damned_institute | Day 36: Waiting Room/Lobby 2

Okita hadn't been expecting it when his nurse suddenly appeared in the Game Room. He'd expected to be left alone like last week, but instead she gently took him by the arm and told him he needed to say goodbye to Kaden for now. Okita assumed it was time for his visitor and waved goodbye to him, only to be led off himself. The swordsman had followed obediently into the Sun Room, but when he tried to go off to another room, she stopped him. "Not today, Julian."

Not today? Something about his nurse's demeanor seemed off, almost as if she were worried about something. It wasn't until she led him out of the Sun Room that he understood what was going on. He had a visitor. There were only so many people that would come to visit him in a place like this. His sisters, Tetsu, Kondou or... Okita didn't want to think about the last option.

Taking a step into the waiting room, he stopped at the door and turned to look at his nurse. "Are you sure you're not mistaken?" he asked, feeling actual fear for the first time in a long while. If this wasn't some strange punishment/joke for behaving poorly in the chapel, he didn't know what to do. Badou's graffiti was still on his hand and he quickly slipped that hand into his pocket. He could feel the pen there, clipped to the inside of his waistband. The nurse shook her head and moved to the side of the room, keeping a close watch on him as he stayed by the door, trying to hide his anxiety by feigning interest in the strange magazines on a table nearby.

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"She's right, Grover," Carmela said as she turned to her husband. "If the doctors were paying attention, then surely they would have gone ahead and released her by now."

That actually made Grover take pause for a moment, but he quickly shook off any misgivings he might have had. "Now, Carmela, you know as well as I do that we've been talking to the doctors as often as we can about Dolores, and each time they've said--"

"'We'll be sure to let you know the minute she's fit to go home'," she recited as if she'd had to listen to those words too many times. "I know, but can't they give us some kind of time frame?" She sighed, turning her gaze back to her daughter. "I'm sorry they've been making you wait so long, Doll. Hopefully we'll get the okay sometime this week."

As for Helen, Carmela's face actually brightened. "Oh, you wouldn't believe it. She got a clean bill of health not too long after we came to see you!" If Landel's had been able to cure her so quickly, then there was hope for their daughter, right? She already looked ten times better than when they'd initially left her here, so her release was bound to be soon, she was certain.

"I'm sure she's looking forward to seeing you," she added with a smile. "You two will have a lot to catch up on once we finally get you home."

Watching her parents' exchange, Anise found herself wincing slightly when she heard her mother's false name for the first time. Grover and... Carmela? They were similar enough to their real names to bug her just a bit.

So Arietta was alive... and brainwashed too, from the sounds of it. Anise felt kind of sorry for her, even if it meant that thankfully, she wasn't going to have the girl coming after her on top of all the other dangers of the institute. Still, it was somewhat insulting to think that anyone thought Arietta was more normal than Anise. Not looking anywhere near as pleased as her mother, Anise glanced away and replied with an unenthusiastic, "Really. Well, so long as I don't have to put up with her here."

Elsewhere in the room, there was a commotion as some kid lunged at his visitor and was immediately restrained by orderlies. It was hard not to stare for a moment at the ugly reminder of just what kind of place she was in. People were pushed to their limits every day, and were powerless to do anything about it. Frowning at the scene and feeling a little disheartened from it, she turned back to face her parents. "That... it happens all the time here," she explained. If they couldn't see the horrors of the night, they could at least see what a miserable place it was during the day. Anise wanted them to understand that this was about more than her just not liking the institute. If they understood, even if just to a small extent, how terrible it really was, then maybe they could find something more they could do to help...

That wasn't really the response Carmela had expected from Dolores, and she couldn't hide her surprise. She and Helen were friends, weren't they? "Are you two still fighting?" she asked. Those things happened sometimes, she supposed, but she figured they would have made up by now, at least.

She and Grover were startled by the patient who attacked his visitor, though she was relieved to see the staff quickly restrain him. It was almost as if they had to deal with that sort of thing on a regular basis. Dolores' remarks only confirmed her suspicions.

"That's terrible!" She should have known other people here were far more dangerous and unstable than their precious little girl. "No one's lunged at you, have they, Dolly?" Frowning, she quickly turned to her husband. "Oh, I can't stand the thought of her being here, Grover. She doesn't belong here."

Grover sighed, and it was apparent by the look on his face that he was none too happy with the situation himself.

"We're always fighting," came the flat reply. They'd never gotten along, yet her mother somehow got the opposite impression. And Anise was supposed to be the delusional one here?

More importantly, her parents reacted to the scene just as Anise had expected. She even felt her heart leap with hope at her mother's words. She didn't belong here. They really understood!

"I've been okay, but..." Anise moved closer to her mother, wrapping her arms around her waist. Maybe it was dishonest to make her fellow patients look like the cause of her misery, but it was all she had to work with right now. This was her only chance to try and get help from the outside. And with the way the nurses were moving about the room, it sounded like she wasn't going to have much more time to make her case. Her face half-buried in her mother's bosom, she pleaded, "I want to go home. And... if I can't go home, then I want to go anywhere but here."

"Now, Dolly, I'm sure you two could hash things out if you just sat down and talked about it," Carmela said. "Helen probably misses you a lot, you know."

She was a little startled with her daughter suddenly hugged her, and after placing a gentle hand on her back, she turned to anxiously look at her husband. "Oh, she's miserable, Grover. Do you really want to leave her with these unstable people?"

For a moment, Grover wavered, but in the end he knew Dolores couldn't come home. Not until a medical professional had given her the okay, and the truth was that Landel's Institute was the only place that would be able to cure her in a timely manner. "I'm afraid things will just be worse if I send you anywhere else, Dolores," he sighed. "This is the best care anyone can offer."

He tried to sound positive, though, and he smiled a little. "But if they were able to send Helen home after a couple of days, the doctors should be getting ready to tell us to take you home, too. I've been calling everyday, believe me. It's just...until a doctor tells us you're okay, we can't take you home, and the doctors at Landel's are going to do that the fastest."

Carmela frowned before placing a tender kiss on her daughter's forehead. As much as she hated to admit it, she knew Grover was right. This was the quickest way to bring Dolores back home with them. If they took her to a place that wasn't as advanced as Landel's, it'd just prolong the process, wouldn't it? "I'm sorry, Doll," she whispered as tears sprung from the corners of her eyes.

She knew it was almost time for them to part, which made her hold onto her baby girl tighter.

Anise felt her heart sink again as her father came to his conclusion. No! They were going to leave her here again?

But despite everything that was on the line, Anise just couldn't bring herself to put any more pressure on her parents - not with her mother in tears like that. This was it: she tried her best, and still couldn't get through to them. Now she was out of time. With that realization sinking in, she tightened her hold around her mother's waist.

She wasn't going to cry. She promised herself she wouldn't.

"I know, Mama... I know it's hard on you, too." Anise spent a few more moments in that embrace, then slowly pulled away so she could face her father as well. Once she got a look at him though, she couldn't stop herself from giving him a hug, too. It might have been the last chance she'd have in a long time. "Papa... I know you're doing everything you can. It means a lot to me." That lump in her throat was back, but Anise forced herself to stay as calm as possible, and to get out everything she knew she would regret not saying if they didn't see each other again soon.

It hurt to admit it to herself, but her parents had been thoroughly brainwashed into trusting the institute. They couldn't save her. Anise had to save herself.

Day 36: Waiting Room/Lobby 2

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