this colour scheme is kinda grapefruit delight

OKAY SO. claps my hands together. dr morgan wells was hired at the hospital a good amount of years before crane, and actually enjoyed working there for a while! she liked being able to take care of people in need. then the whole anomaly thing started (also i still dont know most of the lore so just bear with me this is all vague ideas anyway) and not long after dr orini crane joined the team as a kidney specialist. wells, already exhausted from work and becoming disillusioned because of a certain Doctor Harlow's actions, immediately hated the guy. doesn't exactly help that crane was more than willing to take part in this silly little work rivalry. for a good portion of time the two were in a (slightly homoerotic) work rivalry.

and then, one day, there was an anomaly attack. (absolutely staple of anything animal hospital, of course, i had to add it in there.) dr crane is doing their best to take care of patients, running from room to room, until she bursts into a room and finds a mimic eating a patient. yknow, pretty standard stuff. but poor little dr crane has never seen this before, it is still new at this job! they didn't know what to do! and then, just when it seems the patient is about to be fully devoured, something flies past crane's face, and the next thing he knows there's a mimic's blood splattered across the far wall. the patient, as always, goes "im getting the FUCK out of here" and runs past the cat, who turns round to see none other than dr wells towering over her. the anesthesiologist takes one look at them, scoffs, and practically throws the gun at it. "you're gonna need to learn to defend yourself for next time," they say over her shoulder as she turns and starts to walk away. "just don't get too trigger-happy with that, now," and then she turns the corner, and orini crane is left standing still with a gun in their hands and a shellshocked look on its face. because, like, what do you MEAN the most nonchalant doctor in this hospital just casually shot a LITERAL MAN-EATING MONSTER in the face, GAVE HER THE GUN, and then WALKED AWAY?! nuh uh, this kitty needs answers.

of course, wells leaves that night as soon as their shift's over, giving crane no chance to say anything to them, but that's alright! it'll just keep trying to start up a conversation with the equine every chance she does get! many filler episodes later, crane is...no closer to figuring out wells' whole deal, but wells does seem a bit more at ease around the younger doctor. i mean, she still hates the guy, don't get her wrong, but it's a little less annoying ever since they saved him (and that rando patient i guess) from that mimic that one time. plus, maybe she actually ain't so bad after all. but then shit hits the fan, as it always does.

i don't know exactly what happens. maybe there's another anomaly attack, maybe one just managed to sneak in, i dunno. whatever the case, though, dr wells has an emergency surgery one night, locking herself in the OR until she's finished. except...she doesn't come out. way after it should have been over, crane finds itself worrying over their supposed rival. the cat decides, in a period where there's not many patients, to go check up on his colleague. crane walks down the hallway - footsteps echoing an odd amount, even for this empty creepy hospital, but whatever - steps up to the door, places her hand on the doorknob. flinches back. it's burning hot. like there's- a fire, or something, right on the other side of the door, but the little teeny tiny window on the top doesn't seem to have any light coming from it. in fact, the room seems entirely dark. normally, crane would just chalk this up to regular animal hospital weirdness, vow to steer clear of this room for the rest of their shift, and go about his night. except that dr wells is still in there. and crane's worried about her.

the thought of fire earlier sparks in its mind, and they have an idea. crane turns tail, practically stomps over to the over end of the hall, and snatches the fire extinguisher off of the wall. (the nurse is watching them from the front desk, tilting their head in mild concern, before turning their attention back to the patients.) crane drags the fire extinguisher all the way down to the surgery room, and before they can psych themselves out of the idea, raises it about her head and brings it down on the door. because i don't understand how physics work, the door swings open - if not splintering just the slightest bit - and crane walks in. and almost runs right back out. and instead shuts the door behind them.

because what he sees is not anything he has seen before. granted, crane's never actually taken part in a surgery, but they are pretty sure a mass of purple-green tentacles coming out of a very much not alive patient would qualify as not normal. and there, sitting with their head buried in her knees, surgeon's gown coated with half-dried blood and a bloodied scalpel on the floor beside her, is dr morgan wells. crane drops the fire extinguisher, and it rolls loudly across the floor. dr wells doesn't flinch, but they didn't look up at the sound of the door crashing open, so crane isn't all that surprised by that. (also the literal actual monster coming out of a patient on the surgery table is taking up more of their attention right now.) crane glances, one more time, between the monster and her coworker, and eventually (as in, after like three seconds) sits down next to the anesthesiologist.

"i didn't know that..." crane pauses, their tail slowly coming to curl around its legs. wells still doesn't stir. "i thought that you didn't like to operate alone."

after a few agonizingly long moments, dr wells sighs. "i don't," she mutters without lifting their head. "but..."

crane thinks about scooting a bit closer, but decides against it after a few seconds of silence. "but what?" she prompts instead, ears angled fully toward the older doctor.

wells sits unmoving for what feels like forever, and crane considers asking again. just in case she hadn't heard. but then she finally lifts her head from her knees, and crane has to physically stop himself from flinching back at the sight of her face, so covered in blood it's practically dripping off of her fur. their mask is nowhere to be found, and the bits of her mane that poke out from their surgeon's bonnet are frizzy and wild-looking. the bags under her bloodshot eyes are deeper than normal, tinged a bruisy purpleish colour. all in all, she looks...well...

"you look like shit." there's a beat of silence, before crane gasps and slaps her hands over her own mouth. "oh my god, i-i'm so sorry-" why the fuck would you say that?! stupid, stupid- "you look- i mean, it's not- you're-"

but dr wells bursts out laughing. crane stills, tilting its head slightly, as wells slowly devolves from chuckling to downright hysterical laughter.

crane watches, face creasing with concern, as wells doubles over, practically wheezing from laughing so hard. she frowns, hesitantly reaching out a hand, to place on her shoulder or- or pat her head, he didn't really even know what he was trying to do. "Hey, man, it's oka-"

"Are you FUCKing kidding me?!" Wells shouts suddenly, shoving Crane away and stumbling to her feet, still giggling. "What, do you think this is a goddamn game?!"

Crane stares at the older doctor, eyes laced with concern and something closer to fear, too. "Wh- what? Morgan, are you-"

"People are dying, Crane!" Wells grins, teeth flashing white against the blood spattered across her face. "Everyone who comes to this godforsaken hospital is dying! You're dying! I'm-" The smile falls, crumbling like a child's block tower getting kicked over. "I'm..."

Crane slowly gets to his feet, movements careful like he's trying not to startle a wild animal. "Morgan..." Her hand hovers over the gun, her gun, that they always keep close to their side after that incident. "Come...come with me. We can get you cleaned up, tell the others what happened, and then-"

"No." Crane blinks. Wells glares at them, fists clenched. "I'm not leaving their side," she growls, head angled toward the patient's cooling body on the table.

"Morgan, they're gone. I'm-" The doctor whips back around to face him, eyes wild. Crane's eyes lower, for a split second, and notices the scalpel is still in her hands. "...sorry."

The two stand silent for a long moment. Crane's hand continues to hover over its gun. Just in case.

Wells looks down at them, lips curling up in the slightest of snarls. Then they sigh. "Look...kid," she starts, sounding absolutely exhausted, in the way they always did after a long shift. Sounding slightly more like herself. "I know you're new here. I know that ain't your fault, either. But you have to understand-" She takes a step forward, Crane bristles slightly and steps back. "-there's things going on here that just...you don't get to know everything." Wells blinks, eyes drooping with exhaustion. "And you don't get to fix everyone."

Crane tilts their head, whiskers twitching. Wells continues. "But that doesn't mean it gets any easier. When they..." She swallows, ears flattening as her eyes widen slightly. "And you never, never stop blaming yourself-!" They throw their arms out, and then stops. Realises Crane has their gun pointed right at her face, shaking hands and bushy tail curled between its legs.

Wells looks at the gun, at the scalpel in her own hand. Scoffs, almost mildly amused. "Right. The bloody doctor you've known a year is more of a threat than every other anomaly in this hospital right now."

Crane's eyes narrow. "Morgan, I don't-"

"You don't wanna hurt me, I get it." Wells shrugs, eyes closing casually. "We're coworkers. Colleagues. You just can't do that to someone you know." She barks a laugh. "Hell, you've never even hit an anomaly, have ya? Why, it's almost like you could be one of em!"

"Stop it," Crane growls, tightening her grip on the gun like Wells is wrong. They don't have a murderous bone in their body, truth be told.

And Wells knows it, and she grins wider than a poorly disguised anomaly. "Aw, did I touch a nerve? Kitty doesn't like all this anomaly talk, huh?"

"Morgan, please, just...put the scalpel down," Crane tries to say calmly, but ends up coming out like a shaky pleading request. "We're- aren't we friends?"

Wells pauses, fixing Crane with an unreadable look in her eyes. The cat continues, thinking they've started to get through. "We're friends, yeah? So, just...I'm trying to help you. Friends help each other. Friends listen to each other, so please just listen to me, and put the scalpel down-"

"Oh, we're friends?!" Wells bursts out, a crooked grin distorting her face. (Crane swears they almost look like fucking fangs.) "Yeah, sure, we're friends. I've hated you since the second you stepped foot and claw into this hospital but yeah, let's say we are friends!" Wells takes another step forward, and Crane all but scrambles backward, gun shaking in its hands. "Well, let me tell you something, friend," she snarls, as Crane nearly trips over a drain plate in the floor. "Here, in this place, you can listen to other people. You can follow orders, do everything exactly as you're told, and guess what?!" Wells continues her advance, and Crane's back hits the door. "Everything STILL goes wrong! There is NOTHING you can do to save ANY of these people, so why even bother?!" (Hidden from view, the patient on the table beneath the monster has a clean line cut across their throat.) "Why can't we all just be free of this hell?! We can be better than this! We can cut them free from this place-" Wells takes one more step, leaning in closer and closer to Crane- "And we can save them from this miserable suffering that Harlow-"

BANG!

Thud.

"..."

Crane's fur bristles at the feeling of someone else's blood on their face. Stiffens as Wells falls forward into her arms, not even daring a glance at her face. The gun falls from its hands with a clatter on the floor.

They can't remember how long they stood there - he certainly doesn't want to know - only remembers shoving her body off of them and stumbling down the hallway. Someone meets them there, one of her coworkers, they're sure, alerted by either the gunshot or the security cameras. (It vaguely recalls a flash of red-pink fur, the nurse's.) Next thing she knows, he's laying in one of the patient beds. The OR is completely closed off, yellow tape and all. Someone's mopped up Crane's own bloody footprints from the hallway.

The cat sighs, turning over onto its side and closing their eyes. Trying not to let certain memories flash onto her eyelids. (It's not that hard, he's like, really tired.)

Eventually, the ghost of the late Morgan Wells will catch up to them. She's stuck haunting this goddamn hospital, it seems. Might as well drag the little prick who killed her down with them.

Eventually, Orini Crane will go missing on her shift, leaving behind a clump of orange-brown fur and a gun that hasn't been fired since that night.

For tonight, she sleeps, blissfully unaware of the nightmares he'll suffer every night after this one.