My Friends

Scarlett's POV

When lunch finally ended, the doctor checked the Gabriel’s, Roman’s and Oliver’s bandages again to see that all was still okay and in place, which it was. There was still a little bleeding here and there, which the Doctor said would be normal. The afternoon passed with Gabriel, Roman and Oliver telling us a little more about the events and what exactly went down.

John’s special assignment entailed him being sent directly into an ambush, and when Oliver arrived to help him, he was already running away, having received the first shot and the second one grazing him. With Oliver's help, they managed to eliminate all Bullet's men at the scene.

Meanwhile, Roman and Gabriel went to retrieve Vivian. Since she was at the top of the pack, where the main house of the pack is located, it was more difficult to reach her, but Oliver's group had set fire to one of Bullet's storage sheds, causing a distraction... The distraction was however as well as very sadly, not enough to prevent him from having his way with Vivian.

Gabriel went to Bullet's house and managed to get Vivian out, while Roman personally went after Bullet. In the end, both teams managed to eliminate the greater part of Bullet's loyal following, which left the Alpha position of the pack open to a ruler.

This would, however, not last very long. Oliver had already made a few phone calls and sent some messages and had already arranged for someone to replace Bullet. I trusted Oliver; The person would most definitely not be a monster like Bullet was, but he would also know to be strict and have a good, strong background.

"Would you like to talk to him?" Oliver asked me without mentioning the person’s name to me.

"No, I'm good. If you can continue handling that end, I would appreciate it. The only thing I ask is to leave it open for whoever is hired to work at the Studio, so that hat debts and other similar topics may be open for negotiation." I replied calmly.

"All right. I feel more at ease knowing that." Oliver commented.

One thing I noticed was that Klaus and Liam were clearly not used to this kind of conversation or interaction. Talking about things that happened in the pack as if it were the most natural thing.

Liam was slightly calmer than Klaus as he used to live in one of these packs before, but it has been a long time since he distanced himself from the life, and the pack he lived in was nothing like the Black Fang. No place was like the Black Fang Pack, and that was surely a fact.

I looked at the clock on the wall and stood up from the couch.

"Vivian is about to wake up." I said and took a deep breath.

"I called one of the best psychologists to attend to Vivian." Oliver quickly said. "She should be arriving a little later; it will be good for her to start the sessions as soon as possible."

"I agree, but it's good to call another one... John will need it too. He will need to adapt to the new lifestyle... Leaving a pack like that is not so simple. It stays in our minds and leaves many scars and traumas." I said, knowing all about it as it was one of the things that I was still having trouble with and learning to cope with until this day.

Many of my defense mechanisms are intrinsic and subconscious; many times, I reacted only by instinct because these are things that have kept me alive until now and have helped me to survive. I remembered my first weeks of therapy. They were intense, and I still attend my sessions to this day.

"Cris can do her sessions with the same psychiatrist as the one who will be consulting with Vivian." I finally said. I have decided that it may be best if I took over Vivian and Cris’s more important choices for the time being. "Later, once they have found their feet, they might decide that they don’t like the situation I have decided on for them, and they could change it if they liked... But it was absolutely essential that they got the therapy they needed to help them heal."

"It's good to see that you are growing up." Oliver commented with a chuckle, and I just stuck my tongue out at him and headed for Vivian's room.

I picked up my phone and started checking my emails, as I had very many to respond to.

I stayed in the room for another two hours before Vivian eventually woke up. I turned my head, and let her move at her own pace, lowering the sound of the music as she turned. Finally, her eyes focused on me.

She was obviously still mentally tired, and her soft painful moans gave away the fact that her body was clearly still very painful.

"Hey... Vivi." I said softly and went to the bed to help her sit up.

"Scar." Vivian hugged me tightly. "I thought it was just a dream! That I was finally with you... A dream and a nightmare."

"Things can only get better from here on..." I said and gave her a kiss on the top of her head, but moved away slightly. "Vivi, your body has several cuts, and the doctor needs to see you to give you the best treatment and medication." I explained and felt her tense in my arms.

"I'll be here the whole time. You trust me, don't you?" I know it was a low blow, but Vivi nodded. "Then, I'll ask the doctor to come in." I moved away from her and saw her shrink back into the bed. I took a deep breath, and went to the door. Jasmine was waiting outside the door to hear from me. "You can call the doctor." I confirmed.

Jasmine nodded and headed toward the living room. Once she left I turned back to Vivien, went to the bed, and sat on it beside her. Soon there was a knock on the door, and I asked the person to enter. The doctor was wearing a lab coat and was someone Vivi had seen before so she was familiar with him.

"Good evening, Miss Vivian." The doctor greeted her, and my friend just looked at him without uttering a single word.

He approached.

"Vivi, this is Dr. Franco." I said, even though she already knew him, and my friend took a deep breath.

"I promise it will be quick." The doctor said. "Do you prefer to lie down?"

Vivian shook her head.

"All right. I'm going to touch you, lift your shirt, and also lower your pants a bit." The doctor explained, after which Vivian’s breathing suddenly became heavier.

"Vivi, you need to say if he can examine you." I said in a gentle voice.

Vivian slowly nodded. Vivian trembled as the doctor extended his hand toward her and lifted her shirt. He palpated her abdomen, which caused Vivian to groan of pain. He examined a few other areas of her body and moved away as soon as he was done.

"There doesn’t appear to be any deep internal injuries, but you should rest until you have fully recovered. I am leaving you with the cocktail, which will prevent any sexually transmitted diseases. With that I am prescribing more pain and anti-inflammatory medications as well as medicine to assist you with sleeping peacefully and dreamlessly."

Dr. Franco quickly grabbed his bag and took out the medications he had prescribed. I poured Vivian a glass of water to drink the cocktail she needed to take, which she accepted gratefully and quickly took the medications without hesitating. As werewolves, we didn’t get sick easily, but Vivi was an Omega just like I was. She was actually weaker than me as her mother was human, which left her with more human genes than wolf genes.

"Vivi, I hope you don’t mind, but we have also arranged for another doctor to see you. She's a psychologist." I said. Vivian looked at me with absolute fear-filled eyes at the mention of a psychologist. "She will treat and be able to help you overcome what you have been through; you can go at your own pace, but I would love it if you would try to talk to her. I promise that everything you say will be confidential, and no one else will know about it. She will only give me the most basic reports, since I have accepted the role of being your guardian. Do you understand? I promise that you can trust her." I calmly explained to her.

Dr. Franco was looking at me, analyzing me as I spoke to Vivi.

"Do... Do I need to do this right now?" Vivian asked in a hesitant whisper.

"Unfortunately you do... You don't need to say anything right now, if you don't want to... The doctor will explain the procedure to you first." I gave Vivian one last kiss on the top of her head and moved away with Dr. Franco walked with me.

The psychologist that was recommended by Oliver, was already waiting outside the door as we opened it and walked out.

"You may enter.” I invited the doctor, closing the door behind her once she was inside.

"You are very direct. That doesn’t always work with everybody." The doctor told me.

"I prefer to rip the bandage off as quickly as possible. They can do all the sessions at Vivian’s chosen pace as I won't ever force someone to heal faster than they are able to, but I will force them to do the sessions. It plays a major part in their recovery." I replied without a hint of remorse and headed toward John's room. He was awake and Gabriel was with him having a conversation. Once I reached John’s bed, I sat down beside him and took his hand in mine.

"Hi." I smiled. At least he managed to smile back at me. "How are you feeling?"

"Better..." John replied honestly. "I have to honestly say that I am still afraid... Afraid to get close to Vivi." He admitted.

"You'll get help and there will be NO running away from your sessions." I said, knowing that John didn’t really believe in psychologists or psychiatrists for that matter. "It will do you good. I also go to therapy... Have I not improved during my time out of the pack?"

"Hmm... You’re Improving. Basically making me feel guilty until I give up on my stupid idea of returning to the pack, right?" John asked. He was partly joking but also being kind of serious at the same time.

"Well, if it were before, I wouldn't have just talked..." I told him.

John let out a chuckle.

"True." John closed his eyes. "Will we be staying here? It's just that... Well..." He hesitated and stopped talking.

"As soon as you are both well enough, you can go to my apartment for the time being. I'll be renting the apartments next to mine for the two of you." I replied.

"Let... This place... I saw where you live... The people... I don't even know what to say nor how to even act in this environment." John said seriously.

"That's why you'll have all the help you need. Now you have the freedom to choose what you want to do with your life. I know you've always wanted to go back to studying, I can always hire teachers for that. I want to start something like that with everyone at the studio. There are a lot of people who couldn't study when they were in the pack." I replied.

"I... I don't want to live like this..." John said seriously.

"No, John, I'm not doing any of this for free." I replied, knowing that it was the financing that he was worried about. "Once you decide, you'll have to work to repay me."

I didn't intend to charge him later, but for now, it was better that he believed that I would be charging him.

"Alright then... I was talking to Gabriel... I wanted to become a security guard because that's something I know how to do and I know that I do it well. I know how to fight and shoot very well too." John said determinedly.

I looked at Gabriel, who gave me a brief positive nod.

"Alright, I'll talk to Roman about your training... But you'll train with Roman and his team only if you keep you with your sessions and your studies." I'm not changing my mind about the treatment.

"I accept." John closed his eyes. He was tired despite having just woken up.

His exhaustion was understandable taking into consideration that he was the one who had two gunshots to his body. I leaned in and gave him a kiss on the forehead.

"Rest for now. Your psychologist will arrive later, and then you can talk to her." I commented, and John looked at me, his mouth twisted into a scorn. "No complaining, John. You just agreed and now you already want to go back on your word?" I scolded him.

"You... Trapped me..." John complained, but I just let out a soft chuckle.

I then left the doctor and Gabriel behind as I left the room.

Klaus and Liam were standing in the hallway, a little further away, where the corridor to the offices was. I've been here for quite a while already, but I haven't really managed to talk to either of them properly so I walked straight up to them. I wasn’t ignoring them, it had just been overwhelming with everything that happened, that it was impossible to spend some time with them.