Jennifer Byrnes knew that look all too well. The slumped posture and the fidgety hands that laid on her desktop. The helpless and beady eyes full of desperation.

Byrnes sat face to face with one of the patients, only separated by a thin glass meant for her safety. His eyes were red of sleepless nights, and his grey hair was clumped and stringy.

“Nurse.” His voice shakes, barely audible. To the inexperienced, perhaps his sullen look and meek demeanor would be enough to strike pity, but she learned how to handle these type of people long ago.

The patient’s slow eyes make their way to Byrnes name tag on her desk.

“Miss Jennifer Byrnes.” He speaks up, his confidence not any more convincing this time around.

Byrnes scrolls her eyes to the tag wrapped around his wrist. “Ian Reynolds. I’m not sure I’ve seen you here before.”

She fiddles with the glasses on the bridge of her nose, then studies him once more. Yes, he was most certainly a new patient that recently settled in. What landed him in here? Was it drugs? Was it his anger issues that arise when no one expects it?

“What are we s’pose to be doing at 8am Miss?”

A simple question. It’s not surprising that her patient is unfamiliar with how things work around here. Byrnes searches for the schedule on the computer screen before her.

“Breakfast.”

“And 12pm, what are we s’pose to do then?”

“Our therapy session.”

“3pm?”

“Medication time.”

He looks at the clock mounted on the wall behind her.

“It’s a little past 3pm now. Haven’t I followed all the rules?”

He smiles his crooked teeth and blinks his crooked eyes. Byrnes scrolls through the data on her computer.

“I’m impressed. You have been well behaved Ian.”

Byrnes returns the smile. They always started that way. Polite and pleasant; following all the rules we presented to them. They socialized with us to get on our good sides, only to secretly be plotting on how to turn things their way.

When she was young, Byrnes made the mistake of giving them just too much understanding and too much compassion. Her tendency of giving the benefit of the doubt was a weakness punished by their cunning minds.

“Then about my medication. Why haven’t I got enough?” Ian asks.

And so his truest intentions have finally been made clear. Byrnes made no effort to hide the scowl on her face.

“I think y’all’s made a mistake.” He goes on. “I can feel it in my brains.”

Byrnes looks for the dosage he needs under his information.

“I don’t think we made a mistake. Your dosage is — grams.”

“I haven’t got enough Miss. Can you check the amount they gave?”

This was a trick Byrnes has seen before. The patients use up their medication, hide some, or whatever just to ask for more medication later down the line.

“I’m afraid I can’t.”

“I’m not trying to do you over Miss.” He pleads. “Your workers done made a mistake.”

“Please return to the recreational center Ian.”

Byrnes was stern with her words. This is what they responded to. She was careful not to show any vulnerabilities with her stiff posture and cold stare. He had no choice but to accept this was a battle he had lost.

8 o’clock and the patients were off to bed. Jennifer Byrnes thought of her interaction today, and how Ian is managing his loss in the game he tried to play.

‘Hmm, he would have had me there if I were still young.’ She thinks to herself.

She types away on her computer. There were a lot of write ups that needed to be tended to before she locked up for the night. Her reports were of utmost importance, the wording careful and precise.

Just when she’s finishing her closing statement, a horn-like blare repeatedly sounds and the red light in the corner of the hall rapidly blinks. A rare occasion, but not something she’s never seen before. A patient must have hurt themselves, or someone else.

The next day, Byrnes notices a certain patient of her’s is missing today. She sits next to her co-worker during a break period.

“Do you know what that alarm was about yesterday?”

“They had to rush one of the patients to the hospital. Ian Reynolds I think.” He says, uninterested.

A cold chill runs over her.

Jennifer Byrnes learned that day, that proper investigation is necessary for everything.