Haunting Hallucinations

Nathan MacKinnon patted his new friend Valeri Nichushkin on the shoulder as his foot slammed into the door and they walked into the doctor's office together, startling the other people waiting in the lobby. Val gazed around at the surroundings in shock and awe as they walked over to the front desk.


Nathan’s POV

I decided to take over the speaking role at the moment. Especially since my Russian Dallas Star friend wasn’t exactly “with the program” and paying attention. He was continually snapping his head back and forth and gazing around the room, looking at the place. "Hey there, we are here to see a Dr. Caffrey or something like that."

The girl sitting at the desk jumped up in surprise. "Oh, uh, you must be Mr. MacKinnon and Mr. Nichushkin right?"

"Correct. I guess someone called ahead, eh?" I demanded.

"Sir, you're going to have to wait a little. He's speaking with another patient right now. Just have a seat over there, please."

“Okay.”

Val muttered a gracious comment in Russian, before clearing his throat and saying, “Thank you.”

Just before we could both take a seat, the door to the psychologist ward opened. "Am I needed?" a gorgeous redhaired woman asked, coming from the direction of the back of the building. She was wearing a pair of thick style-glasses and a nifty low-cut blouse. Her skirt was short and black, almost like she were purposefully showing off her figure to every man in the place. Her hair was up in some unique do.

Val elbowed me gently, “Is she impersonating a lion?”

I shook my head and shrugged. She had a female hairstyle that was often referred to as a “lioness do.” It was supposed to make the person’s hair curl up in a “mane” look. We watched as the girl at the desk snapped her head up and smiled.

"Oh, Dr. Caffrey, your next patients are waiting for you,” the lady at the desk said.

"Ah, MacKinnon and Nichushkin, right?" Dr. Caffrey looked down. "The two hallucinating hockey players."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever." Nathan dismissed with a wave of his hand.

"Hello, I'm Doctor Dolphiana Caffrey," the Doctor stated, offering a hand. Nathan and Val both shook it, awkwardly and nervously. "Uh, let's just come to my office." She turned around and lead the way.

We followed her into the ward and down the hall to the second door on the right. We stepped into her office and took a seat at once. Val carried on with his looking around. The office was filled with plaques displaying Dr. Caffrey's awards and diplomas. She was obviously a qualified psychologist, but that still didn't mean she would be able to help them out with their hallucinations and get to the root of their problem.

"So, how does this work? What will we be talking about today?" I asked, flashing a smirk that would make my father proud.

I watched as Val fidgeted in his seat nervously, as a woman in a low-cut dress shirt looked at him over the rims of her style-glasses.

"Are you nervous, Mr. Nichushkin?" Dr. Dolphiana Caffrey asked him in a nasally, high-pitched voice she seemed to have.

"Why would I be nervous?" Val stopped fidgeting and gulped uneasily, shooting a worried look in my direction.

"Well, for one, you're sitting like you have a stick shoved up a place where the sun never shines." Dr. Caffrey suddenly became very aware of his unusually stiff posture. He wiped perspiration of his forehead. "Now, I'll ask you again, are you nervous, Mr. Nichushkin?"

"A little bit, Dr. Caffrey," Val confessed, respectfully and slumped back in the armchair. Dr. Caffrey put her notepad in her lap and let her elbow rest on top of it, as she pressed her fingertips against each other. "You're not helping. You're supposed to tell me I have nothing to worry about, and that we're just talking."

"That would be considered a lie," the psychologist answered him. "Because, you see, I know nothing about you or your mental health. That is what I am here to establish."

"You're the worst psychologist I have ever met," I said and raised my eyebrows. "Tell me what you see when you look at me."

Dr. Caffrey pursed her lips. "I'd rather talk to you a bit," she said and smiled softly. "Now, before we start, do you mind if I call you Nathan? And you, Val?"

"Does it matter?" I growled.

"Yes, it does," Dr. Caffrey said. "For this to work we need to create a mutual respect between the three of us, now that we have established that it doesn't exist. I'll call you Mr. MacKinnon, if that makes you feel better."

"Nathan is fine. Or Kinny. Can I call you Caffrey?"

"No."

"Dolphiana?"

"No."

"What about Doll...baby?"

"You're crossing the line, Nathan," Dr. Caffrey warned with a sly smirk. "Your behavior is childish and immature. I won't write anything about it, unless you act like this all the time."

"I'm sorry, Dr. Caffrey," I said. "I just thought we were creating a mutual respect between the two of us. It's impossible for such a thing to happen, if I have to call you doctor."

"I see your point."

"So, can I call you Dolphiana?"

"No."

"Oh, come on!" I ran my fingers through my hair in frustration. "What are you trying to do, make me explode?" Now I started fidgeting in my chair. "You call me Nathan, I can call you Dolphi. Good."

"Alright, fine, tell me," she continued as if nothing had happened, "how are you feeling today?"

"I'm alright, thanks," Nathan said and crossed his arms over his chest.

"Really," Dolphi mumbled. "Never heard that one before."

"I'm sorry, should I tell you my life story up until today and then summarise what I feel like considering all that has happened to me?"

"Let's start again." Dolphi smiled.

"Lucky number three, eh?"

"I am going to ask you a series of questions, and I want you to answer each question without thinking."

I felt like a three-year-old, sitting with my arms crossed and a frown on my face, listening to another person telling me what to do.

"Shoot," I said and straightened my back and face. This woman is going to evaluate your brains. Don't give her the pleasure to tell you that you're crazy. (This is not Sidney Crosby's voice, this is his ACTUAL conscious.)

"What is your favourite feeling?"

"The joy of knowing I have friends who care about me."

"What is your greatest fear?"

"Losing someone I love."

"What was the first thing you thought of when you woke up this morning?"

"Is Sidney Crosby really haunting my dreams and mind?"

"What was the last thing you thought of when you went to bed last night?"

"Will Sidney Crosby try to do something funny, or will he torment me through the night?"

"When you got to “work” this morning, what was the first thing you did?"

"I don’t remember. I-I think it was fret about Sidney Crosby’s haunting presence."

"I see," Dolphi mumbled and paused to write something down. "Who is this Sidney Crosby character?"

"A hockey player in the NHL, who happens to be my idol," I said and shrugged. "He is a talented man and I’ve been named as the next great Sidney Crosby, but he’s been terrizing me left and right here."

"And you worry about meeting him on the ice in reality because of these hallucinations you’ve had of him?" the psychologist said and put on a serious face.

"Of course, he is, after all, my idol and someone I would consider a friend."

"So Sidney Crosby is your idol," Dolphi said and pressed the tip of the pencil towards her bottom lip which was caked in ruby red lipstick. "What about women? Are you married?"

"Uh, nope," Wilson said. "I’m only 19 and so is my new friend here."

"I see. What about you, Val?" she asked, turning to the lost Russian.

"Sergei Gonchar."

"Sergei Gonchar?? Tell me about him!"

"Well, Sergei is my mentor or guide. He is helping me on and off the ice to get accustomed to the American Culture. I don’t know much English yet, but I am still learning and Sergei is helping me."

"Oh! And what is going on with him?"

“He got injured by a goon and then retired.”

“And do you blame yourself?”

"I'm convinced that I am the reason."

"Now, let me ask you this; do you both care about Sidney Crosby and Sergei Gonchar?"

"Without a doubt."

"Would you say that you could not function on the ice without them?" The room was completely silent. "In a completely platonic manner, of course - not talking about Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane, those two are another case..."

"Strictly platonic?" I glanced around me, expecting Sidney to leap out of a closet laughing any second and start hurling me into terror again with another hallucination. "Strictly platonic, I love Sidney very much and would love to hang out with him and get to know him more as a friend. Strictly platonic."

“Me too.” Val grinned his clueless grin.

“Very interesting.”

“What?” I asked. “What does it mean?”

“There’s nothing wrong with you on a subconscious level, however, something it DEFINITELY wrong with both of you.”

Notes

So yeah, now things get weird y'all....here we go....
Kazer reference!! :D For this, Jonathan and Patrick are in love, so they will kiss and make out with one another, but don't worry, I'll warn when that comes up. ;)

Next Up: Introducing a baby Blackhawk and Dolphi's weird/strange psychologist methods...ok she's not a psychologist, I think...