On Monday, I asked my secretary to go and make some purchases for the office for me. Making sure they understood to only purchase these two particular paintings. She came back and I placed them both in my office, moving the two that were up, out into the waiting area. Feeling happy with the purchases, I made my way to the mental health facility that I did group and special therapy sessions at two times a week.
As soon as I walked into the main halls, I could hear a familiar voice calling out to me.
"Hey Doc!" David was wheeling himself out of the common room towards me.
"Hey David, you're looking rather well today." I wasn't lying either. His eyes looked better, no longer blood shot or hollowed from fatigue. His color was looking better over all too.
"I feel better too, Doc. Those pills have really been helping me sleep better. Do we have a session today?" He asks.
"We do, closer to two. I've got to take care of my other patients first but I'll see you in a little while, k man?"
"Sure thing, brother." He wheels himself back into the common room as I head into the office I use while there.
I finish up with my other patients there and go and look for David. He's not in the common room, so I go ask an orderly, where his room is. I go down to his room number and still don't see him. I go up to the nurses station and try to find out where he is.
"Nurse, where's David McNeal?"
The nurse pulls up his schedule on the computer and tells me, "Says here, he's with Dr. Huller."
I look at the man and point to my name tag.
"One moment, Doctor Huller." He pages the intercom system and asks for David McNeal to come to the nurses station.
One of the guys from the common room comes out and catches my attention.
"Yes?"
"David is outside with some fine ass babe, I think it's his sister." The guy chuckles, but I scowl at him, "Hey!? What did I do? Oh, shit yeah, we're not supposed to cuss, my fucking bad, Doc." He laughs and walks back into the common room as I roll my eyes.
"Well, now I know where to find him. I'll go get him, thank you." I tell the nurse and head out to the patio. Sure enough I see him and Sarina talking, David notices me walking their way.
"Hey, Doc! Is it that time already?"
David motions for his sister to come, as he begins wheeling himself towards me. Sarina stands from the seat, flashing her dazzling smile at me that I can't help but return.
"Oh, better watch out there doc, otherwise you're going to fall in love with her." He laughs as I roll my eyes at him, as Sarina comes up and gives me a quick hug. David making lovey smooching noises as we do.
"He's an idiot, I've already told you that." Sarina laughs as we pull apart.
"I'm not bothered by it." I smile at her and open the door for her and David to go back inside. They follow me to the office and I close the door behind them. I take my seat, allowing them to get comfortable.
"Okay, before I begin, I just want to clarify with you David. Are we talking about everything today or no?" I ask the question that I know he will understand.
David thinks about it for a minute and shakes his head, "I don't know yet."
"Okay, then let's begin. Now, please don't take offense to any questions I'm about to ask, these are routine questions that we have to ask and they will be rather personal and invasive. If you don't wish to answer them or skip them for now, I will have to mark that down until you're able to talk to me about it. I am going to say this ahead of time though, unless you can or are willing to speak about them if there is a subject you're unwilling to discuss with me, it could keep you here longer if myself, and the house doctors feel it is relevant to your attempted overdose. As of this moment, I don't believe that will be an issue, but I still wanted to inform you of that possibility. Do you understand?" I ask him.
"Yep, fire away, doc."
I go through the questionnaire asking everything that I could about his health, except for the cancer part, his life style decisions, before and after the accident. We went over their childhood, their parents, and that's where we started having a few issues. To avoid any issues, I made notes and skipped some of those for when it was just me and David.
"Okay, David, you've told me that you're sleeping better, feeling better, and you're looking much better too. Are you still experiencing any pain?"
David nods, "Yeah but it's like the beginning of a bad headache. It hurts, but you know it's going to get worse before it gets better? I'm not sure if that makes any sense, doc, but that's the only way I can explain it."
"When you take the medication, for how long does it work and help you sleep?"
"I get about four hours of sleep now at night and they let me sleep some more in the morning after I take my morning pill, so I get about seven maybe total. I feel the pain coming on right now, but like I said it's that dull ache." He grips his left pectoral before letting out a couple of coughs.
I offer him a tissue, which he takes and wipes his mouth with, quickly tossing it in the trash can. I already know there's some blood on it that he doesn't want Sarina to see.
"You still have that nasty cough, David? Are you still sick?" Sarina asks, concerned.
"That's what happens when you have a upper respiratory infection, Sarina." David clears his throat and motions for me to continue.
"Okay David, so is the pain still constant but manageable, correct?" I ask him.
"Yes, doc."
"Okay, I'm going to prescribe you some gabapentin then too. It can be taken with your other medication and it will take a few days before you start feeling it's effects, but should help the pain you're still experiencing. If that doesn't help you in the next two or three days, please, let the resident doctor know, or me and we will discuss other possible options."
"Alright, that sounds good doc." He fights back a cough, and wheels himself closer to the trashcan before starting to cough, bad.
"David? Should I get him some water?" Sarina with raised and furrowed brows, stands up listening to her brother hack out his lungs.
"Sarina, please go ahead and get him some water, that would help." I motion for her to go, grab some more tissues for him.
As soon as she leaves, I get switch out the bloody trashcan for the one under my desk. He wheezes and spits up into the tissues, wiping his face of blood. Tossing the bloody tissues into the trashcan so his sister won't see.
"Thanks, Doc." He coughs.
"You're welcome, David. You know you should tell her, it's only going to get harder to keep this from her." I say cautiously.
"Not yet, Doc. Look at her she's so happy and hopeful... I don't want to ruin yet. I know you're the main reason why she looks so happy, but I want to enjoy seeing her like this around me a little while longer." He sits back up, as Sarina comes in with the water.
"Thank you, sissy." He takes the water and sips it, giving her a soft smile.
Awe fills her face, "You haven't called me sissy, since we were little." Loving tears shine in her blue eyes, making them sparkle like stars over a lake.
"Well, now I'm shorter than you again." David laughs, making Sarina scoff.
"Yeah, you are." She rolls her eyes, "but I won't hold it over your head like I used to." She says tapping his shoulder with a fist.
"Were you both close growing up?" I ask, making notes in my observance of their interactions.
"Yeah, until I got boobs and his friends wouldn't shut up about them." Sarina scoffs and takes her seat again.
"Who are you talking about?" David looks generally confused.
"Mark and Casey. When I jumped from my mosquito bites and went to a C over summer. When they'd come over they'd stare and try to touch them 'on accident' by bumping into in the hallways and shit."
"Do what?!" David looks upset, "You never told me about that?!"
"Bullshit, I told you I didn't like them. That they made me feel uncomfortable!" Sarina retorts.
"I thought you just didn't like my friends! You didn't tell me they were trying to touch you! I would have beat their fucking asses if I had known that!"
"Oh yeah? Then what would mom and dad have said then?" She crosses her arms, mimicking her mothers attitude, "Sarina, what are you doing to attract David's friends attention like that? If you paid more attention to your school work than what kind of attention you can get from the boys, you could make valedictorian."
She starts to mimic a males voice, "Better yet, Sarina, you should wear some different clothes to stop attracting the boys attention in the first place."
David sighs, "I'm sorry mom and dad treated you like that. If you had told me instead, I would have handled it Sarina." He holds his face in his hands, obviously distressed.
"David, did you protect your sister from your parents or others a lot growing up?" I ask, noticing some patterns.
David nods, "Yes, at least I would try to, if I knew I needed to."
"Why would you feel the need to?"
He shrugs, "Cause our parents were really hard on her, they were always on her case about her grades or they way she dressed, her after school clubs she joined. It got really bad when she joined the drama club though. "
"Care to elaborate?"
"How does this question help him?" Sarina asks, crossing her arms defensively.
"It'll give me more insight into his personality, why he feels the need to protect. Trust me, I know it can be difficult recalling bad memories, but it does help." I inform her.
She rolls her eyes and I notice her foot shaking showing her irritation over the memory.
David looks his sister over but sighs, "When she joined Drama club, it was to gain the college credits. Our parents didn't want her staying out late for the plays they had to participate in, in order to earn the credit. Our father cornered her and got up in her face one night when she came in after the play one night. It was like ten at night, but one of the guys in the class dropped her off, and our dad saw. He started accusing her of only joining to spread her legs like a little slut. I knew that my sister did nothing of the sort and pulled him away from her. I told him to calm the fuck down and just listen to what he was saying."
Sarina wipes her cheeks and looks down at the floor, her lips pursed in contained emotions over the memories.
David continues, "I told Sarina to go to her room, I'd be there in a minute, and blocked my dad from going after her. Me and Dad got into a shouting match, while my mom followed her and started off where my father left off. When I heard my mom going off, I shoved my dad out of the way and had to pull my mom off of Sarina. She was pulling her by her hair and slapping her. I pushed her out of the room into my dad and slammed the door in their faces. I went to her side and tried to comfort her, but she ended up just pushing me away and screaming at me too."
David wipes his eyes, "After that night, we really kind of drifted apart."
"Because she pushed you away?"
He nods, but Sarina scoffs. "I pushed you away, because it wasn't fair. You could do anything you wanted and still be the apple of their eye. I graduated valedictorian and got a full scholarship to my college, and they never said a word to me. You? You graduated high school, took a year of training and joined Dad's company and you were better than Jesus to them. Even when dad had that heart attack and you took over the business and nearly bankrupted him, you were still the best child they could have ever had. While I remained the child they never wanted. That no one wanted." Sarina grabs some tissues and covers her face as David sits there tears streaming down his face.
"I'm done for today, Doc." David informs me, wheeling himself out of the room.
I stand to stop him but he's already gone. I walk over to Sarina, who pulls back from me too.
"Did you get the information you needed today?" She stands up angrily, making my heart clench in pain, seeing the agony in her face.
"Sarina, I'm sorry. I told you that these questions were going to get very personal." I remind her, reaching my arms out to try and comfort her.
"NO!" She shouts, stepping away from me. "This was a mistake. We... are a mistake."
I feel like I can't breathe, "What? Sarina?" I feel so confused. Did she just say 'we are a mistake'?
"I'm sorry, Brian. I need to leave." Sarina turns on her heels and takes off leaving me standing there frozen, feeling like my heart just got ripped out of me.