milliways_bar | (no subject)

Entry tags:

lisa cuddy

(no subject)

It's clear from the start that this isn't her bathroom.

Cuddy hopes she's dreaming, especially since she's wearing what most people consider a fairly skimpy nightie and doesn't have anything with which to cover herself.

She blinks a few times, clearing the sleep from her eyes, and fumbles behind herself for a handle that has, to her misfortune, disappeared. Rather than panic, the first thing she does is to order a steaming hot cup of tea (and a blanket, which she drapes over her shoulders) before curling up into one of the overstuffed chairs by the fireplace.

If she's going to be stuck here, she might as well find a way to relax.

[tiny tag: colene shepard]

[ooc: open for all tags.]

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"Bar grabbed you in the middle of the night, huh?"

This from a woman draped across the couch. She's wearing a short-sleeved navy-and-black uniform of some kind and holding something that looks like one of those Star Trek PADDS. (http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Image:PADD_2150s.jpg)

Cuddy opens her mouth and a rasping sound comes out. She clears her throat, takes a sip of tea, tries again.

"Unfortunately," she admits, and her eyes are drawn to whatever's in that woman's hand. It kind of resembles a fairly high-tech Blackberry. "I'm waiting for my door to reappear."

The woman on the couch moves from a lounging position to a more proper sitting one. "I've been there. I was stuck here for a few months. The door doesn't disappear on me here anymore, but it's kind of unpredictable about when it turns up on the other side."

Months? Cuddy's a little more awake at the sound of that.

"I hope it won't come to that," she admits, taking another sip of her tea. "Knock on wood." She's not very superstitious, but she'd prefer not to wind up Bound in a bar she's only inhabited three times to date.

"For what it's worth, I hope you don't get stuck that long either. There're certainly worse places to be stuck in, but it gets kind of old." Especially when you are, like Shepard, pretty much married to your job.

"Especially since if there wasn't a day where I wasn't doing my job, I think I'd be going stir-crazy."

Cuddy tests the temperature of the mug, resting it against her knee through the soft fabric of the blanket, and curls up into her chair with a sigh.

"Oh, I can manage to take a break once in a while, but not for too long. What is it you do, if you don't mind me asking?"

"I'm a hospital administrator," Cuddy says, stifling a yawn with the back of her hand, inwardly hoping she isn't perceived as rude. It is early for her.

"Which means if I were to take an extended vacation, it's a fair bet the hospital would implode."

"Ah." Shepard nods. "You know time freezes on the other side of the door while you're here, right? Nobody back home will notice if you took a vacation in Milliways. Enforced or otherwise. Still...that's kind of hard to keep in mind at times."

"I'd have to get myself into a good mindset in order to even consider myself ready for a vacation."

No, she's not a party pooper, contrary to what House says. More like very, very tightly wound.

"I know what you mean. Getting stuck here means leaving things unfinished. Or feeling like you are, anyway." Shepard's not exactly talking about her job this time: she'd had half an awkward conversation with someone before she got stuck here, and had to pick up where she left off months later.

"I'll just have to remain optimistic and hope my door decides to show itself before I fall asleep here."

At the rate she's drinking this tea, that may even be a possibility.

"Well, if you end up staying long-term, there are rooms upstairs." An embarrassed expression flits across Shepard's face. "Sorry if I'm telling you something you already know, but since I haven't seen you around here before, I don't know if you've gotten the full tour or not."

"Really?" She's never stayed long enough to investigate the upper rooms, but if on the off-chance she does start to fall asleep, it's a nice convenience.

"I'm still a little new," Cuddy admits. "Don't worry. I've been filled in on basic rules but apart from that I'm still somewhat fuzzy."

"Well, there's also an infirmary and an outside. The outside is modeled after Scotland, or so I'm told." Shepard's never been to Scotland. She hasn't been on Earth much, really. "A friend of mine told me there's a garage here too, but I've never been there."

"Really?" And here Cuddy was thinking the place was just limited to the bar itself.

She debates going exploring, but remembers her current attire (and the fact that it's likely freezing in the Scottish-like outdoors) and thinks better of it.

"There's mountains, a forest, and a big lake. Of course, you need serious winter gear to go out there in this weather. And on full moons, it's best to stay inside because of the werewolves."

"... werewolves." Maybe she is still a little out-of-it.

"Yeah. A few of the patrons are werewolves. I've met one of them. His wife leaves a note up on the announcement board every month letting people know not to go out at night."

Yeah, that's Milliways for you.

"That's very... thoughtful of her." Cuddy's at a loss for words, but she's pretty sure that doesn't sound offensive.

Shepard smirks a bit, though not in an unfriendly way. "Just give it a few months and you won't even bat an eyelid at stuff like that."

Cuddy's the kind of woman who plans ahead. With her schedule, it's impossible not to. A few months from now, she's due at a doctors' conference in Chicago.

She's not expecting to be used to the idea of werewolves.

Rather than dwell on that, she just reverts to the familiar: taking a sip of her tea.

"How long have you been coming here?" she asks, out of sudden curiosity.

"By Milliways time, for almost a year. By my personal time, a few months. My universe's clock and the Milliways clock don't seem to sync up. I can spend a couple of days back home and weeks will pass here. I don't think it's like that for most people, although I'm pretty sure that folks from my universe aren't the only ones."

All this talk about time differences is making her head spin. She tries to make sense of it, but sleep deprivation is taking its toll.

"It hasn't happened to me," Cuddy says. "Yet." She doesn't want to jinx anything.

"You probably have nothing to worry about. The times usually line up."

[OOC: It's past my bedtime! Shall we continue this thread later?]

"I hope so." She doesn't need one more thing to unnerve her about this place.

"Maybe you're here for a good reason in the first place. Milliways often seems to work like that. For instance, if you go back home, it'll only be a few minutes before you're woken up in the middle of the night. I bet that kind of thing happens a lot in your job. Certainly does in mine." Shepard smiles briefly. "If you're here, you can actually get a decent night's sleep, and maybe the breakfast you would've missed otherwise."

If she didn't know any better, Cuddy thinks it's possible that this woman knows her life more than she does. She's certainly familiar with the interruptions that are almost inevitable when House is working on a new case.

"Breakfast and a few more hours of sleep sound pretty heavenly right about now," Cuddy agrees.

"That's what I'm planning in a bit, as long as I'm here. We had one combat situation today and several tense hours in an asteroid field with a bunch of batarian pirate scouts. I'm expecting more of the same tomorrow." Shepard shakes her head as if she's talking about some annoying paperwork, although technically there will be some when she has to draw up mission reports.

Cuddy understands paperwork.

Asteroids and pirates? Not too familiar.

But she nods as if she understands what she's hearing.

Shepard realizes that what she said - or at least the part about batarians - should've gotten a reaction along the lines of 'bzuh?' She wonders why that didn't happen, seeing as she's pretty sure the other woman isn't from her universe, or at least not her time.

She chalks it up to the woman being either polite or half-asleep or some degree of both. "I'll leave you to get that sleep you were talking about, whether it's upstairs or, well, in that chair," she says, standing up. "Maybe we'll see each other tomorrow morning - I'll probably still be here."

Cuddy lifts her mug of tea in acknowledgment.

"Getting a room does sound like a good idea," she admits, rising to her feet while still keeping the blanket drawn around her shoulders. "But maybe you're right about seeing each other in the morning."

Shepard nods. "Okay then. See you tomorrow, I hope."

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