a fanfic for @1-wonder-1 ‘s SLH AU
TW for sedation, restraint, post traumatic stress, past SA mention(nothing explicit), and SIB(self injurious behaviors)
A pop was heard from Ragatha, who was sitting in the common area. It woke her from her nap against Pomni’s head.
A rag doll, about the height of her human pillow, had appeared in the stage of the common room.
Ragatha hummed, looking towards the little rag doll. They looked terrified, trembling, darting their head around the room. they began to breathe quicker.
“Wha- where—“ They turned their head towards the two, confused.
Ragatha slowly got up, placing her hands out in a way to show the newcomer that she wouldn’t hurt them.
“It’s ok…It’s ok…are you alright, sweetie?”
Pomni, realizing the situation, called out for Zooble in a loud volume, but not yell as to not scare the teen.
The employee came out into the room, “What is it— oh..”
The rag doll was now pacing the room, flapping their arms. Zooble was about to call for Caine, but Ragatha shushed them quietly.
“Don’t do that, please. I think Caine will just make them more overwhelmed. Let me try to calm them down first before we get Caine involved, okay?”
Zooble cleared their throat, then nodded a little, staying a couple of feet from Ragatha incase an extra set of hands was needed.
“Hi sweetie…what’s your name?” Ragatha asked, attempting to distract the overwhelmed rag doll.
They stopped, silent, still. Then began to hyperventilate, “I- I don’t know!” The little rag doll cried, looking around the room, they took a step away from Ragatha, before bolting away a couple of feet.
Zooble, their reflexes sharp, quickly grabbed ahold of the teen. Grabbing their shoulders and maneuvering them away from the hallway.
“Zooble—“ Ragatha began. But the latter cut her off. “Could you help me calm them down?” They said monotonously, beginning to lower themselves to the ground and hold the little rag doll’s shoulders with a tight grip.
Ragatha gently took the teen from Zooble’s arms, placing them in her lap and wrapping her arms around them.
“Everything is gonna be okay, honey, just relax for a moment.” She soothed, not wanting the little rag doll to try and bolt again.
The teen just grunted and groaned repeatedly. They wriggled around for a few minutes, before succumbing to Ragathas hold, resting their face against her collarbone.
“There you go…that’s it…”
It had been a couple minutes, and Zooble wasn’t sure if they should radio for Caine or not. It was a new patient, and they obviously were overwhelmed and could become agitated. But, they seemed to be just fine in Ragathas arms.
It had been a while, and it was probably time to take the kid to Caine so he could examine them. Zooble gently reached down and took the little rag doll from Ragathas arms.
They whined slightly, startled by the sudden movement and new, unfamiliar touch. The teen began to swat at Zooble, becoming increasingly agitated.
“Let’s just— just calm down! It’s okay buddy, It’s okay…” The rag doll began to fight more, wriggling in Zooble’s arms and beginning to bite at their hands.
“Nonono…honey please don’t do that!” Ragatha whispered, Zooble held the little rag doll’s body and arms down in one arm and held their chin up lightly to prevent them from biting down on anyone or themselves with the other.
“That’s too rough!” Ragatha cried out, a bit mad at Zooble for being too hasty with the newcomer.
“They’re biting! What do you want me to do?” Zooble suddenly felt teeth sink into their hand, it stung, bad. No one ever bit them before, except for Jax, once, of course.
“$&@€!!” Zooble exclaimed, letting go of their torso for on second, but Ragatha quickly caught them. She scooped them up and held them tightly, but not as roughly.
Zooble’s voice was stuck, they had never experienced a patient this combative other than Jax. Their hand continued to gush blood.
“Pomni—“ Zooble got cut off by Annie’s loud vocalization, near a yell.
“Can you go get Caine? I don’t know how much longer they can be held for, they’re really—agh!— $&@€ing strong!” Zooble darted to the staff bathroom, presumably to take care of their hand.
Pomni darted to get the nurse, fumbling with her words and her hands.
“Caine— uhm…there’s a— a new person is freaking out…they’re…uh..trying to bite themselves…and bit Zooble! and run away and—“
Caine furrowed his brow, or, well, top set of teeth. He quickly slid his keycard to the medication room, and went in quickly and somewhat frantically.
“Gahh!! What’s taking Caine so long?” Zooble whisper-yelled. The rag doll they were holding was now in a basket hold by the staff member, folding their arms across their chest and away from their mouth. Zooble didn’t want to handle them so rough, but didn’t really have a choice.
Nothing Ragatha or Zooble did could distract or calm the teen down, nothing. They didn’t even seem exhausted after all the fighting.
“This isn’t making it better…” Ragatha mumbled, understanding why the kid had to be restrained, but still not liking it.
Quick footsteps came from the hallway, squeaky ones, Caine’s shoes.
He came from around the corner, not running, but walking quickly over to the rag doll Zooble had been restraining.
“Let’s get them out of here, okay? Take them to a quieter area…” Zooble whispered, handing them over to the nurse, who firmly held them with their back to his chest and arms around their torso.
It had been a couple hours since the newcomer arrived, so, Caine decided to check up on them. They had been placed in an empty isolation room for a couple hours, and had been given a sedative medication through their mouth with an oral syringe, as Caine hadn’t wanted to do a needle on their first day there, traumatized already.
Caine unlocked the room, and gently walked over to the pacing rag doll, his hands up in defense.
“Hi, honeybee, you wanna come with me? I’m Caine, I won’t hurt you, sweetie.” He paused. “I just want to help you.”
The rag doll didn’t look at him or towards his direction, simply shaking their head.
Caine softened his gaze, getting down to the little rag dolls level.
“I know, I know you do, bud.” He gently took their hands, beginning to lead them out the isolation room. “I just need to do an examination on you, okay? Nothing scary. Since you’re new here.”
Caine led the teen to one of the examination rooms, “Can you please sit on that paper?” The rag doll sat upon the examination couch, sitting on the crinkly paper underneath.
Caine went through the basic steps, vitals, blood draw using a finger poke instead of the usual IV, and now he had gotten to the basic questions.
“So, what’s your name? Do you remember?”
The teen just shook their head.
He sighed, tapping his colorful pen on his knee.
“What do you want me to call you?”
They hummed, trying to think. Come on, think!
A flash of a pin, written in red on one of their rag dolls in real life, “Annie.”
“Annie.” They replied, fiddling their hands together.
Caine smiled a little, writing on his clipboard, “Alright, Annie, how old are you?”
Annie opened their mouth, trying to speak, but it came out slightly strained, as if it was hard to get out. “Seventeen.”
Caine wrote something down, definitely longer than the word ‘seventeen’.
“Do you know of any conditions you have? Disabilties? Disorders?”
They peeked over at a notebook that sat on the table beside Caine.
“Can I…” Annie pointed to it, “write down?”
“Of course!” He handed them the notebook.
Something Annie did remember from their various doctors appointments was their list of diagnoses.
For what seemed like forever, Annie handed back the notebook. Caine skimmed through it, before ripping it off and keeping it in his clipboard.
“Well, that’s quite helpful!”
Annie slipped off the couch, becoming restless. Caine jolted a bit and gently grabbed Annie’s arm before they went out the door.
“I need to do a physical exam before you go, okay sweetie?”
Their eyes widened, and they quickly shook their head. “No…I— I…” Annie paused. “I don’t want touched.”
Caine's gaze softened, he remembered one of their diagnoses, “post traumatic stress disorder” and came to the conclusion that these were related.
“It has to be done, but, if you would prefer.” He cleared his throat. I can tell Zooble how to do it.”
Annie hummed. Zooble. The other employee. They were still an adult. But, from what Annie heard from the others, they were non-binary, like themselves. That made them more comfortable.
After dinner, Annie was brought to their bedroom. On the bed laid a quilt with multiple shades of purple, a flower lamp, and purple curtains. It was quite empty, it didn’t make Annie feel any better, there was something missing.
“M-my monkey…” They hummed, looking over at Caine, they quickly got emotional. “My monkey! I can’t sleep without him!”
Caine gently guided the fidgety rag doll to their bed, laying them down on it and pressing his hands on their shoulders soothingly, it calmed them a bit.
“Do you want a pillow to hug? I’m sorry, I wish you could have it, I know.” He resssured, pulling the covers over them. “Let me bring you your medicine so you can go to bed, okay?”
“No!” Annie cried out, wriggling under the rather heavy quilt. “I-I can’t! I need him I—“ they began to pull at their hair. Caine firmly took their hands away, clasping them against each other and gently shushing the agitated teen. “Safe hands…safe hands…no pulling at your hair, okay?”
Caine’s grip was strong, it was scary for Annie. They cried out, not in pain, but upset at the constriction. They began to kick at the quilt, and tried to get out of bed.
“Hey! No no no…” Caine repeated, quickly catching them and trying once more to hold them down. The rag doll squirmed around ferociously, their breath quickening.
Caine placed his forearm against Annie’s chest, his other hand holding their wrists. He swiftly dodged kicks, radioing to Dr. Moon for assistance.
“Let me go! Stop!” Annie cried out, full on sobbing now. Caine simply whispered quiet reassurances to them, change was extremely hard for the rag doll, it wasn’t just this one thing, it was everything about the whole environment.
“I wanna go home!” They screamed, “Stop!”
Caine’s heart broke at their pleads, but his code overrode this, continuing to hold down the squirming teen without loosening his grip.
Ragatha was being wheeled to her room by Zooble, resting her chin on her palm. As she approached the patient corridor, she could hear screaming. Zooble stopped for a moment, then continued towards Ragathas room.
“Wait, Zooble—“ She placed her feet on the ground to stop the wheels from rolling. “It’s them!” She raised her voice a little, obviously worried.
“I’m sure Caine is handling it, can you lift your feet up?” Zooble replied, not wanting any situation.
“I…” she looked towards the door labeled ‘Annie’ to the side of it. Ragatha furrowed her brow, and slowly began to stand up.
“Wait— Ragatha, no.” Zooble lightly reprimanded, attempting to take her shoulders and place her back in the wheelchair. Ragatha swatted back, and froze, she began to tear up at her action. “I’m sorry!” She cried, beginning to trudge to the newcomers room.
“Ragatha— no! You’re going to faint!” They tried to go after her, which was easy as she wasn’t running or anything. Zooble caught her shoulders, and led her back to the wheelchair. “I know how much you want to comfort them, but you have to think about yourself, too.”
“I know…it’s just—“ Ragatha sighed, placing her face in her palms. “I wish I could make them feel better.”
“Caine.” Dr. Moon began, “Stand back, I can handle them.”
“But—“ Caine was cut off by the psychologist moving Caine gently away and placing her hands on Annie’s wrists.
“Annie, no, I know how upset you are, but you can’t hurt yourself like this.” She spoke calmly, soothingly, and much less condescending than Caine.
Slowly, the rag dolls squirming stopped, and they just stared up at Dr. Moon. They began to cry, moving to sit up, she let them.
“I-I just…” Annie sighed. “I don’t like being touched by….” They seemed to have a hard time saying the word.
“Males?” Dr. Moon replied, rubbing Annie’s shoulder softly. Who just nodded.
“Do you want to talk about it?”
Dr. Moon took her hand off Annie, who began to speak. “I have…uhm…post traumatic stress a-and…”
“From…uhm…something that happened a couple years ago with my teacher…he….” They choked back a sob.
The psychologist nodded, “I understand how difficult that must be, Annie, but you’re not alone. And you’re not wrong for responding like this when triggered.”
Annie looked up at her, and smiled a little.
