Chapter Text
She drummed her fingers against the steering wheel in rythm with the music, not paying any attention to it really, just caught up in the anxiety. These drives were never pleasant and always felt never-ending, but today she would've rather have her dad bitching about her taste in music than this loud, nerve wracking silence.
She knew that they should've come another day, she felt it in her bones as soon as she woke up even before looking at the news, but her dad insisted on coming anyway, a frozen road and a blizzard warning weren’t going to keep him from going to visit, not today especially. Is not like he was the one doing the driving anyways.
At times it felt like one or the other was about to say something, whether be the sudden clearing of their throats or a small movement of the body that gave them away, but even then neither said anything the whole ride, she didn't even know what to say, nothing felt worth saying.
The outline of the big building finally came into view a couple of kilometers down the road. The girl let out a breath she hadn’t realized she was holding in and took the next exit, silently thanking God to finally be off the highway.
The parking lot was unsurprisingly empty. She pulled into a spot nearest to the front door, killed the engine, and reached into the back seat for her backpack. The cold air slapped her in the face as soon as she stepped out of the car . She hunched her shoulders against the wind and took a few steps toward the entrance, pausing to wait for her dad before going inside.
The temperature inside wasn’t much better, though she hadn't expected anything else from a building this old. Her dad hurried past her to the front desk, clearing his throat to catch the receptionist’s attention.
"I'm here to see Aveline Evans, patient ID 235-19, please" he said.
The receptionist gave him a look. "Good day to you too, sir. Who's here to see her?"
"I'm her husband, Daniel Evans, and this is our daughter, Camille," he said, gesturing toward her.
"Mhm. Your IDs, please."
Camille already had hers in hand, her dad had to rummage through his fanny pack to find his. The receptionist checked them, then typed something into her computer and handed them back.
"Okay, you can wait for the nurse to call you in the waiting room. Follow the blue line down—"
"Great, thanks, good day" her father said, already striding down the hall. Camille hurried after him, turning back briefly to mouth a quick "I'm sorry" at the receptionist before catching up.
The waiting room always felt eerie to her with it's peeling muddy paint, the low hum of the fluorescent lights, the plastic chairs arranged in rows. Now, seeing it completely empty except for her and her dad, it felt like a bad omen.
She sat down pulling out her phone in an automatic motion. Her dad, meanwhile, started pacing across the floor as usual, his hands shoved into his jacket pockets and his heavy footsteps now the only sound echoing in the room. Not a word directed at his daughter. Not that she expected one. She was used to the silent treatment.
After what felt like forever, a nurse in pale scrubs came through a door and called their names. Camille tucked her phone into her pocket and stood up, following her dad through the narrow hallway.
They entered another, smaller room; a single table, a couple of metal chairs, and an old, sagging sofa pushed up against the far wall.
She made a beeline for the sofa and sank into it, pulling her phone out again, trying her hardest to not think about the pit in her stomach. The nurse entered after them and approached her dad.
"Mrs. Evans?"
"Yeah?"
"I need a minute before we bring Adeline in, I need to update you on her current condition," the nurse said, his voice measured. Camille didn’t look up from her phone, but the words caught her attention.
"What is it?" her dad asked trying not to sound on edge.
"Since your last visit in June she's been experiencing more frequent and more... severe episodes," he continued, "We attempted to reach the emergency contact listed on her file, but unfortunately we weren’t able to get through"
Camille felt the heavy stare her dad threw at her, she kept her eyes glued to the phone but wasn't really looking at it.
"Because of that we haven't been able to proceed with any changes to her treatment plan without authorization from her legal guardian," the nurse added.
"Wha- How much "severe" are her episodes?" asked her dad clearly stressed out already.
"Well, there's... she seems to be losing her long term memory more rapidly, but still- nothing that can't be managed by changing her treatment as soon as posible"
"Okay, okay... " her dad sighed "... What do we do?"
"For now, I’ll bring her out so you can visit. I'll remain in the room to monitor. Afterward, we'll need to go over some paperwork and discuss the proposed changes to her treatment. We'll need a signature from her guardian before we can move forward..."
'I need a cigarette' was in the front of her mind as she stormed down hallways, her shaking hands in her pockets already gripping her ligher with the visit still replaying in her head. Her dad was definitely going to pick a fight with her on their way back but she couldn’t handle it anymore. Every time she came here she convinced herself that she was okay with it, that she had already gotten used to it, and it always felt just as terrible. But now, it was... she knew they shouldn't have come, she never wanted to come, it was her dad, her dad... the way he looked at her just now...
With so much... hate.
A distant screaming snapped Camille back to reality and she realized she took a wrong turn somewhere along the way, with a quick glance around she couldn’t guess where she was, so she followed the sound of racket hoping to find a nurse or a guard.
Entering another hallway she saw a group of nurses trying to retain a patient who was screaming at them and trashing around. Before anyone else noticed her arriving, she locked eyes with the patient and was immediately pulled by his bright blue eyes. It must've been barely a couple of seconds they stared at each other curiously but were enough for the nurses to finally restrain him, though it didn’t seem to stir his eyes from hers. Finally a nurse noticed he was looking at something and glanced at Camille, with a head motion he alerted another nurse who approached her, grabbing her attention.
“You are not supposed to be here, miss” the nurse said in a calm manner, though Camille could hear her still slightly out of breath.
“Yeah, sorry, I got lost, I-“ she glanced back at the patient, but he was already being dragged inside his room “I was looking for a place to smoke”
The nurse gave her a soft smile and offered to escolt her to the nearest exit, Camille peeked behind her shoulder one last time before turning the corner.