“Dee, what are you doin’, girl?” Linc asked her softly not taking his eyes off Kennedy.
Growling in frustration, she glared their way before answering. “She sees a psychiatrist in Florence a handful of times a week; I’m looking for some hint as to who he is so I can call him. When she got here, this is how she was. After weeks of seeing him she finally spoke to me, so I’m thinking he might have some idea as to how to help her.”
“Any idea what his name is?” Linc asked pulling out his phone ready to search for the doctor.
“Gee, Linc, if I knew that I’d be looking him up myself!” She snapped, a blush immediately working its way up her cheeks. “I’m sorry. I don’t know his name, she never said anything. Honestly, it was a miracle I even found out she was seeing him.”
“Fuck,” he growled out. “Do you know anything about him at all?” Creed asked her looking at his hands in defeat.
“Ummm… He’s from England? Some big wig I think.”
As Linc started searching on his phone for acclaimed psychiatrists from England in the Florence area, he kneeled down in front of her trying to make eye contact, to get her to look at him. When she didn’t, he started to hum the lyrics to their song. Almost immediately, she began humming with him. It gave him a small fraction of hope that she wasn’t too lost to them yet.
They sat there interacting like that for what felt like hours while Dee searched the house and Linc searched their secure databases for her doctor. As the day faded he never moved; she never moved. They were stuck in a never-ending loop of humming. Every time he thought she might accept a touch from him, he would lift his hand to place it on her knee only for her to flinch away from him and a single tear to fall from her eye.
It was like it hurt her that she couldn’t accept his touch just as much as it hurt him. Seeing her so achingly broken was something he never thought he’d see again. They’d been making such good progress before they’d left that coming back to her this way was a shock.
“Got him!” Linc announced triumphantly. “Dr. James Schroder sound right?” He looked to Dee who just shrugged. “Whatever, I’m calling him anyway.”
·?•? ?•?·
Relief was nearly immediate when he found the name of the possible shrink she’d been seeing. Dialing the number he watched as Creed tried to reach her, tried to get her to come back to them. Whatever had happened while they were gone must have been bad to have her in this nearly catatonic state.
As the phone picked up, he was brought out of his thoughts. Not wanting to disturb Kennedy and Creed, he took the call outside. “Hello?”
“Is this Dr. James Schroder?” he asked roughly.
“Yes. Who is this?”
“You don’t know me but my name is Lincoln Black; I’m a close friend of Kennedy Maxwell’s. She’s a patient of yours, right?”
His hesitation in answering was all the answer Linc needed. “I really can’t divulge any information, Mr. Black.”
“Look, doc, I don’t need you to divulge fucking anything right now. Ken’s in trouble and we can’t help. Her friend seems to think you can, so here I fucking am trying to get your help because she’s in a bad fucking way! So you’re either her doc or not but don’t waste my fucking time if you aren’t!” Linc could feel his temper spiraling out of control, getting more pissed by the second.
“What happened?” He acquiesced, finally admitting he was without saying it.
“That’s the tricky part doc; we don’t know exactly. We had something come up and Creed and I had to leave— “
“You left her again?” he interrupted, anger lacing his voice.
“Look, she knew why we had to leave. In fact, she pushed us to when I told her what was happening. She was ok; she was opening up to us. We were gone less than twenty-four hours,” he tried to defend.
“You guys abandoning her before broke her; you do understand that, right? Leaving again would have destroyed her.”
Nothing they didn’t already fucking know.
“Yeah, look, we know that. Stop being a fucking dick and get your ass here and fucking help her, doc!” H
e was fed up with the whole explanation and blame game and just wanted Kenny to get better.
“I’ll be there in a couple of hours,” he said flatly.
·?•? ?•?·
She could feel their frustration. It was an entity in the room. Hopelessly locked in her mind, the fear was so overwhelming she could barely breathe, and when they tried to touch her all she could see were fists coming at her, a hand with a knife ready to slice her skin. She was losing her fight; it was almost a welcome relief until she thought about what she would be losing out on.
Leaving Creed and Linc wasn’t something she had to face before, but since they came back into her life she’d felt hope. As if things would get better; they would help her get better, make her whole again. But she was a sinking ship with no way to survive.