path of heal - j.b.

1

august 2022

"Eleanor, come in" Dr. Sullivan smiled kindly as Elle stepped through the door into her office. "Have a seat" she pointed to the chair across from her as she put her notes aside and gave Elle her full attention.

Doctor Carry Sullivan had been employed by the Bengals for a couple of months now. Wanting to do more for the mental health of their staff, players and their families, the organization unceremoniously hired a psychologist for the new season.

Dr. Sullivan was a woman in her mid-forties or so with dark blonde locks that had single streaks of gray, but only made her look wiser. Her kind brown eyes and encouraging smile made anyone in her presence immediately feel a sense of security, which is why it was no wonder that her help was often sought out.

In addition to regular therapy sessions, such as the ones she had with Elle and a few players, she also had open office hours where players and staff could drop in without an appointment.

She also offered group sessions for the rookies to talk about performance pressure, the sudden attention, and game nervousness. She additionally kept one afternoon completely free for relatives - mothers, wives, girlfriends - of the players, where they, too, could simply talk their problems off their souls.

Elle was glad she could see Dr Sullivan once a week. While she didn't see it as vital to be in therapy, having the opportunity to talk to a neutral person about the things that were bothering her really did her good and had relieved a lot of stress over the past few weeks.

"Did you bring anything you want to talk about today?" Dr. Sullivan asked when Elle sat down, but she shook her head. "Actually, no. The week has gone pretty well now that Joe is back at practice. Plus, training with the Rams together is pretty fun and they have a female strength and conditioning coach, Chelsea, we get along pretty well" Elle explained.

"I'm glad to hear that. After all the stress you've been through the last few weeks, I'm glad things seem to be looking up" Dr. Sullivan smiled before clearing her throat and looking at her notes.

"Then I'd say we pick up where we left off last week, okay?" she looked at Elle, who just nodded in agreement. "Well, the last thing we talked about was how Joe and you spent your vacation together after the whole thing happened with your firing and rehiring and moving in with Joe" the psychologist summarized.

"Exactly. After that I went on another vacation with my friend Celine" Elle continued. "Another vacation?" a grin spread across Dr. Sullivan's face. "How was that vacation?" she asked afterwards.

"Really good. I was able to really relax there because it was like before I got famous with all this Halloween stuff. It was just me and my best friend and a lot of cocktails" Elle grinned at the memory of her vacation with Celine in the Dominican Republic.

"The only shadow that vacation had brought was that Celine had accidentally started breakup rumors between Joe and me" she added. Dr. Sullivan looked at her in surprise. "How so?"

"Well, without giving it much thought, she posted a video on Instagram of me singing along to Single Ladies and some people picked up on that as if it was me announcing my breakup with Joe" Elle shrugged her shoulders while Dr. Sullivan shook her head, stunned.

"Since your public appearance after the Super Bowl up until this video, have you somehow shown yourself together with Joe again?" Dr. Sullivan asked, but Elle shook her head. "And since this video?" again just a shake of the head.

"Joe and I agreed that we would keep our relationship as private as possible, even though we are now both public figures. Still, we never went to events together, even when we were both invited and became real pros at hiding ourselves from the press" Elle explained.

"So the two of you were never seen together at an event?" the psychologist echoed. "Never. We don't want to use our relationship as PR to get more attention. Still, the other was always there on the trips, well, just not at the events" Elle shrugged.

"What do you mean?" Dr. Sullivan looked at her questioningly. "For example, I had an appointment in Phoenix that I was supposed to go to as a representative of the future is female and Joe traveled with me to Phoenix, but arranged to go golfing with his two friends, Sam and Nick, in Scottsdale" Elle explained.

"So we were able to spend time together during the off-season, which was otherwise just filled with dates. And we did it that way for weeks. Joe wanted to go to his old college, so I met some investors in New Orleans while he was at an LSU game" she added.

"How were the breakup rumors put to rest if Joe and you never showed yourself together?" Dr. Sullivan asked with interest. Elle grinned. "In one of his first press conferences this season, Joe was asked if he had been keeping fit over the off-season and his response was just a grinning "dont worry, my girlfriend is an athletic trainer." That was the only time either of us had talked about our relationship."

"Does it stress you out to have to keep the relationship so secret? Do you think it hurts the relationship in any way?" Dr. Sullivan made a few notes before looking at Elle again, but she shook her head.

"First of all, we don't have to keep our relationship a secret, we do it voluntarily because we don't want everyone adding their opinions about every little thing that is none of their business. Secondly, I think it's rather good for our relationship. We don't have to constantly pretend like it's the perfect relationship just because otherwise our argument would be on the front page of tomorrow's tabloids. We can argue as much as we want without the world watching. Although, of course, sometimes it's difficult to stay as inconspicuous as possible" Elle admitted.

"And this was all before Joe's appendicitis?" Dr. Sullivan asked. Elle nodded with a sigh. "we really thought we were having a pretty relaxed start to training camp and then all of a sudden Joe complains about this pain and I'm sure you know Joe is pretty tough. That's when my alarm bells started ringing a little bit."

"Then it was off to the hospital and Joe had surgery, right? How were you doing there? What was going through your mind?" Dr. Sullivan eyed Elle, who sighed again. "So much" she replied.

"Of course, worrying about Joe was the biggest thing. At the same time, I felt sorry for him because he couldn't attend another training camp. And also, I was totally stressed because I already didn't know how I was going to take care of Joe and my job at the same time" she explained.

"That's where Joe's mom came in, right?" Dr. Sullivan asked. Elle nodded. "Robin was really my rescue in need. When she called and suggested that she could help us out for a while so I could focus on my job and not worry about anything else, I immediately burst into tears"

"So you gratefully accepted Robin's help? I'm sure one or two would also be miffed if the boyfriend's mother subliminally claimed you couldn't get the household under control" Dr. Sullivan looked at Elle with interest, but she shook her head.

"Not at all. Robin was trying to do something good for us by taking care of our house so I could visit Joe after my stressful day at work before he was released to go home. And even when he was home, she made sure that he didn't jeopardize his healing by going back to work too quickly. You know how he can be" Elle rolled her eyes with a laugh.

"And since Joe has been back in training this week, his mother has left again?" Dr. Sullivan asked. "She was still here until today and wanted to make sure things were back to normal with us" Elle explained.

"So would you say everything is back to normal now?" Dr. Sullivan looked at his watch. The hour would be up in just a moment. Elle laughed out loud. "I don't think there is a normal with us, but well, we are on a good path"

you can't imagine how excited I am to finally start this story and I thought there was no better time to post the first three chapters than on the first game day of the new season!

I hope you're all as excited as me to bring back Elle, Joe and some of my fav characters (you know it's Jamarr) and to continue to tell their story!

This story probably won't be updated that frequently first cause I'm planning to finish „Arizona Sunsets" before fully switching to this story but be prepared!!

Happy Game Dey, may the Bengals beat the Elves (please as a brown fan don't be offended but Jamarr is just too funny)

WHO DEY🧡