"This Is Morgan Winters, Barely Alive on GLNS News!"

[Healer]

Hey!  It's been a while!  Here is a thing what came from my brain. I know this will not be the first time I've posted the first part of a story, promised to deliver more, and then abandoned the project within, like, an hour, but trust me, guys... I'm going to finish this one this time. I can feel it in my bones.

Anyway, something about the concept of a news reporter catching a cold has been weighing on my brain for just the longest time so I bring you this first part, in which our news reporters does *not*, in fact, catch a cold yet.

There is a little bit of sneezing and illness stuff at the end, but this is mostly about setting the scene, establishing some characters. I feel like actually having some kind of plot is a nice minimal standard to achieve with storytelling, but this might be why I'm always too lazy to finish telling them. If I do fail to post the second part of this one, my next story will just be called 'woman with a cold who is sneezing' and will just be about someone, like, going to various places.

With that in mind, do feel free to remind me to pick this up if you actually really want to see where this story (kind of inevitably) ends up going.

And, excuse the poor formatting. It is not my strong suit.

 

"...and despite facing calls to resign, the counselor has confirmed he'll remain in his post. From GLNS, this is Morgan Winters, back to you Alex."

    Morgan yanked the earpiece out from her ear as quickly as she could, and ran a hand through her long black hair.

    "How was that?" she asked Derek, from behind the camera, who gave a simple thumbs up in response. "Good," she said. "Now get me out of here. It's fucking freezing, and these old government buildings never seem to have any heating"
"We got a taxi waiting for you outside to get you back to the studio" he replied, as he rewound the footage. "Think we're going to end up back in the van, though, if you ask me. Molly just took a phone call from the boss. Suspect she's going to be looking for you any minute now"

    Morgan rolled her eyes and sighed. "Of course she is. What now? World's tallest scarecrow just collapsed? Local teen gets tongue frozen to lampost? Or are we going to interview the mayor's husband again, and hope he's sober enough to string together a full sentence this time?"

    Derek shrugged. "I don't commission 'em, Morgan, I just film 'em. You'll have to ask her."
"I'll have to avoid her, more like. I'm going to the office. I have a mountain of work to catch up on. I don't have time to do some twee interview with Farmer Dan about Potatofest '22, or whatever they want from me."
"You do what you want. Taxi's that way, though. Next to the van" Derek replied, smirking, pointing to the east side of the building, and not taking his eyes off of the footage.

    Morgan sighed and made her way to the city hall car park. She spied her taxi from across the road and started to walk towards it when she heard her name in an all-too-familiar and all-too-cheerful tone of voice.

    "Slow down, Morgan" Molly called out, from behind her. Morgan closed her eyes, silently cursed her luck, and turned around to face Molly, who was dressed in a garnet-red beret, that (in Morgan's humble and, admittedly, uninformed opinion) badly compliment her curly, silver-blonde hair.

    "I am so sorry, Molly, I almost forgot to wait for you," she said, forcing herself to smile.
"That's alright, I'd just disappeared to make a quick phone call" Molly replied. "From the station," she said after a slightly uncomfortable pause.
"Oh, they're always bothering us while we're busy. Well, I best be going, I need to get back to the--"
"Could you do me a favor, Morgan?"

    Morgan gritted her teeth, her green eyes lightly glazing over as Molly carried on.

    "You see," Molly continued barely registering Morgan's expression, "the public health department just got in touch. It's that time of year when colds and such things are going around, you see. So, the department was wondering if we could send a reporter down to a local physician's to do a quick cold and flu safety report"

    Morgan shook her head. "No, Molly, no, absolutely not. I told you, I'm done with these... nothing reports. I'm a serious journalist, alright? I have a degree-- two degrees! Two degrees, I have a Bachelors in Communication, and a Masters in Media and Journalism, okay? I should be covering far more serious topics than this. Health- public health isn't even something I know anything about. Can't you ask Alice to do it?"
"We did ask Alice to do it!" Molly replied.
"And?"
"She can't"
"Why not?"
"Caught a cold."

    Morgan rolled her eyes. "Well, what about Steve or Michael? They should be grateful for any work at this point, to be honest"
"No, look, the department wants *you*. They've seen you! They think you have a really down-to-earth personality and a great presentation style. Perfect for delivering this kind of message."

    Morgan paused. "They asked for me?"
"Yes"
"...and they think I have a great presentation style?"
"Absolutely"
"And a down-to-earth personality?"
"Yeah, maybe. Anyway, look, if you do this, there's sure to be some more work coming your way. Good work, too. Not these fluff pieces, not these interviews with outraged retirees. You get to do what you want."
Morgan really thought about it. "...No more local food and culture festivals?"
"No more anything, just pure you."
"...Fine. Fuck you, but... fine." Morgan replied. "When do they want me?"
Molly looked at her watch and looked back up at Morgan. "Half an hour ago."

--------

    It was not often that Morgan got to visit the more affluent side of town. She lived pretty far from here, and the people who did live here were wealthy enough to keep the cameras away from their neighborhood. While she wasn't thrilled about this assignment, she couldn't help but gawp at the mini-mansions, and luxury restaurants that lined the streets.

    Still, all the money and lawyers in the world couldn't keep out the common cold. Almost every face she could spot from the van, was adorned with a red nose, or a tissue pressed tightly against it. Morgan shifted uncomfortably in her seat, as she turned her head towards her phone. She was really starting to regret this.

    After a short drive, in which Molly had to negotiate with an incredibly congested toll-booth operator, the van pulled up outside the district's medical center. Derek scrambled out of the van to get the equipment ready, while Morgan and Molly went inside to meet the nurse they were going to be interviewing.

    "Hey," Morgan said approaching the receptionist at the front desk, who was busy scribbling some notes into a pad. "Morgan Winters, I'm with GLNS news. This is Molly, I was told you both spoke on the phone about an interview?"

    The receptionist looked up from her notepad and something instantly struck Morgan about her appearance. The long, wavy red hair, Morgan had already noticed from a distance. The bright blue eyes were distinctive but didn't immediately catch her notice. No, Morgan's attention was right away drawn to the sore, red rim that ran around the woman's nostrils, that was accentuated by the sudden and thick sniffle she gave.

    "One moment..." she muttered, barely managing those precious m's and n's that would have lent clarity to what she said. She casually reached over a small PA system on her desk.
"Ndurse Halloway? GLNS are here" she muttered, or something to that effect, at least. Some tinny, staticky voice gave a robotic reply, and the receptionist looked back up to Morgan.
"Just take a seat with the oh-others... ih-ISHIEW!" 

    Morgan was grateful that the receptionist was able to grab a tissue. Still, she would have liked it all the more if the receptionist had actually managed to bring it to her nose, some time before letting out the surprising sneeze.

    "Ugh... 'scuse mbe" she mumbled, using the barely touched tissue to blow her already sore nose. "Was the last one standing up until I came in this m-mordi-ih...it'SHIEW!" she sneezed again, clearly an aftershock from the previous sneeze, but this time, thankfully, with the tissue ready to catch it.

    'Last one standing...' Morgan mentally repeated with a degree of exasperation, before directing Molly to sit beside her in the waiting room.

    "We better make this quick, alright? I'm already regretting every second of this..." she whispered to her assistant, as the woman beside her, blew her nose for the fourteenth time.
"Why, what's wrong?" she asked
"What do you mean, what's wrong? This place is gross. I feel gross. I want to go back to the office, where it's... I mean still gross, but less gross than this"
"Oh, hush. Don't worry about it, it's just a quick interview, bit of filming of... doctor-y things, and we can do the V/O back at the studio"
"I don't know how you can be so calm about this" Morgan snapped, as the man next to Molly launched into a coughing fit. Molly simply shrugged.
"I'm not bothered. I had my flu shot" she said, confidently.
"Do flu shots protect against colds?" asked Morgan
Molly paused for a moment.
"I mean, yeah, of course, they do. They're basically the same thing. Wouldn't be much point in a flu vaccine if you're just going to get a cold anyway, surely!"

    Morgan was skeptical, but before she could open her mouth to object, she heard her name called from the reception.

    "Ms. Widters?" the receptionist asked, holding a tissue to her nose as she spoke. "Ndurse Halloway will see you both dow..." she managed, before sneezing three more times into the tissue. As she pulled it away, Morgan winced at how sore and red her nose was starting to look. At that point, Morgan realized that there was nothing she could do to protect herself. From the moment she walked into the health center, she was a dead woman walking.

Edited May 21, 2021 by Healer

[NickG1998]

I can’t wait to read the next part I absolutely love this story so far 

[Likesn]

Oh Yes! This is great stuff!! Well... if her last name is "Winters" it's only natural that she'll catch a cold 😜

22 hours ago, Healer said:

"When do they want me?"
Molly looked at her watch and looked back up at Morgan. "Half an hour ago."

When do I need the next part of this story? About two days ago 🤣

[NoV]

On 5/21/2021 at 5:14 PM, Healer said:

"Was the last one standing up until I came in this m-mordi-ih...it'SHIEW!" she sneezed again, clearly an aftershock from the previous sneeze, but this time, thankfully, with the tissue ready to catch it.

Always enjoy reading sentences like this, where following sneezes are described as 'aftershocks'  I definitely look forwards to reading the continuation of this tale!

[lsbn]

This is sooooo awesome!!!! Please continue!!!!

[ichixshiro14]

Oh my dog, pleaseeee continue this 🤤😈

[ID2006]

Can't wait to read more 

[GhostLily342]

Positively brilliant! Eagerly awaiting the second installment!

[Jettous]

This great. I can’t wait to see the tables turn and Morgan be the the one with huge germy cold.

[Healer]

Hey! So, I'm just as surprised as you are to find I'm actually following up a story I wrote with a second part. Not only that, but within a week of having uploaded the first part. That is staggering news, I hope that you are all sufficiently staggered. But I was really pleased to see the first part get a positive reception, and I didn't want to let any of you down, so thank you for giving me some encouragement to pick this up and continue this.

Still taking things slowly, but this should have a little bit more of what you want in there. I'm going to keep taking this at my own pace, but if there is anything you really want to see, or whatever, don't be shy, do let me know! I can't guarantee I'll include anything immediately, but if I can find room for things, then things might happen!

Anyway, onto part two!

 

Gecksfield was the kind of town that you passed through on your way to somewhere else. Sure, you might stop for some lunch at one of the several competing diners that sat along the main street. But then, you might just as easily decide that you're not that hungry, actually, and could probably hold out until you reached your destination. When a research company performed a survey of the Gecksfield schools, they found that, when asked what they would like to be when they grew up, 82% of children in Gecksfield responded 'In a different city.'

 

This was the city that Morgan Winters found herself in. She wasn't even from here, and every day she found herself asking what she did to deserve this frozen wasteland, and how soon could she move on.

She was trying to cut back on asking herself such things, but as she stood staring at the nurse that was loudly blowing her sore, red nose into a damp and mangled tissue, she couldn't help but wonder if the abattoir her uncle worked at, in her hometown, was still hiring.

 

The nurse herself looked like a state, and Morgan couldn't help but take some pity. Her long red hair was a mess of tangles and knots, her nose was one of the sorest reds Morgan had seen since college, and the weary-looking bags under her eyes did little to help the situation. Morgan was willing to bet that, for all the talk of health-consciousness that this woman was about to give her, she was this clinic's very own Typhoid Mary.

 

"Ugh..." the nurse wiped her nose, and gave a thick, wet sniffle. "Morgan Winters, is it?" she asked, with a voice so hoarse it sounded like it was being activated by the tiniest crank in the world.

 

"Um... Yeah, that's... that's me" Morgan said, somewhat off-guardedly. She hadn't been expecting this. Sick patients, sure that's one thing, but not this. "This is my PA, Molly. She's the one you would have spoken to on the phone"

 

"Hi!" Molly said with a big smile and a tiny wave. Sometimes Morgan suspected that Molly should have actually had Morgan's job. She was a pro at the whole 'forced politeness' thing. Of course, there was every possibility that Molly was just being genuinely polite, but something about that idea just didn't gel with Morgan's own outlook.

 

"Right, yeah, well... ndice to meet you both at last," Nurse Halloway said, standing up, and extending a hand towards the pair.

Molly stepped forward, in an attempt to shake the nurse's hand, but Morgan put a hand on her shoulder to stop her. As she did so, Nurse Halloway's eyes became fixed on something above the pair. Her eyebrows pinched together, and her nose began scrunching up. "Uh... uh-t'SHIEW! heh-eh'SHIEW!" she sneezed twice, reeling the hand back to cover her hand and mouth.

 

"Sorry," she mumbled, as she grabbed another tissue to blow her nose again, speaking into between blows. "As you can see..." blow "...we've had something of a..." blow "...of an outbreak here" she blew a final time before dropping the tissue into the trash can by her feet, which had long filled up.

 

"That's why we're hoping to get this report done today, and out there as soon as possible," she said. "It's getting a bit out of hand," she said, with a conspiratorial whisper. Though, that could have just been her sore throat.

 

"Oh yeah, wouldn't want it to get out of hand now..." Morgan muttered as Derek wandered in with his camera. She sighed and gave a nod. "Okay, well, we can probably do some shots of the clinic itself, some sick patients. I'll get a couple interviews with one of the doctors, I guess. Get a talking head thing going outside. What else, what else?"

 

Derek piped up. "Got some clouds coming later. You want me to get started on some exteriors, while we still have the light?"

 

"Yeah, yeah, go for it," Morgan said, waving him out, still thinking. She snapped her fingers, causing Derek to swivel around by the door. "Maybe when we head back to the studio, we can go via the office. Get some footage there. Whole 'office hygiene' angle."

"Yeah, sounds good," said Derek, as he left the room

"Alright, Molly, how does that sound?" Morgan asked

"Mostly good. Of course, all the doctors in the building are pretty busy at the moment, we may need to get the interview with someone else."

"...Someone else?"

"ih...D'ISHIEW!" the sneeze rang out from beside them both.

"No," Morgan said, simply. "No, we're not doing that."

"Doig what?" the nurse asked, already reaching for another tissue.

"Oh, come on," Molly interjected. "She'll be great! We chatted a ton on the phone, she really knows her stuff!"

"Molly!" Morgan hissed. "Look at her!"

Nurse Halloway was blowing her nose, frustration, and weariness worn across her face.

"Oh, it's nothing a bit of makeup won't fix," Molly said with a wave of her hand.

"Molly, do you hear yourself? We cannot put this woman in front of a camera, it's not fair on her!"

More importantly, Morgan thought, it's not fair on me who'll have to sit across from her.

 

"I'll do it..." the nurse said, her voice muffled underneath the tissue, which she closed her eyes and sneezed into again.

"See? She doesn't mind, Morgan!" Molly said with a smile. "Let me go get the makeup kit from the van!"

Molly bounded out of the office, leaving Morgan alone with the nurse.

"I promise I'm not contagious..." she said, with a weary, if friendly, smile. Outside, the two could hear, as the receptionist launched into a short sneezing fit.

"Yeah. Okay." Morgan said.

 

---------------------------

Morgan let out a shiver as she stepped outside the clinic. Inside Molly was helping the nurse prepare. By the van, Derek was setting up the tripod to get some exterior shots of the clinic.

 

"You got a cigarette?" she asked, as she approached him. He shook his head.

"You know I quit, Morgan. Why do you keep asking me?"

"Force of habit, I guess"

"Well, see, that's the problem, isn't it? What are you doing out here?"

Morgan sighed and looked back at the clinic. She shuddered to think of how long she'd spent in there already. "Think I needed some fresh air."

"Alright," Derek mumbled and returned his attention to the tripod. "You want to do your little intro thing now? Before I start getting these exteriors, I mean..."

Morgan considered it but shook her head. "I dunno, Molly'll probably have us set up for interview soon, so I--"

"It's no problem. Power of editing. We can get a little done now, we can shoot the interview, finish it off after, then cut 'em both together. It'll be seamless."

Morgan raised her eyebrow. "Wait, do you do our editing, too? I thought we had other guys for that."

"Oh, no. I just used to dabble. No good at it myself, but I know enough to know it's doable"

 

Morgan looked at the entrance to the clinic to check if Molly was on her way. She gave a quick shrug of her shoulders. "Sure, why not, then?"

 

It took the pair a short while to set up. They'd been working together for a long time, and were already aware of one another's patterns and preferences, so it was relatively easy to get Morgan on her mark and framed with the physician's behind her.

 

"Okay, we ready?" she asked, brushing her hair back from a particularly strong gust of wind.

"Yeah, just give me one... moment..." Derek muttered, as he carefully adjusted with some settings, and made sure the shotgun mic affixed to the camera, was pointed directly at Morgan. "Alright, we're good to go"

 

"I'm outside Upper Gecksfield Surgery and Clinic. Around this time of year, this building is packed to the brim with people suffering from colds or flu. Just this week alone, over a hundred people in this community came to this clinic, exhibiting cold symptoms. So--"

 

Molly stepped into the frame, waving her down. "Morgan! We're ready!"

 

Morgan sighed as she turned around to face Molly. "How was that?" she asked Derek, behind her.

"Wait," he replied, "was I supposed to be recording?"

Morgan spun around.

"Kidding!" he said "That was perfect. We can get the rest when we're done with this," he said, nodding at the building.

"Right..." she replied. "Let's get this over with, then"

 

---------------------------

 

Nurse Halloway was looking a little bit better when Morgan arrived. Somewhat. Her nose was still glowing red, but Molly had really done a great job of helping Halloway look ready for the camera.

Molly clearly noticed the nose, because she tsked, and walked back over to the nurse.

 

"You really gotta stop rubbing that nose for a little while, okay?" she said, grabbing some concealer and applying it gently.

 

Morgan couldn't be bothered to explain to Molly that the nurse probably knew more about what she should or shouldn't do than Molly herself did. To be fair, given how many of the staff the nurse had clearly gotten sick, Molly might have had a point.

 

As Morgan's attention turned to Derek's positioning of the camera, another "Duh...d'tISHIEW!" rang out, and Morgan's attention was swiftly turned to Nurse Halloway's mortified and embarrassed expression.

 

"I am... so... sorry" she managed, after a few seconds of silence.

"It's okay!" Molly said, with a beaming smile. "Happens to the best of us!" she added, as though nothing, in particular, had just occurred. She placed the concealer down on the table and nodded. "That should be enough for now. We can... we can get going" she said.

Now that Morgan could see her a bit closer, she could see the smile that Molly always wore was still there, but the confidence behind it had vanished.

"You still want us to do this interview?" she asked

"Mhmm-hm," Molly said affirmatively.

 

"Right," muttered Morgan. "Here goes nothing..."

[NickG1998]

I absolutely love this story I can’t wait for the next update 

[Jettous]

Poor Molly. She didn’t think that one through 😏

[sneezingfun894]

Loving it!

[ThatSneezyGirl]

Please continue 😍😍

[fluffystuff]

cant wait to see more of this!