[CON] you're the closest to heaven..

[deacon reid rudman]

Deacon gently ran his hand over Derek's side, then stepped inside. He didn't see her in the pool. A red headed girl was a little hard to miss in a pool. He looked around, then started to the locker room, looking to see if she was there. But she wasn't there either. He sighed, rubbing at his face. He was starting to think he'd go back to his room and find a ransom note or something. He didn't have anything to offer anyone thought. He walked back to Derek, his hands laced behind his neck.

[derek chandler ralston]

Derek watched him walk back out and frowned. "Nothing?" He mumbled dejectedly, sighing. Where could she have gone..? He was almost tempted to storm in on the other staff and demand answers, if it wouldn't get him reprimanded. He had never been completely accepted as full staff.

[deacon reid rudman]

Deacon nodded, reaching up to rub his eye. "I don't know where else to look, Derek.." He mumbled, his voice cracking. He finally broke down and started crying again, wrapping his arms around himself. "She's all I've got, Derek.. I.. Who'd be sick enough to take a baby?"

[derek chandler ralston]

Derek frowned, reaching out hesitantly to brush Deacon's tears away. But they couldn't both be missing work all day tomorrow, either. He would have to take Deacon's shift over if he still hadn't found her by morning. He pulled him close. "Deacon..I'm so sorry.." He murmured, knowing the little girl was one of the only people Deacon truly loved. "We'll keep looking until we find her. I promise."

[deacon reid rudman]

Deacon wrapped his arms around the other male, hugging him tightly. He almost found it sad he barely came up to Derek's shoulder. He'd never been talk, but this was almost comical. If they didn't find her, the hospital would have to employ Derek as the coroner because Deacon wasn't going to live without her. "You have seriously got to stop hugging me.. You're like a big teddy bear." He said quietly, needing something -anything- that wasn't misery. He honestly thought half of him had died. He didn't feel like joking, but he knew joking might be the only way to keep him sane until they found his daughter.

[derek chandler ralston]

Derek chuckled faintly, rubbing his back. "Not the big bad wolf?" He held him tightly, finally sighed. "Listen, get some sleep D, you need it...I'll continue to look, and I'll take your shift tomorrow so you can then, okay? We'll find her."

[deacon reid rudman]

Deacon smiled, burying his face in Derek's shoulder. "I'm pretty sure the big bad wolf was ugly and hairy." He teased, squeezing him gently. "I can't go sleep. If I don't keep busy, I'm going to lose my mind.." He said quietly. He was terrified of sleeping without the little girl curled up next to him. He ran his hand slowly over Derek's back, not sure he wanted to let go right now.

[derek chandler ralston]

"But he had teeth 'the better to eat you with'," He mimicked, wrapping his arms around Deacon more. He sighed, had anticipated the response he got. "Then we keep looking, asking around, okay?"

[deacon reid rudman]

"You don't wanna eat me anyways. I'm sure I don't sit well on a hot day." He said quietly, holding tightly to Derek's shirt. "Why don't we just go and look over those x-rays? Maybe someone is looking for us or something.." He suggested, pulling back to look up at Derek. Derek reminded him of his mother in a way- kind of scary with really sharp canines. But he was sure his mother /would/ have eaten him.

[derek chandler ralston]

Derek hummed in response. "Okay." Arms unwrapped from around him, touching his shoulder gently to guide him back towards the hospital and slowly down to the morgue, looking around for Bandit the entire way.

[deacon reid rudman]

Deacon hoped that once they got there, Bandit would be sitting there playing with her doll again like nothing had ever happened. He walked over to where he'd dropped the papers, bending down to pick them up. He walked over to the empty slab, starting to lay them out. "These are Endsley's. These are Strosteven's." He said, putting a pen between them so they wouldn't get mixed up. "They're doing more scans later today on them both."

[derek chandler ralston]

Derek nodded, looking over at them thoughtfully before pointing at the latter of the two. "He's further along, right?" He mumbled, grabbing a notepad on a clipboard, and a pen.

[deacon reid rudman]

"Yeah. Endlsey is only two tests in. And his look pretty normal. Aside from this." He fished in his pocket for a pen before he wandered to the desk. He grabbed a pink sharpie, then walked back, circling the bottom portion of Ace's lungs. "Do fish have lungs?" He asked, looking up at the other male.

[derek chandler ralston]

Derek peered down at the circled area of the xray, shaking his head. "Just gills, to filter oxygen from the water... if they had lungs, they would be able to breathe air." He bit his lip. "Unless those tests and the water are damaging and altering everything-"
There was a knock on the door, a nurse standing there. "I meant to let you know, but you were both out. Strosteven is in the ICU."

[deacon reid rudman]

It occurred to Deacon that maybe what they needed was gills. He looked up as the nurse came in, drawing his hand back from the paper. "Why? What happened?" He asked, putting the cap back on the pink pen. He had a feeling that if they didn't find out what was killing these people, Strosteven and Endsley wouldn't have a snowball's chance in hell.