Notes:
1. This is crossover between Psi Factor and Doc, where Nancy Anne Sakovich portrayed the characters of Lindsay Donner and Dr. Kate Weston.
2. Some of the chapter names are taken from Psi Factor episode names.
3. I don't own any of the characters from both shows. The only character I own is Jenna.
Characters:
Dr. Clint Cassidy – Billy Ray Cyrus
Dr. Kate Weston / Lindsay Donner – Nancy Anne Sakovich
Nurse Nancy Nichol – Andrea Robinson
Tippy Williams – Paula Bourdreau
Dr. Oliver Crane – Ron Lea
Dr. Derek Herbert – Derek McGrath
Donna Dewitt – Ruth Marshall
Rob – J.D. Nicholsen
Peter Axon – Barclay Hope
Matt Praeger – Matt Frewer
Dana Praeger – Heather Bertram
LQ Cooper – Peter Blais
Dr. Clair Davison – Soo Garay
Dr. Anton Hendricks – Colin Fox
Summary:
Dr. Kate Weston's husband commits suicide for unknown reasons and Dr. Weston comes back to the Westbury clinic where she and Clint reconnect. After a while she tells Clint a secret that will change someone's life forever.
Chapter 1: Comings and goings
Dr. Clint Cassidy's pager beeped. He took a look at the small screen and then took the emergency stairs to the ER. He didn't really like the ER. It was too noisy and there was always a mood of confusion there, but as a doctor he took a pledge to serve God and save as many lives as he could and, like in any job, the unpleasant parts of it needed to be done just as well as the pleasant ones.
"Who paged me?" He asked.
"I did." A nurse said. "A man, in his thirties shot himself. He died. This is his wife." She pointed at a woman who was standing next to the man's body, sobbing. Next to her, there was a little girl, about three years old and she was embracing her mother's legs and burying her head between them. "She asked for you." The nurse said and looked at the woman with pity. Clint walked and touched the woman's shoulder.
"Excuse me, Miss. I'm Dr. Clint Cassidy. I was told you asked…" The woman turned around to face him. "Kate." She wiped her tears and looked at him.
"Oh, Clint!" She buried her head in his chest. "Rob committed suicide." She cried. He caressed her soft hair. "I don't even know why." From the corner of his eyes he saw Kate's little girl walking away from there and taking a seat in the waiting room.
"I'm so sorry, Kate. I wish I could do something…" He was in a loss of words. "Do you want to go to my office?" He asked. Kate nodded slowly. He wrapped his arm around her shoulder and they walked together to his office, being followed by the little girl.
"I don't know why he did it, Clint. Everything was so good and suddenly… he shot himself. I just came home from shopping, and he was lying in a pool of blood and I… couldn't help him. Everything I studied in med school was useless. Oh, Clint!"
"I am so sorry, Kate. I wish I had words that could help you." Kate's sobbing grew louder and all he could do was to embrace her and let her take it out.
"Clint, I…" Nurse Nichols entered the room and saw Clint embracing the sobbing woman. "Did I come at the wrong time?" She asked and looked at the little girl that was sitting in the chair next to Kate. Clint nodded and then looked at the little girl.
"Nancy, why don't you take little…" Then he realized that he didn't know the girl's name. "…this little sweetheart and let me talk to Kate privately. And please tell Tippy to cancel my appointments for today."
"Sure." Nancy took the girl's hand and they went out of the room. Kate raised her head and looked at him with teary eyes.
"You canceled your appointments for me?" She asked with surprise.
"I'll do anything for a friend in trouble." Clint replied.
"You didn't need to do that." Kate stopped crying, but her voice was shaking and she hiccupped every few minutes. "I don't know how I can go on without him, Clint." She whispered. "And Jenna, oh. She was at home when he shot himself. I don't know how…"
"Kate, I wish I even had the words, but nothing I do will bring him back or make you feel better." He never felt so desperate in his life.
"I'll manage, I guess. It will be hard, but…" Kate took a deep breath. "For Jenna." She wiped her tears. "There are so many arrangements to make." She sighed and tears welled in her eyes. "The funeral and… I have to notify his parents. Oh!" She started crying again. "And Jenna, how can I explain her that he'll never come back again?" She sobbed.
"One step at a time, Kate. Let someone else do all that. Except for explaining Jenna what happened, of course. You'll need each other a lot now and whenever you need me, I'm always at your service." Clint's voice was a soft whisper.
"Thank you, Clint. You're always so good to me." She said, her voice broken.
"I just do what I think will satisfy God." Clint replied.
"God." Kate smirked. "I wish I could believe in him the way you do."
"I'm sure you can, if you really want to, but it's not important right now." Clint said.
"Clint, will you help me tell Jenna?" She asked with helplessness in her voice.
"Sure. Whatever you need me to do, just name it."
"Just… just take over in case I can't control myself and start crying again. Jenna will get scared if she sees me panicking and mumbling." Kate said, her voice still broken and shaking.
"Sure. I'll do anything to help you."
"I'll go and ask her to come in." Kate said and went out of the room. She walked to the front desk, where Nancy and Tippy were playing with Jenna.
"Dr. Weston," Nancy looked at the woman in front of her. "Is everything okay? I saw you crying in there, hopefully nothing serious."
"Ummm… Rob, my husband… he's dead." Kate said, feeling the tears in her eyes.
"I'm sorry." Nancy said and put her hand on Kate's shoulder.
"Thank you. And thanks for watching Jenna."
"No problem. If you ever need something…"
"Thank you, Nancy. It's very nice of you." Kate took Jenna's hand and led her to Clint's office, where she took a seat and sat Jenna on her lap. "Jen, this is Clint. He's a friend of mine."
"Hi, Mr. Clint." Jenna's voice was sweet, just like her mother's in better days.
"Hi, Jenna. It's nice to meet you." Clint said.
"Jen, I need to tell you something." Kate started. "And it's very important." Jenna's innocent eyes looked at her mother, whose innocence was long gone. "Jen, do you know how much daddy loved you?"
"Like the endless blue sky." Jenna repeated the words her father used to tell her every day.
"That's right, Jen. And I have some bad news. You know how in movies sometimes people die?" Kate fought her tears.
"Yes, the bad guys."
"Yes, but you know, sometimes good guys die too. And daddy, he was a good guy. And he loved us so much, but he died too."
"But he will be coming back, right? Like in the movies?"
"No, Jen. He won't. And as much as he loved us, he can't come back to us." Kate's face was wet with tears.
"But why, Mommy? I want him to come back." Jenna said. "Why did he leave us if he loved us?" She was crying.
"Sometimes, Jen, good people die too and that is something we can't change. We loved daddy and we'll miss him a lot, but now it's just the two of us together." Jenna's blue eyes were teary and she buried her head in Kate's chest and cried. Kate wrapped her arm around her and caressed her soft curly hair. "Thank you, Clint." Her voice was a whisper. He nodded and embraced her.
It has been two months since Rob died and Kate decided to come back to work at the Westbury clinic. Now, she was the only person that brought money home and she wanted Jenna's life to be as similar to the way they were before Rob's death. After Kate had dealt with her own feelings, she decided that it was time for Jenna to do the same thing and scheduled an appointment for her to a children's psychologist. She explained to him their situation and that Jenna was present at the time Rob committed suicide and asked him to do whatever was needed in order to make sure that Jenna's mental health was fine.
Now she was sitting in her office and looking at a patient's file. It was a difficult day, full of patients that for some reason seemed to have really bad conditions and if it wasn't enough, it wasn't even lunchtime and she was already tired.
"Hey, there." Clint knocked on the door. "Are you busy?"
"No. Come in." She said.
"How are you? You look exhausted."
"It's just hard combining work and family. I always did one of the two, never both. I can't multitask for my life." She smiled tiredly.
"Well, how about a break, then? Just a coffee and a sandwich." Clint offered along with a wide smile.
"I'll take the sandwich but pass the coffee." She said and closed her patient's file.
"Don't tell me that you're one of those people who eat chocolate and drink coke, but wouldn't touch coffee because of the caffeine." Clint smirked.
"Actually, I don't eat anything that contains caffeine."
"Wow, aren't you strict about your diet!" Clint said and smiled.
"Yes, I am." She smiled tiredly.
"But you're thin. Why won't you enjoy a coffee or chocolate once in a while? I mean it could really cheer you up when you're sad." Clint said.
"Clint, if I ate chocolate every time I was sad, I would be really fat right now."
"I guess you're right, but a piece of chocolate can't hurt if you eat it once in a while. In fact, it's even good for you."
"You won't talk me out of it, Clint." Kate smiled. "You're not the first person who said that, but I have my reasons why I decided to get the caffeine out of my system."
"I hope it's good." Clint smiled. "But we can still go out for lunch, right?"
"Sure." When he looked at her, he saw that she was very pale and her hands were shaking. She saw him looking at her and put her hands in her pockets.
"Let's go, then." He said and they went out of the office.