Traumatic Events V: Only Human
By: Forlay
Marco walked into the office
building with a sigh. How could he make a joke out of this? He, the joker
of the Animorphs and all around fun guy, having to go see a psychologist
once a week. That was a real laugh.
He slipped into the
comfortable waiting room and took a seat near the door. He cringed when
he saw the other people waiting in there looked over their magazines or
books at him. Marco, calm down. No need to be paranoid here, he
told himself. Out of all the places you could be, this one's definetly
the safest.
Doctor Greenway stepped
out of his office, scanning across the waiting room, looking for his next
patient. "Hey, Marco," he said when he recognized the man by the door,
"C'mon in." He held he door open for Marco, then closed it once Marco was
in the office.
"What's up?" the doctor
asked as both men got seated comfortably.
Marco shrugged. "Nothing
much. Got a hot date tonight, so I gotta keep this short."
Doctor Greenway laughed.
"Of course. But we have to discuss some things first, as you know."
"'Course I do," Marco
said cockily, trying to sound more at ease than he really was. He knew
he could trust Doctor Greenway and all, but every once in awhile, that
nagging thought of not trusting anybody came creeping back. This was one
of those times.
"Care to share your
thoughts on Tuesday's meeting?"
"You mean what I thought
about seeing Rachel again?"
"If that's what you
want to focus on, yes."
"Don't you think we
cleared everything up there? I was just shocked to see her again."
"You had no other emotional
reaction than shock?"
Marco paused, considering
his answer. Did he really want to share what he'd first thought when he
saw Rachel? "No."
Doctor Greenway made
a note of that. He also noted that Marco was lying. He'd gotten to know
the Animorphs well over the last few months, well enough to know when they
were lying or telling the truth. "Are you sure?"
Marco sighed. "Okay,
there was another reaction. I was mad. And surprised. And even a little
happy. I mean, she got on my nerves majorly while we were fighting, with
her whole Xena attitude, but I respected her. I don't think we could have
won if it hadn't been for her."
"So you were glad to
see her again, since she was a member of the team?"
"Yeah and...maybe it
was a bit more. Maybe that respect I had for her was a bit more than that...this
probably sounds crazy, but I had a bit of a crush on her."
"Doesn't sound crazy
at all, Marco. You all went through some pretty tough times, it's natural
for friendships to become more than that, as you witnessed with Jake and
Cassie, and Rachel and Tobias to a certain extent. You were on the fringe,
so to speak, and from what I've seen in Rachel, you two would have been
compatable, much more than you and Cassie."
"But she was out of
reach," Marco said with a sigh. "She and Tobias had a 'thing' ever since
the beginning. They stuck together, through good times and bad. I was more
than a little surprised when I heard they had broken up. Those two seemed
inseperable, even more so than Cassie and Jake."
"Were you happy they
had broken up?"
"Heck no! Why would
I be? They were two of my closest friends, I wouldn't want anything to
hurt either of them, no matter what."
"So you never considered
trying to catch Rachel on the rebound?"
"Seriously? No. Going
out with someone on the rebound never works, believe me, I know, I've been
there. And with Rachel's personality...well, it could have proved fatal
to tick her off."
"She does have a temper,
doesn't she?"
"She did. I don't know
about now. She seemed different at that meeting," Marco smirked slightly,
"She almost seemed human.
"What do you mean?"
"She always seemed
very distant and unreachable to me. Like she was this super being and I
was just lowly Marco. But at that meeting, when we did our little introduction
thing, she had the same weaknesses as the rest of us, especially Tobias
and me. She was no longer aloof Xena, she was a person. A person who had
problems she needed help with."
The doctor made a note
of that. "Anything else you'd like to talk about before your session is
over?"
"Nope. Except...this
is all confidential, right? No one will know?"
"It's strictly confidential,
Marco. No one will hear a word of anything mentioned in here from me."
Marco sighed in relief.
"Good."
The alarm on Doctor
Greenway's watched went off, sounding the end of the session. "That's it
for today, Marco. Good luck on that 'date' tonight," he added with a wink.
Marco laughed uneasily.
Had he been that transparent with the date story? "Yeah, see ya', Doc."
He walked out of the office into the waiting room.
The woman who was sitting
out there glanced up from her magazine when she heard the door to the doctor's
office open and close. Oh, great, she thought when she saw Marco
step out. A person I really didn't want to see! She went back to
her magazine, hoping he wouldn't want to talk to her either.
Speak of the devil,
Marco thought to himself when he saw Rachel sitting in a chair, intently
reading a magazine. Should I go over there? He took a tenative step
towards her, but stopped. He couldn't go up and ask her that, not tonight,
anyways. He sighed quietly and left the room.
Doctor Greenway caught
a glimpse of Marco leaving the waiting room, walking slowly, as he opened
the office door to see if Rachel had arrived yet. What had happened?
He scanned the waiting room and saw Rachel reading a magazine. Had Marco
asked her out? Or was he just depressed because he didn't think he could
ever ask her? The doctor shook his head. Despite their stint as super heroes,
the Animorphs were only human, with human problems. Ranging from the extrodinary
problems of mental disorders, to the ordinary love problems. But would
any of them ever learn to accept that?
A/N: It took awhile, but there's Traumatic
Events V!!! I'll get to work on VI as soon as I can. Meanwhile, if you
have any suggestions or ideas as for what could happen in future stories,
please send them to me at inkypa@yahoo.com