Fix You

A Soft Spot

Laf had called an emergency meeting early the next morning before I even got the chance to leave the ward so I was dragged into it. They went over emergency procedures and policies for some reason as if we couldn't read the handbook ourselves. I didn't mean to seem so grumpy but I hadn't slept in over 20 hours and I was getting frustrated at how long the meeting had lasted.

"Thank you all for coming now lets get to work." Laf finally says and I take this chance to try and skip out before-

"Laura, a word?" Laf stops me and I sigh sitting back down in my chair as everyone else proceeded to leave.

"You know I'm extremely tired Doc, I practically pulled an all nighter with the shift I picked up and if I don't leave soon I swear I'll fall asleep here-"

Laf closes the door behind the last person and takes a seat directly across from me. The quiet and sudden serious look Laf had made me anxious now.

"Am I in some sort of trouble?" I ask Laf and they smirk which gives me some sort of relief.

"Do you know Wilson?" they ask and it catches me a little by surprise. "You might know him a little better by the name of Kirsch?"

"Depends, who's asking and am I in trouble for.. maybe possibly knowing a kirsch-"

"Laura you're not in trouble." Laf lets out a little laugh and I sit up to pay better attention now.

"Yes I know Kirsch. Why?" I question now and my thoughts head towards the worst possible reasons Laf could be asking me about him. "Is he okay? Did something happen?"

"Calm down Laura." Laf says getting up and grabbing a coffee to hand to me. I take it and take multiple gulps of it. It was the only thing keeping my energy up at this point and from the look on Laf's face he completely understood this. "Kirsch is fine, he just asked to see you is all." They say sitting back down in front of me.

"Oh." I respond not really knowing what to say.

"I guess you made a lasting mark on him-" I shake my head and raise my hand interrupting Laf from finishing their sentence.

"I did what i'm here to do. I listened to him and supported his recovery."

"Fair enough." Laf responds. "Either way I could never really get him to fully open up to me nor become fond of anyone else in this place so I told him i'd ask if you're up for seeing him."

I sat back in my chair sinking into it slowly from exhaustion.

"You don't have to say yes today Laura I know you're tired-"

"Tell him I'll be in the activity room in 10 minutes." I say standing and walking to the restroom. When I reach it I lean against the sink for a bit. 'What's a few more hours awake?' I think to myself as I turn the cold water on and run my hands under it. I cup them and splash a bit of it on my face to wake myself up. When I pat down my face I look at my watch and decide to just head straight to the activity room.

- - - - - - - -

Sitting at an empty table I start to see patients walk into the room for their morning activities that usually included yoga, stretches, word search puzzles, with crayons of course, or reading. I sigh when I don't see Kirsch and lean my head back in my chair closing my eyes for a bit. Hearing the people around me chattering about nonsense wasn't helping my little nap.

"Don't you ever leave this place?" A familiar voice comes from beside me. I open my eyes quickly and sit up turning to see Carmilla with a soft expression on her face. Soft?

"I'm meeting someone here." I say wiping my eyes. Carmilla hands me a juice and I shake my head, "That's yours."

"Sorry it's not coffee, Caffeine isn't really something they like to give us 'Crazies'," She jokes with me, "Please take it. I think you need it more than I do." She sets the juice on the table and I take it with a smile.

"Thank you." I say and take a sip of it.

Carmilla smiles for a second before giving her head a small shake and returning back to her usual serious one.

"You meeting the human puppy?" She asks.

"He's not a puppy," I almost spit out my juice at the description, "He's got his reasons for being here, same as you."

"Easy creampuff, it was just a question."

"Sorry, I'm just really tired." I look at the door and see Kirsch finally walking in. Carmilla turns to see the same and sighs.

"Well hey, come see me before you leave for the day?"

I look up at Carmilla from my chair a little confused but I nod out of pure exhaustion. Carmilla nods back and I could almost swear I see a small smile before she walks away and Kirsch approaches the table. I stand and wave at him with a tired smile.

"Laura!" Kirsch basically yells before pulling me into an unexpected hug. I tense in his arms but pat his back and look towards the guard who was watching carefully. I pull away and Kirsch is smiling brighter than the last time I saw him. We sit across from each other at the table and he picks up a word search puzzle to work on as he speaks.

"Thanks for staying. Dr Laf said you had a long night."

"I've actually been here for about a day so, I would say so." I laugh and watch as Kirsch crossed out words on the paper. "How are you? Is everything okay?"

"I'm alright. I had a little bit of a relapse two nights ago but it happens pretty rarely."

"Relapse?" I ask taking another sip of the juice.

"I'm fine now." Kirsch doesn't explain and I accept this not wanting to push him further into the conversation. "I actually wanted to talk to you to tell you.. I'm going to work with Dr. Laf more." He finally looks up from his puzzle and I could see the hope he held in his eyes.

"As in.. you're going to try and get better?" I ask with a more awake smile now. "You're going to leave this place?"

"Yes," he chuckles, "talking to you about it all really made me feel like a weight was lifted off and it made me think, well maybe I should talk more about it. You know? Work through the hurt rather than avoid it."

"That's really good Kirsch." I place my hand over his and he smiles widely.

"Yeah." He places his crayon on the table and sighs. "I just wanted to tell you that because I felt you deserved to know you're doing so well at your job, even if you can't reach us all," I felt Kirsch hinting at Carmilla, "don't be discouraged."

"Well that's really sweet of you Kirsch." I lean back in my chair and cross my arms across my chest. "I'm going to ask that both you and Lafontaine keep me updated on your case, and if there's any way for me to help it run smoother please don't hesitate to ask for me."

Kirsch nods and gets back to doing his crossword and I took this as a cue to stand and prepare to leave.

"I've really got to get some sleep if I want to be here for my shift tomorrow morning." I sigh pushing my chair in and grabbing the juice to throw away.

"Can I say something before you go?"

"Sure?"

"I think Carmilla's cracking."

I can't help the small confused laugh from escaping my mouth.

"What?"

"When I walked in I saw you two talking. She gave you her juice. She even smiled at you." He points out everything I noticed. "Seems she's going soft for you Hollis."

"Not this again Kirsch," I shake my head and begin walking away.

"You can't run from it Laura." I can hear him laugh as I walk out of the activity room.