Second Ave Offices: The Time In Between (WLW)

Chapter One

!!!My novels are completely off-limits to any adaptations and if plagiarized, you will be reported!!!

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Fiona Kokkinos closed her personal journal, leaving the tassel hanging from the binding in her place to continue her notes once she returned home, and sat back with a lofty sigh as she ran her fingers through her naturally curly, black hair. She peered around her disheveled office, feeling her shoulders slump at the work she had left to do after her last patient had his breakthrough. He'd knocked over multiple things in the few short moments before coming to the ultimate conclusion that he was alright. That he mattered. That the things that transpired in his youth were not his fault.

It was the absolution everyone needed in life, desiring it daily in the actions they took and waiting for that concurrence that they were worth it all. However, as intriguing as Fiona felt it to be, her analytical mind wanting to reel at what it meant for their next session would have to wait.

At the ringing of her phone, Fiona picked it up from her desk and answered it, pressing the receiver to her ear. "Hello, this is Doctor Fiona--"

"I can't find her again...!" Her sister's somber tones interrupted and she smiled from ear to ear.

"Chloe? She left home without saying?"

"Yes. Can you please go check on her?" The fraught in Alexa's voice was more than apparent as she rifled through something on the other end of the phone, but Fiona remained calm, knowing that panic on her part would only make things worse. The last thing Alexa needed when her daughter had flown the coop yet again was her having an anxiety attack and it wasn't like this predicament was entirely out of place. Her niece regularly left her home without word, despite her mother's worry, and was almost always found in precisely the same place each time. "And call me once you find her. I will come get her. That is if she doesn't slip your detail as well."

Fiona snorted at her sister's sneered word as she shook her head and stood. "May as well just head to my townhouse, sis. See you in a bit."

"Okay, see you then."

Once Alexa hung up, Fiona began readying her things in a rush and made her way to the inner office door, looping her purse strap over her shoulder. After she made her way outside into the hallway and locked her office doors -- first the interior and then the main door that led into her waiting room -- she made her way to the elevator. As she rode it down, she thought of her family and all that filled her was giddiness in knowing she'd be with them soon.

Her family was her world. Well, that and her work. At the early age of thirteen, Fiona knew what she wanted, what she could become. She told her parents exactly what she desired for her future, to help those who suffered from disorders like her own, and they indulged her in it all. They and her sister were her cheering squad all the way through her schooling, including college, and she did the same for them.

When her sister went to study botany to follow in their mother's footsteps of running her own flower and landscaping business, Fiona was there to remind her she could do it. When her niece was diagnosed with ASD, she'd taken her under her wing and nurtured her in the things she loved most. Art, music and psychology were among the many things they discussed in their long hours together and Chloe had taken the helm with her art, aspiring to one day have her own hanging in a gallery someday. So naturally, Fiona paid it forward just as her family had, getting Chloe into art contests at every opportunity. She was also in the middle of finding her a new art teacher after the last retired.