Hello my fellow readers,
Well here is the second chapter I hope you enjoy it!
Scmax
~Recap~
After I unpacked and went shopping, I cooked some food and went to bed feeling satisfied. Tomorrow would be a new day, and I couldn't wait to see the villagers again. I fell asleep that night still feeling some of the Doctors anger, but pushed it to the back of my mind to deal with in the morning.
"Hey Tony what's happening in Harlem? Is that the Jolly Green Giant?" I ask watching the news on the big screen in the living room.
"What Liss?" Tony asks walking into the room.
"The Jolly Green Giant is destroying Harlem, look." I say dragging him over in front of the television.
"That's the Hulk Liss, His name is Dr. Banner who is a genius." Tony gushes.
"Awe, do you have a man crush on the Jolly Green Giant?" I ask holding in my laugh.
"Nooo, I just respect the good doctor, and I'm a fan of the Hulk. Now don't you have something more important to do?" Tony asks crossing his arms.
"Yeah I guess I do. But you can't deny you have a man crush on the man." I say.
Tony growls and goes to grab me, but I skip out of his reach and run out of the room. I have a martial arts lesson to get to and the instructor hates it when I'm late.
The next morning, I wake up confused about my dream. I haven't had the Jolly Green Giant dream since I last left Calcutta. I shook off the dream and got up to shower and get dressed. I put on a long, light blue skirt, and a white spaghetti strapped top with my black flats that I wear every day. After breakfast, I grab my bag that has everything in it and leave for my clinic.
When I get there, there are children and some teens crowding around the door and peaking in the window. I stand there amused for a while before clearing my throat making them all jump. The kids turned around with wide eyes and I had to laugh at how cute the little ones looked.
"What's this a little convergence around my clinic?" I ask crossing my arms.
The little ones look at me like they just got caught with their hands in the cookie jar, and the big kids all smile and rush over to me.
"Dr. Elissa, Dr. Elissa your back." They say all trying to hug me.
I laugh and hug each of them in turn, and step back to see how much they had grown.
"Wow you all have gotten so much older, and are these little ones your siblings?" I ask looking to the little kids.
"Yeah, they wanted to come with us to see the new Doctor." Arnav says
"Well in that case, come inside everyone and I'll get you guys some cold pop." I say heading to the door.
The kids cheered and followed me inside the clinic. It was cooler in here than outside, and I noticed an air conditioner set into the wall. I guess the company added some things onto my list. It's not really necessary but I do appreciate the gesture. I went over to the little refrigerator in my office and got out several cans of coke. I know it's not good for anyone, but these kids deserve a treat. I walk back into my office and see a couple of parents there talking to their children.
"See mom it's Dr. Elissa, she's back." Prisha says pulling on her mom's hand.
"I see that, Elissa how are you dear?" Malak says pulling me into a hug.
"I am great, how are you doing Malak?" I ask pulling back.
"I am good, I work for Dr. Banner now but I can come back to work for you." Malak offers looking around the clinic.
The name of the other Doctor catches my interest and reminds me of my dream. He must have been the angry man that becomes the Jolly Green Giant. Oh, man I have got to meet the man and his counterpart.
"Oh, no Malak, I don't want to steal any of Dr. Banners nurses or his clients. I am just here to help take the load off his shoulders." I explain patting her shoulder.
"What a good woman you have become Elissa. Children come let's let the good Doctor be alone on her first day." Malak says motioning Prisha and a little boy over to her.
I said goodbye to the group and hugged everyone one last time before I was finally alone. I went back to my office and grabbed a coke for myself. Looking around the office I saw some state of the art equipment, and wondered why my employer was supplying me with stuff I didn't need. They had never done this before, and I was a little curious and wary about why they were supplying me with things that were not on my list. I thought my employers knew that I didn't need the equipment to do my job. A suspicious feeling started nagging in the back of my mind, but I just pushed it away for when I get home.
That day I spent my time going over the equipment and the exam room, where I rearranged everything to my liking. I went home tired and bored that night, also a little disappointed that I didn't get to meet Dr. Banner. I cooked some supper and was eating it when I felt that intense anger come over me again. I breathed my way through it and applied my techniques to calm the anger in me. I guess Dr. Banner was home now and doing whatever he does. I finished eating, cleaned up the kitchen and poured myself a glass of white wine. I grabbed my laptop and Phone and snuggled down into the couch. At eleven my skype rang and my brothers face appeared on my screen.
"Liss, how's where ever treating you?" Tony asks having to yell to be heard over the machines in the background.
"Tony turn off your machines." I sigh still barely hearing him.
"What?" Tony asks.
I sigh again and grab my phone to send him a text. Tony looks at his phone and back to me before rolling his eyes and shutting down the machines.
"Better?" Tony asks walking over to his computer.
"Yes much. What the hell are you working on now?" I ask looking around the destroyed room behind him.
"It's a surprise. Plus, it won't be finished till you come and visit." Tony says shrugging off my question.
We talked for a little while longer, till my other line rang. This call I wouldn't miss for the world, so I rushed Tony off with a quick goodbye and hung up. I talked to the person on the other line till we were both about to fall asleep. After getting off skype with them, I laid down on the couch and fell asleep.
This became routine every night, well except the falling asleep on the couch part, and I never missed a video chat with my favorite person in the world. I did miss several from my brother though, but I always called him back.
It's been two months since I moved to Calcutta and my clinic is doing good. I haven't taken any of Dr. Banners patients, but I have helped lighten the load a little. The village and surrounding villages are happier places too. I still haven't meet Dr. Banner, though I have seen him walking back to his house every night and when he goes on his lunch break. I have a feeling that he is avoiding me, but all I can feel from him is anger. I can now better control the anger I feel when he comes within ten feet of me. I must say that I have not had this much practice controlling my empath power since I first discovered it. But it is a good way to practice, and I do want to know what he feels under that layer of anger. On the days that the clinic was slow, and I had some free time. I would search out Dr. Banner and start trying to delve deeper into his emotions. It took a couple of days to be able to read him under that top layer. What I found was surprising to me, not his emotions, but that I could feel the hulks emotions the deeper I got into Dr. Banners emotions. They were the same person, yet completely different. What Dr. Banner felt, the Hulk didn't necessarily feel.
One night I was working on fixing myself some chamomile Tea, and thinking about the complicated emotions of both Dr. Banner and the Jolly Green Giant. When I felt that wave of anger closer to me than ever before. I knew he wasn't going home, because I have never felt his anger this close. It took me a minute to relax myself and employ my techniques to overcome his anger, when a knock came at the door. I jumped and almost dropped my mug, never expecting Dr. Banner to actually come and visit.
"Just a minute." I holler out when he knocks again.
I shake myself loose and set my mug down, turn the stove off, and walked over to the door. I open the door to find Dr. Banner standing there with his back to me. He looked really tense and was looking around at the village. I stood there and studied him for a second before clearing my throat and making him jump.
"Sorry about that." I apologize when he turns back around.
"It's okay." He says nervous as hell.
"Would you like to come in Dr. Banner?" I ask holding the door open wider.
"Thanks." He mutters walking into my home.
He stands in the middle of the living room looking around at all the pictures on my wall. He looks a little awkward, so I decide to save him and offer him some tea. Dr. Banner accepts politely and follows me into the kitchen. He sits down at my small table and fidgets with his hands until I hand him a mug of chamomile tea.
"Thank you." Dr. Banner says before taking a sip.
"Your welcome." I say going to sit down opposite of him.
We sat there for a while just sipping on our tea, when Dr. Banner cleared his throat and opened his mouth like he was about to say something. He changed his mind at the last minute though and went back to looking down at his mug. I hold in my laugh at his actions and decide to just start the conversation myself.
"So, Dr. Banner it's nice to officially meet you." I say trying to break the stiff atmosphere.
"Yeah…" He chuckles nervously, "Sorry about that." Dr. Banner says rubbing the back of his head.
"Ah it's alright, the villagers told my you were the silent type." I say making up some excuse.
"Sadly, they are right." Dr. Banner says giving a small smile.
We finish our tea in half awkward, half comfortable silence, when my phone decides to ring. Dr. Banner jumps at that and ends up crushing his mug in his hand.
"Shit." He mutters dropping the broken mug pieces.
"Oh no." I gasp.
I ignore my phone for the time being and grab Dr. Banner's hand, making him jump again. He tries to pull his hand away, but I'm already dragging him over to the sink and turning on the water. I quickly rinse his hand off, and pull the glass shards out. Dr. Banner tries to pull his hand back again, but I stick it back under the water and use my healing to close the cuts on his hand. I turn off the water once it starts to run clear and hand Dr. Banner a towel.
"Thanks." Dr. Banner mutters.
"No problem." I say a little distracted by looking for my phone.
I find it in my purse and find that I've missed the call of someone important. I'm about to call them back when I remember that Dr. Banner is still in my kitchen. I turn around to see where he's at and must jump back to avoid bumping into him.
"Oh sorry…Is something the matter?" I ask worried.
Dr. Banner is just standing there looking back between his hand, me, and the kitchen sink. I sigh and put my phone on the coffee table, before motioning him into a chair. Dr. Banner sits down slowly, unsure if he should just leave, or ask his questions. I wait patiently and am eventually rewarded when Dr. Banner starts to speak.
"There's no mark, no indication there ever was any injury." Dr. Banner says looking right at me.
"Yes." I nod urging him to continue.
"Why? How did you do that?" Dr. Banner asks trying to wrap his mind around everything.
"Well I have a power to heal using the four elements." I say a little slowly so that he can wrap his mind around it.
I know that he is the Jolly Green Giant, but turning into a giant, green, raging machine is a bit different from having the ability to heal using water, fire, air, and earth. Dr. Banner sits there looking at his hand and tracing his palm trying to find evidence of a cut. I'm sorry to say that there won't be any evidence no matter how hard he looks. My phone starts ringing again and I get up to answer it this time.
"Hey Jo." I answer wincing at the yelling coming from the other line.
"Calm down Hun, calm down. I just had a little situation to deal with. It's all good now so don't worry." I calm down the person on the other end.
Dr. Banner stands up from his seat and heads to the door. I tell Jo to hold on and walk over to the door with Dr. Banner.
"It was nice to finally have you over Dr. Banner. I hope you come over again." I say extending the offer to him.
"Bruce, call me Bruce please, and thank you for the tea. Goodnight." Bruce says leaving.
I watch him walk back to his house then shut the door and lean against it. It's not until I hear my name from far away that I remember my phone and Jo.
"Sorry Hun. So how was your day today?" I ask trying to distract them.
It worked easily and Jo talked for an hour about their day, I got my turn in, then said goodnight a couple of hours later. I knew the kitchen would need to be cleaned before bed; but I was too tired and just decided to do it in the morning.
The next day Bruce came over to my clinic during his break with some food enough for two. I invited him into the office and cleared off my desk of everything but my computer.
"This is a nice surprise." I say as we sit down to eat.
"I just wanted to thank you for last night." Bruce mutters digging into his food.
"Hey I'm a Dr. I'm here to help." I say digging into my food as well.
"I know, but you could have kept that part hidden from me." Bruce points out getting a little comfortable in my presence.
"That's true, but I know about your secret, so you should at least know about one of mine." I say looking up at him.
"W... What secret?" Bruce asks rubbing the back of his head.
"Come on Bruce I'm an American. How could I not know about the Jolly Green Giant?" I say.
"Um… Don't you mean the Hulk?" Bruce asks going back to eating.
"No, I mean the Jolly Green Giant, the Hulk is everyone else's name for the other guy." I shrug.
We ate the rest of our food in silence. While Bruce thought things over. I felt his and the Jolly Green Giants emotions, and found that the other guy liked that name. I wonder how he would feel though if someone else called him that? I shook that thought from my mind and started to clean up the empty containers.
"Are you working here because of the other guy?" Bruce ask grabbing my arm.
I stop what I'm doing and turn around so he can look into my eyes and believe me.
"No, I am here because Calcutta is my third favorite place to be. I didn't even know you or the other guy was here until I heard your name mentioned." I explain to him.
Bruce doesn't let go of my arm, but stands there studying me and trying to figure out if I'm telling the truth or not. All of that was the truth, I just left out some information that he did not need to know about.
"Okay, I believe you. But please don't mention the other guy to anyone." Bruce request.
"Bruce, I wouldn't do that to you. I understand about having a secret you don't want anyone to find out about." I say touching the hand that still gripped my arm.
"Sorry." Bruce says letting me go.
"It's alright. Bruce…"
"Dr. Banner, Dr. Elissa, are you in here?" Malak calls from the front room.
We look at each other, both feeling a little awkward, before leaving the office and going out to the front room.