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The clock ticked on and on, a deafening silence filling the room and reflecting off the furniture. The light in the room was harsh and the clicking of a pen attracted the attention of Annabelle Carter. She glanced around the room with her lips pursed and her fingers fumbling in her lap. Her legs were folded on the comfortable large chair that had most certainly been an expensive purchase for Moira Queen and the girl raised her eyebrows and looked up at the doctor who was staring at her. "So..." Anna trailed off, nodding her head slightly. "So," the doctor hummed, folding her arms across her chest and staring at the girl who looked away quickly. "Can we dim the light?" Anna blurted out. "It's harsh and hurting my eyes," she added.
The doctor sighed and stood up, going to turn the knob for the light slightly as in to lower the intensity of the bright light flooding the room. "Is this better?" she asked to which Annabelle nodded in response. "Does the light bother you often?" the doctor asked while returning to her chair across from Anna. She shrugged, "Sometimes, usually in the morning but it isn't a big deal," she responded. "And how is everything else? Is your stomach hurting?"
The brunette shook her head, "Not usually. It hurts sometimes at night when I lie awake thinking about random things but other than that I don't feel any pain."
"And what keeps you awake at night?" the woman asked while bringing out her pen to take notes on her patient's response. "I have a lot of... nightmares? I don't know if I would call them that but I think they are more so my past memories of the... the island. They keep me awake and are truly haunting."
"Would you like me to reccomend a therapist that you could talk to about this with?"
Anna shook her head quickly. "No, Dr. Lee," she answered. "They aren't bad enough to constitute that. It's just... usually these dreams lead to my stomach hurting because they stress me out. When I take Nyquil or melatonin at night it usually helps but I don't want to have to rely on those."
"What if you tried writing it down? Speaking to someone about your thoughts and writing them down often help patients with PTSD."
"PTSD?" Anna wondered.
Dr. Lee nodded and closed the notebook before setting it softly on the coffee table in between the two. "Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder," she said. Anna shook her head, "N-no, I know what it means. I just never thought of myself having it. I guess I thought my nightmares were just that and nothing special."
"Well, Annabelle," the doctor replied, "PTSD is quite normal in veterans but it common in others as well after a traumatic ordeal. I am just a general doctor with an MD and not a therapist or psychiatrist but with what you have told me I can tell you that the nightmares, or in this case memories, that you are experiencing at night are symptoms of PTSD. Now, it would not be my responsibility to do anything about this, and would normally recommend you to a psychologist but since it seems to correlate to your ulcer, which is my concern, I have to strongly advise you to see someone about this. Or at the very least, I have to suggest you write this down and talk about it with Oliver Queen who experienced an ordeal similar to yours."
