How Do I... Help? Please? (Sean)

[Dr. Sean Neville]

Jeff’s ideas about gender roles were completely inane, and Sean was heartened to know that at least one, and possibly all, of the boy’s siblings recognized that. Since Jeff remained uninterested in dating, marriage, or fatherhood at present, it gave home for future generations of the McIntosh family that they need not learn those same toxic opinions. If only the competing views of society – often no less toxic albeit somewhat less antiquated – were as easily discarded and ignored.

The psychiatrist knew that it could be difficult to discard what society said, particularly if the messages were frequent and constant in their underlying tone, albeit varying in the specifics. Those were the effects of widespread institutionalized and societal prejudices, but they had to fight them one person at a time.

Sean smiled gently at her. “It’s everyone. My peers as a student were just as nervous as you are right now.” There had been no openly transgender students during his time at Hammel, but it had also been a completely different time. Homosexuality had remained a psychiatric disorder until he had been sixteen. However, insofar as general dating went, all of the other teenagers had been just as awkward and self-conscious as Joelle was. Even the ones who had put on a brave face had engaged in a certain degree of posturing; most of the people who felt no nervousness had done so from experience, and so the situations differed too much to count.

With her other acknowledgment, Sean’s expression grew more serious for the moment, nodding a single time. “Good.” He wanted the students to understand affirmative consent and that they had a right to maintain their own boundaries, and he wanted nobody to be taken advantage of. He emphasized that during his annual seminar, but also worked with the students one-on-one to hammer the point. Then the smile returned to his lips and he added, “Please tell me how it goes.”

[Joelle McIntosh]

At the very least Joelle and Nick were well aware of Jeff's attitude. David, maybe not, but he was also still in the transition period between girls being interesting and girls being gross. At least he hadn't seemed to display the same set of values so far, though now Jo was away from home, who knew what their youngest brother was up to.

Dr. Neville seemed so calm, it was hard to think of him at her age, being nervous about dating. But the knowledge that everyone got butterflies over it was a true relief. Kit had told her not to worry about it, and it wasn't that she was scared of Koty. Quite the opposite, really. He was charming, and gentle, and seemed like a real gentleman. It was a change from most of the boys she'd known. Granted, he was also a little older. Heck, he was the same age as her oldest brother, Nick. (For that reason, she had to wonder what he'd think about all this, and it was part of why she hadn't really told him about this yet. They were close, yes, but... he was also protective.) "That helps, actually. A lot." If adults were nervous as teenagers, then she had every right to be as well.

His request brought a bright smile to her face. "Of course I will!" She'd come back to him either way. A promise was a promise. If it went well, she'd be happy to come back. And if it went poorly... she'd probably want to see him anyway. But she was hoping for the former outcome. "Thank you so, so much Dr. Neville."

[Dr. Sean Neville]

For everyone’s sake, Sean hoped that the youngest McIntosh sibling took after Joelle or Nick rather than Jeff. There already existed too many who shared Jeff’s retrograde opinions about gender roles, and the world didn’t need yet another one. Should David manifest as meta-human, the psychiatrist would have the ability to assess his attitudes.

Sean was calm now; he was also fifty-eight-year-old, thirty-two years with his medical degree, forty years out of high school, and forty-six years after developing his telepathy. Life experience provided him with a level of calm that he had never expected he would develop, not when he was her age, and certainly not when he had first arrived at Hammel. Robert had spent years assuring him that he would grow into this calm and comfort, but the younger telepath had doubted that. Yet, as always, his mentor had been right. But as a teenager, he had been panicked about asking Maggie Donovan out the first time, convinced that she would turn him down, convinced that he was pressing his luck by asking her out in the first place; she was the only person willing to be his friend, and he hadn’t wanted to lose her friendship because of his crush. It had worked out; they had dated until graduating from Hammel, and they still spoke occasionally.

Those early dates had been worth it.

The psychiatrist smiled gently at Joelle. “That’s what I’m here for. Now, make sure to have a good time.”

He would hear all about it the week afterward.