Endless Forms Most Beautiful

4- Just one. I'm a few. No family, too. Who am I?

Janis adjusts herself on the uncomfortable seat. She crosses her leg, unable to stop her feet from bouncing. Seated next to her, Heather glances at Janis for a split second, with an inquisitive and perhaps a little annoyed, expression on her face, but doesn't utter a word.

Both women sit in awkward silence for what feels like forever. While Heather reads -or pretends to read- a fashion magazine, Janis stares blankly at the painting that hangs on the wall in front of them. It's pretty, some of the shadows are in the wrong place and there are way too many flowers but at least it gives a colorful touch to the otherwise dull waiting room.

Janis bites her lips; the awful taste of lavender soap and vomit still lingering in her mouth. She opens and closes her mouth a few times, unsure if she should say something or stay silent, she doesn't know which one will make things worse. Chandler flips another page of the magazine.

"I panicked, what do you want me to say?" Janis decides to put an end to the excruciating silence.

"Pretty much anything other than I panicked," is Heather's harsh response.

Janis exhales through her nose. Heather puts down the magazine with a sigh and looks at her.

"Don't be such a pillowcase, you know I'm kidding," she says, clicking her tongue. "Where's your wit gone? You haven't called me a mega bitch all day."

"I don't need a babysitter, you mega bitch," Janis says. She has a tiny box inside her brain where keeps all of the information she's learned about Detective Veronica Sawyer over these days and it keeps getting fuller; she puts called Heather a mega bitch inside of it.

"I know. But if I don't look after you who else will?" says the mega bitch, nudging Janis gently with her elbow.

After the puke incident, Janis was prepared to deal with Chandler's rage. She met the woman today but based on their first interaction -when Heather got out of her car yelling at Janis in the middle of the street- Heather didn't seem like a very pleasant person. So Janis was surprised when, after she left the board room, Heather rubbed her arm gently and said she was going to drive her to her psychiatric appointment so she wouldn't be alone.

"You have to forgive yourself," Heather continues to speak, her voice so soft Janis can barely hear. "Shootings happen to whoever is there with a gun in their hand."

Janis replies with a nod, not able to find the words for a proper response. Heather gets back to her magazine and the silence, aside from the receptionist constantly typing things on the computer, reigns once more.

Janis takes in a breath, her feet still shaking anxiously. She wishes she was wearing a coat to wrap it around herself tightly, she always feels calmer when she does that. In a few minutes, the receptionist will call her name -well, Veronica's name- and Janis will have to spend an hour talking to a psychiatrist about things that she doesn't know, questions that she doesn't have an answer to. Veronica did. But Veronica is kind of busy lying in a morgue right now.

"Dr. Bowers will see you now!" the perky receptionist announces and Janis gets up.

***

The appointment goes as bad as Janis expected. Under the stern gaze of Dr. Bowers, Janis gives vague answers to the older woman, refusing to comment on topics she doesn't know anything about, with the excuse that she is not comfortable discussing it; she does that when Bowers asks about Jason, and then again when she mentions Veronica's parents.