chapter six: the elephant in the room

Jack looked like he needed a nap.

The mood of the café was dominating their silence. Other customers had already come and gone, leaving the drenched trio and one worried bartender to themselves. It was just about nine o'clock but Anna could relate to his tiredness. Green eyes stole a peek at the woman sitting at the table next to her, working her jaw as she watched her friend, brother, whatever get his face stabbed with antiseptic by the unwitting café worker.

Anna should have probably helped – she was a nurse after all – but she didn't have it in herself to offer assistance. Instead, she stared at Elizabeth like she had three heads intact and four more hidden.

"D'you want to go to the hospital?"

And that damned accent was making Anna's brain shrink into the abyss. She and the woman had been talking before everything went to shit and there wasn't even a hint of accent in her tone. That was until now when she sounded like she swallowed a ball or burnt her tongue in something hot.

Jack shook his head. "Let's just go home after this."

The blonde hummed, turning and catching Anna's eyes in one swift motion. "You okay? You're not hurt, are you?"

Anna must've been knocked out earlier and was now suffering from a concussion. Her confusion was making her dizzy, that was for sure, her mind was split between thinking about the repairs her car needed and the girl right next to her who could shame a grown man in punching.

"I'm… fine."

Staring at those blue eyes, Anna could pinpoint some difference she didn't see earlier. Elizabeth stood a little taller than before and her shoulders were drooping slightly lower than she did an hour ago. Her blues now, somehow, were stronger and bolder as she looked right back at her.

The cops had made a swift move collecting the thug-ass jerks and driving off without a hitch. And so, Anna was left with these two and a broken side door window. Still, she felt something in the air had shifted and it was making all of them drown in uncomfortableness.

One second she was looking at Elizabeth shake underneath the rain and the next she was punching a man unconscious. If Anna had a whiplash today, it would be because of the blonde.

"Are you okay?"

Elizabeth shrugged, giving her a lopsided smile. "Yep. Nothin' hurts."

"Right." Anna seriously needed to get checked because she felt like she was talking to a different person. Maybe she was suffering from Capgras Delusion.

Only Anna didn't know who was real or not.

"How did you know that it was, uhm, Miss Anna's car that was being smashed outside, Mr. Jack?"

Hmm. Anna was also interested to know. Jack thumbed through his nose, feeling the wound on it ache as he did so. Wincing, he sighed and gave the redhead a sad smile.

"I forgot my money in the car so I went back… and I kinda recognised Anna's car because, well, she's here and there was no other orange car in a ten-mile radius."

Crinkling her nose, Anna snorted. "And you ran back inside–"

"–while also takin' our drinks as you climbed up–"

"–without calling the cops first?" the one in the apron finished.

Jack seemed flabbergasted as the women overlapped each other's words but still managed to get the same thought out. He sputtered, cheeks growing red as he tried to explain himself, "Well, uh, I thought they knew you or something." Anna raised an eyebrow. "They weren't doing anything yet when I was outside! But once I was on my way up, I saw them hitting your window."

Anna sighed, nodding at him with a faint smile. "Yeah, I'm just... Thank you for telling me."

This day couldn't get any worse, could it? Anna tried to erase that thought from her mind. The last time she thought that was hours ago and she ended up drenched in a coffee shop with a man whose nose was bleeding and a girl with red knuckles.

"You could sue him for, like, damage to property," Jack suggested. "Maybe it could cover the expense of your window."

"That sounds like a good idea."

"Are you safe to go home? I mean, you heard what he said to you, they followed you here. What if he's got… a back-up plan or something as bad?" Anna wasn't actually scared of what Lukas said, but Jack looked legitimately worried. "Maybe you should call someone to stay with you."

That might be a good idea, but now that Lukas was arrested she didn't have to worry much. "I'll be fine. He's just an asshole who unknowingly got himself fired. It's not like I intended for it to happen."

Mich – the bartender's name as indicated in her tag– gave them a heads-up that she would be closing up soon as she packed the first aid up. Jack remembered their cold coffee upstairs and went ahead to get them and their few left behind belongings.

Elizabeth had been staring on the floor quite intensely. Anna was a little intimidated to catch her attention but it was given to her wordlessly as the blonde gave her a half-smile. Her fingers were brushing her hair softly, treading along damp strands. The black material of her cotton shirt was sticking to her skin. Anna knew exactly the uncomfortableness she was in.

"So… what's up?"

A lot, actually. Anna didn't know if she should take Elizabeth's question seriously. She gave a half-shrug, weirded out since that question shouldn't even be asked anymore. Elizabeth had been talking to her earlier, right? And she was there when Lukas and his boys were assaulting her car. "Umm… except for the obvious, nothing much."

"That's cool," Elizabeth commented, "You have work tomorrow?"

Ears sharp, she observed and scrutinised every word coming out of the woman's lips. Anna was looking for a hint that could give her an answer about the… mystery in front of her. Something was off. With Elizabeth.

Anna was sure about that.

For the almost three weeks that Anna spent FaceTiming Elizabeth, not once did her accent appear, but why now? And why at all?

She was being beyond nosy. Anna could just ask, but something in the way Elizabeth was watching her made Anna recognise the fact that she was being watched, too.

For a clue or a hint, Anna didn't know, but two were playing this game.

Anna smiled at her indolently, careful not to show her thoughts on her face. "Yeah, which sucks since I got hit by a wild case of bad luck today."

Elizabeth thought of her words for a while before nodding. "Happens to the best of us, sometimes."

"What about you? How's your day been?"

The gulp the blonde took must've hurt. She flinched as soon as she heard the question. "Uh… umm… as you know, it's… pretty alright."

Although not so smoothly, Elizabeth had evaded her question. Jack chose that moment to come back down. The tense air between them was alleviated in a whim.

"You gonna be drivin' home, Anna?" Elizabeth asked as Jack put her stained white coat around her shoulders.

Anna blew air out of her mouth and moved her head up and down, following suit as the blonde stood up. "Yeah. Here's to hoping I could still make it home with a broken window."

The two laughed at her. Waving their goodbye and thanks to Mich, Elizabeth and Jack made their move to leave. Mindlessly, Anna called Elizabeth, pointing to the stain on her coat. "You should get that to a dry-cleaner."

Elizabeth shook with silent chuckles. Glancing down at the stain, she thought, "I don't even know how this got here."

It didn't sound like a joke.

Anna achieved a face in which her eyebrows were stuck halfway up her forehead. Elizabeth's weirdness could be chalked up to awkwardness earlier but Anna saw the slip up. The widening of blue eyes and the abrupt sinking of her smile.

The realisation in the blonde's face as she figured that Anna saw, knew something – Anna didn't, of course – appeared to be important, as she saw Elizabeth's smile fading completely as Jack pulled her alongside him.

"Come on." Anna heard Jack whisper to the blonde as they exited the building, the girl looking back at Anna with a frown. "It's been a long night."

..

"Nurse Anna~"

Sounds were slowly filtering in Anna's mind as she tried to burrow her head deeper into her pillow. It was a bit cold in her room, which was weird since she always, always turned the heater on when she felt the cold creeping in, but this time, she shrugged it off, opting to return to the arms of sleep.

"Anna."

The cold was actually comforting, like waking up to rain on a school day. Anna wondered if she should stop wasting electricity and turn the heater off every-so-often. Her grip on her blanket tightened as she inched closer to her already forgotten dream.

"Laurent!"

But reality soon crashed down on the auburn-haired woman as a particularly loud push jolted her awake. Anna gasped, looking around in alarm before the unsmiling face of Mrs. Megara met her gaze.

Her environment hit her a second later. She was still in the locker room, her jacket crumpled in her fingertips as she blinked at the Head Nurse in front of her.

"M-Mrs. Megara," Anna started, wiping the sleep from her face and brushing her lips of the drool that might've graced it. "I-I'm sorry. I'm just trying to take a lunchtime nap and I… didn't realise the time."

"Appears so," the woman's lips curved upwards as she stood up and opened her own locker door. "It's already quarter to two, though, so you can forgive me for waking you up."

Wait, really?

Anna shot up immediately, startling her company as she tried her best to straighten her crumpled scrubs and look at the time on the wall. Indeed, it was 1:45, and Anna quickened her actions, an explanation on the tip of her tongue.

She was held up by Mrs. Megara's finger, however, and she shut up instantly.

"I heard what happened from Nurse Tiana," she said as she gave Anna an analytical glance. "Did that Lukas guy really smash your windows?"

Ugh. That girl sometimes didn't know when not to talk. Sending her a solemn nod, Anna squeaked, "Yep."

That was all Anna could say about the situation. Mrs. Megara seemed to understand more than she let on as she patted the younger woman on the shoulder. "Don't worry. Insurance should take care of that. From now on, keep a keen eye on your surroundings. You never know what might happen. You're lucky you were in a public place when the confrontation took place."

She was, indeed. Truthfully, Anna didn't know what she would have done if she went out to the streets, at eight in the evening, and saw those crackheads alone. She was active, and maybe a little strong, but she definitely wouldn't have been able to stand her ground against three men.

"Of course, Mrs. Megara," Anna uttered gratefully. "Thank you."

"The world's getting messier as the days pass. Sometimes the real whackos you encounter walk outside of here." The Head Nurse pulled a face. "And there's not much we could do about it." Nodding at her one last time, she turned to leave only to pause at the door, "And Nurse Anna."

She sighed, readying herself to get reprimanded for sleeping in the lockers during working hours. Instead, Mrs. Megara motioned to her clothes – still wrinkled – and said, "Gran Pabbie called for you. I think everybody would appreciate it if you fix yourself first."

In record time, Anna was able to do as told. She knocked on the Director's office and waited for an answer as she blinked away the drowsiness in her eyes.

"Come in."

Doctor Pablo, as always, was leaning back in his chair with a neutral look on his face. Anna quickly sauntered inside and waited expectantly for his instructions.

"You called for me?"

"Mhmm." With a lazy hand, he picked up the folder in his table and presented it to Anna. "How's your car?"

News travels fast, doesn't it?

Anna was actually impressed that Tiana had managed to tell almost everyone what happened within a two-hour window. "It's fine. The side-door window is broken, though."

Gran Pabbie's mouth formed an 'o'. "You should call your insurance about that."

And he said almost the exact same thing Mrs. Megara did. Sometimes, Anna couldn't help but think that their minds were connected in some way. Taking the proffered file, she gave him an inquisitive glance before opening it.

"What's this?"

"Patient records," was the simple answer. "And Nurse Anna." The redhead stopped reading the first word. "I know I don't need to remind you about confidentiality, but please, take more discretion than you usually would with our new patients."

A guilty smile popped out on her lips. "Of course, Doc."

The medical records in her hand were thin. Flipping the pages, Anna read about the first patient and picked out information that stood out most.

Iandore B. Lightfoot, male, sixteen, referred from a psychiatric hospital in Illinois. Problems consisted of: Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, Paranoia, possible Delusional Identification Syndrome (Fregoli Delusion variant)

Anna blinked, already overwhelmed by the list she saw. She stole a glance at the Director in front of her but he was busy tapping on his phone to care for her reaction. The nurse continued mutely.

The patient suffered a car accident resulting in Traumatic Brain Injury. Anna guessed it stemmed from that, or maybe a loved one died?

Refusing to overthink this early on, she flipped to the notes, noticing a few things here and there that indicated the severity of his disorders. It seemed that Anna wascorrect in both her initial assumptions. Lightfoot's older brother died in the incident which marked the first appearance of symptoms.

That was patient number one.

Turning the pages, Anna arrived at the second record, the file relatively shorter. This one was of an eighteen-year-old female named Merida DunBroch. She was under-treatment for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder two weeks ago and was halfway through a four-month therapy session with stable reactions when a relapse occurred.

Anna sighed. Well that wasn't as bad as I expected.

Doctor Pablo's eyes were on her when she finally looked up again. He seemed to be watching her for a while now, his phone dormant on top of the table. Anna closed the folder and returned it to him.

"Are they to be relocated here soon?"

"Mr. Lightfoot is set to arrive five days from now, and if everything goes according to plan, Ms. DunBroch will arrive tomorrow. Both will be admitted for residential care until further notice."

A look of bewilderment crossed Anna's face. "Even Ms. DunBroch?"

"Yes. Her previous doctor recommended it after her unexpectant relapse. It is not in the records, but he sent a letter alongside the files suggesting Factitious Disorder."

Anna pursed her lips but nodded still. "Alright. Do you have my new schedule already, Gran Pabbie?"

"Yes, yes," he replied with a jolly smile, most likely happy with her reaction – even if it was a little anticlimactic. "You can ask Nurse Megara for the copy if you want to, but I divided your week – which will be from Monday to Friday – between the two. You'll spend more time caring for Mr. Lightfoot since Ms. DunBroch will have frequent psychotherapy sessions with Mr. Naveen. Your off days are Sunday and Monday." He nodded at her once. "Ms. Patricia and Mr. Warren will assist your patients alongside you. I'll brief you later when our patients arrive."

Anna went out of the Director's office with tired legs and a steadily beating heart. Stretching, Anna prepared herself for the challenge she was going to face with a strong smile.

May the path to recovery be tough but passable. "And worth it," Anna added as she yawned, reorienting herself for her duties that day.

..

'are you busy?'

'if you have time let me know x'

Those two messages were sent three days ago.

She ought to feel upset. Was this what being ghosted felt like? Elizabeth's typical replies tended to arrive between two to five minutes after Anna had sent her text. Obviously, her three-day absence was a divergence that the redhead didn't expect.

Anna didn't know what to do with herself now. Overthinking things was easier to do than moving on so that's what she did, think about everything that could've driven the girl away.

Was it what happened at Myer's? It felt too long ago when it couldn't be but a week. She had actually exchanged a few texts with Elizabeth once she reached home and for the following days after but since Anna's last text message, nothing followed.

It had been three days. Anna felt homesick, or maybe even heartbroken, but everything seemed a little drearier without the short interactions she and the blonde had.

The worst part of this was they weren't really anything but friends. Their messages weren't romantic in the slightest, save for the few thrown about winky faces. Anna did think Elizabeth was beautiful, but they weren't really on their path to true love. It was just that the blonde had been part of her day-to-day activities and why the hell was she not replying and friends usually don't ghost their friends, either.

Dang.

Either way, Elizabeth was not replying and Anna was slowly losing her remaining wits staring at their conversation thread like a lost puppy.

And while she was thinking of the reasons why she was being ghosted, Anna was also thinking about their last meeting.

Talk about a total 180.

Elizabeth really did surprise her. It was unexpected and Anna was slightly suspicious of her friend's actions. Just remembering what happened still confused her but she was far less interested in the change that happened and more to why is she not replying?!

Stupid crush was making her feel like a teenager once again.

In an effort to try and brighten her own mood, Anna dialled Tiana's number but her call went straight to voicemail. Undeterred, she called Cassandra, but the girl's phone rang once and was rejected.

Anna was unfazed. Cass was known to hang calls up without caring what it was for when it was, like, in the middle of the night.

Which it was.

Her phone was thrown to the other side of bed, bouncing once and landing with a buzz. Anna quickly turned and picked it up, somehow hoping for someone to be calling her, but when her mom's number popped up, she couldn't think of anything else as she answered it frantically.

"Mom?"

It was unusual for her mother to call at such a time and she was more than a little alarmed. A steady breath left her lungs when she heard the voice on the other side, now making sense for a bit.

"Anna, honey, how are you?" her father asked cheerfully.

Anna beamed at his greeting, chuckling as she answered, "I'm fine, dad. How about you? Everything going well?"

"If I'm going to be honest, everything seems a little tough, but we're going to be fine."

"That's the spirit!" she cheered, hugging a pillow to her chest. "Are you able to sleep well? Isn't it a little too late to be awake at this hour."

Her father gave a hearty holler. "Anna, I'm old. I get little sleep either way."

"But still… are your meds treating you better?"

"They are! But there's so much they want me to do. I just do it so I can go back to you and your mom as quick as possible before dinner."

Her father's wording was a bit odd. Anna took a deep breath and sighed. "That's… that's good, dad."

"How about you? What have you been doing these days?"

"I'm doing great," Anna replied, although less loudly. "Uhm, I get to do Private Duty with the Director's patients and… and I think it's a wonderful job. A bit hard, but I can handle it."

Her father chuckled at her, the kind that expressed comical relief instead of acknowledgement. "That's great. Are you with your best friend?"

"Umm… who?"

Her mother must've told him something she said earlier but Anna had no clue about who it could be. Maybe it was Tiana or Cassandra. She had no hunch. The redhead was talkative, she said a lot of names of friends to her mom and identifying them would be looking for a needle in a haystack, not an elephant in the room.

"The blonde girl!"

Anna furrowed her eyebrows. She couldn't remember telling anyone about Elizabeth, not even Tia and Cass. How did her father knew ab–

"Don't tell me you fought with her again." He clicked his tongue. "You know Elsa might be nice but one day, she's going to be mad at you if you continue ignoring her like that."

It was like being splashed with a glass of ice water. Anna's mouth plopped open and closed almost immediately, forcing a soft laugh out of her. "Oh…"

"Yes, oh. I asked her the other day if it was already harvest season but she said it wouldn't be for a while! That girl is so smart, really. And she's so nice to you. If I could, I would've adopted her so you could have an older sibling."

"Dad…"

"I want to do that for real, actually. Do you think your mother will agree to my decision?"

"Uhm, dad…"

Her father continued rapidly, "Well, I don't think so. I don't think the girl would agree, either, but Anna, can you please play with her again so she could at least feel happy even for a while?"

Tears were hanging on the corners of her eyes as Anna nodded, sniffing through the sadness that enveloped her. She wasn't sure if it was for her father who was lost in the time or the blonde girl stuck in his memories – in both of their memories. "Sure, dad."

"That's wonderful! You know I don't really like her dad. He smells like trouble. And don't think that we don't know what's happening! But even with everything he's been doing, his girl loves him so much. Tsk, tsk. Some people shouldn't have kids."

Earlier, Anna felt energetic. She missed her father, but, like her mother said, he wasn't doing great. Anna wanted to be by his side, but she knew it would only be a little while before deteriorates further.

Anna couldn't take it seeing her father like that.

Her mother must've known, thus her insistence in taking care of him alone.

"T-That's right, dad. He… shouldn't have done those things."

Guilt was nibbling at her chest as their conversation fell into a stop. What was it about Anna that could help strangers but not the people that she loved?

Nights weren't good for introspection. Knowing the tunnel that she'd be getting herself into, Anna forced herself to halt. No. It was not her fault. Elsa's situation and her dad's were out of her control. She couldn't very well turn back time.

"I don't know when I can go home, Anna. I'm sorry about that. Just sit tight and wait for me there, okay?"

Anna nodded. "Don't worry, dad. I'll see you again soon."

not much going on this chapter... maybe the next one will be a lil more entertaining ;D thanks to SheAlwaysDies for being the perfect editor uwu and thanks to everyone who's reading and commenting! keep safe and warm xx