Starring:
Summary: Niki and Benji chat a little about earlier and the Internet.
Date It Happened: February 17th, 2007
Log Title The Internet Is Really, Really Great
A small, private hospital near New York City
It's later in the day, after dinner time when Benjamin finally emerges from his hospital room. It wasn't exactly a tantrum he was having, more like a private pity party of one. Rather than sit around and get further addicted to bad television, he heads down a couple of doors to the only familiar and friendly face he's seen since Pyro Chick went nuts. Niki's room. He knocks quietly at her door, just loud enough to really be heard on the other side.
Niki's room is no longer guarded quite so intently, but those under the Company's employ are nonetheless watchful when they go past. Undoubtedly, there's a reason that the guard has slackened. It takes a few moments before there's a response to the knock on the door, just long enough that it seems like there may be no answer at all; when it comes, it's in the form of the door itself opening. "Hi," says Niki with mild surprise in her voice, but it's of the pleasant variety, more or less. The woman looks tired — as if she was sleeping and just awoke.
Benjamin was about to walk away and go back to his room when the door's answered. "Hi, sorry.. I didn't wake you did I? I can let you go back to sleep?" As it is, he takes a step back, genuinely apologetic if he did disrupt the woman's rest. As for the guards, he did notice that Niki's security has slacked some and after seeing the woman snap those handcuffs … well … it just might be warranted. Too bad he doesn't know about the multiple personalities yet.
"I was just resting," Niki tells the other patient, giving him a reassuring smile. One hand on the door, she uses it to swing it open a little further. Her room is just like Benjamin's, except the bed has restraints. You know, optionally. "Are you okay?" she asks, eyebrows raised with a measure of concern as she regards him. "I heard you and Anders earlier…"
Benjamin notes the restraints as he looks past Niki into the room, and promptly focuses on the woman instead. "I honestly don't know. But I don't want to sound like a broken record and keep repeating myself.. I.. thanks for what you said earlier. I just had enough of being treated like I wasn't human. Only you," and he nearly says Angie, but she will kill him if he says the woman's been nice, so, "well just you really have been understanding. Dr. Eames and Dr. Aldric have been great, but there's that whole patient, doctor, experiment detachment mentality they have to have."
"Of course," Niki says dismissively - but it's her way of saying 'you're welcome', and she gives Benjamin a sunny smile. It's just a pearly white flash, there and gone, only a ghost of it lingering once it leaves. "I just… I understand what you're going through. It's different, but… you know… I get it," she says with a one-shouldered shrug before turning to walk into her room and sit the rumpled sheets at the end of her bed. "Dr. Eames seems like he knows what he's talking about. He's supposed to see me in the morning," What started out as a positive note turns slightly sour as skepticism leaks unwittingly into her tone by the end. "I don't know if he can help /me/, but… if anyone can, it's someone here."
Benjamin doesn't enter Niki's room, he stays in the door's threshold. Her brief smile is given one in return, not as sunny, but it's there. "I've been seeing Dr. Eames for about half a year. I had no idea he knew anything about .. this, until last weekend. He actually came to my apartment after I canceled an appointment. So, yeah, Dr. Eames is good." He gestures with a hand to generalize about the others with abilities too. "I thought for so long that therapy wasn't working, and that I was going crazy. In a way it's a relief to know that, but at the same time." He looks down at the floor, a soft exhale of breath audible.
Niki watches Benjamin as he speaks; she's a good ear, as it's obvious that she's listening to everything that he says. Whether or not she feels more confident in the psychologist in question is up for debate; she plants her hands on her thighs, running them down over the generic pyjama pants to her knees, and looks across the room to the far wall. Hers happens to be windowless. "The last time I had therapy…" She doesn't want to think about that, so she distracts herself by smiling at Benjamin and simply finishes with: "It kind of… didn't go so well. Do you want to sit down?"
Benjamin shakes his head at the offer of a seat and he remains standing where he is. "Oh, well, Dr. Eames is good at listening, and on the last actual office session I had with him. I err, accidentally put him to sleep." Falling quiet, he considers prompting Niki to talk about her therapy, but on second thought. "I heard that Neanderthal saying you could go back to being on the internet soon. What do you do on it? I can't say that I do much on it aside from using Amazon, news sites.. and I kind of started a journal before I was brought here. I heard a coworker say journals can be therapeutic. I found a few funny things here and there on .. what's that site? The one with all the videos?"
Niki is listening to Benjamin with a perfectly serious and perfect expression on her face, right up until he says the word 'internet'. A laugh rises from her unexpectedly and the woman just shakes her head as she glances from Benjamin to the wall again. "Ah… haha. That's, um. Nothing," she smirks at her fellow patient now, one side her lips tugging upward. "I used to run a website. He was just being a jerk." Pause. "YouTube? … My son, he pretty much knows everything there is to know about computers. He's always showing me things I didn't know existed."
Benjamin accepts that readily, but in the spirit of small talk! "Oh really? What sort? I never did get into doing a website. I didn't have much to talk about or anything. I'm surprised I've even used that web journal as it is." He can't help the small smile that forms when Niki talks about her son, "He sounds like an incredible genius. I think kids today just come out of the womb already knowing how to use a computer, iPods and cellphone gadgets. I'm pretty sure Rose could run circles around me.. but that's not saying much really. Until now I haven't done much of anything beyond work."
"It was just… something to pay the bills for awhile. Just a website," the woman answers vaguely. Niki gets the distinct impression explaining the exact nature of her website might make someone like Benjamin uncomfortable - and it's nice to have someone to talk to now and then. "Yeah - I can navigate my way around a computer okay enough, but Micah… he makes me feel like a little kid trying to work heavy equipment or something." She smiles, obviously fond, and draws her legs up onto the bed, moving her knees off to the bed. "Do you think your daughter got your message?"
"Oh okay. I hope that worked out okay for you. It doesn't for a lot of people, then there's also the whole tax issue with running a home business. Sorry, that's the accountant in me." Benjamin says, just prattling away. "Sounds like me, I can work with them until they break down. Then I'm lost." He idly plucks at the leg of his pajama pants. God it'll be nice to be back in regular clothes. Someday. "I hope you get well and can go home to your son and husband soon. You already seem to be doing much better." A shrug is given as he thinks a moment, a look of concern crossing his face, "I hope she's checking the phone messages. I forgot what normal teens are like, and I wasn't exactly a normal one and Rose.. but I don't think taking down messages and cleaning is part of normal activity."
"I think I still have far to go," Niki replies with a sort of disparaged half-smile. "Even then-if this company can make me better, I owe them." She considers Benjamin for a moment, his concern mirrored to a lesser degree on her fair face. "But she knew you were going away, right? Hopefully, she knows you're okay."
Benjamin nods his head, "She knew, but I'm still concerned. Anyway.. I really just wanted to say thanks for what you said to Anders earlier. I'll let you get back to your resting." He then withdraws from the doorway and heads back to his room.