Help [Dr. Neville]

[Georgina Speer]

Georgina had been... alright. To most people, she was practically back to normal, back to her giggly, random, funny self. But something still felt... off inside.

One of George's biggest vices was her inability to ask for help, even when she needed it most. Why did she need to get someone else involved when she could fix it herself, solve it herself; she'd be fine. Only, she wasn't fine anymore. Her outlook on life, though improved, was worrying. She still wasn't exactly 'trying' in lessons (not like she usually did try, but her grades had suffered). So, given into her pride, she had decided to see Dr. Neville.

He seemed to help a lot of people, so he seemed like the obvious option.

George didn't want to remember what had happened between Kodi and her, but as long as it lingered in her memories, she needed the problem solving. She knocked on Dr. Neville's door, opening it; "Sir?" She asked into the room, already regretting her decision a little, a trickling doubt in her veins. But she had no where else to go.

[Dr. Sean Neville]

Sean had worked hard, and he continued to work hard, to build up a reputation with the student body. He couldn’t win everyone over, and he had no expectations of doing so. However, he wanted to be a resource to every student for whom he could be one, and he tried to put the word out to encourage students to seek his advice, or his shoulder, should they need him. That was one of the reasons behind his open door policy, where students could visit without an appointment, and, if his door was open, they could simply come in to speak with him.

Additionally, while he worked to maintain professional and ethical boundaries, he had never cared for being called Sir. There was something uncomfortably militaristic about the language, something far more hierarchical than necessary to provide boundaries. As such, he quickly turned towards the door and Georgina who stood in the doorway. He recognized her, as he did with most of the students. “You don’t have to call me ‘Sir,’ Georgina,” he told her quickly. “And please, come in and make yourself comfortable.”

The psychiatrist was not in the middle of a meeting with another student, nor was he in a telephone conference. Paperwork could wait.

[Georgina Speer]

It was a habit of George's, calling authority figures 'sir' and 'miss'. Something hard-wired into her from her school before she left for Hammel. She almost couldn't help it. But all the same, she nodded in understanding and tried to tell herself not to do it again, at the same time as contually calming her nerves.

Georgina shuffled into the room and sat in the chair opposite Dr. Neville, still feeling nervous and tense and anxious and afraid and... she knew she needed the help she never wanted to ask for, she was smart enough to know this. She wouldn't have come to Dr. Neville if she didn't need some sort of aid. But he was important, in a way. Like, she was fine with most teachers and staff at Hammel, but there were a few specifics, like the one in front of her, with whom she struggled to keep up her usual cool. Maybe it was just their stature or something, but she just failed to stay dominant.

George... Georgina... you can't just sit there... do something... her mind kept repeating thoughts like those, willing her to do what she came here to do. Why was she being such a wuss? "Uhm..." she scanned her memory banks, unable to think of what to say.

So instead, she apologized for her awkwardness,"...sorry."

[Dr. Sean Neville]

Sean had taken no offense to her form of address, but he had wanted her to know it was unnecessary. “Sir” had military and power connotations which the psychiatrist thought had no place in this office. He couldn’t be on a first name basis with the students because of his position, but there was no reason to become more authoritative than necessary. Since she didn’t address that topic further, neither did he. He was content to let it drop.

Once she was inside and the door was closed, he waited for her to seat herself and make herself comfortable, so that he could position himself around her. With that done, she had his full attention, and Sean turned his blue eyes on her. He didn’t stare, but he waited patiently for her to explain what brought her to his office today.

Yet, no explanation followed.

The psychiatrist was patient, and he didn’t mind when the students required time to ease into conversation. Thus, he didn’t push her. Yet, when she offered an apology, he smiled gently and said, “It’s fine. It can take a while to find words.”

Sean had certainly seen students struggle with that time and again in this office.

“Would you like some water while you think?” He kept the miniature refrigerator for a reason.

[Georgina Speer]

Nervous nervous nervous nervous nervous ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh.

This was weird. Not something the British girl was used to by any standards. She frowned to herself, annoyed that her usually racing mind, with its continuous stream of thoughts, had run dry. She wanted to speak of her concerns, tell the Mr. Dr. guy person that she wanted help, but... the words were non-existant. And she felt sheepish.

George shook her head at the offer of water, "I'll... I'm good." She almost had something. She took a breath, "Um... a while back, I can't really remember how long ago it was... I ran into someone I didn't know. I think we were both in pretty foul moods, but... he made a comment at me, and I got annoyed, and..." She stopped. Recounting it brought back memories, the ones which she knew were incorrect, but still scared the shit out of her. She shivered a little. Her hand automatically went to her jaw and she looked at the ground.

"...sorry." She felt like she was going to be saying that a lot, even if for nothing particularly worthy her apologies. She wasn't used to this kind of thing, and held a higher respect for teachers and people older than her than most would realize, considering that fact that she wasn't afraid to curse to a teacher's face, or muck about during their lessons. She just... knew when she wasn't in a place to act high and mighty. This felt like one of those times, along with the fact that she definitely didn't feel high or mighty in the slightest.

[Dr. Sean Neville]

Sean did not want her to be nervous; however, in his experience, telling students not to be nervous when he was responding to their thoughts, at least in part, achieved the opposite effect. It was better to let their nerves run their course and communicate through other channels that he didn’t bite, rather than to confirm that he knew the direction of their anxieties as any given moment. Certainly not this early into a meeting.

Instead, he offered her a patient smile to encourage her to continue, but without responding to her unspoken thoughts. Sean nodded a single time when she began to explain what had happened. With the person she didn’t know, but then Georgina faltered and stopped halfway through the story.

“Don’t apologize.” The psychiatrist was quick to offer that reassurance, that she owed him no apologies for speaking at her own pace. “Take your time.”

He could wait. While telling him what was on her mind allowed him to have the same frame of reference that she had, there were other avenues, such as telepathy, to achieve that same goal. Otherwise, sharing her experiences, feelings, and thoughts was not for his benefit, but for hers. Even providing him with the common frame of reference was not solely for his benefit, and thus he wanted her to proceed as she felt comfortable.

[Georgina Speer]

George's thoughts went into simple mode. He seemed nice. She liked nice people. Because he was nice, she could trust him, and because she could trust him, she could keep talking. She could keep talking, right? Right. Maybe.

She had a bad habit of constantly apologizing. She really needed to work on- no, for Pete's sake, George, get your act together and focus.

The incident she was describing wasn't exactly unknown to the school. She had had people ask her about it, when the only people she had talked to about it were Phen and Jack, and even though she hadn't seen much of Jack recently, and she knew Phen had told Oriel (he checked it was alright first), she was certain she could trust them both not to start telling everyone. So where the people of Hammel had got it from was a mystery to her. She could only suspect that Kodi himself had gone about and talked about it, but the fact that she had hit back made it seem less likely. She wasn't sure. She knew it had taken her way too long to actually talk to someone else about it, though.

She took a breath before continuing, "I got annoyed, and said something back. He threatened me and... and I spat in his face." Don't you just sound like the most intelligent person ever? She tried to ignore her own sneering thoughts and continued: "It... my memory of it got a bit blurry after that. I don't know if I was just too angry or what, but... uhm..." She suppressed another apology. This was hard.

"He punched me." She moved her hand and pointed at her jaw where he'd hit her, before dropping her arm and looking at the ground, "I punched him back. I think. I remember seeing blood and hearing him saying... stuff." She hugged herself, "He left after that. I think he almost bit my neck, or something. I can't... remember..." More like, she could, but she couldn't cope with relaying that memory.

And now for the part which made her seem insane, "...I don't know if it was normal or anything, but I could... hear his voice in my head afterwards, making remarks and stuff." She took a breath, a stony expression on her face, "I got really self conscious, and upset, and... it was really difficult." She made herself look at Dr. Neville instead of studying the carpet, "I... think I'm a bit better now, but... I'm not sure. And... I don't know what to do." She finally came to a close and closed her eyes, rolling her tongue inwards at the thought of yet another apology. She had done the right thing. This was doing the right thing, no matter how difficult it was to do.

[Dr. Sean Neville]

Sean did not prompt her, he did not speak over her, and he did not rush her. Instead, he waited patiently for her to go at her own pace. He overheard her self-criticism, and were she slightly less nervous, or if they had a preexisting relationship, he would comment to tell her that there was no reason to be so hard on herself. Instead, the psychiatrist believed that what he could do for her nerves was to maintain the illusion of privacy within the sanctity of her thoughts, since he could not provide her with actual privacy within this office.

The patience paid off, as Georgina continued with her explanation. The rude comments had not gone unanswered, which was unsurprising. Sean often turned a blind eye to insulting words, simply because he did not want to escalate, but there were times when he responded verbally. Not with violence, but verbally to let those around him know that there were inevitable consequences for their words and actions.

The psychiatrist’s brows came together in concern. Someone had punched her? Which then resulted in enough of a fight to result in blood loss and whatever else he had done, up to and including biting here.

Sean made no secret of his distaste for violence. He encouraged the students to express their emotions – even the negative ones – through healthier outlets, as opposed to violence. Certainly, there was no situation short of self-defense in which biting was the solution.

Additionally, the loss of her memory concerned him. There existed many potential causes of memory loss, including emotional trauma and adrenaline rush. Still, he would rather know the reason and address it to the extent that they could.

The addition of hearing a voice in her head narrowed down the list of potential suspects remarkably. The memory of Kodiak’s face in her mind told the psychiatrist everything that he needed to know.

He would deal with Kodiak later.

Sean’s expression was sympathetic, intended to convey that he most certainly did not doubt her perceptions of reality. “Can you describe what he sounded like?” Then, to offer further context, he asked, “Have you ever had a psychic conversation before, to compare it with?”

[Georgina Speer]

George was glad that he didn't try to interject, but then again, such was his job. He knew how to act, what to say and when to say it... okay, maybe that was putting him on too high a pedestal. Or maybe it wasn't. George hadn't really run into him that many times, she couldn't say. But she had had important conversations with people in the past (like her brother), and she didn't know if it was their impatience/boredom, or actual level of caring about the situation, but some people did seem to like to cut in and add their own comments. It was off-putting and annoying and didn't help her at all. So yeah, that was good.

This had all gone on ages ago. Like, ages ago. She wasn't sure if the school would give any disciplinary actions now, but that wasn't what was most important to George. She just wanted to make sure she was okay, and stop herself from freaking out so much when she thought back on it.

And Georgina wasn't exactly a violent person - the one in her family who was violent was her little sister. The English girl herself wasn't experienced in throwing punches or kicks, which she was pretty glad of. Who would be proud to have gotten beaten up multiple times, and beating up others? It was a little twisted. Physical abuse was a no. Of course, she did have a sharp tongue, and didn't always realize how far she was pushing until she went there, but... that wasn't something that happened on a regular basis either.

She wasn't really regretting coming here yet, either. Nothing bad had happened specifically relating to Dr. Neville himself, just her having to remember it again. But she could deal. She thought for a second, "I've not." She paused, "Wait, kinda." With Greg. Not a proper conversation, and he was still shaky, but he'd communicated to the whole cafeteria after he fell over, telling them to stop looking. "It was different from that, though. His voice was always sharp and angry, and kinda distorted. When I heard someone speak to me telepathically... it was just their voice." She wasn't sure how much sense she was making. Another apology suppression. What was it with her and apologizing?

[Dr. Sean Neville]

It might have occurred a while ago, but Sean could bring it up with the administration since it was an egregious infraction that deserved an answer. Even if Kodiak had chosen to change his life path, such could not occur without making amends for his past actions. This included what he had done to Georgina.

The psychiatrist listened attentively, nodding to convey that he followed along with what she described. What she described with Greg was common enough with telepaths; they often cried out in distress or reached out to reassure with their powers, in addition to, or in lieu of, their voices. This was natural.

That she differentiated between that interaction with Greg and what she had experienced in the fight further confirmed Sean’s suspicions. His first priority was to do what he could for Georgina’s emotional and mental wellbeing. His second priority was finding Kodiak and making certain that the boy never did this to another person again.

To that end, he reached out across the table, offering his hand if she wanted to squeeze it or desired other physical contact.

“We can talk about what you should do, and what you want to do.” They could discuss what she needed in terms of her emotional needs. “We can talk about anything you need.”