~I'll drink 'til it's empty,

Stay out 'til it's late,

I wake up at midday and marry my bed,

I'll kiss all the women,

Get punched in the head~

Surprisingly, Niall's plan of eating a ton of food and drinking a gallon of water worked to stave off his hangover. After four hours of sleep, he felt better than ever. Four hours was more than he usually got, after all. Rolling into the prison at 7:30, coffee in the cup holder and bagel in his stomach, he was unstoppable.

"Hi, I'm Niall Horan. I'm the new intern-" He was interrupted by the angry man at the front desk asking for his identification, which he slapped on the counter quickly. The loud thwap that it made did not amuse - Niall looked at his nametag - Gary Holmes. He took a long time to run Niall's name and information into the system, and he found out when a badge was presented to him, along with a lanyard. "Thank you, sir."

"Through the doors, all the way back, to the right, find his office," Gary could not be more thrilled that this cheery Irishman was joining the staff. Niall smiled as he connected the lanyard and his badge so that he could go through the large doors on the other side of the room. There was no other way in, as far as he could see. Well, it was a prison. And like all prisons, it has to be secure.

Following the directions, a bounce in his step - thanks iced coffee, soon Niall Horan arrived at a wide door displaying the nametag of Dr. Kyle Jordan. Eyeing the designation in front of the man's name, Niall thought of the plans he hadn't told his family. How he was going back to school in the fall to get his master's in just one year. This was to be the first summer in several years that he wasn't absorbing an academic curriculum, which was part of the reason that he needed this job - he would go insane if he wasn't doing anything.

A sharp knock on the door, and then Niall scanned himself into the obviously empty office - as he had seen through the small window. He didn't dare look around, since he was in an unfamiliar place. Besides, he had coffee to finish and an ebook to read. NIall didn't really subscribe to the social media lifestyle, since he didn't have any close friends. Merely acquaintances. However, youtube was huge for him. It was often playing in the background while he did homework. Maybe it was a way for him to not feel so alone.

Kyle jumped when he came through the door at 7:55 to see Niall sitting in a chair. "Sorry to scare you," Niall shut his phone off and rose to meet his boss.

"Sit, sit." He assured. "I've just got to clock in, and then we'll do a tour. Appointments start at nine o'clock everyday. There's a buffer of about an hour for paperwork or emergency schedule changes. Stuff like that."

The two of them talked about what the job would look like, about the other therapist in the building, who didn't believe that they should have interns come into a place like this. Kyle was the opposite. Time seemed to drag on, with the boring bureaucratic topics of conversation before the tall man with curly hair stood and headed for the door. As the two of them walked at a swift pace down the hallway, the older man monologued. "This prison has some of the most damaged people I've ever encountered in this line of work. No offense to any of them, but everyone in these walls is some kind of nut job. I mean, you have to be to get locked up here."

"I guess so," Niall mused, letting the man have his fun. It was quite obvious that he loved to talk.

"85% of people in state prison have psychotic disorder symptoms. We've had some crazy, insane people come through here. And some are just depressed and want to vent about it."

"That's a high percentage," Niall said, thinking about the other side of it. Would they have boring cases? Slow days? He had never considered that thought before, but it scared him to his core. Action, action, action. Moving fast was the only way to do things. In high school, his mum had had him tested for ADHD, but he didn't have it.

Niall was just Niall.

As Kyle continued his tour, walking past the general population wing, a line of new inmates shuffled down the hallway, forcing the two of them to flatten against the wall to let them past. One of the guards looked at Kyle and silently handed him a stack of case files, not enough for the whole group, but a considerable amount. Those went to the back of the ones he already had in his hand. The shuffling of trying to get them all in a neat stack in Kyle's arm allowed Niall to briefly look through the names sticking out. Before it disappeared into the stack, Connor Rodes flashed before his eyes.

"We'll get to those later this week," The doctor moved on with the tour, leaving Niall dragging his feet and hoping for something, anything, to happen.

Eventually, the two of them reached the therapy room, where the first appointment of the day was waiting. Niall tried to get into it as the inmate and Kyle talked about anxiety and stress relief, but it wasn't interesting to him. He briefly wondered if he chose the right career path, but brushed those thoughts aside. Things would get better. This was only hour two of the internship.

Standing in the corner, watching, he hoped for alarms to blare. For Kyle to have to subdue the psychotic patient with just his bare hands and maybe a sedative. But alas, the man seemed perfectly normal. Except for the fact that his case file mentioned robbing a bank, but apparently, that wasn't going to play into that morning's session.

Once the clock hit 7, Niall was running out of the building. He needed a rush, the exhilaration of doing something positive and forward moving. Ah! Cleaning his apartment!

The soles of his Target sneakers slapped the floor loudly, almost concealing the ruckus coming from the large hallway he needed to turn down to leave. Flying towards the big doors was a crew of EMT's and a screaming man on a stretcher, followed by a troupe of prison guards.

"My foot!" The man yells, over and over as they leave the building and head towards the waiting ambulance.

Niall takes a small sip of the coffee he just made from the break room and ruffled his nose. Warm caffeine never was his thing. Dismissing the event he just witnessed, Niall hurries out to his car, driving behind the ambulance.

Tomorrow will be better, he tells himself, believing it.