Chapter Text
Dr. Nia knows she’s supposed to go to sleep, even if it’s doing so on her desk.
She’s been working overtime, all because there’s a sudden spike in drug-induced addicts that are drowning in addiction and – at worst – succumbing to death.
And being a jack-of-all-trades who knows how to handle both physical and mental health, her bosses have thrusted all of the main workload onto her — “You did a great job to save that green-haired fraud (Veneer) from being an addict forever, now you’re equipped to handle this type of preventable bullshit more than a decade later!”
She scowls at the notification that has just landed in her inbox:
BOSS #1:
Dear Nia, we have an emergency of another patient needing to be transferred to the hospice section. He’s too weak after the drug’s effects have eroded his last defense in his immune system. Get ready to tell his family.
Oh, so now they’ve finally acknowledged HER efforts to save her own student, after his sister is DEAD? What a bunch of losers.
…If only she could save Velvet, perhaps FJ and Sparkles wouldn’t have to live without a mother.
Poor kids.
A single teardrop slides down from the corner of her eye…
…when it descends slightly onto her phone’s brightened screen in the dimly lit office.
Sparkles ✨:
Hi Doc. Long time no see. Based on the current drug passing incidents’ spike, my brother and I… want to talk about our mom with you. You know her, right?
Nia widens her eyes — looks like Veneer had informed both of his twin kids about their bio mom’s circumstances, huh.
And her heart sinks briefly into an abyss.
Will it devastate them, if she told them how their mother was already on the road to self-destruct, even before they were born?
Until FJ’s subsequent message changes her mind.
FJ 🩷💪:
We need to raise awareness of drugs’ drawbacks, so as to ease your workload, and more importantly — save more lives, even when we don’t know the phenomenon’s cause right now. Our mom would have wanted that. Please.
The doctor presses one hand onto her chest — dang it, it’s just like when they were puppy-eyeing her back when the two of them were wee-little innocent kids…
…little kids who just wanted their mother to get well, when she was a bedridden adult that would never grow old.
Time slows down for a few minutes in an invisible hourglass.
Before the doctor sighs, and reaches out her fingers to type out a heavily willing answer.
Dr. Nia 🥼:
Sure. How about we meet up at…