Hey Casey!
I know you're ebbing away from the fantasy genre at the moment, but should you ever feel like whetting your appetite, I'll be first to jump on board myself. Ironically, I'm also trying to dabble in more gritty, realistic scenarios but with a little dash of something thrown in. For example, your concept of people who meet at a sanitarium but in a, say, dystopic future. If that sort of piques your interest, then we can get something rolling :D
- Ria