Alone I Break | LingOrm FF

~ Part 7 ~

"You and Lingling seem pretty close," Suzie mused after the latter had left the room.

Orm tore her eyes away from the door to look at Suzie, a frown firmly in place as she did so. "Not really," she said, shrugging imperceptibly.

Suzie raised an eyebrow and gazed pointedly at Orm. "She's been here almost the entire time since you were admitted."

"So?" Orm asked, hiding the whirling emotions she felt at the disclosure.

Tapping his pen against his chin, Suzie pondered his next choice of words. The tension between Orm and Lingling when he walked into the room had almost been tangible. His instincts were telling him that there were some unresolved issues between the two, and if there were, he wondered what role they may have played in the troubled young girl's breakdown. Experience told him that there was much more to Orm's problems than her brother's death.

"It seems to me she cares a great deal about you," he replied at last.

Lips pursed, Orm pulled her knees up to her chin. She didn't want to talk about Lingling. She didn't even want to think about Lingling, or that she had stayed at the hospital, or that they had just had their longest conversation in three years. The less she thought about Lingling, the better off she was.

"Can we not talk about Lingling?" she requested forcefully, emphasizing the word 'not'.

"All right then, what would you like to talk about?" Suzie questioned, crossing his legs.

"How 'bout nothing?" Orm muttered faintly. "I don't see why we have to do this. I'm fine!"

Suzie took a moment to jot down some notes; Orm's veiled hostility, her reluctance to let anyone help her, and her apparent denial that anything was wrong. She seemed to be one very closed off young woman, in his mind.

"Well, why don't we start with you telling me why you're here in this hospital," he started off his line of questioning.

"Because Doctor won't let me go home!" she grumbled loudly, toying with the hem of her gown.

Flipping back several pages in the patient file sitting on his lap, Suzie recited the words written in Dr. Somchai's handwriting, "Patient admitted to emergency room unconscious with multiple abrasions and lacerations to the arms and hands. Officer Kwong, who responded to the call of a woman in distress, reported that at least one room in the patient's home had been ransacked."

Hearing the description, Orm paled, her hands stilling in her lap.

"Sound familiar?" Suzie asked, setting aside the file.

"I-I...I don't know," Orm stuttered, shaking her head as if to force the memories out of her mind.

"Tell me, Orm, what do you remember about yesterday?" Suzie pressed, sensing her veneer was cracking, and though he hated the idea of causing her additional stress, there didn't seem to be any other choice.

Orm barely heard the question directed at her. Images, little snippets of the past two weeks, flashed before her eyes.

*** 

"Mikey?"

"Orm...come on, ya gotta come with me!"

*

"No! James!"

*

"I'm here, James. Hang on, you're gonna be fine."

"Orm...love....you."

* 

"The impact of the crash caused an Acute Subdural Hematoma, a form of bleeding in the space between the brain and the skull. His was particularly severe, and the build-up of fluid put an immense amount of pressure on the brain which, in turn, has caused irreparable brain damage. James is, for lack of a better term, brain dead."