Author's note:
In case anyone didn't notice, I've upped the rating on this fic. Turns out, the Weapon X crew and certain other characters have these intense past storylines that I don't want to shy away from. Plus one of them swears a lot (I'm looking at you, Mr. Logan) and all are going to be dealing with some heavy stuff as the fic goes on. Nothing overly bloody or graphic (cause writing graphic stuff gives me the jibblies... jibbly jibblies...no, really I just don't do it), I just thought it was fair to warn.
No dancing Trolls in this one, folks. But heavy, heavy laying of the plot... Time to dig in and get into the heads of these characters... Let me know what you think...
Chapter Three:
Linnea Psychiatric Hospital... Just outside of Los Angeles
"Dr. Zarin..." a woman called to her guest as she walked toward the lobby.
Yuriko turned with appropriate recognition at the professional alias she had invented earlier in the week. She sported a briefcase with the initials 'HVZ' embossed on the cover and the laminated guest pass on her lapel also said 'Dr. Zarin.'
The woman who greeted Yuriko was dressed in a stereotypical doctor's coat worn over a simple blue blouse and black suit trousers. Her shoes must have had soft soles because they did not click against the linoleum floor of the main hall. The woman paused by the front security station and waited for the harsh buzz, which signaled that the main entrance from the lobby had been unlocked.
Yuriko smiled graciously as the woman joined her on the other side of the glass and then shook her hand in greeting. The doctor's security nametag read 'Dr. M. Hageman, M.D., Psy. D., Linnea Psychiatric Hospital, Level A Clearance'.
"Dr. Zarin," the woman repeated, sounding breathless as she ran a hand over her own mousy hair, "I'm so glad to finally meet you. I was more than a little surprised to hear about your interest in our program. It's been so difficult for us to find supportive links in the psychiatric community... and by that, of course, I mean monetary supporters..."
Yuriko nodded, offering false sympathies to her willing host. The Lady knew exactly why this hospital had problems finding financial backers. But she would let Dr. Hageman speak of it in her own time. If Yuriko was going to get the information she needed, she would have to maintain her new alias, the curious scholar.
"Well," Yuriko replied, "Then I hope my own research will bring new light to your work. Believe it or not, I haven't heard only bad things about your programs..."
Dr. Hageman smirked and then nodded wearily.
"I'm going to have to go with the 'or not' for now," she replied to her guest, "But you're not here to discuss our fiscal issues. Why don't we start with a tour of the facilities? I'd love to know more about your study..."
Yuriko followed the doctor through the main doors and into the hospital. The front guards hardly spared them a glance as they passed. Yuriko could see several rows of monitors set up along the far wall broadcasting feed from dozens of security cameras positioned around the building. Most displayed hallways, common rooms, cafeterias, and any other place that the patients tended to start brawls.
After years of being involved in security at a secret military base, Yuriko resisted the urge to leap over the counter and give the guards a verbal drilling that would most likely lead to their need for new under shorts.
No wonder Magneto's daughter had escaped from this place so easily.
"Does the Linnea group only specialize in adolescents?" Yuriko asked, as if she were addressing a professor.
"Oh, no, no," Dr. Hageman insisted fretfully, "Not at all. We have multiple wings dealing with all age ranges and a wide variety of psychological disorders. Though, as you know, our population is exclusively female..."
Yuriko nodded. This was something she had known before leaving the east coast. The documents she had retrieved for Magneto identified the hospital where Wanda Maximoff had been transferred to upon her expulsion from school. The authorization forms had been signed by Eric Lensherr himself.
"We have our outpatient services here on the ground floor," Dr. Hageman continued, "The eating disorders clinic is on the second as well as the depression and suicide prevention center. Of course, most of those treatments are paid for by private insurance, so they don't suffer the same financial problems as my department..."
Yuriko did not miss the sudden bitter tone in the doctor's words, but there was a strange sense of injustice in the last statement that caught her by surprise.
"I understand," Yuriko said quietly, "I suppose cases like Wanda Maximoff have not helped you in that area..."
Dr. Hageman turned toward Yuriko as they reached the elevator. The exhaustion in the doctor's eyes seemed to exaggerate her age. This again surprised Yuriko, who waited patiently to hear the other woman's reaction to her blunt statement.
"Yes," the doctor replied slowly, "But I wouldn't trade my work with her for any amount of money..."
Her words weighed heavily in the air for a moment, then the elevator chimed and the doors opened. The doctor entered first and waved for her guest to follow.
"I'm sorry if I offended you just then," Yuriko finally said once the lift was heading upward, "I hope you don't think..."
Dr. Hageman waved her hand again, this time in a dismissive motion. Yuriko fell silent.
"No, no, no" the doctor said with an honest grin, "No offense. If I thought you meant to, I would have ushered you immediately back to the lobby. We've had our share of 'offenders' over the past decade or so. One intern started referring to my unit as the 'freak show' on her first tour. No, no, what you said is absolutely true..."
The elevator came to a halt and the doors opened again, letting the two riders out onto the fifth floor. Yuriko continued to follow Dr. Hageman toward her department, listening with honest interest as she spoke.
"We've dealt with a lot of debilitating disorders up here in my time," the doctor continued, "Schizophrenics, self-injurious, more personality disorders than I'd care to count. But as the mutants became more clearly identified, we developed this wing specifically to deal with that population...but Wanda..."
Dr. Hageman paused and then held up a hand toward Yuriko for emphasis, "Not to say that being a mutant is the only criteria for admission. The fact is, mutants are still human and can still have the same psychological needs as anyone else. Unfortunately, normal humans don't always see it that way..."
Yuriko's intrigue had now moved beyond her mission. She had admittedly had a preconceived bias in her mind as to what the Linnea group had been doing with mutants. She supposed her years with Stryker were to blame for that, too.
Dr. Hageman's attitude seemed to prove that bias wrong.
Unfortunately, Yuriko's theory would not be proven entirely inaccurate.
"When segregated areas for mutants were proposed, no one really argued against it," the doctor continued as they reached another guarded metal door, "That was before I came to work with the Linnea group. Back when Dr. Manners was CMO..."
"Dr. Manners?" Yuriko inquired as the large security doors buzzed open.
"Surely, you've read about her work," Dr. Hageman said with disbelief, "Her research on mutants and mental illness has been reproduced in several major publications..."
Yuriko shook her head as she followed the doctor into the next hall, "No, I'm sorry. I can't say I've ever heard of her."
Dr. Hageman's brow furrowed, "Well... that may be for the best. Here, let me show you around our clinic."
As the doctor gave Yuriko a quick tour of the 'mutant' wing, the Lady held her brewing questions in check, despite how rapidly they were increasing in number.
"As you can see," Dr. Hageman said as they walked passed the individual rooms, "We take pride in ensuring that each patient receives all proper medical and nutritional needs. We try to provide every comfort we can, though, considering some of the girls' violent natures, recreational activities are kept to a strict, daily regimen."
Yuriko glanced into each bedroom cautiously, maintaining her mask of indifference as she observed the patients. Not all of the young women had visible mutations, though most of their psychological needs were apparent. A few rooms had been torn apart, some girls simply hid themselves in dark corners, while others leered and made incoherent cat calls at the doctor and her guest.
As they entered the common area, about a dozen teenaged girls were scattered around the large room. In many ways, the scene was no different than a college dorm...except, of course, for the grating over the windows, the line of orderlies monitoring the area and the strange sterile scent that permeated most hospital settings.
The girls noticed Dr. Hageman and Yuriko with only slightly more enthusiasm than the entrance guards. A few with obvious physical mutations threw the pair spiteful stares, but then quickly returned to conversations with their peers.
"We knew she was a mutant," Dr. Hageman said as they moved into another hall, "Right from the start. We do with most now, even though their parents typically want to keep it a secret. But Wanda... Wanda's father... He made absolutely no qualms about his daughter's power..."
"You met him personally?" Yuriko asked, another new detail piquing her curiosity.
Dr. Hageman nodded, "Yes. Mr. Lensherr has become quite infamous over the past few years. But this was over twenty years ago, and he did seem genuinely concerned for his daughter's well-being. When he first sent us information about Wanda, he included detailed accounts of her mutant abilities... how destructive they could be. We all felt quite up to the challenge. Dr. Manners was ecstatic, to say the least... but Wanda..."
The doctor paused by the last door in the hall and touched it with an obvious sense of regret.
"But... Wanda..." she repeated, "...was... more... than any of us expected..."
When Dr. Hageman opened the door, Yuriko felt all her new found sympathy for this woman and her organization melt away and be replaced by a fount of primal rage.
The room was square, almost perfectly square, except for small section of wall pressed back to allow for a wide observation window. The floor was made of heavy concrete and the only source of light was from two small windows on the far wall, barely wide enough to stick an adult sized hand through. The walls were the same cement gray as the floor, but had been padded at one time. The remains of fabric and soft foam hung in places around the room, which Yuriko identified as the source of a rotting odor that wafted into the hall.
In the center of the room was a single bed made of dark plastic. Whatever linens or padding that had provided cushioning were long gone, but ten heavy straps still lay across its top. Curiously, each restraint seemed to have suffered some kind of damage, though the cause was not apparent.
Even more interesting was a plastic chair, which had somehow been fused into one of the walls about two feet from the observation window. Neither the chair or the wall seemed to have any sign of distress, they were simply fused together. The opposing wall, however, had a large and impossible crack running directly up the middle, as if the two halves had been shifted against each other like a fault line.
Yuriko's fingers slowly rolled into tight fists. The cracking of her adamantium-lined knuckles was audible, a sound that echoed through the hideous room. Not since returning to consciousness at Alkalai Lake had she experienced such a vicious and furious hate.
"This..." the Lady Deathstrike managed after a few moments, "This... was... for her..."
Yuriko did not turn around, but her enhanced senses could hear Dr. Hageman's hair rustling as she nodded.
"Yes..." the doctor struggled through her dry throat, "One could say... this room... represents Dr. Manners' opinion on how our patients... our mutant patients... should be treated..."
Yuriko's slight body shook visibly as Hageman spoke. She closed her eyes and focused on keeping her control. She was not Stryker's animal. She was not simply the Lady Deathstrike. She was Yuriko Oyama. She remembered the face of her father and she would not give into her anger.
"Dr. Manners..." Hageman continued calmly, "...had a way with the board of directors, you see. Twenty years ago, her brother had recently joined a rather wealthy law firm in Los Angeles and made several lucrative donations to the hospital. How could they say no to Dr. Manner's treatment proposals after that? She convinced them that 'they didn't have a choice'... 'if there was another way, we would certainly try that first but...' Dr. Manners believed in extreme therapies. And Wanda was unlike any mutant any of us had ever seen..."
Yuriko struggled to regain her composure. Something in Hageman's words struck her as familiar. The sensation was not a strong as it had been on the airplane, but it was undeniable. Where had Yuriko heard Dr. Manners' name before?
"...Most mutants," Dr. Hageman continued, "...have one definable gift. Elementals, telepaths, animalities, telekinetics... The team here had actually developed several effective and non-invasive therapies to help them gain control of their gifts... but Wanda..."
Hageman reached past 'Dr. Zarin' and pulled the cell door shut. Yuriko finally turned her head and met the doctor's gaze.
"I have nothing against mutants... Dr. Zarin," she said firmly, "All I see when I look at my patients are young woman who need help. Of course... I'm sure any extreme treatments we wanted to try would still be quickly approved by the board of directors, as long as we were trying them on a mutant. We just had no way to define Wanda. Her gifts were beyond what any of us had seen before. It was as if she could emulate whatever power she wanted. Pull whatever fears you had out of your head and make them real... like... she would curse you..."
Hageman shook her head, "But that is ridiculous, of course. We have many young women here who think they have magical powers, but are simply suffering from delusions. They want to have some strange gift... they want to have a reason for being different. We thought integration with normal peers might help our girls but... Wanda..."
"What happened to Dr. Manners?" Yuriko suddenly asked.
"Moved onto better things?" Hageman replied resentfully, "No one ever said. With her brother's connections at Wolfram and Hart, she could have gone anywhere..."
"But, you know...don't you?" Yuriko insisted, "What happened to her? What happened to Wanda?"
Hageman shifted her eyes anxiously toward one of the security cameras and forced a broad grin in her face.
"Classified," she replied and then added, "That information is only available to Level A clearance staff... through our medical database..."
Yuriko narrowed her eyes, reading the woman's body language for signs of deception. The doctor knew they were being watched, and she knew how much she was allowed to show her 'guest'.
"I'm sorry to hear that," the Lady said, "I suppose my research will have to end here."
"Not necessarily," Hageman insisted, a strange pleading in her eyes, "There are other resources available. If you like... the university has a wonderful selection of alternate texts. If you have a piece of paper, I'll give you the librarian's number..."
With two quick motions, Yuriko opened her briefcase and handed Hageman a steno pad. The doctor's hands were shaking as she wrote a series of numbers (far too many to be a phone number) onto the paper and then handed back to 'Dr. Zarin'.
"Just have her search for the Linnea group's homepage..." Hageman said hurriedly, "Type my name into the field and all my publications should be listed..."
Yuriko put the steno pad back into her briefcase but never took her eyes off her strangely willing informant.
"I appreciate your help," the Lady said calmly, looking as demure as when she first walked into the lobby.
Dr. Hageman brushed a hand over her disheveled hair and nodded, "No problem... I... I hope you find what you're looking for..."
And maybe more, Yuriko thought as the doctor escorted her toward the exit.
Author's note P.S. – Lot's of Wanda stuff, I know, I'm going all over the place with this one. But without Wanda, how will all us Toad fans get more of the love-struck Brit we all, um... love! (Shout out to neglected Toad fans everywhere... cause I heard he's not in X3... damn it... oh well, anyway, IMHO, Frasier is gonna be a great Dr. Hank!) (Can't you just HEAR his voice?)
P.P.S. – To LilSis – Quit your bitching and watch RD... NOW