I woke up the next morning feeling considerably better than the day before; I figured it had to do with the blood they had given me. I moved just a little when I felt a hand abruptly jerk out of mine. I glanced over to the chair; seeing Dean doing his best impression of someone who had been wide awake that whole night. I smiled at him. "Sorry; I didn't mean to wake you." I said to him.
"I was awake; just resting my eyes for a bit. How are you feeling Princess? I heard you and your parents made up." He rested his arm on the bed rail; looking me over.
"I feel like I have more energy and I'm not as tired today. Yes, we did. Turns out the three of us just really suck at communicating with each other. They thought they were giving me my freedom and I thought they didn't care. Where is everyone?" I asked while running my fingers over his hand.
"They headed to a hotel late last night after your mom and dad came back to the waiting room. They knew how tired you were." He grinned watching my fingers on the top of his hand. "I told you I wasn't leaving this place until you did and then we were leaving together. I imagine they will be here soon. This wasn't exactly how I pictured your parents finding out about us." He gave me a sly grin.
"Oh? Were you picturing me coming back down to the ring and kissing you again?" I chuckled. "We talked about that last night. My father said you kind of reminded him of himself when he was first seeing my mother. He couldn't believe he had never thought of going through the adjoining door into the next room." I smiled.
"So wait; how did he get out of the room when Vince went looking for him, I don't picture him tiptoeing along the ledge outside the window." He asked.
"He never left the room. Hid under the bed and prayed grandpa wouldn't think to look there." I said and started laughing. The laughter was contagious; because Dean joined in a second later. The mental picture of father (who is a good sized, muscular man) hiding under the bed anywhere was hilarious.
"Well that is a promising sound." I heard my grandpa's voice say as he and my grandma Linda looked around the curtain. They both came over and hugged me; my grandpa extended a hand to Dean and shook his. "I take the laughter to mean my girl is feeling better?"
"Yes, Grandpa Vince; much better today, I'm sorry I worried everyone so much." I looked at my grandparents.
"I think that things happen for a reason; you scared us all and we were worried about losing you, but it was the shake up the family needed to fix relationships. That being said; don't ever scare us like that again young lady! Sometimes we need to be reminded that our parents are human and make mistakes; I made a mistake when your father was seeing your mother. If they hadn't snuck around; we might not have had you. I thought I was being a good father; making sure she would have someone to take care of her. Your mother and father made a few mistakes; but boy did I recognize the mistake they made when it came to you and Dean here. The good news is that everyone is talking to each other now. I have come up with a solution to the physical therapist debate." My grandfather said. I was about to speak up and debate with him, but he cut me off. "Just hear me out; I think you'll like this idea. I say go to school; get your degree in physical therapy and get licensed. Once that happens; you'd have to find a place to work, why don't you just work for the WWE? We have a hard time with keeping good medical staff; mostly due to the hectic travel schedule involved. I would think you and Dean are going to talk about what happens when you go to college; because I have a sneaking suspicion that you two will still be together, it would work out really well. You'd be on the road with him; you'd still get to do your physical therapy and we would be thrilled to not have to hire a new one every 3 months. What do you think about that?" He gave me his patented 'Have I Got a Deal for You' grin.
"I would have to find a job anyway; if he and I were still together, it would be better than being somewhere else while he traveled and mom and dad would still get to have me working for the company." I grinned at Dean.
"What's all this 'If we're still together' business Princess?" Dean playfully glared at me.
"Well, you know; I'll be going to school. I might meet some young stud; you are getting older and…" Dean kissed me hard. I figured he kissed me to shut me up. I chuckled.
"Princess, there isn't a young stud out there that will be crazy enough to fool around with you; your father just barely gave me an 'OK'. I mean do you really think he wants to start over with some new guy? Besides; I'll be visiting you whenever I can, once they see me there is no way they're coming anywhere near you." He grinned. "You might as well accept that you aren't getting rid of me."
"Well I suppose I could try and accept that." I tried to sound annoyed; though I wasn't very convincing; honestly I was happy that he had solved the mystery of what would happen when I went off to school. I hadn't wanted to bring up the conversation myself and have things get uncomfortable. It was a few minutes later when I said goodbye to my grandparents; Dean and I had a few minutes alone before there was a knock on the door and a man in a white coat entered.
"Ms. McMahon, I'm Dr. Reynolds; I'm the psychiatrist on call today. I was hoping we could talk for a little while." The man came over and shook my hand; he seemed really nice for a 'shrink'. He looked over at Dean and introduced himself shaking Dean's hand. "It's nice to meet you Dean; I understand you've been here since Ms. McMahon was brought in on the ambulance. Maybe you could get some breakfast or coffee while I talk with Ms. McMahon?" He suggested.
"Dr. Reynolds, no disrespect but I'm not going anywhere. I'm staying right here." Dean announced making sure he made himself perfectly clear. I could tell Dr. Reynolds wasn't used to hearing things like that and I certainly realized that he was just trying to get me some privacy so we could discuss why I had ended up here in the hospital.
"Dr. Reynolds, I know that you are concerned with confidentiality and my privacy and I appreciate that. I'm ok if Dean wants to stay; I would just tell him what we talked about once we were done. I guess this just saves a step. If you need me to sign something saying that I'm ok with him staying in order to keep you from being in trouble; I am happy to do that." I responded.
"If you are alright with him staying; I don't have an issue with it, I just want to make sure that you feel comfortable speaking openly in front of him." Dr. Reynolds said. I assured him again that I was ok talking to him in front of Dean. "Alright; let's talk about the cutting; can you remember how long you've been doing it?"
"I started cutting when I was in Junior High School; maybe the last year before I went into high school? A girl I knew was doing it and told me about it. I'm not sure how long it was after she told me that I tried it myself. I was nervous the first time because I was afraid I'd cut too deep." I answered his question. He nodded and wrote down notes as I talked.
"May I call you Aurora? I did have a chance to speak to your parents; let me be clear, I wasn't speaking to them about you per se. I wanted to speak to them about their relationship and get an idea about your family dynamics. From what they told me it's been a rather stressful relationship between your parents and yourself, until last night. I wanted to get your prospective about the relationship. Do you think the issues with your parents led to your depression and anxiety?" Dr. Reynolds asked.
"Aurora is fine, Dr. Reynolds. The relationship between my parents and I was very stressful; I spent a large amount of my pre-teen and teenage years thinking that my parents didn't like me, much less love me. As a result I made some really bad choices about who I became friends with and what I did with those friends. Basically; the people I refer to as friends are people who were only interested in the things I could get them and do for them. I have a wealthy family; I was involved in underage drinking and a whole list of drugs. They liked me because I could afford to buy that kind of things. I held big parties and thought that I had a large group of friends." I said.
"So you said you had been doing drugs and drinking; that sounds past tense, what made you stop doing those things?" Dr. Reynolds asked.
"I did have at least one friend; yes she liked to party with me and the others, but she was a good friend and was around to talk to even if I didn't feel like partying or getting any drugs. Stacey was the one person I talked to a lot; I think I told her about everything I felt and was going through. We were partying one night; I had done a line of coke, but stopped after that. Stacey did the line of coke and then took some pills that someone else there said was ecstasy; the guy had no idea what he was talking about, the pills turned out to be a prescription medication for high blood pressure. Stacey's blood pressure dropped and she started vomiting and went into a seizure. The next thing I knew I was holding her in my arms while she took her last breath. I watched the person I considered to be my only true friend die because she was doing drugs. I was devastated after that; I gave up doing it that night. I do on occasions still smoke pot; but it's not often and it's only rare." I said.
"Aurora, do you think the stress of your relationship with your parents led to your depression and anxiety issues? Dr. Reynolds re-asked, since I had avoided answering it the last time he had brought it up.
"Dr. Reynolds, I'm sure it contributed to my depression and anxiety; but I don't blame my parents entirely for my issues. As I said; I watched my closest friend die, that could have been me who died. I certainly wasn't careful about what and how much I was taking. I was close to both sets of my grandparents; unfortunately it was sometimes difficult to have an opportunity to see them. I just didn't have much hope or much to be happy about. Everything was always a fight or an argument. That's why I was depressed and anxious. I know the question you're about to ask me; last night I wasn't intending to commit suicide. I don't believe in suicide; there are so many less painful things to do without hurting your family like that. I admit an incident happened that set off my anxiety and depression and I really felt the need to cut. I screwed up and took two klonopin when I should have only taken the one and I cut too deep. Suicide was the last thing on my mind last night." I said to him.
"Aurora; I honestly believe you are right about that, in the time we've been talking it seems to me that you have had a lot of things happen to you. You also seem to have a very good head on your shoulders. I do believe that you could benefit from an increase on your anti-depressant and I will make sure that you get that. I think it would probably benefit you to see a counselor on a regular basis; not because I think you have major issues, but because a counselor can give you coping skills and ideas on how to better deal with stressors like the one last night. Other than those recommendations; I see no reason, as long as your medical doctor agrees, that you couldn't go home later today. I don't consider you to be harm to yourself or others; you have a very clear understanding of the fact that you could have died last night and also that you dealt with things in a harmful way. If you failed to recognize or care about those things; I would suggest a longer stay to stabilize your mental state. I will go and meet with your medical doctor and we'll discuss letting you leave." Dr. Reynolds said. He put his hand on her shoulder; which I could tell bothered Dean slightly. "You have a very long life; and from what I understand a lot of good things starting to take place that you don't want to miss out on. Just remember those positive things; focus on them, make those more important than the negative things and remember that there are people who can help you when you find that hard to do, ok?"
"Ok. Thank you Dr. Reynolds; I really appreciate the chance to talk to you. I don't ever want to be in the spot I was last night." I smiled and shook his hand. Dr. Reynolds left the room and I looked over at Dean. "Well sounds like I might get out of here today." Dean took my hand.
"Yeah, I heard that; but I think you forgot something." Dean replied to me.
"Oh? What did I forget?" I looked back at him; knowing exactly what he was talking about.
"I think you meant you were leaving here with me today. I meant what I said last night; you are traveling with me, staying with me. I'm going to be the one taking care of you and no one is going to say otherwise. Got it Princess?" I looked at him and smiled.
"I got it. No arguments from me; I just want to be in a normal bed, without all of these wires and tubes hooked up to me. Of course, I wouldn't mind having someone lying in that normal bed next to me either." I grinned at him and then we sat and waited to hear from the doctors.