(Blood Drive) Assistance Needed

Job:

How many times before had she been in a hospital?  That was easy.  None.

Shivering slightly, Leah stepped lightly over the threshold, her boots wet from the rain puddles littering the pavement outside.  A young man carrying a clipboard caught the sleeve of her jacket, his eyes carrying a warning to halt for a minute.  With a shrug, she obeyed, knowing that it was permitted for her to be here.

"Leahndr Asp- ACHOO!" she began to say before breaking into a disruptive fit of sneezing.  The guard eyes her dubiously and let his eyes trail over her, lighting on the guild mark centered on her chest.  After flipping through the list he clutched, the man pronounced her approved to continue, but with the reminder that,

"No volunteers who might be... ailed...or diseased... are permitted to enter the facility."  With a dark look in her watery eyes, Leah strode forward with absolutely no intention of backing off.  So she was allergic to the roses hanging everywhere in this blasted city.  The guard could mind his own business!

Her mouth set in a churlish line, a portly middle-aged woman greeted the mage.  "We're glad to have the assistance of any able bodied folk," she explained as she tried to hand the redhead a tissue.  Resisting the urge to growl, Leah simply shoved the woman's hand away.  She didn't snap a reply but instead slid past the volunteer supervisor and headed down a random hallway.  Surely, there would be someplace she could go without these busy-bodies (never mind the fact that it was their job and these were their assigned locations) to poke about and question her competence and state of health!  This was why she never visited hospitals.

Sucking in a deep breath, the girl marched further down, coming to a halt at a rather bright door whose paint job matched the shade of her hair.  As she reached for the doorknob, a voice from inside stopped her dead in her tracks.  It sounded like Hero, but that was- definitely not possible.

With only one real course of action, Leah barged in.

...And met face to face with a group of young men, all admittedly about the age Hero would be now if he were still alive.  A brief glance over all their faces revealed that none of them bore the slightest resemblance to him, though, and the mage turned with a downcast visage to leave.  There came a call from behind her, however, and it was just somehow so similar to his that she had to pause.

"Little Miss, if you could fetch us some more juice, we'd be right grateful," the voice requested politely.  Turning back, Leah recognized that they were sipping cranberry juice, and many a youth had a bandage secured against his arm.  They were patients, and this was her job.  With an inner shrug, the girl lifted the tray into her arms and set off at a brisk pace.  She'd find the kitchen... sometime.  Hero wouldn't have minded waiting, she reflected.

504 Words.