corbyn's voice was quiet as he messed with his fingers in his lap. sitting across from his therapist quietly.
"i-i don't know how, o-or why, but he did."
"and how's that make you feel?"
the woman's voice was gentle, cautious. charlotte making sure she didn't trigger the boy.
"scared." corbyn's voice broke, the brunette bottom lip now trembling. "i-i don't want what happened to happen again. i can't.."
charlotte watched as the boy slowly began to dissociate, his face turning blank as tears continued to slide down his face.
corbyn was one of her more complex patients, he'd been through too much for a boy his age. it seemed like no matter how hard he tried, no matter how much progress he'd made, something would always come back to undo it.
theo looked up at the woman in front of him, his previously innocent eyes now sporting a more protected, guarded look. the alter crossed his arms over his chest, leaning back in his seat a little bit as he forced the body to calm down.
theo laughed to himself. corbyn was never great at handling his emotions.
truth be told, theo had been mistaken for a persecutor far too many times for his liking. he was most certainly not. he loved the every member of the system, especially corbyn. he was just also the first one to admit the host was a little bit too in tune with his emotions. he wasn't calling the boy a cry-baby or anything, he just wished he knew how to take some more deep breaths in the instance one of them weren't able to do it for him.
"are you back with me?"
theo looked back up at the person patiently watching him. he hadn't talked to this new therapist too many times, if not for the big name tag residing on the woman's desk, he would've totally forgotten her name.
the boy nodded distractedly, eyes tracing the room a little bit, examining his surroundings before observing the woman. the boy meet the kind eyes of charlotte, watching as the woman studied his posture, "who's here right now?"
"theo."
charlotte remembered meeting this alter once. it was one of her earlier sessions with corbyn. she'd made the mistake of prying a little bit too much into his home life as the boy was quick to show tears trailing down his face, quickly dissociating as theo fronted.
"hey theo, remember me?"
the trauma holder shook his head, blinking at the coloring books pressed into the corner, "why do you have coloring books?"
charlotte followed theo's pointing finger, meeting the stack of coloring books that were in fact pushed into the corner of her comfortable office. "isaac's fronted more than a few times, just wanted to make sure he was comfortable. besides, some of my other paitents require a less formal approach to open up, it's a win-win."
theo nodded, appreciation filtering through his movements as he continued to study the room. almost as if remembering his manners, the boy's eyes snapped up to meet the woman's once again, "i'm sorry, i don't remember you. i'm theo."
charlotte took the boy's hand in hers, shaking it politely, "all's forgiven. my name is dr. charlotte blaine, but, please, call me charlie. do you remember why you fronted?"
"i'm guessing it has something to do with brett? a little bit to do what happened a couple years back? those are the main triggers."
the woman nodded at the boy in front of her, "is corbyn doing okay?"
theo took a moment to listen around the system, looking away from the woman for a moment before letting his face morph into one of a confused expression, "i don't know? no one's really said anything, but i think leo's with him right now, maybe tommy too. i didn't want him to remember this when he comes back."
charlotte nodded understandingly, tapping the butt of her pen against her notepad as she studied the alter once again.
"you wanna tell me a little bit about yourself?"
tommy shrugged, not really. but he wasn't impolite, he wasn't here to get on anyone's bad side. he just wanted to be there to protect corbyn from everything. he couldn't protect him from the pain brett caused but he can protect him from the trauma of the memory.
"uh, i don't really remember exactly when i joined the system. but i think it was when we were in the hospital after the attempt. tommy finally managed to get brett back in and when no one could really front, i guess i did. leo was there until we got to the hospital but once we were admitted into the ward, i guess with all the questions and memories i just took care of it." the boy shrugged.
"and do you front often?"
"not really. not since we moved out here. i didn't have to; coming to college was kind of like our fresh start. no one knew what brett had done to the body, we didn't have to deal with all the looks or all the questions or all of the judgement. it was like a fresh start, plus we had jonah to help us. getting admitted into the same college was really helpful for the system. we needed him then, now."
"how do you feel about brett with everything that happened?"
charlotte hoped she wasn't overstepping, unintentionally walking on thin glass. she knew the boy was a trauma holder; if there were anyone ask about the stability of the system; it'd be theo.
"i don't resent him or anything. i mean for a while there were were all really upset. we were all devastated. we try to understand him and his feelings, but him doing that was not only to hurt corbyn but the body. i'm part of the body, isaac's a part of it, leo, tommy, auggie, ev, we're all part of the body and he tried to hurt all of us." theo shook his head, huffing in his seat.
"it took a while for us to fully forgive him. i'm sure leo's still pretty mad at him though, tommy just feels bad. evan gets upset when it's mentioned, and aug's about as well as you'd expect. well if you've met him. i'm just glad isaac doesn't really remember anything. "
"and how do you feel?"
"i don't really know. does it matter? we can't undo what happened. despite my feelings, it's not going to undo what happened. yeah i was upset, i think i still am a little bit, but it's pointless. all i know is that whatever he did to the body, to all of us, to corbyn. i'm gonna be there for it. if i'm the one who has to hold the pain and the bad memories to make sure the rest of them are gonna be okay, i'll do it without question.
✦
wc. 1229
hi we met theo :') , i love him. he's ALSO the first alter we've really met/gotten the inside look on, and i just love him.
we kinda get a little bit more descriptive as the chapters go on and we'll kinda go a tad bit more in depth with what happened to corbyn and how he got through it
also i dont know if i made it clear that corbyn met jonah like super early on, and they just moved to college together but thats- yeah thats what happened LOL
FINAL ALSO: when i say that theo was listening around the system, the alters can communicate with one another even if they havent fronted. its (what i could describe as) like hearing a different voice speaking to you. thats how leo/tommy tried to get brett back in and theo tried checking in on corbyn etc etc
