Beyond the Garden Wall: Chpt. 3 by Child of the Faeries
I'm soooo sorry this took so long to finish...I just want to take the time to thank everyone that has read this story and reviewed...You guys are the greatest!!! And there will be a fourth part to this ( I can't end it like this!!! Oy...I'm such a hopeless romantic...) but I can't make any promises as to when I'll get around to writing it.... N-E-WAYS....
Matt felt his heart grind to a sickening stop. His face mirrored pain as he turned away from everyone, brushing his golden hair from in front of his eyes. Turning back, he caught Mimi's eye and tried to give her a smile that never quite stretched out of a frown.
"Mr. Izumi, I don't think that you really have any justisdic-"
"I don't want to hear it, Doctor," Izzy said coldly. His eyes flashed with bitter anger. "Can I speak to her alone?"
Matt hesitated, and Mimi leapt to her feet. "Izzy, don't do this," she begged, but he ignored her. Joe's fist rapped against the top of the desk, and Matt opened his mouth to speak, but no words would come out.
"I'm looking out for her well-being," Izzy said crisply. "She has no one else in the world to look after her except me." His eyes swept over the hospital with a critical eye. "She doesn't need to stay here anymore."
"I think-"
"I don't care what you think," Izzy countered. "I want you to act."
Matt felt Mimi's cold hands encircle his arm, and he turned to see her panic-filled eyes. She pulled herself close to him, her bandages pressing against his skin, a tremor running through her body. "Don't let him do this," she whispered brokenly.
"Mr. Izumi, I beg you to reconsider," Matt said, his voice regulated to hide his emotions. He didn't want Mimi to get hurt, and in his heart, he knew that he needed her. "She is making so much progress here with me-"
"I'll bet," Izzy said, almost a sneer in his voice. "What exactly have you been doing with her, Doctor?"
Matt felt all color drain from his face, and his lips trembled as he fought to maintain control. "Are you questioning my integrity, Mr. Izumi?"
Izzy paused, his eyes drawn cynically to where Mimi's hand clasped Matt's arm. "Maybe I am."
Izzy sat on the other side of her room, his face grave. " Mimi-"
Her head rose, displaying her fiery cinnamon eyes. "Don't talk to me."
"You need to understand-" he said, then broke off. "Never mind." He turned away, rubbing his hair nervously. "No, you need to hear this."
"You're too good for this hospital and that second-rate doctor," he continued. "I'm only pulling you out of here because I care about you."
Silence reigned, and far away the shouts of the other patients echoed off the walls. Mimi turned her head, looking outside. "Do you really want to stay here?" Izzy asked softly, his eyes staring intensely at her.
Her hands gave a slight tremble. "Yes....no....." She clenched her fists angrily. "I knew exactly what I wanted until you came."
"What did you want? I'll do anything to help you," Izzy replied earnestly. She stood up and towered over him.
"Anything?"
His eyes were filled with solemn seriousness. "Anything."
"Then stay out of my life!" she screeched, thrusting her bandaged wrists at him. "Did you stop me from doing this? Did you come to me when my parents are brutally murdered before my very eyes? Did you see me when I was so lost, I didn't know my name or where I was?" She knelt at his side, her hair sticking to her haggard face. "I was so scared that I tried to kill myself just to free my soul of those nightmares. Always they haunted me, taunting and leering at my weakness." She paused, her eyes focused on him. "And you never came."
Izzy said nothing, his eyes fixed on a point on the floor, his face grim with personal resolution.
"Finally a man entered my life that truly cared about me. He wanted to see me get better, to see a smile cross my face." Her face grew wistful. "There was just something in his eyes that told me it was him that I had been searching for."
"He's a psychiatrist, Mimi. He's paid to make you feel better."
"No!" she cried, her eyes alight with sudden anger. "Matt genuinely cared for me."
"So you're on first name basis with him. Just how 'friendly' did you two get?" Izzy asked, his face full of bitter amusement.
"I love him," she shouted, and the room resounded with silent. Neither could find the words to say.
Izzy's face suddenly went slack. "The same way you loved me?"
She paused, confusion in her eyes. "I....don't know," she breathed softly. "I'm afraid to fall in love again. It's only caused my heartache and depression."
"Mimi-"
"I don't want to hear your excuses. I want to hear the truth," she said, her thin veil of venerability fading. "Why are you here?"
"Because I love you."
"Stop lying!" She stood and walked to the other side of the room. "I'll never leave with you."
She reached across the desk, her hands trying desperately to catch hold of his hands. He pulled then back and started pensively out the window.
"Matt," she said, her eyes shimmering brokenly, "I won't leave you."
He turned back towards her, his eyes dark. "Don't even say that."
Shock crossed her face. "What do you mean?"
He closed his eyes, and leaned back in his chair. "I want you to go." His words rang through Mimi's head, leaving her with a hollow sense of fear.
"You don't want me," she said, her voice laced with horror.
Matt shot her a glance, and leaned forward, catching her eyes. "I love you, Mimi, and I wish that we could be together forever." He sighed, his golden hair falling in front of his face. "But sometimes life gets in the way."
She fell silent. "When you arrived here at Wellington, do you remember the first thing you told me?" She shook her head slightly. "You told me that you would do anything to get out of here, to get beyond the garden wall, to where freedom is. This is your chance."
"I don't want to go."
"Those are your emotions talking," Matt said, his mask of professionalism taking hold of his weary and downcast soul. "You have to listen to logic, to reason." He turned away, so she could not see his moment of weakness. "Things change."
She opened her mouth to speak, but he moved to her side, and let his lips fall against hers. Closing her eyes, she felt his lips dance across her skin, and her fingers ran through his hair, clinging to him. A backlash of emotion soared through her.
He leaned her head against his chest, his arms wrapped gently around her shoulders. They sat in silence for a few minutes, the only sound in the room that of the clock that ticked away the seconds.
His lips lingered on hers a moment before he pulled away, grief betraying through his eyes.
"That felt like good-bye," she whispered, her eyes filling with tears. He gave her a soulful look, but didn't say a thing.
"Matt-" she started, but he silenced her. His face was shadowed as he stood by the window frame, his eyes watching a butterfly landing on a flower through the window.
His voice was low and painful." Sometimes you just have to let things go."
Izzy graciously set down her bags and waited for Mimi to enter the front room. She shifted uncomfortably, but held her head high as to mask her emotions. "Good-bye, Ms. Izumi," the nurse said as Mimi signed her name at the bottom of the release forms. Her hands gave a subtle tremor.
"Are you ready to go, Mimi-chan?" Izzy asked, putting his hand on her shoulder. She moved just out of his reach and felt her eyes fall on the hallway that led to Matt's office.
"He's isn't coming, honey," the nurse said gently, and Mimi felt her cheeks flush.
"I just wanted to thank him," she muttered, looking nervously at the ground.
"Love, let's get going. The taxi's outside," Izzy said, grabbing hold of her hand.
"Let go of me," she said simply, her cheeks ashen. "I'm not a young child." In a show of cold indifference, she walked slowly into the night air.
Inhaling she tried to brush away any lingering doubt, any ghastly memory that still cobwebbed her soul. Looking out, she caught sight of the shadowed garden wall, the wall that she had longed for so long to be on the other side of. The harsh irony of her situation struck her. Now that she was free, she didn't want to leave.
It was then that she heard it, the faint chords of harmonica music stealing through the air before they vanished without a trace. In a kind of quiet desperation, she followed the sounds to their origin.
He was seated on the bench, his eyes reflecting the stars above. "I thought maybe you weren't going to say good-bye," he said softly, never moving.
"I'm leaving in a few minutes," she said, resting her hand at his side. He set the harmonica aside
"Look at the stars tonight," Matt mused. "You know, the ancient Greeks believed that the stars and planets were dancing in the sky, and in their divine dance, they created vibrations, sounds, and notes- music."
He laughed. "When Sora made me quit my band, I lost a part of my soul- the music. But I found it again, in the stars. As long as the stars were glittering in the sky, I could feel their ancient song of forever in my heart." He looked at her.
Mimi turned sideways to face him. "But when you arrived here at Wellington, something inside of me changed. I no longer needed to look at the stars- all I had to do was see you smile, and my heart would lift."
"Then why are you sending me away?" Mimi said bitterly, and Matt caught hold of her hand.
"I'm not sending you away," he said stubbornly. "I'm letting you go. Letting you go beyond the garden wall."
Mimi leaned against his shoulder, tears streaming down her pristine cheeks. "No one ever told me that it would hurt so much to leave. "She rested her head on his chest, her tears staining his sweater.
Matt nodded, his eyes filled with wisdom. "Love is like a rose, Mimi-chan. While it blossoms, everything is beautiful. But even the roses have thorns that do prick your soul."
"I'll kill myself within two weeks out there," Mimi said desperately, and Matt gave her a loving laugh.
"You will do no such thing, my beautiful butterfly," he said, gently running his hand down the side of her cheek, drying her tears.
"What?" she said slowly, raising her head.
He kissed her lips softly. "When I first saw you here at the hospital, you were trembling like a leaf, scared and alone. You wrapped yourself in a cocoon, not allowing anything or anyone touch you, for fear that you might get hurt more." His eyes shone with sincerity. " Look at you now, smiling and laughing and daring to fall in love."
"I don't want to leave you," she whispered, and he put his fingers underneath her chin.
"It's time that you spread your wings and fly."
"I don't know how to fly without you," she said, the tears back in her eyes.
"You'll learn," he promised, and she closed her eyes, trying to stop the tears.
"Mimi-chan, it's time to go!" Izzy's annoyed voice cut through the darkness, and Mimi slowly rose to her feet.
Matt caught her hand and kissed the bandages gently. Weeping, she pulled her hand away and walked towards the cab.
Numbly she climbed into the cab and closed the door, trying desperately to dry the tears that were falling more rapidly now. "Aren't you glad to be out of that place?" Izzy commented as the taxi started to pull down the driveway.
Mimi said nothing, but closed her eyes and leaned limply against the door of the cab. When she opened her eyes again, she turned around in hopes to see Matt once last time. But all she could see was the cursed garden wall, hiding everything that was inside.
She looked down at her wrist, where Matt had last kissed her, and dissolved into wracking sobs, unable to stop her tears that ran like blood from her eyes.
I'm soooo sorry this took so long to finish...I just want to take the time to thank everyone that has read this story and reviewed...You guys are the greatest!!! And there will be a fourth part to this ( I can't end it like this!!! Oy...I'm such a hopeless romantic...) but I can't make any promises as to when I'll get around to writing it.... N-E-WAYS....
Matt felt his heart grind to a sickening stop. His face mirrored pain as he turned away from everyone, brushing his golden hair from in front of his eyes. Turning back, he caught Mimi's eye and tried to give her a smile that never quite stretched out of a frown.
"Mr. Izumi, I don't think that you really have any justisdic-"
"I don't want to hear it, Doctor," Izzy said coldly. His eyes flashed with bitter anger. "Can I speak to her alone?"
Matt hesitated, and Mimi leapt to her feet. "Izzy, don't do this," she begged, but he ignored her. Joe's fist rapped against the top of the desk, and Matt opened his mouth to speak, but no words would come out.
"I'm looking out for her well-being," Izzy said crisply. "She has no one else in the world to look after her except me." His eyes swept over the hospital with a critical eye. "She doesn't need to stay here anymore."
"I think-"
"I don't care what you think," Izzy countered. "I want you to act."
Matt felt Mimi's cold hands encircle his arm, and he turned to see her panic-filled eyes. She pulled herself close to him, her bandages pressing against his skin, a tremor running through her body. "Don't let him do this," she whispered brokenly.
"Mr. Izumi, I beg you to reconsider," Matt said, his voice regulated to hide his emotions. He didn't want Mimi to get hurt, and in his heart, he knew that he needed her. "She is making so much progress here with me-"
"I'll bet," Izzy said, almost a sneer in his voice. "What exactly have you been doing with her, Doctor?"
Matt felt all color drain from his face, and his lips trembled as he fought to maintain control. "Are you questioning my integrity, Mr. Izumi?"
Izzy paused, his eyes drawn cynically to where Mimi's hand clasped Matt's arm. "Maybe I am."
Izzy sat on the other side of her room, his face grave. " Mimi-"
Her head rose, displaying her fiery cinnamon eyes. "Don't talk to me."
"You need to understand-" he said, then broke off. "Never mind." He turned away, rubbing his hair nervously. "No, you need to hear this."
"You're too good for this hospital and that second-rate doctor," he continued. "I'm only pulling you out of here because I care about you."
Silence reigned, and far away the shouts of the other patients echoed off the walls. Mimi turned her head, looking outside. "Do you really want to stay here?" Izzy asked softly, his eyes staring intensely at her.
Her hands gave a slight tremble. "Yes....no....." She clenched her fists angrily. "I knew exactly what I wanted until you came."
"What did you want? I'll do anything to help you," Izzy replied earnestly. She stood up and towered over him.
"Anything?"
His eyes were filled with solemn seriousness. "Anything."
"Then stay out of my life!" she screeched, thrusting her bandaged wrists at him. "Did you stop me from doing this? Did you come to me when my parents are brutally murdered before my very eyes? Did you see me when I was so lost, I didn't know my name or where I was?" She knelt at his side, her hair sticking to her haggard face. "I was so scared that I tried to kill myself just to free my soul of those nightmares. Always they haunted me, taunting and leering at my weakness." She paused, her eyes focused on him. "And you never came."
Izzy said nothing, his eyes fixed on a point on the floor, his face grim with personal resolution.
"Finally a man entered my life that truly cared about me. He wanted to see me get better, to see a smile cross my face." Her face grew wistful. "There was just something in his eyes that told me it was him that I had been searching for."
"He's a psychiatrist, Mimi. He's paid to make you feel better."
"No!" she cried, her eyes alight with sudden anger. "Matt genuinely cared for me."
"So you're on first name basis with him. Just how 'friendly' did you two get?" Izzy asked, his face full of bitter amusement.
"I love him," she shouted, and the room resounded with silent. Neither could find the words to say.
Izzy's face suddenly went slack. "The same way you loved me?"
She paused, confusion in her eyes. "I....don't know," she breathed softly. "I'm afraid to fall in love again. It's only caused my heartache and depression."
"Mimi-"
"I don't want to hear your excuses. I want to hear the truth," she said, her thin veil of venerability fading. "Why are you here?"
"Because I love you."
"Stop lying!" She stood and walked to the other side of the room. "I'll never leave with you."
She reached across the desk, her hands trying desperately to catch hold of his hands. He pulled then back and started pensively out the window.
"Matt," she said, her eyes shimmering brokenly, "I won't leave you."
He turned back towards her, his eyes dark. "Don't even say that."
Shock crossed her face. "What do you mean?"
He closed his eyes, and leaned back in his chair. "I want you to go." His words rang through Mimi's head, leaving her with a hollow sense of fear.
"You don't want me," she said, her voice laced with horror.
Matt shot her a glance, and leaned forward, catching her eyes. "I love you, Mimi, and I wish that we could be together forever." He sighed, his golden hair falling in front of his face. "But sometimes life gets in the way."
She fell silent. "When you arrived here at Wellington, do you remember the first thing you told me?" She shook her head slightly. "You told me that you would do anything to get out of here, to get beyond the garden wall, to where freedom is. This is your chance."
"I don't want to go."
"Those are your emotions talking," Matt said, his mask of professionalism taking hold of his weary and downcast soul. "You have to listen to logic, to reason." He turned away, so she could not see his moment of weakness. "Things change."
She opened her mouth to speak, but he moved to her side, and let his lips fall against hers. Closing her eyes, she felt his lips dance across her skin, and her fingers ran through his hair, clinging to him. A backlash of emotion soared through her.
He leaned her head against his chest, his arms wrapped gently around her shoulders. They sat in silence for a few minutes, the only sound in the room that of the clock that ticked away the seconds.
His lips lingered on hers a moment before he pulled away, grief betraying through his eyes.
"That felt like good-bye," she whispered, her eyes filling with tears. He gave her a soulful look, but didn't say a thing.
"Matt-" she started, but he silenced her. His face was shadowed as he stood by the window frame, his eyes watching a butterfly landing on a flower through the window.
His voice was low and painful." Sometimes you just have to let things go."
Izzy graciously set down her bags and waited for Mimi to enter the front room. She shifted uncomfortably, but held her head high as to mask her emotions. "Good-bye, Ms. Izumi," the nurse said as Mimi signed her name at the bottom of the release forms. Her hands gave a subtle tremor.
"Are you ready to go, Mimi-chan?" Izzy asked, putting his hand on her shoulder. She moved just out of his reach and felt her eyes fall on the hallway that led to Matt's office.
"He's isn't coming, honey," the nurse said gently, and Mimi felt her cheeks flush.
"I just wanted to thank him," she muttered, looking nervously at the ground.
"Love, let's get going. The taxi's outside," Izzy said, grabbing hold of her hand.
"Let go of me," she said simply, her cheeks ashen. "I'm not a young child." In a show of cold indifference, she walked slowly into the night air.
Inhaling she tried to brush away any lingering doubt, any ghastly memory that still cobwebbed her soul. Looking out, she caught sight of the shadowed garden wall, the wall that she had longed for so long to be on the other side of. The harsh irony of her situation struck her. Now that she was free, she didn't want to leave.
It was then that she heard it, the faint chords of harmonica music stealing through the air before they vanished without a trace. In a kind of quiet desperation, she followed the sounds to their origin.
He was seated on the bench, his eyes reflecting the stars above. "I thought maybe you weren't going to say good-bye," he said softly, never moving.
"I'm leaving in a few minutes," she said, resting her hand at his side. He set the harmonica aside
"Look at the stars tonight," Matt mused. "You know, the ancient Greeks believed that the stars and planets were dancing in the sky, and in their divine dance, they created vibrations, sounds, and notes- music."
He laughed. "When Sora made me quit my band, I lost a part of my soul- the music. But I found it again, in the stars. As long as the stars were glittering in the sky, I could feel their ancient song of forever in my heart." He looked at her.
Mimi turned sideways to face him. "But when you arrived here at Wellington, something inside of me changed. I no longer needed to look at the stars- all I had to do was see you smile, and my heart would lift."
"Then why are you sending me away?" Mimi said bitterly, and Matt caught hold of her hand.
"I'm not sending you away," he said stubbornly. "I'm letting you go. Letting you go beyond the garden wall."
Mimi leaned against his shoulder, tears streaming down her pristine cheeks. "No one ever told me that it would hurt so much to leave. "She rested her head on his chest, her tears staining his sweater.
Matt nodded, his eyes filled with wisdom. "Love is like a rose, Mimi-chan. While it blossoms, everything is beautiful. But even the roses have thorns that do prick your soul."
"I'll kill myself within two weeks out there," Mimi said desperately, and Matt gave her a loving laugh.
"You will do no such thing, my beautiful butterfly," he said, gently running his hand down the side of her cheek, drying her tears.
"What?" she said slowly, raising her head.
He kissed her lips softly. "When I first saw you here at the hospital, you were trembling like a leaf, scared and alone. You wrapped yourself in a cocoon, not allowing anything or anyone touch you, for fear that you might get hurt more." His eyes shone with sincerity. " Look at you now, smiling and laughing and daring to fall in love."
"I don't want to leave you," she whispered, and he put his fingers underneath her chin.
"It's time that you spread your wings and fly."
"I don't know how to fly without you," she said, the tears back in her eyes.
"You'll learn," he promised, and she closed her eyes, trying to stop the tears.
"Mimi-chan, it's time to go!" Izzy's annoyed voice cut through the darkness, and Mimi slowly rose to her feet.
Matt caught her hand and kissed the bandages gently. Weeping, she pulled her hand away and walked towards the cab.
Numbly she climbed into the cab and closed the door, trying desperately to dry the tears that were falling more rapidly now. "Aren't you glad to be out of that place?" Izzy commented as the taxi started to pull down the driveway.
Mimi said nothing, but closed her eyes and leaned limply against the door of the cab. When she opened her eyes again, she turned around in hopes to see Matt once last time. But all she could see was the cursed garden wall, hiding everything that was inside.
She looked down at her wrist, where Matt had last kissed her, and dissolved into wracking sobs, unable to stop her tears that ran like blood from her eyes.