entranceway | Fourth Experiment: [video]

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Fourth Experiment: [video]

[there is a noticeable difference between this and the last time people saw Whale. Mostly that he is wearing his lab coat and he is more composed. He directs his attention to the feed, speaking in a professional tone]

Due to circumstances beyond my control, I was unable to attend to my duties as chief of staff in the Wonderland Clinic. I would like to extend my thanks to Doctors Martha Jones, Helen Magnus and Joan Watson for their initiative during the most recent crisis.

That said, I would like to have a briefing on the medical situation, as I intend to get back to work effective immediately.

[what happens in Mirrorside stays in Mirrorside, and he's not talking about it ever]

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[There's the overly professional, to-the-point Whale who she'd originally met in this place. Martha takes that as proof that everything really is back to normal and the mirrors have returned to their side. It's a relief to see him again. They'd had more than enough help offered to handle things without him, but interacting with his mirror had been... odd, to say the least.]

Don't worry too much about it. We managed without you, and as far as I know there weren't any causalities. [Which she is just so relieved about, she can't even put it into words.]

And you don't need to thank me, either. It's my job. [She's sure that Helen and Watson would say the same thing.

She's going to ask him what he means by briefing, but first...]

I'm... not sure if you saw, but I ran into him. The other you, that is. [She thinks that it's only right that he knows.]

I knew I could count on you, Martha.

[a pause] I saw him briefly. I also met your Mirror.

[It's good to know that he trusts her, and honestly, Martha's relieved to have him back. Not that there weren't plenty of other doctors to help, but this whole clinic idea came from the two of them.

But then he mentions her Mirror. This is the first time Martha's heard anything about her, and it causes her to stare blankly at the screen for a few moments before she finds words.]

... And?

She was helpful to me. [a pause] Yours turned out much better than mine. I apologize if... if he disturbed you.

[he hates that the Mirror took everything about him and altered it. He hates that it mocked the people he cared about and used them to try opening the door. He hates that in its madness, the Mirror actually delighted in people being hurt. Most of all he hates the magic behind it all and that once again he couldn't fight against it. Why does magic always have to be stronger?]

It's fine. He was just kind of... strange, like he wasn't all there. Turned out to be harmless, and it wouldn't be your fault anyway.

[It's true that the mirrors are based on them, but that doesn't meant that they're responsible for what they do. No, that Queen of Hearts is the one to blame if the mirrors cause any trouble. And Martha knows that some of them did, after what Dean told her.

She's curious about her own mirror, though. Whale says that she was helpful to him, but... that doesn't seem so contrary from her.]

... How was she different from me? Can I ask? Your mirror described her as a mouse.

Martha, he was purposefully guessing wrong to unleash monsters. That's not harmless.

[shakes his head] She was timid, that's all. Unwilling to disobey the queen, but I don't blame her for that.

He wasn't the only one. [Martha rubs at the space between her eyes. She may feel guilty that she put in a few wrong answers, even if in her case she really had been trying.

But... timid, and loyal to the queen. At least that gives her some idea of what to expect. It also explains why she's never seen any writing on the mirrors from her counterpart.] Right. Thanks for telling me.

[And now she's going to switch gears, because she needs to catch him up on what's going on with the clinic.] At this point, I have to say it might be a good idea to put a staffing list together for everyone. I was thinking we could split up our hours so that the clinic always has at least one person on staff, no matter the time of day.

[yeah let's not talk about Mirrors anymore. This is a good plan]

Agreed. We have myself, you, Dr. Magnus, Dr. Tam, Dr. Harper and Dr. Watson for emergencies. That is a reasonably-sized staff to begin with.

Right. There are a few others who offered help when the monsters were running amok, but they aren't experienced enough that I'd extend them invitations as full staff.

There are a few healers around too, who we can call in if there's anyone who shows up with something really severe.

[Magic is still something that Martha's getting used to, but she's seen what Aerith can do a few times now, and she has to admit that it's awfully helpful.]

Let's put them as emergency contacts. I realize that magic behaves differently here, but I still... I don't like it, and I'm not sure I ever will.

[She gives him a slightly sympathetic smile. She understands where he's coming from, she really does.]

Sounds reasonable to me. And I'm thinking we should rotate with our hours so that it's not just one poor soul always stuck with the nighttime shifts. [She'd always hated working the nightshift in medical school.]

That sounds reasonable. [guess who's gonna put himself on the schedule for more hours than anyone? Yep he's purposefully going to do that]

I'll drop by the clinic and we can try to draft something out. [Wow, Whale, you can go ahead and do that if you really want to. Martha plans to split up the hours evenly, but whatever floats your boat.]

I..l look forward to seeing you, Martha. [wow that sounded sincere. He cares about another person. This is called progress]

[That's actually endearing. Martha just smiles at him, though. They've spent quite a bit of time together already, so she doesn't think it's that surprising.] See you soon, then. [And then the feed ends.]

[is this... a friend? Does he actually have a friend? A person not from his own world or from Storybrooke who he can talk to and trust? Is this actually happening? Her image is already gone but he smiles all the same]

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