RP: I'm Sorry

[shh_andromeda]

Date: April 9, 2005
Characters: Orla Quirke, Andromeda and Ted Tonks.
Location: The Tonks residence
Status: Private
Summary: Ted has another session with Orla and perhaps gains some new insight.
Completion: Incomplete

Andy walked around the living room aimlessly, waiting for Orla to come for Ted's appointment.  She hadn't spoken to Ted since their blow

Comments

[shh_ted]

There had to be a rut forming in the floor by now as Ted paced back and forth upstairs. Was there really any point to this? And how the hell was he supposed to talk about any sort of a problem, when the biggest problem in his life right now would be sitting right next to him?

Four days later and he was still seething. How could she not see? How was it possible that she would dismiss his worries as paranoia? He wasn't paranoid! She might as well just call him crazy and have done with it!

Orla would be here any minute, but there was no way he was going downstairs before the other woman arrived. No sense in making things worse.

[shh_orla]

Orla knocked at the front door, mentally reviewing what she planned to address that day. When Andy opened the door, however, it was clear that her schedule was going to have to be put aside in favor of addressing whatever was bothering Andy or Ted or both.

"Good afternoon, Mrs. Tonks. I'm sorry I missed you at our last session. Ted was very focused on learning the techniques we'd be using for the regression treatments." She looked at Andy then Ted, who had come down stairs when she came in.

"Well, shall we get comfortable?" Orla took the lead, considering their obvious tension, and when they were seated in the living room, she said, "So." She was going to leave it to the fighting couple to start the conversation, because otherwise, it would seem like favoritism to ask one over the other, and since she hadn't initially been contracted for marriage counselling, she'd best wait until they brought it up.

[shh_andromeda]

Andy sat, crossing her legs and arms over her chest in one smooth motion. If Ted wouldn't listen to her, maybe he'd listen to Orla. It seemed her opinion weighed more than his own wife's. "Ms. Quirke, let me explain something. My family was steeped in dark traditions and dark magic. They revelled in it. I and my cousin were the odd people out as we followed our own drummer and refused to participate in the Dark Arts. Then when I met and started dating Ted, my family disowned me because he was Muggleborn

[shh_orla]

Orla listened carefully to Andromeda, who was obviously feeling put upon. Ted remained silent throught the recitation, so Orla had only to assume that Andy was giving a pretty accurate description.

"Well," She began, casting about for something to open Ted up. "I can see this has been very frustrating and upsetting. For the both of you. " She emphasized. "However, I'm not in the business of ordering anyone, even patients, to think or feel contrary to how they might otherwise express."

"Mrs. Tonks, you said this upsets Ted, but you don't want to give up your reforged relationship with your sister. Mr. Tonks, you are convinced that there is a plot underway to cause your wife harm. Can you tell me what makes you think that? What do you envision as being the worst case scenarios that might happen? Please remember your breathing, Mr. Tonks, like we talked about last week." Orla made her voice as noncommital as she could, and as compassionate to both sides as they might be able to stand hearing

[shh_ted]

His stomach had clenched the moment the knock on the door had sounded up the stairs and had tightened further when he'd walked down and seen Andy standing by the door. The process continued through her little speech, so that by the time Orla asked him to explain his own side of things, he thought he might actually get sick from the hard knot twisting inside him.

"Worst case scenario?? You're kidding, right?" He stared at Orla. "Let's see...my wife is associating with a woman with ties to the Death Eaters that goes back twenty-five years. She happens to move into town soon after Andy does, after I've been captured, and makes inquiries around the neighborhood as to where Andy lives. Are you honestly going to tell me that that doesn't sound suspicious in any way?"

[shh_orla]

"Mr. Tonks, I want you to focus. Look at me." Orla maintained eye contact. "Breathe with me. In. Hold. Out. Again." She repeated this a few more times, to get Ted to settle a bit. He was wound so tight, it was little wonder Andy looked so distressed. Orla didn't know if he had reason. Better safe than sorry

[shh_ted]

The breathing exercises helped. Sort of. He didn't really listen to most of what she said after that, though he caught something about not taking sides and meeting in the middle. None of it seemed to register, caught up as he was in wracking his memory for those oddly missing pieces of the past couple of days. It was only when Orla raised her voice to get his attention that it dawned on him that she'd already asked him those same questions twice now.

"Oh...sorry," he muttered, shaking his head again. "I'm having a hard time...remembering. We...um...well, we had that fight on Thursday afternoon, and then I..." His voice trailed off again. "I think I slept well. At least I don't remember any nightmares. And then Friday I just...walked around the house and - well, I guess I was pretty angry, didn't get much done, and I don't think I wrote in the journal that day. And Friday night, I think I slept well again." The feeling of unease was definitely growing. That was impossible. He always had nightmares, every night without

[shh_andromeda]

Seeing how alarmed Ted was getting stood and crossed over to where he was sitting on the couch. She sat next to him and took his hand in hers forgetting for the moment at least their problems. "Shh, love, calm down," she murmured. "Yes, you wrote in it. You left it open on the desk and I saw that you'd written an entry, but I didn't read what it said."

She lifted his hand to her lips and kissed the back of it, hoping to comfort and calm him in some small way.

[shh_orla]

"Mr. Tonks, listen to me. Focus on my voice. Keep breathing. In. Out. In. Out. Do you feel your wife holding your hand? She's here, she is safe. You are safe. I want you to keep concentrating on your breathing. ONLY your breathing. I want you to forget everything else. Don't think about it. Just focus on the in and out." Orla spoke calmly, deliberately, but with force, when she saw how close Ted was to going over the edge. "These things will help you. Stay focused on what helps, Mr. Tonks. In. Out. Nod if you understand. Don't speak, just breathe

[shh_ted]

Orla's explanation left his head spinning. Too much to take in at once. "So, basically what you're saying," he said, wanting to make sure he (mostly) got all of that, "is that whatever happened to me is bad enough that my mind... can't handle it, and just...shuts down...but the medicine will help with that?"

At her nod, he sank back into silence, mulling over all of that. It didn't sound as though she wanted to sedate him into good behaviour. It in fact sounded to him like this might help. Unlike many of the Wizarding community, Ted trusted Muggle medicine well enough, so while the rambling list of strange scientific names left him in the dust, he wasn't averse to trying out this strange experiment the counselor suggested.

Well, no more than he objected to any kind of treatment. None of this was easy.

Beggars can't be choosers, he reminded himself bitterly, glancing over at Andy. We can't go on like this."All right, well, now what?" he asked, gaze skewing back to Orla. "Are we...that is, do you think there's any point in me going

[shh_orla]

"We can." Orla wanted him to have at least something to be proud of from this session. Too often a person wanted to beat themselves up over a percieved lack of progress. She looked at Andy. "How about we go from room to room, and you both tell me what you remember about the weekend?"

[shh_ted]

Ted smiled, weak but genuine, when Andy took his arm and the two of them went off through the house, detailing what they could recall of the last several days. He himself was more than a little uneasy over how much of that time period seemed to have evaporated from his memory - there simply wasn't anything there when he tried to recollect what had happened at a certain time

[shh_andromeda]

"I put it away, love." She moved over to the desk and opened his drawer to take it out. "It was just lying there while I was tidying up and I didn't want you to lose it or have Juneau spill something on it," she explained while walking back to her husband with the notebook in hand.