Log: Gav & Hannon Who: Gav Reyes and Hannon Raleigh. When: January 18. Afternoon. Where: In town, Health clinic. What: Gav goes for his bi-weekly Rehab meetings. And meets the new nurse on duty, Hannon. They talk of drug addiction, rehab and Gav tries to avoid the topic of being psychic.
Gav went to the Health Clinic twice a week for Rehab meetings. He had ever since he had been released from Rehab. It was a condition of his release, having to go to these meetings twice a week for six months. When the six months came to an end, it would go down to once a week. Provided he didn't fall off the wagon. Or whatever the expression was when it came to heroin.
It was always the same. A group session where he talked with other junkies and former junkies. Gav didn't like the meetings, but he knew the routine, knew he had to say something, knew they were taking notes.
When group meetings ended, he had to check in with the nurse. Questions were asked. Once a week his weight was measured. Gav had been terribly emaciated when he had been a junkie, due to the heroin, which supressed appetite. Now, he was still slim, but at the boarderline of being undeweight. Which was an improvement. Twice a month he had to give urine samples to check for drugs. Gav headed down the hall to the nurse's office. His nurse was okay. She was nice enough, cheerful but not sugary, and idiculously pregnant. She looked like a balloon.
Gav opened the door and found Nurse Cameron wasn't there at all. Instead there was a dark haired man. "Oh," he said with a frown, gloved hand still on the doorknob. "I'm looking for Nurse Cameron."
The lanky, dark haired man that was waiting for Gavriel definitely wasn't the ridiculously pregnant Nurse Cameron. In fact, he didn't even look friendly. He was frowning, a thin white stick hanging out from his mouth as he read a file, Gavriel might recognize it as his own if he'd paid attention to it enough when it was in nurse Cameron's hands.
He looked up when Gavriel entered, still frowning, still scowling, the expression not even lessening as he took him in. "Nurse Cameron had her baby!" He announced and only with that did the angry look begin to fade away. "I've some of her work." He held his hand out to him. "My name's Hannon Raleigh. You're Gavriel. It's nice to meet you."
Gav recorgnized his own file; he had seen it enough times. He could only imagine what it said. It surely said that he was 'difficult', given how much he had fought with doctors during his stay in Rehab, especially the first few days when he had to be sedated and restrained. He scowled himself, because Nurse Cameron was part of his routine. He didn' want to have to start dealing with someone new.
"Gav, it's Gav," he said as he stepped into the room and pushed the door shut. He looked at Hannon's hand for a moment before taking his hand in his own gloved one, and shaking it briefly before he took his hand back.
"Right. Sure. She didn't tell you she was close?" He asked as he passed Gavriel a specimin cup. He didn't think he needed to explain what he was supposed to do with that. "Nurse Cameron, I mean. She told her other regulars I took over for."
"Close. I didn't ask for her due date," Gav said dryly, taking the cup and sliding it between his fingers. "She said someone would be taking over for her." He just thought it was in another couple weeks. Apparently not. "Okay so get with your questions or whatever."
"Alright." Hannon flipped through a few pages on his file. "I know they're here somewhere." He turned away and set the file down on the counter, flipping through the papers. There were alot of them! A medical history, his notes from rehab, from his therapist, from Cameron's notes. "I was just looking at them before I came in. Sorry..."
Gav didn't look terribly impressed by this, but then, he didn't look terribly impressed by most things that went on with his Rehab and the clinic in general. It just wasn't his favourite thing in the world. As the Nurse flipped through his file, Gav walked further into the office and sunk himself down in one of the chairs, legs sliding out in front of him, shouldes slouched, blonde hair hanging into his face. "Oh, take your time," he said dryly.
Hannon paused, tugging the stick out of his mouth which happened to be attached to a lollipop. "I had them at the nurse's station and I grabbed your file and the cup and..." He turned around, scowling again and then noticed Gavriel sitting down and he smiled again. "You could fill the cup while you wait."
"Great," Gav said, and he pushed himself out of the chair. "That clinic coffee was pretty shitty anyway." He didn't even like it, he just dran it to have something to during group rather than fiddle with things. Gav went into the little room that was the bathroom to piss in a cup while the nurse read his file. He emerged a few minutes later with the plastic cup filled, gloves back in place.
Hannon still hadn't found the question's but when Gavriel appeared again he took the cup from him and set it aside on the counter. "I think I remember the questions, I'll fill them in later and if I'm wrong, well, we can make them up next time! So how have you been feeling lately?"
Oh didn't that sound fantastic. Gav flopped back into the chair, sprawling out in that way that only teenaged boys could. "I feel fine," he said with a shrug of his shoulders clad in a worn black long-sleeved t-shirt. "Same as usual."
"Are you having any unusual dreams? Having a difficult time coping with anything? Something particularly stressful or not? You're a teenager, right? There's no way everything's fine."
"I don't usually remeber my dreams," Gav said. "And the shit a school is nothing compared to some stuff I've 'coped with'." Or not coped with. "It's just school. Exams coming up. That sort of thing."
"User dreams are very vivid. Supposedly." He'd never had one himself. "You can taste it, feel it, the high and what it feels like to use." He probably shouldn't continue on with that particular vein of questioning, he realized, so he cut off there. "Have you taken anything you're not supposed to have? Am I going to find anything in there?" He gestured to the sample. He really wanted to ask Gavriel about school, what it was like to go there, if he was psychic, but he couldn't knowing that while it may be relevant somehow the reasons why he would be asking would be wrong.
"Yeah, they are. But I'm clean now. Remember," Gav said in the same dry tones. When he had been on drugs he'd had some pretty wicked dreams. And some waking hallucinations. Fun stuff. But ever since then his dreams had quieted down or his sleep cycle had shifted. One or the other. Maybe both. He glanced at the cup of pee and shook his head again. "No. Nothing. I wish." Becuse he did. He still craved it, still wanted a needle in his vein. "Just good old fashioned nicotine." Because no one was taking his smokes away.
"It's tough. I understand." He didn't really understand, of course. He'd never been addicted to heroine. Cigarettes, his biggest nemesis, weren't quite as heinous as Gavriel's personal demons. Finally, he couldn't take it anymore and he had to ask, his forehead furrowing seriously as he stopped scribbling notes and lowered his hand. "Are you a psychic?"
Gav snorted. "Yeah, that's your business," he replied sarcastically. Psychic was the word of the month and he didn't knowwhy the nuse was asking, so he sue wasn't going to pin on his 'Yes! I'm a psychic!' badge. "I don't see how that matters." Actually it mattered a lot, ironically, because the reason he'd gone to drugs was to try and block out his ability.
"Well." He flipped through the file again. "I saw in here..somewhere...you're right." He couldn't find what he was looking for anymore now than he had been able to before. "I did read though that you're difficult on purpose. Don't you want help?"
"I don't want to be forced into things that I don't want to do," Gav said, shooting a steady gaze his way with vivid blue eyes. "And I was on heroin. Have you met many junkies? They're ot all docile and stoned out of their minds." Some could be violent. But really Hannon was right. He had been difficult because of the ability thing.
"I've met some," He assured him. "I'm not some junkie virgin or anything." The piece of candy went right back into his mouth again and closed the file, turning towards him. "Look, we're going to be together for a while, so we should try and get along, don't you think? You can drop the attitude? Granted, you haven't really been difficult yet but I bet you have plans to change that."
"It's not attitude, it's me." Gav was half telling the truth. It was attitude, but it was him as well. Because he had adopted this attitude ages and ages ago. "Fine. Let's get along. Do you want to sing kumbaya first, or should we start with a hug?"
"There it is. The hostility." Hannon smiled a little bit at him and pointed almost in an accusatory fashion, except for the fact that he was smiling. "It doesn't matter. I even get it a little bit. Do you want to go have a cigarette or something? I haven't had one in about a week, I feel like I'm about ready to kill someone."
"Yeah. Sure, alright." Gav shifted, leaning to the side so he could reach into his pocket, pulling out a crumpled packet of cigarettes that was smushed from being in his pocket. He tapped out two cigarettes, handing one over to the nurse. "We allowed to smoke in here? Cause it's fucking freezing out."
"We can smoke in here only if you like being apart of explosions." Because there was oxygen and stuff around, not because Gavriel was psychic and psychics had blown up the New Year's Eve ball! The thought occurred to Hannon but he hoped it didn't to Gavriel. "We can go up to the roof, smoke outside the door without actually leaving. A small price to pay, actually." Because now that he had a cigarette in his hand and could smell it, in his head he imagined it would taste like absolute heaven should he have a chance to light it.
"Fine," Gav said, pushing himself out of his chair. He grabbed his ratty coat and pulled it on, doing up the front. Because it really was ridiculously cold. He pulled a knit hat out of his pocket and tugged it down over his hair, letting the unlit cigarette dangle between his lips as he got himself ready. "Alright, let's go." It was weird, going to smoke with a nurse, but a smoke was a smoke.
Hannon turned the cigarette around and then slid it into the front pocket of his scrubs because he knew if anyone saw him with it he would definitely be in trouble. He was trying to quit and the hospital was supposed to help him. He didn't grab a coat because he'd have to go to the locker room to get one and instead lead the way, taking Gavriel's file with him to finish up with later and punched the up button on the elevator.
Hannon glanced side long at the psychic next to him and tried very hard not to stare.
Gav shuffled down the hallway, which was familiar enough because he'd ben there enough bloody times in the last several months. He stepped into the elevator when it dinged and opened and slouched against the wall.
"You go smoking with all the patients you see?" he asked, taking around the cigarette with practiced ease.
"Not at all." Hannon answered, hitting the button for the roof. "Most of them don't smoke. This," he took the lollipop from his mouth, "just isn't cutting it anymore and,plus, if I send you home too early it'll look bad for me."
"Yeah, you don't get any nicotine from candy," Gav said dryly. He watched as the numbered lit up, floor by floor as the elevator rose. "It wouldn't look bad. I'm difficult. Says so right in my file." At least he assumed it did. Was positive it did. "No one expects me to cooperate."
"It doesn't say that in your file," Hannon answered with a little smile, holding the information in question behind his back in both of his hands.
"Right," Gav said with a snort as the elevator slowed to a stop and let them out. "Well some version of 'difficult' then. I'm sure it doesn't say I'm sunshine and rainbows."
You're right, it doesn't say that either." Hannon sort of grinned at the idea and when the elevator opened he stepped out. There was a short line of stairs to the door to the roof that was locked but Hannon had a key and he unlocked it, pushing it open just enough before taking the cigarette out again. "Have a light?"
Gav followed along, hand stuffing into his pocket to dig out his lighter, a simple plastic Bic. When they reached the roof and stepped outside, he flicked the lint and lit the tip of his cigarete, cupping his hand around so that the chilly air wouldn't whip the flame away. Once it was lit, he tok a long drag, and handed out the lighter. "Never leave home without it," he said in an exhale of smoky breath.
"Home..." Hannon asked curiously as he lit his own citagrette. Any clarification to the statement he may have had to make was lost when he made a sour face and shook his head. "Christ. These taste the way a dog's ass would, I imagine." He shook his head and took another breath of it. "I really need to quit."
"Is your dog a smoker?" Gav asked with with a slow arched eyebrow as he took another puff. Tasted like a piece of heaven to him. "Quiting's overrated. Everyone needs their vices." He used to have plenty. Now he mostly just had the one. As he wasn't supposed to drink anymore either, or smoke pot. So it was cigarettes for him. Lots of cigarettes.
"Yeah, well, you don't see what I see coming in through here." Hannon answered, shivering and ducking inside as a gust of wind blew by. He leaned out again only to blow the smoke away again.
"And you're still smoking." Gav tapped ash from the tip of his cigarette. "Everyone's gonna die of cancer anyway these days, might as well be lung cancer." Gav knew cigarettes were horrid for him, but he didn't have the inclination to quit.
"Why did you quit using then?" He asked curiously, sliding his cigarette out the window to tap the ash off of it. "If you're just going to die anyway and all of that?"
"Because they made me," Gav said with a shrug. "Read the file I'm sure it's in there." Probably towards the back, since it seemed like new information got put on top of medical files. "They dragged me here. And made me stay in rehab."
"They made you?" Hannon asked again, his eyebrows lifting a little bit. "What did they threaten you with? What in your life is better than the drugs you were taking?"
"They didn't threaten. They picked me up and carried me here," Gav shrugged again. "Wouldn't let me go." Probably because they knew that not much would have worked as a threat. He didn't have many people in his life. He didn't care about possessions aside from his guitar. He didn't exactly care about school. Especially not back then when he was strung out. Then he only cared about his next hit.
"You couldn't leave Rehab either?" Hannon probably could have learned all this information from Gavriel's file but it seemed better this way, having a dialogue with him.
Gav shook his head. "Not for a month and a half." They had deemed him well enough to leave when school started in September, although he had to do the twice a week thing. "I was a minor at the time." And his mother had been fine at signing over control.
"And then what happens if you start using again? Will they kick you out of school?" Was Zener like other schools? Was it different because Gavriel was a psychic?
"Probably. If I refused to quit." Gav knew the Headmasters wouldn't say so outright, but he also knew that they wouldn't put up with anything, forever. "Can't have a junkie around the kiddies." Which he could understand. Just because he was an addict (or recovering addict), that didn't mean he wanted other people to be. Especially the younger, impressionable kids.
"Did you go to a regular public school before Zener?" He asked curiously, trying to find an appropriate way to edge in the questions he really had about Gavriel's life.
"Yeah. Sort of," Gav replied wryly. He hadn't exactly gone to school a lot the last year or so before being sent to Zener, but he'd always been enrolled in public schools. "In New York," he added, to nip that question in the bud.
"I've been there once or twice but never really stayed or saw much beyond tourist locations. Do you like Zener better? Is it different from your other school?" Besides that whole psychic thing.
"It's school. You go to classes. Homework. Studying. That sort of shit," Gav said. "It's alright. Of course it's different. It's a school in Buttfuck Nowhere. I went to school in New York City. A school with metal detectors and police at every door."
"So you like this one better?" He asked as he finished off the cigarette that Gavriel had given him and tossed it out onto the snow covered roof. "Or did you like the sense of danger back at your old place?"
Gav turned his blue eyes on the nurse. "Are you a shrink now as well as a nurse?" He took another drag, the cigarette winding down to just the butt. "Seriously, what's with all the questions?"
"I was just making conversation." Hannon frowned, scratching his fingers through his curly hair. "You weren't saying anything, so..." And he had a lot of questions.
"Who could get a word in edgewise?" Gav asked him with something that could almost be called amusement, but not quite.
Hannon looked at him and then away again and laughed, his voice echoing in the stairwell. "You may be surprised to learn that isn't the first time someone has told me that."
"Yeah, shocking. Real shocking." Gav flicked the butt of his cigarette to the ground and pressed down on it with the toe of his boot, stubbing it out. "How about we stick to the necessary stuff?"
"You never know what's necessary and what isn't." He answered with a little shrug of his shoulders. He could try and promise not to ask more questions but he wasn't sure how that would work out.
"Yeah but some things are more necessary than others," Gav replied. He stepped back into the stairwell. No need to be out in the cold anymore. "'Have you stuck any needles in your arm late'y - necessary. 'What's your favourite colour' - unnecesary."
"The only thing I can do is promise to try." He answered and since it was cold up there, he started down the stairs again. "How's that?"
"Great. You want to pinky swear?" Gav asked him with a smirk and a lazy amount of sarcasm as he followed the nurse down the stairs, back to the elevator.
Hannon couldn't even remember how to do a pinkie swear anymore. He knew sticking needles in your eyes were somehow involved but he couldn't exactly remember how. "I don't think we have to go that far, that's serious business."
Gav smirked and stepped into the elevator. This time he pressed the button with his gloved thumb before he resumed slouching against the wall the elevator slowly descending. When it stopped and the doors parted, he let Hannon lead the way back down to his office. "So, what else do we have to do?"
"I'm not quite sure, what did I ask you?" He asked thoughtfully. "How are you doing? That was it, right? Oh yeah, about stress." Maybe he should have taken notes. "I think you're done."
"Great." That was good news. Gav wasn't out to hang out at the clinic for hours. "Guess I'll see you in a few days then." For the next rehab session, the next check in and al that 'fun' stuff.
"Unless I go into labor." Hannon's smile grew and he nodded towards him. "I'll see you later, Gav."
Gav snorted with a touch of laughter and headed out of the office and out of the clinic.