Chapter 5
It had been another long, nearly sleepless night. Zell's snoring was getting out of hand, and he didn't know how much longer he could keep himself from strangling Zell in his sleep. It wasn't only the snoring that had kept him awake, however. The never ending words of conflict, of anger, of indecision. they haunted him again, even worse than before. The same question kept running through his mind over and over again. Why did she care so much?
Squall wasn't sure why it bothered him. After all, she wasn't the first person to try and understand him, to 'fix' him. But she did seem to be the first one to genuinely care. The smile on her face didn't seem so fake, the tone of her voice was more sincere, and that gleam of empathy in her eyes didn't look so forced.
(Why does it feel so strange to have someone care?) he wondered, his last thought before sleep finally claimed him.
Rinoa, on the other hand, slept soundly that night, and marched into Trepe's office early that morning with a look of utter determination. She burst through the office door, startling the young doctor who was seated at her desk.
"Can I help you, Rinoa?"
"We need to talk," she said, taking a chair in front of the desk.
"Yes, we do," Quistis replied, pulling off her glasses and wiping them off on her coat. "They told me that they couldn't find Squall Leonhart to give him his medication yesterday. They said that you told them you hadn't seen anyone by that name, when I saw you run after him when he left. Why are you taking over my patient?"
"I'm not taking over anyone. He's not an object. I just want to help him, and what I saw yesterday at the group therapy session just convinces me more that it's not what he needs."
Quistis sighed, and stared at the stack of papers on her desk for a moment. "I've tried to help him, I've tried so hard, for so long, and nothing seems to work. All it's done is push him farther away from me. It's caused me a lot of pain, a lot of heart aches. more headaches then there is aspirin in the world. No one can help him, because he won't let himself be helped. It's been a long, hard road, and it hasn't led us anywhere. So now you want the burden of helping this man who can't be helped? Well, it's yours."
Rinoa was silent for a moment, allowing Quistis' speech to sink in. For a moment she doubted herself again, the memories of their argument at the basketball court coming back to her. She shook it off. She had made a breakthrough yesterday, right?
"Thank you, Quistis," Rinoa said before standing up and exiting the office.
After her visit with Quistis, Rinoa headed for the room she believed to be Squall's, wanting to tell him right away about the good news. On her way there, she ran into Margaret, the nurse she had met before.
"What's up?" Rinoa asked casually, nodding her head in greeting.
Margaret smiled. "It's a bit of a change to have such a young face here on the staff. I'll have to get used to it. I'm just doing morning checks, making sure everyone's up by now. Almost everyone is, but we seem to be missing a few people."
"Have you checked room." Rinoa paused for a moment to search her memory, "C15?"
"No, I was just getting there."
"Well, I was looking for someone residing in that room anyway, so why don't I go ahead and check it out for you?"
"Sure, thanks," she replied, moving on to the next room.
Rinoa scanned the numbers next to the polished wooden doors until she found the one she was looking for. She knocked lightly and waited for a moment. No response. Slowly, she edged the door open, peaking through the crack to make sure that anyone that might be in there was appropriately clothed. At first it appeared empty, one of the beds neatly made and the other a mess of wrinkled sheets and twisted blankets. It wasn't until she looked more closely at the second one, did she notice the unruly locks of brown hair poking out from beneath the pillow.
She smiled to herself and quietly stepped into the room, closing the door gently behind her. With light steps she approached the bed where he slept and pulled away the pillow under which he had buried his head. She heard a slight grumbling leave his lips, but couldn't make out anything he was saying. She carefully placed her hand on what she assumed was his shoulder and shook him, sitting down on the edge of the bed as she did so.
There was another round of mumbling before her hand was shoved away from him. She shook him harder, quickly growing tired of his little game. He rolled onto his back and shielded his eyes with his arm.
"What do you want?" he growled.
"It's time to get up, sleeping beauty," Rinoa replied. She was happy that at the moment his eyes were hidden. The blankets he had pulled up around him had shifted lower, baring his chest. She was glad he couldn't see where her eyes were traveling.
(Snap out of it) she thought to herself. (He's just a patient. Gotta keep things professional.)
He uncovered his eyes, squinting into the blinding sunlight that streamed through the barred windows, and raised his head to look at her. "What are you doing here?"
She smiled at him. "Well, I ran into Margaret in the hall, and she told me she was checking to make sure everyone was awake. I was trying to find you anyway, so I told her I'd check your room for her. I had another talk with Quistis this morning, and I've got some good news."
"She's retiring?" he guessed, hopefully.
"No, but she's not going to be your doctor anymore. She's put me in charge of you. That means no more group therapy sessions, and no more being dragged out of bed by big guys in white jumpsuits. Well, so long as you show up when I ask you to."
Squall sat up suddenly, his eyes widening slightly at this news. It was as if a huge weight had been lifted off of his shoulders. No more being paraded around like an idiot in front of a large group of people, no more being stared at and judged, no more being forced to speak in front of these strangers while they watched him with their critical gaze.
"Thanks," he replied slowly, still reveling in the feeling of relief this brought him.
Her smile grew. "You very welcome. Now get up and get dressed!"
"Do you mind giving me some privacy first?"
She just laughed, pushing some 'not-so-professional' thoughts aside as she did. She stood up from her place next to him and walked toward the door. "By the way, I rummaged through the supply closet early this morning and found something that might help with your sleeping problem." She pulled a small box from a pocket on the side of her coat and tossed it to him.
He examined the box, eyebrows arched. "Breathe Right Strips?" he read.
She nodded. "Stick one of those over Zell's nose tonight. That should take care of the snoring."
With that she exited the room, allowing him to get up and dress in peace. She walked down to the rec room, which was now partially full with half-asleep patients, and found the other person she was looking for.
"Hey, Isabella! Haven't seen you in a couple of days."
Isabella smiled. "Yeah, I've been up to some things. How's it going?"
Rinoa sat down next to her at a table, then noticed that she was holding 'Chester'. "How come you're holding Zell's bear?"
"I'm the only one he trusts with Chester. And right now Zell's getting his morning meds," she explained pointing out Zell as a lady at a counter handed him a small clear plastic cup and a larger paper cup half- full of water.
"You two are pretty good friends, huh?"
Isabella gave a wistful sigh. "Yeah, we're good friends."
"Sounds like you wish that you two were something more."
She shrugged. "Yeah, well. I know Dr. Trepe would say that it isn't healthy to date someone you met in a mental asylum, but he's just so sweet. When I first transferred up here, he was really suspicious of me, just as he is of everyone, but we soon found something we had in common."
"What's that?" Rinoa asked.
Isabella grinned. "We're both big Green Day fans."
Rinoa laughed. "I'll have to keep that in mind."
"So, do you know what's going on next week?"
"No. What's up?"
"Next week is Visitor's Day," Isabella informed her. "That's when your friends and family come to spend part of the day with you. My friend Sally, she's a social worker that used to look out for me while I was in foster homes, is coming to visit me. Zell's parents are coming, too."
"Sounds like a lot of fun," Rinoa replied, her eyes scanning over the room just in time to see Squall enter and take a seat near the counter where medication was being handed out. She watched him for a few moments, until she finally heard his name called. He stood up and strode casually over to the counter, grabbing his pills and quickly washing them down with the water.
"Alright now, Mr. Leonhart, open your mouth and let me check," the nurse said. He tilted his head back and opened his mouth wide. "And under your tongue?" she asked. Squall lifted his tongue, rolling his eyes because he felt like an idiot, and finally slammed his mouth shut. "Very good Mr. Leonhart. You may be seated."
Rinoa turned to Isabella with a questioning look on her face. Isabella laughed. "Not only does he have a reputation for skipping out on therapy, he has a habit of not taking his medication, too."
Rinoa shook her head, still watching him as he sat back down in his chair for a moment. Being the observant person she was, she noticed his throat working, even though he wasn't talking or doing anything of the sort. Shortly after he stood up and headed toward the bathroom. Awfully suspicious, she thought. She'd have to remember to ask him about it later.
She noticed Isabella get up and turned her attention back to her friend. "I'll be right back," she announced before marching up to the counter and taking her own pills. As she was heading back to her seat, a loud scream sounded from outside, followed by a loud 'thud' as something large hit the floor.
Almost every head turned to look through the window into the hall, and watched as a middle-aged woman was sedated by a group of struggling nurses. The nurse at the counter grabbed a cup of medication and exited the room, meeting with the other nurses in the hall. When the woman had stopped fighting so much, they forced her mouth open popped a pill in, and held it shut, shouting at her to swallow her pill. She tried her best to spit it out, choking herself on her own sobs, until she finally didn't have any more fight left in her. She swallowed the pill, and the nurses went about their business, pulling her off to some unknown destination.
"Some people are like that," Isabella explained. "They don't wanna take their medicine or anything. They don't wanna get better. They like being sick, I guess. I decided a few years ago that I did wanna get better."
"Why did you burn those houses down in the first place?" Rinoa asked gently.
Isabella was silent for a short stretch of time, the quietly said, "When I was little, me and my father were very close. My dad had it hard. He knew my mom was sick, but didn't know what to do, so he just took care of her as best as he could. But he also had to take care of me, too. It would've been easier just to leave momma in a place like this, but he wanted to be loyal to her. She wasn't the woman he loved anymore, but he still wanted to take care of her. That's why I'll never forget the look on his face when she pulled that gun on him. He tried so hard. and she killed him. She didn't want to be cared for anymore. Before she shot him, my dad and me would try and do things together, and one of our favorite things was to camp out in the backyard. I had always wanted to go camping for real, but of course we couldn't with Momma. So he would make us a little tent in the backyard, and build us a little campfire. I loved sitting around the campfire with him, it was so peaceful, so beautiful. I loved how the flames danced on his face. So when he died and I was taken to my first foster home, I was miserable. I wanted my father back, and the thing that reminded me of him the most were those campfires. I guess. I just wanted to see the flames dance again. Maybe I thought it would bring him back."
Rinoa was at a loss for words. What does someone say after that? Instead she just put her arm around Isabella and gave her shoulders a squeeze in comfort.
"I don't want to be sick like my momma was," she said softly. "I don't want to betray someone I love."
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Rinoa could already feel drowsiness kicking in, and it was still daylight. She supposed that sitting in on one of Quistis' lectures would do that to you. Her eyelids felt as if they weighed a ton, as she dragged her feet down the hall to the fifth floor cafeteria for dinner.
The first thing her eyes were met with was the 'doctor's' table. Quistis and some of her fellow psychiatrist friend were sitting together at one table, talking excitedly about the latest development on their section of the floor, and eating fancy salads or left over casserole that they had bought or made themselves.
(While the rest of us get to eat cold meat loaf and rubber vegetables,) she thought. It reminded her an awful lot of the 'popular' table in high school.
She grabbed one of the pre-prepared trays from the end of a table and scanned the tables for somewhere to sit. She wasn't yet 'popular' enough to sit with Quistis and her friends. Instead she headed over to a mostly empty table and sat down in front of none other than Squall Leonhart himself.
He looked up at her in surprise, obviously not having expected any company. She glanced over at his own tray, which he had mostly just picked at. He had arranged his food in strange, intricate patterns, his mind obviously elsewhere.
"Wow, I've never seen someone be so artistic with their food before," Rinoa commented, watching him intently.
He just shrugged, and stabbed his fork into the middle of the tray. "I can't eat this shit."
Rinoa popped a piece of broccoli into her mouth and made a face. "That makes two of us. So, I was noticing earlier, when you were taking your medication, that you looked kinda suspicious about it." She gave him her best disapproving doctor look. "Did you really take your medicine?"
"What business is it of yours?"
She waved a hand in front of his face. "I'm your doctor now, remember?"
He rolled his eyes, "Fine, I took my medication, okay? Happy now?"
"Are you telling me the truth?" she asked, leaning closer and trying her best to be serious despite the grin threatening to spread over her face.
He looked at her for a long time, his gaze locked with hers in a way that made heat spread throughout her entire body. "Absolutely," he said finally, his face utterly serious.
She laughed, breaking the intensity of the moment. "Somehow I don't believe you." She pointed her index finger in his face and said, "If I find out you're lying to me, you're going to be in big trouble, Mr. Leonhart."
He shook his head, shoving her hand out of his face. "I'm so frightened. What are you going to do, lock me up in solitary confinement?"
"No, I wouldn't do that to you," she replied.
"They all say that, but they always end up doing it anyway. Why should I believe you're any different from them?"
"Look, I promise to you that I won't lock you up. And if I break my promise, you can. lock me up in the padded cell and make me listen to Quistis' lectures all day."
A smile tugged at his lips. "Very few things could be worse than that. I guess you've got yourself a deal."
"Great!" Rinoa exclaimed. "So that settles it. I won't lock you in solitary confinement, but in return, you have to be a good patient. That means showing up for therapy, taking your medicine, and not doing that mute bit you do when you don't feel like talking. We got a deal?"
"Fine."
She extended her hand to him. "Shake on it?"
His face remained emotionless, but his nervousness and fear was evident in his eyes. He had to fight with himself not to stand up and leave right then. It was an odd thing, even to himself. He'd watched so many times as people around him hugged, kissed, held and shook hands. Yet still, he couldn't feel comfortable being touched by another person. Part of him was scared of it, and part of him craved it, after so many years of shying away from any form of human contact.
She gave him an understanding smile. "Maybe we'll save that for some other time."
He looked away from her, uncertain if he was relieved or ashamed. "Yeah, maybe," he said, standing from the table and going to throw his uneaten food in the trashcan.
Rinoa stared down at her own food and frowned. It was going to be a long, hard road for the both of them.
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A/N: Next chapter I'll be covering Rinoa and Squall's second official therapy session, and visitor's day. Hope you enjoyed this chapter! Please review! Please?
It had been another long, nearly sleepless night. Zell's snoring was getting out of hand, and he didn't know how much longer he could keep himself from strangling Zell in his sleep. It wasn't only the snoring that had kept him awake, however. The never ending words of conflict, of anger, of indecision. they haunted him again, even worse than before. The same question kept running through his mind over and over again. Why did she care so much?
Squall wasn't sure why it bothered him. After all, she wasn't the first person to try and understand him, to 'fix' him. But she did seem to be the first one to genuinely care. The smile on her face didn't seem so fake, the tone of her voice was more sincere, and that gleam of empathy in her eyes didn't look so forced.
(Why does it feel so strange to have someone care?) he wondered, his last thought before sleep finally claimed him.
Rinoa, on the other hand, slept soundly that night, and marched into Trepe's office early that morning with a look of utter determination. She burst through the office door, startling the young doctor who was seated at her desk.
"Can I help you, Rinoa?"
"We need to talk," she said, taking a chair in front of the desk.
"Yes, we do," Quistis replied, pulling off her glasses and wiping them off on her coat. "They told me that they couldn't find Squall Leonhart to give him his medication yesterday. They said that you told them you hadn't seen anyone by that name, when I saw you run after him when he left. Why are you taking over my patient?"
"I'm not taking over anyone. He's not an object. I just want to help him, and what I saw yesterday at the group therapy session just convinces me more that it's not what he needs."
Quistis sighed, and stared at the stack of papers on her desk for a moment. "I've tried to help him, I've tried so hard, for so long, and nothing seems to work. All it's done is push him farther away from me. It's caused me a lot of pain, a lot of heart aches. more headaches then there is aspirin in the world. No one can help him, because he won't let himself be helped. It's been a long, hard road, and it hasn't led us anywhere. So now you want the burden of helping this man who can't be helped? Well, it's yours."
Rinoa was silent for a moment, allowing Quistis' speech to sink in. For a moment she doubted herself again, the memories of their argument at the basketball court coming back to her. She shook it off. She had made a breakthrough yesterday, right?
"Thank you, Quistis," Rinoa said before standing up and exiting the office.
After her visit with Quistis, Rinoa headed for the room she believed to be Squall's, wanting to tell him right away about the good news. On her way there, she ran into Margaret, the nurse she had met before.
"What's up?" Rinoa asked casually, nodding her head in greeting.
Margaret smiled. "It's a bit of a change to have such a young face here on the staff. I'll have to get used to it. I'm just doing morning checks, making sure everyone's up by now. Almost everyone is, but we seem to be missing a few people."
"Have you checked room." Rinoa paused for a moment to search her memory, "C15?"
"No, I was just getting there."
"Well, I was looking for someone residing in that room anyway, so why don't I go ahead and check it out for you?"
"Sure, thanks," she replied, moving on to the next room.
Rinoa scanned the numbers next to the polished wooden doors until she found the one she was looking for. She knocked lightly and waited for a moment. No response. Slowly, she edged the door open, peaking through the crack to make sure that anyone that might be in there was appropriately clothed. At first it appeared empty, one of the beds neatly made and the other a mess of wrinkled sheets and twisted blankets. It wasn't until she looked more closely at the second one, did she notice the unruly locks of brown hair poking out from beneath the pillow.
She smiled to herself and quietly stepped into the room, closing the door gently behind her. With light steps she approached the bed where he slept and pulled away the pillow under which he had buried his head. She heard a slight grumbling leave his lips, but couldn't make out anything he was saying. She carefully placed her hand on what she assumed was his shoulder and shook him, sitting down on the edge of the bed as she did so.
There was another round of mumbling before her hand was shoved away from him. She shook him harder, quickly growing tired of his little game. He rolled onto his back and shielded his eyes with his arm.
"What do you want?" he growled.
"It's time to get up, sleeping beauty," Rinoa replied. She was happy that at the moment his eyes were hidden. The blankets he had pulled up around him had shifted lower, baring his chest. She was glad he couldn't see where her eyes were traveling.
(Snap out of it) she thought to herself. (He's just a patient. Gotta keep things professional.)
He uncovered his eyes, squinting into the blinding sunlight that streamed through the barred windows, and raised his head to look at her. "What are you doing here?"
She smiled at him. "Well, I ran into Margaret in the hall, and she told me she was checking to make sure everyone was awake. I was trying to find you anyway, so I told her I'd check your room for her. I had another talk with Quistis this morning, and I've got some good news."
"She's retiring?" he guessed, hopefully.
"No, but she's not going to be your doctor anymore. She's put me in charge of you. That means no more group therapy sessions, and no more being dragged out of bed by big guys in white jumpsuits. Well, so long as you show up when I ask you to."
Squall sat up suddenly, his eyes widening slightly at this news. It was as if a huge weight had been lifted off of his shoulders. No more being paraded around like an idiot in front of a large group of people, no more being stared at and judged, no more being forced to speak in front of these strangers while they watched him with their critical gaze.
"Thanks," he replied slowly, still reveling in the feeling of relief this brought him.
Her smile grew. "You very welcome. Now get up and get dressed!"
"Do you mind giving me some privacy first?"
She just laughed, pushing some 'not-so-professional' thoughts aside as she did. She stood up from her place next to him and walked toward the door. "By the way, I rummaged through the supply closet early this morning and found something that might help with your sleeping problem." She pulled a small box from a pocket on the side of her coat and tossed it to him.
He examined the box, eyebrows arched. "Breathe Right Strips?" he read.
She nodded. "Stick one of those over Zell's nose tonight. That should take care of the snoring."
With that she exited the room, allowing him to get up and dress in peace. She walked down to the rec room, which was now partially full with half-asleep patients, and found the other person she was looking for.
"Hey, Isabella! Haven't seen you in a couple of days."
Isabella smiled. "Yeah, I've been up to some things. How's it going?"
Rinoa sat down next to her at a table, then noticed that she was holding 'Chester'. "How come you're holding Zell's bear?"
"I'm the only one he trusts with Chester. And right now Zell's getting his morning meds," she explained pointing out Zell as a lady at a counter handed him a small clear plastic cup and a larger paper cup half- full of water.
"You two are pretty good friends, huh?"
Isabella gave a wistful sigh. "Yeah, we're good friends."
"Sounds like you wish that you two were something more."
She shrugged. "Yeah, well. I know Dr. Trepe would say that it isn't healthy to date someone you met in a mental asylum, but he's just so sweet. When I first transferred up here, he was really suspicious of me, just as he is of everyone, but we soon found something we had in common."
"What's that?" Rinoa asked.
Isabella grinned. "We're both big Green Day fans."
Rinoa laughed. "I'll have to keep that in mind."
"So, do you know what's going on next week?"
"No. What's up?"
"Next week is Visitor's Day," Isabella informed her. "That's when your friends and family come to spend part of the day with you. My friend Sally, she's a social worker that used to look out for me while I was in foster homes, is coming to visit me. Zell's parents are coming, too."
"Sounds like a lot of fun," Rinoa replied, her eyes scanning over the room just in time to see Squall enter and take a seat near the counter where medication was being handed out. She watched him for a few moments, until she finally heard his name called. He stood up and strode casually over to the counter, grabbing his pills and quickly washing them down with the water.
"Alright now, Mr. Leonhart, open your mouth and let me check," the nurse said. He tilted his head back and opened his mouth wide. "And under your tongue?" she asked. Squall lifted his tongue, rolling his eyes because he felt like an idiot, and finally slammed his mouth shut. "Very good Mr. Leonhart. You may be seated."
Rinoa turned to Isabella with a questioning look on her face. Isabella laughed. "Not only does he have a reputation for skipping out on therapy, he has a habit of not taking his medication, too."
Rinoa shook her head, still watching him as he sat back down in his chair for a moment. Being the observant person she was, she noticed his throat working, even though he wasn't talking or doing anything of the sort. Shortly after he stood up and headed toward the bathroom. Awfully suspicious, she thought. She'd have to remember to ask him about it later.
She noticed Isabella get up and turned her attention back to her friend. "I'll be right back," she announced before marching up to the counter and taking her own pills. As she was heading back to her seat, a loud scream sounded from outside, followed by a loud 'thud' as something large hit the floor.
Almost every head turned to look through the window into the hall, and watched as a middle-aged woman was sedated by a group of struggling nurses. The nurse at the counter grabbed a cup of medication and exited the room, meeting with the other nurses in the hall. When the woman had stopped fighting so much, they forced her mouth open popped a pill in, and held it shut, shouting at her to swallow her pill. She tried her best to spit it out, choking herself on her own sobs, until she finally didn't have any more fight left in her. She swallowed the pill, and the nurses went about their business, pulling her off to some unknown destination.
"Some people are like that," Isabella explained. "They don't wanna take their medicine or anything. They don't wanna get better. They like being sick, I guess. I decided a few years ago that I did wanna get better."
"Why did you burn those houses down in the first place?" Rinoa asked gently.
Isabella was silent for a short stretch of time, the quietly said, "When I was little, me and my father were very close. My dad had it hard. He knew my mom was sick, but didn't know what to do, so he just took care of her as best as he could. But he also had to take care of me, too. It would've been easier just to leave momma in a place like this, but he wanted to be loyal to her. She wasn't the woman he loved anymore, but he still wanted to take care of her. That's why I'll never forget the look on his face when she pulled that gun on him. He tried so hard. and she killed him. She didn't want to be cared for anymore. Before she shot him, my dad and me would try and do things together, and one of our favorite things was to camp out in the backyard. I had always wanted to go camping for real, but of course we couldn't with Momma. So he would make us a little tent in the backyard, and build us a little campfire. I loved sitting around the campfire with him, it was so peaceful, so beautiful. I loved how the flames danced on his face. So when he died and I was taken to my first foster home, I was miserable. I wanted my father back, and the thing that reminded me of him the most were those campfires. I guess. I just wanted to see the flames dance again. Maybe I thought it would bring him back."
Rinoa was at a loss for words. What does someone say after that? Instead she just put her arm around Isabella and gave her shoulders a squeeze in comfort.
"I don't want to be sick like my momma was," she said softly. "I don't want to betray someone I love."
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Rinoa could already feel drowsiness kicking in, and it was still daylight. She supposed that sitting in on one of Quistis' lectures would do that to you. Her eyelids felt as if they weighed a ton, as she dragged her feet down the hall to the fifth floor cafeteria for dinner.
The first thing her eyes were met with was the 'doctor's' table. Quistis and some of her fellow psychiatrist friend were sitting together at one table, talking excitedly about the latest development on their section of the floor, and eating fancy salads or left over casserole that they had bought or made themselves.
(While the rest of us get to eat cold meat loaf and rubber vegetables,) she thought. It reminded her an awful lot of the 'popular' table in high school.
She grabbed one of the pre-prepared trays from the end of a table and scanned the tables for somewhere to sit. She wasn't yet 'popular' enough to sit with Quistis and her friends. Instead she headed over to a mostly empty table and sat down in front of none other than Squall Leonhart himself.
He looked up at her in surprise, obviously not having expected any company. She glanced over at his own tray, which he had mostly just picked at. He had arranged his food in strange, intricate patterns, his mind obviously elsewhere.
"Wow, I've never seen someone be so artistic with their food before," Rinoa commented, watching him intently.
He just shrugged, and stabbed his fork into the middle of the tray. "I can't eat this shit."
Rinoa popped a piece of broccoli into her mouth and made a face. "That makes two of us. So, I was noticing earlier, when you were taking your medication, that you looked kinda suspicious about it." She gave him her best disapproving doctor look. "Did you really take your medicine?"
"What business is it of yours?"
She waved a hand in front of his face. "I'm your doctor now, remember?"
He rolled his eyes, "Fine, I took my medication, okay? Happy now?"
"Are you telling me the truth?" she asked, leaning closer and trying her best to be serious despite the grin threatening to spread over her face.
He looked at her for a long time, his gaze locked with hers in a way that made heat spread throughout her entire body. "Absolutely," he said finally, his face utterly serious.
She laughed, breaking the intensity of the moment. "Somehow I don't believe you." She pointed her index finger in his face and said, "If I find out you're lying to me, you're going to be in big trouble, Mr. Leonhart."
He shook his head, shoving her hand out of his face. "I'm so frightened. What are you going to do, lock me up in solitary confinement?"
"No, I wouldn't do that to you," she replied.
"They all say that, but they always end up doing it anyway. Why should I believe you're any different from them?"
"Look, I promise to you that I won't lock you up. And if I break my promise, you can. lock me up in the padded cell and make me listen to Quistis' lectures all day."
A smile tugged at his lips. "Very few things could be worse than that. I guess you've got yourself a deal."
"Great!" Rinoa exclaimed. "So that settles it. I won't lock you in solitary confinement, but in return, you have to be a good patient. That means showing up for therapy, taking your medicine, and not doing that mute bit you do when you don't feel like talking. We got a deal?"
"Fine."
She extended her hand to him. "Shake on it?"
His face remained emotionless, but his nervousness and fear was evident in his eyes. He had to fight with himself not to stand up and leave right then. It was an odd thing, even to himself. He'd watched so many times as people around him hugged, kissed, held and shook hands. Yet still, he couldn't feel comfortable being touched by another person. Part of him was scared of it, and part of him craved it, after so many years of shying away from any form of human contact.
She gave him an understanding smile. "Maybe we'll save that for some other time."
He looked away from her, uncertain if he was relieved or ashamed. "Yeah, maybe," he said, standing from the table and going to throw his uneaten food in the trashcan.
Rinoa stared down at her own food and frowned. It was going to be a long, hard road for the both of them.
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A/N: Next chapter I'll be covering Rinoa and Squall's second official therapy session, and visitor's day. Hope you enjoyed this chapter! Please review! Please?