Insanity (Asylum 1)

“She shouldn’t be!” Dr. Morrow shouts. “You can’t separate your feelings! You’re too attached! You can’t be her doctor!”

Dr. Watson reaches down and helps me off the gurney. His eyes are kind and loving, his face is bunched together with concern. “Can you stand?”

“I think so.”

Dr. Watson dips his shoulder and I slide my arm across it. He helps me onto the floor and the shock of the freezing tile brings on goosebumps. Dr. Watson rubs my biceps, pumping warmth back into my skin. “This is what you get, Elijah,” Dr. Morrow tsks and shakes his head. “This is what you get for getting involved with a nutcase.”

Dr. Watson snaps, a crazed look in his eye, and lunges for Dr. Morrow, gripping his collar and backing him into the wall. “I thought I told you never to call her that.”

Panic flashes in Dr. Morrow’s eyes and as Dr. Watson backs off, he straightens out his lab coat. Dr. Watson is at my side again and guides me to the double doors at the end of the room. “You’ve lost your mind just like her, you know that, Elijah?” he shouts after us. “She doesn’t even know who you are!”

Dr. Watson halts me at the halfway point. His body tenses and when I gaze into his eyes I see a flash of hurt. I don’t know what’s going on here. I don’t know what Dr. Morrow is talking about. I’ve never felt more out of the loop, confused, or tortured in my entire life. Dr. Watson laces his fingers through mine and peers over his shoulder, a glimmer of a psychotic break in his beautiful eyes. “Let’s get one thing straight, Matthew,” he says coldly. “If you so much as lay a finger on my wife again, I’ll fucking kill you.”

His wife?

His wife?

But that’s impossible.

I just got here.

Didn’t I?

Aurora’s words flit through my mind. You’re her. The one that got away.

Oh…that’s right.

But when did I get married?

My mouth hangs open and I stare at the beautiful man in front of me. The man I’m supposedly married to. He gazes into my eyes, casts a glance downward then pulls me to his chest, tucking my head beneath his chin. He kisses my hair and his warm breath trails down the back of my neck. “I don’t understand Dr.Watson, how—?”

He silences me with a soothing sound and another kiss, this time on the temple. “I know you don’t, my darling. You’ve been through a lot and I promise to explain everything tomorrow.”

“O..o..okay,” I stutter, still in shock.

“I had to try and get you to remember your first time here, and why, in order for us to move on to the next step of your treatment.”

“The next step?”

“Getting you to remember how we met and fell in love.”

And got married , I think to myself.

He takes my face in his hands, brushes my hair back away from my face, and gazes deeply into my eyes. I can see the love glittering like tiny specks of bronze in his honey irises. “I just know it will only be a matter of time before you come back to us.”

I raise an eyebrow. “Us?”

He places his lips against my forehead. “Yes. Willow and myself.”

“Willow?”

“Our daughter.”

Hurt bleeds from my heart.

Tears prick my eyes.

I still don’t know this man. Despite what he claims, I still don’t know him as anything other than my doctor. And I don’t even know my own child. My flesh and blood. I close my eyes and the wetness rains down my cheeks. My face is on fire and Dr. Watson’s cool thumbs instantly put out the blaze when he caresses my skin, wiping away my tears. “Don’t cry,” he murmurs. “I know the memories will come back to you. I just know it. I won’t give up until they do.”