The horizon and the balcony

Chapter eighteen

John's fingers tapped rapidly on his thighs as he sat In the waiting room. He had already blown signing in, he had used his maiden name and a whole bunch of difficulties ensued. Their were multiple babies crying and the receptionist couldn't find his health care in the system. Turns out he was signed up under his married name.

He refocused his attention on the children's portion of the waiting room. There was a flatscreen tv posted up in the right corner of the room, Sofia the First was playing. He watched intently subconsciously bringing his fingers up to his mouth.

"Mr. Hamilton-Laurens!"A nurse said. He jumped slightly and roughly snatched his fingers away from his mouth, god had anyone seen him?

He stood up and followed her down a hall and up a flight of stairs.

Psychiatric ward

One of the signs read in blue bold letters.
He rolled his eyes.

God what was he doing here?

The nurse knocked on the door and his heart fell to the pits of his stomach, when did they get here? It was now or never

"Come in!"a song like voice rang.

"You can take it from here"the nurse said and quickly walked down the hallway seeming to disappear completely.

He opened the door slowly and cringed at the surroundings around him, the same as it always has been. There was a shelf next to the door full of toys,a doll house and a kitchen set.

"Mrs.Schuyler...."he said forcing a smile.

She turned away from the computer and smiled.

"My my John, you've grown since the last time I've seen you"she said with a grin. He rolled his eyes and shrugged of his jacket taking a seat.

"Cut the formalities Betsy, What trauma are we diving into today?"he asked. She huffed and crossed her arms staring at him over the bridge of her glasses.

"I see you're pretty much still the same, today is just a general check In. I won't make you get into the heavy stuff until we're meeting regularly, I need you to gain my trust"she said. He scoffed and leaned back in his seat.

"That's rich coming from you, you'll never gain my trust"he said. She chuckled and turned back to her computer typing rapidly.

"You'll be surprised with what I can do"she said. He raised a brow and wanted to question her further but decided against it.

"What's with all the kiddie stuff in your office?"he asked.

"My original background was adolescence therapy, I've further moved on from that but I kept all my things. You'd be surprised at the amount of adults who would plop themselves on the ground and play while we chatted"she said.

God that sounded nice, that cooking set was calling his nam-no no no he was not here for that.

"And that's not weird to you?"He asked.

She shook her head.

"Why would it be? There's nothing wrong with playing, some people use it to cope"she said matter of factly. Huh, so Lafayette wasn't just twisting words.

He nodded.

"How about this session you go ahead and ask me some questions? You can get as personal as you'd like, I'm an open book!"she chirped. Her happiness was making him sick.

"Alright Elizabeth...are you married?"He asked.

"Mhm, I got married recently."she said lifting up her hand showing off a heavy rocked ring.