Dave's POV
It's Day 2 of my stay at Saint Anne's. I had a WONDERFUL night's rest, something I hadn't experienced in a long time. Everything is great here at my new residence. The food is excellent, top star quality and the staff is very helpful and polite. I think I'm going to love my stay here. Whoever picked out this hospital for me deserves a fucking gold star. Great work man.
I had my breakfast brought up to me in my room and ate it outside on the balcony. The morning sky was clear, not a cloud in the sky. The air was a bit frigid but I didn't mind much. I sat and looked over the ledge on occasion as I consumed my meal. I saw a few other patients playing an early morning game of Tennis. I might head down there later after my evaluation with the Doctor and get in on the action. I still haven't heard anything else about what's to come except for the initial chat I had with Dr. Hilbern yesterday. Speaking of which, one thing that still bothered me was that earlier comment from Dr. Hartford, the blonde skank from the jailhouse.
'If I were you Dave, I'd play along for a little while and not get too impatient to leave so soon...'
What the hell did she mean by that? Did she think I was faking my illness? Did she know I was faking...?
I finished breakfast and headed back inside. The morning air was getting chillier and I didn't have a sweater to wear.
I sat on the small leather couch placed in front of the television and turned it on. Nothing interesting was showing, just the news and a few cartoon shows. Heh, Boy did Rey love his cartoons. I remember he would always be excited to watch them early in the mornings just after we woke up.
"Don't Dave..." I told myself quickly after I started to think about Rey. All that man does to me is make me go insane, literally. I love him so much but I need to keep my temper in check while I'm in this place. If I have a flare up who knows how long that will set me back. I quickly shook the thought of Rey out of my mind and headed to the bathroom for a quick relaxing shower when I heard a soft knock on the door.
"Just a minute." I yelled out.
I unhurriedly walked towards the door, opened it slowly and peaked through the small opening.
'May I come in Dave?"
Dr. Hartford was standing here, a smile planted on her face. Ugh what the hell does she want?
She walked in rudely without my permission and began examining her surroundings.
"How are you enjoying your stay so far?" She asked me in good spirits.
"How the hell do you think I'm enjoying this? I'm confined here! Why would you even suspect that I'm enjoying anything about this?"
"Don't toy with me Dave. I can tell your loving this. It's better than prison is it not?"
I swallowed hard and narrowed my eyes down at her. Something about this lady just isn't right...
"What's your deal doc? Why are you being so casual about this?" I asked suspiciously.
"What do you mean?" She replied confused.
"You come to visit me here at the hospital, even though your job is done in regards to me and say these bizarre comments and whatnot. That's what I mean."
"Well Dave there is a reason why I'm here. For one I care about your recovery. I care about the recovery of all my patients."
"I'm not your fucking patient. We just had one fucking session. That's all. God your acting like some upset chick who can't take a hint."
"Actually Dave you are my patient. I will be your on-staff psychologist here at Saint Anne's."
"WHAT?" What the hell did she mean?
"I came here to tell you this in person. I didn't want you to find out from someone else. Also I wanted to let you know we have a session later this morning. I'll send someone to retrieve you when I'm ready. Take some time to relax until then. Our session will be around 12:00PM."
Dr. Hartford gave me a smirk and walked out of the room. I was left more confused than ever.
"Ugh I need a fucking drink!" I said in defeat.
x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x
I took a short and quite unsatisfying shower and got ready for my evaluation. I was a nervous wreck. I didn't want Dr. Hartford to be my psychologist. Something about her just unsettled me to the core and didn't feel right. Besides she seemed like the type of person to not let anyone manipulate her. I hate to admit it but I'm a master manipulator and I like to be in control and take charge of almost everything so this clearly wasn't going to work out. Both of our personalities would constantly clash.
I went outside and played a game of Basketball with 3 other patients. Everyone here seemed OK, apart from the fact that a few were insanely mad. Other than that, everyone else was talkable, they didn't seem to have a huge mental issues, or none that I would see. After the game and an hour or so of talking, I headed back upstairs. The staff would occasionally stopped me in the hallway and chat me up. I even signed a few autographs. I loved being famous. No matter what situation you're in, you could always find some starstruck person you could later use and abuse.
When I got back to my room I sat on my bed and anxiously waited for the Doctor to send for me. I watched some TV while waiting. I anxiously searched the news channels to see if anything was being mentioned about me, but to my disappointed nobody was saying anything. What the fuck? I'm a mega star athlete for god sakes! Fuck them and everyone else. I don't care.
I took a short nap and was rudely awoken by a loud knocking on the door.
"Mr. Batista?"
I got up from my bed and wiped my sleepy eyes. I walked to the door and opened it. A tiny, young Asian woman stood in front of me. She couldn't have been more than 5 feet tall. She looked on edge as she looked up at me. I wasn't bothered. I always seemed to intimidate people wherever I went. I got off on it.
"Dr. Hartford is ready for you. Follow me please." She said almost in a whisper. She led me to an elevator down the hall, passing a few staff and patients on the way. I kept getting the same stares from everyone. I'm a massive guy; I'm used to getting stares by now.
We rode the lift up 2 floors before stepping out. The hall was bright white, sterile and empty, just like the hall where my room is.
"The last door on the left." The female told me as she pointed in the direction of the room Dr. Hartford was in. I walked down the hallway and stopped at the door. I peered through the glass and saw Dr. Hartford sitting behind her desk writing on some paper with her head down. I sighed and stepped into the room.
She looked up from her work and grinned.
"Welcome Mr. Batista. Please take a seat." She pointed to a chair situated infront of the desk.
I defiantly sat down in a chair near the back corner of the room, away from Dr. Hartford. I narrowed my eyes at her and crossed my arms. I clearly didn't want to be here at all.
"Well Dave today is an important day for you. This session will help me determine various things about your treatment here at Saint Anne's. First I want to begin with setting some ground rules during our sessions together. I expect you to be as open with me as you possibly can. The more you try and close yourself off from me, the longer and more difficult your treatment will be. Remember, I make the decisions about how long you are to continue these sessions. You don't want to set yourself back do you?"
"Why do you care?" I asked. Hearing her talk about how much she can control me and my stay here pissed me off so much I wanted to strangle her.
"I care about all my patients Dave, whether you believe that or not. As a Psychologist, I made an oath-."
She continued to talk about herself and her 'rules' and what not. I just ignored her. I just want this session to be over and done with. I just sat there and let her speak without saying anything. I fantasized about places I would want to be other than here.
After she finished laying down her laws, I spoke.
"So what now? Do you start asking me about my childhood and shit? Am I supposed to break down and cry about how mommy didn't love me and how my father beat me? Or wait maybe you want to know about my life as a famous person and how it's fucked me up."
"We can talk about whatever you want to Dave. Would you like to start with that? I'm very interested in talking about your parents, particularly your father. I hear he left you and your mother when you were a child to become a wealthy, powerful business man. How does that make you feel? "
"Don't ever mention that fucking bastard to me again." I said coldly.
"Well then let's start with why you're here. After your psych eval at the jailhouse, I determined that you were mentally unfit to stand trial. Would you like to know why I came up with that determination?"
I swallowed hard. I saw an opening to control the situation. I could try and force her to tell me what she meant by her earlier comments that unsettled me.
"Sure. Why did you come up with that ruling?"
"Well Dave to start off with you appear to be suffering from a moderate case of Schizophrenia. You also appear to have traces of a Sociopath in your personality."
"Excuse me?" I shouted. Did this whore just call me a Sociopath?
"Mr. Batista—"
"Fuck you Doc. You don't know ANYTHING about me, not a damn thing."
"Please calm down Dave."
I stood up and walked over to her desk and slammed my fist on top of it. She jumped.
"Mr. Batista please return to your seat. I'm only giving you my professional opinion of your situation."
"Your fucking opinion is false. I'm not a sociopath."
"With all due respect I have to disagree. Your behavior clearly shows me that you are. You believe you're entitled to everything and you have no regard for other human beings. "
"My behavior? Please. You're crazy lady if you think for one minute that I'm gonna put up with this. I want another doctor."
"Mr. Batista any doctor you're assigned to is going to tell you the same thing. And besides, I'd be smart about your decision to want to be assigned another psychologist. I'd say you have a good thing going on here right now..."
"What the fuck does that mean?" I got closer to her face and stared at her intensely. "I'm not going to fucking play anymore games with you right now. I want you to tell me what I want to know now."
She cleared her throat and sighed. She stood up calmly and walked towards the window. She kept her back to me as she spoke.
"I should have been more careful with my comments huh? Too late now." She chuckled. I looked at her with surprise as she continued. "Dave, what you need to understand is that although you may be a sociopath, that doesn't necessarily mean that you weren't able to stand trial. Think about it for a minute."
"What...?"
She turned around and flashed me an almost freaky smile.
"Don't you ever wonder how after what you did to Randy Orton that you ended up escaping the possibly of ending up in prison for life, or worse? I mean you must have realize that your punishment is light compared to what it could have been...I was in a position to influence whether or not you were to rot in some cold jail cell for the rest of your life or spend just a few months in one of the most luxurious mental hospitals in the country. Let's be honest with each other Dave, we both know you committed that crime against Mr. Orton, and it's pretty obvious that the jury would have send you to prison for your crime, regardless of what tricks your lawyer would have been able to pull out of his hat. Fortunately for you, you're getting off with a lesser punishment. A couple of months here and your slate will be wiped clean. You have a VERY important person to thank for that. He clearly was looking out for you...like a son..."
I heart nearly stopped after hearing what Dr. Hartford just told me.
"What are you saying? Are you telling me that you...—"
"Our time's up Mr. Batista. I will see you tomorrow." She said as she quickly walked out of the room, leaving me here to absorb the shock that I just received.
Is this bitch fucking around with me? Did she just confess to having something to do with me avoiding trial? Was she a part of some conspiracy to help me get away with attempted murder? And who is the man she's talking about I should be thankful for? Was this plan put together by someone else? Who was it that wanted me to avoid trial and potential prison time?
'He clearly was looking out for you..."like a son"...'
...