“Let’s see how you’re doing, young lady,” he says with that casual, professional smile. I’m really not used to people speaking to me this way. I don’t know how to take it.
“Terrible,” I say, going for honesty.
“Mhm, well, you know how to get yourself in trouble, that’s for sure,” he murmurs. “I’m going to check your mouth for cuts. You really shouldn’t put razor blades in there.”
“Rather accidentally eat a razor blade than stay here one more day,” I say, bluntly.
Those kind eyes darken with concern, but it’s not me he talks to next. “Is she under full care? Emotional? Mental?”
“She doesn’t need it,” Tyko says. “This is just how she is.”
“This isn’t how anyone is,” the doctor says gruffly.
He’s wrong. This is how I am. This is how they want me to be. I’m not supposed to care for my own wellbeing. I’m not supposed to want to live. I’m supposed to exist, taking one breath after another for the purposes of their agenda.
“Is her mouth bleeding?” Tyko interrupts. He’s getting impatient and concerned. I realize, suddenly, that this doctor doesn’t know about me at all. He doesn’t know where I came from. He doesn’t know what I am. He’s not one of them.
“Open up,” Doctor Ares says. I open my mouth and let him look. I can taste blood, but I don’t know if its mine or someone else’s, and I don’t really care.
He has a look around, swabbing the inside of my cheeks with his gloved finger. It’s weird, to have his finger inside my mouth. If it was anyone else, I’d be doing my best to bite it right off. But Doctor Ares tried to help me. He might be the first person who ever has, so I let him conduct his examination and allow him to pull his finger away scot free.
“You don’t seem to have cut yourself badly,” he says. “But don’t do that again. It is incredibly dangerous in so many ways.”
I smirk and shake my head. Everything here is dangerous. Including me.
“Young lady, I expect to be taken seriously.”
His voice lowers, and his gaze becomes more intense. I find myself responding to his energy, his calm dominance which is nothing like the other men here.
“Or what?”
The question escapes me before I can stop it.
“Or you’ll be given a good spanking,” he winks. “No more escape attempts. It’s not that bad here.”
It is that bad here, and worse, but he doesn’t know that. The threat of a spanking is laughable, makes me giggle. If only he knew what happened to me, how I was treated, he wouldn’t threaten me with that.
“I’m taking her back into custody,” Tyko says. “Let’s go, Electra.”
The doctor doesn’t look happy about it, but what can he do? What can any of us do? We’re all just the Head’s pawns. Even Tyko, asshole that he is, doesn’t really have a choice. We all live and die by that woman’s whim.
“I’d like to see her back in three days,” Doctor Ares says.
“Why?” Tyko sounds more pissed off than ever.
“Check up,” the doctor says, folding his arms over his chest. I look between them. The doctor doesn’t look like the sort of man to hurt anybody – but he is physically taller and broader than Tyko, and there’s something in his eye which isn’t nearly as kind when he looks at my handler as it is when his gaze falls on me.
For the first time in perhaps forever, I feel protected. Someone is on my side. It’s a nice feeling, even though I know it’s a temporary and probably illusory one. He tried to help me the first time I saw him and nothing changed. Why would it change this time ? He’s not being nice to me because of me. He’s being nice to me because he’s a nice guy. He won’t last long here.
“Yeah, alright,” Tyko says, tugging me out of the room.
He hurries me away from the medical bay like the place is on fire. The doctor has made him nervous. I don’t know why, but I can tell.
“You little bitch,” he starts in on me when he’s sure we’re far enough away that no handsome doctors can overhear him. “You fucked up bad today, girl. You’re not going to see daylight for a very long time.”
“Fuck you,” I curse right back at him. “You got sloppy, dickhead.”
“I gave you a little bit of freedom and you threw it back in my face, you mean,” he growls back, giving me a shake. “Goddammit, Electra, when the hell are you going to accept that you work here?”
“Uhm, quarter past fuck you?”
That is not the answer he wanted. Tyko probably isn’t actually a bad guy. I make him one. He takes the bulk of my bullshit, and it’s a lot for anyone to take. But I don’t give a fuck about him, just like he doesn’t really give a fuck about me. He hurts me because it is easier than treating me like a person, so I hurt him right back.