A Shoulder to Lean On

It was days like this that made Brad want to quit his job. Not that he ever would--his dedication to science was bested only by his love for his wife and daughter--but the entire morning had been spent arguing about the resistance properties of the T100's power converters, time that would have been better spent working on the simonominatrix for the new Mach 2 Gravity Stabilizer. Honestly, it seemed like no one here had priorities anymore.

When the end of his shift came, Brad happily hung up his work gloves and began to head out of the lab; but he was stopped on the way by one of his younger associates--thankfully one that he was actually on good terms with.

"Sorry about them," Lamont apologized, as if it were something he had control over. "They take everything way too personally. Who knew that power converters could be such a hotly debatable topic?" Lamont snorted in laughter, to which Brad faked a smile at. Hey now. Power converters were serious business.

"I just want to get out of here," Brad responded grumpily with a shrug. "It's been a long day."

"Tell me about it. Say, did you hear the news?"

Brad raised a brow in suspicion. "News?"

"Yeah! Olive! She said yes!"

"Oh! Right! Congratulations!" Bradley had completely forgotten; Lamont had been planning on proposing for weeks, now... but Brad had had other more pressing matters on his mind.

"It's just going to be a small ceremony, since I don't have much family and hers is far away... But you're welcome to come."

"Yeah, of course! Once you've got the date settled, let me know."

"What about your own gal, huh?" Lamont smiled, his eyes thinned in a teasing manner. "How's she doing, now that the baby is here?"

"Great... I guess," Brad mumbled.

"Riiiiight..." Lamont smirked; he wasn't stupid. "What's wrong?"

"Well, everything really is okay, Margo's doing fine and Alesha healthy, but--"

"But, the hormones are driving you nuts, aren't they?" Lamont snickered.

"It's not just that. Alesha got a job teaching Elementary over at the school after she got pregnant, and one of the conditions they gave her was that she couldn't take a lot of maternity leave since they're in the middle of the school year."

"So?"

"So, she's been stressing out over finding a nanny, but unless either of us get a raise, I'm not sure we can afford one. I mean, we just bought the house, our car's about ready to fall apart... I'd prefer not to have to ask my parents for money, but it's looking like I might have to, and I'm not thrilled about it."

"Ah, I see," Lamont responded, tapping his lip. "That's a bit of a pickle. You just need someone to take care of Margo, right?"

"Yeah. I wish she'd just quit her job, but since she just got it, she's not willing to back away from  it."

"Well," Lamont said, tugging Brad in a bit closer so the scientists working behind them couldn't hear. "I hate to say it, bub, but... You've got two hands yourself, ya know. Use the tools you have available to you. You haven't taken a vacation in a while, see if you can take paternity leave. It might be nice to get some time away from here. I mean, all she really needs is a helping hand, right?"

Brad rolled his eyes as he pulled away. Fat chance. Like he was going to let this group of goons work on the T100 without him. And yet...

"You know, I think you have a good point, Lamont," Brad said, raising a finger into the air. It was as if a light-bulb of 'obvious!' went off in his mind. "I have to use what's available to me."

"What, going to ask her parents to help out?"

"Nope. I've got a better idea."

---

Amelia could hear the sounds from the rest of the hospital murmuring through the door of her exam room. There was stretcher wheels, a loud voice over the intercom, but none of it seemed close to her room. It felt as if she'd been abandoned there.

She'd really begun to hate hospitals.

But as she sat on the hard mattress that crinkled loudly every time she moved, she tried to keep focus on the reason why she was here; it wasn't because she loved the sounds, the abandoning, or the over-sterilized smell... No, she was here because something was wrong, something she wanted fixed.

They didn't really seem to be in any sort of a hurry to get back to her, though.

"This is unbelievable," she groaned after several more minutes passed. "Where the heck is he?" Sure, the doctor had said that everything would take a while, but at this rate, she may as well just go home and wait for them to call her back.

She instantly perked up, though, when she heard the doorknob to the room rattle, as if it were about to open.

"Sorry to keep you waiting, Miss Kane," the doctor said as walked into the room, all smiles despite the fact that his patient was clearly unhappy. "It took some time, but we finally have the results from all of your tests."

"What is it, Dr. Pesce?" Amelia said, immediately shooting up from the bed as he entered the room. "Am I dying? Do I have a tumor? It's okay, you don't have to lie to me, I can handle the truth. I just want to know what it is, so I can rest peacefully again, alright?"

"No, Amelia... It's nothing like that," Doctor Moe Pesce responded, shaking his head.

"So? Then... What's wrong with me, Doc?"

"Miss Kane, we've run every test that I can think of. A full blood work up, a full body scan... Everything is normal. You are a perfectly healthy young woman."

"But... But that's impossible," Amelia stuttered, fearing she might cry if there really was nothing he could do for her. "I can't sleep, I'm can't eat, but I'm constantly tired and depressed and irritable... I feel like I can't remember anything anyone's telling me, and can't focus on anything, and--"

"Amelia," Moe cut her off. "Physically, outside of your iron being slightly on the low side of normal, which is what we expected after the trauma your body experienced, there is nothing wrong with you. In fact, physically, you're much healthier than you were before you moved away from Twinbrook two years ago."

"Then... Then why am I like this?!"

"I know you're going to hate hearing this, Miss Kane, but I think you need to accept the possibility that this isn't a physical problem you're dealing with."

"What do you mean?" Amelia asked, urgent and frustrated.

Moe took a deep breath, realizing that this was going to be hard for his patient to understand. "I'm beginning to suspect that what you're experiencing is Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. It's fairly common for someone in your situation to be effected physically by what they experienced emotionally."

When he saw the look on her face begin to fall even more, he begrudgingly asked, "Have you been experiencing flashbacks of the event? Feeling paranoid that it's going to happen again?"

"I... I guess so," Amelia mumbled timidly. "But I thought that was... normal."

"In this case, perhaps it's normal, but certainly not a good thing. The increase in anxiety and stress can easily explain all of your symptoms." Moe cleared his throat when he noticed she was begin to look even more forlorn about her predicament. "Miss Kane... I'd like to recommend a psychiatrist. I'm afraid there is no simple cure for this, besides working through your experience with a trained profession."

"But... But I don't want to see a psychiatrist," Amelia said, looking abashed. "I'm not crazy. And I'm not really depressed. I mean, I am... But I'm... not... like, suicidal depressed..." She whimpered. Okay. She really didn't like this diagnosis, at all. Maybe if she went to another hospital, they'd find the tumor...

She paused for a moment, biting her lower lip, before asking, "Isn't there anything else you can do?"

"Honestly, Miss Kane, your best chances of recovery are with a therapist. There is no miracle cure for this type of disorder." Looking at the irritated expression she still wore, he continued, "However, there is a medication I can perscribe..."

"And what does it do?"

"It's an anti-depressant, anti-anxiety medication. It won't solve anything, but it will at least help alleviate the symptoms enough for you to go back to living comfortably again."

"And this... this is it?"

Doctor Pesce nodded, placing the pill into Amelia's hand. "Yes. It's taken once a day, but it isn't a cure by any means, so there's no telling how long you'd have to take it for. If you're looking to actually fix this, you're going to need to see a psychiatrist."

As Amelia turned her glance down from Moe to the pill, she scrunched her nose, considering her possibilities. Well, she could stuff one of these massive suckers down her throat once a day for the rest of her life, or she could see a shrink and suffer the public scrutiny of being labelled a crazy.

But, despite the undesirability of both options... she took a deep breath, and nodded, looking back up at her Doctor with a saddened smile. Well, at least he'd made the choice an easy one.

---

"Don't you dare try to smooth this over with that... that stupid... smooth talking of yours!" Jade yelled, balancing a baby in one arm as the other was flailed angrily at her husband. "I'm not going to let you off the hook easy this time!"

It was the third time this week that she'd done this. Despite all of Travis' attempts to say otherwise, Jade was being entirely unreasonable. First it was the mailwoman, then it was the bartender, then the waitress; apparently, Travis was sleeping around, just because he looked at them.

"Sweetheart, I swear, I was not ogling her. And I just gave her a good tip because she gave us good service, it had nothing to do with her--"

"Her chest?! Ugh, I don't care anymore, alright?! Just do what you want, look where you want. If it makes you happy, then... then fine."

"Jade... Please, sweetheart, I love you, you're making this out to be way--"

"Way what? Unreasonable?" Jade rolled her eyes. "You know what? Just go. Take the kids. I haven't had a lick of peace and quiet around here since Owen was born, and it's about time you actually spent some time with them, too."

"I, I.. uh, alright," Travis stuttered, agreeing just so that this argument would be finished already. At this point, Jade wasn't going to listen to a word he said. "Just gimme the keys to the van, I'll take Owen and Gracie out to the playground for a few hours, okay?"

With a roll of her eyes, Jade tossed her husband the keys and took their baby--Sally--into the other room. Man; this was just going to be one of those days, wasn't it?

Travis loaded his kids into the car as quickly as possible, but where they drove wasn't the park; instead, after several minutes the van pulled into a large house on Savannah Lane, where he just as quickly unloaded them both.

"Now, I want you to be good for your grandparents," Travis asked his son, wagging a commanding finger with one hand while he struggled to hold his daughter in the other. "And make sure that Gracie keeps out of trouble, alright?"

"O' course, Daddy!" Owen assured him, clearly not unhappy about the opportunity to visit Grandma and Grandpa.

"It's just a quick visit, though, so don't make yourselves too comfortable. I'll be back as soon as I can."

"Thank you so much for doing this on such short notice," Travis said hurriedly after he'd gotten the kids settled inside with their toys. "I just need you to watch them for an hour, maybe two... I'll be back as soon as I can."

Jebidiah, however, didn't look put out at all from the request. "They're my grandkids! Why wouldn't I want to look after them! Just a shame you aren't able to bring them over more often. What is it you said you needed to do, anyways?"

"Oh, just, er, take the car in for a check-up. Jade needs to stay at the house with Sally, but she wanted a break from all three for a bit so she could, ya know relax."

"Ooh! Well then, no problem. Glad I could help out."

Though Travis felt a bit awkward about it, when Jebidiah reached out his arms to embrace him, Travis extended his as well and pulled his father into a hug. "Thanks again, Dad," he mumbled into his ear.

"Anything for you, son."

The walk up to the house felt like it took ages. Each step was an admittance of guilt, one that he tried to make excuses for in his head... and failed. It wasn't that he hadn't thought about coming here--he'd just thought it was better not to. Or that he'd been busy. Or that... erm. What was she more likely to buy, that he was forgetful, a flake, or a loser?

But, what Jade had said had hit just the right chord with him: "It's about time you spent some time with your kids." And that's definitely what he intended to do...

... but it wasn't as easy as she made it out to be. Travis wasn't a kid person, nor was he really good at the whole 'dad' thing--so when Jade had gotten pregnant for the third time, he thought he was about ready to run away and escape.

Right now, though, wasn't about them. It was about him, and his mistakes... and about his inability to be the person he wanted to be. And, now, his fear about trying. "Alright, Travis," he muttered to himself, trying to rub his headache away through his temples. "You can do this."

With a deep breath, he raise a fist, and pounded his knuckles against the door.

After a few moments, he began to hear life coming from within. Not long after, the door slowly cranked open, revealing a little boy right behind.

"Oh... P-plumbob. MOM! Mom, he's here!"

With a cocky smile, Travis leaned against the door frame, looking down at the boy with a deep sigh in his lungs. "Hey... son," he responded to the boy's outburst. "Can I come in?"

"Yeah, yeah! Sorry, I just... I just can't believe--" the boy looked like he was going to burst with happiness; it made Travis' gut feel even more pained with guilt than before.

As he crossed the threshold, his eyes diverted to the woman entering the room from the other direction, her gaze trained on Travis as well with a coy, surprised smile.

"Well... This, I didn't expect," Lolly Racket murmured with a crease next to her eye. "It's been a while, Travis."

"I know," he responded with a smile, approaching Lolly with his arms extended. "And I'm sorry about that. There's no good excuses for it. But... I'm here, now. To see Nolan. To see you."

Lolly's smile was soft; time and experience had weathered her, leaving her accepting to the cards life dealt her. She'd given up on pushing Travis... And besides, seeing him now, of his own volition, was more satisfying than any other encounter ever could have been. "I'm glad, Travis," she responded in a warm, quiet voice. "We've missed you."

Her hand reached for his arm, and his for her shoulder; though he knew what was outside that door, waiting for him in another world, every care and worry that had settled on his shoulders faded away in this escape. Lolly asked for nothing, and cared little about what he did beyond these walls; but when he was there, everything was different. For a short while, he didn't have dishes to wash, a nagging wife, or crying children. He was allowed to simply exist.

And though he knew it was wrong, wrong to keep this secret from so many people he loved... He needed it. Something in him told him that without it,  he'd fall apart; and right now, that's all that mattered.

Her smile... Her touch.... Their son.