Mary Kelly (mariejeannette) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2014-05-16 22:43:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, abigail hobbs, mary jane kelly |
WHO: Mary Jane Kelly and Abigail Hobbs
WHAT: Mary Jane has a new client
WHEN: 5/14
WHERE: Mary Jane's place of employment
RATING/WARNING: PG, veiled discussion of psychological issues/flashbacks
STATUS: Complete
Mary Jane was still shaking off the effect of the latest dream. Why, of all things, times and places, was she dreaming about being a hooker in London in the 1880s? It was stupid, and weird. It was hard, but she was trying to focus as she set up for her first client. This was a new one, apparently, and she didn’t want to space out on the woman.
She prepared the blankets and grabbed the clipboard, going out to the waiting room. At least the woman’s name was easy to pronounce. “Miss Lecter?”
Abigail was still tense and upset from her last round of dreams. Knowing that in the dreams the man she loved was so self-serving, it hurt her heart. Bringing that ache to the medspa seemed like a good solution, and the girl had suggested she come by on the network.
Standing up, Abigail smiled. “That’s me.”
She recognized the girl after saying her name. “From the network, right? Hi, I’m Mary Jane. Come on back.” She waited for the girl to get her stuff, holding the door open for her. “Back down the hall, to the last room on the left.”
“Yeah, hi.” Abigail reached out to shake the other girl’s hand, immediately noticing how pretty she was. “Okay. So, uh, this is my first professional massage, you’ll have to forgive me.”
“Oh, no problem.” Mary Jane had had a few new clients lately. “It’s pretty simple. You only have to take off as many clothes as you’re comfortable with, and all the parts I’m not working on are covered with a blanket. Did you fill out your paperwork, or do we need to do that?” She definitely was pretty, but she figured she better not flirt; the girl looked nervous.
“I did my paperwork already,” Abigail smiled. She toed out of her shoes, figuring the clothes coming off would happen when the pretty woman was out of the room. “I should tell you now. I have a scar that might bother you, it’s on my neck. I just thought I’d tell you so you wouldn’t be alarmed.”
“Thanks for letting me know, but really, I’ve seen everything.” She could think of a few truly disgusting scars and warts, but kept it to herself. “The first step is for you to get comfortable under the blanket here.” She closed the door once they were both inside, indicating the massage table. “Obviously, I’ll step outside while you do that. You can leave your underwear on if you want, or no. And then we can talk about what’s bothering you the most.”
“All right.” Abigail moved to undress once the girl was gone, taking off her scarf and putting it on top of her clothes. She moved under the blankets, purring a little when she felt that the bed was heated somehow. “All set.”
Mary Jane knocked just in case, and when she heard the okay to enter, she came in, closing the door again. “Okay. Let me pick up the paperwork.” She did so, starting to look down the page. “From what I can see, it looks like anxiety-related stuff? Tension and headaches? Anxiety can definitely mess you up.”
“I’m in college, and finals are the worst,” she mumbled. Well, that and the dreams, but hell, this girl probably didn’t want to know that.
“Ew.” Mary Jane wrinkled her nose. “Definitely anxiety-inducing.” She wondered if this girl was a dreamer. Talk about fucking anxiety.
She tried to shove that away. “Okay, though. The paperwork says your neck and shoulders get it the worst? We can definitely fix that. You might not have the greatest posture - haven’t met a student yet who did.” Mary Jane started to get some washcloths out of the warmer, along with some aromatherapy oil. “Would you prefer lavender, mint or satsuma? Or no oil?”
“I’m sure I don’t. And lavender would be nice, I heard it’s meant to be relaxing anyway.” Abigail could feel herself relaxing already, just through the combination of heat and the quiet music.
“It is, yes. Doesn’t work for everyone, but it does help a lot of people.” Mary Jane sprayed the scent down onto the cushion for the girl’s head. “Is the music too loud?” She barely even noticed the hippy-dippy stuff anymore. She still liked the scents, but the music was part of the background now.
“It’s perfect, thank you. It’s really quiet, it’s nice.” She closed her eyes and breathed in deeply, knowing that this would be helpful. She’d need to do this more often. “I appreciate it.”
“Okay, good.” Mary Jane did like it when people responded so well. “I’m going to start on your upper back, as that sometimes can get kinks out of your neck. Don’t worry if you fall asleep, or whatever. It’s meant to be relaxing. I’ve had clients start snoring mid-massage.” She smiled a little.
“Oh, god, I don’t think I snore. My boyfriend would probably tease me if I did,” Abigail grinned. But she closed her eyes and tried not to make any noise as Mary Jane rubbed her back. “That’s ridiculously amazing.”
Mary Jane had seen a lot of aching, sore people, but even she was surprised at the girl’s tension. She lightly touched a knot right below the shoulder blade. “I think you’re one of those people who carry everything in your neck and shoulders. Am I right, Miss Lecter? This is a little firmer than it maybe should be.” She liked when her clients were relaxed, especially when they were pretty.
“Yeah, pretty much always.” Abigail sighed a little to herself, stifling a groan. “The boyfriend does a decent job, but he’s not trained.” She’d been about to say ‘not as good with anatomy’ but that wasn't true at all.
“Oh? What does he do?” If she didn’t want to talk, that was okay, but Mary Jane was curious.
“He’s a psychiatrist,” Abigail murmured. “So he knows anatomy, but he’s not exactly good with massages. We mostly talk when I’m stressed out.” Well. Among other things.
Mary Jane just smirked - she could guess what they did when the girl was stressed out - but she didn’t say anything. “Do all doctors have to take anatomy courses? Cause isn’t psychiatry like ... being a shrink?”
“Yes, but he can prescribe medication. All doctors sort of take the same basic courses, then they go off and specialize.” Abigail sighed contentedly when one of the knots Mary Jane had been working on eased up.
“Makes sense, I guess. Get a good foundation.” Mary Jane switched to the other side of the girl’s body, wincing. “Right here below your shoulder. Are you right handed? Or do you do something that would make your arm muscles tense up?” There was a knot the size of a quarter.
“I’m right-handed.” Just like her father in the dreams. “School’s awful, lots of note-taking.” She was old school and didn’t type her notes; she found hand-writing them led to better memorization.
“Try not to grip so hard, huh?” Mary Jane pressed lightly on the knot. “All your worries are in your back, sweetheart.”
“I just have a lot of worries,” Abigail sighed. She couldn’t help it, it was hard in her dreams. Sometimes it was hard to just let go of the stress from the dreams and keep it from affecting her while she was awake.
“I hear that. And everyone’s are different.” Mary Jane didn’t push that angle, but at the same time, she was curious. “This is nuts to ask, maybe, but ... do you dream?”
Abigail chuckled. “Yeah. A lot. You mean the dreams, right?” Abigail lifted her head, turning to look at Mary Jane. “Yeah. That’s how I got my scar.”
Mary Jane had to laugh. “Oh, good, I wondered. I figured I could have played it off as hippie bullshit if you didn’t.”
“Something something about my chakras?” Abigail smiled. In her dreams she’d been from Minnesota, but in her waking life she was Orange County, born and bred. There was a lot of hippie bullshit lingering around.
“Yeah, exactly.” Mary Jane laughed, continuing to work, moving down to the girl’s legs. “I haven’t been doing it long, but they’ve been ... really weird. Like ... so far removed from real life it’s bizarre.”
“Some people apparently get boring ones. And have you met someone who gets superpowers yet? One of my good friends got a broom. Like, a witch’s flying broom. I’m so jealous.” Abigail didn’t want to go into how dark and twisted her own dreams were.
“Seriously? Wow. Um, no, I haven’t met anyone like that.” Mary Jane blinked, gently lifting the Lecter girl’s leg to get at her foot. “My dreams are totally weird, but not that cool. Like, at all.” How to even get into what she dreamed about?
“Mine are ... not good. I wouldn’t want anyone to have ones like mine,” Abigail murmured. She hoped that the girl would let it drop.
Mary Jane wasn’t all that smart, or at least she didn’t think so, but she could pick up a hint. It would have been nice to see if their dreams were similar, but oh well. “Could you tell me if this hurts?” She pressed the bottom of the girl’s foot, trying to feel for knots and pinched nerves.
Sighing, Abigail started to shake her head but realized she couldn’t. “Nope, that’s nice.”
“Okay, good. It does mean that your aches in your shoulders are probably just in the muscles. There’s a nerve that actually goes all the way down from your neck to your feet, and if it hurt down here, it’d hurt up there.” Mary Jane cracked her wrist. “Sorry.”
“Huh,” Abigail murmured. She actually felt relaxed, and closed her eyes. “Nothing to apologize for.”
Mary Jane shut up for the rest of the appointment, figuring the girl needed to relax. She tried to focus on getting those neck muscles to un-knot; she couldn’t fix any dreams, but she could at least maybe fix the after-effects.
The appointment passed pretty quickly, and soon Mary Jane told Abigail to roll over. She knew the woman hadn’t really seen her scar, and she closed her eyes so she wouldn’t have to notice the shock. Abigail counted herself as lucky that she didn’t know how Hannibal had killed her in the dreams, that she had no scars from a knife or a bullet.
Mary Jane did raise an eyebrow when she saw the scar, but she’d gotten the hint not to talk much. All she asked was, “If I put a hand on your collarbone, that area doesn’t hurt, does it?” Some people’s neck and chest hurt a lot, whether they had a scar there or not.
“No,” Abigail murmured. She closed her eyes, feeling a weird sort of gratitude that someone was touching her kindly. It had been a while since someone platonically touched her, and she felt her eyes tear up a little. “My neck doesn’t hurt either.”
Frankly, Mary Jane was glad she’d asked; the Lecter girl seemed almost scared. “Well, if anything does, just let me know.” She had to wonder how bad the dreams were. What was worse than living dirt poor and hooking for a living, unless the girl was like, dying every night.
Only nearly. Abigail nodded, closing her eyes and focusing very hard on not flinching.
It was rough going. Mary Jane tried to go through her usual pattern of muscles to rub, but she didn’t want to scare the girl. Eventually she stopped, voice quiet. “Hey. You look like this is upsetting you. Do you want me to stop? The point’s to relax you, not set you off.” If she didn’t hurt physically, she could have some kind of psychological thing, and well, Mary Jane didn’t want to be cruel.
“It’s fine, really. It’s kind of nice.” Abigail smiled shyly, pulling the blanket closer. “I’m sorry.”
“As long as it’s not bad.” She’d seen people who got flashbacks and that kind of stuff, and it seemed like the most horrible thing ever. Mary Jane went back to working on the girl’s neck and shoulders, but she tried to be aware.
“It’s not, no.” Abigail breathed deeply, counting to ten and reminding herself over and over again in her mind that this was someone not from her dreams. Someone innocent.
It sure seemed bad to Mary Jane, but she wasn’t going to stop if the girl didn’t want her to. Her neck would feel better for it.
After a little longer, though, she’d finished. “Okay. That will do it. I’m going to step outside so you can get dressed, but please, take all the time you need.” Mary Jane smiled, closing the door behind her, letting out a breath she hadn’t realized she was holding.
Biting her lip hard, Abigail got dressed and stepped out of the room. “Mary Jane? I just wanted to say I’m sorry again. But you really helped. My back feels amazing.”
She might have jumped a little, but smiled. “Oh! No, nothing to be sorry for. I’m just glad it helped instead of made things worse.”
“You definitely helped,” Abigail smiled. She held out her hand for the other girl to shake, hoping that she hadn’t freaked her out too much.
Mary Jane smiled, trying to get the professionalism back in her voice. “I’d be happy to take another look at your back if need be.” The second time, if she came back, would be better. She could adjust better this time.
“That would be nice.” Abigail nodded in the affirmative, reassuringly. “I’ll be sure to book another appointment.”
“Ask for me if you want.” She didn’t want to seem proprietary, but at the same time, she didn’t want the girl to have to go through all that with someone who’d never seen it before. Mary Jane directed her up to the front, pointing out where to pay. “Have a good rest of the day, Miss Lecter.”
“I will. You too, Mary.” Abigail waved, then went to the counter to pay and schedule another appointment.