Virtual American Gothic - Second Season Episode Eleven - Epilogue Alternative Medicine by Queribus ********************************************* NOT TO BE ARCHIVED TO A WEB PAGE WITHOUT THE AUTHOR'S PRIOR CONSENT. Special Guest Stars: Dr. Morris Berg.......................Ron Silver Elaine......................................Kellie Martin ********************************************* After all the running, the dogs, the pitchfork and the river, it all comes back to bare white rooms and locked doors. Matt put his head in his hands and sighed. Outside a crow picked at the metal grill around the high window and croaked at him. Oh go away, he thought. *** Lucas was reviewing the curriculum vitae of several psychiatrists that Sulphur Springs might appoint. There wouldn't be any problem shoving one to the head of the line but which one would it be? Child Molester. Too unreliable, shaky on the stand. Drug Addict. Hmm hmm. see Child Molester. HMO Fraud. Well, that makes a change. He slipped that to the in box. Sexual Harassment and Attempted Rape. You know, when it gets right down to it, everybody's got their personal Top of the Pops. I think we have a winner. He picked up the phone to make a few calls. The governor still owed him some favors, always would with his slippery zipper. *** "I've already taken most of these tests." Matt insisted, his vision blurring. "Check with Dr. Malcom at Juniper House." "I'm sure you have, Matt, But I prefer to do my own evaluations. You understand, different doctors have different procedures." The psychiatrist in the muted silk suit spoke crisp and dismissively as if to a child. "But I just had an injection and the medication will effect the tests." "Standard procedure." Dr Berg said, the psychiatric aide from the clinic handed him some papers and he riffled through them absently. What was her name, Elaine? She would have been better served by a tighter uniform and some higher heels. He would have to mention it later, over coffee, perhaps. "It'll help you relax." "It will make me completely dysfunctional. I am a doctor, you know." "I'm sure you are, Matt." Berg showed his teeth in what he thought was a smile. "I'm sure you are." **** The crow landed in Loris's back yard and pecked at the chunks of crumb cake Caleb had left in a pie tin. It tipped its head at the boy sitting on the back porch watching him. Nothing to report. Loris came out of the screen door and rubbed Caleb's arm for comfort. "What are we gonna do, Ms Holt?" "I think it's time to pray, Caleb." The boy looked up at her and scowled. "You do remember how, don't you?" Caleb knotted his hands together and scrunched up his eyes. Merly, he thought, I know you're in me somewhere. You got to help me now. *** "Think you gave him enough?" Buck looked through the tiny window. "It's an adequate amount. Crower seems rather sensitive to that particular drug. It stays in your system a long time. Very disorienting." Berg adjusted his tie and checked his watch. "Is it? Hell, it's my nickel, Berg. Double the dose. Your hot date can wait." "You're the doctor." **** Gail was sitting on his right. He preferred it when she sat on the right because you couldn't see the bullet wound that badly, where the back of her head. . . "It was because of the baby, Matt. Not that one!" Which one, he thought? "The second one, he did it to me twice. I couldn't stop it any other way." Dr. Narrone was hanging from the ceiling twisting slowly clockwise and then counter clockwise. Billy Peele reached up and cut him down. "He's always hanging around somewhere. I'll fix him up, we've got a good little clinic over here. Rough and ready, just my style." There was a hypodermic hanging out of his neck. "Pretty ironic isn't it? But you know, everything was going down hill anyway. Just another day in Trinity. Take care of yourself, pal." "I'll try." Matt said. ***** "Hiyah Harvard." Buck crouched down to where Matt was huddled in the corner whispering. "I never went to Harvard." Matt answered trying to find who had spoken to him among the crowd of ghosts. "Shoot, I know you didn't. Question is, do you know who I am?" "I'm not sure." He could see the figure of a man hunkered down on his heels leaning forward with great concern. He seemed familiar, but. . . "Well, let me tell you, I'm the best friend you ever had, Dr Crower." "I AM a doctor." Matt reached out, finally, someone who might believe him. "Sure you are. I know you are." Lucas held Matt's hand soothingly. Man, he could get to like this. C'mon, Crower, beg me some more. "Can you. . . can you stop the visions?" "Are you seeing visions, Matt?" Buck asked gently. Claire was floating over the kind man now trying to catch her father's eye but she looked so much older -- wait that was Lily, wasn't it? No, Lily was his wife. Lily was dead. He held tight to the strange man's hands. It was all so confusing. "I don't know what's real and what's not." "Well, is that a fact? Friend," Lucas draped his hand over Matt's shoulder, "I have been where you are," Matt looked up at the stranger hopefully, "only difference is I liked it!! You can get to like it too, trust me." "Who ARE you?" He wrenched away and backed against the wall. Black coat, black vest. . . Lucas stood up and grinned at Matt. "Getting a little focus back, friend. Don't worry, that'll pass. If I were you, Harvard, I'd get used to the ghosts, cause they're going to be around for quite awhile. And so am I." "Buck!!" "And so are you. Heck, you don't have to thank me now. I'll think of something later. Maybe an FTD floral bouquet." Buck let himself out chuckling. Yessir, Harvard certainly did put the tricks back into Trinity. It had been too damn quiet without him. Matt threw himself at Buck and the door slammed in his face. "Too late, Doctor, forget your gun? Why don't you ask Gail, I'll bet she's got one you can use." He was whistling "I shot the Sheriff" as Matt crumpled to the floor in tears. *** Berg was shuffling through three folders wondering which report Buck would want him to give: the Lobotomy, the Shock treatment, the experimental Schizophrenic drug. Crower was responding rather extravagantly to that one right now and Berg was interested to see just how splintered his personality could go before it cracked. There might be a paper on the hallucinatory flashbacks for the New England Journal of Medicine. He checked his calendar. Elaine had been very reluctant to meet him for dinner to discuss his cases. Very reluctant, but she wanted a recommendation for that post in Charlotte. He wondered just how reluctant she would get before the night was over. His mouth moved a quarter of an inch upwards, his most satisfied smile. Buck breezed into the office whistling, his indolent cocky manner annoyed Berg. Cowboy boots, absolutely no sense of style. "I have three separate scenarios all charted out, with the appropriate testing scores and colleague evaluations." He handed the folders to Buck who glanced through them and tossed them into the trash. "You have been a busy little bee. I don't know how Mengele ever managed Auschwitz without ya." "I don't appreciate Nazi humor." "Oh, let's not bring religion into this, Berg. I'm sure those reports were all very. . . efficient. Write another one." Buck perched on the desk and chose his phrasing carefully. "Dr. Crower has made a miraculous recovery. His episodes of violence are a thing of the past-- ARE YOU GETTING THIS!" Berg gulped and started taking dictation. "and you can guarantee the court that he can be released into the community safely. Of course, it might be a good idea for him to stick close around Trinity for awhile so that he can be monitored by Dr Samuels. Just in case he needs another shot." Buck leaned over the Doctor's writing. "Leave that last sentence out. My deputy will be by to pick up the. . uh. . .medical supplies." Buck leaned on the door as he exited. "Type it up nice and clean would you? The court clerk needs it in about twenty minutes." *** Matt was on the floor. Dr Narrone was up twisting on the ceiling again, when would Billy drop by to cut him down? He watched while a silvery glow shimmered in front of him. "Tell them to go away." The words sounded like crystal bells. "They won't." Matt moaned. The white shimmer sparkled outwards. "Scat!" Dr Narrone and Gail and Claire and Lily were gone. Completely gone. The white shape came closer. It was a woman in a white dress. "You can come home now. They've released you." "Are you an angel?" Matt said. "Good Lord, Matt Crower, do I look like an angel?" Loris smoothed his hair off his forehead. What had they been doing to this poor boy? "As a matter of fact, you do." END Disclaimer: Any Story/episode that is a part of Virtual AG - Season Two is based upon the television Show, "American Gothic", which is the property of Shaun Cassidy, Renaissance Productions, and CBS... any characters/storyline added to support this concept is the property of the author acknowledged as such...Please, Don't Sue Us!**