i know i'm late, i got obsessed with the french open starting yesterday. oh well. the problem with too many obsessions is not enough time for all of them!
i really want, like everyone else here, to know what's up with syd.
does she have memory loss of some sort?
was she kidnapped by a "colleague" of spy!daddy?
does she have an abusive boyfriend?
ok, i'll stop. i'm sure all will be revealed in time, and til that time, i trust you
“Oh yeah? I have one of those tattooed on my arm,” he said. With this, she looked up at him, obviously surprised. “Yes, the therapist has a tattoo – be shocked,” he said, and then he smiled proudly since his comment got a very tiny smile from her.
Chapter 3
For the next month and a half, Michael experienced little progress as he continued to work with Amy. He spoke with her twice, sometimes even three times a week, but each time her responses to his questions or statements were minimal. He managed to find out that she loved dogs. That was it; nothing more. He wasn’t giving up though. In fact, her stubbornness only made him more intent on getting to the truth behind her façade.
For some reason he couldn’t understand or explain, he was utterly captivated by her. At night when he went home, he’d think about who she might really be and devised ways to help her. When he was speaking to her, he was mesmerized simply by the sight of her. Her outward appearance had been the only thing that really changed. She had put on weight and looked less emaciated. He supposed she wasn’t quite back to her normal, healthy weight for her height, but she was definitely close. Her eyes, though they still looked sad, seemed more relaxed. All the piercings she had, except for the standard two in her ears, had been removed and as it turned out, the tattoo on her wrist was a fake and had disappeared within a week. In addition, her features seemed to be getting softer, which didn’t exactly match her seemingly hard interior.
Michael wasn’t sure why, but she still had a hard, thick wall up around her, refusing to let anyone in or even near it. He had never seen her cry, nor had he seen her show any type of emotion whatsoever, she was simply blank. Usually, he wouldn’t have been attracted in any way to such a person, but yet to her he was, and it scared him. He knew that he was attracted her in the ‘I need to help this person or it will eat away at me until I do’ way, which he found to be a good thing, given the nature of his job. The thing that scared him though, was he thought he might have been attracted to her in a romantic sense, which would have been horrible on many, many levels. But he pushed those thoughts from his mind the best he could since she needed him to help her get back on her feet first. Not to mention the fact that, for all he knew, she was over ten years his junior.
One evening, he had stayed late to finish up some paperwork, when he thought he heard someone hovering outside his door. He saw a shadow floating through the frosted window in the office door and got out of his chair to investigate. When he opened the door, the person tried to scamper away, but he saw her before she was able to disappear. “Amy, is that you?” he asked.
“Yes… I… I’m sorry to bother you,” she said quickly.
Michael was stunned at the fact that her voice was cracking, sounding almost as though she was on the very edge of breaking down. “Amy wait, are you crying? Are you alright? Is there something you want to talk about?” he asked as he walked over to her. When she spun around, he saw tears flooding her large, chocolate brown eyes and his heart physically ached for her. “Here, come here,” he said softly as he pulled her back into his office. She followed and plopped herself down on the couch, reaching for a tissue as she did so.
“What happened, Amy?” Michael asked her again. Then, he noticed her hand slip from the pocket of her sweatshirt, in it was grasped a tiny folded photograph, but he couldn’t tell what it was of because her fingers were in the way.
“My…my mom,” she began slowly. “She-she died… this… anniversary of… her dying,” she let out a ragged breath and reached for another tissue.
“Oh Amy, I’m sorry,” he said sincerely. Suddenly, he was beginning to see the light. The death of a parent often triggered instances such as these. “Is this her?” he asked, gesturing towards the photograph. Amy nodded slowly and unclenched her fist slightly so that the photograph came into view.
“She’s beautiful; you look just like her,” Michael told her softly.
She sniffed and nodded. “I just… she’s gone! She was like my best friend… and she’s gone!”
“You wanna tell me about it?” he asked.
She nodded tearfully. “She was… c-coming to pick me up…. Play practice… she didn’t have to, I could have gotten a ride… but, but it was raining… and, and there was an accident,” she choked out, tears now streaming down her face. Then, she looked up to Michael, almost pleading with him. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean it! I didn’t!
“Shhh, it’s alright. It’s not your fault,” he said soothingly. Upon seeing her body trembling, he could hold himself back no longer and he put an arm around her back. Immediately, she fell into his arms, crying and saying she was sorry over and over again.
She cried for half an hour, using up the entire tissue box in Michael’s office in the process. Then, once her tears had stopped flowing she just sat there, still clinging to Michael’s arm like it was a life raft saving her from drifting dangerously out to sea.
Michael didn’t know what to do. He didn’t want to leave her, which could upset her even more, nor did he want to risk the chance of her reverting from this breakthrough. He wanted her to keep going; keep talking; get better, but it was after eight at night…
“Amy,” he began cautiously. “It’s late… do you want me to help you upstairs?”
She shook her head and slowly slid from his arms. Then, she gathered up the tissues that had collected in her lap and on the couch around her and dumped them all in the trashcan by the door. She was hallway out when she paused, turned back to him and gave him a tiny smile. “Thanks,” she said almost inaudibly before turning and leaving his office.
I really love this, you know you have totally inspired me to actually do something and tomorrow i am calling up a youth hostel and im going to offer to do some volenteer work for them. so thanks for that!
I really love this, you know you have totally inspired me to actually do something and tomorrow i am calling up a youth hostel and im going to offer to do some volenteer work for them. so thanks for that!
