fandom_clinic | FTEC - Tuesday, 06/08

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FTEC - Tuesday, 06/08

Hawkeye was busy working at the front desk. No, he wasn't doing inventory or reviewing patient charts. He had glue and scissors and all kinds of decorative items creating a large poster on STDs. This was to join the other similar posters on a table in one of the exam rooms on similar subjects that he planned to put around town. They weren't aimed only at the kids. Adults needed educational posters too.

There was a sign out front today that said 'No birds, no bees and definitely no bull. Free advice and samples inside!' and a bowl full of condoms inside on the desk.

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Dimitri blinked, shocked that this had been going on since...well, the whole time they'd been together and she'd never breathed a word about it. His hand moved up to her forearm, holding tightly like it would keep her looking at him.

"Rose," his voice was like an amplification of the tear she'd just made in his heart with that admission, "this shouldn't have been the first time I heard about this! Why didn't you tell me? Do you know what it was like for me to hear you'd collapsed and not know what was happening? Do you know how scared I was to see you laying here unconscious for hours?"

The pain in his voice made her heart stop, and Rose stared at him, stunned at his reaction. There were so many emotions written on his face, that she didn't know what to address first, how to respond.

So she said the stupidest thing possible. "...you're not scared of anything."

How had she missed that he was terrified of losing her?

"I'm scared of lots of things. I was scared for you," Dimitri told her, all the passion and worry he felt for her on display in a way that likely went against their unspoken agreement. "I'm not perfect. I'm not invulnerable."

Fuck their agreement. Rose caught his other hand and pulled him towards her as she leaned in, wanting to kiss him for saying that.

There was no pulling away from that, and he returned the kiss briefly. "You can't distract me from this," Dimitri said quietly.

She didn't bother denying it though the temptation to ask him to lay off and just hold her right now was great. Still, Rose kept hold of his hand, wanting the connection.

"I know you're not - I mean -" she couldn't get the words out though she wasn't looking away from him. Even knowing him as well as she did now, it was hard to believe he worried and cared that much about her.

He did realize that she'd just woken up from a rough sort of sleep, so there was no heat in his voice and his free hand reached up to push strands of hair away from her face while he continued talking. "This was what you wouldn't talk about after the hearing. All those questions about ghosts with the priest, and for months before...you were dealing with all of this alone? Why didn't you tell me?"

Rose leaned into the touch, relaxing a little against his hand though she looked up to meet his eyes. "I didn't know if it was real for a long time," she explained. "And - I didn't think you'd believe me."

"Well...it's certainly not something I ever expected to hear," Dimitri admitted, looking a little nervous by the way her assertion was altering his worldview.

"Do you believe me?" Rose asked, catching the nervous look as she watched him closely.

"I want to believe you," he answered earnestly, "but I don't believe in ghosts." Even after some of the things he'd seen in Fandom, disbelief was difficult to fully crack.

Rose shrugged, feeling a little bit defeated. Somehow she'd been hoping he'd just believe her. "Well, yeah, that's why I couldn't tell you or anyone else. I don't want people thinking I'm crazy."

"I don't think you're crazy," Dimitri said quickly and honestly. "But you've been through a lot this year. And the ghosts you saw...there's a lot of trauma behind how you last saw them."

"No, it's more than that," she said, shaking her head as she pulled back away from him. "And - if even you won't believe me, no one will."

Pulling away wasn't going to work for Dimitri just then, and he pushed out of his chair, taking a new position on the edge of the bed, facing her. Nice and close. "So tell me how it's more and I'll try to believe you. Though I'm not sure you know what's happening to you."

Rose glared at his words. "You'll try to believe me, but I'm too stupid to know what's happening to me? It's in my head, Dimitri," she snapped, her voice raising. "You just have to decide. If you think I'm just a stupid child who's too naive to know her own weak mind, you should just leave now because there's no point in us continuing. If you can remember that I've seen things and know things that kinda surpass others my age, maybe you should realise I might possibly know what the hell I'm talking about."

Dimitri was less than impressed by her attitude when he was doing his best to get past his issues with this very new information she'd presented and be on her side. "I said I would try because I always want to believe you," he reminded her calmly. "I would never call you stupid and I believe I have fought to get others to give you the benefit of the doubt before, so either you accept that I want to help you or I can leave as you said."

"You want to help me?" she asked, still upset. "Or you want to figure out what's happening to me because I couldn't possibly know myself."

"Would I be here if I didn't want to help you?" Dimitri asked, ignoring the hair falling in his eyes as he tilted his head in agitation. "How can you know for sure what's happening to you? Do you see ghosts right now? Do you know why that is? Are they randomly appearing or trying to tell you something? Do you know?"

She took a breath, hearing the frustration in his voice and trying to remember he was on her side. None of the questions were bad ones. They were all the same ones that had been going around and around in her head. "You'll try to believe me," she checked again. "And not write this off as some - mental break."

"Yes," he said with a relieved sigh, glad his questions had gotten through her annoyance with him. "I would never write you off, Roza. If you let me help, we can figure this out."

Rose still wasn't thrilled with the sound of that, but she shifted slightly closer to him, reaching for his hand as she started talking. She told him about the first time she saw Mason and when he appeared during the fog, how she'd been afraid to tell anyone what had really happened at St. Vlad's. She talked about the headaches and the shapes she saw and ghosts coming for her earlier.

It was weird, how much more relieved she was finally talking about all of this that she'd worried about for so many months now.

Listening to her tale was mind boggling, and Dimitri clung to her hand like it was crucial to his comprehension of the facts. The story featured surprise after surprise and when she was done all he could do was lean in to give her a hug and murmur an apology in her ear. Dimitri realized he'd failed for months at being someone she thought she could trust with all of this, but he wasn't willing to fail her now.

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FTEC - Tuesday, 06/08

Re: Exam One - Rose Hathaway

Re: Exam One - Rose Hathaway

Re: Exam One - Rose Hathaway

Re: Exam One - Rose Hathaway

Re: Exam One - Rose Hathaway

Re: Exam One - Rose Hathaway

Re: Exam One - Rose Hathaway

Re: Exam One - Rose Hathaway

Re: Exam One - Rose Hathaway

Re: Exam One - Rose Hathaway

Re: Exam One - Rose Hathaway

Re: Exam One - Rose Hathaway

Re: Exam One - Rose Hathaway

Re: Exam One - Rose Hathaway

Re: Exam One - Rose Hathaway

Re: Exam One - Rose Hathaway

Re: Exam One - Rose Hathaway

Re: Exam One - Rose Hathaway

Re: Exam One - Rose Hathaway

Re: Exam One - Rose Hathaway

Re: Exam One - Rose Hathaway

Re: Exam One - Rose Hathaway

Re: Exam One - Rose Hathaway