Chapter 1
Lucy
Music blared through the speaker system of my car as I pulled into the parking lot of Mognolia's only hospital for the mentally ill. Not many people would enter or even go near the old building unless they had a family member as a patient there. I parked the car and shut off the radio before grabbing my things and exiting the car. Slamming the door shut, I gazed upon the dilapidated hospital. A long time ago, the building used to be some old rich guy's mansion. Now it stands as a sanatorium. I glanced up at the fading sign with cracked letters. Resolutely it read "Fairy Tail Hospital" in large, bold letters.
I moseyed to the entrance and optimistically entered through the thick oak doors. One wouldn't think to be happy about going to a sanatorium, but considering I'm a psych major at the University, it's as if I'm practically stepping into my career. Today was my first day to actually work alongside the patients. The University eased me into the job, but now I can finally dive into the important issues. Wandering up to reception, I spotted my good friend Mira typing away at the computer. She glanced up at me and smiled gleefully.
"Welcome back, Lucy!" Mira chimed pausing her work and turned towards me.
"Hey Mira! How's it going?" I asked, leaning against the counter.
"Oh, the usual," she replied with a small shrug. "Oh! You're going to be shadowing someone today, right?" She suddenly added in thought.
"That's right! Do you know who it is?" I inquired while tilting my head.
"Let me check." Mira returned to the computer screen and typed away. No more than a minute later, she faced me with a beaming smile. "It seems you'll be working alongside Dr. McGarden. She's a great doctor. She specializes in group therapy, so you'll be helping her in a large session today."
"That's great!" I clapped my hands together. "Do you know when she's available?"
"Not at the moment. All I know is that she's finishing up with one of her smaller groups. She'll come and find you when she's done. You'll only be helping her with the larger group on the days you're here." Mira smiled. I nodded and decided to wait in the lobby until the doctor was ready. I kicked my feet back and forth while staring up at the clock. An hour pasted and a woman with short blue hair pulled back by a yellow headband, in casual doctor attire, and carrying a bright red clipboard, exited from entrance to the ward, and headed my way.
"You must be Lucy. It's a pleasure to finally meet you! I'm Dr. McGarden, but feel free to call me Levy." She smiled, extending her hand with a friendly wink.
"It's wonderful to meet you!" I stood and shook her hand. "I can't wait to work alongside you."
"Likewise." She glanced down at a clipboard. "I'm just about to start my next session. You'll be joining me, correct?"
"That's right." I replied, wondering what type of patients she counseled.
Levy grinned and winked while gesturing towards the door. "Why don't we go get started, then?"
I nodded gleefully and followed the doctor as she walked through the large metal doors.
"Now, you've been through the first floor of the hospital, correct?" Levy asked glancing back at me. I nodded in response.
"Good, then you know that it's mostly filled with some of the doctors' offices." She replied gesturing to some of the doors. "The second floor, which is where we'll be going, contains more offices for doctors and nurses. It also has the recreational center for the patients, among other things such as the cafeteria, the pharmacy, yada yada." Levy walked to the elevator and pressed the "up" button before continuing, "The third floor contains the patients' rooms, along with half of the fourth floor."
"What's on the other half?" I inquired as we stepped into the elevator. Levy pressed the second floor button.
"Examination and therapy rooms. There are some of those on the fifth floor as well, but that floor is mainly reserved for the owner." The elevator dinged as we arrived on the second floor, where Levy directed me toward the group therapy room.
"Right over here is where we'll normally be working," she continued. "The patients know it well, and most of them aren't very fond of change." She shrugged, hugging her clipboard, as if remembering a past event. "I tried moving the room once, and a few of them had little fits, so we keep it in the same room now." Snapping out of it, Levy wandered over to the door and opened it. I followed her inside and glanced around curiously. The room was small and there were eight chairs set up in a circle. Levy sat down and gestured to the seat next to hers.
"How many patients will be coming?" I questioned while sitting down.
"Normally, we have about six or seven, but a couple of them moved to private sessions or now undergo different types of therapy due to various reasons. The usual's will still be coming. There are four of them." Levy clarified.
"I thought this was one of the larger groups?" I inquired, slightly disappointed. Can four people really be considered a large group?
"As I said, it used to be larger. But believe me, with these four, it's enough. Anymore in this group and I might go insane myself." She shook her head and glanced down at her clipboard. She explained that I would strictly observe for my first few sessions until I gained enough experience to help out in the counseling aspect.
A few minutes passed before the patients started filling into the room. The first of them was a pink-haired, scarf-wearing lad. I guessed he wasn't much taller than myself. He wore a black and red sweater along with jeans, and carried a blue cat plushy with wings. He clung to the stuffed toy as his lifeline, remaining crushed against his chest. With a ridiculous grin in my direction, he plopped himself in the chair next to mine. His wide, wondering eyes drilled my face. I tried my best to ignore his odd behavior.
Three other people flowed into the room immediately after him. The first was a man wearing mostly black that matched his jet black hair. As soon as he sat down—I'm not exactly sure how it happened—his shirt was removed from his bare chest and lying on the floor. The person next to him, a woman, snatched it up and cradled it close to her face. She had short blue hair, and wore light blue and white clothing. What struck me the most about her appearance was the crazed look in her eyes.
The odd trio sat as follows from left to right: pink boy, shirtless man, and crazed lady. The final person that appeared was a man with blue hair and a strange looking—what could it be called?—tattoo plastered over one of his eyes. He wore dark-colored clothing and sat awkwardly across the way from the trio.
"Are you new here?" the pink one asked in wonder while looking straight into my soul with a perky smile.
"Obviously," the dark-haired man replied with a roll of his eyes. "Anyone can see she's not one of us." He glanced my way and the others followed suit.
"No need to stare," Levy politely chimed while placing her papers down. She smiled as she continued with a gesture to me, "This is Lucy, and she's going to be helping me with our sessions for the next few weeks. So how about we all introduce ourselves?" she added with a wink. The pink-haired boy spoke up first.
"I'm Natsu! And this is my buddy, Happy! Because, you know, he makes me happy." Natsu proudly held the stuffed-animal up high to show it off.
"Put that thing down!" the shirtless man barked. "I'm Gray." As an added thought he muttered, "I don't see why we need to do this. It's not like she's going to be here long." The shirtless man sighed, glaring at Natsu.
"I'm Juvia." The woman smiled sweetly, but her expression quickly morphed into a scowl. "Don't come near my precious Gray unless you don't wish to see the light of day." She growled, clutching the shirt tightly, and keeping her longing gaze fixed on the bare-chested man.
I glanced to the odd-man-out on the other side of the circle.
"Jellal," he replied quietly without further elaboration. I stared at him for a second longer wondering why he was so silent. Maybe it's just part of his personality? Levy nodded, satisfied, and tapped on her clipboard.
"Good! Now, let's get started!" She paused to look over her notes. "Alright, everyone! Today, we're going to talk about things that we're afraid of and come up with ways we can defeat those fears." Levy quickly read over her clipboard. "Would anyone like to start? What are some things that you are afraid of?" she asked, glancing up with a questioning eyebrow. Natsu raised his hand high. Levy nodded towards him, a silent way of telling him he could speak.
"I'm not afraid of anything," he stated proudly as he shifted in his seat.
"You're afraid of everything," Gray huffed. "There's a whole list of things that you're afraid of: the dark, anyone that picks on you, independent women. I could go on."
"Those aren't things, idiot! She said things!" Natsu glared at the shirtless man. "Those are people."
"The dark isn't a person, stupid!" Gray retaliated, now sitting in his boxers. I'm not exactly sure when it happened, but now he was almost completely naked. I cringed and turned my gaze to another side of the group. I noticed Juvia cradling Gray's pants along with the shirt.
"Well, duh!" Natsu rolled his eyes. "It's an element. There's four of them you know. Four!" He held five fingers in Gray's face to emphasize his point.
"Dark isn't an element," he grumbled, pushing Natsu's incorrect number of fingers away.
"It is, too! There's fire, dark, light, lightening, stars, and…" Natsu glanced around as if he was sharing a secret piece of information, "gray." He whispered the word, but it was clearly loud enough for everyone to hear.
"I'm an element?" Gray questioned incredulously as he turned to the boy.
"No! Not you! You're a disgrace to the gods of gray," Natsu retorted, rolling his eyes.
Gray face-palmed, probably wishing he'd chosen somewhere else to sit. "Just so you know, that's not the four elements. It's fire, air, water, and earth."
"Air, water, and earth are parts that make up the rainbow, idiot! You can taste the rainbow, you know." Natsu stated seriously, turning to me. He cupped his mouth and continued in a whisper, "They told me so. And," He turned back to Gray, speaking loudly again. "Where are your clothes?"
"Alright, Natsu, that's enough. Good job! Now why don't we let someone else share their thoughts?" Levy suggested while writing on the clipboard. Juvia raised her hand slowly and waited for Levy to let her speak.
"It may astonish you all, but I have something that I'm afraid of," she stated, still clinging to Gray's clothing.
"What is it?! We're all eager to hear about it," Levy goaded sweetly while making eye contact with the crazed woman.
"I'm afraid that someone will take my darling Gray away from me and that I'll never be able to see him again!" Juvia dramatically sobbed as she smothered her tears with Gray's clothing.
"Ah, yes," Levy muttered quietly. I guessed she heard Juvia mention this before…perhaps many times by the look on her face. The doctor shook her head and turned towards Gray.
"What about you, Gray? Or how about you, Jellal? Is there anything you want to say about your fears?" she tentatively questioned, gazing back and forth at the two. Jellal remained as silent as the dead. Natsu turned to Gray with a quirky smirk.
"We all know what you're afraid of, Gray," Natsu chuckled slowly and quietly. He turned to me and whispered, "He's insane!"
"My darling Gray isn't afraid of anything!" Juvia cried, grabbing onto the man's bare, muscular arm. Gray sighed and shook her off in disgust.
"Oh? Haven't you heard? He thinks clothes eat people!" Natsu laughed, "And he thinks I'm crazy!" His maniacal laugher continued longer than necessary.
"Don't say it out loud! If they hear you, they might realize it and start eating us!" Gray exclaimed with bulged, fearful eyes, suddenly poised on the edge of his seat.
"Yeah, right," Natsu rolled his eyes with a flick of his wrist. He looked back toward me with a goofy grin on his face.
Gray suddenly gasped. "Look! That…that cloth! It's closing in on your neck! How hasn't anyone noticed yet?!" Sweat began to bead all over his body as gasps emerged from his heaving, bare chest. "It's closing in, I can see it from over here! I bet it's devouring your neck as we speak! Take it off, take it off, TAKE IT OFF!"
Natsu raised an eyebrow as Gray violently bolted to his feet and grabbed the edge of Natsu's scarf, tugging it harshly. He tried to yank it off the confused boy to supposedly save his life or something, but Gray only accomplished plopping the boy out of his seat, tightening the scarf around Natus's neck, and causing him to choke. Obnoxious gagging sounds emerged from his clenched throat. Natsu tried to put his hands in-between the scarf and his neck, frantically trying to get some air, but Gray kept pulling harder, desperate to set him free from the deadly clutches of the scarf. I gasped, unsure what to do, as Levy dropped the clipboard and ran to set Natsu free.
"Let go of him, Gray!" Levy ordered trying to wrench the shirtless man's hands off the piece of cloth, but to no avail. I glanced over to the others, Juvia sat on the sidelines watching Gray with wonder and Jellal shook his head with shame. Obviously, neither of them would try and help. This must happen often.
Before I had a chance to dive into action, the door burst open. A woman with scarlet red hair, dressed in a nurse's uniform, barged into the room. Her hair hung over her eyes like a raging darkness, causing chills to run down my spine.
"What do you think you're doing?!" she yelled, stepping into the middle of our circle of chairs. Gray instantly dropped the scarf in shocked bewilderment and returned to his seat. Natsu shared one look with at the scarlet haired woman and instantly crawled behind my chair to hide.
"Oh! Doctor Erza, what a wonderful surprise," Levy commented with a concerned smile as she stepped back.
"This is my therapy session! Why are you here?!" she accused, glaring daggers at the young woman. "Weren't you fired?!"
"Whatever do you mean?" Levy asked gently, "You assigned these patients to me, and no, that was Lyon, but then you rehired him."
"Did I?" A quizzical expression overpowered her face. The doctor or nurse—I wasn't sure anymore—raised her head revealing stern eyes. "I don't recall ever doing that. I might have to fire him again. Well in any case as long as I'm here, why don't I run this session?" Doctor Erza seated herself in Levy's place, picked up the clipboard, and began reading it over.
"Lucy, this is head doctor Erza. She runs everything here. Doctor Scarlet, this is Lucy, the new intern." Levy announced taking the seat next to the scarlet woman.
"Really?" Erza glanced to me, "It's good to hear that someone is willing to work in this nut house, I mean field. Welcome." She nodded her head before turning her gaze back to the clipboard in her hands. I nodded, too nervous to respond. After all, that was quite an entrance.
"Natsu, why don't you join us up here?" Erza commanded more than suggested. The boy cautiously and quietly climbed back into his seat, eyes glued to the floor.
"Alright. I see that we're talking about fears today. Honestly, I find that a pointless subject since you're all here because of something you're afraid of and you can't get over it. Pathetic. So why don't we skip all of that and get right down to business—the medication route."
A crazed look overtook her demeanor as she pulled out a massive syringe. She violently pushed on the plunger as some liquid sprayed out the tip. In fright, Juvia unexpectedly jumped into Gray's arms, who lost his balance and fell over in his chair. Now both on the ground, he mumbled something for her to get off of him. Moving ever so slowly, she blushed as giant hearts consumed her eyes. Next to them Natsu whimpered, clutching his cat plush tightly as he cautiously glanced over at Doctor Scarlet. Across the circle Jellal stayed put, hardly glancing up at all. His silent posture made me feel a bit "on edge."
"You know what, Doctor Scarlet?" Levy interrupted with a nervous tone, catching the attention of everyone but Natsu. Oddly enough, his eyes seemed glued on me, but maybe he was still entranced by the crazed doctor. "I just remembered—Mira was looking for you," she continued. "There's some documents she has for you to sign."
"Oh? Wonderful! That'll give me something to do for the time being." Doctor Scarlet placed the needle away and stood. "You're all dismissed until further notice." On that note, she left the room and we all sighed in relief.
"Well, you heard her." Levy glanced around cheerfully at the group while it reassembled itself. "Feel free to head back to your rooms, or you can visit the rec room."
The patients nodded and filtered out in a surprisingly calm fashion. Soon the two of us were alone in the room. Awkward silence prevailed before Doctor McGarden turned to me with a pained expression. "I…I…," she stuttered, searching for thoughts to say. "I'm sorry for all of that. However, you may be surprised if I tell you that this session was far from atypical." She let out a strained chuckle. "Nearly every session runs with tensions as high as today. I…I understand if you don't want to come back." She cautiously glanced over to me with a look of concern in her eyes.
Before I have a chance to reply, my eyes travelled past Doctor McGarden and through the closed door of the room. (It contained a window.) Peeking from the bottom edge, I noticed pink tuffs of hair followed by wide puppy-dog eyes. Expectedly enough, the small cat toy was staring into the room as well. I smiled, unable to contain the sudden warm feeling in my chest. These patients—no—these people. They need me. There's no way I could possibly turn by back on them simply because they can get a little rowdy.
"I would love to come back!" I interjected enthusiastically. "Doctor Scarlet left me feeling a bit uneasy, but I'd be honored to come back and work with you again." I replied with a grin.
A muffled "yippie!" sounded from beyond the door along with padded, waning footsteps.
"Really?! Oh, wonderful!" she exclaimed in wonder, unaware of the little eaves-dropper making his escape. We stood together. "I look forward to working with you in the future then!" Levy added with a smile.
"And by future, you mean…?" I inquired.
"Whenever you're available to come back!"
"In that case, how about tomorrow?" I grinned, literally unable to wait until I could return.
