The Late Night Low Down Undead Blues

[disclaimer] This is a work of fiction. No challenge to existing copyrights is meant,
most notably whoever's got the rights to 'Re-Animator' the movie, and/or whoever's got
the rights to Lovecraft's canon. I think it's Chaosium these days. Anyway, I'm not making
money off this, and neither is anyone else. I'm only in it for the amusement. [/disclaimer]

          Four nights a week was not enough to improve Cain's grades in a sufficiently quick
manner, and Hallie was charged by his advisor with adding two more study sessions to her
already overcrowded schedule. At first West watched her suspiciously, but as the weeks
went on, even he became accustomed to Hallie's near-constant presence in the house. At
the end of a month, after she had shown no interest in the cellar, West ceased locking the
door whenever he was away from it for even a moment, and settled for locking it when he
was out of the house. She didn't avoid him as Miss Halsey did; in fact, she seemed happy
to talk to someone besides Cain, and after being in the kitchen for a few of his assistant's
confused mumblings on Socrates and philosophy in general, West felt he understood.

          Tonight was a rare night; he was working in his own room instead of the basement
laboratory. There were a few chemical equations in the late Dr. Gruber's work that he had
so far left untouched; in the beginning he'd dismissed them as unusable, but in light of
some of his own recent experiments he was beginning to think that they contained
information he could use.

          The sounds coming through the open doorway were the normal back-and-forth banter
as Hallie tried patiently to explain various nuances of Plato's writings on Socrates, and
Dan sighed and mumbled and complained. It was business as usual, and West registered it
only as a normal background hum, at least until Dan's voice took on more than its usual
amount of pleading.

          "Why do they make us take this stuff? All I need is to memorize the Hippocratic oath,
and I'm good to go."

          "But don't you want to find out how Hippocrates came to his conclusions?"

          "What does it matter, as long as he did?"

          "Look, philosophy is the method by which we create a rational procedure for thinking
about things. You are more likely to come to a viable solution to your problems if you
have a useful, ordered way of thinking about them."

          "But I'm going to be a doctor. I'm going to help people with science, and my hands.
They're good hands. I could be a brain surgeon, a heart surgeon...See how sensitive they
are?"

          There was a brief pause, and then the unmistakable rasp of a chair sliding swiftly
backwards across the kitchen floor.

          "Dan! What the hell do you think you're doing?"

          "Aw, Hallie, don't get upset-"

          "I was hired to tutor you, not screw around with you.

          "But we've been at this crap for hours. Don't you want a break?"

          "If you want a break, we'll take a break, but we're not doing anything else. This is not
a third-rate porno."

          "If you weren't so uptight it could be a first-rate one."

          West rolled his eyes as the sound of a slap echoed down the hallway.

          "Charming, Daniel, " he muttered.

          "Look, okay, you're mad. I didn't mean to upset you. Why don't I go take a walk
around the block, and when I get back, we'll just go back to studying. All right?"

          "Make sure it's a long walk. A really long walk. Throw in a short pier if you can find
one."

          "All right, all right, take it easy."

          West glanced at the clock and closed his book. He heard the front door slam, sighed,
and walked out to the kitchen, remembering suddenly why he made it a point never to
study in his room.

          "Everything all right?"

          Hallie was standing beside the sink, fixing coffee with short, angry movements. She
pulled her jacket closer around her and glared towards the front door.

          "Your roommate, " she said, "Is a dick."

          "He does tend to let his genitals do his thinking for him. Once you get beyond that,
he's not a bad sort."

          "I have half a mind to call up his girlfriend-"

          "Fiancee."

          Hallie blinked. "Fiancee? Jesus! And he's still pulling this hot-for-teacher shit?"

          "I believe they are currently undergoing relationship difficulties."

          "No fucking wonder."

          "I believe it to be more the result of the constant secrecy their relationship entails.
Daniel's estranged fiancee is Megan Halsey."

          Hallie whistled. "Whoa, he's banging the Dean's daughter?"

          "The noise level would seem to point in that direction. He wishes to make their
relationship public, but she disagrees, fearing that her father will forbid them from seeing
each other."

          "Umm, she's over eighteen, right? Basically, she can tell her father where to go and
how fast to get there."

          West pushed the chair back under the table. "Have you met her?"

          "No, actually. I've seen her around campus, I mean, who hasn't? But that's it."

          "She seems to suffer from an incredible lack of willpower."

          "Hey, so does Cain. No wonder they're together."

          West sighed. "As I said before, Daniel is not a complete waste. He is quite talented,
hardworking, and dedicated to his profession."

          "That, and he's never tried to grab your breasts."

          "True enough. Could I trouble you to make a full pot? I will be up late this evening."

          "I...Yeah, sure. It's your coffee anyway."

          "Just leave it on. I'll be up for it later."

          West disappeared towards the cellar door.