April 30th, early evening

[dr_lauren]

Lauren hesitated before ringing the buzzer - almost walked away, in fact, before forcing herself to turn and face the door. She didn't know Bert very well and wouldn't have approached him at all if it hadn't been for Sam's recommendation. She trusted the other woman's judgement (and research), and if a cop said that he'd be a good person to talk to, well, then who was she to second-guess it?

Bzzzz.

Comments

[wise_ass]

Bert's never been especially good at gracefully accepting gratitude; he's naturally bent toward making light of things and part of that includes a staunch refusal to take himself seriously. But it's a charged moment-- seems like Lauren's been pulling two pounds on a three pound trigger for the last few days and like she's only just now letting down her guard some-- and he knows better than to wave her acknowledgement off.

"Haven't done much," he says honestly. "I'd seen you two coming and going from her room an' knew you were taking care of her, but it took me awhile to get around to introducing myself." He'll just leave out the part where he was waist-high in his cups when he finally did get around to it. "We discussed pie, among other business."