Of course, Brutus and Doc would be with her.
All the fucking time.
Like they always fucking were.
Since when did you become such a jealous bitch?
“I’m being serious, though!” Doc said through the laughter coming from the crack in the door. “Statistically speaking, there are more people on this planet with mental illness than there are people with physical illnesses. When you build up a society like ours, which is an unchecked capitalistic society, and you have generations of people who are raised in survival mode, the nervous system activates in ways we have yet to test. One of those ways, we have found, is that the nervous system has a tendency to rewrite?—”
Anna interjected, still giggling up a storm. “You really mean to tell me that there are bitches out here walking around with fucked up heads and they don’t even realize it? Hell, that describes half the fucking prissy-ass fucks I went to school with!Why the hell didn’t I have that information at my disposal before? Doc, you need to figure out how to clone yourself. I’ve got some sick fucking burn material because of your ramblings.”
Brutus snickered. “Gonna tell the next person that, statistically speaking, they’re hardwired to be an asshole.”
“Actually,” Doc said as a shadow moved beyond the door, “it would be more like, ‘statistically speaking, your nervous system has never known stability once in its life. No wonder you can’t think straight. I’m surprised you can walk straight.”
Anna and Brutus fell apart in laughter, and I had to admit, what he said tugged a barely-there smile across his face. I found that I liked his ramblings when he got to going about statistics and studies. Intelligent men always drew me in. They never ran out of things to talk about, and I loved hearing how passionate they were about things they enjoyed.
Why did I have to eavesdrop to experience that side of Doc?
Every time we were together, it was always ‘Miss Elizabeth’ this, ‘Miss Elizabeth’ that. You have to take your meds. Make sure you eat this food. You need to do better by your body. No, you can’t leave yet. Always a studious and stoic gaze, and never the small smile I saw him crack sometimes with Anna. Or Brutus. Or even Cap.
Why didn’t I get to be graced with his smile?
Why couldn’t I just have some of the fun conversations with him?
I wanted my life to be fun again.
He smiled during video games.
“Sure, until Anna barged in,” I grumbled to myself.
Everything paused. Things went eerily silent, and I wondered if I spoke to myself a bit too loudly. It was a bad habit of mine. Talking to myself was always how I decompressed, especially in showers.
I won so many fucking fights in the shower when it was just me and my brain.
“Is someone there?” Brutus called out.
Fuck.
I was had.
I sighed heavily as I reached out and eased the door open, revealing the three stooges behind it. Brutus looked at me with a heavily-furrowed brow. Anna smiled and waved her hand. But it was Doc who immediately stood and rushed toward me.
He looked up and down the hallway before he stepped out of the room, causing me to step backward in order to make room for him.
His voice lowered. “What in the world are you doing out of bed, Miss Elizabeth?”
“Lizzie’s fine,” I said simply, “and I need a favor.”
“Is something wrong? Is something bleeding? Have you popped a stitch anywhere?”
I shook my head. “Uh, no. But I want to take pictures.”
He paused. “Pictures?”
I nodded. “Of my injuries.”
He looked at me for a long time with a look that I couldn’t decipher. “Pictures of your injuries.”
