[color=6ecff6][u]Emily Dawson[/u][/color]

	[color=6ecff6]"Richard?"[/color] She asked. Her eyes widened a little. [color=6ecff6]"Oh, right, Doctor Stanton. Haha, duh."[/color] She palmed her forehead.[color=6ecff6] "Yeah, he's probably just busy for once. This would be the first time and it seems out of character for him but I'm sure he's fine, really."[/color] Emily said quickly. But she was worried, and it was written on her face. She began thinking about Doctor Stanton clutching his chest and falling to the ground, suffering from a heart attack. A flower wilts. 

	Emily reassured herself with a smile to the group, pulling down her scarf. [color=6ecff6]"I forgot he had a first name, haha. In eastern countries like Japan they put the last name first. So the last name is the first name and the first name is the last name. I guess this is why we evented the word 'surname' because last and first are only relative terms."[/color] Emily said. She didn't mind being talked over or ignored, and when she felt like she was going particularly off-topic she lowered her voice a considerable degree.

	Emily rubbed her hands together as the door was finally opened. She appreciated how Linda let everyone go in first. Emily was happy to be let inside, since some people would probably make a big deal out of not going in before other people. Some guys really liked holding the door open. She thought it was sweet.

	Once they were inside, Emily narrowed her eyes. [color=6ecff6]"No receptionist. I guess they were also busy."[/color] Emily smiled unevenly, falsely. She removed her gloves and stuffed them into her purse, revealing her hands. Fingernails painted blue, some freckles. Emily began whispering the plot of a sci-fi novel.

	Emily stepped into the elevator with her friends, her whispers turning into the quiet chorus of a pop song. [color=6ecff6] "This- love- has- taken it's toll oh man, she said goodbye...too many times before."[/color] She kept one hand on the shoulder sling of her purse, rocking back and forth on the heel of her boots. If the elevator was mostly silent, then it was one of the only sources of sound in the moving room. Ding. The metal doors slid open. 

	The blonde girl scratched at her hat, shouldered her purse, and followed Ms. Linda out. "Richard?" Linda called out. She peered through the ajar door and...reacted. There was only so many things one could react too like that. Bernard took on a protective role immediately. He had a good heart. 

	Emily blinked her big blue eyes and well, she wasn't going to [i]not[/i] look, was she? She had to see. Had to see what happened to Doctor Stanton. Emily stopped singing, stopped saying anything at all, when she saw the scene inside the room. 

	 Tears began to fall down her face. She spotted the intruder fleeing the scene but she didn't want to go after them.  Emily's eyes were glued to the gruesome scene. [color=6ecff6]"Oh..."[/color] She stepped back off to the side, getting out of everyone's way before lowering herself to her knees. Her back was against the wall of the room, she was facing the elevator and everyone else.

	[color=6ecff6]"Oh, no...oh, poor Doctor Stanton."[/color] She said, lower limp trembling. Tragedy broke her heart. 
[color=6ecff6]"He's been killed."[/color] Emily succinctly surmised the situation. She covered her face with her hands. Her mind accepted the miserable implications. No more Thursday meetings. No more therapy. No more feeling like they could all be understood. Many of the others probably wouldn't come back after this. And worst of all, Doctor Stanton was murdered, and wouldn't get to do anything he wanted to do anymore. 

	 [color=6ecff6]"The world is lonelier now."[/color] She mourned eerily. [color=6ecff6]"I miss him. He had so much left to give."[/color]