Waking Up With a Monster

"Thanks for the heads up, Greg," I said. The hairs on the back of my neck were standing up. I stepped out of my office and went into an office two doors away.

"Go, do you remember those cameras that we don't use except for in emergencies?" I said to our head of security.

"Yeah, they violate patient privacy," he said.

"Fuck that. Turn the one in Rachel's examination room on," I said. "And get a security team over there now." He turned on the monitor and made a call to a couple members of his security team.

As we watched, one of the transporters brought Katherine into the room in a wheelchair. He left the room and Rachel closed the door. She looked at her req. and then turned to see her patient.

"Hi Katherine," she said, greeting her in a cheerful voice.

"Hello, you cheating whore," said Katherine. She was slurring her words and was obviously on something. She was weaving and barely able to hold herself up in the chair.

"Did you find out who my husband has been fucking yet, Rachel?" asked Katherine. Rachel didn't say anything.

"I guess you thought it was pretty God damned funny to have me asking you to find out who the whore was, when you were the whore all along huh?" said Katherine. Her voice was becoming more maniacal and louder with each sentence.

"Katherine..." began Rachel. "I'm sorry. But your marriage was over. You hurt him. You broke his heart."

"And you wanted to put him back together again, right?" hissed Katherine. "It's not your fucking job to interfere in my marriage, Whore. But I'll be the one who's laughing when this shit is all over. Whether you know it or not, Mark still loves me. All you are to him is sex. He'll get tired of fucking you and come crawling back to me. But to help things along, your ass is going to jail. And when he finds out that you hurt me, he'll never forgive you."

"Katherine what are you talking about?" laughed Rachel.

"Well a handsome young doctor examined my ankle and there was no swelling or anything, until you knocked me off of the table and snapped my ankle. And you did it on purpose because you were jealous about me and Mark getting back together," said Katherine.

"You're crazy. That isn't going to happen," said Rachel. "You need help."

"Aaaaaaaaeeeeeeeeeeeeeiiiiaahhhh!" screamed Katherine as she opened the door to the room. She slammed her already injured ankle against the metal x-ray table several times. Within seconds several people including the security team that Robbie and I had sent burst into the room to find Katherine writhing on the floor. Go and I took one look at each other and ran for the room.

When we got there Go took over. "Call the police, now," he said.

"Get that crazy bitch away from me now," screamed Katherine. "Look at what she did to me. Mark she's jealous of us. She tried to hurt me Honey. Fire her ass. I'm going to sue this hospital for every God damned dime they have."

"Mark, take Rachel up to your office to wait for the police," said Go.

"Come on Rachel," I said.

"Mark, she's crazy, I didn't do anything. I never touched her," said Rachel. I grabbed her arm and pulled her out of the room.

"You have to believe me," she said desperately.

As soon as I got her into the elevator, I kissed her. "You know I didn't do it, right?" she said.

"Yes Honey, I know you didn't do it," I said. We went up to my office.

"Well, we may as well not waste the time, since we have it," she said. She sat me down in my chair and sat on my lap and pulled my arms around her. She had just started kissing me when John walked into my office.

"Is that what I pay you for?" he asked.

"I'm on break," I said.

"What the hell is going on?" he asked. "Why is your ex wife suing the hospital?"

"Go down the hall and look at the security tapes in Go Merpyle's office," I said. "It'll explain everything.

A few minutes later, Robbie and a police officer came to get us. They drove us down to the station. Once there we were escorted to a room where we watched Katherine telling her version of the story. Every word she said was taken down into the record and she was given a copy of her statement to sign.

"Where's my husband?" she asked. "I need to have my ankle taken care of and then I want him to take me home."

"I'm afraid you won't be going home tonight," said one of the detectives. "You're under arrest."

"For what?" screamed Katherine, angrily. "I didn't do anything. That bitch did it all. That husband stealing, ungrateful bitch tried to kill me."

"Take a look at this video," said the detective. Katherine watched it and came unglued.

"It was all a joke," she screamed.

"You have the right to remain..."

"No wait," yelled Katherine. "What are you arresting me for?"

"Filing a false police report and fraud,' said the detective."...But also, for DUI, reckless driving, leaving the scene of several traffic incidents and almost running down a group of pedestrians. You ran several red lights and one of the cars you hit was a police car with an officer in it."

"I had to do it," screamed Katherine. She started blabbering about how unforgiving I was, but how I really loved her and I was just fucking Rachel.

"You have the right to remain silent, so please fucking use it," said the detective.

* * * * * *

Epilogue

Rachel and I got married and moved into our new house. While her window was open we had two more kids. Lila loves her younger brothers and sister. We all lived happily ever after.

Lila majored in and got her Masters degree in Behavioral Psychology. She wanted to understand people like her mother and what made them tick so she could help them to lead normal lives. After a few years she joined the FBI and became one of their most successful profilers.

Katherine had to be committed. It took eight years of therapy before Katherine was able to leave the facility she got her therapy at. She never came to see me when she was released. According to friends who've seen her, she blames me for everything. And she swears she's going to kill Rachel. She reconnected with Dean, but he wanted nothing to do with her either. The last we heard, she had left town for greener pastures and a new start. I wish her well. But I bought a gun and taught Rachel to shoot.

I lived with Katherine and loved her for more than twenty years, but somehow, I never really knew her. Katherine was psychotic. And for all of that time I never knew what a monster she was. Who knows what she could have done to me for all of those years. I never had a clue. She could have killed me in my sleep, just as easily as she had lied to me and fucked other men. The human psyche is a fragile thing. Anyone can snap with the right situation, motivation or change in brain chemistry. A monster, potentially, lives inside of all of us. I spent twenty years waking up with a monster and never knew it. Maybe I was just lucky, or maybe she loved me as much as she always claimed. At any rate it just makes life with Rachel so much sweeter.

The end