There Are No Bitches Here
They were all quiet as the nurse escorted them to their room. Opening the door, Caroline wasn't shocked at the sight of the especially ordinary room that beheld her. Whitewashed walls, tiled floors, three metal framed beds that lined separate walls sheeted with blankets, flat looking pillows, and a pile of folded clothes and towels, bedside tables sat the the left of each of the beds with light blue lamps and alarm clocks, a dark wooden desk accompanied by a black fabric seat with three notebooks, pens, and a stack of paper, an depressingly empty linoleum lined bookshelf beside an open closet with some wire coat hangers covered in cotton and three pairs of slippers, and directly opposite the door, a large window that looked upon the thick forest that backed the place. Caroline spotted her bag of belongings underneath the bed beneath the window, and immediately rushed towards it.
Hayley and Bonnie stood in the door way watching until they realized what Caroline was doing, and soon ran towards the beds with their bags, and took out their things.
Bonnie picked out a plush, but ragged, teddy bear and laid it tenderly across her pillow. She picked out a large woolen quilt; checker boarded in in purple and plum, and wrapped it around her shoulders. Pulling out tattered books, a pack of basic playing cards, as well as vibrant tarot cards, and walked over to the shelves, lining them all up on the top. Then making her way back to her bed, she grabbed yet another book, but this one was different. It was a photo album, each page lined with photos of her, from the day she was born to her graduation. With her mother, her father, her best friends, her grams. She gave a watery smile as she pushed it underneath her pillow, for later.
Caroline delicately placed a black photo frame on her side table, a picture of her and her mom on her twelfth birthday. Beside it, she put an ornate, mirrored jewelry box, of necklaces and bracelets she had collected throughout her years, a small tub of vanilla body butter, a hairbrush, and a large faced watch. She immediately fastened the thick leather straps around her boney wrist. Then, reaching further into her large duffel bag, she lifted out three board games that she had somehow managed to stuff in there. Her favorite games that she had brought along to the first place she went to for help, Clue, The Game Of Life, and Mastermind. The kind of games she thought that no one could ever get bored of, or at least, she couldn't. She put them on the shelf.
Hayley, however, didn't have what the other girls did. She had nothing within her depleted backpack but a leather bracelet, some hair ties and clips, an old map of the country, and a cherry chapstick. Shoving the bag back beneath her bed, she laid down and shut her eyes.
Caroline smiled. "So, Hayley, I'm curious, why do you have to be here? Is it your parents who are making you or something?"
Hayley sighed deeply. "I don't have parents." Her voice was cold.
"Oh, uh, I'm- I'm sorry-" Caroline started sputtering out.
"I'm here because I set my group home on fire." She licked her lips, staring at the ceiling. "I didn't mean to, I told them that, but when I wouldn't apologize in court for the accident, they sent me to jail for a few months, and made me get a mental evaluation, then sent me here. So yeah…"
"I'm sorry." Caroline said lamely.
"No one ever believes the orphan girl. They think I'm an arsonist." Hayley cracked her neck.
Before Caroline could reply, Bonnie abruptly stood. "Free time has started, I'm going to the recreation room." She stated as she started towards the door.
Caroline silently stood and followed Bonnie, but Hayley stayed in the dorm, clearly wanting to be alone.
When they made it to the room, Caroline saw that almost everyone was there, plus other people that she didn't recognize, probably from other groups. It was a big room, but quite dark, although there were a lot of big windows, they backed onto the woods, and the trees blocked out what little of the fall sun they would've been getting. There were some worn leather couches in the corner that were huddled around a TV. Beside them, there was a cabinet that showed a small selection of DVD's, board games, puzzles, and books. There were a few sets of table and chairs as well, and Caroline walked over to an empty seat at a table already occupied by Damon and Stefan.
"So, you're brothers?" She said, interrupting their conversation.
They looked at her blankly.
She smiled awkwardly. "I didn't think they would allow family members in the same group… You know, might mess with… Progress or something…" She trailed off.
"… It's meant to allow us to work through our issues together…" Stefan replied slowly.
Damon rolled his eyes. "Listen Blondie, we were kind of having a conversation here, so could you scoot off and go bother someone else." Damon said, his tone crass and unkind. Stefan glanced to him with irritation in his eyes, but didn't say anything.
Caroline stood and stormed off, offended at their rudeness, she busied herself in joining Elena and Tyler, who were watching a somewhat questionable movie – One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest. Caroline didn't know how that was allowed in.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Rebekah was halfway through a kitten puzzle when Kol sat down on the seat across from her, sighing dramatically deep, he rested an elbow upon the table, placed his head upon his fist, and stared at her, as though he was waiting for her to notice and acknowledge his presence in front of her.
She ignored him and continued.
"I'm bored." He stated, his voice flat and expectant, like he thought she could do anything about it.
She continued ignoring him. He grew restless at her seemingly inability to recognize his existence in that moment.
"I'm starving, did you know that we all have to eat together, breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Only then. I'm not even allowed snacks or anything. They call this place a 'mental recovery center' but it feels more like some sort of concentration camp." He paused mid rant, repeating his melodramatic sigh. "Not to mention my god awful roommate…"
"Kol, be careful, your wrist might break if you rest your giant head on it for too long." Rebekah quipped, not even needing to look up to sense his offended look.
Unlike his self, however, instead of replying with an equally rude comment, he got up and stormed off. Rebekah was almost disturbed at this, as he normally loved to bicker, but not enough so that she stopped her puzzle. She was determined to finish the picture of a kitten playing in a field of daises, because while Rebekah didn't really like puzzles, she loved kittens.
After a few minutes, she could feel the burning sensation of a stare on her back. She turned and glanced around the room, coming to find the gaze Stefan upon her, of whom was sitting with Damon, who it seemed hadn't even noticed he had lost his brother's attention and continued on flapping his mouth. The minute their met eyes she thought she could feel a flurry of sparks sprinkle throughout her body, it felt exciting.
She didn't know whether to carry on with her puzzle and pretend she had never caught him, or to abandon her progress and advance towards him and see why he was staring at her. But before she could even make a decision, he tore his eyes from hers, and continued on with the conversation with his brother. It left her feeling frustrated. She didn't know why she felt that way, he was just some random guy with amazing hair and beautiful eyes and and a smile that made her knees fee weak and- No.
She was jumping to conclusions again. She always did. That's what her first therapist told her she always did, and that she needed to stop. They were patients, and they were there to get better, not involved with each other. She needed to stop.
But the way she saw him looking at her for that split second felt like nothing she had never experienced before. It was forbidden, but a different kind of forbidden, not like with the other boys she had been with, he seemed, different. Slowing her mind and thoughts, Rebekah forced herself to think rationally.
She shakily picked up a puzzled piece and tried it in an empty space. It didn't fit.
"Rebekah we must escape this place."
She impatiently looked up to Klaus. "Oh god, whatever are you paranoid about now, brother?" She huffed out; annoyed that she just couldn't seem to finish this goddamn puzzle without anyone interrupting her.
He bent down towards he, a panicked look in his eyes. "These people are insufferable, they are crazy, all of them! I can't take it anymore."
Rebekah was surprised it was Nik who was having a harder time than she was, although that was probably because she was used to having no freedom. "Wow, did you ever think that might be because we are in a mental hospital?" She asked sarcastically.
He pulled up the sleeve to reveal a large bite mark on his forearm. Rebekah looked at it, now truly disturbed.
"Where the bloody hell did you get that from?" The disbelief in her voice was evident.
"I was sitting on the sofa reading when some patient who introduced himself as Oscar sat down beside me and started rambling on about how 'they are coming to get him' and how he needs 'fresh flesh not the poisoned green leaves that brainwash your mind'. I of course, ignored him, being the civilized person I am. And then he grabbed my arm and clamped his teeth down on me!" He raged on. "I had to get it disinfected, and then some nurse came and apologized to me saying how she 'didn't know how he got out because he was meant to be in isolation because he was a known violent'!"
"Ew." Was all Rebekah could say.
"And now you know why we need to escape!" Nik exclaimed, spewing, but Rebekah rolled her eyes.
"Look, Nik, I know you were bitten, but I think you're being a bit extreme, I mean we can't just-"
"-Fine!" Nik interjected indignantly. "If you won't help me, I'll find someone else who will."
Rebekah smirked at this paranoia. "Good luck with that."
His face twitched as he glanced around the room. "I'm sure Kol will want to assist."
Looking up, she searched around the room for Kol, and her smirk immediately returned once she caught sight of him; chatting up some blonde nurse by the window, his charm clearly turned on. "Yeah, I'd think twice about that, he doesn't look like he's ready to leave just yet."
Catching her line of sight, he frowned, and stalked off silently.
"Hey, what was he so angry about?" Rebekah looked up to find the foreign voice coming from yet another person who had decided to sit with her; her admirer.
But she couldn't help but hold in her snort, which was a nuisance because snorts were relatively unattractive. "Oh, just some rabid patient bit him, and now he's hell bent on escaping."
"Oh." Stefan replied quietly, his surprise over the event apparent.
"I'm sorry you got stuck in the same room with him, he can get a bit antsy. If he tries keeping you up all night spouting strange escape routes, just tell him to piss off and ignore anything he says." Adding her general pro tip for handling not only Nik, but all of her brothers, she watched as the former started feeling around on walls, probably looking for some secret entrance that existed only in his mind.
"Well it's not like I get much sleep anyway."
Rebekah bit her tongue. "Sorry."
He smiled though, and Rebekah felt her heart flutter in her chest. "It's alright, we all have our issues, that's why we're here, right?"
Of all the smiles Rebekah had practiced and perfected in the mirror as a teenager, she flashed him her favorite one – the half, closed mouth, coy smile. "Yeah, I guess so." She looked at him through her eyelashes. "It's kind of nice here, we're all in the same boat, in some way, and I don't have to feel like such an outcast."
He looked at her with those eyes that made her feel like she was about to pass out. "We can all understand how each other feel."
"So we don't have to feel alone." Rebekah added, her heart thumping in her chest as he gazed at her softly, something she thought was akin to adoration in his eyes.
However, the moment was ruined, when a nurse walked by quickly, with Kol trailing after her. "I didn't mean the you're a bitch in a mean way." He reasoned loudly, grabbing the attention Stefan and Rebekah, the latter rolling her eyes. "I meant it in an empowering way, you know, Tina Fey once said that 'bitches get stuff done'!"
Thanks for reading!
Thank you to everyone who followed and favorited, your support means so much to me! Please review if you can so I can see what is on people's minds. There isn't really a story line yet, I'm still finding my footing, so tell me if you'd rather there be a big plot that includes all the characters, or have each character have their own individual plots within themselves and each other, tell me. Again (I sound like a broken record), but I'm also willing to add any other characters from the TV show that people want, like for example, I intend to add Nora and Mary Louise in the story, but in later chapters. Follow or favorite if you want to be alerted about the next update! X
Next Chapter - Split into two parts: Singular therapy sessions start off with Damon, which will hopefully lighten the mood for the next half. The second part focuses in on Bonnie, who has a... interaction with someone that will leave a deep and heavy imprint on her. (The character tags will change to include the main characters of the next chapter.)