"y..ya i do....i realized it when yo got shot" he said as he set the wire down and started on the mainframe
"I see..." She was immensely grateful to Ace for saving her, but she'd only ever thought of him as a friend... She touched his shoulder. "You're very sweet, Ace; I... I just need time to think. Is that okay?"
ace looked up at her with a glint of saddness in his eyes "ok i understand" he then went back to work
"It's not a no~" She said, softly, hoping she hadn't hurt his feelings too badly. "I care about you very much, and you saved my life; it's just... a lot of stuff's happening really fast, and I want to make sure I know what I'm doing; so, smile? Please? For me?"
"That's great," She said, giving him a smile of her own. "I don't know what I'd do with out you; you're like a swiss army pony!"
ace blushed as she closed the pannel "thank you" he said "and im done....now the turrets and robots are on the vats system like your pipbuck so anything thats red on your pipbuck is hostel to them"
"That's great! Although hopefully we won't have to test it; once we get that crane down, the only access should be through the front door, which we control. No hostiles should ever get inside the building." Max thought for a moment. "What about the cleaning robots? And the Service elevator? Did you manage to get them going?"
"The elevator I have to check but the robots are up and running" ace said "and the crane I think we should worry about in the morning"
"Yes," Max nodded, yawning. "It has been a long day." She headed out of the mainframe room. "I suppose we'd better find somewhere to sleep."
Ace nodded and followed her He was thinking on where they could sleep but was only coming up with the patient beds and he wasn't liking that idea
Max's clinic in her stable had had a small sleeping quarters attached, so that she could take a quick nap if her services weren't required for a couple of hours; she assumed the senior doctors of this hospital would have had the same. Stepping out of the basement and into the lobby, she studied the floor plan on the wall. "There," She said, pointing to the third floor, and a little tag that read; 'resident doctor's offices'. "Those should be pretty comfy, we should probably claim them as our quarters." She felt a little strange about it, but she was the senior doctor in the hospital now, she supposed.
Ace smiled and nodded "lead the way senior doctor max" he said stepping aside and trying not to laugh at his small joke
Max smirked and rolled her eyes, then headed to the stairs. The third floor was fairly similar to the fifth, except most of the rooms held complex looking medical machines, instead of patient beds. Max recognised most of them from her medical books, but had only ever had access to a couple in her Stable; the possibilities excited her, but she would have to wait until morning to examine them all properly. The doctor's offices were in the centre of the floor, along with the pharmacy and nurses' station. There were four offices in total; each one consisted of a study, complete with sofa, desk and bookshelves full of medical texts; a small bedroom with a double bed side tables; and a little bathroom. The names on three of the doors meant nothing to Max, but the fourth bore her mother's title; she didn't want to venture into that room, not yet anyway. The other three offices were much the same, only holding small personal affects that belonged to their previous owners. "Which one do you want?" Max asked, after they had looked at them all.
ace pointed at random but avoided her mothers room (better leave that one alone so max can see it when shes ready) he then opened the door and looked in "ya ill have this one....are you ok?" he said seeing her unease
"Hmm? Oh yes, I'm fine, it's just..." She looked a little troubled. "Can we do something with my mother's remains? I don't think I can sleep knowing she's just lying down there like that..."
ace smiled and put a hoof on her shoulder "of coarse....lets go" he said before leading her back down to her mother
Once there, Max carefully removed her mother's coat, and then gently placed her bones into a box. The empty syringes she dumped in a bin on the way to the basement. She had decided that cremation was best, and so loaded the box into the incinerator. Rather than watch the flames, she found a brush and cleaned the coat as best she could, before taking off her saddlebags and putting it on over her jumpsuit. It fitted perfectly. A few minutes later, and a small door opened, and revealed an urn; the last earthly remains of Max's Mother. She took the urn, and placed it carefully in her saddle bags. "Let's go, back upstairs," She said, quietly, levitating the bags back onto her back.
ace gave her a pained look as he nodded and followed her up once they were upstairs he headed for his room "night max.....see you in the morning" he said before gently closing his door
Max nodded, then sighed as she headed for her room. As she got to her own door, she paused, and then instead headed to her mother's room. She took a deep breath and opened it before walking inside. Standing there brought back many half-remembered memories from when she was a filly; sitting on her mother's desk as she listened to her heart with a stethoscope, waiting on the sofa, reading the titles of all the medical books and wondering what they meant, looking cute to get lollipops from the other doctors... She pulled the urn out of her bags, and set it on the desk, then left, closing the door softly. She had tears in her eyes for what felt like the millionth time that day. She headed back to the room she had picked, and dropped her saddlebags. Looking around, the room seemed so cold and empty; pictures of long-dead ponies she'd never known on the walls, and trophies for events she'd never seen in a cabinet. She left the room and knocked quietly on Ace's door instead.
