Dr. Patrick Evans had been working at Fairfax Hospital for years; he'd seen many patients all dealing with a variety of problems. It had been his goal in life to help all these people to become the person they used to be and go back to living a normal life in society. He had been mostly successful over these years. Sometimes, someone would come back from a breakdown or felt they would breakdown; but all of his patients had made an effort to become better. Up until recently, he never had a patient who didn't even make the slightest effort.
When she first came here, Evans gave her the benefit of the doubt; she'd been kidnapped for about 8 months by a madman obsessed with her and a series of young adult books. He held her against her will only a few hours from her home; tortured her physically and mentally. Her thoughts had been twisted and confused when she was finally rescued; her body had been tortured and scarred. She had multiple crescent shaped scars all over her and her left leg was bent out of shape from being previously broken and improperly treated; along with another variety of injuries.
That was stuff he had read of her charts from the hospital before she had been sent here. She was held in ICU for a few days and held at the hospital for a few weeks. The doctors had tried their best to heal her physically before deciding that she wasn't mentally stable; she didn't eat, she didn't speak, according to her family and friends, everything about her appeared empty. Evans just assumed she just went through the trauma of being kidnapped and tortured, all she needed was to be helped out of the shell she surely used for protection. He needed to get her out of that shell and able to talk so she could help to prosecute the man who did this to her. The prosecution attorneys on the case were asking him to get her talking as soon as possible so they could start there prosecution. Evans assumed that getting her ready to talk wouldn't be that hard; he could tell he was wrong after his first few times meeting with her.
The first time Evans met Emily Sanders he could see why someone would become obsessed with her. Generally she was a very pretty girl; long brown hair, large brown eyes layered with dark, thick lashes, very petite features and figure. She was a pale girl, from pictures her family had shown him, it was a natural pale, though she didn't have the natural pink tone the pictures held; loss of natural sun would have caused that. Though, in his first time meeting her, Evans could see the emptiness of everything; her eyes were blank, she used no facial expression, her body was stiff. He felt like he was looking at a statue.
His first few days with her were spent getting her to eat; it would be easier to open her if she was eating through her mouth rather than the tubes the hospitals used or having orderly's force some food into her. After those few days, he did succeed in getting her to eat small portions of food, though it wasn't the preferred amount of food, it was better than nothing.
The weeks after that were the hardest though. At first he spent hours analyzing her; watching her lay curled up in her bed and stare blankly at the wall. Sometimes he would sit in her room and just talk to her, hoping for some type of reaction out of her. After weeks of no progress, he started having a nurse bring her to his office; he hoped maybe the change of scenery would be nice for her. At first she would just curl up in the chair and stare out the window. He could never tell if she ever listened to anything he ever told her. Though after awhile, she started sitting up straight, she still stared; though not as blankly. Starting soon after her change in position, he started to see her begin looking at him randomly as he would talk. After weeks of trying, he could see her opening more.
It was only two days ago that for the first time she stared directly at him; no longer a blank stare, he could tell she was processing most of what he said. She was moving her body more; switching which legs she crossed, fidgeting with her hands, and twirling her hair between her fingers. He had yet to get her to speak, but since she was now more at ease, he needed to get on getting her talking. She had been here for over two months; he was running out of time. So it was today in meeting with her that Evans was going to make the decision to bring up everything that happened. It was nerve-racking to him, he did feel bad for whatever happened to her, and he knew that he was moving rather quickly to bring it up. But a statement from her was needed.
The first few minutes before Emily was brought to his office, Evans began shaking his foot nervously, fixing the already neat piles of files on his desk. He then took a deep breath, leaned back and pulled his hands through his salt and pepper hair. He stayed like this till he heard the gentle knock on the door then quickly reached for his glasses and put them on as Emily slowly walked through the door. He smiled as she took the seat across from his desk; she looked better now than she did when she first came here. Her long hair was brushed and sat softly behind her shoulders, her cheeks held a healthy pink blush that matched the color of her lips. It made Evans smile slightly how much better she did appear, it surely did make today a bit easier for him.
He knew he had to get to business, but he didn't want to startle her, so he started off today like he did every other day.
"Hello Emily, it's nice to see you again. I do hope your day has been very good, I heard that the cafeteria was serving pudding today. I do enjoy the days they serve pudding, very delicious."
A small nod from Emily, she always nodded at his greetings.
"Remember how I told you my daughters had a recital last weekend? We just got the pictures developed. I thought I'd show you how cute they looked."
Evans pulled a small stack of photos from his desk and handed them to Emily. She gently took them and began flipping through the pile slowly, obviously looking at the detail of each photo like she normally did. One of the first times she truly started to open up, Emily had looked carefully over the pictures on his desk; she had even handed him the collage frame he had of his daughters, a questioning look on her face. He told her all about his four daughters. Every day after she would point to the frame and he would tell her how they were doing.
It became a ritual. Soon following he would just tell her about his days, she would nod in response, and sometimes smile. Today was a smile day; as she handed him back the photos she smiled then leaned back in her seat, folding her hands on her lap.
Evans wanted to tell her more about his daughters and about his day as usual, but he knew he couldn't. He leaned back in his chair, cleared his throat then said, "Today Emily, I was hoping we could try something different. We've been talking for awhile, well I've been talking, but I was hoping that today you would maybe talk. I was actually hoping we could talk about what happened over the months you spent away and maybe if you remember anything leading into it. If it's too hard to talk about it today, we can take it slow; I just need you to work with me. Please Emily."
The blank stare that came over Emily's features wasn't unexpected; he knew she would defiantly start to pull back. But the deep sigh and her leaning forward was a surprise. What was more surprising were her moving her lips slightly, then sighing again before mumbling in a shaky voice, "I…I…I think it started….about two months before….before everything…"