Day 38 - Doctor's Office 3 [Dr. Kisugi] [Second Shift]

[damned_doctors]

It was her first day of work in a new facility, but Dr. Makiko Kisugi wasn't feeling nervous at all. To the contrary, all she felt was a sense of anticipation, an eagerness to see what opportunities might arise in a place such as this.

She was far from home, though, and so painfully new that she'd not dare take too many liberties as yet. As

Comments

[theroadsofar]

[Ack, anonymous was me. Could we delete that one?]"Therapy". What a joke. First getting stuck in some joint that had a 5-to-1 guy-to-chick ratio and now he was getting sent off to therapy. Talk about beating him over the head with the irony. He guessed he was supposed to talk about his feelings or that time he stubbed his toe as a kid and how that crap was supposed to come back fifteen years down the line. Dean rolled his eyes as he stood outside the door, Hello Nurse raising her hand to knock. Sammy might've gotten a kick out of therapy but all he could think about was how big a waste of time this was

[damned_doctors]

...well. Now there was an entrance. The bandages were somewhat unexpected, and Makiko gave a mental sigh of annoyance at the nurses who hadn't bothered to update the files before her patients arrived. She was only supposed to be treating these people

[theroadsofar]

Dean almost snorted out loud when he finally heard his "real" name. Rick Derringer. Cute. It was almost a name he would've used as a cover way back when. The corner of his mouth did quirk at the name, amused, as he leaned back in his chair, not quite slouching, and wondered if he'd get away with kicking his feet up on the desk. Dean half-expected her to slap his feet off if he did try. Did look damn tempting...

"Eric's good," Dean said smoothly; it wasn't the first time he'd had to pretend to be someone else, although usually he had some kinda warning before he had to start winging it. "I'm feelin' okay, I guess. Except for this whole mummy thing," he motioned at the bandages on his arms and part of his neck, flicking a glance at her for her reaction: he didn't expect pity but he did wonder what they told her, if anything. "Or were you asking if I was bouncin' off the walls psycho? I mean, y'know, seein' where we are," he added, gesturing at the walls

[damned_doctors]

If the man was looking for some kind of reaction, he was destined to be sorely disappointed; Makiko's expression didn't change at all as he spoke or gestured toward the bandages. She'd returned to her usual calm not-quite-smile after the greeting, and only nodded slightly as he spoke. One might even think the doctor was entirely bored with the proceedings.

"I was asking how you were feeling," she replied, absently tapping her pen against the arm of her chair. "How you choose to answer the questions is entirely up to you, Eric. After all, these sessions are for your benefit, are they not?"

Whatever he was feeling certainly didn't involve a lack of confidence, not from the way he'd obviously taken possession of her chair like that. At least, that was what he wanted her to think; there were some vaguely intriguing contradictions involved, but she wasn't sure they were worth pursuing just yet.

[theroadsofar]

Dean shrugged. "Okay, sure, we can do that. I'm pretty sure the pig-in-a-blanket I had for breakfast is givin' me cramps, the bandage here," he pointed at his forehead, "is itchin' like a mother and I'm wonderin' just what's the point of talkin' about how I feelHe said that last bit like it was something as useful as underwater basket weaving. Dean had been blown off by his share of chicks - a guy didn't always score - and he was getting a positively glacial vibe off Doctor Kisugi. She didn't seem too impressed with him. Now wasn't exactly the place to try to get laid, he knew, and anyway, he probably had a better chance with the nurse than with this chick: she wasn't exactly looking down at him but he definitely wasn't imagining the professional distance she was doing a good job at maintaining. It wouldn't be as easy as empty promises and a night in the nearest motel to get on her good side. He could live with that. What he didn't like was getting stuck here in something that would've pissed him off even before all this Cold Oak

[damned_doctors]

So he wanted to play self-assured and unaffected. Very well, then. "The point is that I'm here to help you get better, Eric. If you don't wish to cooperate, there's very little that I can do for you." Makiko's smile widened slightly as she regarded her patient, but it never touched her eyes. "If you don't wish to talk about how you feel, perhaps we could talk about the feelings of those who are waiting for you at home?"

She stilled the absent pen-tapping, reaching out instead to flip a couple of pages in his file, as though checking on some details. He wouldn't miss the significance of that, she was certain, and wondered how he would react. "You do want to return to them, do you not?"

[theroadsofar]

Dean's expression remained the same, but his eyes flicked down to follow the doctor as she reached out and rifled through a couple of pages in a file - his file, he assumed. The only reaction at her words was a faint tightening of his casual smile, even as he shrugged

[damned_doctors]

"That would hardly be productive, though," Makiko replied, in a gently chiding tone. The scrape of the chair legs against the tile floor elicited a faint, almost unnoticeable flicker of irritation, visible if he was watching closely - such annoying sounds were entirely unnecessary and out of place. Still, she continued speaking without missing a beat. "If I tell you how you should think or feel or be, then how would you ever learn to recover?"

At Eric's mention of his brother, she glanced down toward the file again, skimming a finger along the text until she paused at a particular line. "Are you? I'm not so certain that he'd agree, after the last time he saw you." She kept watch on him from the periphery of her vision as she spoke, wondering if he'd prove himself to be amusing or no. "Your mother, though, was more who I was thinking of. She was quite upset by your...breakdown."

[theroadsofar]

Dean did snort out loud this time. What, was he pissed he'd gotten there too late? Was that what she was trying to say? Dean didn't say anything at first, although it was clearly a sore spot for him that he hadn't gotten to Cold Oak in time to save Sammy. Or did he somehow know about the deal? Honestly, how could he? He'd been with Sammy for maybe a few hours before they'd driven off to Bobby's, it wasn't like there was a whole lot of time there to get really suspicious and put two and two together

[damned_doctors]

There, a reaction. Eric wasn't as strong as he believed himself to be; they never were. Everyone had their weaknesses, the little cracks in their psyches where it was so very simple to prod and pry and twist until they squirmed and did exactly what you wanted them to. Not that he'd be terribly useful to her, not in the way that she wanted.

Still, though, it was a way to pass the time.

She glanced up at him again, one brow lifting just slightly. "Did you?" Her fingertip tapped against the file as she considered. It was always far easier to just get the patient talking, let them ramble about whatever inane concerns they might have. This one, however, seemed far more interested in letting her talk.

"I suppose that the events that led to your attempted suicide would have been quite traumatic," she replied, with some vague pretense at a concerned expression. "You remember none of that?"

[theroadsofar]

Dean shook his head. That much was true, he was pretty sure if he really had tried to off himself, he'd remember; granted, there was a lot of times he'd almost died, but that was the downside of hunting - the shit hunted right back and sometimes it got you, sometimes it didn't. Unless she meant the deal...which, he now that he thought about, was pretty much as good as suicide, just with an expiration date in a year. And it was guaranteed, there wasn't any way to botch it or get out of it or hope someone called 911 on your sorry ass

[damned_doctors]

"I suppose it would be." Makiko leaned back in her chair again, leaving the file sitting open, though it was arranged and neatly aligned with the desk's edge. It was entirely possible for someone to blank out a traumatic event, and according to his file, Eric had managed to blank out almost his entire life. It seemed plausible enough that he was telling the truth by claiming he didn't remember, though the way he was acting now made her wonder.

Well. If he wasn't going to be cooperative, she might as well try to amuse herself. At least, as much as was possible without attracting...attention.

She regarded her patient for a moment longer, then changed tactics, recalling how she'd managed to get a reaction earlier. "I see that you remember other details of your life, though. Your brother, for instance, and your mother. What about your fath--ah, no." She flicked a glance toward the file again and shook her head slightly. "My apologies, I hadn't read closely enough."

[theroadsofar]

Dad. She just had to bring up Dad. The man was almost a year gone but Dean knew he hadn't even begun to get over losing him; he supposed he should feel closer now that they both earned tickets to Hell, but he didn't.

He felt angry. It'd been pissing him off from day one, when Dad leaned over his hospital bed and whispered his instructions about Sammy. Now that he knew the truth about how he'd suddenly keeled over dead, he wanted to shake him, yell at him all over again. It didn't make sense, Dean knew, but he couldn't help feeling that way. Maybe, he thought sarcastically, I'll get a chance in Hell to ream him good. But he knew there was also a part of him, a big part, that wanted nothing more than to see Dad again just like he remembered him, even the parts that always fought with Sammy and didn't tell him what was going on. Dean grit his teeth behind a tight-lipped smile, jaw working slightly

[damned_doctors]

Not much more? Makiko arched one brow just slightly, giving the man a look that conveyed mild disbelief. His reaction had been fairly easy for her to see, even if he had managed to keep it out of his voice. "Perhaps. But clearly it affected you, Eric. A parent's death is never an easy thing to deal with."

She reached over and made a note on the file, the gesture seemingly idle even though each word was formed with neat and careful precision. "Your mother believes that you took it hard. That perhaps it was part of what drove you to...act as you did. What do you think?"

It was all so tedious, really. Patients with strange delusions and problems that in no way concerned her. Baiting them was mildly amusing, but when they weren't even worth feeding from, there wasn't too much point.

[theroadsofar]

"I'm thinkin' you're way off the mark, sister," Dean said. He spread his hands on the armrests, as if going you serious. "I wouldn't go around slashin' up my wrists or whatever because of that. I mean, I loved the guy, but that's not me."

Not when Sammy needed to be looked out after. If Kisugi had just switched Dad for Sammy, then she would have been creepily right on the ball there, only it had happened that way, it wasn't just speculation by some armchair Ph.D who thought she was hot shit. Dean wasn't proud of how he'd treated Bobby a few days ago but he'd meant every word he'd said to the other hunter back in that shack, with Sam's body only a room away: he hadn't cared what happened, and if the world burned, it wasn't his problem. Part of him still wasn't sure if it was because it was terrified he'd lose Sammy all over again hunting that yellow-eyed sonuvabitch...but Sammy was committed to the hunt and he sure as hell wasn't gonna let his brother go after the thing solo

[damned_doctors]

"Tried to stab yourself in the chest, actually," Makiko corrected almost absently, her attention still ostensibly on the file in front of herself. "Of course, this was after you'd abandoned your brother to fend for himself in the middle of nowhere, while going on about...hmm." She paused, flipped back a couple of pages, then continued, "A monster that was making you imagine your life. Fascinating."

She glanced up as the man appropriated her pencil jar, giving a brief frown but not bothering to try to stop him. It only held a few rather ordinary-looking pencils (all at the same perfectly sharp point, of course) and a couple of pens, twins of the one she began to idly tap against her desktop again.

"My story?" The doctor looked him over again, eyes narrowing just slightly as she did; for an instant she looked more like she was assessing a piece of meat than looking at another human. She wanted (needed, with a desperation bordering on ravenous) to toy with him, to taste his blood, but it was an impulse that couldn't be indulged here.