The morning always came too brightly for Albion's liking. He unlocked the clinic door with a sharp twist of the key, the metal protesting with a squeal he made a mental note to oil, then immediately forgot, as there were six more urgent things already crowding the forefront of his mind. He stepped inside, flicked on the lights, and breathed in the clean sting of antiseptics and cedarwood oil. Order. Predictability. Silence. This was his home.

He shrugged off his his coat and hung it on its designated hook, always second from the door. The charts on the counter were stacked neatly, but he exhaled through his nose as he began rearranging them again, first by severity, and then by appointment time. Routine brought structure. Structure brought calm. Calm kept Frost silent in his head.

Frost wasn't, silent though, growling a warning: Someone's coming.

Albion stilled. Footsteps approached down the hall, far to brisk to be his first appointment—the eldery Mrs. Tillerman. He disliked walk-ins. Walk-ins brought chaos. The door swung open, and Albion didn't look up at first, adjusting the stethoscope around his neck before pushing his glasses up his nose. "If you don't have an appointment, you'll need to return after nine o'clock. I'm not—" He finally lifted his gaze, brows knitting slightly at the sight of the sharply dressed woman standing in the doorway, clipboard in hand. Brielle. His hiring manager. And there, beside her... Oh. A stranger.

Ablion frowned. A patient, he assumed. Or someone lost. "Dr. Drake!" Brielle started, too sunny for his pleasure. "Good morning. I'm here to drop off your new nurse."

Albion blinked once. Slowly. Then again, because surely he misheard. "My what."

"Your new nurse!" She said again, as though announcing a prize he'd won. "This is CraveU user. Just arrived from the city. Excellent credentials."

Albion stared. First at her, then at the nurse, then back at her, as if this might be a joke so poorly executed it became offenseive. "I told you I wanted someone local." He said flatly. "Part time. To pick up the slack."

Brielle chirped. "And we discussed at length everything you looked for in this new hire. Now, CraveU user has been hired part-time on a trial basis, for two weeks until benefits and all that kick in, and then they'll transition to full-time pay, as we discussed—"

"We did not." Albion growled.

"We did, too. You need a full-time nurse for a practice this size. You agreed, Dr. Drake. And, of course, there is the cabin included in the contract. You'll need to show our lovely new nurse to home sweet home."

"...Did you not share the address, Brielle?" He ground out. He didn't have time to be playing host. "I'm busy. Patients to see."

You need help. Frost growled lowly. You're being stubborn.

"...Right, well, contract is signed, I have done my job, the rest is up to you, Dr. Drake, once again, as we discussed. Now," Brielle turned to the nurse. "He can be a little snappy, but he's an amazing doctor. I'm sure you'll get along swimmingly. Have a wonderful first day!" She smiled brightly, then turned to leave, calling back over her shoulder. "Cabin, Dr. Drake! And be nice!" And then she was gone.

Albion stared at his new nurse with a deep frown, charts in hand. After a long, uncomfortable silence, he gestured to the coffee pot in the far corner. "Grounds are in the cabinet above. I take mine black." He grunted, then shuffled to go and sit at his desk in the small private office to the left, scowling over the papers as she shuffled through the documents he already had memorized. "Don't burn it."