Sing, Sing, Sing for the Dying of the Day- Herbert West & Dan Cain
Word count: 594
Trigger warnings: gore, death, manipulation
A birthday present for @sodabutch ! happy birthday!
“Daniel, scalpel!” Herbert shouted urgently, holding his hand out for his clearly terrified assistant to place the blade into.
He quickly sliced an artery in the rapidly waking “patient” (corpse) on the surgical table. The reagent had taken effect too quickly, before Herbert could finish stitching her up, which likely had something to do with the fact they’d tripled the dosage. She started thrashing as Herbert sewed up an incision, hitting him and knocking his glasses off his face. An overlooked shard of glass in her hand cut Herbert’s cheekbone. Patients were always violent when they woke up too early, but it had been his idea, not Daniel’s, so Dan had no clue why Herbert looked at him with that icy stare.
The patient calmed as she bled out, eyes closing as if she were tired and not dying. Dan couldn’t even look at her. She was Dr. Fields, a former colleague of his. It wasn’t like they had killed her, she’d died in a car crash, but it still felt wrong. They had been aquaintances, and Daniel had once met her mother when she had a heart attack. Dr. Fields had cried on his shoulder that day. And now she was dead on their table.
Daniel felt sick.
“The dosage was too high.” Herbert said quietly as he wiped his hands off on his makeshift scrubs like none of this mattered.
Daniel’s frustration spilled over. “You can’t blame that on me!”
“Might I remind you that you were the one who said doubling the dosage might be too little, Daniel.” Herbert shot him a look.
“It was your idea to heighten it in the first place!” He argued back, growing more emotional as Herbert stayed cool.
“No matter,” Herbert suddenly sighed, waving it off. “We need to clean this up.”
“Her.”
“What?”
“She’s still a person, Herbert.” Daniel crossed his arms.
“The subject is dead, Daniel.”
Daniel shook his head and buried his face in his hands before remembering they were bloody and violently pulling away from the stale iron smell. “I… I can’t do this anymore.”
For once, Herbert seemed to falter. “What?”
“Your… subject. I knew her.” Dan lowered himself to the floor. “She graduated last year. We had a few classes together. And now she’s…” he took a deep breath. “I quit, Herbert.”
“Because of one mistake?” A touch of panic crept into Herbert’s voice. “One patient with a personal connection to you?”
“Yes!”
“You can’t let your emotions impact your drive like this.” Herbert reigned in the fear. “What about curing death? Being a hero?”
“I’m not sure that’s what I want anymore.”
“Of course it’s what you want!” Herbert practically ripped his gloves off. “This is just a moment of weakness. I put a stop to those long ago.”
“And that turned out excellently for you, didn’t it?” Dan bit back.
“It did, yes. Not so much for you.”
“So I’m weaker than you?”
“Yes.”
Daniel let out a disbelieving laugh. “You are a heartless bastard.”
“Better than being a failure.” Herbert washed his hands and sat down next to Daniel.
“A failure—“
“I understand this was hard for you.” Herbert interrupted. “But you simply can’t lose motivation. This is too important. I need you.”
“You… need me?”
“Of course I do,” Herbert admitted. “This a two man job. And no one else can do it but us.”
He thought a moment before acquiescing. “You’re right. Okay, okay… I’ll stay.”
“Of course I’m right.” Herbert smiled, then quickly composed himself again. “Alright. One more test?”
@dilfsisko @bashircore this is the 5 + 1 grocery store thing!!
Herbert did not like going to the grocery store. Apparently, it was unfortunate he had to eat at all. Thankfully, he now had a boyfriend who could do it for him, and Dan was more than happy to get away from the damned lab for a while.
Sometimes he purposefully took too long. Examining each product and making long conversation with anyone who would listen.
As he went along, he was looking for which register worker he would most like to talk to. He settled on a woman with dark brown skin, what looked like a tool belt under her store-issued vest, and a nametag that read ‘Amaya’.
“Good afternoon,” he gave a small greeting. “How are you?”
“Can’t complain.” Amaya shrugged.
“I couldn’t tell you the last time I left the house.”
“Been busy?”
“Ohh yeah. My um, partner-“ there was a snap of relief in Dan’s chest as he saw her excited reaction. “He doesn’t like doing the shopping. So I get stuck with it.”
“My girlfriend.” She put extra emphasis on the word. “Is the same way.”
“Well, my guy, Herb,” Dan continued, smiling widely with relief, as she rung up his canned peaches. “Well. He’s very passionate about his… work. He gets this look in his eye, real bright-like.”
“He sounds like quite the guy.”
“Oh he is, barely sleeps though.” He chuckled. “Oh um, I’ve got a coupon for that.”
She took it. “So what’s he do?”
“Hm?” He looked up as he put his grocery bags back in his cart.
“Your boyfriend. You said he’s passionate about his work. What is it?”
“Oh! He’s a doctor, kinda.” Dan smiled before leaving.
***
“Peaches again?” Amaya raised an eyebrow at Dan’s cart, which had a good twelve cans of peaches.
“Herbert’s been getting really into peaches.”
“Sounds um… obsessive.”
Dan laughed. “Oh yeah. He certainly can be. He’s in his lab right now, has been for awhile. He’s hell bent on his ‘experiments’. That’s how we met, actually.”
“Oh, you’re a doctor too?”
“Yeah, kinda.” Dan shrugged. “How’s Shauna?”
“She’s good. Just got a job at a sunglasses kiosk in Boston.”
“Pretty long drive.”
“Yeah. I guess it is.” She finished scanning the peaches. “Wait what does ‘kinda’ mean? Are you not a doctor?”
“You do not want to know, Amaya.”
“Alright,” she chuckled. “No further questions.”
***
Over the next few weeks, Dan went grocery shopping five times. Each time, Dan and Amaya grew ever closer. They always had new gossip for each other, about their partners or not. Dan talked about his books and his med school experience, Amaya talked about her job and law school applications. It was a great relationship.
“Amaya!”
“What’s the situation, Daniel?” She smiled. “Oh, no peaches today!”
“I got tired of them. We’re doing soup now. More variety there. Herb slept in his glasses last night.”
“They broken?”
“Just bent a bit. They’re all crooked now, it’s adorable.” Dan got out his wallet. “He slept at his desk over his notes.”
“Do you want me to help bring those out to your car?”
“Sure!”
Amaya grabbed a few bags. “So how was that book?”
“Hm?” Dan looked over at her.
“Oh, first time you came in. You bought a book called ‘The Saint’s Perversion’ from the newsstand.”
“Oh, didn’t finish it. It was erotica.”
Chortling, Amaya’s face scrunched up. “Did you expect it not to be?? It’s called ‘The Saint’s Perversion’, dude!”
He opened the trunk. A small green glint caught Amaya’s eye as she placed the bags in the car. Investigating slightly further, she noticed it was a syringe full of something glowing and green. “Hey, what is tha—“
Dan slammed the trunk closed. “Nothing! I gotta get back, good talking to you!”
“Alright! Tell Herb I said hi.”
“Tell Shauna the same!”
“Will do!”
***
Dan was unusually quiet in the checkout line, save for the small, angry murmurs to himself.
“So,” Amaya spoke up. “How’s Herbert?”
He gave a harsh laugh. “Busy as ever. Spending every day in that damn lab cooking up his…” he stopped before he could say ‘monstrosities’.
“I’m guessing you’re not on great terms?”
“No, we’re fighting. Again.”
“Again?”
“We fight more often than not these days.” He sighed, practically slamming his gallon of milk down on the counter. “He’s always working or yelling at something. The sex is… basically nonexistent. No, no, completely nonexistent. He’s too busy working. I’m too busy helping him! I told him today that I’m done with his sick power games and that I can either be his lab partner or his romantic one.”
“Why are you still with him?”
“I…” he paused. “I don’t know.”
***
Dan came in the next day, nothing but a pack of batteries in his hand. “Amaya!”
She leaned over her register. “You seem chipper. Get over your fight?”
“Sorta.” Dan smiled and looked down, bouncing on his heels. “You asked me yesterday why I’m still with him.”
“I did indeed.” She rested her chin on her palm. “I sense you’re going somewhere with this.”
“Well, I can agree that he’s a difficult person. Difficult to work with, difficult to talk to, difficult to love… sometimes.” Dan’s face softened and he wrung his hands together. “But sometimes… it’ll be late at night, I’ll be staring at the ceiling, and he’ll have been working for… forty eight hours straight. And he’ll crawl under the sheets and curl into my side.”
“Awww.”
“He doesn’t really sleep. Ever. So it’s more for my benefit than his. But he does get bored easily, and he does this cute little thing where he traces circles on my chest. Or- or I’ll ask him a question about his work and he’ll just light up. Or when there’s an accident in the lab and the first thing he’ll do is make sure I’m okay. He cares about me, and… I think the world would be a worse place without him.”
Lightly smacking Dan’s shoulder, Amaya let out a small laugh. “Dan!! That was so cute!”
“You think?”
“Why are you telling me?!” Her voice was a squeak at this point. “Why aren’t you saying this stuff to your boyfriend?”
“I’m going to!”
“Did you really need the batteries?”
“Maybe not exactly…”
Amaya snorted. “Dude.”
“I wanted to make sure it was okay!!”
“It’s more than okay.” She squeezed his shoulder. “You should bring him around sometime.”
“If I can get him out of the house.”
***
Something was strange about the next store visit. A man was on Dan’s arm, a shorter man with big glasses and dark brown hair. Scowling, his arms crossed, he looked like he did not want to be there.
“Hey,” Amaya nudged her coworker. “Be, do you mind taking my register? I’m gonna make some rounds.”
She nodded. “You got fifteen minutes, I get out at four today.”
“I’ll be right back!” Amaya hurried off, waving at her. “Promise!”
She jogged up behind Dan. “Hey you two.”
“Hey, Amaya!”
“Yes, hello.”
“So, you must be the famous Herbert, then.” Amaya stuck out her hand to shake.
He did not take it. “Unfortunately, not yet. You may be confusing me with a different, more famous Herbert.”
“No, I just mean that Dan talks about you a lot. You and your work?”
“The work?” The man glared at him. “What have you—“
“Nothing specific, dearest.”
“You know I loathe when you call me that.” The blush on his cheeks betrayed his statement.
‘This is Herbert?’ Amaya thought to herself.
“Amaya, you aren’t at the register today?”
“Nah, I’m a ‘can I help you?’ right now.”
As they were talking, the man started drawing small, impatient circles on Dan’s bicep. Definitely Herbert.
“How’s the work been going?”
Herbert perked up, eyes brightening. “Fantastically. Our specimens have been responding excellently to the— um, the prototype.”
“I see what you meant, Dan. He is passionate.”
“This work is important.” Herbert frowned.
“I bet. Anyway, anything I can help you guys with?”
Dan shook his head.
“Well I’ll leave you lovebirds alone. Nice to meet you, Herb, I see why Dan likes you so much.”
“Likes… me?”
Dan gave a small, breathy chuckle. “Well, tell Shauna I said hi.”
“Will do!” She waved at them as she jogged back to her register.
Re-Animator but Herbert and Megan switched places (megan is re-animating the dead and herbert is dan’s boyfriend) but their personalities remain unchanged so herbert gets to be in on it
