Fan Fiction |
by Jenny Tran
At the police department, suicidal dpt was busy as ever. Jeffrey was lecturing to his group when Joanne burst through the door, her face flushed and she was completely out of breath. “I…Im…sorry…I…”
Jeffrey put up a hand to quiet her “Its okay Jo. Everyone, meet our new team member. Joanne Hung also known as Jo.”
The group began to whisper amongst each other, some guys commented that they didn’t know it was going to be a girl. They assumed with the name Jo, it would be a guy. “Nice to meet you all.” Joanne said politely as she gave a quick nod to the team. There were about 6 people including Jeffrey.
“Okay, Jo, have a seat next to Deana and she’ll fill you in on the details.” He began to talk about the new regulations to their department.
“Hi Jo, Im Deana.” She put out a friendly hand as Joanne shook it firmly.
“Nice to meet you.” She replied “So, what did I get myself into?”
“Well, Lai Sir was explaining about the different situations that we might come across from attempted suicides. How to diverge their attention from trying to kill themselves. How to be cautious when they have a weapon in their hand….how”
“We can carry guns??” Joanne cut her off.
Deana shook her head “No, not us. Just Lai Sir because he went through police training, the rest of us are just part of the team in his group.”
“How many groups are there?” Joanne was finally getting interested.
“About five, we’re in the process of growing because of the number of suicides that’s rising in Hong Kong. Its scary when you look at the statistics.” She pulled out a graph and pointed to the areas that were rising “See, ten years ago, it was less then half of the percentages compared to today.”
“Wow, looks like we’re going to be busy.” Joanne whispered. “Have you witnessed any… uh…you know.” Her eyes wide with curiosity.
Deana smiled “Yeah, just a few. But its nicer when we actually save the person. Sometimes I wonder if it’s a good thing since they end up in the insane asylum.” She sighed and shook her head.
“So what should I know?”
“Never get personally involved with the victim. I made that wrong choice my first year when I visited this victim everyday at the mental hospital. I wanted to help him so bad, but in the end he never showed any improvement, instead he died due to starvation cause he wouldn’t eat. I was devastated for days. Lai Sir talked to me about the importance of not letting death scare you, there are more lives to be saved.” She smiled as she glanced at him “He’s my idol.” She whispered.
Joanne wrinkled his nose “Jeff? Ew…he’s kinda cute but I wouldn’t say he’s idol material.”
“How do you know him? I see you’re on a first name basis.” She leaned in closer so their conversation wouldn’t be heard.
“Yeah, he’s my brother’s best friend. We’ve known each other since high school when he use to bully me. Now, I don’t allow anyone to bully me ever.” Her voice was hoarse.
“I see. So you never had a crush on him?”
Joanne looked disgusted “Ew! No, its like having a crush my brother!” she exclaimed it a little too loud as everyone turned to them.
Jeffrey gave them a stern look “Sorry, Sir!” Joanne stood up and saluted him.
He shook his head “Jo, this isn’t the military, you don’t have to salute. But be respectful.”
She gave him a weak smile and eventually sat down. “Sorry.” She said nicer. Joanne didn’t notice the intercom at the corner of the room until it went off.
‘Team number 1135, please report to 4259 Waverly Lane, a man is about to jump from the 20 story building.’ The announcement came in loud and clear.
“That’s our cue. Come on!” Jeffrey commanded, everyone immediately jumped from their seats and followed him.
“Oooh, my first scenario!” Joanne said with excitement. Deana shook her head but smiled at her new teammate.
They arrived at the scene in time to see the guy sitting on the ledge of the building. “You guys stay here, girls follow me.” Jeffrey directed.
The girls followed him into the building “Why are we allowed to go up here?” Joanne whispered to Deana.
“Because when it’s a male victim, he wants girls to come up with him since men tend to talk to women more than men.”
Joanne nodded as she understood. They took the elevator up to the rooftop. When they got there, they found a young guy in his mid twenties. “Mister?” Jeffrey started off slowly as they took a few steps closer. He found a security guard nearby and motioned him to back away from the victim.
“Get away from me!! I don’t want to talk to anyone. Just leave me alone! I want to die in peace!” he edged closer to the open space in front of him.
“Okay!! No, don’t please. Don’t you want to talk to anyone?” Jeffrey asked quickly “Any family you want to see? I can get them here in one minute.” He offered.
“They’re all dead!” he responded angrily “All dead!! They all left me here…” he said sadly. Suddenly his face changed “Dr. Chan. I want to talk to her. I have to thank her.”
“Dr. Chan. Okay, I’ll call for her right away. Do you have her number?”
“84562333.” He memorized it by heart.
Jeffrey quickly pulled out his cell phone and dialed the number. A young girl’s voice came on “Hello?”
“Hi, Dr. Chan?”
“Yes?”
“Im Captain Lai of the Suicidal department in the police department. I believe there is a man here that would like to talk to you.” He brought the phone out towards the guy at arm’s length.
“Hi Dr. Chan!!” the guy cried out, still refusing to come closer “Its me Robby.”
“Robby?!!” Virginia felt a cold chill run through her body, that was one of her patients from a year ago. “Where are you? I’ll be right there!!” she yelled through the phone. “Lai Sir!!” she yelled frantically.
Jeffrey brought the phone back to his ears “We’re located on 4259 Waverly Lane, the 20 story apartment building from your left if you’re coming westbound.”
“I’ll be there in two minutes, just stall him for now.” She hung up the phone and ran out of her office.
Jeffrey turned to Deana “Go down stairs and wait for Dr. Chan, when she comes bring her up there, I don’t want them to give her 20 questions.” He said calmly.
Deana nodded “Yes sir.” She took the elevator down and as soon as she walked out of the building, she found her teammate questioning a girl that looked to be around her late twenties. “Are you Dr. Chan?” she asked the girl.
“Yes.” Virginia nodded. Deana motioned for her to follow her, they got up at the elevator. As soon as the door opened, she ran straight over to Robby.
“Miss, don’t!” Jeffrey yelled when he saw her run past him but he didn’t catch her in time. She looked so familiar from the back.
“Robby! Get back here.” She said almost forcefully.
“No, I don’t want to live anymore.” He said sadly “She left me, Dr. Chan, I have no one else.”
Virginia took a step closer “Robby, that’s still no reason to die. If she didn’t learn to appreciate you, I don’t think she ever will. Maybe it was a good thing that she left you that way you will find a new person. Someone that will actually love you for who you are.”
Robert shook his head “No one else will ever learn to love me. Im not worth it.”
“That’s not true, you’re a great person! I know that for a fact, if you don’t believe in yourself at least let me. Trust me, there is a bright side to everything. You just have to be patient. It takes years to build a road, what makes you think it will take days or months to build love? Especially when humans are so complex. I’ll even be patient with you. Come on.” She stepped closer to him as she put out her hand for him to take.
Jeffrey watched in amazement as the guy slowly gave his hand to her and he let out a sigh of relief after Virginia pulled him into safety. He smiled as he watch her embraced the victim warmly. “Thank you, Dr. Chan. You’re making my job much easier.” He teased.
Virginia looked up and her eyes brightened “You’re that officer in the bar the other night.”
He nodded “Yes. Im glad you remembered.” He nodded to Joanne “Im sure you won’t forget her either.”
Virginia smiled at Joanne who gave her a sheepish look “Of course. Im sorry, I didn’t even introduce myself. Im Virginia Chan.” She gave him a handshake.
“Jeffrey Lai, please call me Jeff.”
“Well, then Jeff. It’s a pleasure meeting you.” She walked to the elevator with Robby by her side. She drove him back to her office and they talked for a while longer. When it was close to 6pm, he finally left.
She sat back in her chair and stretched her legs, she felt strained from that whole day. Virginia closed her lids to rest her tired eyes, when the phone rang, she didn’t want to pick it up so she let her machine answer it. It was Tracy Wong “Hi Dr. Chan, its me Tracy…um, I don’t know if you still remember me…uh Sorry I didn’t get back to you sooner, I wanted to know if I can come see you on Monday. Well, I have a settled job now, with a temporary phone number.” She left the number and then hung up. Virginia smiled as she listened to the message. She had faith that Tracy would come around soon enough. Its one thing to give a person a lot of attention but its another thing to smolder them with attention. It was her own theory of letting people heal on their own.
Suddenly the phone rang again, thinking it was probably Tracy she answered it after one ring “Tracy?”
“Um…no, its Jeff.”
“Oh, Im sorry. I thought you were one of my patients.”
He laughed “If that’s what it takes to call you then maybe I should be one of your patients.”
She smiled and leaned back in her chair “That’s not a good idea since my patients are all suicidal victims.”
“Looks like we have a lot in common.” He commented “But I was meaning to ask you about the backround of Robert Fong? I mean why did he try to commit suicide?”
“You really want to know?”
“Yes, it helps me personally.” He held his breath waiting for her to continue. It was actually just an excuse to talk to her, he had a habit of not learning about the victims, just in case their lives might influence his.
“Well, most of my patients have the same kind of backround. They are usually poor and can’t afford the expensive treatments that most psychiatrists charge so they are referred to me. I work for the government. Anyways, he came in my office looking really sick, apparently he had just taken an overdose of sleeping pills.”
“Oh my.” He whispered, he knew of victims trying to stab themselves but very few wanted to drug themselves since it was a long and agonizing death.
“I don’t know what I could have done to help him, but we talked for almost four hours straight. Even when I came back from lunch he was still there waiting for me. He told me about his backround, his parents past away, he had a current girlfriend that he devoted all his time to. He worked to make money just to buy things that she liked or wanted. But it seems she was getting tired of him or maybe she was just using him for his money. I tried to boost up his confidence but it didn’t help.”
“Im sure it helped a little.” Jeffrey offered.
“Maybe. Anyways, the first thing I learned about being a shrink is that your patients must let you help them before they can help themselves.”
“That’s very profound.” He teased.
She laughed comfortably “I suppose. Well, I hope that helped a little?”
“Yes, very much thank you. I hope you don’t mind, but I will probably be referring the victims to you considering how well you handled the situation like that. I could have sworn that he would jump.”
“Well, that’s where your different, I don’t like to assume that the victim will jump or kill themselves. You have to think positive in order for the victim to believe you. If you already have the assumption that he will jump, he will probably jump.”
He understood exactly what she meant “That’s why you’re the doctor.” He said after a moment. “You’re very wise for you age.”
“Is that a compliment?” she teased.
“Depends on what you perceive as a compliment.”
“I’ll take it as that. Well, I would love to stay and chat but I must go now. It was nice talking to you.”
“The pleasure is all mine. Goodbye.” He hung up the phone with a huge grin on his face. She was like a breath of fresh air, such an optimist.