Time grew slippery around the house. Days faded into weeks, and October folded over into November, drab chilly rains being replaced with sharp cold and steely skies. A few mornings the grass had glittered with frost, and the air was cold enough to turn their breath into thick, pearly fog, but so far there had been no snow to speak of, which Skye found more than a little disappointing.
It felt like everything in her world was holding its breath to her, and not just the weather. At school things felt like they were hanging up in the air, suspended and waiting for some big moment to send everything crashing back down to earth. Ward was angry and on edge, but so far nothing had come of his threats. Skye's grades were slowly starting to inch up towards passing, but she couldn't shake the feeling that at any minute, she was going to lose her footing and the gigantic boulder of school was going to come rolling back down the hill and crush her flat. She felt the same way about home, as they danced around and tried to navigate the choppy waters of setting appointments with a doctor Skye was dreading having to go see. She caught snippets of phone conversations between Phil and May and different people – Miss Hand, Mrs. Hinton, probably the different doctors' offices. She knew they were working hard to get everything lined up, and the longer the time passed from when she had first agreed to go, the more Skye began to regret her words.
"I just can't believe it's going to take two months to get an appointment," she had heard May grumbling to Phil one night well past her bedtime, when she had wandered back downstairs to look for her copy of Stargirl. She knew she probably shouldn't be listening, but she also knew they were talking about her, and the curiosity overpowered her.
"We haven't tried everyone on the list yet," Phil said gently. Peering around the corner of the doorframe, Skye could see Phil standing behind May and wrapping her shoulders up in a hug from behind. May leaned her head onto his arm.
"Phil, honey, you don't think that would be more than a little… weird? Awkward?"
"Andrew's a friend, even if it's been a while. And we all managed to still like each other even after you two broke up and you and I started dating. Nothing could be more awkward than that." He chuckled a little, and he started swaying a little, back and forth, bringing May along with his rhythm. "You know him. You know he's good. And you know you trust him. I don't want to send the girls to someone we don't trust."
"I know, me neither," May admitted. "I'm just dreading making that first phone call. What am I supposed to say to someone who I haven't spoken to in years?"
"'Hello' is always a good place to start."
Finally, nearly two weeks after they had first started talking about finding a therapist, the day of their appointments came. It was a cold and overcast Saturday, the kind of day that would be best spent in pajamas watching cartoons, in Skye's opinion, but they needed to be at the doctor's office by 9:30, so there was hardly time to wolf down some cereal and get dressed, much less tune into the Avengers.
Her stomach had been flipflopping since she woke up that morning, and it was all she could do to force herself to stay somewhat still in her chair at the kitchen table. The only thing keeping her from banging her spoon against her bowl like a drum or bolting up and running a few laps around the kitchen was her knee, which rocketed up and down under the table. She poked at her cereal halfheartedly, but only managed to eat a few bites before it was time to go.
She wasn't the only one, either. Jemma hadn't even fixed herself anything to eat, and she hadn't stopped tapping from the moment she got out of bed. At least it was a steady tap, not a frantic one, so Skye knew Jemma wasn't as completely wigged out as she was. Bobbi looked tense and queasy, and it didn't escape Skye's notice that Bobbi had brought her batons down from her bedroom. She wasn't twirling them, but they rested right on her lap, where Skye figured she could probably grab them at a moment's notice. Ever since she had explained about her batons to Phil and May, Bobbi had been less shy about bringing them out, although it was still rare to see her twirl when other people were around. Skye thought she understood that – even if it didn't feel right to do something like twirling or tapping in front of other people, it was still nice to have something to hold onto that reminded you that you had a way to make things better if you needed it.
"It's time to go," Phil said with forced cheerfulness, once it was clear no one was going to make much headway on their breakfasts. "You all can go grab your shoes, Melinda and I will take care of the dishes and we'll meet you in the car, okay?"
Skye's stomach turned over with a clunk, like a bad engine. There was a moment of panic where her brain zipped through a hundred different excuses or ways to get out of this. She could pretend to be sick. She could refuse to move and wrap herself around the leg of the table so no one could pull her away. She could run and run and run and never look back. Just as quickly, though, she came back to earth and reminded herself that those were all terrible ideas and she was supposed to be brave. They were all going together, and May and Phil promised it was going to be okay. She took a deep breath and headed for the door, scooping up her shoes on her way out.
"Skye, your coat," Jemma reminded her. Skye took her hand off the door and turned back to the coatrack sheepishly.
"Oh yeah. Forgot."
Somehow they all managed to get outside and into the car with shoes on feet and coats zipped. Skye was glad Jemma had forced her to remember hers, because the wind that whipped around their shoulders and ankles was bitingly cold. Once they were all piled into the car, though, with the heat blasting and her, Jemma, and Bobbi all squished into the backseat, it didn't take long for everyone to warm up.
"Everyone okay?" May asked quietly, as they rode in tense silence. No one said anything, which didn't surprise Skye one bit. She certainly wasn't about to start talking about the writhing nest of jellyfish that was currently thrashing around in her stomach or the little alarm bells that kept clanging in her brain. She cast her eyes sideways to see if Jemma and Bobbi felt the same way. Jemma was staring at her lap, expression blank and finger rapping on her knee. Bobbi had her face turned so she was looking out the window, but Skye could see that she was running her thumb along the grip of her baton nervously.
"We're going to take everything nice and slow," Phil told them, smiling softly up into the rearview mirror. "And one of us will be with you the whole time, as long as you want us to be there."
About ten minutes later, the car slowed and pulled into a small parking lot outside a nondescript brick building. It was the kind of building that Skye would have never paid any attention to if she had been passing by, but now that they were stopped right outside of it, it was like every detail was flashing a neon sign to her brain. The way the sidewalk in front of the door tilted upward, forced to slope up to accommodate a rogue tree root creeping over from the grass strip on the other side. The neatly stenciled letters on the door that felt to Skye like they were floating off the glass. The pit of dread that was burrowed so deeply she wondered if she could ever dig it out.
May reached the door first, but when she tried to open it, she looked like her arm had gotten stuck in midair. Intrigued, Skye watched as a muscle in May's jaw jumped. Behind them, Phil cleared his throat gently, and at the sound, May inhaled sharply through her nose and unstuck her arm, grabbing the door handle and pushing. Maybe she was feeling nervous about today, too.
The inside of the office was warm and soft-feeling, not at all what Skye had expected. The other doctors' offices she'd been dragged to over the years were often sterile, white, and severe, with hard plastic chairs and harsh fluorescent lights. Cold offices, both in temperature and atmosphere. Not this office, though. The chairs had wooden arms and legs, but fabric cushions on the seats, and the walls were a color somewhere between yellow and tan – a color that reminded Skye of bread or the cake that they had baked with May not so long ago. There were a couple big plants in pots sitting in the corners of the room, and off to one side there was a table with books, magazines, and some scattered Legos all sitting, ready to entertain anyone who might be waiting. There was a window set into one wall, and behind it a middle-aged woman with greying hair sat behind a desk. She looked up when they entered and smiled.
"Good morning," she greeted them. "How can I help you?"
"Hi, I'm Melinda May, and this is my husband, Phil Coulson. We spoke on the phone a few times about an appointment with Dr. Garner…" May's voice had that weird sound in it that she got when she talked on the phone – something formal and plasticky.
"May-Coulson, mm-hmm, yes, I see it right here." The woman nodded as she skimmed her eyes across the computer screen in front of her. "You're welcome to have a seat, I'll let Dr. Garner know you're here, and he'll be out in just a moment."
"Thank you, uh…"
"Marilyn," the woman supplied cheerfully.
"Thank you, Marilyn," May said, sounding a little bit more like herself. She led them over to the chairs and perched on one herself. Phil stopped at the window before following, flashing Marilyn a smile.
"It's nice to meet you," he said. "I'm Phil. Thanks for your help."
"It's my pleasure."
Marilyn rose from her desk and disappeared towards the back of the office. As soon as she was gone, May arched an eyebrow in Phil's direction.
"You can't help yourself, can you?" she teased.
"What? I was being polite," Phil said good-naturedly. "And I like meeting people. Relationship building is one of life's keys to success, kiddos, remember that," he added, winking at Skye, Jemma, and Bobbi. Skye could tell he was being extra goofy in an attempt to smooth out their frayed nerves, and while it wasn't the most effective of strategies, Skye could at least appreciate the effort.
Marilyn from the front desk had been right when she said that the doctor would be out soon, as it had only been a minute or two before the heavy wooden door that led to the rest of the office swung open and revealed a man who Skye could only assume was Dr. Garner. He was a tall Black man who looked to be around Phil and May's age, which would make sense if they had all gone to school together when they were younger. He had short black hair, and even though his face looked serious, his dark eyes radiated kindness. Against her will, Skye felt suspicion curl around her heart and creep up the back of her neck like an insidious vine. Much like his office, Dr. Garner wasn't what she'd been expecting, and the surprise set all of her senses on high alert.
"My goodness," he said, surveying the room and taking in the sight of the five of them, all waiting. His stoic expression melted away into a smile, almost amused. "Well, it certainly has been a while. Melinda, Phil, it's really good to see you both."
"Hi Andrew," Phil beamed. He stood up from his chair and crossed over to shake the doctor's hand. "A few years, at least, and totally my fault. I let the time get away from me."
"Losing touch is a shared responsibility, Phil," Andrew chuckled. "All I can say is I'm grateful for your letters at Christmas and the occasional Facebook post, otherwise I'd never get a chance to see how you all are doing."
"My mom was always a stickler about the Christmas letters," Phil admitted. "And Melinda likes that we keep the tradition alive."
Hearing her name, Dr. Garner turned to May and deepened his smile. "You look good, Melinda. How've you been?"
"Good," May said, a little stiffly. "Busy, of course. Things are pretty different around the house these days."
"I can imagine," Dr. Garner nodded. His gaze moved from May over to the row of chairs where Skye, Jemma, and Bobbi were all sitting. "Good morning. I'm Dr. Garner. Very pleased to meet you all. I'm sure you already know this, but Phil, Melinda, and I all go way back."
"Is it true you were May's boyfriend?" Skye blurted out, before she could stop herself. Immediately her face flushed beet red. Dr. Garner looked a little taken aback, but he answered without hesitation.
"Yes. A long time ago. And then we were friends for a long time after. All of us, as a matter of fact."
"How come you aren't friends anymore?" she wanted to know. As far as she could tell, none of them had gotten in a fight or moved away, so she couldn't think of a good reason why they shouldn't still be friends, unless Dr. Garner wasn't as nice as May and Phil had promised he was.
"I wouldn't say we're not still friends," Dr. Garner said thoughtfully. "Although you're right, we don't see each other nearly as often as we used to. Life got in the way, I suppose. We were friends in high school and college, and after that I went to medical school, which made my life very busy. It got harder to stay in touch. We did our best to make time for each other, but before we knew it, we were only seeing each other once or twice a year, then hardly ever at all."
"The internet has helped a little," Phil offered. "We keep each other posted about the big things that way, at least. But he's right, it's been a long time since we spent any real time together."
"Well, there's no time like the present," Dr. Garner smiled. "I can assure you this time will be strictly professional, though. I know not to get my social wire crossed with my work wire."
"You always had a knack for separating the two," May said. If Skye didn't know any better, she might have thought that May was teasing him a little, but she thought that seemed a little far-fetched. "Seriously, though, we appreciate you doing this for us. There's… there's really nobody else we'd trust the girls with, Andrew, really."
"I'm deeply honored," he said gently. "And I'm eager to get to know your newest family members."
"This is Skye, Jemma, and Bobbi," May told him, indicating them each in turn. Skye gave a half-hearted wave, Bobbi a crooked, weak smile, and Jemma nothing but a couple of antsy taps on the arm of her chair. Dr. Garner didn't seem offended by the lackluster reception, however, and his eyes remained warm as he nodded a greeting to each of them.
"I'm ready to start when you all are. Who'd like to go first?"
Not surprisingly, no one had exactly volunteered to go first. Eventually, though, Skye realized that if she went ahead and got hers out of the way, then she wouldn't have to sit and worry about it the whole time she was waiting for Jemma and Bobbi to have their turns. Plus there was a tiny part of her that wanted to be brave for everyone and show Jemma and Bobbi that there really wasn't anything to be afraid of, even though she herself was secretly terrified and it felt like her organs were all quaking with fear just under her skin.
They had all decided long before their arrival to the office that morning that May would sit in with Skye and Bobbi during their turns, and Phil would sit in with Jemma, but that didn't stop May from checking with Skye before they followed Dr. Garner back through the heavy wooden door.
"Would you still like me to be there with you, Skye?" Skye thought for a second, then nodded. She knew she was supposed to be able to trust that Dr. Garner wouldn't be like the other doctors, but the uneasiness was still there. At least if May was in the room, nothing too bad could happen to her. May wouldn't let it, she'd promised, and so far May had kept every promise she'd made to Skye.
Dr. Garner led them down a short, carpeted hall. The walls were adorned with all kinds of framed pictures and paintings, all of which looked like they had been made by kids. Some were the smeary blobs of kindergarten finger paint, others were more intricate-looking sketches that might have been done by kids Bobbi's age. At the end of the hall was another door, this one ajar. Dr. Garner pushed it open the rest of the way and gestured for Skye and May to enter, which they did obediently. Skye could hear a buzzing in her ears, and she could feel her heartbeat in her skull. Her fingers and arms and knees were all tingling with nerves, itching to do something to make the apprehension dissipate, but no brilliant ideas came to her as they walked into what could only be Dr. Garner's office.
The office reminded Skye of a fancier version of Mrs. Hinton's office back at school. There was a couch and a couple of quash-y looking armchairs all arranged in front of a big wooden desk. A worktable sat along one wall with a couple of chairs of its own, and the other walls were lined with bookshelves, all crammed full of books and binders and a few picture frames. There was a clock sitting on Dr. Garner's desk, but the hands on it didn't make any kind of ticking sound, as far as Skye could tell. That was a good sign, since clock ticks made it hard for her to concentrate.
"Have a seat, make yourself comfortable," Dr. Garner said, grabbing a legal pad and a manila folder full of papers from his desk and settling into one of the armchairs. Skye was a little surprised he didn't retreat behind his desk, but she didn't quite know what kind of meaning she was supposed to extrapolate from the gesture, so she let it go. May waited for Skye to pick where to sit before making any moves herself, and after a moment of deliberation, Skye settled on the other armchair, leaving May to sit on the couch by herself. It wasn't that Skye wanted to put distance between herself and May exactly, more like she was afraid that if she sat right next to May, it would be too easy to let her guard down.
"So, Skye," Dr. Garner began, once they had all taken their seats. "One of the first questions I usually like to start with is why. Why did you decide to come and see me today?"
"Because I had to." Skye swung her legs back and forth in the chair. The chair was big, and her feet didn't quite touch the ground when she sat all the way back in it. It made her feel small, like a little kid or something. "They said at school that I was supposed to come get tests done."
Dr. Garner made a thoughtful sound. "That sounds more like a reason why someone else wanted you to come, don't you think? What about you? Did you decide to come because you agreed with the school? Or for a different reason?"
"I don't know," Skye said flatly, shrugging. Her eyes were fixed on her swinging feet. All of the sudden she was feeling very shy, and maybe a little surly, too. This was already starting to sound too much like every other grownup she'd ever had to talk with. Dumb questions that she didn't know the answers to. She didn't know what he wanted her to say.
"Skye," May said softly, her tone a little stern. "We talked about this. You need to try."
"It's okay," Dr. Garner assured them. His voice was light and breezy, not deterred, it seemed, by Skye's standoffishness. "It's not always an easy question to answer, and I may not be asking it correctly. Let me ask you this, instead. Do you want to be here, Skye?"
Skye sat there for a minute, not sure if honesty was the right call or not. She swung her legs a few more times before risking a glance up at May. She wore a serious expression, but as soon as she noticed Skye watching her, her expression changed. Her eyebrows inched up and she tilted her head just a little to one side, as if to say well, why not? Skye scrunched up her nose in concentration and returned her attention to her dangling feet. "No. Not really."
"That's good to know," Dr. Garner said with a chuckle. "I'm curious, what changed your mind? If you didn't want to be here, why come now? You don't strike me a person who does something you don't want to do just because someone else said you had to."
"Well, Bobbi didn't want to come," Skye tried to explain. "And she was… she needs… May and Phil thought she should get some help, because of how scary her memories can get, but she didn't want to come. I said I'd do it if she did. That way she wouldn't have to be afraid anymore."
"That's very admirable of you, Skye."
"It's no big deal. Bobbi helps us out, too. Me and Jemma. So I wanted to return the favor, I guess."
"I'm sure Bobbi appreciates it. And I know I'm certainly glad you're here, even if you yourself aren't so sure," Dr. Garner smiled. "Is there a particular reason why you don't want to be here?"
Skye just shrugged, a limp single shoulder pumping up and down. There were many reasons, none of which she was particularly interested in dissecting at the moment. She didn't want to offend Dr. Garner by saying that she thought doctors were usually bad news, and she didn't want to admit to May that she'd been through this before, that the results were never good.
"How does being here make you feel?" Dr. Garner asked, curious. "Nervous?"
"No!" Skye lied quickly. Too quickly. Her face grew hot and she hunkered down in her chair, a little embarrassed that she had tipped her hand so obviously. Her mind raced through a litany of possible things to say to steer the conversation in a different direction – preferably one that was less focused on her feelings. "How long were you May's boyfriend for?"
Somewhere off to her side, May let out a long sigh – one of those tired sounding sighs that grownups used when they were getting a little fed up with the way you were acting – and Skye tried her best not to bristle at the sound. She wasn't trying to make May mad, but she was desperate to talk about anything else.
"About two years," Dr. Garner answered her. "We started dating our junior year of high school and broke up our freshman year of college." His voice was measured and not especially exasperated. The lack of disapproval was like a tantalizing foothold of opportunity to Skye, and she couldn't resist asking her next questions.
"How come you broke up? Did you get married to somebody else like May did?"
"Skye," May warned. "You know that's not an appropriate question. This isn't the time to be pushing boundaries."
"Sorry," Skye mumbled, chastened.
"It's all right, thank you for apologizing," Dr. Garner said. "I hope you'll forgive me for choosing not to answer those questions right now. I'm happy to answer other questions, of course, but those are a little personal. After all, we've only known each other a few minutes." There was a twinkle in his eye when he said that last part, and Skye hoped that meant he wasn't mad at her for being nosy. She hoped May wasn't mad, either. She hadn't meant to push boundaries – well, that wasn't entirely true. She had, but she hadn't really thought it all the way through. Her nerves were all hot and vibrating like an overheated computer fan, and asking those questions was the first thing that popped into her head that might help cool things off.
"Maybe we should just start," Skye said dully, dragging her toe across the carpet and relishing the scraping sound and buzzy feeling it made in her foot. "Do the tests or something."
"We can do that," nodded Dr. Garner. He pulled out the manila folder and began thumbing through some of the papers in it. "I have the referral paperwork here from your guidance counselor, plus some of her notes from the evaluation she did with you a few weeks ago. She recommended seeking out a potential diagnosis for dyslexia and for ADHD, is that correct?" Skye watched sneakily out of the corner of her eye as May nodded.
"That was her preliminary impression based on her time with Skye and observations from Skye's teachers, yes," May said.
"What about you and Phil?" Dr. Garner asked. "You see Skye more than her teachers. Would you say you share Mrs. Hinton's impression?"
May looked thoughtful for a moment. She turned her attention on Skye and gave her a long, hard look before speaking. It wasn't a bad look, though. Not one like Sister Margaret's, which always felt like she was judging every inch of you from top to bottom, or like Brother Jonathan's, which held nothing but contempt and disgust. It was softer than those, stronger. It was hard to describe, almost like May was trying to telegraph that the things she was about to say weren't supposed to make Skye feel bad, even if they were bad things.
"Well, I don't know much about either one beyond what Polly told us, plus a little internet research. Phil knows a little more, being a teacher, of course…" May trailed off, flicked her gaze from Skye to Dr. Garner and back to Skye again. "But if I had to guess, I'd say that Polly didn't sound all that far off. We certainly trust her judgement and her expertise. Skye has a lot of trouble with reading, even though we know she's very smart and she works hard. And some things like staying focused or reining in some of her impulses can be tricky." The back of Skye's neck felt hot and a lump was growing in her throat.
"What about you, Skye?" Dr. Garner wanted to know. "When Mrs. Hinton was explaining some of those terms to you, did it feel like she was describing you accurately? Or did it sound like she was talking about someone else who wasn't like you?"
"Pretty close, I guess," Skye murmured, unwanted shame flaring up inside her. "She said my brain mixes up the letters and that it's really easy for me to get distracted. Jemma said there's something with the chemicals in my brain or the shape of it or… something. She wanted to look at the scans."
"Tell me what a normal day looks like for you," Dr. Garner prompted. "From the time you wake up to the time you go to bed. What do you do?"
Skye furrowed her brow, thinking hard. "A school day? Or a weekend day?"
"School day," Dr. Garner decided. "What's first?"
"I get up. Phil wakes us up usually. Sometimes I wake up on my own first, though. When we first came here I woke up really early so I could sneak back into my room. Me and Jemma didn't share rooms then, and I… I didn't like being alone. But now we share, so I don't have to get up early to sneak back anywhere." She watched carefully as she spoke. Dr. Garner was making little notes on his paper, nodding along with her. "I get up. I eat breakfast. Usually we just have cereal, but sometimes we have pancakes, like on special days. Then we get our stuff and get in the car and go to school."
"How long does it take you to get your things before leaving?"
"It depends I guess," Skye shrugged. She had no idea what any of this had to do with her tests for school. "Jemma always tells me to put all my stuff in my backpack the night before and to leave my shoes someplace I'll remember, but sometimes I forget to do it. It takes longer on those days, since I have to find all my stuff for school. And I'm pretty sure there's like a law of the universe that says it's always way harder to find the left shoe than the right one."
Dr. Garner chuckled at that. "You may be right. My mother always told me there was a monster in our house who only ate left shoes, but I like your 'law of the universe' idea better, I think." He made a few more notes, then looked up. "What about school? Tell me a little bit about what school is like for you."
"It's fine," Skye said slowly. "It's actually not so bad compared to some of my other schools. I haven't had to go to office or do detention or anything yet. My grades are bad, but I go to tutoring. And I'm learning stuff in computer science. We're making these little robots that can go through a maze. Well, that's what they're supposed to do. We haven't gotten to that part yet. We're writing a code to tell the robot where to go."
"That sounds interesting," Dr. Garner said. "Are all your classes that interesting?"
"Not really." Skye crinkled up her nose slightly. "Most of the other ones are kind of boring. Or confusing. Or both. It's a lot of sitting and listening and doing dumb quizzes and worksheets that I'm bad at."
"And you don't like that?"
"I just like it better when we get to do actual stuff. Not just paper work."
"I can understand that." Dr. Garner scratched something onto his notepad. "Well, Skye, let me tell you what I think we should try and get accomplished while we're together today. I have a couple of activities that I like to use to help in my assessments. They're probably pretty similar to some of the things you did with Mrs. Hinton at school, so there won't be any big surprises. I'll take a look at those, plus the notes she sent me from your school, and that will start to give me a clearer picture of you. We can also keep talking, if you want. The more I know about you, the easier it is to figure out the unique ways your brain might see the world. Does that make sense?"
Skye nodded. This was what she had been expecting. She wasn't looking forward to it, by any means, but at least this was familiar. "Yeah."
"One of my assessments is kind of like a quiz, but there's no grade. I have a version that you can take with paper and pencil, or a version you can take on a computer. Do you have a preference?"
"Computer," Skye said with hesitation. Dr. Garner smiled.
"I thought that might be the case." He stood up and beckoned for her and May to follow him. Intrigued, Skye hopped up from her chair and trailed after him, back out into the hallway and over into a little side room that had a computer, set up and glowing, just waiting for her fingers to guide it.
"Why don't we start with the computer quiz," Dr. Garner suggested. "We've been doing a lot of sitting and talking. This will be a nice change of pace." He clicked a few things, typed in what looked like a login and password, then stepped away and indicated that Skye should sit down. "Basically each question will give you a statement, then you can click the number that goes with how much you agree or disagree. 1 means not at all and 10 means like 100%. This icon here," he pointed to a little speaker icon next to the first question, "will read the question out loud for you if you want it to. Does that sound like something you can do for me?"
Skye nodded. It didn't sound nearly as hard as a science quiz, plus she wouldn't have to read the questions herself.
"Great. You can take as long as you need," Dr. Garner told her. "I'll be right here if you have any questions."
The quiz was unlike anything Skye had ever seen. The questions weren't really questions at all, more like things about herself that were true or false. It takes me a long time to finish things. I forget to do important things, like my homework or my chores. I am easily distracted by things going on around me. Those were all things that she clicked high numbers for, plus the ones that talked about that crawly feeling she got in her arms and legs when she needed to get up and do something. Other ones, like I always finish what I am working on before I start something new or I like to rest and be still when I am stressed she marked low numbers for.
There were some that were a little harder to pick a number for. People tell me I talk too much was a tricky one, because she used to hear that all the time when she was little, but at some point she had learned to rope that part of herself in. Talking got her in trouble most of the time, so she taught herself to stay quiet instead, and save her talking for Jemma. She messed up sometimes, and there were times where she couldn't help but blurt something out, especially if no one else was saying anything, but years of time outs and detentions for being disruptive and of getting in trouble for accidentally admitting things she should have kept quiet about had honed her ability to keep her mouth shut.
Eventually, though, she managed to pick a number for every question on the quiz, and she clicked the DONE button with a satisfied grin. If more of her quizzes were on computers like this, maybe she wouldn't hate taking them quite as much.
"All finished?" Dr. Garner asked, once he heard the ping of the computer. Skye nodded. "Excellent. Great work, Skye. Let's go back into my office, shall we? I have a few more things for us to work on."
He had her do some things with reading next, which were all pretty much the same as what Mrs. Hinton had done with her. Sounding out words, spelling things, reading little paragraphs about a boy and his lost dog. Those were much harder than the computer quiz had been, and she was feeling cooped up and cranky by the time she finished those. She didn't like reading at the best of times, but reading out loud and under pressure, while Dr. Garner and May were listening, put her that much more on edge. Luckily, they both seemed to be able to tell that she was reaching the end of her patience and ability to stay cooperative.
"Well, I think that's more than enough assessment for one session," Dr. Garner said in a chipper tone, once Skye had reached the end of the story and the boy and his dog had been reunited. The story had been annoyingly earnest, and Skye couldn't help the sour voice in the back of her mind that grouched a wish for an ending where Spot had stayed with the pack of alley cats instead of going home to dopey old Billy. "Really great job, Skye. Thank you for your hard work."
"Are we done?" Skye sulked. She caught a pointed glance from May and straightened up a little in her chair. "Sorry. I meant, is that the last thing we're doing today?" It was hard to remember to be polite when she was feeling so worn out.
"I think so. Your time's almost up, so unless there's anything else you'd like to talk about—"
"No," Skye said quickly.
"—or questions you'd like to ask me," Dr. Garner continued. "Then I think you can go back to the waiting room."
Skye didn't hesitate to stand up, and she was already at the door before May had even had a chance to say goodbye to Dr. Garner.
"Melinda, I'll be out to collect Phil and Jemma in just a moment, if you'll let him know?"
"I will."
"I'll meet with them, then you and Bobbi, and then I'd like to speak with you and Phil together at the end, if that's all right."
"That will work," May said.
"I'll be sure to say goodbye before you leave, Skye," Dr. Garner called as she started edging herself out of the door. "It was very nice to meet you."
"You too," she told him reflexively. It wasn't a total lie. He had at least been nice – nicer than any other doctor she had ever had. And it wasn't his fault that she was jumbled up enough to need all those tests. That was all on her. She just wanted to be done and to leave and to not have to think so hard about all the things that made her different from everybody else. There was at least one good thing, though, she thought to herself as she and May traipsed back to the waiting room. All her school tests had taken so long there wasn't any time to talk about her feelings or her parents or the things that had been racing through her head the day she'd run away and May had first suggested seeing a doctor. That was definitely a plus.
Hi friends! :) It's been quite a while, and I apologize for that. I'm not entirely sure what happened, just that things got busy and time got the better of me. Hopefully a three-chapter update will make up for the long wait! I know we've had chapters somewhat like this one before, where Skye goes through these kind of evaluation processes, but I thought it was important to show just how long and repetitive this kind of process can be. I hope you still like the chapter and found it interesting, despite us retreading some familiar territory :) Hopefully you're all well - I'm always so grateful to y'all for reading :)