Open Case File [COMPLETED]

Coming Back Together (Carter POV)

"Is today the day?"

Carter nodded and felt her throat tightened. Her heart felt seized with excitement and apprehension. In her mind, 5 months was nothing, it was a blip in the timeline of a life but it had also been a small eternity. Despite having zero contact, nothing about her emotions had changed. She felt the same way, would he?

"How are you feeling?" Cathrine asked.

Carter looked at her therapist, a no-nonsense woman in her late fifties with short gray hair, lean build, trim suit and kind eyes.

When Carter had reached out to Eleanor for someone to talk to in the DC area, she'd specifically said she didn't want a mother looking figure. She didn't want a therapist that looked like she would coddle a person.

Carter wanted, needed someone, who looked like they could handle themselves against the harsh reality of the world and Carter's almost impenetrable outer layer. It didn't matter if Carter was freely walking into therapy, she didn't imagine years of forcing an outward picture of control would be easy to set aside in front of a stranger.

Eleanor had given Carter the number of Catherine and said, like her, Catherine dealt with active and former military personal. Knowing that, Carter didn't doubt Catherine would be up for the challenge of helping Carter heal her past. Even then, it had taken a full month of twice a week sessions for Carter to truly share what she was feeling.

When Carter had finally spoken something that wasn't hidden behind five layer of guardedness, Catherine had nodded and said, finally we can start working.

It was then Carter realized the weeks before of Catherine's prodding hadn't been prodding at all, it had been the woman slowly building a bridge with Carter with careful words and small snippets of advice. From then on, Carter discovered Catherine's true talent, cutting through Carter's outer layer with a scalpel.

When Carter would retreat behind a shield, Catherine would slice it in two. Each time Catherine refused to let Carter to hide, Carter's respect for the woman grew. Carter didn't need gentleness, she needed someone to tell her like it was and Catherine did, without hesitation but always with kindness.

Five months into a relationship, Carter felt safe with this woman.

"I don't know," Carter said, answering Catherine.

Catherine tilted her head in a way Carter knew so well. "Is that true?"

Carter let out a half laugh and sighed. "I know that I'm desperate to see him. I haven't spoken to him in five months. I haven't asked Brock about him. I've let him completely break from us for his sake."

"And..."

"And for my sake. I now can see that is was necessary, but," she smiled at herself. "I miss him."

"When will you see?" Catherine asked.

"I don't know, I just know that his team arrives back in DC today."

"Are ready?"

Ready? Carter was more than ready to have the distance, the inability to talk to him, the lack of seeing him, the reality of not being near him, able to touch him, kiss him, be around him come to an end.

But was she emotionally ready?

She'd spent the last five months emotionally dissecting her life and as she looked back on the person she used to be, that girl felt a million miles away. If she met her former self on the street, Carter knew she'd recognize her. But instead of being mad at her for messing things up, or not letting herself be vulnerable with the one person who she could be with, Carter would hug her. She'd come to realize that who she was, had been who she felt she needed to be to survive. But that was no longer true.