Due Diligence (Sean)

[Dr. Sean Neville]

“Thank you for meeting with me.” As frustrated as Sean felt, he retained enough manners and sensibility to know what decorum dictated. Particularly when his boss was involved. He could thank her for finding the time to meet with him, even if he considered the ruse and the brush off to be an utter waste for both of them. He could not make himself thank her for listening to him, because he did not feel listened to, and thus considered that to be degrading.

With that, he nodded in parting, said, “Have a good night,” and then left her office.

***********************************

((OOC: This occurs after “Old”.))


Sean spent the entire rest of the week with his head down at Hammel, while tending to personal matters during his break periods and when he returned from work at the end of the day. The psychiatrist had had no fewer than a half dozen conversations with his attorney in Burlington, as well as his accountant and with Josh’s brother Matt, who had taken over some of the family investments after Bobby had become ill.

On Friday, he appeared at work as normal and made a Beeline for his office, not even stopping in on the staff lounge for a cup of coffee or to drop off Josh’s baking from the night before. He shut his door and got to work. Rather than take a lunch break, he spent that time with the legal department this morning to put all of his paperwork in order.

His last session was scheduled for the end of the school day, which was not the end of the work day. When he ushered that student from his office at the sound of last bell, he took two Excedrin as a prophylactic and then walked down the hall to Yvette’s office. He informed her receptionist that he did not have an appointment, but that he needed to speak to the Headmistress regardless.

[Yvette Morgenstern]

Yvette had spent the rest of the week hashing out a few other sundries from the budget discussions. She'd settled on the economics teacher, but that didn't mean there weren't a hundred other items she had to deal with before she was able to give her official recommendations to the board.

She'd been so looking forward to the weekend. The Headmistress couldn't help but frown when her receptionist let her know that Sean Neville was there for an unscheduled visit. She had a hunch it was regarding their meeting earlier in the week. Still, nothing on her desk was both more important and more urgent than a staff member wishing to speak to her, so she told the receptionist to send Sean through.

When he entered, she was back to her usual diplomatic smile. "Good afternoon, Sean. If this is regarding our last meeting, we will be looking for an economics and statistics teacher."

[Dr. Sean Neville]

Sean nodded in gratitude towards the receptionist when she allowed her through, and then he stepped into Yvette’s office. Unlike at the beginning of the week, he remained standing, rather than taking the available chair near her desk. At his full height, he could be quite imposing, and so he stepped back a bit so as not to stand directly over her. “Good afternoon. I’m glad to hear that.”

He was, because he respected Eli Morrison and would consider it both insulting and unfair if she, or the Board of Trustees, elected to eliminate his position when he was better qualified than any candidate that they might find who had achieved the Master’s degree.

The students would be better served by having an economics and statistics teacher. The ones who qualified for AP would benefit the most, in terms of being able to apply that to college after they graduated, but every student would benefit from having some minimal knowledge of how economics worked, as well as statistical analysis. If nothing else, understanding how to read statistics would make them better citizens because they could parse the news more easily.

“However, I’m not here about that.” Rather, as related as the initial conversation had been to what brought him here today, this was a different matter.

[Yvette Morgenstern]

No, Yvette hadn't really thought that just telling Sean about her decision would cover whatever this was about. Still, one could hope that he would agree she'd made the reasonable choice, and that could make their relationship a little easier, going forward.

She kept up her smile, as always. "Would you like to take a seat?"

[Dr. Sean Neville]

Sean shook his head, as he had no intention of being in the room long enough for the frequent sitting and standing to be worthwhile to his knees. “No, thank you.”

With that, he clasped his hands behind his back in what his friends who had engaged in military serviced dubbed “parade rest” while he simply considered it comfortable. He grew silent for a long moment, choosing his words carefully. Although he had mentally composed this the night before, he wanted to run through this again anyway, to make sure that there remained no ambiguity.

“It brings me no pleasure to say this.” He began with a lie. In fact, it gave him some pleasure to say this. Instead, he gained no pleasure in the fact that the situation had reached the point of giving him pleasure to do this. He gained no pleasure in the situation, insofar as he had never envisioned reaching this point in the first place.

Yet, here they were.

“However, I’m here to tender my resignation, effective today.”

The psychiatrist had written an official memo about it, to comply with the regulations of the school. He had a stack of prescriptions that he had written for the students who took psychiatric medication, and he had already delivered those to be filled for the students in question.

[Yvette Morgenstern]

Of all the things Yvette might have expected, this was not one of them. And though she knew he was likely to be able to pick up on her surprise via his telepathy, her face did not betray her. "It brings me no pleasure to hear it. That is...surprising news, Sean."

It would be impossible to replace him expediently. No, it would be impossible to replace Sean Neville at all. There was no one else in the country--possibly the world--with his kind of experience. "Why so suddenly?"

[Dr. Sean Neville]

When planning his little speech, the telepath had opted to steer clear of emotional details. He planned only to give the bare bones facts: that he needed to leave this position now, that he had taken care with all of the files so that the students could receive continuing care in his absence, that he had written scripts for the students in the interim so that none of them would see a disruption in their medication plans, that he would abide by the confidentiality clause of his employment contract – both regarding patient details as well as regarding the inner workings of Hammel, and that, for the purposes of his employment status, technically he had chosen to retire. So that he could begin collecting his pension, the pension that he had paid into for nearly twenty-five years.

Instead, unwittingly perhaps, Yvette had asked a question to open the flood gates.

Staring down at her from where he stood, he asked her quite simply, “Have you ever had a teenager interrupt you in the middle of a lecture to brag about how good her girlfriend is at performing oral sex? Have you ever had a student try to use their powers to seduce you in order to get out of detention? Have you ever had to run a form of counseling designed for a group setting with a recalcitrant student one-on-one because of stubbornness or budgetary concerns?”

[Yvette Morgenstern]

No, Yvette had never experienced that. She'd had her own struggles, but she would never compare them to the work that Dr. Neville performed. Had performed.

There was no way she would be able to explain this to the Board.

"No. No one else has your experiences, Sean. That's why you're irreplaceable." Flattery, maybe. But it was true. Sean Neville was practically an institution within Hammel. "The Hammel Institute would suffer without you."

[Dr. Sean Neville]

“No,” Sean repeated, and he spread his hands. He was irreplaceable because of his experience, but the experience was slowly killing him. For years, no matter how stressful he found a particular student, or a particular problem, he never would have described his job as “soul-killing.” Yet he felt that way now.

Instead of feeling conflicted, now that he had admitted his plan, he felt only intense relief.

“I’m sure that Hammel will suffer without me.” At the moment, he could not muster the humility to pretend otherwise. He was an experienced psychiatrist. He had a great deal more patience than most other people. His telepathy provided an unquantifiable asset in both his medical work as well as from an administrative perspective. He acted as the first tier disciplinarian, to prevent the larger group of misbehaving students from crossing the threshold into Yvette’s office and becoming her problem. He acted as the advisor to one of the largest student groups, in addition to advising the peer mediators. He acted as a sounding board for several of the other faculty members, mostly younger than him these days. He handed out free advice to the young psychics in terms of emotional support while their trainers aided them in controlling their powers. He chaperoned every dance, every field trip, every retreat, every student fundraiser.

And, while he earned a salary commensurate with his education and experiences, and a generous benefits package, it remained a fraction of what he could charge in private practice. Every psychiatrist knew that and considered it when choosing not to work in school settings.

He shrugged then. “I simply can’t do this anymore.”

[Yvette Morgenstern]

"I don't know what else to say." Yvette said, hoping her thoughts wouldn't betray how blindsided she felt. She knew as well as anyone how critical Sean was to the school. "Other than I hope you can be persuaded to change your mind. Would you consider taking a leave of absence instead? Or a reduced schedule until we could find a replacement?"

Not that he could be replaced. The Headmistress was just trying to find some alternative. And if anyone knew who to look for in a new candidate...well, it was Sean.

[Dr. Sean Neville]

Sean also had nothing else to say.

Actually, he had plenty to say, but his combined senses of human kindness and professional propriety stopped him from delving into that. Prevented him from delving into his list of grievances, or about how blindsided he had felt when Claude had retired, or about how isolated he felt in his position, shackled by his duty of confidentiality to the students on the one hand and by his promise to keep Hammel’s secrets on the other.

“I can’t,” he admitted with a shake of his head and a serious expression on his features. Carefully, he kept his voice more neutral than the conversation deserved. “This is for my own sense of self as much as it is for efficiency or propriety. I can’t stay and that’s the end of the matter.”

Nobody at Hammel had ever seen him explode with frustration, no matter how bad the situation got. Thus far, he had managed to keep it to himself, at least until he was alone at home. Feeling as stressed as he did, feeling as trod upon as he did, he could no longer promise that such calm would continue. The telepath had to remove himself from that situation until it reached the breaking point.

As it was, he felt further along that spectrum than he had ever felt before, and it worsened every second he was in this office arguing over his right to autonomy.

[Yvette Morgenstern]

"That is...unfortunate." Yvette also kept her voice neutral, though her initial surprise was quickly turning to resentment for putting her in this situation. Why did he have to reach his breaking point now?

Still, she stood and held out her hand. Screaming at him--as much as she wished to--would benefit no one. "I am truly sorry to see you go."

[Dr. Sean Neville]

For both of their sakes, Sean hoped that Yvette could keep a lid on her resentment until after he had left her office. He could keep his frustration to himself as long as she provided no additional pressure, and so it was in their mutual best interest to get through this as cordially as possible.

The psychiatrist took her offered hand in one of his far larger ones, shaking it firmly. “I wish you luck with everything.”

Then, because he had not yet had the opportunity to make his other assurances, he quickly said, “I already wrote out prescriptions for the students to last through to graduation. If one of them needs a refill before that and the pharmacy takes issue with it, the on-call doctor should be able to handle it. My confidentiality agreement will still be in effect.”

Sean had no intention of penning a tell-all book revealing the dark secrets of the Hammel Institute. He had no desire to step foot on the grounds again, but he also had no desire to burn the school to the ground or to ruin its reputation to the point of being defunded.

For better or worse, the students needed somewhere to go.

At least until he got the other half of his plan off the ground.

[Yvette Morgenstern]

"Thank you," Yvette said as she shook Sean's hand. She could be polite, right up until tonight when she would get home--undoubtably very late--and vent to her husband. She nodded at his contingency plan for prescriptions, which was something she had not even considered yet. At least that was one thing she didn't have to handle right away. "That is a relief to hear. Thank you."

Before he left her office, Yvette added one more thing, "We will miss you, Sean."