Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters or content of the Covenant or anything affiliated with it.
Chapter One
"Victoria Danvers?"
Sixteen year old Victoria Danvers looked up at the nurse who was scanning the busy waiting room. "Here," she said, more from habit than anything else. She scrambled to get up, grabbing her school's blazer and book bag.
She followed the nurse through the doctors office she had been coming too since before she could remember.
The nurse showed her into an exam room to wait for the doctor. Victoria wandered over to the chair in the corner, sitting on the edge of it, steering well clear of the examination table against the far wall. Even though her family doctor had been the same since she was born, and she had never had anything seriously wrong with her, (if you didn't count having her jaw broken at seven by her big brother and his friends when the decided to see how far they could make her fly while wrapped in bubble wrap) she hated the doctor.
She looked at her cell, there was a text message notification lighting up her screen.
'Hey Gorgeous, practise let out early. Where u '
She looked at the clock on the wall. Practise was out nearly a half hour early. She swallowed, oh well. She had been trying to avoid Reid Garwin, her boyfriend of nearly four months, from finding out about her stop at the Doc's but it seemed unavoidable now. Especially if she didn't want to hike the forty-five minutes back to the dorms, and in the 30 degree June weather outside and her wool pleated skirt of a school uniform that didn't seem so appealing.
Victoria's thumbs flew across the screen, 'At Dr. Perry's be done in fifteen, wanna pick me up?'
They had only had assembly this morning, no formal classes at their elite boarding school, Spencer Academy. So Victoria assumed it would be the perfect day to get here unnoticed, especially since her boyfriend, her big brother Caleb and their two other best friends, Tyler and Pogue all had swim practise right after assembly. Prom or not, one still had to swim.
'...Yeah, see you soon' Was the response that soon followed on her screen.
Within a second she received another text, 'You're at the doctors? What's wrong?' This was from her brother. Her brother Caleb, may have only been barely a year older than her but he behaved more like a father than a sibling. Victoria found it hard to blame him with their family's propensity for... Complicated relationships. But it still irritated her.
'Nothing, just getting my diaphragm resized.' She hit send, smiling to herself.
'Oh god Tori, you can just say none of your business.' Was his almost instant response back.
'Not nearly as fun. Don't call me Tori.'
Suddenly the door opened and Victoria put her phone back in her bag.
"Ah, Miss Danvers." Dr. Richard Perry walked through the door smiling at her, his crisp white doctors coat looking pristine. He had been one of her father's best friends, as well as her brother's best friend, Pogue's father. Their families were tied together for generations, even reaching back as far as the Mayflower and beyond. Tied together by the Covenant.
Victoria couldn't help but smile, "Hi Dr. Perry," Dr. Richard Perry was a nice looking man, with the same intense green eyes as his son.
"Still not a fan of coming to see me, I see." His keen eyes took in her seat on the edge of the chair and her one tapping foot, possibly also noticing how she was absentmindedly picking a loose thread in her school tie.
She shrugged, "Yeah, sorry, nothing to do with you."
"Well, always glad to know I am not personally responsible for traumatizing a patient." Victoria smiled, "So what does bring you in today, aside from a hit of adrenaline?" He leaned back in the leather office chair that sat behind a small half desk with a discrete computer on it.
"Uh, well, nothing to bad, but I've been having these headaches, and I dunno, they seem pretty regular and are kinda getting worse, soooo..."
He nodded patiently, "Ok, how long have you had them?"
"Only like, the past two weeks… Maybe three."
"Have you had headaches in the past? Anything in the last two years?"
Victoria had just moved back to Ipswich, Massachusetts, her hometown in March, after causing a small family scandal by being expelled from her dance academy in London. She shook her head, "No, not really. I mean the only time I usually get a headache is when I am super hu-" she stopped, biting off her last word looking up at a man who was not only close personal friends with her boyfriends father, but her mother as well.
Dr. Perry instantly put his hands up looking at his desk, "Doctor patient confidentiality!" He looked gently at Victoria, raising an eyebrow, "I would rather you were honest with me, than try and... Sugar coat anything. Nothing leaves this room,"
Victoria raised an eyebrow but couldn't help but smile, "Like Vegas?"
Dr. Perry chuckled, "Well, I think we would need more tassels and sequins, but essentially yes, like Vegas, Victoria."
She nodded, "Well, the only time I used to get headaches was when I was hungover," she shrugged, "But that hasn't happened since I came home..." Dr. Perry raised an eyebrow. Victoria put her hand up, "Honest, Girl Scouts honour."
Dr. Perry typed something into the computer, "Well, I think that would mean more if you had actually been in the Girl Scouts, but I will take it. Do you wake up with the headaches, or do they usually come on during the day?"
"Wake up with, usually,"
"How would you describe the pain?"
"Like a vice, squeezing my head,"
"On a scale of one through ten, one being a stubbed toe, ten being unmanageable agony,"
Victoria chewed her lower lip thinking about it. She thought back to having her jaw wired for a month, she thought about her feet after hours of point practise. She looked up at the Doctor and shrugged, "I dunno, like a five or six?"
He nodded, "Alright, final question. Where do you feel the pain?" He rolled his chair over to her picking an instrument off the wall, not hesitating he used it to look in her eyes, shining the bright little light in them.
"All over,"
He looked at her, "Not more on one side than the other?"
"I thought you said that was the last question?"
Dr. Perry chuckled at Victoria's sassiness, "Well, I'm an imperfect person." He rolled back behind the desk, not commenting on seeing anything of concern in her eyes.
Victoria smiled, she liked adults who didn't make it their mission in life to patrol her behaviour. "And no, just all over my head."
"Hmmm," he was reading something on the screen, "Any connection with hormonal changes? Close to your cycle perhaps?"
And that was when she wished the floor would open up and swallow her whole. Victoria cleared her throat, going bright red, "Uh no."
Dr. Perry nodded. Slowly he clicked on something on his computer, then rolled himself out from behind it and looked at her, sitting back in his chair, "How is your stress level Victoria?"
She shrugged, "I dunno, fine I guess, normal. I mean it's prom tonight," Dr. Perry smiled, "And ya know schools tough with finals coming up."
He nodded, "Pogue mentioned you have a lot on your plate academically, said you were graduating a year early?"
Victoria blinked, finding it hard to believe Pogue had mentioned anything about her to his dad, "Uh, yeah. Well, by the time I got here most of my curriculum was grade twelve anyway, so I figured why not push it out?" She shrugged, "Only two extra classes, so..." She was close to graduating early which was fine with her, as soon as she got that diploma Reid and her were taking off to backpack around Europe. Something they had decided on last month when Victoria had finalized her course load.
"That's a lot on your plate."
She shrugged, "I dunno, seems ok."
"How are things at home?" He asked gently. The strained relationship between Victoria and her mother was no secret between their families.
"Functional." Victoria said, no affect to her voice. Dr. Perry raised an eyebrow, "It's fine." She said briefly, shaking her head an looking at the ground. Fine was code for nonexistent . Victoria hadn't spoken to her mother in two months aside from the occasional message sent between them through Caleb.
Dr. Perry nodded not pressing the issue. "Ok, well, I am going to order some blood work, just to make sure everything is as it should be. Try taking some aspirin for pain management and make sure to drink lots of water before bed. If it persists call the nurse and I can leave a prescription for you at the front desk,"
"Thanks Dr. Perry."
"Anytime Victoria. Are you and Reid going to be at the Simms tonight?" Everyone was getting ready for Prom at Tyler Simms parents house.
"Yeah,"
"Fabulous, hope you are prepared for a bombardment of photos."
"Oh, I will be." She said shaking her head.
"Good. Oh and Victoria?"
She looked at him as she stood up putting her bag on her shoulder, "Dr. Perry?"
He smiled at her, "Happy Birthday,"
She couldn't help but smile, "You remembered?"
Dr. Perry had the good sense to not remind her, her birthday was right there on his screen but it was no matter, he would never forget this particular young lady's birthday. "Of course, isn't every day you turn seventeen."
She shrugged, "Not until 7:49,"
"Mmm, well, you will have to wait till tonight to get your present. I didn't know you would be on the schedule today."
"Awww, you didn't have to do that."
"Course I did, now scram, don't you have to start getting ready yet?"
Victoria scoffed, "Naw, I just need to through on any old rag and I will be fabulous." It was a lie of course, she had an appointment at a salon over in Salem in two hours.
"Of course,"
"See you tonight, Dr. Perry."
The doctor waved as she left the exam room, his nurse poked her head in the door as soon as she left. "Your next one is ready for you Richard, Mrs. White again,"
He nodded, "Be right there, Eliza. Just have to make a quick call."
The nurse nodded and shut the door. Instead of reaching for the phone hanging on the wall beside where he was sitting Richard Perry pulled his cell phone out of his pants pocket and dialled his old friends number. "James? Hi, it's Richard. Look, I just had Victoria Danvers in my office. Yes. Yes, it's today. Mmm hmm, look, if you have time try and come over. I have lunch at 1:30. Maybe give Michael a call, see if you can rope him into stopping by as well, if he isn't jet setting off to Bali in the next few hours that is. Right. Right. Alright, see you then."
With that Dr. Perry hung up the phone and got up to go see Mrs. White and her gout.
A/N: Hi all! I hope you enjoyed the first chapter of Unleashed. Pretty excited about this story and can't wait to get into it. I will strive to make sure it is understandable to those of you who haven't read it's predecessor Trapped but there will be some references so for those of you who haven't, check it out and let me know what you think! Can't wait for feed back and I hope you enjoy!
