The Element of Surprise

The Stay Part 1

Kathleen heard Derek mumble something about the questions not being finished as he walked away. She walked into Meredith's room and saw she was sitting up in her bed, staring at the wall. Alertered by Kathleen's presence, Meredith snapped out of her daze.

"You know, I think I love him. But how can I be sure. It seems weird talking to a therapist about boy problems, especially when the therapist is the boy's sister." Meredith chuckled to herself, still not looking at Kathleen. "But, I think I love him. Like he could of just dropped me off and left me. He thought I was asleep and he came in here and told me that he would be back to visit me. Still, he could of just kicked me to the curb, that is what my past boyfriends would've done. Haha, now I am rambling about my boy problems to the boy's sister who just happens to be my therapist on a psych floor at a hospital. Boy has my life been weird lately." When she finished she flopped back down on her bed rolling over, closing her eyes hoping sleep would overcome her and Kathleen would just leave the room.

Kathleen had other ideas though. She was excited by the fact Meredith had only been here a couple hours and she was already starting to open up, even if it was about other things. Kathleen then sat on the couch that was facing the foot of bed. She grabbed the clipboard and looked over the answered questions.

"You know Meredith, I always thought these questions were stupid too." Kathleen said laughing

"I think I will never be able to forgive him, for what he did to me. That stupid man. He could have gotten me pregnant!" Meredith continued to ramble on completely disregarding the fact Kathleen was there at all.

Kathleen was confused. Was she talking about Derek? 

"Meredith, are you still talking about Derek?"

"No"

"The attack?" Kathleen asked hoping she didn't say it to soon

"Yeah" Meredith answered

"Is that all you wanna say about it?" Kathleen replied

"No, I feel like more is coming. Like it was all scrambled up in my stomach and it was waiting for me to unscramble it and say it outloud." Meredith said still laying flat on her back looking up at the ceiling.

"Do you want me to wait here while you work it out?" Kathleen said trying to understand what Meredith just said

"If you want" was all that was said back

Time passed while Kathleen watched Meredith as Meredith watched the ceiling. She was just about ready to ask another question when Meredith began talking.

"I knew someone was following me. I could've stopped and walked back to the hospital to walk me to my car. The thing is that exact thought crossed my mind and I was so mad at the world that I ignored it because the universe was terrible and I was gonna do what I wanted to do. Then all of a sudden these big, masculine hands wrap around me. I didn't even think to scream at first. All I thought was 'wow universe, here we go again. This time I might die.' I wanted to be ok, but then I didn't. I stopped fighting after a while, I just gave up." Meredith spat out

Kathleen was in aw. She has had many difficult patients in the past who didn't speak at all. But then there was Meredith who seemed like she was going to be hard to talk to but then it all came spewing out. She had to be very careful with her choice of words.

"So, why do you think you stopped fighting. Besides the fact you were physically hurt?" Kathleen asked

"I don't know. I was mad at the universe I guess. I wanted to scream, but not at him, at the universe. I so busy being mad the universe,  I forgot I could control some of what was happening to me." Meredith said dry of tears and with the monotone voice