Wrong Alien (TerraMates Book 6) (23 page)

Cassie knew all about her problem and had been encouraging
her to go see someone about it for years.

It was no secret that Cassie had always thought that
Amelia's parents were too hard on her, and she'd been outraged when Mia had
finally told her what had happened the last time she'd even considered going to
the doctor.

Mia already knew what was coming when the little moving
pencil icon showed that Cassie was still typing.

CC
:
mia you know i try to stay out of this because
i understand why you don't want to see a doctor, but this has been going on for
too long. how do you know you don't have brain damage or something? or some
kind of serious condition??? i'm literally begging you to go see someone. your
parents can't do anything to stop you now, and who actually cares about their
reputation if it means finding out what's going on?????

It wasn't anything Cassie hadn't said to her before, but
this was one of the first times that Mia was actually considering it. Because
Cassie was right. This had been going on for close to twenty years now, and it
didn't seem like it was going to stop any time soon.

What if she did have brain damage? What if letting it
continue unchecked was just making it worse?

The diagnosis didn't have to be that she was crazy, when
there were so many other things that it could be, and Mia knew that she wasn't
going to get anywhere near a solution if she didn't go speak to a professional.

Amyface
:
I know, Cass. I'm actually looking for
doctors right now. Because I really am tired of this and it's starting to worry
me.

CC
:
i can't believe it's only JUST starting to
worry you. i've been worried since we were kids.

Amyface
: I
know. I just. I'm worried about what it
might be.

CC
:
do you want me to come down there??? i can you
know. i've got loads of vacation time saved up and I can come hold your hand or
something.

Mia smiled at the screen. Having Cassie come be with her
while she did this would be wonderful, but she knew it was something that she
was going to have to deal with on her own.

Amyface
:
Thanks, Cass. But I think I need to
handle this alone for right now. Just until I know what's going on. Then maybe
I'll come see you? I could use a vacation too.

CC
:
or maybe we meet in Hawaii and have a real
vacation.

Amyface
:
Now you're talking. Anyway, I'm going to
do some research on these doctors and then maybe try to get an appointment.
I'll let you know how it goes.

CC
:
i'm proud of you. take care of yourself, doll.
<3<3<3

Amyface
: I
'll try. <3

Somewhat encouraged by her friend's support, Mia spent the
next several hours going through the lists of doctors that worked with her
insurance and were nearby. They all had a little blurb about them, but that
wasn't really helpful.

She didn't even know what to call what happened to her, so
how would she even know who to look for?

Her head was telling her to go to a medical doctor who would
run tests and take blood and all that, but her gut was telling her that maybe
there was something more psychological at work here.

And ugh, that was what she had always been afraid of.

Chewing on her lip some, she sighed and just decided to go
for both options. If the doctor found something, then she could always cancel
the appointment with the shrink. And if neither of them found anything, then...

Well, then she didn't know what she was going to do.

She lived alone now, and it had gotten much worse since
she'd moved out of her parents' house, almost as if the presence of her parents
had been holding back whatever this was instead of exacerbating it, like Mia
would have assumed.

The thought that no one would be able to figure this out
scared her, but she didn't dwell on it. Instead she made the phone calls,
making an appointment with the medical doctor for the next day and the shrink
for the end of the week.

Once that was done, she went to the kitchen and cooked to
clear her head. She hadn't eaten since the pizza she'd had for dinner (and for
some reasons she was always famished after one of her "episodes"), so
she made a large breakfast with pancakes, eggs and sausage. Then sat down and
demolished it.

Aside from her episode and the fact that she was a senator's
daughter, Amelia Hatcher thought she was a pretty normal woman. She liked to
listen to music and spend time with her friends. She cooked when she was
stressed out, and she worked as an illustrator for children's books. Her
parents had been upset when she'd moved from their sprawling house in Maryland
to a cute little town house in North Carolina once she'd finished with art
school (and of course, they'd been upset that art school had even been a thing
at all), but she wasn't worried about disappointing them as much once she was
an adult.

Her mother complained that they never saw her enough, and
her father seemed to take the move as a personal insult, complaining that he
couldn't very well talk about family values if he didn't have his family close
by, but Amelia hadn't cared.

She'd spent a very big portion of her life suffering in
silence thanks to her parents, and she didn't think that the kind of emotional
pain that had put on her was going to go away any time soon.

And she wanted to be on her own, anyway.

It was for the best, even if it did mean that her condition
got worse.

Mia was the kind of woman who never put very much effort
into her appearance (the days of having to be dressed up and made up perfectly
every time she left the house because someone might want pictures of Senator Hatcher's
daughter were gone, thank goodness), and she made herself look good by her
standards and her standards alone.

There were very few things in her life that she had direct
control over for so long that it made her almost anal about controlling the things
she could. She worked for herself, technically, so she wouldn't have to answer
to a boss. She lived on her own so she wouldn't have to deal with roommates,
and she went where she wanted, when she wanted, with the exception of when her
body wasn't under her control.

If she thought too long about it, it started to get scary.
After all, she had no idea what she was doing when she was asleep and losing
time. She assumed that she was asleep, but then, she never felt rested
afterwards and her head ached for hours later.

For all Mia knew, she was robbing banks or leading some
double life.

All the more reasons why she needed to find out what was
going on sooner rather than later. Putting it off for as long as she had
already was doing nothing but making things worse, most likely.

The next day, she had her appointment with the first doctor.
She had a general practitioner that she went to for physicals and check ups,
but for some reason she didn't want to go to him with this.

She wanted to start clean with a new doctor who didn't know
her and wouldn't have any preconceived notions about her.

For some reason, she wanted to look nice for this, so she
got dressed in a nice sweater and dark jeans, spending some time brushing her
hair and putting on light makeup. Plenty of people had told her that she was
attractive (not a beauty queen like her mother, but she would do). Mia was a
Hatcher through and through with the bright green eyes that came from her
father's side of the family as well as the strong nose and full cheeks. Her
hair was almost black, it was so dark brown, and it was thick and shiny,
falling in a curtain down her back, almost to her waist. 

Even though her mother had hounded her about getting
contacts for years ("Why would you hide those lovely eyes behind
glasses
?"),
she mostly kept wearing her glasses, liking the way they made her face look.

She was average height and curvy, which Cassie said made her
even hotter than her mother who was model thin and could wear a size zero. Mia
had no opinion on it, really. She'd been on a few dates before, but with a
secret like hers, there was no way she could really get close to anyone. How
would she even explain what happened to her every other day just about?

Shaking her head, Mia grabbed her purse and the list of
symptoms she had written down the night before. Maybe it would be good to be
able to explain exactly what was going on.

"We'll have to wait for some results from the lab, Ms.
Hatcher," Dr. Chung said. "But I don't think we're going to find
anything that would explain your.... situation."

Somehow, Mia wasn't surprised. "Oh," she said.
"Alright."

"You're perfectly healthy from what I can see. The only
think I could think that would cause something like you describe is a
psychological issue. As I said, we're still waiting for some scans and tests to
come back, but." He shrugged.

Mia tried very hard not to slump in her seat. It was a
little silly how hard she had been hoping that it would be a medical condition.
Something she could treat with medicine or something and then be done with.

But of course it was all in her head. Of course it had to
stem back to years of being ignored or overly doted on and her relationship
with her mother.

"May I suggest making an appointment with the in house
psychologist?"

Mia shook her head. "I've already got an appointment
with one. I made two, just to cover all the bases."

Dr. Chung smiled. "Sounds like good planning. I can
write you a prescription for something to help with the migraines, if you like.
But I'm afraid that's all I can do on this end."

It was better than leaving with nothing, so Mia took the
prescription and went to get it filled at the store while she shopped for
comfort food.

The next day, she was a mess. She didn't have the same
negative perception of mental health issues that her parents had, but that
didn't mean she was entirely comfortable with the prospect of having one
herself.

"Be reasonable," she urged herself as she sat in
her car in the parking lot, counting down the minutes to her appointment. She'd
arrived almost an hour earlier than she needed to be there, which was two hours
before her appointment even started since she figured she'd need time to fill
out paperwork. "If there is something wrong with you, then it's been wrong
with you your whole life. There's no point getting worked up about it since
having a diagnosis isn't going to change anything. Maybe there's some kind of
pill for it. Maybe you won't be waking up on the floor anymore."

That, at least, had to be worth whatever embarrassment or
shame she might feel from something like this, right?

When she couldn't stand it anymore, she got out of the car,
slinging her purse over her shoulder as she made her way to the front doors.

It was a nice little business complex area where the office
was located, discreet at least. No massive neon sign with flashing letters
urging people with brain problems to come on down.

It could have been an office for anything. Insurance. Tax
filing. Loans.

At least no one would know as they drove by that she was
about to go see a shrink.

"Oh, excuse me."

Mia looked up in time to see a tall man with violently red
hair coming out of the door that she had been standing in front of. She moved
quickly out of his way and flashed a quick smile. "I'm sorry. I was just
standing there like an idiot."

The man stepped out, shaking his head. "Don't worry
about it. I figure these kinds of things take courage, right?" he grinned
at her, flashing dimples.

"Oh. Um. Yes, courage." Mia nodded. "Did you
just have an appointment?" She blinked, suddenly horrified with herself
for even asking something like that of a stranger. "I'm sorry, that was
totally out of line and none of my business. You don't have to answer
that."

The man shrugged, still smiling. "Don't worry about
it," he said again. "It's nothing to be ashamed of, you know. Needing
to see a doctor like this. But, no. I was just having lunch with an old family
friend who works here. They don't make doctors here that can handle all I've
got going on." He tapped his head and shrugged again. "Good luck in
there."

"Thank you," Mia said faintly, watching as the man
headed across the parking lot.

She'd been so distracted by his hair and those dimples for
most of the conversation, that she hadn't even noticed until right at the end
that his eyes had been gold. Something about that color stirred her memory, but
it was like trying to move through dense fog and the longer she thought about
it, the farther away it got. Plus, it was giving her a headache.

Shaking herself, she continued into the building.

Dr. Madison Prince was younger than Mia had been expecting.
She was a tall, portly woman with dark skin and warm eyes, and she gestured Mia
into the room with a soft smile.

"Please, come in. Can I get you anything?"

Mia looked around at the room. It was set up like an office,
of sorts. There was a desk in front of the window that looked out over the rest
of the complex, but the focal point were the chairs in the middle of the room.

Both looked plush and comfortable, dark leather meant to
make the people sitting in them relax.

She noted that both chairs were identical, though she
assumed that the one closest to the desk was for the doctor and the one closest
to the door was for her.

In case I need to run out,
she mused, and then
sighed. "No, thank you. I'm fine."

"Then have a seat, and we'll get started." She
gestured to the chair that Mia had correctly identified as the one she was
meant to be sitting in, and Mia sat down.