Dr. Linda Martin's office, Baltimore, Friday

[betterthanaplan]

Duke's regular therapy appointments tended to meander around the day of the week, but he'd managed to be in Linda's office pretty much weekly. And he was there today, slouched on her couch, wondering when this whole therapy process would feel less like he was auditioning for something.

At some point this would feel normal, right?

Right?

[for the doctor, natch, and likely some slowplay!]

Comments

[exasperangel]

"You're not doing this for her," Linda pointed out. "You're doing this for you. To free up a part of yourself that, whether you like it or not, she currently owns."

[betterthanaplan]

Duke shuddered faintly at that.

“Yeah. Alright.”

[exasperangel]

"That's all we're doing with any of this," Linda said, her tone growing even more gentle. "Making sure you can make the decisions you want to make. Not the ghosts of the abusive people you grew up around."

[betterthanaplan]

"Which apparently requires me to put way too much energy into thinking about them." Duke shook his head. "I said alright."

[exasperangel]

Linda nodded. "Alright," she said. She folded her hands together. "Was there anything else you wanted to talk about today?"

[betterthanaplan]

"Nah. I . . . guess we've covered everything." And anything he tried to talk about now would have the specter of homework hanging over it. "Thanks again, Doc."

[exasperangel]

"See you next week, Duke," Linda said, smiling. "...And don't forget to remind your boyfriend that we're still stuck in Baltimore."