xp_logs | This Old House: Medlab Inventory

Sharon and Alex tackle Medlab inventory and talk of sprogs and grey hairs.

"26, 27, 28... oh shit..." Sharon dropped the clipboard and pen she was holding and the boxes of face masks suddenly started to slide towards her. Luckily her quickened reflexes allowed her to grab hold of them, leaving two of them balanced rather precariously against her head. "Okay.. now what?" She grumbled.

"Now this," Alex said from behind her, grabbing the two that were threatening to fall. "Thought I'd swing by and ask if you guys need help with anything. Ya know, since you're always bandaging me up and putting me back together." He grinned.

Sharon pushed back the remaining boxes, keeping one hand in place while arranging it with the others to prevent them from slipping again. Accepting the two boxes from Alex, she put them on top. "Thanks, an extra hand is always welcome." Bending down she retrieved her clipboard. "Done in the rest of the mansion though?"

"Yeah, Lor and I did some spring cleaning in the suite, I helped out in a couple rec rooms, and everywhere else is covered." Alex shrugged. "Everyone's weirdly enthusiastic about cleaning."

"We deep clean here often enough, but inventory somehow always seems to be a mess. I'm halfway here and still two more rooms to go." She eyed Alex. "Wanna give me a hand?"

"Sure, just point me at something and I can start counting. Or make sure you don't lose count. Or rescue you if anything else falls."

"Hmmm." Sharon scanned the room. "Start with the boxes of gloves in the corner over there. They don't just need to be counted, but they also need the date on them checked and stacked accordingly." She raised her eyebrow at him. "Think you can handle that?"

Alex raised an eyebrow right back. "Do I think I can organize gloves? Yeah. Just like a grocery store, right? Older dates up front, later dates in back. Minus the ridiculously small time frame so corporations can trick people into throwing out perfectly good food and by more."

"Not too bad in that sense, Summers." Sharon agreed with a nod. "Though the medical and pharmaceutical industry are just as bad... that kinda is a bummer from you."

"Man, can't trust anyone," Alex said, making his way to the corner and beginning to examine the boxes. "How do gloves expire? Does the latex just give out or...?"

"Both latex and nitrile gloves start to deteriorate after time. How long depends on how they were stored, but yeah, after a couple of years it gets risky." Sharon turned back to the masks. "I mean, condoms have the same issue."

"True." Alex was very carefully checking the dates, setting everything before April to one side and everything after April to the other. That was a good place to start. "Found that out the hard way."

Sharon suddenly paused and looked over her shoulder, a frown on her face. "Summers, are you trying to tell me you have a Summers junior running around somewhere?"

"Huh?" Alex looked back, then laughed. "Oh, no, nothing happened after we realized the condom was expired. No Summers juniors unless we get another dog and name it after me."

"Good." Sharon laughed as well. "Because my next question had to be if the sprog is just as headstrong and danger prone like you are. We could have sent over some of this stuff for the poor parents." She gestured at the medical supplies around her.

"Nah, the world isn't strong enough for more than three Summers active at once." Alex paused, tilting his head. "Unless dad has another kid we don't know about. That would be weird."

"You're lucky this is not a comic book or something on tv then. You'd get the dramatic reveal the issue or episode after making that statement." Sharon commented drolly. "Even if it's often jumping the shark."

"Feels like we're a TV show sometimes." Alex chuckled. "This episode would be so boring. An hour of people just cleaning? The ratings would be terrible."

"Might be boring for us, but who knows what the others are doing. Besides, we'd be setting up next episode's story line." Sharon chuckled as well. "And if this place was a tv show, you bet a whole lot would be happening. Secret meeting in a room, a blown up library maybe..."

"That library is cursed," Alex said seriously. "Alani works in there and I have <i>no</i> how. Secret meeting in a room, though, that has potential. So many different things the meeting could be about..."

"Fights, secret lovers, a few pranksters making their plans..." Sharon finished the current stacks of face masks, carefully pushed them into place and moved over to the face shields. "Maybe we missed our calling?"

"Yeah but doing inventory sounds safer than whatever's going on in secret meetings." He paused before adding, "Oh man, is this a sign of getting old?"

"Speak for yourself, mister." Sharon immediately fired back with a grin. "No grey hair here yet. Maybe for you..." She peered closer as if inspecting his hair. "Difficult to see in those 'blonde locks' of yours though."