Facing Your Fears - Chapter Two
So this chapter isn't as long as I'd hoped (please don't hurt me) but I'm trying to set up the rest of the story so I'll try and make the next one a bit longer. Thanks again to wallygreengiant for her help. She really is the best and probably deserves a medal ;) Enjoy!
The college dorm was littered with kids either lazily milling about or hastily running through the corridors. There was no in-between for the youth of today; either their current appointment was the most important thing in the world and they couldn't get there fast enough, or they had the rest of their lives to get there and could take their sweet time.
Cal made his way through the throngs that lined the corridors, ignoring the strange looks and calls of 'Hey Grandpa!' that he received. He paused momentarily outside room 42, fist raised in the air as he re-thought about his idea to come here. Foster was right though, he needed to talk to someone and he couldn't think of anywhere else to go. With that his fist made contact with the wood, giving three short raps on the door.
There was a flurry of movement and some choice curse words as he heard a loud clang before the door was yanked open. Before him stood a smiling 25 year old, raven hair pulled back into a messy bun and pieces falling around her face, she wore a cream t-shirt and dark jeans and her feet were bare. A smile lit up her face after a millisecond of shock and she welcomed him warmly.
"Dr. Lightman! What a nice surprise, come in."
She ushered him inside, grabbing clothes off every surface in the room and throwing them into an open closet in the corner. He took his time surveying the room and comparing it with the room of his teenage daughter at home: they were eerily similar.
"Sorry about the mess, I wasn't expecting company."
"Oh don't worry about it, I kind of popped by didn't I?"
Cal noticed the volume of books that were scattered around the room, several of which he had written. The closest one to him was a detailed guide of Virtual Reality for Post-Traumatic Stress. He smiled as he glanced the picture of Foster on inside cover of that one. Tearing his gaze away from Foster's book he saw that the young woman was watching him with an amused smile.
Kate Alexander had joined the Lightman Group as an intern 6 years ago and straight away her talent was evident. She wasn't a natural like Ria but she was a very smart girl and an extremely fast learner. Foster had taken to her right away and you could almost say Kate was her protégé. She had shadowed Foster like Ria now shadowed Cal and it was during her time there that her love for psychology developed and now here she was in her first year studying for her PhD.
"We just finished up a tough case."
"Ya, I heard about it on the news. Good job."
She smiled and sat down on the bed, throwing her legs under her as she did, and gestured for Cal to take a seat. He flopped into the nearest one at her desk, glancing at her notes on clinical psychology that sat open under the lamp.
"Ya so it wasn't a nice case, really bad guy we had to deal with and it just...it just...it just got to me."
She frowned at his inarticulateness and sat forward, encouraging him to continue. He sighed and rubbed a hand across his face, clearly frustrated.
"Well I don't like talking to psychiatrists, the only person good enough at that kind of thing is Foster and she's...she's too close to this. So I figure, you're mini-Foster so you'd be the next best thing. I was hoping I could...talk to you about things, like this case. Just why it bothered me and that kind of thing."
He finished by grinning at her. With his request out of the way his confidence had returned and he began to twirl slightly on the chair. His grin increased as he watched her struggle to comprehend what he meant and then, once understanding had settled, struggle to find the right words to express what she was feeling.
"Dr. Lightman...I don't...I'm still in college. You want to talk to a psychology student instead of a trained psychiatrist?"
"Exactly. Horribly overpriced, psychiatrists are, and you live in a one bedroom dorm that is smaller than my office so I'm guessing you'll accept minimum wage for this. And don't forget who you shadowed for the 2 years you worked at the Lightman Group, you were trained by the best."
Kate stood from the bed and began pacing the length of the room, which was only 2 strides because of how small the room was. She pushed the wayward pieces of hair back from her face and spun to face Cal once more.
"I don't understand Dr. Lightman."
Cal rolled his eyes and reached for the notebook on the desk, he grabbed the glasses sitting on top at the same time and pressed them into her hands before pushing her into a seat on the bed once more.
"Look, I'm gonna talk and you're gonna make some notes here and help me discover, out of all the cases I've worked, why this one is affecting me so much. Got it?"
He waited for her to nod before once more sitting back against the desk and staring at her. She placed the glasses on the bridge of her nose, reached for a pen that was on the locker beside the bed and placed the tip on the page.
"You're a strange man, Dr. Lightman."
She smiled as she spoke and he took this as a sign that he could start talking. Problem was he didn't know where to start. He didn't usually talk about this kind of thing and he couldn't find the right words to begin to describe what had happened.
"Right, well we're gonna take this slow, ok? I'll start with something easy: home life. Nothing exciting there. Emily got her driving license recently, of course that was after she crashed my car so that license won't be used for a while."
Kate scribbled furiously as he spoke, every now and then asking questions and once holding her hand up in order to stop him as her hand caught up with his mouth. After an hour of Cal talking about his home life and his day to day run-ins with the Group's employees, Kate's hand began to cramp from writing.
"Dr. Lightman, I have class in half an hour, can we continue this another time?"
"Absolutely, same time tomorrow? I'll bring lunch and maybe a clothes hanger or two, how can you live with the entire contents of your wardrobe scattered over the room?"
"Have you seen the room? I can barely fit the bed and desk in here so it doesn't take that long to find anything."
Cal laughed as he stood up and grasped the door handle. He watched as Kate gathered books and shoved them unceremoniously into a bag, her glasses hanging crookedly off the edge of her nose. It struck him as odd that this young woman who was in every way the same as Foster professionally, was so unlike her in every other way. Where Foster exuded grace and elegance, Kate was unorganised and messy; but he wouldn't trust anyone else with this.
With a final farewell called over his shoulder he made his way out of the room and back into the dangerous youth cluttered hallway.
So the Cal/Gillian stuff will be coming up later, anyone who knows me knows how much I love the Callian fluff!
Till then please review and let me know what you think :D
The college dorm was littered with kids either lazily milling about or hastily running through the corridors. There was no in-between for the youth of today; either their current appointment was the most important thing in the world and they couldn't get there fast enough, or they had the rest of their lives to get there and could take their sweet time.
Cal made his way through the throngs that lined the corridors, ignoring the strange looks and calls of 'Hey Grandpa!' that he received. He paused momentarily outside room 42, fist raised in the air as he re-thought about his idea to come here. Foster was right though, he needed to talk to someone and he couldn't think of anywhere else to go. With that his fist made contact with the wood, giving three short raps on the door.
There was a flurry of movement and some choice curse words as he heard a loud clang before the door was yanked open. Before him stood a smiling 25 year old, raven hair pulled back into a messy bun and pieces falling around her face, she wore a cream t-shirt and dark jeans and her feet were bare. A smile lit up her face after a millisecond of shock and she welcomed him warmly.
"Dr. Lightman! What a nice surprise, come in."
She ushered him inside, grabbing clothes off every surface in the room and throwing them into an open closet in the corner. He took his time surveying the room and comparing it with the room of his teenage daughter at home: they were eerily similar.
"Sorry about the mess, I wasn't expecting company."
"Oh don't worry about it, I kind of popped by didn't I?"
Cal noticed the volume of books that were scattered around the room, several of which he had written. The closest one to him was a detailed guide of Virtual Reality for Post-Traumatic Stress. He smiled as he glanced the picture of Foster on inside cover of that one. Tearing his gaze away from Foster's book he saw that the young woman was watching him with an amused smile.
Kate Alexander had joined the Lightman Group as an intern 6 years ago and straight away her talent was evident. She wasn't a natural like Ria but she was a very smart girl and an extremely fast learner. Foster had taken to her right away and you could almost say Kate was her protégé. She had shadowed Foster like Ria now shadowed Cal and it was during her time there that her love for psychology developed and now here she was in her first year studying for her PhD.
"We just finished up a tough case."
"Ya, I heard about it on the news. Good job."
She smiled and sat down on the bed, throwing her legs under her as she did, and gestured for Cal to take a seat. He flopped into the nearest one at her desk, glancing at her notes on clinical psychology that sat open under the lamp.
"Ya so it wasn't a nice case, really bad guy we had to deal with and it just...it just...it just got to me."
She frowned at his inarticulateness and sat forward, encouraging him to continue. He sighed and rubbed a hand across his face, clearly frustrated.
"Well I don't like talking to psychiatrists, the only person good enough at that kind of thing is Foster and she's...she's too close to this. So I figure, you're mini-Foster so you'd be the next best thing. I was hoping I could...talk to you about things, like this case. Just why it bothered me and that kind of thing."
He finished by grinning at her. With his request out of the way his confidence had returned and he began to twirl slightly on the chair. His grin increased as he watched her struggle to comprehend what he meant and then, once understanding had settled, struggle to find the right words to express what she was feeling.
"Dr. Lightman...I don't...I'm still in college. You want to talk to a psychology student instead of a trained psychiatrist?"
"Exactly. Horribly overpriced, psychiatrists are, and you live in a one bedroom dorm that is smaller than my office so I'm guessing you'll accept minimum wage for this. And don't forget who you shadowed for the 2 years you worked at the Lightman Group, you were trained by the best."
Kate stood from the bed and began pacing the length of the room, which was only 2 strides because of how small the room was. She pushed the wayward pieces of hair back from her face and spun to face Cal once more.
"I don't understand Dr. Lightman."
Cal rolled his eyes and reached for the notebook on the desk, he grabbed the glasses sitting on top at the same time and pressed them into her hands before pushing her into a seat on the bed once more.
"Look, I'm gonna talk and you're gonna make some notes here and help me discover, out of all the cases I've worked, why this one is affecting me so much. Got it?"
He waited for her to nod before once more sitting back against the desk and staring at her. She placed the glasses on the bridge of her nose, reached for a pen that was on the locker beside the bed and placed the tip on the page.
"You're a strange man, Dr. Lightman."
She smiled as she spoke and he took this as a sign that he could start talking. Problem was he didn't know where to start. He didn't usually talk about this kind of thing and he couldn't find the right words to begin to describe what had happened.
"Right, well we're gonna take this slow, ok? I'll start with something easy: home life. Nothing exciting there. Emily got her driving license recently, of course that was after she crashed my car so that license won't be used for a while."
Kate scribbled furiously as he spoke, every now and then asking questions and once holding her hand up in order to stop him as her hand caught up with his mouth. After an hour of Cal talking about his home life and his day to day run-ins with the Group's employees, Kate's hand began to cramp from writing.
"Dr. Lightman, I have class in half an hour, can we continue this another time?"
"Absolutely, same time tomorrow? I'll bring lunch and maybe a clothes hanger or two, how can you live with the entire contents of your wardrobe scattered over the room?"
"Have you seen the room? I can barely fit the bed and desk in here so it doesn't take that long to find anything."
Cal laughed as he stood up and grasped the door handle. He watched as Kate gathered books and shoved them unceremoniously into a bag, her glasses hanging crookedly off the edge of her nose. It struck him as odd that this young woman who was in every way the same as Foster professionally, was so unlike her in every other way. Where Foster exuded grace and elegance, Kate was unorganised and messy; but he wouldn't trust anyone else with this.
With a final farewell called over his shoulder he made his way out of the room and back into the dangerous youth cluttered hallway.
So the Cal/Gillian stuff will be coming up later, anyone who knows me knows how much I love the Callian fluff!
Till then please review and let me know what you think :D