TRAUMA

A Ranma ½ Fanfic by Crikit

Day 1

Welcome to the wonderful world of the funny farm, otherwise known as the mental health ward. Everyone who’s in here has some sort of mental problems, some minor like Eimi who suffers from school phobia to others that are more severe like the new girl that just got here a few days ago. The only people who know what’s wrong with her are the doctors and the nurses, and they aren’t saying. There are however a few rumors going around the ward though.

One rumor is that she saw everything she owned get destroyed in a fire, while everyone that she cared about got violently murdered. That would be a total bitch wouldn’t it? While another rumor is that her fiancée ran off with someone else leaving her at the alter or was it a school dance I can’t remember exactly what one it is…actually that one changes daily. Then there is the best rumor, the grand daddy of them all that one being that she’s actually a he. That one is obviously a lie; I mean how can a girl who looks that good, that hot, be a guy? It’s just so out there, it would kind of be like saying I have a fear of fire…BWA HAHAHA that’s a good one I’ll have to remember it for the next time we’re in group.

Oh well whatever happened to her, it effected her in a bad way. She won’t talk, doesn’t really eat and if anybody even attempts to touch her she freaks out, the staff have had to sedate her more then once since she got here, just so the docs can examine her. Oh, and she has the odd aversion to hot water, won’t touch the stuff.

Bored, bored, bored. That’s the one thing about being in here, when you most want something to do you don’t have anything, and when you want to be left alone they make you talk. It’s sort of like the old round about thing about not having a job because you have no experience and not having any experience because you don’t have a job. But hark what is this that I see at yonder desk? A visitor a she visitor at that, I wonder who she’s here to see.

Ah looks like I’m about to get my answer. The nurse leaves the desk and slowly makes her way across the room; it looks like shes heading towards the new girl. She is, interesting she’s been in here a couple of days and gets a visitor while I’ve been here a few months and have seen no visitors, then again torching ones house does tend to alienate the family doesn’t it? Oh well, I’m just wondering how the nurse is going to handle this, informing the girl of her visitor I mean.

"Saotome" the nurse’s voice carries across the room towards me.

So that’s the girls name, or last name at least.

"Saotome, you have a visitor." Still no response.

The nurse reaches out a hand to touch the girl, big mistake lady. So far five people have touched her and so far she’s gone postal five times. Guess she’ll learn that in a few minutes. The nurse’s hand slowly gets closer to Saotomes shoulder and as it does Saotome shrinks in the corner until she can move no more. That’s when it happens, the nurses hand lightly touches Saotomes shoulder sending the girl over the edge, and the staff and patients running. The other girl who was waiting quietly at the desk until she was told otherwise hears the commotion and runs towards it, not from it. Just as she reaches the corner Saotome is drawing her hand back ready to slam it in to the nurse.

The girl steps in between Saotome and the nurse, eyes locked on the clenched fist. "RANMA!!!"

The cry seems to have had some effect, as Ranma…I’m guessing that’s her name…slowly drops her arm to her side and sinks back in to the corner, the odd sob escapes her but nothing else, no words, no tears, just sobs. The girl who called out follows suit making sure that her hands are visible. Meanwhile the offending nurse slowly slinks back to the desk, avoiding the stares of her coworkers.

I move forward a bit so I can hear the limited conversation that is going on in the opposing corner. The raven hair girl is quietly whispering while the red head just stares at her with blank blue eyes.

"Ranma, it’s me Akane"

Okay, I now have names Ranma Saotome and Akane…. Akane well her last name isn’t important, not to me anyway. Names aren’t really any help to me though; I want to know what happened, what this Ranma chick is in for, what was so bad that it sent her over the deep end. ‘Cause I really want to win that pool that the other patients started…if I win I get to choose ten shows…. can you say Iron Chef marathon? I knew you could.

"Kasumi’s alright Ranma, her arms in a sling and she’s got a limp but she’s alright, and she knows you didn’t mean for it to happen. We all know that, of course daddy isn’t ready to forgive you yet. Don’t worry though, we’re working on him. Um"

Could they be sisters? Nah, they don’t look anything a like. So they aren’t sisters, then what are they? Friends? Lovers? Oh yes that’s what they are, lovers, and Ranma caught Akane with this Kasumi chick together and went off the deep end, did some damage to Kasumi and ended up in here. That’s it everything is solved, I am a friggin’ genius. Wait where does the dad come in? Okay, that theory’s out the door, next!

"I better be going Ranma, daddy doesn’t know I came here and I really don’t want him to find out." Akane takes her time standing up, for a second it looks like she’s going to give the other girl a hug but changes her mind. Not that I blame her, "Bye."

I keep looking between the two girls as Akane walks away. Ranma remains motionless, staring off in to space with her hollow eyes. When she reaches the door Akane looks back at Ranma once, I can see a small tear running down her cheek… must be hard, seeing a friend in a place like this with all us freaks. I wait until she leaves the ward to look back at Ranma, and what I see is a real surprise. For a second I see something in her eyes, eyes that are usually hollow and cold. It’s a sadness that I’ve never seen before, not even with the manic depressives, it’s so intense that I force myself to look away, and when I look back again the eyes are back to being hollow.

Oh, time to go…it’s suppertime and I really don’t want to miss it. It’s pudding day.

DAY 2:

There’s one thing about being in a place like the mental ward. You have no sense of the passage of time. We have no clocks here, they’ve all been broken and never replaced, and the windows all have thick curtains on them…which so do not go with the color scheme of the room… I don’t know if that’s to keep us from seeing the outside world or from the outside world from seeing us. Either way it sucks. How would you like to go through day to day life not knowing what it’s like outside, not being able to watch the sunrise, see birds fly, watch old ladies beat hooligans to a pulp with their purses or anything like that, you wouldn’t!

We listen to the nurses and other staff, when they say that it’s time to eat, we eat. When they say that it’s time to sleep, we sleep…well most of us do anyway, Ranma (I’ve decided to call her that until I know otherwise) is the only one who doesn’t. She doesn’t seem to like to sleep; in fact at times it seems she almost avoids it. When all the rest of us are making our way to our rooms and the comfort…hehehe…of our beds, she prefers to stay in the safety I guess of her corner. The nurses and other staff tried to get her to move a few times when she first got here but they eventually learned to leave her alone, she sleeps when she wants (usually in the corner), she moves when she wants, and she eats when she wants. The eating part is why some of the staff have started bringing in extra sandwiches or stuff that doesn’t need to be heated with them. They won’t admit but I think they’ve started to take a liking to her.

Last night however was a bit different, two of the regulars were sick, they had food poisoning or something from eating some cookies that a visitor had left behind so we had a couple of fill ins from the kiddies ward. They treat us like were idiots and we aren’t okay well some of us are…but we honestly can’t help it we’re crazy, our minds are so twisted that we can’t help but be stupid, or can we. I remember once in a movie there was a line that went just because I’m smart doesn’t mean I can’t act dumb, maybe that’s what some of do…oh cool a new Franklin book…then again maybe some of us really are dumb.

Anyway as I was saying last night we had a couple of replacements for the regulars they seemed nice, well one of them did the other one looked like a drill sergeant crossed with a cafeteria lady I still get shivers thinking about her. So freaky (that is what we ever so affectionately called her…hehehe…) decided that she had enough with the wackos staring at her. That and I think she had enough of watching Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure (the tape got stuck in the VCR we couldn’t turn it off honest) so she sent us off to bed. The majority of us went with no questions asked, in fact the room cleared out rather quickly, all that was left was Eimi, Ranma and I.

Eimi and I were taking our time I think we both thought the same thing, that being let’s make sure that they didn’t hurt Ranma after all somebody has to look out for the kid when you have strangers about. We waited quietly by the door watching the nurses every move her advance on Ranma and Ranma’s eyes locked on her while sitting in the corner trapped like a deer caught in headlights. Freaky was reaching out a hand to grab by the arm when suddenly I heard Eimi whisper beside me. It was so quiet that I decided to help out, the nurses never would have heard her otherwise, so I did what any sensible person would do…I elbowed her in the ribs.

"I wouldn’t do that if I were you!"

Freaky heard Eimi’s voice loud and clear and stopped just short of having a hand on Ranma’s arm, she turned and glared and I felt Eimi shrink beside me. "And why might that be?"

"Well…well…well…" Eimi stopped unable to answer, instead she turned pleading eyes towards me to take over.

"Because she doesn’t like to be touched." Upon hearing my voice freaky turned her eyes towards me…they were beady almost snake like, cool a drill sergeant, cafeteria lady, snake cross…wow science at work. "You touch her and she’ll freak its happened everytime."

"I’ll be the judge of that." She took her attention off the two of us and turned her attention to the other nurse who seemed to cower almost as much as we did. "Check her file."

"Hai…uh what’s her name?"

I felt the eyes turning back towards us quickly blurted out Ranma’s first and last name. Eimi looked at me as if I was crazy, oh wait I am, I could tell that from the look she was giving me though there was going to be some explaining done later. A minutes later young one…hehehe freaky and young one, the new comedy team of the ages…better then Abbott and Costello, better then Laurel and Hardy…that’s right it’s freaky and young one, live one night only in the psycho ward. Anyway a few minutes later young one proclaimed that the two of us were right and that for the time being freaky should just leave Ranma alone. Freaky wasn’t happy about that, it was obvious by the grimace on her face…or maybe she just had gas now that’s a mystery of the ages.

Ranma was safe for the time being, but the question was how long would she remain so. She had two heavies breathing down her neck and I knew just knew that in a matter of time she would no longer be able to handle the intense pressure and snap. Hey that’s pretty good, maybe when I get out of here I should consider writing mystery novels for a living…nah, would never fly. So thinking that Ranma was safe Eimi and I started to walk down the hallway towards our respective rooms.

"How did you know her name?"

"I sorta eavesdropped this afternoon when that girl came to see her…I really couldn’t help it."

We stopped outside my room and Eimi took one look down the hall and then back at me, "Do you think she’ll be all right?"

I shrugged really not sure how to answer, we both knew what the answer was but I think it made Eimi feel better in asking. I didn’t answer her either instead I just turned and walked in to my room shutting the door behind me. Walking to my bed I lied down and just stared up at the ceiling waiting for the sounds that I knew would soon be echoing down the hallway to the main room.

I must have dozed off though because I woke up around two o’clock (I know it was two because the old guy who likes to sing Perry Como songs was singing Papa Loves Mama which is his two o’clock song) that’s when I heard it though. That bob awful scream and the staff running around trying to get out of the path of hurricane Ranma. I don’t know what happened after that, I feel back asleep and didn’t wake up till this morning, and at breakfast the staff was keeping mom about the incident and Ranma wasn’t speaking either…nothing new about that though.

It’s just after lunch now, which sucked by the way. You can only have soggy fish sticks and creamed corn so many days a week without going er sane. Now that it’s after lunch though we have nothing to do. Group was canceled because of family issues with the therapist (who ever heard of a therapist with family issues?) we can’t play monopoly because I torched the board a few weeks ago…Eimi cheated what else could I do sit there and let her get away with it? I don’t think so. So I have nothing to do now except to sit and stare at the floor.

Wait a minute…I think my luck is about to change, YES! It is woo hooo; she’s back, Akane, the mystery girl from yesterday. The nurse looks up and smiles before pointing her to the corner, I see she’s not gonna make the same mistake as yesterday. Darn and I was ever so looking forward to a show. Oh well I guess I’ll just have to see what happens with the other two, maybe, just maybe I’ll learn something that will give me a clue as to what happened.

"Hi Ranma." Akane sits down on the floor opposite Ranma and glances around the room before continue; "I heard about what happened last night. The hospital phoned looking for your dad, Nabiki answered the phone, which I guess is sort of a good thing, because if daddy answered we never would have found out. Speaking of Nabiki she’s stopped trying to make money off of everything little thing that she can think of instead she’s trying to make life miserable for Kuno and Ryoga, oh and trying to find your dad."

Nabiki, Kuno, Ryoga? Hmmm maybe she’s part of a gang and she was gonna rat one of those people out to the cops only they found out before she could, but then why would Nabiki be making life miserable for the other two and trying to find Ranma’s dad? I look across the room and see Eimi devoting all her attention on the two girls in the corner as well. Obviously she’s thinking the same thing I am, that they are a hell of a lot more entertaining then watching the dust collect on the various pieces of furniture.

"Nabiki says hi by the way, and so does Kasumi." I see Akane reach down beside her to a bag that she had on the floor. She takes out a box and slowly puts it down in front of Ranma. I strain to see what’s inside but it doesn’t work. "Here these are for you. Homemade cookies."

Ranma looks at the box and a look of horror briefly plays across her face causing Akane to laugh in response. "Don’t worry Ranma, I didn’t make them. Kasumi did. So we know that they’re safe."

I don’t know what it is but when Akane makes the comment about the cookies being safe she looks almost as if she’s about to cry, but a quick glance at our stylish tile floor seems to be enough for her to get her emotions in check. It’s what Ranma does when Akane looks at the floor that intrigues me. Ranma slowly reaches out a hand as if she wants to comfort the other girl but she suddenly stops as if unsure that she should continue so she drops her hand back down to the ground and looks away until Akane regains her composure.

"Well, um…I think I should I go Ranma. We still can’t leave Kasumi by herself and Nabiki has somewhere to go when I get home…at least that’s what she said. I’ll come back tomorrow I promise." And with that Akane gets up to leave stopping only to look Ranma once in the eyes before turning and running out the door. When she leaves I look over at Ranma and notice a slight tear in her eye, I also notice that the box of cookies that was sitting in front of her when Akane left has now mysteriously vanished. Wow Ranma’s a magician as well as a nut case.

Oops gotta go I told some of the others that I would show them how to start a fire using only a plastic fork and spoon…and I would hate to disappoint them.