[u]Joseph[/u]

Joseph flinched when Dr. Kate’s hands dropped the vial, the glass shattered upon the hard floor and sent glass flying across it. The liquid quickly evaporated into the air but he made no effort to move from his spot. He already knew the whole thing was some joke, a sick one in his opinion, and wasn’t keen to add to the morbid mirth. It was the punch line and topic that he found the most distasteful as the pale woman made a childish remark over the spilt contents. His jawline tensed yet he managed to hold his tongue when Dr. Kate turned to him and commented upon her reasons for her profession, including the fact she did value life. However her humor over such serious matters failed to ease his own judgment on her lacking humanity when she forgot he would likely be the one that would deal with the aftermath of her as well as Ms. Falk’s creations. At least if there was a body left after the damage at all. 

The only notable change in his figure were the hardened eyes upon the girlish pair, especially after Dr. Kate’s comment about laughing. His head tilted to Ylva when she chuckled at both their reactions then seemed to chide him over her own procedures and the details that it was almost impossible for another to contaminate the laboratory. A fact he suspected after his chat with Dr. Ingolfsson, a man who clearly didn’t understand sarcasm and seemed more deadpan serious then even him. If it wasn’t for the red tape barrier then Joseph might’ve found the meeting slightly less irritating. 

He fought hard not to visibly shrug off her attempts to comfort him, though there wasn’t a reason to, as she continued to explain more. His hand at his side merely balled tighter but didn’t move from his side, the only indicator of his slightly upset mood when she called in a lab tech to clean up the mess. The young man, Russian in his late twenties, with a strong jaw and ice blue eyes seemed to stare hard at the minor task given to him by Ylva. Instead of questioning, he merely went about to clean it. 

Ignoring the busy man, Joseph’s head fixed upon the pair, a frown set in his jaw at their silliness and bad humor. First was his reply to Ylva. “Dr. Ingolfsson spoke highly of your hygiene and caution in your profession, Ms. Falk so there’s little doubt about that substance being harmless. He doesn’t seem like the type to joke much, making it hard to believe he would make up stories. It was the joke that was in bad taste.”

His eyes turned upon Dr. Kate sharply as well. “Laughter is one thing, Dr. Kate. However, the fact you consider death so amusing is rather unpleasant for me. Though I will keep in mind to laugh when I’m cleaning up the bodies left behind in the wake your ‘masterpieces’ create, if there is any. One of the few perks of being both the medical physician as well as the coroner is that I get to admire the morbid success.” 

With nothing else to say to either of them, he walked into the lab to deliver the blood samples to the lab technician on duty then quickly returned to his office. The last thing he wanted was to face the gossip the pair no doubtingly would enjoy in their rants against him. There was little wonder why he found socializing to be so difficult.