Nostrum
Title: Nostrum
Date posted: 11-12-08
Fandom: Alias
Disclaimer: Not mine, as always.
Notes: Written for alias500's challenge 'therapy.'
Nostrum, n
a usually questionable remedy
Emily takes Sydney to therapy once a week from December until March.
"If you really think it's necessary, my love," Arvin had said when she had suggested it. Sydney had spent Thanksgiving dinner under the vanity in her room, and her near-silence breaks Emily's heart, so she finds the best child psychologist in the area and makes an appointment.
She watches through a small window as Sydney colors pictures for the doctor. The first has Laura in heaven and Jack with what she says is an airplane, leaving a frowning, tear-streaked Sydney alone in the middle of the paper. The next week has Sydney drawing 'home'- complete with a smiling Laura- in one corner and another house under dark clouds diagonally from it. Sydney's small, sad face can be seen in the window.
The third week, the psychologist asks Sydney to draw who she lives with. She hesitates before drawing Emily with a cloud of blond curls. A few seconds later she adds Arvin, giving him thick-rimmed glasses and a crooked smile. She draws herself next to Emily with a small smile of her own.
"She seems to be adjusting as well as can be expected," the doctor tells Emily while Sydney puts a puzzle together. "Losing her mother was clearly traumatic, and her father should've-" she stops herself and smiles apologetically, "Sydney feels abandoned. She just needs to feel safe."
Emily follows the guidelines- she showers Sydney with affection, maintains a strict schedule and has consistent rules- and Sydney continues to sleep fitfully and play silently, a far cry from the happy child she'd been in October.
The Sloane buy a Christmas tree in December for the first time and Emily picks out dozens of gifts that she's carefully considered. Santa is equally as generous as the Sloanes, but Sydney, perhaps expecting a Christmas miracle, cries under the stairs for hours when she realizes that her father isn't coming.
"He should've been allowed to see her," Emily says to Arvin when they're getting ready for bed. "Sydney's suffered enough."
The pictures that Sydney draws at therapy continue to be heartrending until, suddenly, she starts drawing herself with big smiles in early March. "Sydney feels safe now," the doctor informs Emily with a smile. "I can't imagine she'll need to see me much longer."
When Jack comes home, Emily tells him about the therapy. She thinks that perhaps going back to living in that house without Laura might send Sydney back into her sadness, but she keeps that to herself. Jack's face is grim and tense when she tells him an edited version of Sydney's melancholy until Sydney appears at the top of the stairs, incandescent with delight.
"I think she'll be fine, Emily," he says, and he catches Sydney in a hug.
Date posted: 11-12-08
Fandom: Alias
Disclaimer: Not mine, as always.
Notes: Written for alias500's challenge 'therapy.'
Nostrum, n
a usually questionable remedy
Emily takes Sydney to therapy once a week from December until March.
"If you really think it's necessary, my love," Arvin had said when she had suggested it. Sydney had spent Thanksgiving dinner under the vanity in her room, and her near-silence breaks Emily's heart, so she finds the best child psychologist in the area and makes an appointment.
She watches through a small window as Sydney colors pictures for the doctor. The first has Laura in heaven and Jack with what she says is an airplane, leaving a frowning, tear-streaked Sydney alone in the middle of the paper. The next week has Sydney drawing 'home'- complete with a smiling Laura- in one corner and another house under dark clouds diagonally from it. Sydney's small, sad face can be seen in the window.
The third week, the psychologist asks Sydney to draw who she lives with. She hesitates before drawing Emily with a cloud of blond curls. A few seconds later she adds Arvin, giving him thick-rimmed glasses and a crooked smile. She draws herself next to Emily with a small smile of her own.
"She seems to be adjusting as well as can be expected," the doctor tells Emily while Sydney puts a puzzle together. "Losing her mother was clearly traumatic, and her father should've-" she stops herself and smiles apologetically, "Sydney feels abandoned. She just needs to feel safe."
Emily follows the guidelines- she showers Sydney with affection, maintains a strict schedule and has consistent rules- and Sydney continues to sleep fitfully and play silently, a far cry from the happy child she'd been in October.
The Sloane buy a Christmas tree in December for the first time and Emily picks out dozens of gifts that she's carefully considered. Santa is equally as generous as the Sloanes, but Sydney, perhaps expecting a Christmas miracle, cries under the stairs for hours when she realizes that her father isn't coming.
"He should've been allowed to see her," Emily says to Arvin when they're getting ready for bed. "Sydney's suffered enough."
The pictures that Sydney draws at therapy continue to be heartrending until, suddenly, she starts drawing herself with big smiles in early March. "Sydney feels safe now," the doctor informs Emily with a smile. "I can't imagine she'll need to see me much longer."
When Jack comes home, Emily tells him about the therapy. She thinks that perhaps going back to living in that house without Laura might send Sydney back into her sadness, but she keeps that to herself. Jack's face is grim and tense when she tells him an edited version of Sydney's melancholy until Sydney appears at the top of the stairs, incandescent with delight.
"I think she'll be fine, Emily," he says, and he catches Sydney in a hug.