darker_london | Josie. Bound not broken. PG13

Footsteps on the lino floor in the hallway told Josie the nurse was coming. Cracking her eyes open- they felt like they were full of sand- she managed to turn her head to watch the door. It was always closed these past few days, as if they thought a peice of mere wood could stop her where too many drugs and very thick restraints had failed.

"Good morning, Miss Rhydderch," Amy the blond chirped, setting a small cup of pills down on the bedside table. Stuart the security man stood at the door, watching her. Paranoid much? What was she going to do, squirm at them? Josie rolled her eyes at him and turned to the nurse.

"I don't want any of those."

"Doctors orders, Josephine, they'll help you calm down."

Josie met the nurses eyes with an even, cold look. "I am calm."

"Remain calm, then." Amy said, tipping the pills into her hand. She moved to stand over Josephine with the pills and the water. "You know if you do not cooperate we'll just inject them. This is us extending an olive branch, we want to work with you to get better, and we want you to make your own choices."

"So I choose the pills, or I choose the needle. Brilliant."

"Yes." said Amy, looking stern. "But one of them will put you one step closer to getting those restraints off. Open your mouth."

Josie glared at her for a moment, then parted her lips. Amy smiled and set the pills on Josie's tongue, then tipped a small amount of water into her mouth. "Swallow."

Josie blacked the back of her mouth with her toungue and swallowed, but Amy didn't buy it. "I'm not leaving until your mouth is empty, Miss Rhydderch." Josie nodded, as if that were a reasonable request, and spat the entire mouthfull back in Amy's face.

"I guess now you can leave." Josie smiled sweetly as Amy wiped her face, a very carefully black expression on her features. Amy picked up the glass and the little plastic pill container and silently left the room, Josie yelling after her, pulling against the restraints: "I'm not going to be your perfect little puppet like the rest of these loosers! There's nothing wrong with me! There's nothing wrong with me!

But Amy only closed the door, her footsteps growing further and further away.

*

There came a knocking at her door a couple of hours later, pulling her out of the end of a drifting, dozy state. They had come in and drugged her after Amy left, but she had made it as difficult as possible for them. It hadn't been the first time she'd come away with needle scratches along her arm (mere pinpricks compared to the deep scars of years ago, before she'd realised her powers and subsequent superiority over the rest of the human race.) The knocking came again, persistant but polite, and Josie rolled her eyes again. "Okay, whatever, come in. Like I can honestly stop you from here." Not for lack of trying. Her wrists were painfully tender from tugging against the restraints.

Doctor Rheinegold opened the door. "Ah, but you can. You can stop all of this, Josie, when you decide to cooperate with us."

"Don't give me that bullshit. There are no choices here. It's either let them pump you full of drugs and loose your backbone or fight them off and keep it."

"You wouldn't be on so many drugs," Doctor Rheinegold reasoned, "if you cooperated."

"Yeah, and become one of those wimpy little girls like Renee." Josie muttered.

"Ah, Renee. That is exactly what I came to talk to you about, Josephine." Josie gave him a sharp look, and he pulled up a chair alongside her bed. "How do you feel about her?"

"She lets you fuck around with her. She lets you keep her in here when she has no need to be, because she's too weak to protest."

"If that why you attacked her?"

"I didn't."

"Josie-"

"I attacked Deirdre."

Doctor Rheinegold raised his eyebrows. "And why was that?"

"She was lying to everyone."

"Have you two met before?"

"No. I know her. I had to show her the truth. She was hiding it from herself and that's what we do here, don't we Doctor? We make people look at themselves harder and harder till they know how to lie properly so everyone else won't see."

"I'm afraid I don't understand, Josie, could you perhaps explain your intentions in a more literal mannor. Why was attacking her the way to show her 'the truth'?"

"You wouldn't understand. It is beyond your realm of comprehension."

"Try me," Doctor Rheinegold smiled. "I'm willing to listen." Josie just sighed, exhasperated, and turned away.

"Is that all you want to say?" Doctor Rheinegold asked, but Josie was silent. "Very well. Now, due to your recent behaviour and unwillingness to cooperate there has been a cut in the priviliedges you are allowed. You will stay in your room at all times unless you are accompanied by at least two nurses; each morning we will give you a choice between pills and injection, should you choose pills we will start to consider removing sedatives from your daily dose but only if the rest of your behaviour remains immaculate; you are banned from the TV room until further notice and you are no longer allowed a radio; the only visitors you will see will be in family therapy sessions if your psychiatrist deems it possibly usefull; and you are banned from the general exercise area except for five half hour sessions through the week, however if you are less than perfect while outside your room at any time we will put you in a straight jacket, and I am sure that is the last thing you want."

"Are you quite done?" Josie asked, feigning boredom while she digested the fact that she was slowly going from patient to prisoner.

"Yes." Doctor Rheinegold stood up, moving the chair back to the far corner of the room. "Good afternoon, Miss Rhydderch, I will speak to you again soon, I am sure."

"Yeah, have a fucking fantastic day." Josie turned her head away and stared out the small window. It was raining again. She couldn't see the ground from this angle, being three stories up and all. One day she was going to get out of here, shatter that window and jump if need be- but she'd be out nonetheless and god help them then. She would do no one's bidding...