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"Mr McCain, I thought you said that she's your friend..."

Pen looked at the nurse with guilt. "Well, she is..." Then he looked over at Nisa, with himself still trying to find the words to say.

"Then how could it be you don't know her name?"

As the young nurse kept talking to Pen, Nisa looked on at the two of them, seeming like at blur. She had not spoken a word since the nurses took her to that room - a small room typical for a doctor to be in, where they ask questions to patients of what was wrong etc. Outside the room, there is a waiting area that seemed to be well taken care of, and this area is specifically for the troubled minds... the nurses had taken her to the psychiatric unit of the hospital. After the nurses' tough effort of dragging her there, Nisa calmed herself down, stopped struggling and yelling - suddenly they saw her on bended knees on the floor there. She was looking around the psychiatric unit, where there were quite a number of people around waiting to see their respective doctors who treat them, and so she suddenly stopped rebelling. After all the struggling, her head-covering had become messed up, making her look untidy, unlike the way she looked like normally (neat and tidy, that is).

It was then she caught everyone's attention there, with one of the psychiatrists running toward her just as he exited his personal room in the psychiatric unit. Apparently, he recognised her.

"Her name is Nurul Nisa Mohammad Yusuf, and she's my patient in this hospital. I've been handling her case since about a year ago," said Dr O'Neil to Pen, the psychiatrist who earlier rushed over to get to Nisa after she knelt down on the floor. "Seems like she doesn't have any ID with her right now. And, you said her name was Melissa?"

Rubbing his forehead, Pen was the one who became blurred then. He was not sure what to say. "I was almost sure that was her name, though."

Imaginary Nisa whispered into Nisa's ears as she watched everyone in there talking to one another. "He must know a lot of people in his life. I mean, our name isn't really that difficult to remember right? Nisa is the simple nickname - not hard right?"

The nurse who was speaking to Pen sooner told Dr O'Neil about Pen who just met his patient and did not really remember her name, as what Pen told her. The doctor just nodded and told her that she could leave the room, saying that he could handle things from there.

"See ya..." Pen muttered as the nurse left the room, closing the door behind her while Pen looked on. Later he realized that the doctor was looking at him. "Say, Dr O'Neil..."

Dr O'Neil told him to hold on with his inquiries, as he went on to see how Nisa was doing. She had been too quiet, unlike before, she would at least speak out several words. "Miss Nisa," he asked gently to Nisa who was seated at the side of his desk, near to him at that moment, while Pen sat in front of him. "How are you now? Everything ok?"

The only thing he got back in return was her silent stare at him, barely showing any expression on her still face. Still, she seemed to be wanting to say something but was yet unable to speak it out.

Patting Nisa on the back, Imaginary Nisa told her to speak up. "I know you want to say something. Come on Nisa, come on now!"

Shut up already... I ain't gonna say anything... Nisa imagined herself telling the Imaginary Nisa to just quieten up and sit still somewhere without making her feel any worse. I don't know him much. But he's involved now. Yet all this has already happened...

Getting back to the rather curious Pen, Dr O'Neil told him that she could be in some kind of shock, maybe caused by extreme fear or anxiety. "Can you tell me, what do you know?"

Nisa turned her attention from the doctor to Pen, refusing to give out any response to any questions asked, but she could still follow and understand what was going on.

"Say, that was what I wanted to ask... I don't know anything... now only I know that she's been a patient in Sussex County." He glanced over to Nisa, surprised to see her looking at him. "... she's... staring at me..."

"DUH," Imaginary Nisa snorted. "What's his problem? Baka."

Nothing... I am the problem.

She blinked several times to hear him say so, turning away her attention back to the doctor. Dr O'Neil smiled at both of them. "It's okay."

Focusing his brains to think of any information that he could provide to the doctor, Pen tried to explain more details. "She was worried about something, too worried actually. We bumped into each other and she was already so worried as if it hurt me even though it's no biggie. Then she didn't reply to my questions, I don't know if she even understood me. And, she did cry out for someone... Joey, if that's helpful in any way." Dr O'Neil took record of the things he just said by writing them in the yellow file on his desk. It made him more curious of what was going on with Nisa as he watched him write in the file, as there seemed to be a lot of other things contained within the file. "If it's okay, may I know what's wrong with her? That she became your patient?"

Nisa's eyes widened at the question - her only response to her surprised feeling inside. No - he's not gonna know... he don't know me and neither do I know him...

The doctor put his pen down and stopped writing, later closing the yellow file and putting it away. "I'm sorry, but that's confidential. But what I can tell you is... help to take care of her, as it seemed like she just went through her worst fear, according to what I've seen so far from her. Do accompany her. At a moment like this, she cannot be left out alone."

"Hah... glad you say so, doc!" Imaginary Nisa yelled out loud. She turned to Nisa and wrapped her arms around her shoulders. "You're being cared for, my friend. You'll be okay."

Okay? Nisa was in doubt. I don't know if I like that word anymore...

"Oh... I see..." Pen looked at her again, being expressionless still.

"I have to keep her here for the moment though, she's still not in a good shape for me to feel worry-free to let her out. Can you call her closest friends here? That'd really help."

"Sure, done that already. I'll wait for them to get here."

"Nisa, hear that?" The imaginary version of herself stood up out of surprise. "Who did he call?"

He called? Who? He did that? Suddenly, there was the urge to cry again. I barely know this fella and here he had to do all this...

Imaginary Nisa knelt down on the floor to talk to her. "I know what you're thinking. You're not a trouble, you gotta know that."

Closing her eyes shut, Nisa lay out a few drops of warm tears. "Sorry... Pencil," a female voice broke out in the atmosphere. It was Nisa - finally speaking, at that moment to Pen. Dr O'Neil was surprised for a second, and so was Pen. The bald doctor got up to check Nisa again, with a more concerned look in his eyes now. "Miss Nisa, what's wrong?" He gave Pen a serious-looking glance.

Pen got more puzzled now. "Missy, seriously," he got himself closer to talk to her face-to-face while she was seated (and being checked by Dr O'Neil), "nothing to worry about."

"Mr McCain, not too close please," the doctor advised him. He told Nisa to breathe in and out for him to check her heart-beating rate with his stethoscope, which she did, much to Pen's surprise that added up to his anxiousness. Sitting back at his seat to follow Dr O'Neil's order, he looked at her with many questions in his head.

"Can you tell me why you're crying, Miss Nisa?" the doctor asked her gently.

"Neesa... anything I can do for you?" he muttered out to her from where he was sitting at, nervously. As Nisa blinked her eyes softly at his question, she had a smile on her pale face when she turned around and muttered back to him, "Dai-jou...bu."

That was when Pen and Dr O'Neil both saw her losing her faint smile and fainted, falling out from her seat, almost onto the floor before Dr O'Neil managed to hold her back.

Pen went frantic. "God!"

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Sarah sat silently by the bed where her close friend, Nisa lay in. Nisa was sleeping comfortably there, being taken to a ward of her own at the request of both Sarah and Pen for her to feel safer and more at ease. It came with an extra cost - apparently willing to be paid by Pen (and him alone) voluntarily. Sarah arrived not long after Nisa's passing out, looking way worried about her when she saw her unconscious. They had to get her to a ward and check up what could be wrong with her. It was necessary to change her clothes and take off her head-covering.

There she lay without covering her long black hair on the hospital bed, dressed up in hospital clothes.

Dead pale face. Messed up hair after not taking off her tudung in over a day, ever since she ran away from me. Tudung referred to her head-covering, of which Muslims wear to cover their hair. Sarah, too, wears it other than Nisa.

"It seems like she fainted 'cause she had not eaten for a few days," Dr O'Neil's words were ringing in her ears. In a way, she felt partly guilty for it, as she was supposed to eat together with her before she suddenly ran away from the restaurant they were at before. Nisa left too fast, leaving her purse at the restaurant and had not gone back to her house ever since she ran. That made it impossible to contact her or even know where she had been. It got her housemates wondering, and worried, too.

She got herself closer to the bed to hold her friend's hand. Pen was there too, just standing against the wall near to the hospital bed, tired and sleepy. It's almost 9pm, and he had been so tired already with everything that already happened on that day, not able to think much of anything anymore to wonder about.

"Pen?" Sarah spoke up, causing Pen to 'snap out' from his 'dream' while he was only staring out into space in tiredness.

"Ouh." He rubbed his hand over his forehead up to his hair to the back of his head. "Damn I was dreaming. What?"

"You're tired. You've been here a while, right? Go home, get some sleep," she said as she was holding Nisa's left hand, her eyes directed at Pen's sleepy eyes.

Pen yawned, hitting his head with his head soft. "Yeah. I went to Jen first before I met up with Neeeesa, you know."

Sarah chuckled. "Now, it's a simple Nisa - you're prolonging the 'Ni' too much."

"Ouh, sorry." He sighed, trying to put up a smile. "Been getting her name wrong the entire day."

"It's okay. Thanks for everything."

"No problem. Don't stick around so long, you too need a break."

Sarah just nodded. At that, Pen moved away from where he was standing at and went towards the door. As he was about to leave, he stopped for a moment and turned back to Sarah. "Hey, who's Joey?"

Turning to him, Sarah gave him a puzzled look that was pretty much meant to mock him. "That'd be... Johari. You don't know that is it?"

The name sounded quite alien to his ears as if he never heard of it before.

"He's our lecture mate as well..." She tried to make him remember, knowing that he indeed knew Joey too, but somehow not realising that he does. "You know him, you do, believe me I know you do."

Pen's eyes twirled up toward the ceiling, as if thinking so hard - his frown on his face said it all. "You know... how come I don't know that I know?"

... stupid. He's well-known and he knows a lot of others but really, he's got a bad memory. Joey's not as popular, but still known by many. And yeah I know Pen knew him.

"Say, I know why." A big grin appeared on her face. "You call him Harry."

"AH!" Pen seemed enlightened now. "No way!"

"You see, that's the problem, you call people not by their usual nickname. We've been calling him Joey ever since from Malaysia." Sarah shook her head in amusement. Baka indeed.

He laughed thinking about calling the Joey guy, Harry. "I forgot his real name. Been calling him Harry, like, forever..." He was shaking his head as well. "Sorry bout that..."

"You're weird," she claimed, smiling. "Just go home now."

"Yeah, thanks. See ya." Pen closed the door behind him, leaving Sarah alone with Nisa.

Seconds later, still holding Nisa's hand, Sarah came up wondering on her own. Why did he suddenly ask about Joey?