the boy's no good {Lacey}

[MARCUS OTTER]

"Alright Marcus, what'll it be?" His parole officer asked tiredly. Having a case like Marcus' was pretty much a 24/7 job. The guy just never learned to walk away from a fight.

Marcus had a list of community service options in front of him, each looking more unpleasant than the last. Finally he dropped the list back on the desk, sighing out reluctantly, "I'll do the hospital hours." He grumbled, signing his name above it and getting up out of the uncomfortable wooden chair he'd spent the last half an hour in.

"You start tomorrow at 6 am, you know?" The parole officer informed him quickly, knowing Marcus wasn't a morning person. Hell, he wasn't good at any time, but it was worst in the morning.

"Yeah, yeah. I can handle it." Marcus waved him off, heading for the door out of his office, checking out at the front desk of the detention center and leaving to crash at his apartment. If he was going to be waking up that early, he'd need all the shut eye he could get.

The next morning he was up, a frown plastered on his face as he got into the shower to try and wake himself up a little bit. Tilting his head back to let warm water hit his face, he sighed, and blinked a few times. Two weeks of this, that's all he had to get through.

After dressing, he stood in front of the mirror, looking over the bruises and cuts he'd obtained from the fight that had gotten him into this in the first place. Most of them were faded almost completely. It was just the cut on his lip and the bruise across his cheek that were refusing to disappear yet. It'd have to do for now, though. Snatching his keys up off the floor he headed out to his car, not bothering to check the time. He'd get there when he got there.

The hospital was only a few blocks away from his apartment, but traffic made it a twenty minute affair in his car. Cutting into a space before a car that had been coming from the other direction he ignored a car horn and got out. He was getting this over with as soon as possible.

Digging through his glove compartment he found the sheet that had all of his information on it and hopped out of the car. At the front desk he handed the paper to the secretary, who read over it while eyeing him warily.

"You'll be helping out in the children's hospital wing today." She informed him, handing him a map with directions to it. Marcus blew out a sigh, and opened the map up to see how he'd go about getting there. Hospitals were so confusing, and big, and slightly nerve-wracking to be inside. He tried to avoid making eye contact with any of the patients as he passed rooms and headed into the elevator.

Unfortunately, he got to the elevator just in time to join a doctor and a gun-wound victim on a stretcher. Letting his eyes travel along the ceiling as he waited for the elevator to reach the ninth floor, he hurried off and towards the check-in area of the children's wing.

"You'll be in the play room, watching some of our more serious patients who've been here for a while. None of them have anything contagious." The lady at the desk told him, before he headed off to this play room.

Great. He got to spend the first half of his day babysitting terminally ill toddlers. There were only four or five kids in the room when he entered, plopping down on one of the tiny plastic chairs and watching them toddle around with teddy bears and dolls.

One boy who looked about three started waddling in his direction. Marcus sat up slightly, not really wanting to engage with any of the little sick kids, but knowing he couldn't just ignore the little brown-eyed kid.

"Are you sick too?" He asked up to Marcus, who frowned deeply, raising a brow.

"No, I'm not sick."

"Then how come you got a boo boo on your face?" The kid continued to question as he rubbed at his runny nose. Marcus wrinkled his own nose, pulling a tissue from the box sitting on the table next to him and wiping the kid's nose for him.

"I got into a fight." He shrugged.

"Did you win?" Came the next question from the boy who started crawling up onto his lap. Marcus eyed him with a mixture of amusement and confusion before nodding, a smirk spreading across his lips,

"Yeah, I did."

(Marcus is good with kids, okey)

[LACEY LOPEZ]

"Oh, gracias." Lacey said with raised eyebrows as a blue tray was handed to her, the apple juice sloshing around in it's pitcher and the animal crackers shuffling from the shoving movement. The Hispanic hospital kitchen worker nodded Lacey off as she grabbed the tray, making her way up to the children's wing. She made sure to stop by the nursery window, smiling at the newborns.

Lacey walked to her section of rooms. For the past month, Lacey was assigned to the children's wing, helping her RN, Marissa with the few kids with terminal illness. Lacey really felt bad for these little kids, and seeing their parents was the worst. A few of these kids were bald from chemotherapy. It all made Lacey want to run away and throw up somewhere, but if she wanted to be like her aunt, she'd have to work hard on her comforting skills. Lacey peeked into her favorite little boy's room, Graham and was immediately alarmed when he wasn't in there. Lacey rushed to the next door. Katie wasn't in her room either.

Her eyebrows furrowed with confusion as she looked at the schedule on Katie's door. Oh, they were at playtime. Duh. Lacey shrugged and walked over to the playroom, hearing the children's screams half-way down the hallway. A smile was plastered on Lacey's face as she footed the door open. She put the tray down on a nearby table that was covered in crayons.

"Snack time!" Lacey announced to the room of children. She watched the kid's faces at they lit up, running toward Lacey, leaving their dolls and plastic dinosaurs behind. Lacey spotted Graham falling out of a stranger's lap joining the other children and stared at the man with wide eyes. She'd seem him around at Winchester. Was it around the sorority house? Lacey remembered Dorian showing a picture of him to her when he was upset about something that happened. Lacey vaguely remembered what he was upset about, it seemed silly anyway. Oh, his name was Marcus. Lacey eyed the cut on his lip, touching her own lip instinctively.

As Lacey poured apple juice for the children and set out the animal crackers for them, she watched Marcus walk over to the table. Lacey grabbed an animal cracker, popping it in her mouth. "You know, some Neosporin will help that cut." Lacey raised her eyebrows at Marcus, pointing to his lip. Lacey reached for another animal cracker, breaking it in half. "I'm Lacey, btw. I'm a Trainee here." Lacey reached down, ruffling Graham's hair a little, smiling back at him when he looked up, giggling. "Why're you here?" Lacey asked, eating the half of the broken cracker.

[MARCUS OTTER]

Marcus had had to sugar-coat and take the gore out of his story of the fight for the little tyke who was called Graham- "Spelled with a G." By the time he'd gotten done telling it, he'd been fighting a dragon with King Arthur's sword and got hit with the dragon's tail, giving him the bruise. Graham had added that, obviously, when he'd been hit by the tail one of the spikes on it had cut his lip. Marcus had to admit it was more glamorous then running into a couple of ass holes at a liquor store. He just couldn't let this story get around to anyone else. It was too...cute.

When the girl in the candy striper came in with the snacks, Graham set down his handful of dinosaur toys he'd been introducing to Marcus and scurried over with the rest of the kids to retrieve cookies and juice. Picking a stray plastic tyrannosaurus off of his lap, he set it on the table with the rest and stood to head over to where the kids where grabbing snacks and trading the different animal crackers.

Sliding his hands into his pocket, he dodged a little blonde girl who was barreling towards another boy who had taken the last grape juice-box. Blinking blankly up at the slightly familiar girl, he finally registered what it was she was saying. A hand went from his pocket to his lip consciously before nodding over to her,

"Oh, yeah. You're right. Just didn't have any at my apartment. He explained, running his thumb over the healing wound absentmindedly, glancing back down to Graham standing in between them before he looked back to Lacey again. "Marcus. You go to Winchester, right- friend of Dorian's? And I'm just doing some community service hours while I'm on parole.." He shrugged, rubbing the back of his neck.

"He fought a dragon!" Graham informed her from his spot on the floor between them, and Marcus smirked lightly, eyes leaving Graham's face to go back to Lacey's.

[LACEY LOPEZ]

Lacey gave Marcus a small smile at his response to her advice. She'd always helped her aunt as she healed the neighborhood boys after fights they had with each other. It was always cuts and bruises like the ones that Marcus had on his face.

"Yeah, yeah! We have Fashion together." Lacey told Marcus as she picked up Graham, who was patting her leg repeatedly. She placed him on her hip, her arm wrapped tightly around his sides. "Parole? Oooh." Lacey said, a smirk growing on her lips, her eyebrow cocked up. Lacey had heard about some of the fights that he had got into from Dorian. Lacey figured he was a bad boy. Bad boys were hot. Super hot, in fact.

Lacey laughed at Graham, ticking him in the side, earning a high-pitched giggle to erupt from his mouth. She grinned at the little boy before looking back at Marcus again. "Really now? Looks like he won, Graham! All though looks like he got beat up real bad." Lacey frowned dramatically. "Don't worry, though. Nurse Lace-lace will make him feel better." She winked at Graham, poking him in the sides.

Lacey sat down in the nearest chair, her butt almost slipping off. Curse her large ass genetics. She settled Graham in her lap, wiping the animal cracker crumbs off of his small jeans. "Lace-lace, I don't want my animanal crackers.." Graham mumbled to her, throwing the cracker that was in his tiny hands onto the floor. "That's okay." Lacey told the brown-eyed boy before getting a few more from the container and placing them in his lap. "You can still play with them." Lacey said, petting the top of his head, smoothing the stray hairs. Leukemia affected appetite. It's okay, Lacey. It's just.. cancer. Lacey swallowed the lump in her throat before turning back to Marcus.
"Did you really win the dragon fight? She asked him with a playful crinkle with her nose.

[MARCUS OTTER]

Marcus nodded again, remembering her more clearly now. They'd never really met, but he'd heard about her a lot. She and Dorian seemed to be pretty close. He wasn't sure how he felt about that, but he decided to ignore it for the time-being so he could pull a little girl off his leg. He went to set her down but she held tight to his arm. He sighed, and shifted her in his arms so she sat on his hip.

Running a hand through his hair with his free-hand, he shrugged a bit. "Yeah, I don't have the best record when it comes to...laws and stuff." He admitted, a bit of a smirk breaking onto his lips again. He didn't exactly feel at his baddest at the moment, though. Not when he was holding a four year old.

Leaning down to set the little girl back down so she could toddle off towards a doll she'd spotted from his arm, he stood back up and watched Graham with the animal crackers for a moment. For a kid with a terminal illness, he didn't seem so sick. Some of the other kids, like the little girl he'd been holding, had pale skin, or balding heads. He figured the kid must be in the early stages then.

Eyes going back over to Lacey as she asked him about the 'dragon fight' he smiled a bit,
"I sure did. The dragon didn't really have a chance. And neither did his friends." He told her pridefully, ducking when a animal cracker went flying towards him.

"Hey, what was that?" Marcus asked over to Graham, holding his arms out in question.

"I don't like giraffes." Graham stated, as if this explained it all.

"Oh, so you throw it at me?" Marcus huffed, folding his arms and giving the boy a serious look even as Graham was picking up another animal cracker to throw at him gigglingly. Marcus caught it this time, glaring playfully down at Graham before putting the animal cracker in his mouth. "Well, I happen to love giraffes. So there."

Graham grinned amusedly, searching through his pile of animal crackers for another giraffe to throw. Marcus kept an eye on him cautiously, glancing over to Lacey,

"He doesn't look so sick to me..." He commented quietly as his hand went out to catch another flying giraffe animal cracker.