Maya Stark

Chapter 60: Therapy = Being run over by a bus

Sitting in the police station, Sam and I didn't talk. By now, I had calmed down fully, though my hands still shook. I bunched the excess sleeve of Nat's sweater in my hands, trying to relieve some pressure.

'Sam, Maya. I've heard a lot about you two,' said a lady coming over to us. 'I'm Dr. Raynor. I'm James's therapist.'

Sam got up and shook her hand. 'So nice to meet you. Thank you for getting him out.'

Raynor shook her head. 'That was not me.'

'Christina,' said a very familiar, and annoying, voice behind me. I groaned and stood up next to Sam. 'Nice to see you again.' Walker waved at us as he signed autographs.

'You have got to be kidding me,' I mumble. 'You know him?'

'Yeah, we did some field ops back in the day.'

Walker came over to us. 'I heard you were working with Bucky, so I thought I'd step in. Bucky's not gonna be following a strict schedule any longer.' I look over to Bucky who had just been brought out.

'We haven't finished our work. Who authorized this?'

'Um...' Walker points to himself. 'He's too valuable of an asset to have tied up. So, just do whatever you got to do with him, then send him off to me. Got some unfinished business him, and I. You too, Wilson. And especially you, Stark.'

I glared at him. 'Sorry, did I not make my point clear enough earlier? I'm pretty sure our "business" was pretty finished.'

'I'll be outside,' Walker said before walking away.

I huffed and slumped in my seat again.

'James, condition of your release, session now,' Raynor said. 'You too, Sam and Maya.'

'That's okay,' I said quickly.

'Yeah, we'll be out here with-'

'That wasn't a request,' she said.

So, with a shared annoyed look, Sam and I followed Bucky and Raynor to an interrogation room. I leaned against the wall as Sam and Bucky sat down. This was ridiculous. I crossed my arms trying to stay out of this as much as possible.

'So...who would like to start?' Raynor asked.

'Alright, look, Dr. Raynor?' Sam asks. She nods. 'I get it, why you want me to talk to Wicked Witch and Tin Man over there. But I'm 100% fine.'

'What is it with you and Wizard of Oz?' I asked, rolling my eyes.

'It is my job to make sure you're okay,' Raynor said to Bucky. 'And so, yeah, this may be slightly unprofessional, but it's the only way that I can see if you're getting over whatever's eating at you.'

Sam sighs. 'This is ridiculous.'

'Yeah. I agree,' Bucky said.

'I third that,' I said.

'See? Making progress already. So, who wants to go first?' It was very quiet. 'No volunteers? Wow. How surprising. Okay. We're going to do an exercise. It's something I use with couples when they are trying to figure out what kind of life they wanna build together.' I bite the inside of my lip to keep from laughing. 'Are you familiar with the miracle question?'

'Absolutely not,' Bucky said.

'Of course not,' Sam said at the same time.

'Okay, it goes like this,' Raynor said. 'Suppose that while you're sleeping, a miracle occurs. When you wake up, what is something that you would like to see that would make your life better?'