#next chapter!!!

Mrs. S led Sarah inside through the doors into the disturbingly white and clean corridor. To Sarah's left was a large hallway that turned right a few yards from where Sarah stood and again at the end of the hall and. The same layout was to her right. In front of her to her right was a small open office type space where two women sat, typing away on their computers, filing reports of something. Down the hall, directly behind the office, Sarah could see a pair of twin staircases across from each other. Distantly, Sarah could see there were more doors down the hallway and wondered what was back there. To her immediate left, in front of the staircase and across from the front office space was an elevator that had what appeared to have a card swipe machine to access it. 'Wow,' Sarah thought to herself. 'These people really don't fuck around do they?'

A hand on her back brought her out of thought when Mrs. S turned to her and gestured toward the desks with her right hand, her left hand on the small of Sarah's back as she led her forward.

"Hello, Marion," S greeted a woman at the woman glanced up and gave a smile that Sarah didn't trust. The unnaturally pale woman seemed to be tall, even though she was sitting down. She had medium length curled black hair, and an obviously aged face, but still seemed youngish. 'Late 40's?' Sarah guessed.

"Hello Siobhan," the woman greeted sweetly and Sarah wanted to call bull on her. "This is Sarah Manning, I assume?" she questioned. Sarah shifted awkwardly. Mrs. S smiled and nodded.

"Yes, this is her," she replied. "I assume all her paperwork is done?"

Marion smiled again and nodded. "Most of it, yes. There are a few things I emailed to you that you need to fill out yourself. Her room is ready with miss Niehaus on the LEDA floor."

S smiled and Sarah was quickly getting tired with all the smiling around here. "Great. We'll be heading there now."

"Have a nice day, then. And don't worry Sarah, you'll get used to it here," she called. Sarah gave an awkward nod and tired a smile that didn't really seem to fit her face. Standing in front of the elevator, Mrs. S pulled the name tag that was clipped to her shirt off and slid it through the slot next to it and the doors slid open. She gestured for Sarah to step in first. Once inside, Sarah stood awkwardly in the back, not sure what floor they were going to. S stepped in and gave her a small smile before turning to the button panel and pressing the button next to the number six, the lowest button there. 'Top floor then?' Sarah thought to herself. 'Hopefully I'll have a view then.' The ride up was silent as Sarah stood next to the woman, clutching her bag.

After a moment, the elevator bell finally rang, and it came to a slow stop. The doors slid open and Sarah was met with the sight of the forest her and Mark and drive through earlier out the window. She and the nurse stepped out and turned to their left, met with an office set in the wall identical to the one below. The half way that the desks were built into were paste white, as well was the support beam that stood in the corner edge. Sarah followed S awkwardly and leaned on the pole as the nurse spoke with a dark skinned woman who was apparently named Amelia. They said their polite "hello"s and the subject moved to Sarah and the teen blocked out the conversation and took the time to step away and look around.

She made her way to the window and looked down and the perfectly cut grass and perfect paved road, Mark's car long her left was a hall and the entire left wall seemed to be one long window, nearly identical to the first floor below. To her right, in a space further back than the desks, was a pair of white doors with circle windows where a person's face normally is and Sarah wondered if anything around here had any color. A glance behind her past the desks showed a staircase heading down to the right and Sarah remembered they were on the top floor. Along both halls was about two doors each and Sarah wondered how many people lived on this floor.

"Sarah?" Mrs. S called and Sarah's eyes flicked to the woman in question, who looked like she had been trying to gain her attention for some time. "This way love, your room is waiting."

Sarah picked up her bag that she had laid against the half wall of the corner office and followed the woman down the middle hallway. She gave the staircase a glance before turning her head to the left to watch as they passed two rooms. The doors looked like they were made from metal, and there was a small window around face height in each one. Both lights were off inside and she wondered if anyone lived in them. At the end of the hall was exactly like the beginning of the hall, only reversed: two doors to her right and a hall of windows so big, they took up the entire wall and there was no space in between. A quick glance above the doors and Sarah saw a sign that read "LEDA Medical Wing." Then she noticed that S had started talking the moment they started walking down the hallway.

"So this floor we're on is the LEDA rehabilitation wing, also known as the women's rehab floor. This is where all the women around your age stay. This entire building is part of a series of hospital wings belonging to the medical company DYAD. This building focuses on adolescents from age 16 to age 20. Not much of a wide range, but we get our share of patients." They turned left and walked down the hallway, Sarah trailing behind the nurse, glancing in doors as they passed. The first door was closed but the lights were on and Sarah saw a flash of a tall girl with short blonde hair. The next door was closed and the lights were off and Sarah concluded no one lived in that room. "You will be sharing a room with one of our residents until we can conclude that you are safe to be living on your own."

They finally reached the end of the hall and turned the corner and once again the outer wall was one big window. A few steps from the corner was a closed door and upon quick inspection, Sarah could see the lights were on. A quick glance down the hall showed another open door near the other corner, and Sarah wondered who lived there. Sarah didn't have much time to wonder before the door in front of her was pulled open by Mrs. S and she stepped inside and Sarah followed.

The room was somewhere between small and medium all around, and Sarah figured the incredibly high ceilings, like the ones that ran through the rest of the building, made the room feel bigger than it actually way. The door seemed to be in the middle of the room. To her right was an empty twin bed, perfectly made.A tall wooden dresser stood against the wall at the foot of the bed. Next to the bed was a small bedside table with two drawers. Behind her was an empty wood desk shoved into the corner with a small black metal lamp on top and Sarah was glad that the annoyingly white room had some bleak wood to change the color in the slightest. That's when Sarah realized there was some random rave/remix song playing on the left side of the room and someone else was in here.

Sarah came face to face with a girl who seemed around her age. She was close to her height and build but slimmer and seemed lighter. Her dreaded hair was pulled back into a bun and her big glasses looked like they were going to fall off her face in any second. Her hands flowed around her as she let them dance, her sleeves on her long red sweater robe type deal falling down, allowing Sarah to catch sight of two different tattoos on her wrists. She kept her face down, focusing on some book, not seeming to realize there were people in the room with her.

"Cosima," Mrs. S called, politely addressing her, and the girl's head shot up and turned to them, her nose ring glinting slightly, reflecting the light in the room. Her hand reached over and paused the small iPod that sat in it's dock, stopping the music that had been flowing through the room. "This is Sarah Manning. She's your new roommate for the time being. I want you to help her out by being kind to her and helping her out around here. You remember how difficult it was for you when you first arrived." Cosima smiled and her cute fangy grin made Sarah smile back.

The girl tagged the corner of her page in her book down before closing it and untangling her crossed stood and slipped her feet into a pair of blue slippers and extended her hand kindly to Sarah. "Hey," she greeted with a smile that Sarah could tell was genuine. "I'm Cosima. I'm the geek monkey around here." She giggled and Sarah's smile increased a bit more. Sarah found herself oddly comfortable around the girl.

With a smile, Mrs. S turned to Sarah. "Well, this is where I take my leave. I'll be back in a little bit to take you around and help you get used to the schedule around here." With that, she gave a small nod and turned to leave.

"Hey, S?" Sarah called quickly and suddenly froze with fear, unsure of what she was actually trying to say. The nurse turned to her expectantly and Sarah offered her a small smile. "Thank you for being so kind. It.. it helps."

"You're welcome, love," she replied, closing the door behind her as she left.

Sarah let out a sigh and turned to Cosima, had sat on the edge of her bed, watching the two. Cosima offered her another smile, shifting awkwardly at the silence.

"You can turn your music back on if you want, yeah? I'm just gonna unpack real quick and try and relax a bit," Sarah said, gesturing to the girl's iPod. Cosima nodded and pressed play, returning to her book and Sarah noticed it was some kind of science text book. Shaking her head, she turned to her bag that she had tossed lamely onto her bed when she walked in.

She pulled it open and dumped it onto the mattress. She spread the clothes out and tried to see all of what she had. She was grateful that she had a fairly large bag and was grateful Helena made sure all her clothes were pack. Sarah gave a sad sigh at the thought of her sister. Was she okay? Was she keeping herself clean? Fed? Out of trouble? Sarah knew that Helena and her had connections and had places to stay if she needed them. Bobby the bartender had always been kind to the girls, letting the girls stay in her apartment from time to time, especially in the winter when the snow fell heavily on the streets and the temperature plummeted outside.

Sarah counted 4 T-shirts, 3 sweaters, 2 flannels, 3 tank tops, and her favorite hoodie, along with 7 various pairs of dark skinny jeans, her favorite pair of black shorts, 5 pairs of socks, 6 pairs of underwear, and 3 bras. Most of the clothes were stolen and she was praying that no one found that out or she would be looking at more time here or prison time. And she couldn't have that. She sat down on the bed with a sigh and began unlacing her shoes, placing them under the bed and getting up to put away her clothes. Her pants went in the bottom drawer, shirts and jackets in the middle one, and the rest in the top drawer. When she was done, she took a moment to look around the room. While her side of the room was bare and boring, Cosima's side was colorful, posters littering the wall.

One large poster over the head of the bed was a black poster with red and blue and yellow strands of DNA and other things floating around that Sarah couldn't identify if her life depended on it. There were other posters similar to that, along with one or two posters promoting weed that Sarah could guess were frowned upon here, and others promoting LGBT pride. Sarah studied the girl closely, trying to guess her orientation, before frowning at herself. 'It's none of your damn business what she likes between someone's legs, Sarah. You don't even know yourself, so don't even start.' Annoyed with her sassy internal voice that she mentally muttered 'Bitch..' at, Sarah laid back on the bed and closed her eyes, quickly managing to drift asleep. _________________________________________

AN: Thoughts? Love it? Hate it? Tired of the windows yet? Because Rachel isn't. Next chapter: meeting the other residents and managing schedules.