crosswalk sooner or later and there, there she would get him.