Running Out Of Time {David}

[David Hale]

“Yeah, I’m fine…I think. Are you?”
David slowly nodded his head, “Just fine, thanks.” He replied shortly. Really, his head hurt like hell. He knew it was just because of the bruise though. He didn’t feel nauseous or anything, so he likely hadn’t damaged anything.
“But, you know, it was kind of funny…” His head snapped back almost instantly upon hearing Delilah call this situation funny of all things. Funny? How in the world could she find it funny? This had been the most embarrassing moment in his life, and she was giggling over it.
He gave her an odd look, but didn’t say anything yet.
“I mean, your face when you saw that spider…” The blonde laughed quietly, a smile tugging at her mouth, and then bit down on her lip to stop herself.
David didn’t share her happy mood and crossed his arms before looking away, “How happy I am to see my misery has brought you such joy.” He told her sarcastically before continuing, “You know what I thought was the best part? The look on your face when that same spider went down your shirt. ’Get it out! Get it out!’” He smirked now, understanding how she could find it amusing.
He didn’t find his own misery funny, but he could certainly laugh at Delilah’s misfortune.

In hindsight, the whole ordeal had been hilarious. Maybe Delilah was right, maybe one day, he’d even be able to laugh at himself over this.
Speaking of that spider though… he hoped it wouldn’t rear its ugly head around again. Delilah had probably killed it when she rolled over the floor, but you never knew.
His thoughts were interrupted by a loud thud behind him. David jumped and gasped slightly before looking behind him.
“W-What was that?” Delilah stammered, jumping a little. David just shrugged his shoulders as he looked around the room for any sign of life. What the hell… it sounded like it came from right behind him…
He sighed after a second upon determining they were still quite alone in the room. Something wasn’t right though… he would’ve passed this off as his mind playing tricks on him, but if that were the case, why did Delilah comment on it as well? Weird…
“The coffee’s right there, silly” she told him, lifting an eyebrow.
“What…? It wasn’t there before…” this was getting too weird! Again he looked around the room, before finally looking up. There was an air vent there… had someone been up there? No, that would just be silly. Who in their right mind crawled around air vents, and more importantly, what would this person want with David’s coffee? And how had he managed to grab onto it anyway, unless it was some sort of monster with freakishly tall arms?

Delilah moved around him, bending down and grabbing the coffee before straightening up again and offering the box out to him. “Maybe you need your eyes checked!”
“No, I swear! It wasn’t there before…” he mumbled, wondering how this would sound to Delilah. She probably thought he was seeing ghosts or something like that. But he could’ve sworn the box wasn’t there before… in fact, he stood in that very spot for a few seconds when he asked Delilah if she was alright.
What the heck? Had he imagined it? Was he really so out of it that he couldn’t think straight anymore?
Delilah stood there, still holding the coffee out to him, and David slowly accepted it, though still with a confused look on his face. Oh no, maybe he’d hit his head harder than he thought. Maybe he had a concussion or something... but he wasn't showing any major symptoms...
“Right…” he mumbled to himself before turning on his heel and walking to the coffeemaker, and was pleasantly surprised to see the box contained coffee-pads.
Pads, whoever had thought of that deserved a medal. After filling the back of the device with water, he took out two pads before remembering something. It would be polite to ask her if she actually drank coffee, wouldn’t it? If not, he could easily just leave the pad out and just make tea, if she preferred.
He really couldn’t believe anyone preferred tea over coffee, but he knew for a fact it was possible. His own sister had gotten on his case a few years ago, claiming coffee was bad for you and that it even tried to warn you of that itself by tasting like crap. He’d been shocked, but hey, different strokes for different folks and all that…
“So… would you prefer coffee, or tea, Miss Rose?”

[Delilah Rose]

“How happy I am to see my misery has brought you such joy.”

Ack! She knew she shouldn’t have said that. Now he was back to being all grumpy and frowny. Delilah was beginning to wonder if maybe he was bipolar, one minute being nice and humane, the next snapping in irritation. She supposed it was possible. She’d had a friend in high school like that. She’d never been able to tell if the girl liked or hated her. Of course, she knew better than to voice this out loud. So, instead, she just forced up a smile.

“You know what I thought was the best part? The look on your face when that same spider went down your shirt. ‘Get it out! Get it out!’”

“Hey! I don’t sound like that,” Delilah muttered, referring to the doctor’s imitation of her. He was making his voice much too high pitched! She imagined herself though, tried to look past the terror of having a spider climb down her shirt. She thought about this for a few moments, and then decided that it was probably equally as funny as anything else that had happened. Yes, this was the most humiliating moment of her life, but what else could she do besides laugh at it? There was no point in being negative. Then again, Delilah was just an overly positive person. “That was just scary,” she told him, squirming a little at the thought of the spider. She really hoped she had killed it when she’d gone rolling over the floor. “I’m sure it was funny though. I mean...if it had been someone else, I’m not going to lie, I would have laughed.” There was no sarcasm in her voice as she spoke, and the smile she gave was genuine. “Besides, life is easier if you can laugh at yourself.”

“No, I swear! It wasn’t there before…” the doctor said, looking shocked that Delilah had found the coffee so easily. What was he talking about? It had to have been there! It couldn’t have just appeared out of nowhere, could it? Besides, she swore this was right where she’d dropping it, right where she’d been standing when that little incident had sent them flying backward into the cabinets. The blonde lifted an eyebrow, giving the man standing across from her an odd look, though she didn’t make any comments. Maybe he’d just been so flustered about what had happened he hadn’t seen it. That made sense, right? That, or he’d hit his head and was now hallucinating, though she hoped it was the first of the two.

“So… would you prefer coffee, or tea, Miss Rose?”

Delilah looked up, brought out of her thoughts by the doctor’s voice. While she’d been lost in thought he had moved over to the coffeemaker, which, thank god, had been sitting right out in the open. But, wait, what had he said? There was tea? “Um, well, I suppose I would prefer tea,” she told him hesitantly. “But only if you know where that is...because, to be honest, I think I’ve done enough climbing for one day.” If there had happened to be tea mixed into that box, sure, she’d be more than happy to drink it. After all, coffee wasn’t very good for you, not that she was about to tell the doctor that, as didn’t seem in the right mood. And besides, people who were addicted to coffee never listened. They thought she was the crazy one.

In any case, the last thing Delilah was going to do was suggest searching for the tea if it wasn’t right out in the open, as that would most likely only involve more scaling of shelves and cause trouble.

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[David Hale]

“Hey! I don’t sound like that,” Delilah muttered, referring to the David’s imitation of her.
“You do, indeed, sound like that Miss Rose,” David smirked to himself. Maybe he was making it a little too high pitched, but it sounded close enough to the real thing, as well as a man his age could manage.
The sound of your own voice always sounded differently to you than it sounded for other people. He didn’t know why either, he just knew that when he’d heard his own voice on an old high school video, he’d been utterly shocked at how weird he sounded. He just hoped his voice wasn’t weird now, hoped that his voice had matured a little.
“That was just scary,” she told him, squirming a little at the thought of the spider. “I’m sure it was funny though. I mean...if it had been someone else, I’m not going to lie, I would have laughed. Besides, life is easier if you can laugh at yourself.”

David frowned a little at her last remark, “I guess so…” it seemed a little strange to be this positive in these times, though from how Delilah had been acting ever since he met her, it really shouldn’t come as a surprise that she was the type to tell people to ‘turn that frown upside down’.
How she could have such a cheerful personality was beyond his comprehension, though maybe that had something to do with the fact that he was just an angry and bitter person in general. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d been genuinely happy about something.
He really needed to change that sometime, with how he was acting, it was no surprise he didn’t really have friends to speak of. Maybe after he'd fixed his mess, he could focus on his future.
Though… most friends did tend to be a little annoying and clingy… No! Shut it David, stop being Mr. Negative.

As anticipated, Delilah gave him a silly look when he mentioned the box and its location in such a shocked tone of voice. Was he going crazy, or was Delilah just blind? Or both?
“Um, well, I suppose I would prefer tea,” she told him hesitantly. “But only if you know where that is...because, to be honest, I think I’ve done enough climbing for one day.”
He knew it! He knew Delilah would act like a sissy and ask for glorified flavored water! Maybe his lack of people’s skills hadn’t impaired his ability to read people that much after all. Just by looking at her he knew she wouldn’t choose coffee, she didn’t have the face of a coffee drinker.
“I spotted it in one of the cabinets while looking for this,” He nodded for the box before setting it down and walking back to fetch the tea, “Here we go.” He sighed and set the other box down as well.
“I really don’t see how people can like tea… it’s basically just hot water with a flavor, a bad and weak flavor, that is.” He grabbed two cups and got to work, “And how does this keep you awake? The one time I drank tea, it made me sleepy instead of active.”

[Delilah Rose]

Thankfully, the tea had been located on the lower shelves, and there was no more climbing involved. That was a relief, because if there was a choice, Delilah would much prefer to have tea. It wasn’t nearly as strong or bitter, having a slighter sweet taste to it. She really would never understand why anyone liked coffee. The few times she’d had it, she’d nearly gagged. Even when she dumped mountains of sugar in it, it still tasted funny to her, and something that tasted like that just couldn’t be good for you, could it?

“I really don’t see how people can like tea… it’s basically just hot water with a flavor, a bad and weak flavor, that is.”

“I could say the same thing about coffee!” Delilah told him with a slight laugh. “It’s just hot water with a flavor too. Except tea, unlike coffee, is good for you.” She finished with a smug smile, sounding pleased with herself. People who got little sleep drank coffee, and the two of those would just lead to a faster death in the long term. Or at least that’s the way she saw it. She wasn’t about to start ranting about her beliefs to this man though, as he seemed like one of those coffee addicts, and was definitely not in the best of moods. She would save her lectures for a different time. Besides, she didn’t think that a doctor would enjoy her, a scientist, lecturing him on health, his supposed profession.

“And how does this keep you awake? The one time I drank tea, it made me sleepy instead of active.”

“It doesn’t,” she mumbled with a sigh, closing her eyes wearily. “That’s the job of sheer willpower.” How long had she been awake now? God, she’d lost track of how many hours it had been. It was probably better not to think about it, because the second she added them up, she’d probably faint. She was quite impressed with herself for still being on her feet at this point. Maybe she had just gotten used to the lack of sleep and it no longer affected her the same way. Or maybe her body had adapted. Was that possible? She supposed that didn’t matter. She should really just focus on keeping her eyes open. Now that the excitement of the previous events had started to wear off, she was feeling some of her energy start to fade. Not that she’d let that show. She was a good actress, and so she would keep up her smile for a while longer.

Delilah stood where she was for a few moments, watching as the doctor prepared the drinks, and then she walked over to one of the counters, leaning against it lightly. She hugged her lab coat around herself, waiting in silence. “Soo,” she said, breaking the silence, drawing out the word, “What is it you want to talk to me about?” She remembered what he had told her in the hallway. No, he did not want to simply share a drink with her, he wanted something else, something more. He wanted to see if they were compatible working partners, what her views were on ‘certain subjects,’ which she was guessing had to do with the recent virus outbreak and the war. She wasn’t scared though. Well, maybe a little, because after all, he was one of the most important people in this building. She would tell him what he wanted though, answer his questions truthfully. Unlike some people, she didn’t care what others thought of her beliefs. If they laughed at her, if they thought she was stupid, that was their own problem, not hers. It was always a little degrading, a little hurtful, but she wouldn’t change what she thought because someone disagreed with her.

“I thought this was supposed to be an interview,” she added, voice somewhat teasing now.

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