Mike Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

[b]Chapter Two: You Can't Bet a Nickel Joe![/b]

Everyone able to attend the meeting did. They all sat in cheap metal foldable chairs. In front of them sat Mrs. Fletcher and her assistant. The assistant was wide eyed, obviously new to this sort of thing.

"Med school didn't teach you how to deal with these nuts did it," Mike said lowly to the young woman. She gave him a cold look before looking across the room as the rest of the men sat down. Chester and Mike had been separated by a very talkative man named Joe Hahn. He had sat smack dab in middle of them, although Chester didn't mind it one bit. The blond was exceptionally nervous and fidgeted. Shinoda noticed this and decided to leave him be.

"Probably too much man for him to take anyway," Mike mumbled quietly to himself.

"I'm sorry, what was that?" asked a red head man that sat next him.

"Nothin man, just talkin to myself."

"Oh really? I do that all the time."

"...I bet. That's why you're in here right?"

"Nope. Because I tried to smother my newborn infant."

Mike did a double take at the man's words. He had heard of some fucked up shit in prison but he never really heard of someone trying to kill their own child often, let alone bumping into someone that said it with such ease as if it was the equivalent to trying to kill a dog or a cat.

"The name's Dave," the red said, holding out a bony hand.

Mike warily shook the man's hand, saying, "Mike."

"Nice to meet you Mike."

"Yeah...nice to me you too...I guess."

Once all of the commotion had ceased Mrs. Fletcher began to speak.

"Last time we had our meeting we brought to the floor Brad's problem with trusting his wife." Mrs. Fletcher said softly, steadily gazing at the group, giving everyone equal attention. Mike scoffed at how calculated she looked. Everything from the way her eyes moved to the way she spoke. It all seemed calculated and "by the book." Made the Asian sick to his stomach in disgust. Suddenly a man with curly brown hair caught his eye. He was the nearest to the window, yet farthest from the group. He wore glasses and his right leg was crossed over his left with his hands resting on his knee. He shifted a bit in his seat as all eyes fell upon him.

"He must be Brad," Mike said to Joe that sat next to him.

Joe, wide eyed turned to him and said much too loudly, "Yeah! That's Brad. Everyone thinks he's a fag though. I don't. I like Brad." The whole group of men laughed except for Joe and Brad. Mike grinned wider when he noticed Chester smiling once again. His smile [i]was[/i] beautiful.

"Mr. Hahn." Mrs. Fletcher said harshly, Mike sobering up instantly as he detected emotion in her voice for once.

"Yes Mrs. Fletcher?" Joe said childlike, squirming in his seat and looking around himself nervously as if something was going to jump out at him at any moment.

"What have I told you about blurting out? When you have something to say you raise your hand and I will call on you. Do you understand?" Her voice seemed to whip Joe as he began to cry as she scolded him.

"Do you understand Joe?" The nurse repeated calmly.

Joe sobbed and nodded, holding himself and rocking back and forth. Mike eyed the other man, suddenly feeling uncomfortable. It was then he realized he was in the loony bin.

"Now back to the discussion at hand. Brad has been having trouble lately with trusting his wife and suspects her of cheating. Does anyone have any thoughts on this? Does anyone have anything at all to say?" Mrs. Fletcher said calmly, her calculated tone annoying the hell out of Mike. Her eyes scanned the room as she waited for a response from any of the men in the ward. However no one raised their hands; most just chewed on their fingernails nervously and looked around the room, trying their very best not to make eye contact with the nurse, fearing she'd call on them.

Mrs. Fletcher sighed and scanned the room once again, "Is there anyone that can relate to Brad's problem...anyone?" The silence in the room was an answer enough.

Mike sunk into his chair as the meeting went on. Getting a discussion out of the group was worse than pulling teeth and it bored the Asian senseless. The only thing he had to occupy himself with was the scenery. Namely that of Chester. The blond nervously looked over to Shinoda, his eyes begging the other man to stop. Mrs. Fletcher's eyes scanned between the two, instantly noticing Chester's discomfort and Mike's wolfish grins and seductive winks. She'd have a talk with Mike about this.

When the meeting was ended Mrs. Fletcher politely asked Mike to stay behind. Once everyone had gone to their rooms or to the entertainment room, the nurse began to speak.

"Mr. Shinoda. I'm afraid we have not properly met each other. I'm Mrs. Fletcher, Head Nurse here at Notting Hill State Mental Hospital," the woman introduced herself politely, holding out her hand. Mike shook it, nodding at her.

"Now. In an attempt to not waste time with small talk, I want to be completely upfront with you on this. I must urge you to cease your advances on Mr. Chester Bennington." Mrs. Fletcher said stiffly, even her calculated tone was no match for the mixture of emotions she was feeling right now. One was of disgust. Another was panic and perhaps another was nervousness.

"Now why would you say that?" Mike asked with mock interest, pulling out a cigarette and lighting it.

Mrs. Fletcher eyed the lighter, recognizing it at once. She grabbed it from him before saying, "Mr. Bennington is a very troubled young man. He doesn't need the worries of...homosexual...advances from you. He has enough problems already and I'd appreciate it if you ceased your bothersome behavior toward him. Homosexuality is...an undesirable activity here at Notting Hill."

Completely forgetting about the lighter, Mike was suddenly filled with anger.

"Bothersome behavior? Undesirable? Since when have I've been bothersome? I've just arrived. That's close to impossible ma'am and I [i]don't[/i] appreciate you telling me what I can and cannot do. Especially when it comes to who I want to fuck!" Mike yelled angrily as he advanced on her, getting into her face to emphasize his distaste for her comments.

Nurse Fletcher's face went unmoved and her arms still by her sides.

Calmly, and oh so damned calculatedly, she said, "Mr. Shinoda I'm going to have to ask you to calm down. If you refuse I will have to give you a sedative and that's something I know you would not like to be given."

Mike decided to back off, looking over to the assistant who held a syringe in her fist, filled with a light green fluid. He rolled his eyes at how nervous the young woman was, her fisted hand shaking.

"Now Mr. Shinoda." Mrs. Fletcher said calmly, grabbing Mike's attention. "If you haven't noticed, Chester is a very nervous young man and he is very unstable right now. Which is why he is here because we want to help him. Having you bother him with aggressive...advances, then that could quite possibly undo all the hard work we have done."

"Whatever." Mike said, giving a cold look to the still shaking assistant before walking away from the two women.

Nurse Fletcher looked over to her assistant, placing a hand on the young woman's shoulder and giving her a reassuring smile.


The rest of the men were all in the entertainment room; a heated game of cards catching Mike's attention right away.

"No! No! No! You can't play that card Joe! It's impossible! How you have a Joker in your hand is beyond me!" Brad said, yelling at Joe who was looking quite displeased with the situation.

"But-but, you didn't tell me Brad! You didn't tell me I couldn't use a Joker card. You didn't tell me Brad! You didn't tell me! You didn't tell me!" Joe said frantically, holding the card in his head so hard that it began to wrinkle.

"For goodness sakes! Get yourself together man! It's a game!" Came Mike's voice. Everyone at the table looked up except for Chester, who pretended to be preoccupied with his hand of cards.

"I'm sorry, but this is outrageous! You didn't tell me Brad, you didn't!"

Brad had enough, he pulled the cards from the Asian and told everyone else to give him the cards. "Fine Joe. We're playing another game!"

"Fine with me I guess," came the voice of Dave who Mike had met earlier. The red head looked up to Mike. "Let Mike join in too."

Brad looked up through the curlly mess of hair he had on top of his head and nodded, scooting his chair over to give the man room. "Grab a chair and come on in."

Chester nervously tapped his fingers on the table, watching Mike walk across the room to fetch himself a chair. That feeling was back. The feeling his mother didn't like. He looked away from Mike, not wanting to feel like [i]that[/i] again. He wasn't allowed to.

Mike sat heavily, pulling forward the ash tray that rested on the middle of the table. Thankfully the only two people smoking were Mike and Brad.

"So what we playin?" Mike asked, looking around at the table, suddenly realizing just how beautiful Chester was compared to them. When his eyes rested on the young man, Chester immediately blushed, looking away from him. Shinoda smiled slyly. He loved the man's reactions.

"I suggest blackjack, but like with everything around here, we have to vote on it," Brad said lazily, raising his hand. "Those in favor of blackjack raise your hand."

Everyone raised their hand except Mike who thought the whole thing was silly. He looked out of the entertainment room to find Mrs. Fletcher staring at them through the nurse's station window.

"What a bitch," Mike said as Brad passed out the cards.

"Who? Oh Mrs. Fletcher? Don't worry, you'll warm up to her," Brad said nicely, thumping the butt end of his cigarette.

"Doubt it."

**

The game went on and on. It was fun at first but quickly got boring to Mike as he was used to betting money. Life was just boring without risks.

"Guys. How 'bout we put down some cigarettes on this." Mike said as he thumped some ashes into the now nearly full ashtray as everyone had began to smoke their cigarettes. Surprisingly everyone agreed.

"Brad can I borrow some smokes?" Joe asked the curly brown haired man.

"No Joe. You cannot."

"Brad please. I wanna play Brad. Please let me borrow some!" Joe pleaded, beginning to cry. Mike eyed the fellow Asian, suddenly wondering what type of mental disorder the man had. Brad eventually succumbed to the other man's pleas and the game had begun. The energy in the room seemed to escalate as losers continued to play to get their cigarettes back and as winners began to brag.

Joe held his cards up to his face, hiding his smile, but everyone could hear him snickering.

"Let me see whatcha got Joe," Dave said, reaching over for the cards.

"NO!" screamed Joe, slapping the other man's hand away. Everyone laughed a bit at this. Joe looked over to Mike, who was now the dealer as he had won so many cigarettes he simply didn't need anymore.

"I bet...a nickel!" Joe said defiantly, looking at Mike as if he had just completed a well thought out plan. Shinoda looked down at the broken in half cigarette that Joe slid toward him.

"Joe...," Mike began to say, trying his best to choose his words wisely. He was slightly amused at how he usually never chose his words...they usually just came out. "...you can't bet a nickel. A broken in half cigarette is as useful as your brain."

"Well, I bet a dime then," Joe said, pushing the other half of the cigarette toward Mike.

Shinoda sighed heavily, picking up the pieces of cigarettes. "Listen. No one is going to be able to smoke this. It's the whole point of betting them, so that who ever wins them can use em. I, nor you, nor anyone else here could smoke this." With that he threw the cigarette bits over his shoulder.

"NO! Mike! Those are MY cigarette pieces! Give them BACK!" Joe yelled nervously.

"Here! Here! Take these! And for God's sake man, calm down!" Mike said as he thrust two cigarettes toward the fellow Asian.

The game went on for another couple hours before it was time for everyone to go to bed. By the end of the night everyone had now met Mike and unsurprisingly, everyone seemed to like him. Mrs. Fletcher was one of the first to notice this as she smiled at the men as they filed into their rooms once the lights had been turned off. She said a warm goodnight to the night guard before making her way out of the building. The nurse couldn't keep her mind off of this new patient. For some reason she felt uneasy about him.

**

"Those nutters aren't half bad, though Joe needs a bit more help," Mike laughed, looking over to a now smiling Chester. The blond's face looked even more beautiful in the moonlight. A heat began to form in between his legs.

"Yeah. They aren't too bad. But there [i]are[/i] some days where...Mike?" Chester asked as he noticed the other man pulling down his pants. "What are you doing?"

"I'm about to masturbate. Wanna join me?" Mike said as his pants hit the floor.

"No! Please don't do that, please!" Chester said wide-eyed, looking around as if Mrs. Fletcher would walk in any moment.

"Haha. Dude calm down, I was only kidding! I can't sleep in my underwear?"

Chester sighed with relief, pulling up his own bed sheets to cover up the growing erection between his legs. He wouldn't dare let Mike know that he was turned on.

"Good night Chaz." Mike said sleepily as he rolled over on his bed and adjusted his pillows.

"Chaz?" The blond asked, confused by this new nickname.

"Yeah. Chaz. It's your nickname now so deal with it." Mike said, his voice sort of muffled by the pillows. Neither of the men said anything to each other, just slipped off into a sweet slumber, ready for another day of routine.

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