Rule 39: There Is No Such Thing As Coincidence (Tony DiNozzo Love Story)

Meeting the Doctor

30 Minutes Later

"Agent Carter, it's nice to meet you. I'm Dr. William Payne," he says offering his hand.

"Dr. Payne?" I ask as I shake his hand. He chuckles and nods.

"I know, kind of ironic since I'm a psychologist."

I nod and settle into the couch along the wall, a coffee table sitting in front of it and a pair of arm chairs on the other side.

"Would you like to leave your coat on?" He asks as he moves towards his desk.

"Yeah," I say. He nods and grabs a portfolio and a pen from the desk top and returns back to where I'm sitting. Taking a seat in one of the arm chairs, he folds his right leg over the left and settles back in his seat.

"So, how are we doing this? You ask how I'm doing, I tell you and then you analyze what I've said?" I ask and he chuckles.

"If that's what you want us to do," he says. I scoff and look at the coffee in my hands.

"Look Agent Carter, I know you don't want to be here. You're not the first person to enter this office that wishes they can just walk back out, but what keeps them here is their job and the people that they care about who are concerned for them. From what I've heard from your superior is that you have a lot of people who are concerned for you. Am I wrong?"

"No, but I don't need therapy. In the work I do there's not a counselor out there to talk to. We don't have a psychologist tagging along after we see what we see or do what we do."

He nods. "I know, but that's why we're here now. We're here for you afterwards to help with trauma and necessary healing."

"Well out there, I knew plenty of people who could have needed people like you then. While in combat, while doing their job."

He nods once more and I look back at the coffee in my hands.

"I can't speak for other psychologists, but I tried. You were in the Persian Gulf right?"

I look up at him.

"I was too and I understand what you mean when we could have had people like me in there."

"What'd you see?" I ask.

"My best friend from high school, we hadn't seen each other since we signed up together. He looked older, but we were only nineteen. He looked like he'd aged by five years or so. The unit I was in was joining up with another and he was in it, anyway we're heading out and...we cleared the area, but he took one step off the clear path and, well he stepped on a mine."

I stare at him and he's staring at the coffee table.

"You were standing next to him weren't you?" I ask. He nods and looks up to meet my eyes and I can see the distant look in them.

"Thing is, he nudged me over. I was standing on the outside and he pushed me over to stand on the inside. There's not a day that goes by that I don't wonder if he stepped off the clear path on purpose," he says. "I don't know what he'd seen or what'd he'd been through to make him look the way he did, but whatever it was," he pauses, "it weighs on me to this day," he says.

"After that I tried talking with others, with the people in my unit and ones we came upon. I wasn't going to let what I'd seen happen again. I wasn't going to let another soldier, no matter their branch feel alone out there."

Silence fills the space between us and I sigh. Placing my coffee on the table, I slowly shrug my coat off and place in on the couch next to me. Looking up at him, he smiles.