(A/N: Overwatch is the property of Blizzard Entertainment)
The Next Day, 8:30AM - October 28th - Cujoh Household
"Hey Hana! Meet me on the corner of our street before school starts!"
Right, that's the text sent to Hana done, now to text McCree…
I decided to take up on Angela's offer to see Dr. Vaswani today. I called her number after getting home last night and arranged an interview in the middle of town today at about 9:15 or so. I feel bad about springing this on Hana so suddenly but she needs this more than anything else right now. After leaving the house and finishing up my message to my (hopefully) understanding teacher, I met up with Hana on the corner of our two streets.
"Hey there, Jonathan!" she chirps out in her usual tone, dressed somewhat casually as she usually does on most school days. I look up at the sky for a brief moment to enjoy this peace and quiet, knowing all too well that Hana won't like our surprise excursion from class today.
"What's up?" she asks me, curiosity echoing through her vocal tones.
"We're cutting class today, don't worry I've informed McCree. It's...well, you'll see." I say, trying to dance around the subject. I could see in Hana's face that she wasn't really too impressed with what I was telling her. That "Really, Jonathan?" look in her eyes said it all.
"Let's just say that this is going to be beneficial for us I think…" I mention briefly before turning in the opposite direction of school and began my walk towards our destination, Hana following behind me, unaware of my true intentions. She could guess all she wanted to but, if I outright told her what I was doing, she would probably see it as a betrayal of her trust…
...Should I really be doing this? Should I be doubting Hana this much? Angela was sure that this Vaswani woman would give me most, if not all the answers I needed about this whole conundrum. I just want what's best for Hana but what Hana thinks is best for her right now (i.e just ignoring her personalities) isn't going to work and could result in a reappearance from...her.
I shudder at the thought, and increase my walking speed slightly.
9:10AM - Vaswani Medical Centre, Town Centre
"A Medical Centre? I didn't know what to expect but this is seriously a new low in the history of cutting class…" remarked Hana sarcastically. "Why are we here anyways?" she pondered, her face expressing nothing but seriousness. I heave a sigh. Here we go…
"Well, looks like I've got no choice...I ehm, went to see Angela yesterday after I left your place and decided to ask her about your mental condition when she examined you back in Korea. She ehm...recommended that we visit her friend here, who's one of the best psychologists in the country. I'm sorry for not telling you until now, Hana. I don't want to break your trust like this but I had no other choice! You could be a danger to me or Angela or anybody else but worse you could be a danger to yourself, and there's nothing, nothing I DON'T want to see more than that. I'm doing this not because I want to but because I feel like I have to, Hana. I love y-"
"I get it. Let's just get it over with."
My heart shattered. My face, stunned. A cold, clean sweep of a reply with a dead voice and intonations. I felt like I was being stabbed by that damn needle again, but this time in the heart. This is what being hated feels like. I felt like fucking screaming my lungs out from the top of Everest but of course I couldn't do that. I heaved out another sigh, my will to come to this doctor now waning immensely, and knocked on the doctor's door, which had her name clearly written on it. Some shuffling around could be heard from inside the room before we could hear footsteps coming closer toward us, before the door eventually opened.
"Greetings. You must be Mr. Cujoh from the phone call last night, and this is…?" asked the tall, olive-skinned woman with a thick Indian accent.
"I'm Hana Song" said Hana, bowing her head slightly. She pointed over at two seats on the opposite side of her desk, and we promptly sat down in the chairs. After sitting down across from us, Dr. Vaswani gives Hana a quick examination with her eyes.
"Okay, so I got the jist of the situation from our call last night Mr. Cujoh, and I believe I can help Ms. Song...if she's willing to co-operate of course" she says, both of us turning to look at Hana whose face contorts into one of awkwardness and unease.
"I think what would make it easier would be if you waited outside, Mr. Cujoh whilst Ms. Song and I have a little chat to ourselves about a few things. Dr. Ziegler has given me some interesting reports and I'd like to add some of my own observations to it. What do you say, ? Are you willing to participate?" the doctor questions in a professional tone. Hana takes a minute to think about the situation she's in, calculating all the possible ways this doctor may ask her questions (at least, that's what I'm assuming she's thinking).
"Fine, I agree to whatever it is that you wanna do or talk about." says Hana, clearly pissed off to some degree. Every time I see that face, that face that shows that Hana isn't happy, a face which shows I've done something wrong...my heart sinks further and further.
"Okay then, very well. Mr. Cujoh, please wait outside. My assistant, Ms. Lindholm will tend to whatever you need, within reason of course" says Vaswani, practically waving me out of the room.
"E-Ehm, sure. Let me know when you're done I guess" I say in a somewhat dejected tone, which gets a look from Hana. A look with the smallest sliver of sympathy. I really, really hope she understands why I'm doing this for her. Above all else, I just want her to be happy. If this doesn't go well, I will do my best to manage Hana's ehm, unique personality (or rather personalities) myself, if that's what makes her happier. I step outside the room and am greeted almost immediately by a rather tall, buff woman with red hair. Her face was freckled with well, freckles and her presence was quite immense. She wasn't as big as let's say, our gym teacher, Zarya, but this woman was well toned and wouldn't be out of place in a gym, that's for sure.
"A-Are you Ms. Lindholm?"
"Yes, but you can call me Brigitte! Nice to meet ya!" she says in a peppy, upbeat tone. Byt the look and sound of her, I wouldn't imagine she's much older than I am.
"U-Uhm, how long does Dr. Vaswani normally take with stuff like this?" I ask, trying to look away from her rather strong looking arms.
"Well it all depends on what the patient needs. Sometimes it's 15 minutes, other times, over an hour of the day is taken up on one patient. Dr. Vaswani doesn't mind though, in fact she enjoys challenges such as that. Oh speaking of which…" mumbles Brigitte, fumbling through some papers in her hands, searching for a particular piece of prevalent information.
"Ahh, here we go!" she says, handing me a piece of paper.
"Now, keep in mind that the patient will not receive any physical harm. Dr. Vaswani however has some, ehm, unique methods at unlocking the minds of those she encounters…"
As Brigitte rambled on, I scanned through the paper, and certain sentences and phrases stuck out to me
'Patient may experience temporal memory loss…...Incredible sense of grief and possible depression (minor)...You may hear incredibly strenuous vocals from the patient inside my office. This is part of the healing process and requires maximum attention, please bear with me...stress.."
"How the hell does Vaswani get away with all this shit happening?" I comment. Brigitte laughs.
"Haha, because she always achieves results" she says in an unnervingly confident tone with a slightly creepy smile, suddenly shifting the mood into an uncomfortably uncanny one.
"A-Ahh, okay, just so long as she doesn't hurt Hana...ehm...how about we get some tea or coffee or something?" I ask, desperately wanting to change the mood.
"Sure! Let's go to our little canteen" says Brigitte, her former demeanour returning. Thank the gods for that.
25 Minutes Later - Vaswani Medical Centre, Canteen
"So how did you come into contact with the Doctor?" asks the redhead.
"A friend of mine recommended her to me" I said, drinking out of my cup. I do love me some tea!
"It wouldn't have been Angela Ziegler who put you two into contact with another, right?" My brow furrowed at the mention of my friends name.
"You know of Angela?"
"She's quite famous, but even still, I know her personally actually, not through Dr. Vaswani though. I knew her through family and an old friend of mine who briefly mentioned her before she mysteriously vanished…" Brigitte says, her tone waning into one of melancholy.
"You're related?" I ask in surprise.
"Oh, no, me and Ziegler aren't related. My father, Torbjorn Lindholm is practically best friends with a man called Reinhardt Wilhelm, who's actually an uncle of Angela's through marriage of her aunt. We basically treat Reinhardt like family so I see Angela at family gatherings and what not. I've not spoken much with her since she tends to keep to herself, although last time I did speak with her, she mentioned something about bringing her 'special someone' to the Christmas party this year…"
At that moment, time froze. For only a brief moment, my eyes flashed back to the events of three days ago, my scars aching in pain. The sounds of Angela's crying, the sight of her blood on my hands, the sight of her body falling lifelessly to the floor, the sadistic laughter of Hana and Amélie Lacroix…
I shook my head before the dark thoughts completely clouded my vision.
"Ah, well any friend of Angela's is a friend of mine too" exclaims the apparently Swedish lady.
*BRRZT BRRZT!*
McCree was ringing me, to my surprise. Shouldn't class be in session by now?
"I'm sorry, I gotta take this…" I say. Brigitte nods understandingly with a smile.
"Hello?"
"Hey there Bigshot, what's going on?" asks McCree in his usual cowboy demeanour.
"Just waiting on Hana. She's with the doctor as we speak."
"Good, good. Angela's come back to class already. She's a good 'un I tell you. I can't imagine how hard it is on 'er."
"Yeah, I know. She's got it so rough. Anyways, what did you need?"
"Well, I've been doin' some diggin' on this Vaswani figure here, just to make sure she ticks all the boxes and whatnot. Found some rather interesting information"
"And that is?"
"She was classmates with one Moira O'Deorain back in the day"
Wait, WHAT?
"Are you kidding me?" I say in a shocked tone, Brigitte looking at me, intrigued as to what I had to say.
"Yeah I know. Now apparently, according to Ziegler they hated each other and sought different goals in terms of psychological research, but would you imagine that even after all this, Talon and their damn connections are still weaving their way into Hana's life?" said McCree in a weirdly light hearted tone. I would expect him to be more serious with a matter such as this.
"Anyways, just keep yer wits about you. I'm sure Song will be fine and all, but you never know. You made a promise to her, you better keep it."
"Y-Yessir" I say as our call comes to an end.
"Yeesh…" I mutter out.
"What was that all about?" asks Brigitte, curious to know who was on the other end of the call.
"Oh, it was nothi-"
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH, JONTHHAAAAAAAAAAAAANNNNNNNNNN!"
(A/N: And that's a wrap for this chapter! The cliff-hanger this time is a bit out of nowhere but boy, have I got a great second chapter planned for you. It's gonna be something completely different to what you've seen so far! I hope the wait for this chapter wasn't too bad. Depression is still shit and is getting worse but I'm doing my best. This story actually helps a lot. If you enjoyed the story or have anything to comment on as regards this chapter, please leave a review! I read every one of them and your words both positive and negative mean so much to me! Until next time guys!)