Quiet as a mouse...

[DrDonaldBlake]

It was just before Dawn when the Good Doctor Blake made it back to the Inn, who knew what the ol god was up to all night, all doctor blake knew, at least for now was that he was exhausted. and he looked it too, leaning heavily on his walking stick as he walked through the lobby, really rather covertly on his way up to his bedroom

[Guest]

no matter how covertly he went upstairs he'd see he had a visitor. not inside his room, she would never do that she hadn't even tried the door to see if she could try that, but outside of the door. it was dawn now and when she'd found the place even then it was really late. the kind of late where she had to send her brother one of those convoluted text messages of hers telling him that she was safe and sleeping over a friend's house. hopefully he'd be only a little mad instead of really really mad. she wanted to talk to donnie duck, dominic'd just have to understand that. especially because when her brother left for his late-night job things happened, and when things happened like they happened she just couldn't stay home alone.

but it was dawn now which was really really late for even someone like pris even when she had things happening. she wasn't going to make it to school, not if she was here and the sun was coming up. she'd have to take two buses to get to her school and she obviously wasn't going anywhere. because she was sleeping. sitting on the floor in front of his door where she'd set up camp in the very late hours of the night when everyone else was sleeping and nothing was peeping not even a mouse. if anyone else had seen her, they'd at least been nice enough not to say anything. or weirded out enough. either way was good because no one had asked her to leave.

pris had her sketch pad on her lap. and her apron on, smudged with the rich colors she used to make her art. the apron pockets full of oil pastels. a half finished drawing of the hallway on her lap, but this drawing was so distorted you could barely tell it was the hallway. only because of the spacing of the sort of rectangular shapes and their proportions to what was representing ceiling and floor. everything else in the drawing was off. way off. because things were happening tonight, which is why she was here.

sleeping pris was wearing her blue wig which was styled in a 1920s bob. her eyeshadow was streaks of deep purple and yellow but she didn't wear lipstick usually. she was wearing a dress that looked a lot like a flapper dress. the colors were blue like her wig and gold almost like her eyeshadow. her tights were blue and yellow argyle print and she wore go-go boots that were very bright yellow. her patchwork coat was next to her. and her hand was on her big black leather bag.

lucky donnie duck, to be so tired and have to deal with this odd sixteen-year-old when something was happening.

[DrDonaldBlake]

Doctor Blake couldnt help but smile, seeing Pris camped out infront of his door. when he saw her eh approched very quietly, lifitng his walking stick so the sound of it didnt wake her. and when he got close enough he knelt down. carefully picking her up with a great bit of pain in his right leg. before he opened his door and carried the girl into his room. placing her on his bed before a nice stretch. and going into his shower. to clean off hospital goobies.

[Guest]

pris was short, about 5'2'', so at least carrying her wouldn't give ole donnie duck a hernia? a string of nonsense sounds came from pris when he picked her up, and maybe even some stirring, but she didn't wake up while he picked her up, walked her over to, or put her in bed. her sleeping consciousness seemed rather happy to be a bed in fact if the way she curled up and clutched possessively at pillows had anything to say about it.

it was the water turning on that woke her up. she shot upright like a rocket launching, her eyes opening wide. back at her brother's apartment, pris didn't need an alarm clock. it was the sound of dominic taking a shower when he got home from his overnight job that always woke her up, and even though it was really early in the morning when he got home she got up out of bed to spend time with him before she had to get ready for school.

so when her deep green eyes were staring at walls which looked nothing like hers even when things were happening and things didn't look like other things, pris started to get very nervous. "um..." she shifted in the sheets, trying to pull her legs out so she could escape the bed. but this bed wasn't letting her escape or so it felt like to her, because the sheet had wound around her ankle. pris shrieked, yanking her legs upwards and backing against the head board as she tried to tug her ankle free. "um...um, um, um, um!" every 'um' was more urgent than the last, pris a squirming little panic on the bed who obviously didn't know where exactly she was. she'd never been in this room. and the shower was running. but they weren't her walls. this wasn't her bed. nothing was her anything and from where she was sitting she couldn't even see her bag which made things even worse.

"um!"

[DrDonaldBlake]

Doctor blake stepped from the bathroom, shirtless, aith a towel wrapped around his waist. blonde hair still dripping wet when he stuck his head out of the door." Pris? you're up. are you alright? is everything okay there?"

[Guest]

when the door opened pris started a shriek that could rival the pitch of a dog whistle, but it stopped abruptly. when he came into view. and suddenly the whole situation was different just from seeing that one thing. the walls became familiar. the bed wasn't trying to eat her the sheets were just friendly. she remembered what had happened last night, and she started to recap all the words tumbling out in one long string with a slightly disjointed rhythm.

"last night yesterday it wasn't good after dinner i was trying to watch television but the pictures weren't staying in the frame they kept spilling out and leaking on the floor and i didn't like it even though dommy said it was okay that t.v. pictures don't stain and that i should draw it, and i did but then it was time for bed and he left for work and everything was moving, even when i closed my eyes i could fell the whole room leaking all over me and everywhere, drip drip like that kind of torture, and i didn't want it in my sheets and i called dommy but he was busy his boss was there and he couldn't talk so i went looking and your clinic it was open and they told me you were here so i came here but you weren't here so your clinic's full of pants on fires...."

pris obviously had one of her more severe episodes nights last night, where even the compulsions her specialist taught her weren't enough to keep her in the driver's seat of her own mind. but she was feeling better now, the sleeping helped a new day maybe helped, and that's why pris beamed at him suddenly. "you're all bare and wet. like the men in deodorant commercials. does that mean i get to be the coughing sneezing achy head drink the bad tasting syrup so you can coma until your cold's gone commercial?"

[DrDonaldBlake]

oh, well I um... was taking care of a few things last night...I'm glad you found me though. and um, yes I am wet and bare... just , one second." and Doctorblake dissappeared for another moment or two before he actually stepped from the bathroom in fleece sleeping jim jam bottoms. and was curretnly pulling a loose t-shirt over his head.

"Now then... can i see the drawing of what you saw when you drew the television? might be able to help..."

[Guest]

"wait! you have to sing the jingle, you can't have a commercial without the jingle..." pris protest that when he headed back into the bathroom, humming the melody to a deodorant commercial she'd seen. when she saw the door open again, she sang the refrain a second time to give him entrance music. "arrid extra dry - it's all dry!" coming out in his pjs to that tune it really did look like a commerical.

but then she went silent when he spoke. her head tilted to the side, and she stared at donald with wide-eyed fascination. maybe adoration too, maybe there was a little harmless puppy crush developing like the kind students got on their teachers sometimes. except he wasn't a teacher, he was donnie duck the smartest doctor in the world, because unlike her own specialist and every other adult in her life he believed her drawings might have answers, instead of just dollar signs. it was the dollar signs that her specialist and her bitch of a mother saw when looking at her drawings, and that's why pris wasn't on medication. because when she'd been medicated, the drawings and the dollar signs disappeared, and her talent was barely talent at all.

"ohhh. oh oh, okay," pris was nearly at a loss for words as she felt all warm and fuzzy inside, her green eyes darting all over the room until she spotted where he'd put her bag when he carried her in here. "the drawing yes the drawing i was making one of the hallway too the hallway out there so i had something to keep me in the driver's seat but i don't think i finished it." said as she stuck her hands under the blankets to pull her ankle free of the sheet that had wrapped around it. then she was sliding out of the bed, the flappers skirt shimmying as she walked to her purse. it was a new dress, the one she was wearing. she liked it. because of that very reason - the tassels moved all the time, it made her feel like she was dancing even if she was only walking.

she picked up her sketch book that was on top of that big black purse, and she flipped some pages. she held it out to him. the oil pastel drawing was in the same saturated color palette that all of her drawings were, but the blending in this one was...different. it was like everything in the drawing was made of jelly, or liquid, there were no corners on anything except for the television. which was, sure enough, leaking its picture all over the floor, and what picture it wasn't leaking was actually projected to the side of the television instead of in the frame, and there was no face on the television at all. so inside the television it was like a doll's house. a dinner table with four chairs set for dinner with no one at it.

after she handed it over pris crawled back up on his bed, announcing. "i texted my brother like he told me i have to when i go out places when he's at work and i told him i'm at a friend's house sleeping over." which to her was now true. which is why she was fluffing a pillow.

[DrDonaldBlake]

"well thats good, that your brother know where you are." he said with a smile up at her as his eyes wandered over the page of the sketch pad. sitting on the edge of his bed, and he flipped through a couple of other pages ." these are all very nice Pris. you know I really like your art. still have my portrait on the wall of my office." a nod and he closed the pad, offering it back to her." Can I ask you a question... have you ever been given any medecine to help you remain in your own driver's seat?

[Guest]

"boom-mah." that's what pris said when the doctor mentioned the portrait she'd drawn on the wall of his office. boom. that's what she sometimes heard when she was around him. boom. "boom," she repeated to herself as she gave the pillow a punch trying to get it how she liked it. he used a different kind of pillow than she did. getting it to be the right kind of fluffy was going to be tricky.

"you can keep one," she said when he held the pad out to her, her green eyes glancing over at him before darting to look here and there and here around the room. yeap it seemed pris was in the driver's seat again, what she was seeing seemed normal to her and she was back to not focusing her eyes in one place for too long to keep things normal. "for here if here is where you live everyone should have a picture on the wall. or i could draw you one right on the wall like i did at the office and that way it could be bigger."

"oh," she said to his question. "pillow talk. pillow talk at sleepovers, i remember this. wait." pris slid out of the bed, tassels bouncing as she bounded over to her bag, snatched it up and went into his bathroom closing the door. she was careful not to look in any mirrors in there. mirrors and pris didn't get along. instead she just used the bathroom. and changed.

when she came out she was wearing the closest thing she had to pajamas. striped pink and black tights, orange shorts and a red t-shirt that said 'skittles' which was all faded. she'd taken her wig off. her actual hair color was an ash brown, and it had chunks of white blonde in it. from where she'd bleached it out. she'd yet to dye those spots with new colors. her hair was very long, but she had it in a ponytail now. she put her bag next to the bed and climbed back up onto it, going back to fluffing the pillow.

"yes," she answered. "but i was driving without talent and the doctor and my mom said that wasn't right so they taught me other ways."

[DrDonaldBlake]

"i'd like you to draw me a new one, in your bpook, not on the wall... we cant draw on these walls, since its an inn.." he was going to sleep on the couch today really. mostly because she was here, and he was nice enough to let her have the bed. and when she came back out the doctor had just plopped on the couch. his walking stick leaning against the couch between his legs.

"So your mother and another doctor... decided to take you off of medication that was working... so that you could keep drawing pictures for them? did you like when you took the medecine Pris?"

a raise of his brow watching her fluff the pillow. to which he picked up one of te throw pillows ont he couch and offered it over" here try this one... see if it works better/"

[Guest]

"i've never been in an inn. inaninn," she repeated very fast, when she heard how strange in and inn sounded when you said it normally. "inaninnaninn." a laugh-like sound followed. pris didn't laugh much, and it sounded kind of like a small owl hoot.

"um." she shrugged. that was the best answer she had for the doctor. she sort of didn't remember what it was like being on medication. kind of how a person doesn't really remember how being sick with the flu feels until they're sick with the flu again. the totally different state, she just couldn't relate to it anymore. "everyone was looking at me like they didn't trust me." she did remember that from her time on medication - people obviously reacting to her like her being 'normal' was too good to be true, and that the joke would be on them any second. and since she was taken off medication, they were kind of right?

maybe she would have tried to think about it longer to say more, but he offered the pillow. which pulled her gaze, and distracted her, and put her on a whole other train of thought. it was too easy to distract pris, you had to be careful about how much you said and asked if you wanted her to stay focused on one topic. she crawled to the edge of the bed, bringing the pillow she had been trying to fluff with her. leaning forward, she took his offered pillow. and then offered the one in her hand out to him so he would have a pillow. and then she sniffed the pillow he'd given her. she was trying to see if it smelled like him, like the pillow she was punching did.

hey. don't think like that. she just turned sixteen, people. having a pillow that smelled like someone she trusted was just comforting to her, that's all. she stole pillows from her brother's bed all the time, to trick herself into thinking that he was at home when he was really at work. tricking her mind like that helped her relax and sleep.

"you were out too late," she commented after she was satisfied with the scent of the pillow, "what does donnie duck do when he's out late?" see? her mind was on a whole new track now.

[DrDonaldBlake]

" This is your first time in an inn? what do you think? do you like it?"

doctor Blake asked his houseguest with a smile as he got down and comfortable on the couch. looking up at her from his spot 'o comfy. her words where thought about heavily. technically he could get her a script for some balancing meds. But doctor Blake was her friend and not her doctor and friends didn't force medication on other friends.

After a long Yawn Doctor blake gave a bit of a chuckle. and he shook his head."Donnie duck was out helping a friend all last night... he's a helper at heart,"

[Guest]

"the hallway was okay. this room is okay. it's bare. i'd want to paint the walls." of course she would. she wouldn't be her if she didn't want to paint the walls. "i wanted to paint the walls in my room at my brother's but he says painting is against the lease and that the land lord is a d-bag so i really can't, but i found away around that whenever i sew something i use the extra fabric to tack on my walls, i'm making patchwork walls. like the quilt. but on a wall. or like my coat..." pris pointed towards where her coat was, "i made that too. i could give you some if you want. fabric pieces. i could arrange them for you too. decorate your room. if you're staying here for a while."

all of that information and those offers while he was getting himself comfy. maybe she was trying to find a reason to visit him again? he was her only friend right now, since brent disappeared. and then it was her turn to get comfy. of course pris made a point to settle under the covers on her side facing him. it wasn't a proper sleepover if you weren't facing the person and whispering to them after the lights were out until you fell asleep. the pillow he'd given her seemed to work out okay. after resting her head on it, she didn't have to punch it anymore to fluff it.

"i know. doctor donnie duck does good. good...nice...kind...dandy. yes. doctor donnie does dandy." thank goodness she managed to think of another 'd' word to substitute for good, or she would have been fixating on it all night. she stifled a yawn of her own, shifting under the covers. "what kind of dandy did you do doctor dandy doer duck?"

[DrDonaldBlake]

" I will see about talking to the proprieter of the inn about letting you paint the room... and if you would like to bring some fabric down that would be cool too... maybe even a make a quilt. something my gandma did when I was younger."

A smile up at her from his laying down. on the couch, one arm up over his head while h spoke again." helping someone find out more about themselves. not really doctor work, but i think it helped out a bit..."

[Guest]

grandmothers. she thought about hers sometimes, more often now that she only had her brother since her mom had just...disappeared one day and left her behind. she didn't have a female to look up to right now. "my grandma was a nurse." she piped up suddenly, and he might be able to hear the realization she had in her voice. her grandmother was a nurse, he was donnie duck the doctor. she'd never thought about that before. "my dad's mom. until they had to put her in the hospital, the kind of room with pillows for walls." she was sixteen years old, she knew what the actual term was for where they'd put her grandmother. a padded room. she just couldn't bear to say it. "she took care of so many people. she was good and loving and patient. and they were none of those things were her. it wasn't fair."

when pris was just pris, without her mood being effected in any strange ways by what she was watching or who she was talking to or anything like that, she talked in a rapid stream-of-consciousness that was sometimes flowing, sometimes abrupt, and maybe just a little bit detached. it was hard to tell what affected her, usually. but when she talked about her grandmother now, something new came through in her voice. a glimpse through the eccentricity into her feelings. those glimpses came when she felt safe and calm. very few people saw that side of pris. donnie was now one of them.

maybe she realized it, too. because pris was squirming a bit on the bed, rolling over onto her stomach and half-hiding her face in her pillow. "i can teach you to make a quilt we'll do it together," she said very quickly before moving on. "but my doctor isn't that what he's supposed to do find out more about me or helpme find out more about me so that i'm in my driver's seat? that sounds like the kind of doctors i see that sounds like doctor work."

[DrDonaldBlake]

He smiled up at her with another nod, mind procesing information it had just gotten.'' her grandmother was ill too, that helped his thinking about her condition but, that was pushed away beforehe continued on her second subject.

" sure, I'd love to learn how to make a quilt. told it helps out finger dexterity. as for your doctor, yeah, it is his job to do that. but sometimes people are more worried about getting paid then actualy helping people in need. and thats why I'm not out there anymore...

[Guest]

someday her father would come up, and that would probably tell doctor blake a lot about her condition too. "finger dexterity," she murmured that with sleep in her voice. it was very very late, and even with the sleep she'd gotten in the hallway there was only so much longer she'd be able to stay awake in this nice warm bed in this nice dark room with someone here to make her feel safe. "finger dexterity, dexterity, dexterity...." she was trying to make sense of something, which is why she kept repeating it, she was stuck on something and when she was stuck she fixated on it. "dexter's erity," she told herself finally. the nonsense answer was enough to appease her imbalanced mind that she could concentrate on other things.

"out there? where's there?" she relaxed in the bed, turning her head to face where the doctor was on the couch. but her eyes stayed closed. "is there where you used to be like my doctor but now you're here and here doctors don't help people with themselves?"

[DrDonaldBlake]

"Yeah, yeah something like that Pris" working for an insurence company before the people. he was part of that system before. which is why he was out here now, working for the people first. it really helped to ground him as a person....

"do you want me to wake you up when i wake up pris? then we can go get lunch?"

[Guest]

"ok doctor donnie do-good doer duck. but dinner's a d...." not lunch. that would be her last contribution to the conversation, murmured from a half-sleeping priscilla from his bed. poor donald, having to sleep on the couch. maybe she'd remember to thank him for it tomorrow.

even though tomorrow would be a school day, pris wasn't worried about it. she'd made the decision not to go when she camped out in front of his door. besides, the teachers would be relieved that she wasn't there. not that she was disruptive, not that she was a bad student, they just...didn't know how exactly to handle her or what to make of her.

"mhavetotextmbrother." okay, so a few more sort of coherent jumbled words escaped before the rest of that breath sighed out into sleep. she would definitely have to do that tomorrow. or maybe call him. who knows how he was going to react when she told him what friend she slept over with and how it made her miss school. but that was a worry for a new day.

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