[ToxxicRenegadeAngel]

Apollo shook his head, and sighed, whilst Althea took notes on what the patient was describing - an exceptional feat, considering they only had one hand each to work with.

"I believe" interrupted Apollo, "that our world-famous cure-all is what you really need to see you right." Althea grunted, but put down the pencil to pick up a brown glass bottle with a pale grey solution inside of it, which looked even murkier in the yellow lamplight of their office.

[ToxxicRenegadeAngel]

"Do you really think it'll cure me, Doc?" the young male asked with a trembling voice, and Althea tuned out the drone of her brother's voice as he listed the restorative properties of their 'cure-all' - she knew that in reality, it was just a mixture of vitamins diluted in pressed vegetable juices, but as long as their clients kept coming back she supposed it didn't really matter. After all, they hadn't killed anybody, and whilst it was certainly no miracle cure it would help the body recover on its own.

[ToxxicRenegadeAngel]

"Remember, a whole bottle should last you a week - a heaped spoonful three times a day should do the trick." Apollo waved as their client left, shut the door behind him, and almost immediately dropped his happy Doctor persona.

"That's the fifth one this week" he moaned, massaging the outsides of his eyes with his hand. "If we get one more person complaining of feeling run down who absolutely refuses to change their diet or lifestyle, I'll use them for spare parts."

[ToxxicRenegadeAngel]

Althea snorted, as she recorded the latest treatment plan on the patient's record, before slipping it into their filing drawer.

"People assume because you're a Doctor and I'm a Nurse, we can snap our fingers and make all their problems fade away" she muttered, searching for the recipe they used for their cure-all.

"If only it were that easy" muttered Apollo. "Then these idiots would never darken our door again." He sighed, and looked to where his sister was now rooting around in a cupboard.

[ToxxicRenegadeAngel]

"Must you lean so much, or do you think you could ask me to step that way?" he scorned, as the tugging on his neck became painful.

"Well, perhaps if we kept things better organised, I wouldn't have to lean, because everything would be at my fingertips" Althea sneered, though she did stop pulling so hard. Sharing a body was difficult at the best of times, and they were both tired and in a foul mood. She quietly thanked the Gods that the patient had been their last for the day.

[ToxxicRenegadeAngel]

"What are we doing here, Althea?" Apollo mused, frowning as he looked down at the floor beneath them. "Playing Doctor? These people come to us because they can't afford to go to anyone better, and I know we do our best but are we really helping anybody?"

Althea snorted; he had these morose episodes at least once a week, and they always served to annoy her more than anything.

"We're here for the same reason everyone else is here - we came looking for medical help, and couldn't afford it."

[ToxxicRenegadeAngel]

It seemed so very long ago that they had come, seeking a way to separate from one another, or someone willing to perform such an operation. A high-ranking Doctor had seen a golden opportunity, and had quoted them a figure with so many digits, Althea had felt dizzy to the point where Apollo vomited from their shared stomach.

Althea frowned at the memory, and buried her snout in the cupboard. She hated remembering the despair of hope being crushed by someone else's greed.

[ToxxicRenegadeAngel]

"I don't think that Doctor is practicing any more" Apollo mumbled quietly, removing the headband he wore to reflect light into the patient's eyes and mouth. "Last I heard, he had become ill with something, and refused to allow anyone beneath him to treat him."

Althea snorted and scowled. "Seems like we weren't the only ones to suffer for his arrogance, then." She sighed, shoulder drooping, and turned to her brother. "I'm sorry, I know I seem to be foul about it, but we were so close."

[ToxxicRenegadeAngel]

Apollo nodded, and shrugged his shoulder. "You know I've never blamed you for it - my hope was crushed too, that day. You're my sister and I love you, but we both want to be independent, and for a moment we thought we would be - until we realised all he saw in us was a large bag of money.

He scowled, and closed his eyes to rub at them again. It had been a long day, with each patient whinging about something minor, and he was about ready to call it a night.

[ToxxicRenegadeAngel]

Althea closed her own eyes and shut the cupboard door, leaning her head against it. "I'm sure the other Insonia have it a lot easier" she muttered.

Apollo didn't even bother opening his eyes. "Mother said we were a one in five hundred thousand chance, remember - most of our kind have two heads of the same gender." He paused to scowl, and growled before he spoke. "Special, she dared to call us - well, we're not so special now, are we?"

[ToxxicRenegadeAngel]

Althea shook her head, and looked at him. "No", she murmured, "now we're specialised. Medicine, hah. We've done more for the less fortunate in the last twelve months than all of those Doctors with their fancy equipment have, and all because they're only in it for the money.

Apollo snorted, and glanced at her, opening his eyes halfway with a slight smirk on his face. "Imagine if they knew what we were doing down here - imagine if they knew it worked."

[ToxxicRenegadeAngel]

Althea gave him a half-smile, and put her notes down. Together, they pulled off their white coat and hung it on the coatstand beside the door, before locking the door itself and making their way through a white door marked 'Staff Only'.

Althea was sure that if the patients knew they lived in the other half of the office, they would be there around the clock; she was grateful they all seemed to assume that despite being cheaper, they were like all other Doctors and had private residences nearby.

[ToxxicRenegadeAngel]

"Are we any better, Al? Selling sugar water and vitamins as cures." Apollo had continued his morose streak, it seemed, and as they prepared their shared dinner he remained quiet.

"We're not charging between twelve and two hundred times what it's worth" she said at last, putting her fork down. "We're charging pocket change to be seen, compared to the cheapest consultation prices up top, and we don't charge for treatment unless we're doing an operation, and then we charge for equipment and insurance."

[ToxxicRenegadeAngel]

Apollo nodded, perking up a little when he thought about how they really did try to minimise the cost to their clients.

"And as much as I hate talking about it - because I don't think it makes a difference either way - we have done a lot of good for the community, even if the hardest thing we've done so far was a couple of minor removal operations - they're now fully recovered, so I'm told, and hardly any scarring."

[ToxxicRenegadeAngel]

Apollo snorted. "Anyone who ever had to patch clothes can stitch someone back together - the trick is knowing which stitch to use. And it wasn't as if we used real medical stitches the first few times."

Althea raised her eyebrow. "And? Why should that matter? From what the clients said during their last post-op check up, they're just happy not to be horribly scarred and to have those growths out of them. Besides, remember dealing with old Mrs Guttersnipe's kidney stones last winter?"