After an hour and a half, Crane glanced up at his clock. He had just finished all of his paperwork for the week finally, and was feeling quite pleased with himself. He watched Amber sleeping on the couch for a while. It was calming for him to have her in the room; it almost felt like she was beginning to trust him. Maybe she is… he thought. He pushed that thought out of his mind though; how could she possibly trust him after he had tried to kill her. But maybe she would listen to Roxi when she said that he did that before he had gotten to know her. Crane was not certain how he felt about this. On one side of the matter, it would be very nice to possibly befriend her. It might even solve the problem of her publishing that article. But he was doubtful that she could like him at all when she was caged in the asylum. He wondered if he could kill her now, if things came to that; she was quite fun to play with. It would be a great risk having her fetch the medicine for him though, and he wondered if she would do something to endanger the life that he so carefully invented for himself here. Medicine from the asylum would be missed though, and there was no one else that he could trust besides Roxi and himself to get it.
Slowly he came to realize that this would be something that he would just have to take a chance on, no matter if he liked it or not, and got up from his office chair quietly. He walked over to the couch and touched her shoulder gently to wake her. She only groaned loudly at him and turned away from the back of the couch, thinking that it would be away from him. He tapped her again. She opened her eyes slowly and glared at him.
"I was sleeping. It's much more comfortable here than in that thing in my cell you call a bed." She told him, obviously irritated at having her nap interrupted. "I want to go back to sleep."
"You need to wake up if you want to get out of the asylum tonight." He told her while smiling faintly at her. She opened her eyes all the way and looked at him in a slightly amazed way.
"You're letting me out? Wow." She said. He rolled his eyes.
"Of course not." She frowned and looked up at him. A look of realization finally came across her face when she recalled the medicine and then disappointment.
"Oh yeah…"
"Well then, come on." He said finally and opened the door. She got up from the couch slowly with a sigh, and shuffled out the door.
"So what exactly am I buying here?" Amber asked Crane suspiciously as he parked the black Mercedes outside a pharmacy.
"Don't worry about it. Here, take this, and this." He said, handing her a note and some money. She raised her eyebrows at the amount that was given to her in cash, but examined the note instead. It was written on the same kind of prescription slip that her own doctor gave to her, and she tried to make out the writing on the paper.
"Is this some kind of sad excuse for handwriting?" She asked him, indicating the note. He rolled his eyes and sighed in frustration.
"Just go. Take the paper into the building and hand it to the pharmacist." He said slowly. She scowled at him.
"I have filled a prescription before." She said pretentiously as she opened the door and walked into the building. She glared up at the bright halogen lights of the drugstore and sighed. Amber thought that Crane was blowing this whole deal out of proportion. After all, if it was just for one of the patients at the asylum, surely he could have just gone and gotten it himself? Amber smiled at the pharmacist and handed him the note. He didn't return the smile as he read the note and looked back up at her. Her smile faded as she saw the look that the pharmacist was giving her. It was full of suspicion, confusion, and just a little fear. He walked back to the shelves full of medicines and took out a bottle. Amber frowned and sat down in one of the uncomfortable waiting chairs that the drugstore had provided. Why would he give me that kind of a look? Amber wondered as she stared at the wall opposite her. I can't ask what the medication is for, that would just be way too suspicious and god knows what Crane will do to me if I do anything stupid in here… She shuddered at that last thought.
"Excuse me, miss? Your prescription is waiting." The pharmacist said to her from the glass window. She got up and handed him the money necessary for the medicine and accepted it from him. It turned out to be exactly the correct amount of cash, and she walked out of the store.
Amber shivered slightly as the chill night wind whipped across her bare arms and face. The Mercedes unlocked and she got in the passenger's side of the car. Crane started to snatch the pills from Amber, but she was quicker and pulled them out of his reach. He looked at her warily.
"Amber…" He started to say warningly, but she stopped him with a cold look.
"You have some serious explaining to do. You should have seen the look that the guy gave me when I handed him the note! What is this for anyway?" Amber asked him while indicating the small orange bottle. He glared at her.
"It's none of your business! Give it here." He said quickly. When she still persisted in keeping it away from her he sighed in frustration. "Give it to me or I'll have you locked in solitary for a week when we get back to the asylum." Amber rolled her eyes at the threat.
"To be honest, Crane, I don't really care anymore. Tell me what the medicine is for." She said stubbornly. He looked at her for a long time before finally speaking again.
"…Okay Amber." He said finally in a deadly quiet tone. Crane was pleased to see a glimmer of fear in Amber's eyes, and it excited him a bit. "You really want to know what this medicine is for? Hmm?" Slowly, she nodded at him. "I hear voices. You know, the kind that everyone makes fun of and jokingly says that they get. Well I actually do have them. That's why I need that medicine. Otherwise, in a matter of days, you would probably be killed by this particular voice taking over. It tells me that I should kill you Amber, that you could destroy my life here. Now, are you going to give me those pills?" He said, voice steadily rising from that quiet tone to a yell. He could almost feel the Scarecrow begging to come out, and he wished that Amber would hide that obvious shine of fear in her eyes.
"You're insane. Completely fucking insane!" Amber screamed at him. He looked at her with a cold smile.
"I believe you are forgetting which one of us is actually being treated at the asylum." He said.
"You're should be in one of the cells, not me! Just wait until I get out of here! I'll tell the world that Dr. Jonathan Crane is a complete psycho!"
"Well Amber, where do we stand on those pills?" He asked, masking his anger. She threw them at his head, and he caught them with one hand easily. She watched as he calmly unscrewed the orange cap and took two of the large pills, his icy blue eyes never leaving her own hazel ones. After he had swallowed them, he smiled at her. "I think that it would be beneficial to your treatment if you were to see another doctor at the asylum from now on, don't you agree?" He asked as he started up the Mercedes and started to drive back to the asylum. Amber stared at him in a horrified and shocked silence. Once they reached the large building, Crane called for an orderly at the front desk, and Amber walked back to her cell silently.
The next morning, Amber sat up in her bed slowly. She looked up at the bright morning sunshine groggily and rubbed her eyes. Someone, an orderly Amber assumed, had left a plate of something sitting on her table. After choking down a few bites of the stuff, she shoved it away from her and looked out the window. The sun was now fully in the sky, all traces of the sunrise colours gone from the sky. Amber sighed and turned her back on the window. She wondered when she would be let out, and that brought her to thinking about Crane. He had mentioned something about her seeing another doctor, and Amber was curious to know who it would be. She felt somewhat badly about what she said to Crane, since he had an actual mental problem, and was relieved not to have to face him for a little while at least.
As though in answer to her curiosity, there was a rough knock on the door and it swung open. Amber looked blankly at the orderly standing in the doorway with his arms crossed and smiled faintly. "Do I get to see the doctor now?" She asked. The orderly gave her a suspicious look and nodded. She got up from her chair and followed him out. Soon, they reached a large door and the orderly knocked softly on it. When there was no reply, the orderly opened the door slowly and motioned for Amber to enter.
Amber watched the doctor seated at the large desk carefully. She looked to be in her late-fifties, with her white hair and cold green eyes. Thinly rimmed glasses were perched upon a long and hooked nose. "Good morning Amber. My name is Dr. White. Did you have a good day yesterday?" She asked her in a slightly condescending tone, as though she were speaking to a young child. Amber stared at her for a moment and then looked around the office. There were almost no personal effects placed on the desk, only a large planner, and a gaudy blue flowerpot that held a wilted white flower in it. Looking at the walls, she saw the same tall bookcases that were in Crane's office, only these were made of a lesser quality wood. Next to these was a shelf that had many plates with intricate designs on them. Amber sniffed at the plates and finally turned her attention back to the woman.
"I don't think that I want to talk to you." She told her without emotion in her voice. Dr. White raised her eyebrows a bit and looked at her thoughtfully.
"Now Amber, that isn't a very nice thing to say."
"I'm well aware of that." Amber replied while smiling a little. It would amuse her to play these kinds of games with Dr. White, as she obviously wasn't as well prepared for dealing with them as Dr. Crane would be. This will be fun, Amber thought as she sat down in the armchair that was facing the desk. "I don't trust you at all, so I don't want to talk to you about anything, making this therapy and even my time spent in this asylum, useless. You should let me out of here immediately."
"I can't do that, Amber. Only Dr. Crane can handle that sort of thing, and he obviously doesn't want to talk to you anymore. Tell me, why is that Amber? Do you know?" Dr. White asked her thoughtfully. Amber tilted her head to the side.
"Don't you know?" Amber asked her. Dr. White frowned at her.
"I wouldn't be asking you if I did. So you don't know why?"
"I do know! I just wanted to see if you were asking one of those annoying psychiatrist questions that you already know the answer to." Amber said cheerfully.
"So are you going to tell me then?" Dr. White looked at her, obviously summoning up patience.
"No." Amber grinned wickedly at her.
"Ms. Larks, if you persist in this insolent behavior, I will be forced to have you disciplined and Dr. Crane will be notified. You don't want that, do you?"
"That depends on whether or not Jonathan is doing the disciplining…" Amber knew that Dr. White would think that she was romantically interested in Crane, but she really didn't care, just another thing to confuse her with later. Amber hoped that Dr. White would try and talk with Crane about the matter, and she thought that this would only serve to irritate him. What an interesting game, Amber thought with delight. "I think that this session is over for today, don't you?" Amber asked Dr. White, mimicking her condescending voice. Amber was pleased to see that the disrespectfulness hadn't been lost on her as Dr. White gave her a poisonous look, but the glare was nothing compared to those that Crane had given her occasionally.
"That is for me to decide, Amber." The superiority was now gone from her voice, replaced by irritation. Amber smiled faintly at her and looked out the window. For some time, Dr. White tried asking questions about various things, mostly Amber's past, but she gave no reply as she looked out into the distance. After Dr. White gave up on asking questions, she sat in silence for a few minutes, staring at Amber with unmasked annoyance and then called for an orderly to come get her. Once the orderly had arrived, Amber looked back at Dr. White.
"Bye-bye, Dr. White! I can't wait to see you again tomorrow!" She said with false cheeriness as she walked out orderly following her. Once they reached the door to her cell, the orderly stopped and looked at Amber reproachfully.
"It's not a good idea to bait Dr. White." He warned her seriously. Amber looked up at him and frowned.
"Why? She can't do anything to me without Crane's permission, right?" She asked.
"No, she can't," He finally admitted. "But what makes you so sure that Dr. Crane won't give her okay to do something?" The orderly opened the door for her and Amber walked inside silently. He wouldn't do anything to me, right? Amber asked herself as she paced her cell. He respects me as Roxi says; but I did say some rather nasty things to him yesterday… Her thoughts trailed off and left her with a slight feeling of dread. This game that she was playing with Dr. White could go one of two ways; the first would be that Dr. White complains so much about her that Crane lets her do something nasty to her. The second would be that Amber would be sent back to Crane, regardless of his opinion on the matter. She thought about the matter for sometime. Finally, she decided that she would have to talk to Crane, to apologize for her comments, and to earn back whatever kind of approval it was that could keep her safe while she was trapped in here.