Anger Management - Amphibia
Author's Note: I don't own Amphibia. The show and its characters belong to the very creative and talented Matt Braly.
This is my first (published) M-rated story. I promise not to get too carried away, but please expect content not suitable for all readers such as swearing, bloodshed, exploration of serious mental health conditions and various healthcare facilities, and potentially, sex, depending on how things play out as I write future chapters. If any of those things make you uncomfortable, please don't continue reading.
"Good afternoon, I'm Dr. Waybright. Please make yourselves comfortable."
"Tell me what's wrong with my daughter. She's been miserable for years and anytime I ask her a question she's all like I don't know, I don't care. I can never get a straight answer out of her. It's like talking to the damn wall!"
"Hey Claire, right? May I speak to you alone?"
Claire nods timidly.
"Excuse me miss, don't you need my permission to do that? She's only 13."
"Not when I believe you're causing her stress. My parents did the exact same thing to me. I picked their bad qualities up from them and it almost made me lose my friends."
"Mom, please let me talk to her." Claire finally speaks up.
"It's called parenting. But what would you know? You're like 16."
"No, it's BULLSHIT!" Sasha stood up from her chair and slammed both hands down on the desk. "AND IF I WAS 16, I WOULD STILL BE IN SCHOOL STUDYING TO PUT UP WITH SHITTY PEOPLE LIKE YOU!"
"How dare you! You're scaring my daughter!"
"I think you're scaring your daughter! She doesn't need a therapist, she needs parents that actually listen to her and understand. Since you care more about yourself than your own child, we're through here. There's the door."
"You will not get away with talking to me like that! I'm going straight to your supervisor. Consider yourself unemployed!"
"Whatever you say, Karen. My boss loves me."
Sasha whispered "I'm sorry" to the teenage girl as the woman left, dragging her child along and slamming the door behind her.
10 minutes later, Sasha's boss called her into his office.
"I think you already know why you're here," he said, initiating the conversation.
"Uh huh."
"I'm very disappointed in you, Ms. Waybright."
"What?! But did you see that lady?"
"Yes, but our job as therapists is to stay patient, no matter how impatient your clients, or their parents, may get. I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to ask you to clean out your office as you will no longer be working here."
Sasha sighs and apologizes. "I understand, and I'm sorry I let you down."
"You have great potential, Ms. Waybright. Any clinic would love to have you. You just need a little more working on yourself to do till you can work on others." He hands her some paperwork.
"Giving me the psych talk again, huh?" She cracks a smile. "I'm gonna miss that."
"As you see here on this paper, I'd like you to attend 10 anger management classes, and once I've gotten proof you've completed your treatment successfully, I'll send out a letter of recommendation to all my best colleagues here in L.A. I just need a signature down below if you accept."
"I'm up for the challenge sir!" Sasha signed the bottom of the first sheet of paper and handed it back to the man.
"Excellent. Take care, Ms. Waybright. I know you will go on to do greater things."
They both get up from their seats, shaking hands one final time then Sasha's boss escorts her out of his office.
At Sasha's apartment, Marcy was drawing on the couch when she heard the front door swing open.
"Hey Sashy! How was work?"
Sasha kicked off her shoes, walked straight to the counter and poured herself a glass of wine.
"Oh no, it must've not been good." Marcy put her tablet away and gave her full attention to the blonde woman. "What happened?"
Marcy rested her hand on Sasha's shoulder as she half-emptied her wine glass, set it on the coffee table, and buried her face in the palms of her hands. "I called Anne and told her to come over. When she gets here, we'll talk."
Anne arrived about 10 minutes later and Marcy opened the door for her.
"What's going on Sash?" Anne paced quickly to the couch and sat next to Sasha, placing a hand on her shoulder while Marcy took a seat on the other side of her.
"I lost my job. Some lady freaked out on me because I wanted to talk to her daughter privately. I could tell she was exactly like my parents, especially my mom, and I guess that's what sent me over the edge. Needless to say that girl is screwed if she doesn't get the clarity she deserves. It's a shame because I really wanted to help her."
"Hopefully she has great friends like us to steer her in the right direction." Marcy assured her.
"Hopefully, but it didn't look like that woman let her see the light of day. Some type of stubborn freak who trusts nothing but her own, stupid ego."
"This sucks, so can you like, not be a therapist at all anymore?" Anne asked.
Sasha got off the couch to help herself to another glass of wine. "They didn't take away my license, but I need to attend 10 anger management classes before I can step foot into another clinic. The thing is that I don't think I can afford to be unemployed for over two months with rent, utility bills, gas, car insurance, having to eat… and living in L.A. doesn't help with any of that stuff."
"You can come work with me at the aquarium," Anne offered. "The toad exhibit is short-staffed."
"That doesn't sound half bad, actually. But I have a psych degree. There's no way they'd hire me, and there's no way they'd believe I was the first lieutenant to an army of giant, talking toads in another dimension. They'd send me to a shrink."
"I told my boss all about you and Marcy. I'm sure he'd love for you to work with us, even though he kind of likes Marcy more."
"Well then maybe Marcy should get a job there." Sasha rolled her eyes, took another big sip of wine, and put the glass back down. "All she does is sit at home and fucking doodle."
Marcy gasped. "Is that really what you think of me Sasha? That I sit at home and doodle all day?"
"Marcy, no! I-"
Anne sided with Marcy. "Yeah Sash, I know you're going through a lot right now, but that was kind of harsh."
Marcy started crying into Anne's chest. "It's okay Marbles, I think Sasha needs some time alone. You can stay at my place as long as you'd like." Anne helped Marcy get up to pack her things to take with them.
"Marce, please I didn't mean it!" Sasha begged.
Marcy ignored her.
"Nice work, Waybright. All you've done was fuck shit up since the day you were born." Sasha mumbled to herself as they exited her apartment.
Sasha stood up from the couch and started pacing back and forth, while every bad thing she could remember happening to her piled up in her head like an overflowing dumpster. Suddenly, she screamed at the top of her lungs while throwing the empty wine glass across the room, shattering it into many small pieces as it made contact with the floor. Her breathing became heavy as she threw herself back onto the couch sobbing.
Sasha ended up falling asleep on the couch and woke up in the middle of the night, remembering Marcy had left with Anne.
She sighs. "Should I call her? Should I go over there? Should I just let all this shit blow over like I always hope it will? Whatever, I don't deserve her. I never did, and never will. Wait- why do I sound like some jealous girlfriend? I should be happy she's spending time with Anne."
Sasha got up to get herself some water. On her way to the refrigerator, she steps over the broken glass still on the floor with her bare feet. She screamed in pain as she realized she had cut her foot open. A trail of blood followed her the rest of the way there.
After attempting to clean her wounded foot, Sasha realized some glass had gotten stuck inside that she couldn't remove herself. She decided to call a neighbor to take her to the hospital since the injured foot just so happened to be the one she'd have to drive on.
Her neighbor helped her out of the car, placed her in a wheelchair and brought her into the emergency room. There, she thanked the woman for going out of her way to drive her to the hospital in the middle of the night and said she would order an Uber to take her home.
A nurse wheeled her into a private room for examination.
"Hi there! My name is Emily, I'll be looking after you tonight. So I'm hearing you got some glass stuck inside your foot. Is that correct?"
"Yup. I stepped over a broken wineglass while I was half asleep."
"Oh no! How'd the broken glass get there? Is everything alright at home?"
"The past 12 or so hours have been a total disaster. I got fired from my job, got drunk and unintentionally said some mean things to my friends to make them hate me because I got fired from my job, and now this. I smashed the glass on the floor myself and forgot it was there. I promise I'm sober now, it was only two glasses of wine but I drank them fast and it's been hours."
"Aww, that's terrible. How'd you get fired? If you don't mind me asking, of course."
"It's fine, I'm- or was a child psychologist and some girl's mother crossed the line with me so I raised my voice at her and cursed her out in front of her daughter. I know it sounds silly since I'm sure you guys deal with the same kind of stuff every single day. My temper sometimes gets the best of me though, if you can't tell."
"Well, you sound like an amazing young lady deserving of a second chance. I did some things I'm not too proud of myself when I was your age. We're gonna do everything we can to get those stubborn pieces of glass out of your foot so you can go home and look for a new job! Luckily, there are many opportunities here in L.A."
"Thanks, I appreciate it."
Emily nods. "I'm gonna transfer you to another room to free up space for incoming patients. We're a little packed here tonight so I hope you don't mind sharing with another young lady your age."
"Sure, why not. Maybe we'll connect." They both laughed.
The nurse wheeled Sasha into another room next to a young Asian woman with long black hair and many earrings wearing a hospital gown. She had a needle in her arm and was connected to various machines to monitor her vitals.
Oh, you've got to be kidding me.
"May I ask what she's doing here?" The Asian woman asked the nurse.
"Does there seem to be a problem, Marcy?" Emily replied.
"More like what is SHE doing here?" Sasha intervened then she sighs. "Emily, can you give us a minute?"
"Sure." The nurse steps out of the room to check on other patients.
"You broke my heart Sasha."
"Yeah, well I also broke my wineglass and got it shoved into my foot so I guess I'm great at breaking things!"
"You know how much the webcomic means to me. Why would you say that? Do you really think it's all just some silly doodling?"
"No, Marcy. It's much more than that. You're much more than that."
"I don't know what to believe anymore with you. Anne's right, you're so flaky."
"Flaky, huh. Is Anne here? I have a thing or two to say to her." Sasha looked around for her curly-haired, Thai friend who appeared to be nowhere in sight.
"I made her go home since she has work in the morning, unlike us."
Sasha scoffed in response. "Why didn't either of you tell me you were here?"
"I just got here like half an hour ago. I had a panic attack because my chest started hurting in the middle of the night. They just took a bunch of blood and I'm a little dizzy."
"It's okay Marce, try to relax. Breathe in, and breathe out."
Emily returns to the room after both girls had calmed down. "Alright Sasha, I'm gonna ask you a few questions, if that's okay."
"Sure."
"What's your most accurate height and weight?"
"5'7"-ish… and I don't know how much I weigh, sorry."
"That's okay. To your best estimate, when was the first day of your last period?"
Sasha blushes knowing Marcy is listening. "Uh, what does that have to do with my foot?"
"It's medical protocol, and since you're a child-bearing female, I must ask. We need to know if you might be pregnant so we know which medications are safe to give you."
"July 8th." Marcy interrupted.
Sasha turned to Marcy. "What? How do you even know that?"
"Because I started mine the day before, we were practically in sync! You took care of me, then you got yours and we snuggled together on the couch all day eating ice cream while sharing a heating pad."
Sasha turned even redder.
"That's good, so your cycle should be starting again soon. I know you mentioned you were drinking earlier which makes me assume you're not, but I still need to ask: Is there any possibility you may be pregnant?"
"No! I-I'm bisexual and have only dated women for the last few years." Sasha looked around, trying to avoid eye contact with both women.
"I see. So are you two like, a thing?" Emily asked curiously.
Sasha and Marcy shouted "NO!" in unison, now both red in the face, then Sasha elaborated. We're just roommates. We've been friends since kindergarten."
"It's amazing how close you both still are after all those years. I apologize for asking if you girls are together. I know that was too personal."
"You wouldn't be the first one." Sasha smiled awkwardly while she looked at the floor, pushing her short hair out of her face.
"Well, you were both very helpful. I'm sorry if any of those questions made you uncomfortable, especially the last one." She apologized again. "The doctor will be in shortly to take a look at your foot." The nurse then disappears from the room.
Sasha let out a deep breath. "Oh thank frog that's over with. As for you, Mar-Mar…"
"I'm still mad at you Sasha."
"I know, but you know I say stupid shit I don't mean all the time. I'm sorry Marcy. I'm really, really sorry."
"Hopefully those anger management classes help." That was Marcy's final exchange with Sasha before she pulled out her phone and started playing a video game while Sasha stared at the ceiling.
The two women sat in silence for 20 minutes before the doctor finally entered the room to examine Sasha's foot.
"So, unfortunately the only way we can safely remove the glass and clean the affected area is surgically. We will provide a local anesthetic so you will be awake and the entire procedure should take less than 20 minutes."
"Alright, I'm a big girl, I can handle it."
Marcy could hear their entire conversation through the curtains while she continued playing video games on her phone. She still didn't know whether or not to completely forgive Sasha, even though they were now both receiving medical attention as a result of being separated from each other.
As Sasha was being wheeled out of the room, Marcy let out a quick, quiet, "I love you Sashy."
Sasha didn't know if it was the 3AM drowsiness taking control of her body or the drugs they gave her for the pain, but there's no way she could've heard that correctly. During the entire operation, those three words were all she could think about. After the doctor was done cleaning, stitching and wrapping her foot up nicely, Sasha was wheeled back into the room with Marcy who was now asleep.
Sasha leaned over a little bit and quietly said, "I love you too, Mar-Mar." She swore she could see Marcy smile briefly at the reciprocation of her affection. "Please come home with me."
Subsequently, Marcy's doctor came in with two green pills and a cup of water and woke her up. Marcy took the medication to ease her anxiety and was discharged with a prescription. Sasha's doctor quickly brought her a stronger dose of pain medication and also sent her on her way, knowing she and Marcy planned on leaving together and didn't want to keep them waiting.
"Let's get home. We'll figure all this shit out later while we bum out on the couch eating ice cream." Sasha suggested.
"I like that idea." Marcy took Sasha's hand as the blonde hopped off the bed on one foot. They then proceeded to help each other out of the emergency room and into their Uber like two drunk women stumbling out of a bar.
Back at Sasha's apartment, she and Marcy decided to snuggle up together in Sasha's bed to calm their nerves and hopefully get a decent sleep.
Sasha kissed Marcy's forehead. "You better not leave me ever again, you hear me, Mar-Mar?"
"If I do, I might actually have a heart attack."
They both fell asleep in each other's arms.