John Watson is brought to New Haven Psychiatric Hospital after Mary finds him with a gun after months of depression symptoms. He is utterly devastated over the loss of his friend Sherlock Holmes and realizes he needs extra care to learn to understand how to live life without Sherlock. Only thing is there is a surprise awaiting him at the hospital, will said surprise make or break him?
Welcome to New Haven
"John It's for the best." Mary said to her boyfriend as they walked up the steps of New Haven psychiatric hospital. He was dragging his rolling suitcase up the stairs like he was walking to the gallows.
John looked at Mary with tired sad eyes and nodded his head. "You're right." He said as they walked in the front doors of the rather daunting looking old English building. It kind of reminded John of Bart which he never though looked very therapeutic from the outside. "I'm just not sure I can lose you too."
She looked confused as they walked up to the front desk. "Lose me?"
He nodded his head. "Yeah in this place."
Mary was going to say something encouraging when she was interrupted by a nice looking young man dressed in jeans and a polo shirt definitely not something Mary had expected. The only thing that told her that he was an orderly, doctor or some other form of authority was the nametag clipped to his shirt.
"You must be John…John Watson." The man said with a bright smile. "Welcome to New Haven."
John looked at the man like he had completely lost his mind, but then remembered it was obviously HE who had lost his mind. Clearing his throat he nodded. "I'm John Watson." He looked at Mary. "This is my girlfriend Mary."
"Nice to meet both of you, my name is Chris and I am an orderly here and the person who is going to help you check in." he said and glanced at the clock. "Seeing the nature of the hour you probably won't be seeing any doctors of therapists tonight but myself and the other orderlies will definitely help you get situated."
"Thank you." John said and found he was honestly thankful. It was then he remembered something and looked at Mary. "You can leave now…I don't want you to see me like this, at least not for a while."
Mary looked at Chris who simply shrugged his shoulders and let the two figure things out. "Are you sure?"
John nodded, "I can do this…I NEED to do this." That night had been the final straw when Mary had come home to find him sitting with his gun to his head. Thankfully she had been calm and collected and had got him to agree to call the emergency crisis line they both knew about from work. While on the crisis like New Haven came up and John agreed to take himself to the hospital at least for a few days of observation.
"Okay then," Mary said as she gave him a gentle kiss on the lips and with a heavy heart and teary eyes exited the building.
"So John since it's almost 10pm why don't we get through your check-in process and let you get some sleep." Chris said and then realized he had been very rude. "I'm sorry is it okay that I call you John."
John actually chuckled at that, "It's my name." he said as he walked with Chris down the hall to a room that said 'intake' on the door. What he was surprised about was that he didn't see any other patients wondering the hallways and even more surprised when Chris seemed to get what he was thinking.
"We're not in the area where the dorms are located quite yet. We will go there in a few minutes."
"I see." John said as he took a seat when asked and began answering all the questions that were thrown in his direction. The one he found the hardest was 'what brings you here tonight?' He proceeded to tell Chris that he had been depressed for the past year since his best friend had committed suicide and how today was the anniversary of said friend's death.
"So you tried to shoot yourself."
"Yes."
"Are you feeling suicidal right now?" Chris asked sounding to actually care about his response and John was realizing he didn't mind this experience as much as he thought he would, at least people were nice. It made it easier for him to nod his head and answer with a 'yes' to the suicidal question.
"Okay," Chris said with a small smile. "Nothing to be ashamed of…we just need to work on that." He said as he got out a couple of hospital bracelets and attached them to John's arm. "Okay how about we head to the dorms and get you settled in your room?"
"Do we share rooms?"
Chris laughed and shook his head in the negative. "Oh thank good heavens no. This hospital has three floors with two wards each. Each ward has five beds…or rooms I should say."
"Oh that's rather intimate." John said as he followed after Chris who was jabbering on about how another orderly or nurse would bring him scrubs to change in for the night until they could check in his belongings.
"I might warn you they might keep you in the scrubs for another couple days since you are a suicide risk."
John didn't really like the idea of not wearing his own clothes but since all he had really packed was pajama bottoms and sweats he figured it didn't rightly matter.
Soon they got to the dorms or ward as it was also called and Chris unlocked the door letting both of them inside.
There John was surprised to find a long hallway that held doors that he figured held bedrooms since as he counted there appeared to be five like Chris had said. At the end of the hall there was some long tables with chairs around it and then some reclining loungers by a window with magazines and coloring pages on a table. Oh and the part John already liked the most was the fish tank that was on one wall by the loungers.
"See not too scary." Chris said with a smile as they stood so John could look around. "Down that hall are group rooms like a music room an art room and a TV room."'
"Nurses' station?" John questioned pointing at the closed in glass area in front of him.
Chris nodded, "Yup, if you have any questions people should be back there to help you."
"My room?"
"Of course," Chris led John back the way they came and stopped at room 215 and opened the door. "Here you go." He told the other man. "If you need extra blankets or pillows don't be afraid to ask. Also again somebody will be by with scrubs for you to wear at least until tomorrow."
"Okay," John said as he walked into the room and flopped onto the bed, sitting on the edge. He was so bone weary that he was sure he would fall right to sleep once he was allowed to.
It took about 20 minutes before a young female came to the door with a smile on her face. "Hi John…I'm Stephanie I've got some scrubs for you." She said holding up the green material. "I know they are not very attractive but right now safety comes first you know."
"Right." John said as he took the garments. It was then he thought of something. He had done a suicide prevention class for work and sighed, "Undergarment off too?"
Stephanie gave him a small nod, "I'll leave you to it. And then return for your clothes."
John quickly changed into his new attire and folded the clothes he came in wearing on the bed. He prayed Stephanie or somebody else would come back soon so he could get to sleep.
Sure enough only five minutes later Stephanie knocked on the door and when John acknowledged her she came into the room holding a few other items. "I brought you a toothbrush, toilet paper and soap for the bathroom sink."
"Thanks." John said as he took the odd thing of toilet paper that was missing the roll. 'What in the world could I do to hurt myself with a roll of cardboard?' he thought to himself and then chuckled out loud when he envisioned himself covered in paper cuts.
Stephanie gave him an odd look but didn't say anything as she took his belongings. "Have a good night John. Do try and sleep and if you are not able come to the nurses' station and somebody will get you something to help."
John nodded his head as he watched Stephanie go. Sighing he pulled back the slightly scratchy blankets and climbed into bed. Fluffing his pillow he lay down and tried to rest. Thankfully after only ten minutes he was out like a light.
Meanwhile down the hallway another man was tossing and turning in his bed unable to sleep. Something on the ward seemed off but he couldn't put his finger on it. Everything seemed quiet but something was wrong. Getting out of bed he pulled on some gripper socks and headed out the door. He walked to the main portion of the ward and found Stephanie folding towels at the table. He honestly had NO idea why the orderlies were doing a task such as this but he didn't say anything.
Stephanie turned and smiled, "Having trouble sleeping Sherlock?"
"Yes," Sherlock said as he looked around for what felt amiss. "Did something happen?"
"No…" Stephanie looked at the older man confused. "Everything has been calm tonight."
Sherlock flopped into one of the chairs and crossed his legs at the knee. "Something is different and I cannot figure out what it is." The detective in him had him looking at the situation as a case. When things got like this the orderlies got slightly nervous.
Stephanie stopped her folding to go sit next to Sherlock. "Sherlock everything is okay on the ward, we even got a new patient, it's been a while since that has happened. Maybe you can make a new friend."
Stephanie's words completely caught Sherlock's attention and he sat up quickly. "That's it! a new patient, that is what is wrong. He didn't focus on the mention of making a friend, he didn't have friends, not anymore"
"Why does that mean something is wrong?"
Sherlock shook his head, "Not wrong…but different."
"Maybe you can get to sleep now." Stephanie suggested. "I can get you a nurse to maybe get you some Trazadone or Melatonin if you need it."
"I'm fine." Sherlock said which Stephanie assumed he would say. It was impossible to get Sherlock to take his medications that were regularly prescribed let alone something 'as needed'
Stephanie nodded. "Okay well then back to bed with you. You can meet your new ward-mate in the morning."
Sherlock still looked a bit uneasy about the whole thing but ended up back in his bed in room 214, looking at the wall that was facing John's room. Yes something weird was definitely going on, Stephanie just did not know it.