*It's been a while, I know. Been busy with lots of things – and I start giving up hope my fics will ever be put to a decent end. Well, time will tell …. Big shout out to DHARKE - Fav list? (whistles sheepishly ;o) ) Not getting rid of Beaver, huh? lol - and the mysterious 'REVIEWER' – hated Dr Cole the moment I saw her alter ego on the screen – YUCK! Worse than Maggie Walsh, if u know what I mean, lol.*
Chapter 5
~ Present time. ~
"YOU FUCKING HEARD WHAT MY PARENTS SAID! NO INJECTIONS!"
"Your parents put you in my care and as long-"
"You have enough money to pay the trial?" Dr Cole was interrupted by an orderly passing by.
"If you want to keep this job to pay your studies, better don't interfere!" she hissed.
The young man just smiled. "I am not afraid of you, Miss Cole. You don't manage this section. Matt does."
"Wonder for how long. And it's not Miss Cole, it's Mrs! As for you it's Doctor!" She turned back to the boy she had brought here, putting the syringe back into her pocket. "Max will show you your room and explain what you need to know. I expect you to stay there until you get further instructions." With that she rushed off, slamming the door to one of the offices behind her.
Max put an arm on the boy's shoulder and gently pushed him forward. "You don't need to be afraid of her."
"Is that the moment you tell me that she actually is a warm-hearted and nice person? That beneath that rough exterior there beats a heart of gold? For unfortunately you come about two years too late. She's been my psycho way too long."
Leaning against the doorframe again, Carter smirked at him. "Hitchcock."
Instantly Billy tensed. His eyes widened in astonishment as he caught sight of the jock. They widened even more as he noticed three other familiar faces beside him.
"Oh, the welcome committee", Max said, grinning. "Don't you try to tell me that he is another member of your freak club." Carter's eyebrow went up as he pointed at Alex, Larry, Billy and Clear. "Freaks." He pointed at himself n his girlfriend. "Terry n me. When will you ever learn, Max?"
"Seems as if that meant lunch break for me – there is nothing you couldn't tell him. John?" Alex rolled his eyes at that, "this is your roommate. Don't do anything I wouldn't. Which contains basically everything, so skip this part. Welcome to the Pleasure Dome, Billy." Tapping him on the shoulder, he went towards the direction of the cafeteria, murmuring something to Carter as he passed him.
"What is it?" Terry wanted to know, but he just shook his head, making her pout.
They decided to go back to Alex' room. There was a long silence, everyone staring at the others, waiting for them to start and say something.
"So, here we are. Reunited", Billy finally remarked, giving a nervous laugh. "I really wondered where you guys suddenly disappeared to but …. I never would of expected to …. find you …. here."
"The hotels in Paris were all booked up, so we thought we'd give it a try." Carter gave back, his face as expressionless as his voice.
Another five minutes that seemed to last five hours went by. Again it was Billy who broke the silence. "Why did he call you John, Alex? Or was he talking to you?" he addressed to the curly-head.
"Nah, I'm Larry. Glad to meet you."
Unsurely biting his lip Billy gazed at the others, too confused to give a polite reply, and then stared at Alex. Though they had never been close friends, Alex had always been more or less friendly to him; therefore he wondered why he was now giving him such strange looks. "So I suppose you have a second name?"
Alex shook his head. "No. Comes from John Doe."
"But John Doe is a synonym for people who lost their memory …." a whole lot of pennies dropped in his head, "you lost your memory??"
Alex gave an unnerved sigh. "Yeah, d'uh!! I lost my memory!! Congrats for that!!" Frustrated he let himself fall into the pillows behind him.
"You don't remember anything??"
Alex gave him a disbelieving look. "We weren't friends, were we?!"
The other one swallowed hard, obviously hurt, but Alex wasn't in the mood to care about it.
"So, what are you here for?" Terry interfered, taking on Clear's role of playing the mediator.
He scratched his head. "Err, flight 180 freaked me out?" he started cautiously.
"You ain't got it less precise, do you?" Carter snapped impatiently. "What is it?"
"They …. think I tried to …. kill myself. Which I didn't!"
"Of course not!" The jock snorted, but to Billy's surprise he seemed to believe him. "Okay, to shorten this – since when do you not sleep?"
"Err, a while …."
Carter got up and for a moment Billy was sure he was going to beat him up like he had done so many times before, but instead of he went straight towards the door, Terry following him.
"Where are you going?" Clear asked frowning.
"Out. Making out." He turned around, giving her his dirtiest smile. "Wanna join us?"
She glared at him, making him smirk even more. "Thought so. In case your little coffee klatsch here results in something, give us a short report later on."
"You cannot just leave as if that wouldn't be any of your own business as well!"
"Aw honey, so you don't want any coffee?"
Clear bit on her lip and swallowed her next comment.
"I love to see you hating to depend on me", he laughed as they left the room.
"Coffee?" Billy wondered. "Is that …. a special expression for …. drugs?" The naïve look on his face made the others snigger a bit.
"I know it's quite sad, considering all the possibilities that are waiting for us in the locked medicine cabinets here", Larry said, "but it's really only coffee. Some caffeine pills actually since they don't exude such a wonderful scent real coffee does."
"U don't get coffee in here??" the other one was left mouth open.
Alex gave him a pityingly look. "Since I suppose that we are here out of the same reason – is that a rhetorical question?"
"Why are you so irritated?"
"Hell, I dunno! Since everything is just so fine!" Again Alex rolled his eyes, plainly showing that he thought Billy to be quite dim.
There was a knock at the door and only a second later Matt's head appeared in the crack.
"What are you doing here – ain't got no home?" Larry remarked, grinning.
Matt returned the smirk. "Well, actually I am looking for some young people, also known as my group whose session started about five minutes ago." He took a look around. "Where are the two turtledoves?"
"Billin' n cooin'", was the answer.
"Aw. So I hope they are not using the TV room for I saw Dr Cole just going into that direction a few seconds ago", Matt gave back, noting the shock on the other's faces with an even brighter smirk, not knowing, what it really was about.
