Lost Horizons (Sean)

[Remle Boyd]

Remle tumbled out of work just after eleven in the morning. She'd been working since the night before, covering shifts and trying to finish a mountain of ad paperwork that she'd been gifted with because there had been a mistake in scheduling and a ton of people had vacation at the same time; at least it kept her busy. It was surprisingly difficult to ease back into single life. Had she fully committed to the idea of a relationship so quickly? Had she been SO starved for attention? Well, at least she had talking points for Dr. Neville when she saw him for her appointment. She walked to her car, threw her things into the passenger seat and drove through the small town streets to the nearest 7-11 to buy a cold coffee to enjoy.

After reentering her car she drove up to Hammel, parked, locked said car and headed to the officer to sign in as a visitor and said that she had an appointment to see Dr. Neville. Last time she had just stopped in after training, now she was deliberately seeing him to talk to him…mostly because she had a list of questions she needed to ask because she was worried that she might slip back into the way she’d been or somehow slip worse and become a misanthrope entirely. Though, since she was worried enough to share that fear with SOMEONE she doubted that was actually the case. Besides, she had Midori and Tori and she’d met that nice guy Rhys at that one bar recently AND she and Kota still talked to each other…warmly in fact! Their teasing was decidedly less sexually charged than it had been when they were seeing each other but she still let him call her little pet names as he was inclined to do every once in awhile when they spoke.

She worried about him moving on and leaving her behind because she also worried that if he was able to forget about her so quickly that she must not have been as an important part of his life as he was for her. She supposed that was why everyone was so quick to warn about “firsts”, not that either of them had known that Kota would move almost across the country so quickly after their relationship had blossomed physically. Sighing, she tossed her keys into her purse, fumbled to put her visitor’s badge onto her shirt and walked briskly down the hall to the office. She arrived a few minutes early and rapped on the door politely, waiting to be let in, worst case scenario she’d be asked to come back if he were still busy.

[Dr. Sean Neville]

In some ways, Sean thought of his relationships with the students as a parallel to the Law of Conversation of Energy. Patients could never be created or destroyed; they simply changed forms. Or, in the case of Remle Boyd and some of his other students, they might disappear for a time to spread their wings but inevitably came back to update him about their lives.

The psychiatrist didn’t mind that. In fact, he prided himself on that point. He formed lasting relationships with the students, such that they could return a decade or more later if they needed help.

After Remle had stopped by his office last year, they had set up semi-regular appointments. In that way, they had fallen back into familiar patterns, reminiscent of her days as a student, although those sessions had been mandatory (imposed by him) rather than voluntary on her part.

The difference between mandatory and voluntary appointments, and between teenagers and young adults, was illustrated by her knock on his door. The psychiatrist glanced down at his watch and saw that she was five minutes early for her appointment.

But since he wasn’t involved in anything time-sensitive, they could use those five minutes. “Come in, Remle,” he called out to her.

She knew the routine by now.

[Remle Boyd]

Remle quietly opened the door and stepped into the office that really didn't seem to have changed much since she was a student...except, perhaps it was less intimidating now. She spared Sean a rare (genuine) smile when she greeted him, "Thank you for seeing me, how have you been?" she asked as she sat down in a chair across from him and set her bag on the floor beside her. In normal Remle fashion she sat straight and folded her hands into her lap, looking as serious as she usually did. But, within the safety of Sean's office and the knowledge that she was with someone she was comfortable talking to, someone who wouldn't judge her harshly or pity her she seemed to deflate a little.

She took a deep breath because she was suddenly overwhelmed with the urge to cry and she'd already had enough of that when Kota moved away. It gave her a headache and it just meant delaying all of the things she'd come to see Sean about in the first place. She cleared her throat in the attempt to quell the sound of tears in her voice as she tried to organize herself. She needed to address this properly, she thought it might be strange that an 8 month relationship elicited such a response from her but reality was different for everyone...Kota had been her first boyfriend in years and he'd certainly been her first INTIMATE boyfriend and that was a big deal for her. "Um...so..." she floundered suddenly, lost for words and fidgety. “I suppose I should tell you why I’m here,” her voice was quiet, strained…as if she’d lost it to a cold. As raspy as her voice sounded it certainly wasn’t from a cold.

It wasn’t even that Remle was worried that she could “never love again” that she was so “heartbroken” that she’d never want anyone else, but she DID worry that having met with failure (yet again) she would retreat. After all you couldn’t lose if you didn’t play and winning was never so important to Remle that she hurt herself unnecessarily to get what she wanted. In this case her want being a lasting, romantic relationship.

Finally she just blurted it out. “Kota and I broke up and I don’t know what to do!”

[Dr. Sean Neville]

Although Sean’s official meta-human powers consisted only of telepathy and memory manipulation, with the attendant mental shields to prevent havoc, his baseline human powers consisted of patience and reliability, which sometimes manifested as over-caution, and, as many students had declared, being boring. The psychiatrist had settled on decor for his office long ago which he enjoyed, and he’d had no reason to change it over the years. With the exception of removing his personal items and valuables from the desk and the shelves after one too many accidents involving the students.

He returned the smile gently. “My door is always open,” he reminded her, by which he meant that she had no reason to thank him for making the time for her. Then, to answer her question, he replied, “I’ve been fine.” Which was true enough. He’d been stressed from work, but he was fine overall, and he only discussed his stress levels with Josh and his physician.

With that, he waited for her to explain what had brought her to him today. After she explained, he could honestly say that he hadn’t expected that turn of events, but he could roll with it. Unbeknownst to her, and luckily for this situation, the psychiatrist had more than one lifetime’s worth of experience with unforeseen break ups.

“I’m sorry,” he told her immediately with a gentle voice. “How have you been coping with that?” His question served several purposes: to find out how she had reacted, to let her know that he was listening, and to show her that coping was possible in that situation.