#what I mean is that in the long run he knew Maurice and he wouldn't fit together

[clandest1ne-g1rl]

maturing is realising Clive Durham is not a villain in Maurice's story but merely his own

[the-coffee-story]

Coffee - The Plague Doctor's Revenge

Chapter 5 - Old Friends

It took around half an hour to stitch Doc back up. Coffee left halfway through to get himself something in the cafeteria.

"Alright," the nurse finally said. "Should be good for now. Come back in a few days for a check-up."

"Aye, aye." Doc nodded absentmindedly.

"And maybe at least try not to get into knifefights anymore!", she called when he'd already opened the door.

"I mean, it's not like I'm actively looking for knifefights to take part in...", Doc mumbled as he left the room. Walther snickered.

Five minutes later they were walking down the brightly lit white corridor. Walther picked an ant off their sleeve and gently put it on a potted plant on the white plastic windowsill. "Gah. I helped Tessa with her science project, ended up spilling pheromone solution over myself and became the sexiest ant in all of Great Britain."

An amused smirk was playing on Doc's lips. "And what did Tessa say to that?"

"Great, now I gotta compete against ants to win your heart." Walther laughed. "She's writing her finals soon. And then we'll... I dunno. Get a nice little cottage with a scarecrow in the garden and a pride flag in the living room."

"Sounds like a plan."

Walther laughed. "So you support my gay romance?"

"Why wouldn't I?" Doc scratched his wounded arm. "God. The stitches were unnecessary."

"If you'd waited a little more you would've been the proud owner of a new red shirt."

"What do you have against red shirts?"

"Nothing, as long as they're not soaking with blood."

Doc chuckled. He was about to say something in response when he was suddenly interrupted by a melodic voice coming from further down the corridor. "Maury, is that you?!"

They both turned around to see a fourty-something doctor...not quite running, but walking quickly down the corridor, surprise in her pale white face. Then her perfectly curved lips spread into a smile, revealing a row of pearly white teeth. "Oh my God, it really is you!!!"

She ran up to them and hugged Doc. "Great to see you again." Her melodic voice was muffled because her face was buried in his lab coat, but Walther could hear she had a Scottish accent.

He chuckled. "Calm down, Eugenia. Calm down. Actually, I go by Terence Tilch these days."

Walther frowned. "That explains why you knew so much about legal name changes-" Doc flushed red.

"Really?" The woman stepped back and tilted her head gracefully. "That's a shame, it was a pretty name. I named my firstborn after you." She looked up, her long black lashes fluttering like the wings of a butterfly. "You're even taller than I remember you."

"I am genuinely unsure whether that is an insult or not."

"It is a mere fact." Her quiet laugh could make anyone's heart melt.

"You know each other?", Walther asked.

"We used to work together." The woman flashed them a brilliant smile. "Oh, I forgot to introduce myself again. My bad." She held out her hand. "Eugenia Edicius. Leading surgeon."

Doc raised an eyebrow. "You got an upgrade."

"Indeed." She smirked. "You?"

"Depends on whether or not you consider cutting up corpses an upgrade. I certainly do."

"Aaand that didn't sound creepy at all." Eugenia turned to Walther. "And you are...?"

Walther smiled shyly. "Uh...Detective Welle Walther. His colleague and adoptive problem child."

Eugenia laughed. "Oh dear, looks like I missed a lot." She gracefully flicked her hair out of her face.

Everything about her was beautiful. Her eyes were the colour of moonbeams through leaves, with a few golden brown spots that made a nice contrast, and her hair as black as night, save for just a few silver strands. She almost looked like a nymph. Just her presence made Walther weirdly dizzy.

"How have you been?", Doc asked. His voice was warm.

"Oh, you know..." Eugenia sighed. "I married Wilhelm after you left and we had a beautiful boy..." Her eyes sparkled like frozen leaves.

"That's wonderful to hear! Does Wilhelm work here too?"

"...but then this year there was a fire in our house, and I... only managed to save our son. Wilhelm didn't make it."

"Oh." Doc's smile faded. "Oh, that's... I'm so sorry..."

Eugenia gave him a sad smile and shrugged her frail shoulders. "It's okay. I still have our son." She glanced up at Doc. "We named him Maurice, you know? To remember you after you disappeared."

"That's...whoa, that's so overwhelming-"

She laughed. Her laugh sounded like a bell.

"Dr. Edicius!", a nurse called from down the hall. "I know the Doctor is a charming fellow, but we have surgeries to make!"

"Oh. Right. Pardon me, Edith." She gave both of them a sweet smile. "I'll see you. Terry, I assume we'll meet here quite often from now on, isn't that so?"

He nodded. "You know me too well."

She waved and walked away.

"Something here seems very off," the Doctor said as soon as she had left. "And with that I'm not saying I don't trust her...wait, that's exactly what I'm saying."

Walther frowned. "I thought you know each other?"

"We do. But people change." He started walking towards the staircase and Walther had to jog in order to keep up with his pace. "You see, while we were stuck in the elevator Coffee actually told me something very interesting."

"And that would be?"

"We've got another masked vigilante in town. This time in a Plague Doctor mask."

"Jeez, are we in Gotham?" Walther laughed but stopped when they saw that Doc's face was serious. "And what about it?"

"Walther, how many guys with knee-long black curls do you know?"

They frowned. "None. What do you mean?"

"So, you could say, that is pretty rare."

"Correct."

"I knew...one. Eugenia's husband, Wilhelm Wisper."

"Oh." Walther's eyes widened. "Oh! Are you suggesting-"

"It all seems a little off, doesn't it? Wilhelm dies in a fire, Eugenia moves here, and just like that we have a masked stranger in Graytown who happens to have the same characteristics."

Walther nodded. "This stinks. So what are you planning to do?"

"I think I should investigate a little more. This whole thing seems rather suspicious."

"So where do we start?"

"I'll go back to where I came from and ask my family about Wilhelm's death."