Chapter Text
The phone rang shrilly through the quiet of the office. “Dr. Quartz’s office, Pearl speaking” the prim woman behind the reception desk said pleasantly. “Oh, hello Greg.” She dropped her cordial, professional tone for something more caustic. “She’s in with a client now but I’ll tell her you called... No, actually, she has two more today after this appointment... Mhmm... Okay. I will... Goodbye Greg.” She put the phone down with only slightly more force than was necessary, and felt proud for it. She smoothed out some non-existent wrinkles in her practical pencil skirt, fixed the collar of her white button-down, and exhaled heavily. Greg.
She was alone in the spacious waiting room at Dr. Rose Quartz’s office for atypical psychology, which had come to function as her second home. Dark wooden walls and a warm beige carpet with autumn sunlight pouring in from the west-facing windows. The room was lined with cushy chairs and little end tables that held comic books and magazines. Pearl smiled fondly. No one reads those.
Through the window, she could see the trolley rolling by. The office was not far from the train tracks, which made it very easy to get to, if you could tolerate the green line. Pedestrians walking by, some hurriedly, like they were late to dinner in the square or eager to get home from work, some leisurely, coffee in hand, neck upturned to the tall buildings and old architecture.
While drafting a research grant on Rose’s behalf, she heard shouting from inside the appointment room. She glanced at the scheduler on her computer to check which client was in at the moment. Oh, excellent. Pearl huffed to herself. I might as well order another sitting room furniture set, from the sound of it.
On the other side of a thick, wooden door, two women were sitting across from each other in plush chairs. A large woman with pink curls cascading down her back chewed quietly on her pencil, occasionally jotting something down on the notepad in her lap, while a sturdily-built young woman ranted away.
“And there she was on the quad, just laughing. That poor girl was assaulted and she laughed. I swear to god, doc, I almost lit her up right there. I just- ugh how can someone just laugh about that?! I can’t believe- rRRR I just get so, so MAD – I – could – just – rrrGGGHHG!” She punctuated every word by beating her fists on the arms of the chair, which devolved into erratically flailing her arms in the air until she smacked the nearby desk lamp off the table.
Rose watched it fall with a clatter, her lips quirking up from her Therapist Face into a half-smile at her patient’s antics. This wasn’t the first lamp to bite the dust and it wouldn’t be the last. It should have thought twice before becoming a piece of furniture in a psychologist’s office. She made a mental note to move that end table across the room.
“Ruby, breathe. Take a moment to ask yourself if this is how you fall apart…” Rose said these words like a line of verse, a call and response that she knew Ruby would recognize.
Ruby’s shoulders sagged as she leaned back into her chair. She heaved a heavy sigh, “it’s not. It’s not. It’s okay. It’s okay.” Even behind a thick red headband, her natural curls bounced as she shook her head to clear away her angry haze. She leaned over to pick up the lamp, sheepish “Sorry, doc. I know it’s just a little thing but it just seems to- to matter so much.”
Rose shook her head slightly “Oh, Ruby, you don’t have to apologize for feeling your anger. In fact, feeling it is the only way to process it. You’ve been doing so well with the control exercises we’ve been working on. Look, you didn’t even leave any scorch marks this time.” Rose teased easily. Ruby felt her cheeks flush as she remembered a particularly bad session, directly following a ‘debate’ she had with her conservative father about some new pro-life legislation being passed. Both the debate and her session with Dr. Quartz had ended in flames. In the weeks following, Ruby noticed fire extinguishers placed strategically around the office – even Pearl had one behind the reception desk. It was kind of overkill, if you asked her. Maybe the doc has another pyrokinetic patient… Ruby was gonna let herself think that. She tugged on the bottom of her simple athletic tank top with nervous energy.
Rose scribbled on her pad briefly before making eye contact with her patient. “What we need to work on is the difference between acknowledging your feelings, and perseverating on the incident. Now, let’s break it down. What was the worst part of that interaction, in your opinion?”
Ruby huffed an angry breath before responding “That girl watching the whole thing and laughing showed me that she had no sense of … sisterhood, for that girl. Like, sure, some people might have been able to laugh off getting slapped on the ass by a stranger on a bike, but obviously that girl was really uncomfortable. You don’t know shit about people, what if she’s an abuse survivor, or – or- ugh I don’t know, SOMEthing! There are a million reasons someone could be really harmed by something like that, and that girl looking on just laughed like it was no big deal! And honestly, to me, that’s even worse than the guy who actually hit her, is the girl who stood there and watched and laughed. It’s fucked up, doc.”
Rose nodded solemnly, and said “You seem to be very defensive of this girl. Would you have reacted this same way about anyone, or was there something about this girl in particular?”
Ruby scrunched her lips to the side, thinking for a moment. “I mean, I don’t know her as a person, but I guess I could kind of tell what she was thinking, and that made it worse. She was scared, like she hated what just happened – which, like, totally fair – but then she looked around and saw people laughing and I could just see it flash across her face that this was a joke, it was something meant to be funny, other people thought it was funny, and now she feels like her hurt is invalid, like she should be able to laugh it off but she can’t because something is wrong with her. She’s allowed to be uncomfortable with someone touching her, hitting her, even jokingly, without her go-ahead!”
“And would you say you relate to that feeling, on some level?”
“I guess so. I mean, you know how I get so angry about basically everything. Even things that didn’t happen to me. Even stuff that other people laugh at. And then, people get on my ass about how I’m too sensitive and I need to learn to take a joke and,” Ruby sputtered for a moment, face heating up “and, I dunno doc, it makes me feel like I’m not supposed to feel the things I’m feeling and then I feel even worse about it and then the whole thing, it just goes around and around and—“
Rose interrupted, understanding “Ruby, you feel so much. You are allowed to feel the way that you do, and you are valid.” At this, Ruby nodded and some of the tension left her shoulders. “I know that it overwhelms you sometimes, but I want you to know that it’s a beautiful thing, your sensitivity. I’m not trying to imply that the panic attacks you endure are worth it, but once you learn to ride through them and, eventually, circumvent them entirely, you will be unstoppable.”
Ruby waved away the compliment “Aw, shucks, doc, you just want to keep me coming back each week” Both women knew she was joking. Ruby and Rose had developed a solid rapport over years of regular sessions working on her anger issues. Rose would sometimes catch herself speaking less formally with Ruby than was quite proper, but she had more or less watched the girl grow up, and she couldn’t always help herself.
Rose smiled and stood, looking at the clock to confirm what she already knew: 5 minutes past. “Well, another hazard-free session. Next week let’s aim to work on your pyrokinesis a little bit more. Our powers are like muscles, we have to maintain them”
Ruby stood and snapped to attention before Rose, giving her a goofy salute “Aye aye, ma’am!” She did an exaggerated about-face and marched out of the appointment room. Rose shook her head endearingly, watching her go. “Ridiculous girl” she muttered warmly, with love in her voice.
Pearl looked up as Ruby barged out of the appointment room smiling. No matter what mood Ruby was in, she had the tendency to barge, as if her personality could barely fit through the doorway. But regardless, she was glad the girl was in high spirits (for her own sake and the sake of the brand new carpet). Pearl wished her a good evening, and with that, she was alone in the waiting room again. She pressed a finger to the intercom headset that allowed her to communicate with Rose “Hmm? No, she’s not here yet... Yes, of course. Oh, and Greg called... Nothing in particular, it seemed… Alright.”
As if on cue, a tornado of activity burst through the front door into the waiting room, heaving for air. “Yo P, is Ruby gone already?”
Pearl had to stop herself from grimacing at the nickname. She looked up, not recognizing the figure in front of her, but recognizing her voice and mannerisms “Yes, Amethyst. You know, one of these weeks you might catch her if you showed up to your appointments on time.”
Still heaving for air, she waggled her eyebrows at Pearl “Oh lay off. You just want me to hang out with you here in the waiting room.”
Pearl bristled visibly and found something on her computer screen to focus on “The doctor is waiting for you, Amethyst.”
Amethyst waited, watching Pearl for a second, but the receptionist seemed to have no intention of continuing the conversation, so Amethyst shrugged and waltzed herself into the appointment room.