The Courtship Of Dr. Novak Part One of The Courtship Series

Chapter One

Chapter One

Dr. Castiel Novak was a big-time psychologist in New York who had his own practice. A loving boyfriend, a truly wonderful Norman Rockwell life, all that came crashing down when he found out that the man he was going to marry was cheating on him with his best friend. Heartbroken and all alone, Castiel moved back to the small town of Lebanon, Kansas, to work at the Lebanon Psychiatric facility; most were in for some kind of psychosis. Cas was extremely interested in the case of Ivy Winchester. She had been there most of her life; she had a twin brother who would visit her daily, she never talked to anyone. Cas was hoping he could change that. He flipped through her file before heading to bed. When they were four, their mother died in a house fire; father couldn't cope dragged the kids around alcoholic would smack the kids around a bit, tell them it was their fault their mother died. At fourteen, Ivy couldn't take it anymore and slit her wrists. Her brother found her got her help. She stopped talking after. Still, her brother was convinced something else happened to Ivy; she was committed to the facility.

Cas woke up the next morning and went for a run, thinking about Ivy, hoping there was some way to get her to start talking again. He showered, made breakfast, and then headed out to the facility; he parked at the spot with his name on it; that was fast he was hired last week. Cas ran to the front door. Showed his pass to the guard; the door buzzed. He asked where he was supposed to go and headed to the elevators; he stopped at the nurse's desk.

"You must be Dr. Novak. I am Meg Masters head nurse," the brunette woman said, holding out her hand for Cas to shake.

"Cas is fine for the staff; I'm not big on formality," he replied, shaking her hand. He smiled at her. She seemed nice enough, a bit of take no crap attitude.

"If you follow me, I'll show you around," Meg said, making a waving motion as she turned on her heel and headed down the hall towards the day room.

Cas followed her down the hall past the dayroom. He peeked in, spotting a woman sitting by the window, her dark blonde hair tucked behind her ear as she sat staring out the window. He wondered what she was thinking about. Meg caught his attention, telling him that the woman sitting in the window seat was Ivy Winchester. This day was no different than any other she was waiting for her brother; he nodded, telling Meg that he would see her last today and work out a schedule for all the patients. Meg continued down the hall, pointing to each of the patients' rooms telling Cas who was where their names were on the doors. She stopped at the second to last entry at the end of the hall. It was his office they had scraped off the name of the previous doctor placing Cas' name over it. Meg opened the door for him and handed over the spear key he thanked her and stepped inside. The office was empty, a massive cherrywood desk, with a high back rolling chair by the window, an open bookshelf which was fine Cas would bring his own to fill it. There was a plant sitting by the window, the walls were a light blue.

"Your first patient is Marv, he is," Meg started to say but Cas cut her off.

"Religious Ideology?" Cas asked; he had been reading up on the other patients as well as Ivy.

"He thinks he is the scribe of god," Meg said a small chuckle in her voice. She liked all the patients but being scribe of God always made her smile, "He likes stories, he doesn't care what they are about so that may help."

Cas nodded he may need to brush up on his religion. After Marv came Donatello who thought he was a prophet of the lord. That was a new one for Cas, next was Ash who believed demons were real and the FBI, CIA and NSA were all watching him through an implant in his eyeball, then came Ruby she was there because of her anxiety that she was sure was getting better. Cas wanted to stretch and leave the office. It was lunch time. He wanted to see how lunch was run and how the different residents interacted with each other. He headed down to the dining hall looking around as Cas made his way down the aisle. He found Meg at the front desk. He talked to her about how everyone got along during meal times when the double doors leadinginto the ward made it known that they were being opened.