(Untitled)

[wpc_ridinghood]

A week and a half may not have been a particularly long time, but it certainly felt like it, especially when it included a change in weather and learning some news that Annie couldn't decide was bad or good. 'Avoiding' wouldn't be the right word for what she'd been doing - it wasn't in her nature to straight out avoid people - but she would have

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[29dayslater]

It isn't like Jim's really there willingly. He's walked himself down, sure, and he's made sure it's at a time when Annie'll be there, but therapy is not something he actually believes in. He'd rather forget the entire experience happened than talk about it, but his problem is that he can't forget. Especially not now with half a burned bat propped up in the corner of his hut like it's accusing him of something.

Maybe it is. Maybe his own brain's turning against him, he doesn't know.

As it is, he waits until he's sure Annie's going to be there, because if Jim's going to talk to anyone about this, it'll be her, and almost reluctantly walks over to the office.

Jim pauses in the doorway, crosses his still too thin arms and leans against the frame. "You call this a job?" he calls out teasingly, though he still doesn't move. It's almost like the door is the last step or something, and he still isn't sure he wants to do this.

He just mostly wants everything to be fucking over.

[wpc_ridinghood]

At the sound of the familiar voice, Annie set down her cup, looking up with a grin. "It's about as close to one as I think you can get here, yeah," she teased in return. She looked away for a moment, to put away a few papers, but when she turned back to the doorway, she gestured to the chair across from her. "Come on in."

[29dayslater]

Jim hesitates, pictures himself crossing some kind of invisible line drawn on the floor, then reminds himself just fucking why he's there, and it's not just to talk to Annie. Even if he'll be just happy doing that, he's there to talk to Annie.

"I need to talk," he says as he makes his way over to sit down, "about stuff. From before here." At least, if he's finally going to do this, Annie knows what Jim looked like when he showed up. He still cringes a bit when he thinks about threatening her with a giant stick.

[wpc_ridinghood]

It wasn't quite what Annie was expecting when she saw Jim, but she nodded slowly, a more serious expression setting in on her face. She'd never much wanted to question Jim's 'before,' with the circumstances of his arrival coupled with the bat she found him with in the snow, but she'd known from the start that it had to be something unpleasant.

"All right," she said reassuringly, almost gently. "Of course. Anything you need."