I'm Bad Behavior but...

White walls, white sheets, white curtains and harsh white light. Everything was just so overwhelmingly white. The color was liberally spread across everything to the exclusion of any other color. It was almost as if someone was trying to chase away the inherent darkness that lingered in the air. It was a wasted effort.

"Hiro?"

Hiro ignored the soft voice that drifted in his direction, completely disinterested. It didn't matter who it was or what they wanted. They couldn't help him. No one could help him.

"Hiro?" The voice drifted closer. The owner thereof was now standing beside his bed. He could sense her physical presence, lingering at the edge of his spatial perception. "I am Dr. Amelia Gerson." Hiro's unwelcome visitor introduced herself, sitting down in the seat that usually held Tadashi. "I'm a psychologist. I have been asked to assess your mental state in order to determine how your recovery process will be handled from here on out."

A flash of anger coursed through him, the embers of the flames that had been directed at Tadashi not all that long ago leaping once more to life. What right did they have to treat him like this? Her approach was so… so… so clinical, so distant from the tragedy at hand and he suddenly hated her for it. "I'm fine." Hiro snarled, his anger slipping out despite his efforts to contain it.

"That's good to know." Dr. Gerson's reply was calm and non-committal. "Your doctors have informed me that your body is recovering well, considering the impact it sustained so I guess that is technically true. You won't even require further surgery."

You won't even require further surgery. Those six words echoed through his mind pulling him ever deeper into the pit of despair. Hiro knew the words were meant to be an encouragement informing him that he was no longer in immediate danger of losing his life but that was not what he heard...

Give up hope. Accept your fate. You're broken and there is nothing anyone can do to help you now.

"Great." Hiro's reply was sarcastic, caustic and filled with bitter derision. "So, I'm broken beyond repair. Good to know."

Dr. Amelia Gerson started in surprise. Her body physically expressed the emotion in a manner that was difficult to miss even though he was still working very hard to ignore her. "That's not true. Whoever told you that?"

"I'm not stupid." Hiro snapped, finally losing the battle to shut her out. He turned heated amber eyes round to face her, taking in her petite face, bright red hair and emerald green eyes. He'd never admit it but it was a welcome splash of color in an otherwise dull and dreary room. "No one needs to tell me that. Given the empirical evidence…" Hiro gestured at himself, "I am perfectly capable of making the required deductions myself."

Dr. Amelia Gerson quirked a single eyebrow in response to Hiro's outburst and watched him for a moment before leaning over to pinch his thigh.

"Hey!" Hiro cried out, another flash of anger coursing through him along with the faint remembered sensation of pain, triggered by the doctors actions. "What the hell was that for?"

"I am merely illustrating my point." She calmly crossed her legs, adjusting the notepad in her lap.

"What point?"

"You are an incomplete paraplegic. You still have sensation below the point of your injury." She lightly tapped the pen she held against her thigh.

"Your point being?" Hiro challenged turmoil coiling in his gut.

"You have the potential to recover from this injury. Incomplete paraplegics have been known to show some signs of recovery within the first six months after the injury with potential recovery gains reported up to three years later. The potential for recovery varies from patient to patient but is usually facilitated by good physio and occupational therapy. Your refusal to participate in any of the above programs is limiting your options."

Hiro narrowed his eyes, a sense of bitter disillusionment joining the anger and despair still simmering within. Figures she'd be one of those. The eternal optimist, intent on clinging to the slim chance of hope despite all the empirical evidence to the contrary. "Incomplete paraplegia does not guarantee any degree of recovery let alone a full one. The statistical probability of attaining a complete recovery is rather low. Expending energy towards such an improbability is futile."

Dr. Gerson quirked here eyebrow once more. "The statistics are not as low as you might think"

"They are low enough to confirm that this is something I will be struggling with for the rest of my life." Hiro pointed out.

"So your answer to the problem at hand, is to give up instead?" Dr. Gerson questioned. "Seems a bit out of character to me. I was told you are a fighter. Apparently bot fights even managed to get you into trouble with the law. Why would you give that determination up when you need it most?"

"That was a long time ago." Hiro responded bitterly, clenching his hands in his lap. Where had she gotten her information? She had no right to know that about him and it left him feeling violated, bare and exposed. "I gave that up when my brother died."

When my brother died…

Those four words echoed through his mind further stirring the raging emotions within. Hiro was drowning, losing himself in grief, anger, confusion, sorrow, bitterness, loss and strangely enough threads of hope, relief and love. It was a mess, a cacophony of inner noise that he didn't even know how to begin to deal with and there was nothing he or anyone else could do about it…

"What will it take to get you to at least try the program?" Dr. Gerson asked after a long moment of silence, choosing to leave the topic of Tadashi's death well enough alone. Considering recent events and strange paradoxes, it was, after all, a wise decision.

Hiro considered the question. He actually registered the words, processed their meaning and considered his response before turning to face this unwelcome visitor once more. He looked at her, actually taking in the minor details this time round. She looked tired. Her green eyes held traces of amber and her skin was covered in light freckles, deceptively hidden by the fluorescent light. Her suit was bright pink, a welcome change to all the white. It was creased and showed signs of wear indicating that she had already spent some time in it. It was clear that he was not her first patient of the day yet she have no indication that she didn't want to be there.

Gauging her to be entirely sincere, Hiro gave her a brutally honest reply. "I'm sick of this place. I'm sick of the white light, the white sheets and the white walls. They're entirely too sterile, too clean and remind me of…" Hiro paused, his mind momentarily taken back to his capture, to the lab space and the harsh sterile room he'd been held initially held in. It had all been so clean, so sterile, so white and so very, very cold.

His body shivered in remembrance and he had to shake his head to pull himself back into the present. Despite all the similarities of the situation, he was no longer there and he would do well to remember that. "They remind me of some rather unpleasant things." He picked up where he'd left off. "I'm tired of the awkward silences, the whispered words and the careful speech. I'm not stupid. I'm perfectly capable of making deductions even when people try to hide things from me. I'm also not a child anymore. I know more about the real world that most people can even begin to imagine."

Hiro swallowed and paused for a moment, taking a deep shaky breath in an attempt to control the rush of emotions that threatened to slip past his tenuous control once more. "I'm not stupid." He repeated on a whisper, a stray tear falling down into his lap. "I know I'm broken and I know it's all my fault. I only have my own stupidity to blame. You know, cause and consequence but I did what I thought was right. I did my best and I just… I just want…" He sniffed and wiped his face, trying to hide the evidence of his distress.

"You just want?" Dr. Gerson prompted when Hiro made no move to finish the sentence.

"I just want to go home." Hiro whispered.

Dr. Amelia Gerson returned Hiro's earlier scrutiny in kind before standing with a nod. "I'll see what I can do." She promised, before slipping back out of the room, leaving Hiro alone with his tumultuous thoughts once more.

- BH6 - BH6 - BH6 –

CrazyBlueOwl: I didn't go through all the stories on your list. I opened your profile. Selected the Favorite Stories tab. Pressed Ctrl + F to open the find dialog and typed Big Hero into the dialog. The Find feature did all the work for me. It counted the results and allowed me to browse to each instance. This chapter should clarify the question you asked in your review and is probably every bit as heart breaking as the earlier one... So many pieces for Tadashi to pick up...

NotShort: The official differences between complete and incomplete paralysis are not all that simple I've found. There are simply so many factors that come into play... My head is spinning. As for life... you have no idea... I was stranded as the clutch of my car failed. I never made it home. Slept at a friends house.

shooting2stars: Agreed. Things had to be said. You can't really heal if you don't face what's actually bothering you. Baymax has taken a back seat at this stage. I tried to get him to speak in this chapter as well but he didn't want to so I left it. Round 2 is going to be a but more interesting than round 1... that's all I'm going to say for now.

Guest: Hiro is hurting and is scared to let anyone help him at this stage. It's a difficult position for both of them to be in. Don't stress too much about making things harder... I really will see what I can do once things settle down a little this side.

Two-Stomach: So true. Tadashi very well may end up bald before all of this is over.