Title: Randomly
Author: Ellie
Rating: PG13, Gen
Summary: 100-word drabbles inspired by ten randomly generated words.
Author’s Notes: I had so much fun with the Clinic challenge using random songs, I used a random word generator to prompt me for these drabbles.

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Developers

“Yeah, Stacy just helped close the deal on it. Supposedly they’re going to start building next spring.”

“That’s a shame. Now you’ll have to worry about breaking windows with that slice,” said Wilson as he teed up, looking down the rolling fairway.
“She said they wanted to buy the course, too, put up more townhouses. The county’s considering it, apparently. This time next year, we might not be able to golf here.” House bounced his driver against his leg as he watched Wilson’s ball fly into the rough. “Though the way you’re playing, that might not be a bad thing.”

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Disgust

She sits at the bedside and watches, wonders how anyone can do so little in the face of such tragedy. But Allison knows now, with as much certainty as when she married him, that there’s nothing to be done. They’ve long since exhausted their options, and Mike was clear in how far he was willing to go.

Still, part of her asks, as she watches him slip away, why they shouldn’t do more, take bigger risks, try voodoo and holy water and more chemo on the off chance it might work. Most nights thinks less of herself for even wondering.

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Ethical

Frowning, Chase rattled off the vitals. They did not bode well for Mr. Griffith.

“Nothing more we can do for him, then,” said Dr. Blume. “Just make him comfortable. Set up a morphine drip and keep me posted.”

He handed the chart to his boss, who made a few notes as Chase set up the drip. He’d heard whispers about Blume’s handling of terminal patients. Reaching the door, she turned back to Chase and surveyed the patient. “We’ll do what we can.”

Frozen for a moment, he stared at the empty doorway, then nodded and continued on with his work.

****

Prostitute

With a glance at her watch, Lisa Cuddy rose from her desk, momentarily happy to leave her paperwork behind. A quick check of her compact and a touch of powder later, she shrugged into her favorite jacket.

As she crossed the hospital’s lobby, she saw the pair of gentlemen in dark suits and boring ties, their appraising gazes scanning her building. Surreptitiously, she tugged at the bottom of her jacket, inching it down just a bit further.

When she greeted the new investors, their gazes shifted from the waiting patients to her cleavage, and stayed there most of the tour.

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Taught

He flipped through the flashcards, remembering rainy days in Baltimore, doing exactly the same thing while drinking coffee and watching boats toss in the harbor. He could recall the shape of the mug, the smell of the Kenyan coffee, that flirty girl with the amazing ass who ran the register on Thursdays.

But Eric couldn’t remember what he’d been studying on those flashcards. The words now triggered memories of blue mugs and tourist families, but no recollection of the precision of the brachial plexus or the dissection of cranial nerves.

He’d forget everything he remembers to remember what he learned.

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Free

It seemed like it should be harder, something more than a swipe of alcohol, twist of rubber, and prick of the needle. Part of him wanted to feel the morphine flow through his veins like a charge. Instead, he was simply left sprawled with warm, suffusing softness, life’s edges blunted, blurry like Monet viewed from inches away.

His t-shirt felt softer than cashmere, the old couch like a giant marshmallow. And gradually, the deep throb in his leg, a steady counter-point to his heart, diminished to a faint echo. He was left with only the comfortable embrace of pain-free silence.

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Run

He wondered if it were possible to run farther away from his problems. Perhaps, if he lost himself in the Amazon, or decamped to Tibet. But for now, the worn embrace of House’s couch would have to suffice, a friendly reprieve before the next lonely apartment.

James flipped through the multitude of digital channels quickly, skimming past Mickey Mouse, Ali G, Bigfoot, Hitler, and Anderson Cooper before stopping on winemakers in Burgundy. Perhaps, when alimony broke him and patients had depressed him, he’d leave Princeton and go harvest grapes. It couldn’t be any farther away than this still, dark apartment.

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Highest

He’d inhaled, experimented, been around the block more than once. He’d never felt anything like this, easing the return of consciousness and offering a more alluring alternative. Hazy, easy, floating, aware of sounds and lights the way you were aware of fireworks from underwater. This is where he would like to stay.

Yet something nagged at the edge of his consciousness, trying to sober him. Offering the tantalizing idea that this would be from ketamine, that it might mean everything had changed. He wondered if it was worth reaching out to awareness to test the theory. He opened his eyes.

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Forbade

She’d lost track of the number of times she’d told him “no” over the years. Surely the total was something better left to those used to dealing with impossible figures, like astrophysicists. Like a stubborn toddler, he’d tested every boundary she’d drawn, sometimes coming back for a second go when she managed to stand her ground.

This time, she wasn’t even sure why she forbade him from having further contact with the patient. What he asked wasn’t outrageous, or implausible, or even dangerous. Lisa closed her eyes and wondered if principle was strong enough to hold up against his onslaught.

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Session

In a car, the distance passed in the blink of an eye. On the treadmill, a mile was impossibly long. Mentally, Greg knew he was still capable. Physically, his body screamed in protest.

Each footfall on the rubber tread sent a jolt up his leg, which exploded like a firework in his right thigh. From there it radiated, each spark flowing through his bloodstream until he felt the ache in every cell.

Tonight he settled for three-quarters of his desired distance. Soon it would diminish, until he eschewed therapy all together and logged all his miles pacing in his office.

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End
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