bones {jude x ollie}!blitz

It was ritual to die everyday.

Afer every shift, he scrubbed the skin off in layers, shedding it like a butterfly. It was against the rules to leave a shift without proper sanitization and Jude never minded really, it felt nice to take a hot shower after a long set of rounds. Sometimes he even took showers on his breaks, scrubbing at the blood on his arms until it at least seemed to be going away.

This had been a long one, spanning over three days when another doctor had inexplicably come down with an illness. Jude had checked on them himself, prescribing him a week in bed and some anti-inflammatories.

He stood in the shower, letting the water run over his face for a long while. He could feel his muscles relaxing with every drop of steaming, hot water. Jude stared down at his wrists, at the heavy scarring there. He was doing better. The voice barely ever came anymore. Fresh cuts lined his arm in neat little rows. If he cut before the voice even appeared then maybe it would stay away forever, held at bay by the lines of red.

A strangeness overtook him at the thought of the voice and the lines. thoughts of Nessie libertine filled his head. Of three years ago, when Eye Saw had taken his place in the games.

Fitz.

Noah.

I'm sorry.

He stopped at the cafe again on his way home, book in hand. He'd traded his doctor's coat and dress shirt for a comfortable knit sweater that had come from his father's closet. He was finally old enough to fill it out.

With a book in his hand, and a cup of jasmine tea cooling in front of him, he spent the rest of the morning in a moment of frozen time. The constant beeping of the monitors in the hospital finally left his ears and he could relax.

He was so invested in his book that he didn't notice at first when someone sat across from him, right up until he spoke. \

"Ah?" Jude said, lowering his book and taking in the boy across from him, "Oh no, how unfortunate."

He looked familiar, Jude knew that he must have been someone from work, not a patient, more familiar than that. He had large lips and curly brown hair, an unassuming sort of handsome. He furrowed his brow in thought, placing his book on the table when he placed him.

"Oliver, right?"