Fred's Clinic is a small, independent hospital run by Doctor Fred. Located in the East Village of New York City, the clinic offers affordable medical services to anyone who requires them, indiscriminate of profession or class.
The Facility[]
The hospital opens daily at 10 AM, with Fred returning from his early morning rounds at other hospitals and clinics shortly afterward. Since it caters to both walk-in patients and inpatients, the clinic offers multiple beds for inpatients in the back of the building—accessible by a hallway that leads to the main reception room—as well as a live-in assistant to care for the inpatients during Fred's frequent absences.
In addition to its medical services, the clinic provides Fred's Poorhouse with food and occasionally medical provisions. This is achieved through transporting the goods directly from the clinic to the housing facility, though the Depression has made finding reliable transporters problematic; prior to February 1935, the clinic experienced multiple instances of workplace theft wherein hired transporters stole the provisions under their care and fled.
As a rule, the clinic is strictly medical and does not handle drug addiction. While it offers treatment for drug-related injuries, it will not provide rehabilitation for the addiction itself.
Chronology[]
1931-1932[]
On multiple occasions prior to the events of December 1931, Roy is admitted to the clinic and treated by Fred for injuries acquired during his various drug-induced highs.
Fred closes down the clinic at some point in 1931 in order to travel for work-related business, which he concludes in Illinois before December 29. An unexpected encounter with an injured man that day causes Fred to miss his train due to the amount of treatment the man required, and Fred is forced to travel on another train on December 30 instead.
Fred arrives in New York two hours late on December 31 and reopens the clinic, accompanied by his new assistant Who and new patients Jacuzzi Splot and Jack, all of whom were passengers on the same train. A third passenger, Upham, receives treatment from Who for a stab wound in his arm. Neither he nor Who fully recognize each other.
Upham is released on January 1; several minutes after Upham's departure, a man named Elmer C. Albatross—yet another passenger from the same train—enters the clinic, having visited it either earlier that day or the day prior asking for information on Szilard Quates. Who informs Elmer that neither he nor Fred found any reference to Szilard in the clinic's documents.
Three more inpatients arrive at the clinic on January 2, 1932: Roy Maddock yet again, this time for a self-inflicted injury to his wrist; an assassin called Alkins; and Laz Smith, a self-professed assassin with a broken nose and serious injuries to his legs and torso. All of the aforementioned patients are released within the month or the next, but Smith's injuries are so extensive that he is not released until August.
With nowhere else to go, Who continues working as a live-in assistant to Fred and accumulates both medical training and experience over the ensuing years.
1935[]
One day in February, a man by the name of Lebreau Fermet Viralesque introduces himself with a false name to Fred and secures work at the clinic. Working alongside Who, Lebreau's vast medical knowledge swiftly becomes apparent along with his aptitude for surgery. At some point in the same month, Fred, suffering from a deficit of workers, asks his supporters around the city if they know of trustworthy individuals looking to employment.
Either the same day or the day after Lebreau's hiring, Molsa Martillo telephones the clinic and informs them that he will be sending over two people that day as potential hires. The two individuals in question, Isaac & Miria, do not arrive at the clinic until the middle of the night. They are greeted by Who upon arrival, and he briefly wonders if he has seen them somewhere else before shrugging off the déjà vu.
Lebreau arrives at the clinic only a minute or two after Isaac and Miria, and Who introduces Isaac and Miria as the new help. Isaac and Miria eagerly introduce themselves by name to Lebreau, who tries to introduce himself with his alias and is surprised when he physically cannot. Without any other recourse, Lebreau is forced to introduce himself with his real name; Who is confused, since Lebreau had introduced himself to him with another name, but Lebreau lies and claims that he'd introduced himself as "Lebreau" from the start.
At some point Isaac and Miria meet Fred and recognize him as the "Gray Magician" from the train. Convinced that their reunion is fate, and bolstered by Molsa's recommendation, Fred agrees to employ them as transporters before leaving for work.
Several hours after their initial arrival, now the morning of the next day, Isaac and Miria don old-fashioned doctor and nurse uniforms and prepare to assist Who in boxing food for transportation. Lebreau returns to the clinic during this time. A shadow of a car darkens the front door of the clinic as Who is finishing boxing the food rations, alarming Who by its proximity: it is parked so close that no one will be able to enter or exit the clinic. Lebreau opens the door to address the driver, only for a man to punch him in the stomach.
The man and four other goons enter the clinic with the intention of kidnapping Isaac and Miria, though they decide to capture all four of the clinic's employees on the spur of the moment. One of them attempts to strike Who with a blackjack, only for Isaac to dive between them and take the blow instead. The kidnapping attempt is abruptly thwarted by the timely arrivals of Graham Specter and shortly thereafter Ladd Russo, but the kidnappers themselves manage to escape thanks to the use of a smoke bomb. In the aftermath, Isaac and Ladd are pleasantly surprised at their unexpected reunion.
(Rest of 1935 to be added).
Staff and Patients[]
Staff[]
- Fred (owner and senior physician)
- Who (Fred's assistant as of December 1931; live-in)
- Isaac & Miria (transporters as of February 1935)
- Lebreau Fermet Viralesque (surgeon and assistant for several days in February 1935; former)
Patients and Inpatients[]
- January 1932
- Roy Maddock (treated multiple times for drug-related injuries)
- Jacuzzi Splot (treated for penetrative injuries acquired on the Flying Pussyfoot)
- Jack (treated for blunt force injuries acquired on the Flying Pussyfoot)
- Alkins
- Laz Smith (treated for multiple shot wounds and facial trauma acquired during the Daily Days 1932 raid; inpatient for six months)
- Upham (treated for a stab wound to the arm acquired on the Flying Pussyfoot)
- September 1933
Trivia[]
- Fred originally intended to establish his hospital in an abandoned hotel, but later repurposed the hotel for the poorhouse instead.