Chapter 6: A Helping Hand (Joyce)

I was sitting in the waiting room when I saw Mort return from her appointment. She was a strange young thing, but not unsurprisingly so, given her recent history. She seemed uncomfortable with the world around her, and was always very jumpy. She seemed very ill at ease with hybrids. Not having grown up around them probably played a big part in that. She was also uncomfortable in her own skin, her movements clumsy, due to her change. Still, even given the fundamentalist brainwashing she had grown up with, she seemed a nice kind individual. If she could break that programming and become more comfortable with herself and others like her, she might well be happy.

I wandered along to Sarah's office, and as I was getting near, I felt a familiar presence in my head.

I knocked, then entered and saw Sarah and Anna.

"I thought I felt you poking around up here, Anna." I tapped my forehead. "How are you, Dear?"

"A bit shaken, Joyce," Anna replied. "Had quite a wild ride with your young house guest."

"Really? I knew she had had a tough time of it, but I didn't realise it was something that bad.".

"She carries a lot of scars." Anna looked sad. "It's made worse by the fact that she is empathic. Since her change, she's had a horrific time of things, and all the pain and hate she's experienced is in there. I inadvertently tripped the memory of how she lost her hand. It's monstrous that someone could treat their child like that. I'm going to make a note in her file about it. With any luck, the bastards will do time for this"

"With any luck, most of the physical damage will fade, given enough time," Sarah added "She seems to have gained regenerative capabilities. Her hand already show signs of growing back"

"The emotional scars won't fade so easily," said Anna. "While I can't read her perfectly, I do know that she has a hard road ahead of her. She has been conditioned her whole life to hate people who have undergone MORFS, especially hybrids. Now she is one, not to mention, female. She has lost her old identity, and become, as she sees it, a monster. She's also suffered a hellish introduction to her new life, losing her hand, going on the run, sleeping rough, being attacked and hated. It's a wonder she's still sane."

"On the plus side, she never really liked any of her family, with the exception of her sister who seems a far more balanced individual. This should make it easier to reject their twisted world view. She's going to need a lot of support, understanding, and even more, patience. Her empathic abilities are in some ways going to help her adapt. She will undoubtedly instinctively know when people are lying to her. It's one of the reasons she so quickly trusted you and D. She feels safe with you, and at an instinctual level, knows you mean her no harm and are trying to help. It gets around any issues she might have trusting the both of you. She just knows who is friendly and who is not."