April Yang and Dick Grayson share deep-rooted connections to Gotham, even if they prefer not to give them much thought and keep their emotions to themselves. When Dick turns up in Devon City, where April works towards becoming a surgeon, she inevita...
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"Reporting to you from one of the more crowded Devon buildings in recent days. I'm standing in the middle of a wild crowd; the demonstrators chose the stairs leading up to the Memorial Hospital as their safe spot to continue their dramatic starving protest. As you can see, each of them has an eye mask that effectively blocks their vision, and we've seen quite a handful of these individuals blocking the medics' way without even knowing it. This recent escalation in social rebellion could possibly trigger a long-awaited reaction from Mayor Fisher, although he hasn't given us any statements so far," the reporter said in a rush and only took a break when a woman began screaming in the crowd. "It's important to notice that the interference of police, as of now, is known to be illegal due to cautious politics of Devon. If the Mayor is eager to proceed with changing the protestors' rights, we can be sure this could only be the beginning of a testing time in our city."
April waited patiently behind the corner until the reporter finished her speech and stopped smiling. Hopeful the woman wouldn't continue and try to coerce the redhead into giving a brief interview, April darted for the hospital's main entrance.
Getting past the protestors was like navigating through a crowd of zombies; legs lazily dragging behind them due to lack of energy, lots of them also sleep-deprived and experiencing some levels of hallucination. There were a few with open and infected wounds, cuts on their knees, all when no medical professional could legally help them until they were done protesting. Manoeuvring around them was simple—it was leaving them behind in the cold that proved to be most difficult for April.
Inside, the nurses were gossiping, the attendings hiding in their private rooms, and the coffee machine still broken. Like every day, April was walking to change into her minty-green scrubs, take off her earrings and put her hair into a bun or whatever she had in mind that particular day. Per usual, she opened the door to the residents room, she waved at a few people still there, and walked up to her locker.
Something, as she realised, felt different.
"You're smiling," a guy not far from her noted. His name was Fred, or at least she had been calling him that because he was the exact copy of the character from Scooby-Doo. April was almost sure this was either the second or third time they even looked at each other. He was sitting on the bench and tying his shoe, casually glancing at her once in a while.
"Excuse me?" she asked and turned around. It wasn't common for residents in the hospital to talk to each other, as all possible relationships or friendships were considered, at best, unprofessional.
"I've never seen you smile." Fred shrugged, casually again.
"I've never seen you do anything, I barely know your name," April retorted whilst taking off her burgundy low-rise pants. Privacy, as well as embarrassment, was not an option once you stepped foot into the hospital lockers for the first time. "Heck, I don't even know if I've given my name to anyone else besides nurse Mindy." She cringed to herself, only now realising that this just might've been true.
