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Scarlet's POV:

Green eyes

I glare at my feet impatiently. I've been sitting in a plastic chair in this plain white waiting room for twenty minutes now with the person I hate most in the world sitting in the chair next to me: my dad.

Right now, he's just scrolling through his phone, looking bored. I'd be doing the same if he hadn't taken my phone away from me. He said it was so I wouldn't become a social media zombie (which made me laugh. The man has, like, ten social media platforms!) but I know it's so I won't try to contact Grandmère.

I don't get why he's so determined to look after me all of a sudden. All of my life, he's all but ignored my existence, especially after Mum left us. I got so fed up with it that I eventually ran away to live with Grandmère on her farm. I was seven at the time.

I stayed there for a decade, a wonderful, blissful decade, before dear old Dad decided that he did want custody of me after all. And not only did he take me away from the only family who actually wanted me, he dragged me to an entirely new country for some job he's probably going to lose within a year! Plus, we both have to see a therapist for parent-child counselling since our relationship is basically non-existent and is too full of problems for a normal support group to handle. On the upside, Dad has to suffer through these things with me and pay for them. Hey, any inconvenience to him is something to be happy about for me.

When I got home from school this afternoon, I half-expected Dad to ask me about my day. Grandmère always asked and I guess I just hoped for one similarity between her and her son. It was a stupid hope.

It's not like anything noteworthy happened anyway. I glared at boys who checked me out, stuck my tongue out at the popular girls who turned their noses up at me, fought to keep my eyes open in science class, and met a guy with a horribly inappropriate (and kinda dumb) nickname: Wolf.

Seriously, the guy is as far from a wolf as you can get! He's not aggressive, not rebellious, not arrogant or cocky. In fact, he doesn't seem to be much of anything. Just an empty husk of a boy. Which was weird since his appearance held plenty of character.

His brown hair stuck up at all angles and he had several scars on his face and neck, and probably more on his arms too. He was one of the tallest guys I'd ever seen, even taller than my dad, and about three times as muscular. But the most striking thing about him were his eyes. They were like the sour grapes Grandmère used to grow, or ivy leaves. Life and energy seemed to shine out of their depths. A life and energy I quickly found didn't actually exist. His expression was stone, his tone empty. His movements held no urgency or reluctance. The closest I got to seeing emotion on him was when his mouth twitched after I read Juliet's lines in his blank voice and when he clenched his fists immediately after. He was like a walking, talking statue.

"Luc and Scarlet Benoit!"

I glance up at the lady sitting at the reception desk. She gestures at the corridor which, I assume, leads to the therapy offices.

"Dr Erland will see you now. He's in room 3B."

Dad reluctantly puts away his phone and walks down the corridor. I glare at his retreating back and contemplate just staying in the waiting room. Figuring the lady at reception would just tell me to get going, I stand and follow my dad.

Dr Erland turns out to be a short old man with grey hair and blue eyes. He regards my dad and I from his small chair next to the big sofa we're sitting on. He's holding a notepad and pen, probably for taking notes on how abysmal our relationship is. He pushes up his glasses and sighs.

"Sir," He begins, speaking to my dad, "given that you are in a therapy session and I'll be needing your full attention, I must ask you to put away your phone."

Dad grumbles under his breath but slips the phone into his pocket. Dr Erland nods at him in appreciation and clears his throat.

"Let's begin. Miss… Scarlet, yes? How long have you been living with your father?"

"I lived with him until I was seven, then I ran away to live with my grandmother. He left me alone for a decade then, about a month ago decided the he did want me after all and dragged me to the Commonwealth."

Dr Erland raised his eyebrows. "You ran away that young? Interesting. May I ask what prompted the action?"

I snort and glare at Dad, "He didn't care about me one bit. Every night he'd come home at midnight at best stinking of alcohol. He was always bringing home his "lady friends", he forgot my birthday nearly every year and half the time I had to buy my own clothes when my old one's got too small because he didn't want to spend money on his own daughter."

Dad scowls at me. "You weren't exactly Little Miss Perfect either young lady. Who's the one who was always throwing over-the-top tantrums and breaking things?"

"It was the only way to get you to notice I exist you worthless drunkard!"

"Leave off the insults please," says Dr Erland as he scribbles something on his notepad, "it will do nothing to help develop your relationship."

"If Dad wanted a healthy relationship, he wouldn't pass out on the couch every night with a bottle of cognac." I mutter darkly.

The doctor ignores me.

"Luc, how did you feel when Scarlet ran away? Were you worried? Angry? Guilty?"

"I was irritated." Dad answers, "Her grandmother wanted me to pick her up right away during work hours."

"And did you?"

Dad rolls his eyes. "Of course not! I'd just gotten a new job, no way was I going to risk losing it for some ungrateful brat!"

"Oh, did I have something I should have been grateful for?" I snap at him furiously. "Please, enlighten me."

Dr Erland scribbles something else down and shakes his head. "We've got a long way to go."

He pushes up his glasses and flashes us an unexpected smile. "On the upside, I might finally beat Dr Pine for the award for "Most Uncooperative Patient"! He's been getting that honour for nearly a decade!"

I raise an eyebrow at him. "Is that seriously a real award?"

"No, it just means we have the right to whine about it to the other therapists."

"How much longer am I going to be stuck here?" Dad whines like a small child. Then again, he has the brain of a small child, so I guess that makes sense.

Dr Erland shoots him a disappointed look. "Luc, you've only been here for ten minutes."

"I've got plans for this evening!"

I can't help the snort of laughter that follows Dad's statement. "Yeah, right. You going to down a bottle of whiskey instead of cognac this time?"

Dad points a furious finger at me. "You ought to watch your tone young lady! In case you've forgotten, I'm the one paying for everything you have here! Your education, your food and water, your room, everything!"

"Well if I'm such a drain on your bank account, why did you take me away from Grandmère?" I scream back, shooting to my feet. I'm fed up. With this stupid therapy session, with Dad acting like I should be grateful, with this stupid new country, all of it! I'm sick of this!

I glare at my Dad, staring up at me with his nose wrinkled in disgust. I snap.

I draw back my hand and slap him across the face, good and hard. As he stares at me, shock written all over his face, I snarl, "I wish you weren't my father."

"SCARLET!"

I blink at Dr Erland in shock. I'd completely forgotten he was here. And he looks furious.

"I understand that you have "daddy issues" but can you please refrain from saying things like that?" he hisses at me through his teeth. "The walls of this hospital aren't exactly thick and there is another patient in here most days who doesn't have parents to begin with! So if you don't mind, stop saying things like "I wish you weren't my father", okay?"

I nod, defeated, and sit back down.

A pit of guilt settles in my stomach. I hadn't meant to be… insensitive, or anything. How was I to know that there was an orphan here? Still, if they heard me… they've probably spent their whole lives wishing for a family, and here I am, discarding one of the few family members I have left. True, Dad's hardly a good family member, but I guess that he's better than nothing.

Dr Erland sighs and rubs his temples, frowning at his notepad. The air feels tense after my outburst, and I shift uncomfortably in my seat.

Okay, that's it. I can't stand this.

"So…" I begin awkwardly, trying to break the silence. "what is it about Dr Pine's patient that means he gets whining rights?"

It might be my imagination, but I swear that Dr Erland shoots me a grateful look.

"He's completely unresponsive to any stimulus Dr Pine tries on him. Just sits there, like a statue, and almost a quiet. He always answers questions in the shortest way possible and never starts a conversation. He never laughs, never cries, never screams or shouts, it's like he doesn't even exist."

Dr Erland jerks his thumb at the back wall. "He's having a session now, actually, just next door."

"How old is this guy?" Dad suddenly speaks up.

"Oh, about nineteen or so." Dr Erland replies with a shrug.

"I'm jealous of his parents." Dad grumbles, glaring at the wall where the kid, supposedly, is having a therapy session. "What I wouldn't give for Scarlet to be quiet, obedient, and unresponsive."

I snarl and raise my hand, fully intending to hit him again, when loud, screeching music suddenly blasts into the room.

Instinctively, I clap my hands over my ears. What the heck was that?

Dr Erland looks just as rattled as I am, but his surprised expression quickly gives way to annoyance. He puts down his notepad and gets up from his chair, heading for the door. Curious, I follow him out.

He bangs forcefully on the door next to ours, where Dr Pine's patient is. A tall middle-aged man answers it, wearing a pair of noise-cancelling headphones.

"Afternoon Dmitri!" He yells over the noise, "What brings you here?"

"What do you think?" Dr Erland shouts back.

"I know that it's a bit loud, but that's the most jarring way of playing heavy metal! I was hoping it'd shock a reaction out of the boy."

I'm guessing "the boy" is his patient.

"And did it?" Dr Erland screams at Dr Pine.

"Well… he stuck his fingers in his ears."

"That's not a reaction, that's just trying to avoid becoming prematurely deaf!"

While the doctors argue, I stand on tiptoe, trying to get a look at this mystery patient.

I eventually catch a glimpse of a bulky frame and a head of messy brown hair. Sure enough, his fingers are set firmly in his ears.

I lose my balance and grunt as I stumble back onto the soles of my feet. Scowling with frustration, I stand on my toes again. This time, the boy is looking in my direction. And his eyes are unbelievably bright green. Wolf.

My own eyes widen with shock at the sight of him, here, at a hospital. I fall back onto the soles of my feet but make no attempt to get back onto my tiptoes again. Why should I? I know who he is now. Come to think of it, Wolf should have come to mind pretty much immediately. Completely unresponsive? Gives the shortest answer possible? That pretty much fit Wolf to a tee.

"If all you're going to do is play dumb music to try and improve my relationship with my ungrateful daughter, then this is a waste of time and money."

I roll my eyes. Great, Dad's joined the party.

Dr Erland glares at him, clearly not at all pleased with the intrusion. "That's just Dr Pine's methods to try and treat an entirely different case. I assure you, we'll be mostly doing things like trust exercises and the like."

Dad raises an eyebrow. "And that stuff's better how?"

"Can I go now?"

I almost don't hear the question over the music, since the speaker hadn't bothered with shouting like the rest of us.

I glance up and see Wolf, standing a good half-head taller than his therapist, with a backpack slung over one shoulder and fingers still in his ears. Not that I can blame him. This music is officially the worst I've ever heard.

Dr Pine waves a hand dismissively. "Yes, yes, you can go. Try watching some cartoons when you get back, see if they'll incite a chuckle or two."

Wolf glances away, looking doubtful.

"Wait, he gets to leave early?" Dad cries with outrage. "I thought he was the worst case in this whole hospital or something!"

Dr Pine just shrugs. "Well, his session is scheduled to end in only about twenty minutes anyway so it's not that much of a loss."

Dad looks ready to explode. I smirk at his obvious irritation. This is turning out to be way more fun than I thought.

Wolf tries to move past us, but Dad, being the jerk he is, sticks out one leg.

Wolf stumbles over it with a short grunt of surprise and gives Dad a look. It isn't an irritated or angry look, not really. More of a, "Seriously?" look. I know that look well. I give it to my dad all the time.

"Now you listen here," Dad growls up at Wolf, "you're not leaving this stupid hospital until your session is over. If I can't leave early, then why should you get the privilege?"

At first, Wolf offers no reaction. Then he scowls. His nose wrinkles and he turns away, covering it with one hand.

He shoots my dad a mildly disgusted look. "Dang, when was the last time you had a shower? You smell like pickled eggs!"

I don't see Dad's reaction to this statement. I'm too busy laughing my head off. It's true, Dad does smell something awful, but usually only I or Grandmère tell him that. And hearing it coming from Wolf of all people? It's just too good!

Dr Pine snaps his fingers as an idea strikes him. "Hey, you actually commented on that! Next session, I'll be bringing rotten eggs, garlic and blue cheese for you to smell, seeing as smells seem to initiate a response."

I snort and giggle even harder at this and give Wolf a sympathetic pat on the arm.

"Oh man, I feel so sorry for you!" I chuckle.

Wolf tilts his head and studies me with those strange green eyes. It's only when he hesitantly says, "Thanks?" that I realise I've just confused him.

It's kinda cute.

A/N: Scarlet = funnest character to write EVER!

So, here we've got some insight into Scarlet's backstory as well as a look at her relationship with her dad (who was also very fun to write). Also, Dr Erland's in this story! And let me tell you now, he's not going to play a minor part ;) . Why did Scarlet's dad bring her into his custody when he obviously doesn't care about her? Will Scarlet continue to think of Wolf as a strange, empty person? More importantly, who will narrate the next chapter? Please review!