Discovery Devotion Destiny

Accepting Change

"One has to accept that change is the only constant in our" lives.

-Johnny Lever

The grating sound of metal scraping echoed in the room. A sweet, delicate hand holds the blade as it's dragged again and again across the whetstone. In one swift move, the blade goes flying across the room piercing one of many photographs of one Dr. Katherine Queen, affixed to the wall.

"You know there were fewer holes in these walls before you moved in." a voice spoke from the door. "I mean, I think everyone gets it. You hate her, but maybe you shouldn't take that hatred out on the very expensive walls of my house."

"This plan is taking too long."

"Yeah, well we thought she would die in the coma, and now she's up and about, so now the new plan is in effect. Right now we move at the whim of Prometheus, and so we wait."

"Well, I'm not sure I can."

There was a weird sculpture Katie found herself staring at, that stole her from the moment. It was a red clay sculpture of a kneeling woman, her arms crossed over her forehead. There was something about it that drew her in. Katie was currently in the middle of her third therapy session with an old friend, Nicholas Adams. The therapist had just asked a question before glancing up to see the woman seemingly enamored by his sculpture.

"It was a gift," he stood to his feet and stood beside her as he looked at the sculpture as well. "From an old friend. I guess she picked it up in some small village in Mali. She said it had a cool story that she would share when she came back."

"What's the story?"

Nick cleared his throat, dropping his eyes from the sculpture. "No idea. She was killed one night by a roadside bomb." Katie frowned, glancing over her shoulder to the man who looked back over to the sculpture. "Now I will never know." he glanced back down to the notepad before looking back over to Katie. "I asked how everything was going, at home." she didn't answer the question and he sighed. Trying to get her to talk was like pulling teeth. It reminded him of their earlier sessions from years ago. She had up that wall, keeping everyone out. He just had to figure out how to once again get around it. "You know I can only imagine how strange it must be to wake up one day and find out your life has just moved on without you."

"I doubt whatever you do imagine could come close to how I feel right now," Katie muttered as she walked off to stand by the window. Nick chuckled at the move.

"You know I've always wondered why you do that."

"Do what?" she kept her eyes out the window.

"Why you gravitate toward the window in the room whenever you find yourself in a conversation you'd rather not be in." he walked over to take a seat in his chair, before tossing down the notepad to look over to her. "I have a theory though. Care to hear it?"

"Knock yourself out."

"Ok, well I think you like to stand near windows because you've spent an awful lot of time feeling trapped," he watched the slight tensing of her shoulders. "Windows, both figuratively and literally are an opening to the outside world. A way to escape." she didn't say anything, and Nick sighed as he slid a hand across his chin. "I told you in our first session that this only works if you talk to me. What is happening to you is traumatic, and I know you have to have some kind of thoughts about it."

Katie closed her eyes and dropped her head against the window. She hated coming to these sessions. Not because she didn't think they could help, because she knew they could. She's witnessed patients find themselves out of dark places through therapy, and yet she found it difficult to open her mouth and let her feelings just come spilling out. She knew it was from years of being surrounded by people who only had ulterior motives...people who never really wanted to help her, only use her for something they wanted. She lifted her head and looked over to Nick who sat watching her, waiting for her to say something. When she looked at him, she didn't see a man with an ulterior motive, she never did. It was just hard to shake years of conditioning...years of being taught to trust no one. She glanced back out the window, realizing she'd already broken that rule by allowing herself to be pulled into a family she had no memory of and had no intention of ever leaving. And so she turned and walked over to sit in front of Nick.