I'm speechless.
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Post by KATERINA AVERY BUCHANAN on Jan 3, 2017 10:41:01 GMT -6
Katerina was in no way a public defender, or even a defense attorney. She had spent most of her time working on corporate cases where they would end up settling, or occasionally going to court, but in a small town like Ellisville, if she wanted to work in town sometimes, she ended up doing a little bit of everything. This ranged from criminal defense to setting up paperwork for businesses to make sure they had the proper tax identification documents for their employees and were set up properly as a limited liability corporation, even for the smallest of companies. Of course, this meant when a family friend called and asked her to get a copy of a police report to see if they could get a DUI thrown out, she was also on her own to go down to the sheriff's station and get it herself, because she didn't have an entire legal team at her disposal to do things like the small tasks. Katerina found herself in charge of going to the sheriff's station to get the police report, interviewing the officer who made the arrest if they would let her, and then conducting an interview with the person she was supposed to defend to see if they even had an actual case or if she was wasting her time with all of it.
As Katerina pulled her Jeep Grand Cherokee into a parking spot down the street from the sheriff's station she struggled with the parallel spot for a minute, having lived in the city where she could walk to work a lot of the time most recently. She had forgotten what a pain it was to park in the tiny parallel spaces of a small town, but now she knew she had to get used to it if she was going to stick around for too much longer.
Stepping out of the dark gray SUV, Katerina felt out of place in her heels, dress pants, and button down shirt as she looked around at people dressed much more casually than her. On the steps of the sheriff's station she saw a couple police officers in uniform, but other than them, most people wore shorts and more casual tops, or even just t-shirts, probably just trying to stay cool in the warm Alabama fall. She wished she could be dressed like them, but it was a professional reason she drove there, so Katerina had to look professional in her simple gray pants and whit button down shirt. She hadn't tucked the shirt in, but that was more because she didn't like the way shirts looked when tucked in on her.
With every step she took Katerina regretted the choice to wear pants in the fall in Alabama. She worked inside in Atlanta, but going from place to place in Ellisville had her spending too much time out in the heat with the sun beating down on what little of her fair skin showed, and the pants and long sleeve top were just trapping the heat in, making her more uncomfortable. At least in the sheriff's station she would be able to cool off and relax for a minute while they got the file for her.
Katerina made her way up the steps and into the building where instead of a burst of fresh, cool air, she found herself walking into what felt warm, and just the noise of fans running. As she made her way through security, she hoped that maybe it was just one unit of the A/C that was not working, and she would eventually find a spot to cool off, but as she got to the desk where she needed to be, there was no such luck. Instead of getting to cool off while getting the file and conducting her interview, she was going to be stuck in a building that felt as if she was still outside.
"Look who it is, back from her exciting life in the city," Katerina's hopes of an easy time with her work were ruined as she was greeted by Jackson. Some people would think it was just a friend giving her a hard time, but she knew better. Jackson was in her graduating class in high school, and friends with her former fiancé, so Katerina knew he would most likely be the least helpful person she could run into.
"I need to get a file on the Fleming DUI arrest and I already put in a request to interview officer Montgomery about it, so you should have already known I would be here to do it," Katerina felt sick to her stomach as she spoke. She'd been able to avoid his friends most of the time thus far, but now she knew she probably had at least one enemy in the sheriff's station.
"We got the request, but he had to step out for a minute, and the file is going to be a few minutes to track down. You can have a seat and wait, as long as you don't need to run off to the city too soon," Jackson's words were subtle, because they were in public, but she knew he was alluding to when she left for school and didn't tell anyone about it. Katerina tried to remain calm, and professional as she took a seat in a chair against one of the walls, brushing a bead of sweat from her face as she did so. She could feel sweat dripping down her back as she sat there, trying to not think about how hot it was.
A few minutes passed, and Katerina pulled her wavy brown hair into a ponytail on the back of her head in an attempt to cool off while undoing a button on her shirt to reveal the white camisole she wore underneath. With each passing minute she came closer to removing the shirt all together to just be in the spaghetti strap tank top, or to going back and confronting Jackson about the situation, because she knew officer Montgomery probably went out on a call, because they knew she was coming, and the file wasn't misplaced, but somewhere like in his drawer. With every passing minute Katerina was becoming more and more frustrated, and getting closer to standing up and going to say something to Jackson about the situation.
words: 1060 tagged: open notes: kat is about to explode at someone
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It's a basic truth of the human condition that everybody lies. The only variable is about what.
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Post by ALEXANDER BLAKE ROOT on Apr 4, 2017 19:36:30 GMT -6
[googlefont="Bangers"] [attr="class","reddbox"] [attr="class","reddbox2"]
If you expect nothing from anybody, You're never disappointed.
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As a young doctor who had just received his first job, his possessions weren't very fancy. He'd found out his father had left everything to some other person in his will, and honestly, he didn't care, as he hadn't spoken to his father in a decade and he really was glad he never had to face the man ever again. Either way, that meant his money was that which he saved up while he was working in college. Luckily since he wasn't much of a partier, he had a good amount saved up, but not quite enough to get himself a car yet. The of being a doctor paid very well, but they were in a small town so it wasn't like he was getting the best salary a doctor could get. Thus, when he had to make his way to the sheriff's office, he ended up walking the whole way, a cigarette in his mouth.
Yeah, he was a doctor, and he knew how bad smoking was and how other things could help with stress or whatever, but this was what he did regardless of the things it would do to his body. Now he wasn't stupid enough to smoke when he was in the hospital, and honestly, it could be that he didn't want to be here and thus death would be better than having to stay here and so he kept smoking, as if he didn't care if it killed him. And honestly, he didn't care if it killed him. He rather have a simple stress reliever even though it was deadly, than to suffer in agony.
Despite the fact that everyone here really did know him, and despite the thought of some people of how he 'abandoned his father' and some other silly things they might think, his landlady was forcing him to submit this paper to the sheriff before she would allow him to stay for longer than a couple of days. It was basically the lease and a form for a background check on him. He supposed they didn't know what he did for the decade he was gone, but it was still a pain. The paper was folded and placed into a pocket on the inside of his blazer. The suit he was wearing was from a Goodwill and literally cost him less than ten dollars. It was a nice suit, and if it were new it would've been a lot of money. Either way, he planned that once he finally got settled in this godforsaken town, he could get some nicer clothes… and maybe in a couple of years he could get a job in a bigger city for more money once he got enough experience in the field.
His white shirt was unbuttoned about two buttons from the top, and only one corner tucked into his black dress slacks. His shoes were tennis shoes as he didn't like dress shoes because they hurt his feet. These tennis shoes were nice and comfortable and he could walk around and not be in constant pain because of them. They were a white color with a red streak down the sides. He liked them because it made him look like he was going faster. Of course, that wasn't true but he thought it was funny to answer with if anyone asked about his shoes. His blazer was a plain black color with two pockets in the front and an empty pocket on his chest area for one of those cloths that old people kept in their jackets. The inside of the blazer was a soft silk and had two pockets, one of which had his reading glasses and the other the papers he had to submit to the sheriff.
He knew a good amount of the people in this town, even if he tried to rid his memory of this place entirely. However, given his attitude since he was about ten years old, so about fifth grade, people either disliked him or kind of knew him back then. So, either people were apathetic towards him now, or they disliked him for how he was a decade ago to them. If so they really needed to get a life. It wasn't like a mean comment by him changed their entire future. And anyways he just told the truth others were too cowardly to say aloud. People needed to hear they were clingy or stupid in order to move on with their lives and accept who they were. Then again, he had heard many times over he was rash or cold or a jerk, and it didn't change his attitude at all. So, really, he probably didn't change this town at all and if people were holding grudges they were dumb.
Upon entering the sheriff's office, he caught the tail end of the comment shot at an attractive young woman who looked familiar. She was probably a classmate from back in the day, though he looked at the officer with a look of complete contempt. He didn't care the situation in here, this guy was taking his job and being mean to those who lived here. Either way, he walked up, gave them the piece of paper and -
"Aren't I lucky to get both of you here today?" Alexander stared at him with a look of boredom, not showing any reaction to the police officer's words. "Sit over there, Doctor Root. I'll have this out for you in a second." Alexander stared for a few moments as the officer didn't move an inch, and then shook his head, taking a seat near the girl. Kat. That was her name. If he recalled she had moved away a little before he had, as he had started his college in the fall and she did in the summer. He didn't pay much attention to those around him in school, but there was some information he couldn't go outside without hearing whispers from people gossiping about stupid stuff. And sadly, that information stuck in his mind.
"Murder someone? No, let me guess. You vandalized some guy's car and that guy is his friend before you left town, unlike the other brainless idiots around here," Alex pointed to the officer who had just turned away, talking loud enough that the officer could totally hear him. "It begs the question, why are you here? Why'd you return to the capitol of redneck country?" He put his arms behind his head and leaned back, not looking at Kat, but at the ceiling, a move of which he used many times to distance himself, as if he didn't really care about this conversation and that he was just talking while he waited. created by M of PR[newclass=".reddbox"]height:200px;background-color:#111135;opacity:0;color:#ffffff;-webkit-transition:.8s;-moz-transition:.8s;-o-transition:.8s;transition:.8s;[/newclass] [newclass=".reddbox:hover"]height:200px;background-color:#111135;opacity:.5;color:#ffffff;-webkit-transition:.8s;-moz-transition:.8s;-o-transition:.8s;transition:.8s;[/newclass] [newclass=".reddbox:hover .reddbox2"]height:200px;background-color:#111135;opacity:1.5;color:#ffffff;-webkit-transition:.8s;-moz-transition:.8s;-o-transition:.8s;transition:.8s;[/newclass]
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I'm speechless.
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Post by KATERINA AVERY BUCHANAN on Apr 4, 2017 20:40:02 GMT -6
Sitting in the sheriff's station was almost depressing to Katerina as she sat there, thinking through life in Ellisville. Anyone who saw her sitting there would be shocked, very aware that Katerina Buchanan was the overachiever her whole life, who would barely have time to get in trouble for doing anything more than maybe having a few drinks while she was underage. Anyone who saw her also didn't know how far this was from her reality a month ago. A month ago Katerina had been living with her boyfriend in Atlanta, working for a large corporate law firm, and enjoying the life she had always wanted, ignoring the reality she had just returned from in Ellisville when she was there for her mother's funeral, and now she found herself waiting on the files and an interview in her old town to defend someone from a DUI arrest. It was surprising how far she could fall in such a short amount of time. Living was so expensive that she was living with her brother at her mom's old house and bartending at night to make sure the bills were paid. This also kept her busy. Katerina was not the kind of person who could handle remaining idle for an extended amount of time without driving herself crazy. Just after she had taken her seat Katerina saw a slightly familiar face walk into the station. A man who was greeted with a welcome almost equal to the one she had received when she walked in. This at least meant she was not the only one Jackson was holding a grudge against, although she could almost guarantee she had done something much worse to make him mad. As far as she knew, no one else had done something as bad as leaving their fiancé the day before the wedding just after losing their child. Katerina knew no one else around had done something like that before leaving town for so long. She knew it was the right decision, but others didn't understand. They didn't understand it was her future she left for. They just thought she was selfish and that she didn't care that she hurt David back then, but she was really giving him the chance to live his life without worrying about her or their 'life' they had planned when she was pregnant. Katerina listened, although she did not appear to actively pay any attention to the other encounter. Dr. Root. Katerina was surprised. It seemed someone else, namely Alexander if she remembered correctly, managed to make it out of the town and do something with their life. He was a doctor, or at least she assumed a medical doctor, although there were still people like her, with her Juris Doctorate, who could be called doctor, but didn't practice medicine. "As fascinating as the story of the vandalized car could possibly be, I'm more likely the one defending the criminals than I am the criminal myself," Katerina was beginning to feel like she might be the one about to commit a crime if she didn't get a fan or air conditioning or the file she was waiting on sometime soon, and Alexander's comment had been a welcome distraction, although she hadn't probably had a full conversation with him since they were in elementary school. "He might need a doctor and I might have another reason to be here if I don't get the file and interview I need," Katerina's words were vague, but gave a clear impression of her growing frustration with her wait and the heat. "Why am I here as in, sitting next to you in the sheriff's station or why am I here as in back in the town I left right out of high school?" Katerina questioned, knowing the answer to the first was simple, while the second was much more complicated. "As far as right here and right now, I'm picking up a file and have an interview to do with the arresting officer on a family friend's DUI as a favor," Katerina offered the answer to the simple question. "Being back in Ellisville is a lot more complicated," Katerina left it at that. No one needed to hear about how she left her firm in Atlanta after breaking up with her boyfriend there when he proposed, and she wasn't sure where to go from there. She left a job she loved because she couldn't work with him anymore. "And you, Dr. Root? Clearly I'm not the only one who's returned to the capitol of redneck country from somewhere else," Katerina didn't question why he would get such a similar greeting to her own from Jackson, because she knew him for a long time. Alexander had gone to the same schools as she had growing up, so she was friends with him for a while, until he got mean sometimes when they were growing up. "Now if you're sitting here and needing a lawyer, because you got caught faking your credentials as a doctor, I think I should have a business card on me, because if I successfully defend that, I can work anywhere," Katerina tried to keep things light. At least he was providing her with a good distraction, since Katerina didn't need to keep thinking through her past, her boyfriends, and how she somehow ended up back in the town she swore she would never set foot in again, until she did for her mother's funeral. It was weird being back there. Nothing felt normal. Nothing felt like it had changed either. The high school still just cared about football. The same guys she went to high school with were exactly where she expected to find them, right back in Ellisville, which left her questioning when she would see her ex, just hoping it wasn't too soon, or when she was working at the bar. While she could make good tips, Katerina didn't want people to really know what she was doing to try to save up some extra money to figure out her life. She wanted people to see her as she successful lawyer she was in Atlanta, not as the girl working in the bar and picking up random cases from her family friends. words: 1042 tagged: ALEXANDER BLAKE ROOTnotes: - -
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It's a basic truth of the human condition that everybody lies. The only variable is about what.
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Post by ALEXANDER BLAKE ROOT on Apr 4, 2017 21:43:23 GMT -6
[googlefont="Bangers"] [attr="class","reddbox"] [attr="class","reddbox2"]
If you expect nothing from anybody, You're never disappointed.
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Ah well, no vandalism wasn't too bad he supposed, as her story was bound to peak his interest. A simple case of vandalism would've been boring after all. He didn't know much about Kat, as he only knew what he heard as it stuck in his head. He knew she was a popular girl in high school and he remember he had once been friends with her, but when she left, he hadn't heard anything about her breaking up with the boy she had been dating ('Kat and David went to the movies the other day, I think I saw them kissing.' 'Aw young love is wonderful. I'm afraid that Root boy will end up alone.' 'Perhaps he should learn from those two.'). Either way, it didn't matter. She had left and now she was here, right around the same time he was here. He didn't know if she had come back a day after he left or just arrived this morning, but either way, it was like this town was a needy lover always pulling everyone back to them even if they were miserable there.
Hopefully he could leave here in a few years when he had more experience out in the field, and then he could say good-bye to this little dog-hole forever. He could escape his past and move onto the future, even if he never had a family. They were too much work and little benefit, though there were occasional days when he felt lonely and wished for someone to be there with him. It didn't matter, caring for people would only bring him pain and he'd have to run away from them as well, just as he had tried to run away from his childhood before it reeled him in like a fish on a hook. He had a taste of freedom but he couldn't escape forever, at least not yet. He thought for a moment that perhaps she had felt the same cruel twist of fate that landed her back here. Perhaps she would understand, even if she wouldn't completely understand why he wanted to get away so desperately. Perhaps she knew about how he never came to his father's funeral (though if she was a newcomer, she would most likely not yet have this information, unlike several others in the town).
"Luckily, I'm here, though I'm not sure if I would be able to treat the underlying cause of his possible future injuries. There is not yet a cure for stupidity, sadly." Alexander laughed at his own statement. The guy was still taking a while to process the form. Couldn't he just write a note that said that he wasn't a criminal instead of slowly type on an outdated computer and make confused faces while he looked at it. Though, Alexander wasn't even sure he was working on the form, as he caught a little bit in the reflection of his eyes and it didn't look a thing like doing a quick background check. Why did he have to process this check? Wasn't that the landlady's job? Then again they were in this backwaters town and apparently this police officer wasn't happy with him. Probably because he left. Or because he insulted him at some point. Either way, he was being a jerk and that was his job. There wasn't room enough in this little town for two jerks. He was supposed to be the jerk of the town. This guy was probably the reigning jerk-supreme, but it didn't matter, Alexander would usurp the throne and make it known throughout the town who he was and what he would insult, which most of these townspeople were infected with: stupidity.
"If that was all I needed, I would be happy, to be perfectly honest. Then I wouldn't have to stay here. However, apparently even if you go to a good college, and graduate with a 4.0 GPA, you aren't good enough for the other hospitals around the country. They hired me here though, so I took what I could get until I could find something better," Alexander looked to the side, gritting his teeth in frustration. "They claimed it was because I was too inexperienced and young, but I could tell. It was because they didn't like me. I can do the job, but apparently my wit is too much for them." He shook his head and looked back at the ceiling. Why was he talking to her? At least he wasn't getting bored. He rather not talking too much about things that made him angry or he might end up accidentally punching a wall or yelling at Kat when she didn't do anything to warrant such behavior.
He sighed and looked over at the desk that the officer was working at. "Apparently, the apartment I'm renting requires me to get my own background check done by the police force here. It shouldn't take long to look up the name. I've never been in trouble before, so sorry, Katerina, I won't be needing your help." He tapped his toe for a moment, waiting on the form to be finished. These guys apparently weren't very good officers or they held a grudge and thus they weren't very good officers because of that reason.
"So you became a lawyer. It's a bit odd to come back here with that. A few family favors, a couple of DUIs and speeding tickets, that can't compare to what you can do elsewhere. I don't think you'd get homesick. You left in an awful hurry when you did, so what brought you back? Did you get fired from your last job? Break the law? It has to be something big." After all, his education lasted a whole decade so he could become a complete and official doctor. There was a lot of training of stuff he would never get to do here, but he didn't plan on staying. But she didn't seem in a hurry to run from this place again, so he wasn't sure why she would stay here when such a job would garner so little. created by M of PR[newclass=".reddbox"]height:200px;background-color:#111135;opacity:0;color:#ffffff;-webkit-transition:.8s;-moz-transition:.8s;-o-transition:.8s;transition:.8s;[/newclass] [newclass=".reddbox:hover"]height:200px;background-color:#111135;opacity:.5;color:#ffffff;-webkit-transition:.8s;-moz-transition:.8s;-o-transition:.8s;transition:.8s;[/newclass] [newclass=".reddbox:hover .reddbox2"]height:200px;background-color:#111135;opacity:1.5;color:#ffffff;-webkit-transition:.8s;-moz-transition:.8s;-o-transition:.8s;transition:.8s;[/newclass]
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I'm speechless.
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Post by KATERINA AVERY BUCHANAN on Apr 5, 2017 10:11:02 GMT -6
He had escaped the town, just like Katerina had, but she sometimes found herself thinking back to her life in Ellisville, and how things would be different if she hadn't left. She had been a part of the perfect couple. People would look at them and think about the kids they would have in the future, while living in the house down the road with the white picket fence, but now they just saw Katerina Buchanan, the girl who couldn't even bear to come home when her mother was dying young from a disease that had eaten away at her mind. Everyone knew her mother had alzheimer's, so they also knew she was never there for her, and she only spent two days in the town for the funeral, staying in the house the whole time except for the actual funeral itself. People used to see Katerina the overachiever with the perfect life ahead of her, and now she knew they just judged her for what she had done when she left him ahead of a wedding and how she wouldn't even take care of her own mother. "Obviously I can't do anything to him now anyway, because if I did, it would me premeditated, and the sentencing if I didn't find myself a lawyer better than the other ones here gets worse when you add the word premeditated," Katerina would never actually do anything to hurt the guy, but it felt good to say she would. She didn't think she deserved to have people still looking down on her for what she did after so many years. They needed to move on, because she liked to think that she had, even if she had only dated two guys since and couldn't seem to commit to either of them. It was her new cycle. Date someone, break up with them, and run off before things get to far, or if they do. Alexander clearly understood what it was like to try to get away from the town, only to have it pull him back in one way or another. It was like no matter how hard someone tried, it would suck them back in, like no one could ever leave for good. Katerina had sworn she would never come back, but then there was the funeral, and a proposal that led her to quit her job and find herself basically homeless, and Ellisville had been one of her only two options. For him it was clear it was the only option he had been given. Katerina knew all about it. She did have the option to go live with her father, but he had abandoned her mother when she got sick, so he was the last person, too much like her, that she wanted to stay with while figuring things out. Katerina saw Ellisville as the only option she had. "Maybe they wanted experience and the 4.0 GPA. I had to work at a small firm in Chattanooga after graduating top of my class from Vanderbilt before moving to Atlanta," Katerina knew a lot about working her way up from the bottom in her jobs. She worked for the small firm, was arguing cases as the primary attorney, and got the offer to go to Atlanta and work for a much larger firm, but with moving to a larger firm, while she got more pay, she was still at the low end of the food chain, in a cubicle. Katerina had worked her way up in the few years she had been there, and she finally got to a point where she was on track to make partner by the time she was 35, which would have been a huge deal, but she threw it away over a boy, or a couple boys. "This isn't my final stop. Just where I'm staying until I find another corporate job, so I'm not setting up a practice or anything, just picking up cases where I find them for some extra money," Katerina felt the need to make things clear that she was not staying in the town for forever. She had escaped once and she would escape it once again. There were no opportunities in the town for her, or for anyone else who wanted to make something of their lives. Businesses were passed down through generations of families, and even political office seemed to always go to one of the few same families every time. "If you ever did need my help, I would probably tell you to find an actual defense attorney, unless it is a corporation you're having trouble with, then I know all the tricks they have, because I was one of them," Katerina had loved her job, and lived for it. Yes, she was also dating a coworker, but their relationship worked because she focused more on her work than anything else. She would come home late at night from work and he would already be asleep, so most of their conversation was around coffee in the morning and maybe lunch at work. Katerina liked things this way, because it meant her focus was on her work, and she could keep working her way up to more and more promotions and bigger cases. She spent six years in school, three of undergrad, three of law school, and went straight into the working world without ever taking a break. "I left abruptly from my last job, and I didn't have a plan, so it was stay with my brother here or go to live with my dad and new wife," Katerina didn't know why she was talking this much to Alexander, other than to kill time, because she was sure this was the most the pair had spoken since elementary school. He didn't care that she had quit her job and sat through the most miserable two weeks of her life living out of hotels for those weeks, trying to get her life together ad find some option other than her old hometown. words: 1005 tagged: ALEXANDER BLAKE ROOT notes: - -
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It's a basic truth of the human condition that everybody lies. The only variable is about what.
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Post by ALEXANDER BLAKE ROOT on Apr 6, 2017 12:57:00 GMT -6
[googlefont="Bangers"] [attr="class","reddbox"] [attr="class","reddbox2"]
If you expect nothing from anybody, You're never disappointed.
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Honestly, Alexander did not normally condone physical violence against anyone, but he was almost positive that she wouldn't actually hit the guy, and if she did, while he wouldn't have done it himself, he wouldn't blame her. Out of all the things his father did, physical violence was never one of them, and thus Alexander believed that if he ever lost his temper and hit someone, he would be worse than his father. And that was a scary thought. Instead of insulting people for no reason, and lying to someone about them being stupid, he always told the truth and that was the main difference he saw between his father and himself, and it was an important difference. He wasn't rude just for the sake of being rude. He was just being honest with those around him and phrasing things in a way that people might find rude, but he didn't care. He was telling the truth. His father instead said things to him that were not true, such as how stupid he was, and he knew he was intelligent. He proved he was intelligent over and over and yet his father still blamed him for what happened when he was ten years old. He still blamed himself for that, but he was trying to make up for it, even if though he was pretty sure he could never make up for it. Regardless, that was why he had become a doctor: to save as many lives as he possibly could.
"That's if they could prove it, of course. Then again, they probably have cameras. If only you weren’t in a police station." Alexander sighed as if that were the only thing stopping her from making a scene. He was pretty sure that this town might not be so welcoming. When one left this town, well, everyone judged because everyone knew. Most people who left had a reason for leaving, and those who wanted to stay (for whatever stupid reason that was) probably didn't like those reasons. Either way, he knew what she was feeling, even if not because of the same circumstances. She didn't want to be here, and her past, whatever it is she was running from was catching up with her. Luckily for Alexander, he didn't really have many friends he left behind, just people who liked his dad who disliked him for not coming to the funeral and things such as that.
He wasn't even sure why he felt the need to talk with her. Perhaps because he had found that she was feeling the same feeling of being trapped here as he had. While their circumstances were probably not the same (he had never heard how she killed her little sister when she was ten on accident and how terrible her father was to her - not that anyone knew the treatment he suffered with his father), they were feeling similarly. Perhaps it was the need to not be lonely. To reach out and know he wasn't alone in feeling as he felt having to return to this town because he wasn't wanted anywhere else. He had felt the need to reach out before, but he usually just buried himself in books and study when that feeling crept upon him. Of course, he could've gone on the internet and found a bunch of teenagers who wanted to run away from their home, but none of that was the same. Especially since they were complaining about things that really weren't a big deal, but they probably seemed the end of the world at their age.
"That's what I would've thought if some of them didn't kick me out of the interview after insulting both hospital and themselves. I merely told them what I thought, and they were the one who asked the question. They let people die because some treatments might kill them. Except they don't understand the patients die if you don't do the dangerous stuff." Alexander shrugged and stretched his arms out. "If I save lives, does it really matter what I say?" Apparently it did, but he didn't think it should. He spent a decade at med-school, interned at hospitals nearby and saved several lives before he was even a full-fledged doctor, and yet no one but his tiny hometown hospital was willing to hire him.
Alexander laughed when she said this wasn't her final stop. He shook his head and held his stomach before his laughter died down. Oh, that was a hoot. Did she not know how this town worked? Even if she managed to leave again, he was sure she would be back. There was too much history here for her, too much past, and the past was something someone could never escape from. Even though he told himself he would just get experience here and move on, he doubted he would be able to escape this town completely. It was hard enough when he went off to college, even though he had no one but his father to leave behind. "It's always your final stop. The only way you'll be able to get out of here again, is if you have nothing to leave behind. No family. No friends. No enemies. People will hold you back, force you to come back. It's as if God said that those who are born here must die here as well. Fate's a tricky thing." Okay, yes he wasn't religious anymore. During the decade he was gone he had become atheist, but that was the best way to talk to the religious nuts around here, as most of those in this town were religious, mostly Christian, whatever denomination. If he wanted to make a point, he usually would just bring God into it. He knew the Bible, he grew up a good Christian boy, but he stopped believing long before, but didn't realize it until he left to a more liberal area.
"I wouldn't ask you even if I did need legal help. Too young. Inexperienced. Gullible. Flighty. No, sadly I would go with someone a bit better at being lawyer. I'd be afraid you were too weak and try to run away from the prosecutors. Too much responsibility. Not a bad thing in a person, but not in a lawyer." He was a bit too honest, and honestly he was judging her based on what little he knew about her. If she proved him wrong, then good on her. Otherwise, his judgement was that which he said, and he would believe that until the moment when she proved to him he was wrong. He wasn't scared of being wrong, but he needed proof that he was wrong. And if nothing made sense, then he would go with something that didn't make sense. He changed his mind all the time, and he was fine with being wrong, as long as he didn't stay wrong.
"Wrong choice, darling," Alexander replied, "It would have been better to stay away from here. Might have to deal with a twenty-something step-mother, but you wouldn't have to deal with your baggage you left behind." created by M of PR[newclass=".reddbox"]height:200px;background-color:#111135;opacity:0;color:#ffffff;-webkit-transition:.8s;-moz-transition:.8s;-o-transition:.8s;transition:.8s;[/newclass] [newclass=".reddbox:hover"]height:200px;background-color:#111135;opacity:.5;color:#ffffff;-webkit-transition:.8s;-moz-transition:.8s;-o-transition:.8s;transition:.8s;[/newclass] [newclass=".reddbox:hover .reddbox2"]height:200px;background-color:#111135;opacity:1.5;color:#ffffff;-webkit-transition:.8s;-moz-transition:.8s;-o-transition:.8s;transition:.8s;[/newclass]
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I'm speechless.
Group
Returners
Posts
18
Played By
Lexa
Status
Offline
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Post by KATERINA AVERY BUCHANAN on Apr 6, 2017 16:48:11 GMT -6
Katerina knew that even if there were no cameras and no physical proof of a crime she committed, people in the town would still talk. Even her being back gave them something to talk about. It was a small town, so everyone knew everything about everyone else. Half of them had probably been invited to the wedding that was suddenly canceled the morning her family realized she had left for school already, and they probably thought the worst of her for it. Katerina knew what they thought when they saw her. They thought that she thought she was better than them. She knew they thought she was a bad person for leaving her now ex-fiance the day before their wedding. She also knew that they all probably hoped her law career had failed bringing her back to the town she hated so much. It was a place where people got stuck, so all they had to do was talk about each other. If she committed a crime, whether it was in the police station or if it was in the privacy of her own home, then it would making its way through the various circles of people within hours. It didn't matter if anyone had actual proof, all they cared about was having a good story to talk about. "You know this place as well as I do. Even without proof a crime was committed, the court of public opinion matters just as much as court of law," Katerina knew this all too much, and she thought he might understand. She never paid full attention to what someone had done, remaining focused most on her own life and her goals for her future, but Katerina had heard stories of what happened with his family. Katerina didn't know the whole story, just that his sister had died when he was young. Katerina had her own issues in the town, but it was a whole other type of problem. Katerina was the girl who was supposed to escape the town. She worked hard in school, kept a perfect GPA, graduated as valedictorian, had a full scholarship to college, and somehow, the place still managed to pull her in. Katerina had grown up to think she was not like those other people. The people in this town to her were ordinary, and Katerina thought there was more out there for her. More than living her whole life and then dying in the town. "Hospitals have to answer to patients and a board of directors. You piss off a patient, and it is a lawsuit waiting to happen, which the board of directors doesn't want to deal with," Katerina always looked at things from the legal perspective. It was the downside of having a law degree and hating being idle. Katerina didn't do well with idle time, so she did extra research into old cases, or she took on extra work she didn't actually have to do, so she had seen some fascinating cases, including some instances of hospitals being sued by patients. "In the case of Moore v. Regents of University of California, the researches lost and had to pay a lot of money to the plaintiff because while they saved his life, they also didn't get him to sign off to let them do research. The researchers came across as if they didn't care about the patient, just money from research," Katerina had a vast amount of useless information in her mind, the title of the case being one, but it had been interesting. The researchers saved the man's life, but never got informed consent telling him his blood and tissue would be used in research, so he sued, and won and also lost. While he had no right to the patented cell line created from his tissue, he did have a right to damages for not having given informed consent. "You may think that way, but it's not like I'm coming back to much. My brother's here, but there's not much else I left behind. I tried to make as clean of a break as possible, and the only reason I'm here now is that I didn't have my own place in Atlanta, and I quit my job," Katerina left out the part about the former fiance in Ellisville or her mom's death, of the guy she left behind in Atlanta. Maybe she made some quick decisions, like turning down a proposal and quitting her job, or enrolling last second in summer courses to get ahead on her college work. Her quick decisions hurt her future, but it also got her closer to her future in some cases. If she hadn't left Ellisville back then, she would possibly still be in school, or she would have never left for college in the first place. "Inexperienced, possibly, since I graduated from law school four years ago, although I worked for one of the top corporate law firms in Atlanta, graduated top of my class from Vanderbilt, and I was on track to make partner in the future. Gullible and flighty are far from the truth, and I wouldn't run from a prosecutor. My job was to work for all of the evil companies in the world and to get the case so close to going to trial that the other party would take almost any deal just to keep from going through the long process, then get everything we could," Katerina skipped over how irresponsible she was in some ways. Katerina was responsible in most senses of the word, but not always in her personal life. Quitting her job because she broke up with her boyfriend was just the easiest example. She left him because she couldn't commit, and then working right across the hall from him was going to be too much of a problem. "I got away from it once, so I can do it again when I find a new job," Katerina swore she would make sure those words were true. She knew people always came back there, but she didn't want to end up like those people. Katerina loved the freedom of the city, and the last thing she wanted was to continue to have days like this. She had one simple task to do, and it was complicated by her past. She couldn't even get paperwork and an interview done, because people still saw her for the one bad thing she had done. She hurt David, so his friends hated her, and she knew she deserved it, so she planned to leave it all behind again as soon as she could. words: 1104 tagged: ALEXANDER BLAKE ROOT notes: - -
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