Rehabilitation [Worm AU][One Shot]

[Gowonzu]

Rehabilitation
In an AU where instead of being turned into a fleshblob, Amy restores Vicky's body but still couldn't fix her mind.
Victoria ends up in a slightly different type of therapy post slaughterhouse arc.
Two years later, Carol Dallon visits to check up on her recovery.

A/N: Just a heads up, I am not a therapist, nor do I have that much experience with therapy so there might be some inaccuracies in how Dr Yamada handles things.

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Carol pulled her car up outside the hospital. She didn't usually drive herself this far up, often choosing to fly out and take a cab the final stretch. The last time Carol drove her car to a hospital, it was to drop Amy off for a shift. That memory made Carol feel ill. She chuckled bitterly at herself, she was at the perfect place for that.

This hospital wasn't Brockton Bay General, it wasn't even in the city proper. Driving out this far took almost six hours and that didn't even factor in traffic. This hospital was special, a smaller facility on the outskirts of Philadelphia, hidden far away from the public eye. A place known to many as The Asylum.

While she could fly via the airport in a quarter of the time, Carol chose to drive. She wanted the alone time for one. Brockton Bay was still being rebuilt, even two years on from the attack. The rundown city had turned into a haven for crime, especially once the Undersiders took over. Sure, violence on the street plummeted dramatically, but that didn't mean crime had come to a halt. Brockton Bay's villains had simply become smarter. Brandish had all but retired from the hero scene, only appearing during brief major threats that sparsely hit the city. On the other hand, Carol Dallon, attorney-at-law, had become all the busier for it.

She'd visited the Asylum regularly over the years to check in on her. Putting her there was hard, leaving her there was harder. She considered moving up to Philadelphia to be closer, but she couldn't leave her city, its citizens needed heroes now, more than ever. Sarah would never move and Carol wouldn't leave her so soon after Eric, Mark was in no state to go anywhere and if Carol was being honest, observing her daughter's recovery was the hardest part of the whole experience.

The second reason Carol decided to take the car was that she had hope. Hope that today might be the day she will be taking her daughter home. Dr Yamada was happy with her current progress, particularly over the last six months. Carol hoped that this meant she would be able to move Victoria back home and finish her therapy with her family. Perhaps she was selfish in that hope, but she missed her daughter dearly.

Watching her family fall apart in the wake of Leviathan's destruction almost broke Carol. New Wave was already reeling from the loss of Eric, and then the Slaughterhouse Nine came in to deliver another crippling blow. However, it wasn't an Endbringer or Jack Slash or Crawler that destroyed her family. They were to blame, for that, there was no doubt, but it was the last 'monster' that delivered the final blow.

Carol lost two daughters that day.

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Jessica sat comfortably in her chair while she watched Victoria write. She smiled at the girl even as Vicky wasn't looking, too busy focusing on her notebook. Victoria had a habit of sticking her tongue out when she got really focused on a project, licking her top lip as she scribbled away with her pen. It was oddly cute, if not rather childish. Jessica smiled at the childish innocence of it all. If she could take a snapshot of this moment, Jessica could almost imagine that Victoria was just a healthy girl again.

Looking back up at her watch, Jessica cleared her throat and said, "You have five minutes."

"Okay. Almost done." Victoria said while deep in thought. She stopped writing briefly to think, rubbing the back of the pen into her hair to scratch some idle itch. With another burst of motivation, Victoria scribbled down more words on her paper.

Jessica had given Victoria a test, a simple writing exercise to evaluate her progress, creativity and critical thinking skills. The paper was full of pointless but fun questions such as 'Can you describe the tastes "salty" and "sweet" without using those words?' or 'If animals could talk, what questions would you ask them?'

There were no wrong answers for the test and it looked like Victoria would pass with flying colours. Jessica had given her the worksheet simply to prove that Vicky could now read, write and understand exactly what was on the paper. A far cry from the Victoria that came into this facility two years ago.

"Alright, I'm done!" Victoria beamed, waving her workbook around in the air with a bright smile.

Jessica stopped her timer and stood to collect the book. Victoria played with her pen, scribbling little doodles on the desk as Jessica read over her work. The handwriting itself was terrible, especially when compared to Victoria's old school work, pre-Leviathan. It was, however, still legible, which was what really mattered right now.

"Looking good. I can actually read this without asking you for clarification. And you have a great understanding of what you're writing." Jessica said in approval as she looked between the pages. Victoria giggled in delight at the praise and tilted her head towards Jessica.

Jessica sighed with a smile before patting Victoria on the head. She didn't like indulging the girl, preferring to keep things professional, but this really was an improvement over the last time.

"I particularly like your thoughts on 'Is it right to keep animals in a zoo?' You sound very passionate about this." Jessica added, amused at the three paragraphs dedicated to a single question.

"They shouldn't be in a cage, they've done nothing wrong," Victoria said, parroting the opening of her written paragraph. Jessica frowned as she picked up on Victoria's own feelings of being an animal in a cage.

At times it was hard to argue with that train of thought. Jessica hoped, that in time, the girl would see that being here was for her own good. That she wasn't a prisoner, but a patient in a hospital. For now she let the topic drop, she'd circle around to it later when they went over the questions in detail.

"I do notice a few spelling mistakes here and there." Jessica went on, causing Vicky to pout.

"I still get confused with big words, that's all," Victoria said, almost defensively. Jessica frowned at her habit of not taking criticism well.

"Overall, it's wonderful," Jessica said, returning to the positives. "Very well done, Victoria."

Victoria giggled again and held a wide smile. Jessica couldn't help but match the smile with her own. Victoria was showing a lot of progress when it came to her rehabilitation, the bulk of it only happening in the last six months or so. She was a completely different girl from the Victoria who first entered the Asylum.

"Are you proud of me?" Victoria asked coyly.

"Now Victoria, we talked about this." Jessica chided gently. Victoria had a bad habit of wanting to please people, especially Jessica, it was one of the things Jessica wanted to work on now that Victoria was a lot more cognisant of her actions. "It's not about if 'I' am proud of you. It's about how you feel about yourself."

Victoria went quiet for a moment, thinking to herself. Jessica could tell that the girl was having an internal debate over what that meant.

"I… am proud of myself," Victoria said as if repeating a mantra. Then she turned back to Jessica as if making sure that was a good thing.

Jessica smiled again. "That's good, Victoria. Very good." She patted Victoria on the head again. "And yes, I'm very proud of what you've accomplished."

Victoria tapped her hands on the desk with glee. "Thanks. I've gotten super good at writing now. And reading. I've read four books this month." Victoria held up four fingers to make her point, Jessica already knew this because she was the one who gave her the books, but she was proud of the girl all the same.

"That you have and it's wonderful to see," Jessica responded, giving in to Victoria's desire for praise. A little bit of praise wouldn't be bad, Victoria had earned it twice over. She appeared to be extra motivated to learn this month.

The idea of being able to write properly again seemed to spur the girl on in a way Jessica hadn't seen since she arrived. Jessica assumed that it was because of Victoria's love of books and desire to read again. She hadn't been this proud of the girl since Victoria learned how to speak in full sentences again.

When Victoria first arrived at the Asylum, she was broken. She was attacked by a member of the Slaughterhouse, and left in critical condition to be healed by… her would-be abuser. It was a wonder that Victoria came out of it with her body intact, her Mother didn't even realise the extent of what had happened until the following day. While Victoria was psychically healed of all wounds, her mind was destroyed, reduced to a blank canvas that could only do the absolute basics that would keep her alive.

The girl was only able to speak a handful of words and had no concept of where she was or who she was talking to. Would get extremely agitated when she couldn't find her abuser and would often need to be restrained else she risked injuring people trying to return. It took over a year for Jessica to reach the point where Victoria could actually engage in conversation. It took even longer for Victoria to talk about someone that wasn't 'her.' With every comment, statement and question being in some way or another, about her abuser.

It was only recently that Victoria could respond with the mental fortitude of a healthy person. Granted, she was mentally closer to a child than the young adult she should be, but it was progress nonetheless. Jessica was certain that learning to read and write again would take another full year of work, but Victoria really doubled down on the lessons and exercises. Proving Jessica's theory that her mind wasn't wiped, simply fogged down by what had been done to her.

"So… I've been thinking…" Victoria said coyly. Circling the desk with her finger as she spoke.

"Let me guess? You want a reward for your good progress?" Jessica said with a smile.

The early days of training and teaching revolved around reward management. If Victoria did something good and showed signs of getting better, Jessica would give her a treat. Usually candy or the like, but as Victoria learned to speak full sentences again, she was able to request specific things. Ignoring the obvious requests to see her abuser again, Vicky eventually settled on simple requests. An old movie she remembered, a picture of a location she liked, and a phone call to her cousin.

"So, what do you want this time?" Jessica asked with a smile. It had been a while since Victoria asked for a specific reward but Jessica was happy to entertain the idea.

"I was hoping to send a letter?" Victoria asked with hope in her voice.

"A letter?" Jessica asked back. "That's a lovely idea. Yes, we could write a letter. Who do you want to write to?"

"Well actually…" Victoria said, reaching into her pocket. "I already wrote the letter… last night. But I need someone to mail it. So, could you? Please?"

Victoria gently pushed the folded paper into Jessica's hand. She gave Jessica her best 'puppy-dog' eyes as she asked, tugging on the therapist's heartstrings. Jessica fought the urge to accept the request right there. As endearing as Victoria could be, Jessica would need to read over and approve of the letter before doing anything.

Turning the paper over in her hand, Jessica sighed. A part of her knew this was coming. She had hoped that it wouldn't happen but past experience told her otherwise. Everything had been going so well, there hadn't been a problem in over a month. Looking down at the letter in hand, Jessica frowned at the name written across in big bold letters.

AMY

"Victoria…" Jessica said in a sorrowful yet disappointed tone. "We've talked about this. You can't talk to her."

"I know. But this isn't talking." Victoria said back, the edges of panic and anxiety building in her voice. "This is a letter. It's not talking when I give people letters."

"It's still a form of communication." Jessica rebutted. Victoria's mood was quickly breaking down, she hadn't had an episode in months. Jessica had hoped that the worst was behind them. "I'm sorry Victoria, I can't send this letter."

"B-but it's not talking," Victoria said again, raising her voice. "Y-you said… you said I couldn't 'talk' to Amy. You didn't say anything about writing to her."

"Victoria," Jessica said again, firmer in tone. "You know very well that your Mother has forbidden all contact with her. Even if I wanted to do this for you, which I do not, I am unable to accept your request. Now why don't I put this letter away and we can-"

"Writing isn't talking!" Victoria yelled, slamming her fist into the desk. Her aura flared violently with anger. "You said I couldn't talk. I'm not allowed to talk to Amy, I'm not allowed to call Amy. But this is different."

"Your aura, Victoria," Jessica said, trying to keep as calm as possible. "Remember your breathing exercises."

"It's just a letter! She can't talk back. It's not the same!" Victoria punched the desk again, her forcefield cracking the top of the table with enhanced strength.

Jessica didn't flinch at the blatant use of powers while angry. Victoria had never hurt her before, there was no reason to think she'd start now. "Was this why you wanted to read and write so badly?" Jessica asked, the explanation for Victoria's attitude over the last month falling into place.

Victoria kicked the desk, hard. It flew past Jessica and smashed into the wall. Jessica moved away from the girl, only slightly. A red light blinked at the door and Jessica responded by holding up her hand. A security system waited at the ready to sedate the aggravated parahuman at a moment's notice.

"It's just a letter…" Victoria said again, her anger dissipating with her kick, turning into grief. Tears ran down the girl's face. "I just want to tell her how I feel. Is that so wrong?"

Jessica relaxed as she took a step towards the now crying girl. Victoria fell to her knees, sobbing the whole way down. She thought about reaching a hand out to comfort her, but a pat on the head was a positive reward and Jessica couldn't risk sending mixed messages. Instead, Jessica crouched down beside the girl and let her cry.

"I love her…" Victoria sobbed, trying to wipe her face. "I just love her so much. It's all I can think about. And every day she's not here… It hurts."

"Victoria…" Jessica said with a sad frown. She was so confident that she was improving, Victoria could speak, read and write. But the core of her problem remained. Her obsession with her abuser.

"Please…" Victoria begged through the tears. "It's just a letter. She doesn't even need to respond. I just need…" Jessica was already shaking her head. On this, she wouldn't budge. Contact with Amy would undo all the work they did over the last two years.

"I'm sorry, Victoria," Jessica said. She stood from her crouched position.

"Wait! Can I have the letter back, at least?" Victoria asked through the tears.

Jessica looked at the letter again. None of what was written was appropriate to be read out loud, going into details of 'what she'd do when they met up again'. Jessica sighed hesitantly as she looked back down at the girl. She'd have to restrict her writing to be under supervision from now on, and possibly have her room searched for any other letters Victoria might have written.

"I'm sorry, Victoria," Jessica said again, shaking her head softly and pocketing the letter. "You know our rules. We don't talk about her here."

Victoria's mind was poisoned by the idea of 'Amy'. When Victoria first arrived at the Asylum, Amy was the only thing she could think about, the only name she could say. Her mind was dedicated to the sole purpose of pleasing her abuser. Extreme Master/Stranger protocols applied here. Victoria was to avoid all mentions of the girl, even saying her name was taboo at this point.

"Wait. Please. Just let me… Please." Victoria said with increasing desperation. "I'm not talking. I'm writing. Let me write about her! Please!"

Victoria reached out and grabbed Jessica's leg. Jessica tried to gently pull herself away. "Please let go, Victoria." She said as she started to tug with more force. The red light turned on once again. "Victoria, if you don't let go, we'll have to end our session early. I don't want to do that, and I don't think you want that either."

"It's just a letter." Victoria sobbed back, ignoring Jessica's request. While Victoria wasn't planning on injuring the doctor, her strength made sure that Jessica wasn't going anywhere. "Please! I love her. She needs to know. She needs to know that I still love her."

An alarm buzzed throughout the room and Jessica sighed in disappointment. Her superiors had obviously triggered the security fail-safe. Reaching into her shirt, Jessica took out a face mask and placed it over her mouth and nose. Three seconds after the alarm, sedative gas spat out of every wall, flooding the room with chemicals that would bypass Victoria's forcefield.

Victoria's grip slowly weakened as she breathed in the gas. She was still too distraught to even notice it was happening, mumbling away as she drifted off to sleep. "I love… P-please… Amy…" With a soft thud, Victoria's head hit the floor as her hand let go of Jessica's leg.

Jessica waited a full two minutes before removing her mask before turning to the mirror in the room. "You didn't need to do that. I had the situation under control." She kept a professional tone but was deeply disappointed. In her boss, who pressed the button too early. In Victoria, who had lied about her progress, pretending to get better, just so she could try to communicate with Amy through writing. Most of all, she was disappointed in herself, for not realising the deception sooner.

With a sigh, Jessica turned slightly, to where she assumed the second person behind the mirror would be sitting and said, "I know you were hoping to take your daughter home today. But as you can see, she still isn't ready to leave this facility. I'm sorry, Mrs Dallon."

 

[Ack]

Rehabilitation

Click to shrink...

Dang. The feels.

 

[Gaemnomut]

Oooooooof
That was hard. Very well written