Meena, completely exhausted from the last few days of work, wearily shut the front door of her flat behind her, barely seeing anything but the hallway to her bedroom. She flopped ungracefully onto her bed, shoes still on and hair still up. She pulled her glasses off (she meant to keep them on the bed with her, but she appeared to have misjudged where exactly the edge of the bed was, according to the muffled sound they made as they collided with the carpet) and rubbed tiredly at her eyes.
The last few days may just rank as some of the busiest in her life. Numerous people apparently decided that now was the perfect time to kick the bucket - very full buckets, and Meena was on constant cleanup duty.
It may not have been so bad if they were all normal deaths. Unfortunately for the pathologist, most all deaths had been obscure or unusual, and it was her job to figure out what exactly they were. As an added bonus, two of her co-workers were on holiday, and the other co-worker was next to useless. At least a fourth of her time was spent rectifying Deanna's mistakes. Apparently the girl hadn't even gone to the recommended classes, thinking them a waste of her time as she never thought she would actually have to do work. Not to mention, the girl was squeamish. Meena had given her an incredulous look after Deanna had gagged when she opened the first corpse. How can a morgue worker be squeamish?
There were at least three homicide (or suspected homicide) victims among the latest batch, so a lot of her time was also spent talking to detectives and comparing notes with Anderson (out of necessity and obligation, of course - Anderson was a total prick).
Meena would have stayed at the morgue if she could, but after her boss had come in for the early day shift and saw that she was still there, hours after she should have gone home, she was ordered to leave and get some rest. She begrudgingly complied, attaining a whopping three and a half hours of sleep before coming back under the influence of two cups of coffee.
So, all in all, she was tired, her feet hurt from being on them for hours on end, she'd barely eaten (a bag of chips from the vending machine and another coffee), she was overworked, and she was worried that Deanna would mess things up when not under Meena's constant supervision.
The last thing she wanted to do was get up and have to make something to eat, so she didn't. She had almost fallen asleep when her phone buzzed from her pocket. She groaned, but she didn't give her number out to very many people, so she figured it had to be important.
It was a text from Molly. The timestamp was not the current time. She scowled at her phone and hit it with the palm of her hand. Damned phone. Or rather, damned phone reception in the morgue. Maybe it was just her plan. Who knew. Either way, the message had been delayed, and it was only just getting to her now. As her finger twitched to open it, the phone vibrated again. Another message. Again, not at the correct time. It buzzed a third time, and, now worried and guilty, Meena stared at the phone until it stopped vibrating.
She didn't see Molly much at work, unless she specifically sought her out during a lull in activity. This was the first real lull she'd had since going to work a few days ago. What had she missed? Had Molly needed her? Was she okay? Oh hell, what if something horrible had happened and Meena hadn't answered and now Molly was-
Barely daring to breathe, she flipped open the phone and read through the texts.
[Text] Meena, something weird's just happened, come over ASAP. Please.
[Text] I can't reach Glen. It's important, help me.
[Text] No one is answering their phones and I don't know what to do, please help.
[Text] I'm so scared. Where are you?
[Text] I'm sorry, you're busy working, too, aren't you...
Meena's fingers fumbled with the phone, her head pounding with possibilities, her heart stopped with worry, her throat choked with guilt.
If the messages weren't worrying enough, the fact the Molly had completely forgotten her usual signature was terrifying. Usually there was at least something. The only thing she could content herself with was that Molly couldn't have been imminently dying, because the latest text had come early that morning, the others having been scattered about the previous day.
[Text] Molly, I'm so sorry, are you okay? Where are you, what happened?
Her tiredness pushed aside for now, she shoved herself off of the bed, hurrying back into the main room to don her discarded jacket, ready to head out the door on a moment's notice, in case Molly still needed her. It sounded serious enough that she just might.
(And even if Molly didn't need her, Meena would probably still go and find her anyway.)