Primum non nocere (fic)
Author: Razycrandomgirl
Title: Primum non nocere
Fandom: Heroes/Dollhouse (sorta)
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 3177 give or take
Characters/Pairings: Gabriel/Maya
Disclaimer: Don’t own. belonging too Kring and Whedon.
Spoilers/Time Line: Heroes bits of Vol 2-3 (nothing huge because AU
Summery: bellonablack asked for Gabriel shrinking Maya. This is me attempting that. Primum non nocere is a Latin phrase that means "First, not to harm."
Author’s Notes: for Bell ... if you hate it IOU1. be not afraid to tell me so. Warning! cannon fodder (like whoa) and unbeta'd.
PROMPT TABLES Un_love_you prompt #9 "Always wondered what this'd be like."
100heroesfics # 72 "Fixed"
"Hi, I'm Maya Herrera here to see a Dr. Wexlor. Is that you?"
Gabriel looked up from where he crouched to see a beautiful woman starting down at him.
“Mr. Petrelli says I have to come to you to work out my problems.” Her mouth creases becoming a hard line that pulls down a little at the corners.
“I-" he starts but she interrupts him.
"He threatened to cut me off but I don’t think he’d really do that. He’s being a hard case … I think? I hope he wouldn’t really… So we’re gonna do this and you’ll report back to him -because I’m sure that’s part of the deal- and it wouldn’t really hurt if you told him I was sane … This was supposed to be a vacation. 'Go to New York for a couple of days. Kick back, take in a show. Relax.' Tricky bastard..."
She plops down onto the leather seat couch. It squeaks softly and her innocent yellow dress falls around her. Canary. Yes. And against her skin it’s like -
"So?" She speaks with little patience and scratches at her neck.
"I- I’m-" he sighs "I’m not-"
"You’re not what?" They widen. Her eyes could actually get bigger.
"I'm not seeing anybody today." He finished.
"Look." she stared. "I'm only here for a couple of days. I'm supposed to be getting well, whatever the hell that means. This is all some big, humorless joke on his part because there's nothing wrong with me!
But Mr. Petrelli set me up with an appointment. He said I had to come here on this date, at this time to this office."
Gabriel looked at the door to the office with a wary expression."Well, I think for you we'll have to try a whole different approach." He grabbed up his coat and led her out.
*
He took her out to the park just as it finished raining, still a little misty, and there weren't many people about. They came to a bench (he'd thrown down his jacket and gestured her to sit one it so her dress wouldn't get wet.) and he asked her:
"So what's the problem?"
She blushed.
"I just liked to get to the bottom of things as quickly as possible. Please don't take offense to my methods." H'm ... like a glove, he though. Sometimes it scared him the way he could slip into such things. But she talked. She talked openly. She had so much to say ...
And he listened. Because he was good at it. Because he was supposed to. It is my duty, sir. He smiled at himself.
"You think it is funny? These things I'm telling you are for your amusement?" She was on her feet and his jacket fell to the ground. He leaned down to pick it up, but paused for a moment, head titled. Her shoes were near a puddle, reflecting back the clearing sky, the trees and if he leaned forward a bit ... he could almost peek under her --
He blushed and sat back against the bench, his sweater leaning into it as he griped his jacket in hand. The bench was still moist and the fabric of his vest sucked at its moisture.
"No," he replied "but I think I've got -- I mean what do you think?" He scrunched up his face, not liking the sound of the words that came out of his mouth.
It seemed to work. She looked disarmed. She almost sat back onto the bench, but he stood then, guiding her away from it.
"I think, the problem is that there are holes inside of me. I'm missing somethings; pieces of my life, and I can't ..."
"I know that feeling."
"You do? I thought that you were supposed to be all together. Otherwise how can you fix things if you yourself are broken?"
"I said I know the feeling. I didn't say I was broken."
"But you are ... aren't you. You know because you are too?"
He didn't say anything.
"And that's why Mr. Petrelli sent me too you? Because you're like me? Did you also ... have a ... uh secret? He didn't tell me. Maybe I not supposed to know."
She'd wandered under a bridge that was lined with bright red bricks. They lined the wall in straight horizontal rows that stretched from mouth to mouth.
"Can you, fix me? Am I broken Mr.-Dr. Wexlor?" Her eyes were big again (so very...) and he found himself falling into them. She turned her head away before he could answer. There was a sound. It was music. She stopped just inside of the mouth of Playmate's Bridge and looked out at the spinning (screaming) machine.
"I always thought there was something inherently evil about those things." He didn't know if he were making a joke or not, but he smiled away. She just stared ahead caught up in the lights and sound of that delirious, unrelenting monster.
"What are you thinking?" He asked. She shivered when he walked right up behind her. Crept up like a vine. There were children playing, even in this weather -of course in this weather, he thought- and there they were.
A little girl with an even smaller boy, running and laughing in bright raincoats. The girl's was yellow while the boy's was red. Each child's pair of boots complimented the color of their sibling's coat. The boy ran from the girl, but she was quick and caught him by the hood, choking him unintentionally.
"Mommy said don't run!" she yelled, as she drug her brother backwards by his hood.
"Stooooop! You're choking meeeeee!" he protested.
"You wouldn't be able to talk if I was choking you, now come on!" she gave one last savage jerk before racing her brother back to bench to where the grown-ups stood, talking. Just before they lost sight of the children, the girl's own hood fell back to reveal some braided, beaded masterpiece.
He looked towards Maya as she stared off into the distance.
"I-I don't know ..."
"What is it? Is something coming to you."
"No ... nothing. My head hurts." She walked back the way they came, cutting out a negative image in the light at the mouth of the tunnel.
He turned back to the carousel and felt his lip pull into a bit of a snarl, then a shiver ran down his spine.
*
"Dr. Wexlor's office?"
"You answer your own phone?"
"Only when it's not busy."
"Is that good for business, telling me that you don't have that many patients? Did they all kill themselves?"
She laughed and it was a scratchy noise in his ear. There was stiff pregnant pause and before he could come up with a response she was already apologizing.
"It's okay. No, it actually works in your favor, because I fixed them Maya. I fixed them and I'm going to fix you, too." He could hear her clear her throat on the other line.
"So, I should come down to your office, when?"
"Not to my office. We'll go to the park again. I don't think it's good to be cooped up all the time."
"Outside? There's a lot of people."
"I've heard it said that meeting new people is good."
"You heard that, huh? Not so much in my experience, doctor." She sniffed and he heard cellophane crinkle come through the line.
"Meet me at 69th East. We'll go for a walk, outside of the part if you like?"
"On the East side?"
"On the East side."
"I'll have to got through the park?"
"So you know the area? I thought you were visiting?"
"I am. ... I spent some time here a little while back." There was a pause, uncomfortable. "If you like we can do this over the phone."
"No we can't. We'll talk about it when we see each other. Go around the park if you have to, I'm sure all cabbies dream of fairs like you." There was more crinkling on the line as she mumbled something before hanging up.
*
"You don't like doctors do you?"
"Depends. Are you a geneticist?" She laughed dryly at her own joke but the humor was lost on Gabriel. "It's not personal, really. I just ... I'm not really big on trust these days. And doctors always want to be trusted."
"So who was this 'geneticist'? He didn't alter your DNA or something, did he?"
"He was just a guy who said he'd help me ... And I guess he did in a way, because he brought me to Mr. Petrelli." Her face lit up at the mention of 'Mr. Petrelli'. "He was the one who really helped me."
"And now the man you trust the most, sends you to me. That should count for something, right?" He ventured.
"H'm. Well, trust still must be earned. This is very unusual. This out of the office ...uh'm therapy?"
"Tell me about the nightmares."
She stopped in her tracks as he continued strolling around her. He stretched his long leg out in front of him, then pivoted with the grace of dancer, turning to face her. There wasn't even a change in his stride.
"Who told you... I never ... I don't dream." she finished, lamely.
"That is not true. I know what the problem is. I know what's broken."
She didn't acknowledge him but continued on with her stride. She began gnawing on her bottom lip with the beginnings of a frown. The look on her face gave him pause. They walked in silence until he thought he couldn't stand it and fought the urge to grab her by the shoulders and shake her.
"I don't have them all the time." Her throat click as she swallowed and she spoke the way many do when they try to describe a dream "I don't know what ... they are very confusing and ... incomplete? I can't see faces and I can't ..." Her mouth hung opened and the expression reminded him of Fish back at the shop. He felt a bit of him melt at the thought. He reached out and put his hand on her shoulder, squeezing it reassuringly. She tried smiling at him, then moved on slipping out of his grasp.
She wandered off ahead of him and came to a clearing wherein, there stood a statue of a girl sitting on a large mushroom. The entire party looked like a gathering of fiends.
"What is that?" Maya asked
"That's Alice. She's in Wonder Land."
"It's grotesque." She shuttered but continued to stare.
'How doth the little crocodile
Improve his shining tail,
And pour the waters of the Nile On every golden scale...'
"What is that?" She finally turned to look at him. He looked down from the sun reflecting on Conservatory Pond and into her face. Brilliant.
"Oh! I apologize!" I didn't know I said that out loud." He blushed. "It's a poem from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland . 'How Doth the Little Crocodile'
"How does it go?" Her face was curious, so indulged her.
How doth the little crocodile
Improve his shining tail,
And pour the waters of the Nile On every golden scale!
How cheerfully he seems to grin!
How neatly spread his claws,
And welcomes little fishes in
With gently smiling jaws!
He felt very proud of himself for remembering the poem. It had been a long time since he'd read the book. And the time he'd recited it for the elementary school talent show was something he'd like to forget. A moderate breeze bounced off the pond and hit Gabriel in the face. It pushed the sweat laced hair from his forehead, settling his anxieties. He looked down at Maya then.
"That's a horrible poem". Her mouth twists in a tortured pucker. The wind picked up suddenly hard at her back, kicking her hair up around her face as she took a seat in an alcove.
He followed, sitting down next to her. He rubbing his hands over his knees, trying to dry away the moisture from his palms. She was quiet and he curious. He looked out over the water and began.
"Its nice out here, isn't it?"
"I don't like the water." She sniffed in disdain.
"I've heard you mention Mr. Petrelli many time, but you never talk about your family? Where are they?"
"They're dead."
"When was the last time you cried?" he asked and she gave a nervous little shake as her shoulders rose under the curtain of her hair. She avoided his eyes. He noted that. He didn't like it. So he poked.
"How is your arousal?"
"'My what?" Her head snapped toward him. Her eyebrows almost meeting her hairline.
"The things you would and wouldn't do after your ... little accident." She paled at his words. "What kinds of things did you do? What kinds of things did you let that geneticist do?"
He thought he'd be prepared for her reaction (and in a way he had been), he just hadn't been fast enough. The flat of her hand connected with the side of his head. The kinetic energy of it vibrated against his skull, shocking his skin. he barely had time to recover as her hands came down on him like heavy raindrops.
Dude she is kicking his ass!
Somebody should stop her?
Hell no, he probably deserves it.
He ventured to grab at her hands, and to his amazement he actually caught them. He straitened his back and began pulling her away from the curious stares of the beginning of a crowd.
"Socratic questioning!" He cried. To his horror there was almost tears in his eyes. Her tiny hands actually hurt! "I sensed there was some kind of trigger there, the why you weren't talking about it was a big clue."
"That is no business of yours! How dare you!" She yanked her body, but he held tight.
"I dare, because if you want to get better, your going to have to face your problems. I want you to get better Maya. I want you... to get better. Don't you want to get better?"
"What's wrong with me?" She changed the subject and he let her for now.
"I think you have PTSD. Post-traumatic stress disorder."
"What did that doctor do to you?" His everything about him clenched at the thought of knowing.
"It wasn't him. I went to him for help. There was another, before. He was a liar and he hurt me." The fingers in one hand pressed into a spot just over her heart. She rubbed at it like it bothered her though unconsciously. His eyes flickered there. The gesture was significant to him, though he didn't know why. It bothered him. She looked so troubled.
His gaze broke off to look at the water again. The glare off the lake hurt his eyes, making them mist over slightly. He pushed his fingers under the rim of his glasses and massaged the blur away. Then gave the bridge of his nose a pitch for good measure.
"He was just a liar ... that's all. A liar and I believed him." He watch her blush and felt his own skin warm at the honesty in her emotion. He moved toward her, touching his hand to her cheek.
Maya stiffened and tried to move away from him, but Gabriel smoothed his hand up her arm and held it in his hand. "Did he try to keep you .. this liar. I can understand that." He slipped his palm over her cheek and let his fingers tickle her neck as he tangled his fingers in her hair. "What else did he do, Maya?"
"... Is this another form of your ..." She swallowed as he pulled her closer to him. "therapy. Dr. Wexlor ... don't ..."
Her mouth worked in that strange away again and he leaned in, transfixed by her mouth.
"Gabriel ..." at this he stopped and looked up from her. He turned to where the sound the sound came from. There was a man calling to him and Gabriel felt like his time was up.
"Dr. Wexlor?" She was still in his arms and he maneuvered himself between her and the man, pushing her behind him. The man speaks again.
"Come with me, Gabriel."
"Dr. Wexlor?" it's Maya. "What the hell is going on? Is this one of your ... uh patience?"
"Gabriel?" the man calls
"Dr. Wexlor?" She said shaking his shoulder as she stood close behind him.
"It's Gray actually ..."
"Dr. Gray? " Her face is confused and embarrassed. "I've been calling you the wrong name the whole-"
"No."
"No what? " she asks and there's a little slip of a sound. She leans in squinting her face trying to catch it in her ear. "I can't hear you."
The sounds comes again, she's even softer this time.
"Dr.-"
"No!" he whirls toward her, body language like a wild animal. She spirals backward he'd snapped at her, like a dog. His teeth actually clicked. His eyes were hard, accusing, as he looked down at her on the ground. He was shaking, breathing heavy and deep. And then it melted away when the hinge in her mouth swung open. She stared up at him and had a sudden wild thought. Is this what they meant by shock treatment? Was this some kind of ... new form of therapy or was it the very oldest of its kind? Either way it sucked.
He turned away to look at the man who had come. "I was fixing her while you were away."
Another man comes to Maya. He rests his hand on her shoulder. It's all comfort and relief. She looks up in to the dark mans eyes as he asks her with a thick Caribbean accent:
"Hello Maya." The man greets.
"Hello." She smiles up at him, calmly. Trust and devotion flood her features. Gabriel's darken in response.
"Would you like a treatment?" the man asks.
"Yes, I would like that very much." She responds.
The man helps her up and Maya continues to smile as he leads her away. Gabriel moves to follow them, but the man who called to him before steps in front of him clapping his hand on Gabriel's shoulder.
"What about you, buddy, would you like a treatment?" Gabriel side steps the man and tries to catch up with Maya as she walks on.
"Maya!" She stands by a van as the man, again, steps in front of Gabriel and reaching out, hand to shoulder, as he looks at him. Gabriel continues looking. "But we're not finished. I haven't fixed her yet."
"She's going to be okay, buddy. Trust me."
"I do." Gabriel's gaze breaks from Maya's direction as he finally looks the man in the face.
"How about a treatment? You'd like that wouldn't you?"
"Yes," Gabriel answers. His eyes catch Maya's just as the doors to the van swing shut. "I would like that, very much."
* fin
I could only think to end this in the Dollhouse.
*
Playmates Arch~Bridge
Central Park Carousel
Alice in Wonderland Statue
In Central Park
How Doth the Little Crocodile ~ Carol Lewis
Title: Primum non nocere
Fandom: Heroes/Dollhouse (sorta)
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 3177 give or take
Characters/Pairings: Gabriel/Maya
Disclaimer: Don’t own. belonging too Kring and Whedon.
Spoilers/Time Line: Heroes bits of Vol 2-3 (nothing huge because AU
Summery: bellonablack asked for Gabriel shrinking Maya. This is me attempting that. Primum non nocere is a Latin phrase that means "First, not to harm."
Author’s Notes: for Bell ... if you hate it IOU1. be not afraid to tell me so. Warning! cannon fodder (like whoa) and unbeta'd.
PROMPT TABLES Un_love_you prompt #9 "Always wondered what this'd be like."
100heroesfics # 72 "Fixed"
"Hi, I'm Maya Herrera here to see a Dr. Wexlor. Is that you?"
Gabriel looked up from where he crouched to see a beautiful woman starting down at him.
“Mr. Petrelli says I have to come to you to work out my problems.” Her mouth creases becoming a hard line that pulls down a little at the corners.
“I-" he starts but she interrupts him.
"He threatened to cut me off but I don’t think he’d really do that. He’s being a hard case … I think? I hope he wouldn’t really… So we’re gonna do this and you’ll report back to him -because I’m sure that’s part of the deal- and it wouldn’t really hurt if you told him I was sane … This was supposed to be a vacation. 'Go to New York for a couple of days. Kick back, take in a show. Relax.' Tricky bastard..."
She plops down onto the leather seat couch. It squeaks softly and her innocent yellow dress falls around her. Canary. Yes. And against her skin it’s like -
"So?" She speaks with little patience and scratches at her neck.
"I- I’m-" he sighs "I’m not-"
"You’re not what?" They widen. Her eyes could actually get bigger.
"I'm not seeing anybody today." He finished.
"Look." she stared. "I'm only here for a couple of days. I'm supposed to be getting well, whatever the hell that means. This is all some big, humorless joke on his part because there's nothing wrong with me!
But Mr. Petrelli set me up with an appointment. He said I had to come here on this date, at this time to this office."
Gabriel looked at the door to the office with a wary expression."Well, I think for you we'll have to try a whole different approach." He grabbed up his coat and led her out.
*
He took her out to the park just as it finished raining, still a little misty, and there weren't many people about. They came to a bench (he'd thrown down his jacket and gestured her to sit one it so her dress wouldn't get wet.) and he asked her:
"So what's the problem?"
She blushed.
"I just liked to get to the bottom of things as quickly as possible. Please don't take offense to my methods." H'm ... like a glove, he though. Sometimes it scared him the way he could slip into such things. But she talked. She talked openly. She had so much to say ...
And he listened. Because he was good at it. Because he was supposed to. It is my duty, sir. He smiled at himself.
"You think it is funny? These things I'm telling you are for your amusement?" She was on her feet and his jacket fell to the ground. He leaned down to pick it up, but paused for a moment, head titled. Her shoes were near a puddle, reflecting back the clearing sky, the trees and if he leaned forward a bit ... he could almost peek under her --
He blushed and sat back against the bench, his sweater leaning into it as he griped his jacket in hand. The bench was still moist and the fabric of his vest sucked at its moisture.
"No," he replied "but I think I've got -- I mean what do you think?" He scrunched up his face, not liking the sound of the words that came out of his mouth.
It seemed to work. She looked disarmed. She almost sat back onto the bench, but he stood then, guiding her away from it.
"I think, the problem is that there are holes inside of me. I'm missing somethings; pieces of my life, and I can't ..."
"I know that feeling."
"You do? I thought that you were supposed to be all together. Otherwise how can you fix things if you yourself are broken?"
"I said I know the feeling. I didn't say I was broken."
"But you are ... aren't you. You know because you are too?"
He didn't say anything.
"And that's why Mr. Petrelli sent me too you? Because you're like me? Did you also ... have a ... uh secret? He didn't tell me. Maybe I not supposed to know."
She'd wandered under a bridge that was lined with bright red bricks. They lined the wall in straight horizontal rows that stretched from mouth to mouth.
"Can you, fix me? Am I broken Mr.-Dr. Wexlor?" Her eyes were big again (so very...) and he found himself falling into them. She turned her head away before he could answer. There was a sound. It was music. She stopped just inside of the mouth of Playmate's Bridge and looked out at the spinning (screaming) machine.
"I always thought there was something inherently evil about those things." He didn't know if he were making a joke or not, but he smiled away. She just stared ahead caught up in the lights and sound of that delirious, unrelenting monster.
"What are you thinking?" He asked. She shivered when he walked right up behind her. Crept up like a vine. There were children playing, even in this weather -of course in this weather, he thought- and there they were.
A little girl with an even smaller boy, running and laughing in bright raincoats. The girl's was yellow while the boy's was red. Each child's pair of boots complimented the color of their sibling's coat. The boy ran from the girl, but she was quick and caught him by the hood, choking him unintentionally.
"Mommy said don't run!" she yelled, as she drug her brother backwards by his hood.
"Stooooop! You're choking meeeeee!" he protested.
"You wouldn't be able to talk if I was choking you, now come on!" she gave one last savage jerk before racing her brother back to bench to where the grown-ups stood, talking. Just before they lost sight of the children, the girl's own hood fell back to reveal some braided, beaded masterpiece.
He looked towards Maya as she stared off into the distance.
"I-I don't know ..."
"What is it? Is something coming to you."
"No ... nothing. My head hurts." She walked back the way they came, cutting out a negative image in the light at the mouth of the tunnel.
He turned back to the carousel and felt his lip pull into a bit of a snarl, then a shiver ran down his spine.
*
"Dr. Wexlor's office?"
"You answer your own phone?"
"Only when it's not busy."
"Is that good for business, telling me that you don't have that many patients? Did they all kill themselves?"
She laughed and it was a scratchy noise in his ear. There was stiff pregnant pause and before he could come up with a response she was already apologizing.
"It's okay. No, it actually works in your favor, because I fixed them Maya. I fixed them and I'm going to fix you, too." He could hear her clear her throat on the other line.
"So, I should come down to your office, when?"
"Not to my office. We'll go to the park again. I don't think it's good to be cooped up all the time."
"Outside? There's a lot of people."
"I've heard it said that meeting new people is good."
"You heard that, huh? Not so much in my experience, doctor." She sniffed and he heard cellophane crinkle come through the line.
"Meet me at 69th East. We'll go for a walk, outside of the part if you like?"
"On the East side?"
"On the East side."
"I'll have to got through the park?"
"So you know the area? I thought you were visiting?"
"I am. ... I spent some time here a little while back." There was a pause, uncomfortable. "If you like we can do this over the phone."
"No we can't. We'll talk about it when we see each other. Go around the park if you have to, I'm sure all cabbies dream of fairs like you." There was more crinkling on the line as she mumbled something before hanging up.
*
"You don't like doctors do you?"
"Depends. Are you a geneticist?" She laughed dryly at her own joke but the humor was lost on Gabriel. "It's not personal, really. I just ... I'm not really big on trust these days. And doctors always want to be trusted."
"So who was this 'geneticist'? He didn't alter your DNA or something, did he?"
"He was just a guy who said he'd help me ... And I guess he did in a way, because he brought me to Mr. Petrelli." Her face lit up at the mention of 'Mr. Petrelli'. "He was the one who really helped me."
"And now the man you trust the most, sends you to me. That should count for something, right?" He ventured.
"H'm. Well, trust still must be earned. This is very unusual. This out of the office ...uh'm therapy?"
"Tell me about the nightmares."
She stopped in her tracks as he continued strolling around her. He stretched his long leg out in front of him, then pivoted with the grace of dancer, turning to face her. There wasn't even a change in his stride.
"Who told you... I never ... I don't dream." she finished, lamely.
"That is not true. I know what the problem is. I know what's broken."
She didn't acknowledge him but continued on with her stride. She began gnawing on her bottom lip with the beginnings of a frown. The look on her face gave him pause. They walked in silence until he thought he couldn't stand it and fought the urge to grab her by the shoulders and shake her.
"I don't have them all the time." Her throat click as she swallowed and she spoke the way many do when they try to describe a dream "I don't know what ... they are very confusing and ... incomplete? I can't see faces and I can't ..." Her mouth hung opened and the expression reminded him of Fish back at the shop. He felt a bit of him melt at the thought. He reached out and put his hand on her shoulder, squeezing it reassuringly. She tried smiling at him, then moved on slipping out of his grasp.
She wandered off ahead of him and came to a clearing wherein, there stood a statue of a girl sitting on a large mushroom. The entire party looked like a gathering of fiends.
"What is that?" Maya asked
"That's Alice. She's in Wonder Land."
"It's grotesque." She shuttered but continued to stare.
'How doth the little crocodile
Improve his shining tail,
And pour the waters of the Nile On every golden scale...'
"What is that?" She finally turned to look at him. He looked down from the sun reflecting on Conservatory Pond and into her face. Brilliant.
"Oh! I apologize!" I didn't know I said that out loud." He blushed. "It's a poem from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland . 'How Doth the Little Crocodile'
"How does it go?" Her face was curious, so indulged her.
How doth the little crocodile
Improve his shining tail,
And pour the waters of the Nile On every golden scale!
How cheerfully he seems to grin!
How neatly spread his claws,
And welcomes little fishes in
With gently smiling jaws!
He felt very proud of himself for remembering the poem. It had been a long time since he'd read the book. And the time he'd recited it for the elementary school talent show was something he'd like to forget. A moderate breeze bounced off the pond and hit Gabriel in the face. It pushed the sweat laced hair from his forehead, settling his anxieties. He looked down at Maya then.
"That's a horrible poem". Her mouth twists in a tortured pucker. The wind picked up suddenly hard at her back, kicking her hair up around her face as she took a seat in an alcove.
He followed, sitting down next to her. He rubbing his hands over his knees, trying to dry away the moisture from his palms. She was quiet and he curious. He looked out over the water and began.
"Its nice out here, isn't it?"
"I don't like the water." She sniffed in disdain.
"I've heard you mention Mr. Petrelli many time, but you never talk about your family? Where are they?"
"They're dead."
"When was the last time you cried?" he asked and she gave a nervous little shake as her shoulders rose under the curtain of her hair. She avoided his eyes. He noted that. He didn't like it. So he poked.
"How is your arousal?"
"'My what?" Her head snapped toward him. Her eyebrows almost meeting her hairline.
"The things you would and wouldn't do after your ... little accident." She paled at his words. "What kinds of things did you do? What kinds of things did you let that geneticist do?"
He thought he'd be prepared for her reaction (and in a way he had been), he just hadn't been fast enough. The flat of her hand connected with the side of his head. The kinetic energy of it vibrated against his skull, shocking his skin. he barely had time to recover as her hands came down on him like heavy raindrops.
Dude she is kicking his ass!
Somebody should stop her?
Hell no, he probably deserves it.
He ventured to grab at her hands, and to his amazement he actually caught them. He straitened his back and began pulling her away from the curious stares of the beginning of a crowd.
"Socratic questioning!" He cried. To his horror there was almost tears in his eyes. Her tiny hands actually hurt! "I sensed there was some kind of trigger there, the why you weren't talking about it was a big clue."
"That is no business of yours! How dare you!" She yanked her body, but he held tight.
"I dare, because if you want to get better, your going to have to face your problems. I want you to get better Maya. I want you... to get better. Don't you want to get better?"
"What's wrong with me?" She changed the subject and he let her for now.
"I think you have PTSD. Post-traumatic stress disorder."
"What did that doctor do to you?" His everything about him clenched at the thought of knowing.
"It wasn't him. I went to him for help. There was another, before. He was a liar and he hurt me." The fingers in one hand pressed into a spot just over her heart. She rubbed at it like it bothered her though unconsciously. His eyes flickered there. The gesture was significant to him, though he didn't know why. It bothered him. She looked so troubled.
His gaze broke off to look at the water again. The glare off the lake hurt his eyes, making them mist over slightly. He pushed his fingers under the rim of his glasses and massaged the blur away. Then gave the bridge of his nose a pitch for good measure.
"He was just a liar ... that's all. A liar and I believed him." He watch her blush and felt his own skin warm at the honesty in her emotion. He moved toward her, touching his hand to her cheek.
Maya stiffened and tried to move away from him, but Gabriel smoothed his hand up her arm and held it in his hand. "Did he try to keep you .. this liar. I can understand that." He slipped his palm over her cheek and let his fingers tickle her neck as he tangled his fingers in her hair. "What else did he do, Maya?"
"... Is this another form of your ..." She swallowed as he pulled her closer to him. "therapy. Dr. Wexlor ... don't ..."
Her mouth worked in that strange away again and he leaned in, transfixed by her mouth.
"Gabriel ..." at this he stopped and looked up from her. He turned to where the sound the sound came from. There was a man calling to him and Gabriel felt like his time was up.
"Dr. Wexlor?" She was still in his arms and he maneuvered himself between her and the man, pushing her behind him. The man speaks again.
"Come with me, Gabriel."
"Dr. Wexlor?" it's Maya. "What the hell is going on? Is this one of your ... uh patience?"
"Gabriel?" the man calls
"Dr. Wexlor?" She said shaking his shoulder as she stood close behind him.
"It's Gray actually ..."
"Dr. Gray? " Her face is confused and embarrassed. "I've been calling you the wrong name the whole-"
"No."
"No what? " she asks and there's a little slip of a sound. She leans in squinting her face trying to catch it in her ear. "I can't hear you."
The sounds comes again, she's even softer this time.
"Dr.-"
"No!" he whirls toward her, body language like a wild animal. She spirals backward he'd snapped at her, like a dog. His teeth actually clicked. His eyes were hard, accusing, as he looked down at her on the ground. He was shaking, breathing heavy and deep. And then it melted away when the hinge in her mouth swung open. She stared up at him and had a sudden wild thought. Is this what they meant by shock treatment? Was this some kind of ... new form of therapy or was it the very oldest of its kind? Either way it sucked.
He turned away to look at the man who had come. "I was fixing her while you were away."
Another man comes to Maya. He rests his hand on her shoulder. It's all comfort and relief. She looks up in to the dark mans eyes as he asks her with a thick Caribbean accent:
"Hello Maya." The man greets.
"Hello." She smiles up at him, calmly. Trust and devotion flood her features. Gabriel's darken in response.
"Would you like a treatment?" the man asks.
"Yes, I would like that very much." She responds.
The man helps her up and Maya continues to smile as he leads her away. Gabriel moves to follow them, but the man who called to him before steps in front of him clapping his hand on Gabriel's shoulder.
"What about you, buddy, would you like a treatment?" Gabriel side steps the man and tries to catch up with Maya as she walks on.
"Maya!" She stands by a van as the man, again, steps in front of Gabriel and reaching out, hand to shoulder, as he looks at him. Gabriel continues looking. "But we're not finished. I haven't fixed her yet."
"She's going to be okay, buddy. Trust me."
"I do." Gabriel's gaze breaks from Maya's direction as he finally looks the man in the face.
"How about a treatment? You'd like that wouldn't you?"
"Yes," Gabriel answers. His eyes catch Maya's just as the doors to the van swing shut. "I would like that, very much."
* fin
I could only think to end this in the Dollhouse.
*
Playmates Arch~Bridge
Central Park Carousel
Alice in Wonderland Statue
In Central Park
How Doth the Little Crocodile ~ Carol Lewis