The Archaeologist

And it Begins

"Hello Vedansh, I'm Bhavya. It's good to have you here. How do you feel today?" 

They indeed were sitting at the therapist's office. The chair wasn't as uncomfortable as he had thought it would be. She seemed like a nice person too, there couldn't be much harm in this; this thought made Ved finally respond,

"I'm tired as of now. But it would make complete sense, considering I didn't sleep for 3 nights straight, until last night." 

He had expected some sort of a comment on that, but that didn't happen. Instead, she asked him further about how his sleep felt last night. The following questions were along the lines of how he'd been feeling in the past few days, how was his team and how his current project was making him feel. He didn't feel much reluctance after the first few questions and the hour passed by like that.

"Is it okay if we schedule the next session now or would you like to take time to consider?" Bhavya's voice had a professionalism in it, despite of the politeness in her tone.

Ved would have thought about it a little more if he didn't feel like having his mind distracted for some time. After all that had happened last night with Abhay, he wanted to have his mind distracted from the whole project itself. He had thought that it would be better if he just put his mind elsewhere for the time being, so he agreed to schedule the next session later in the week.

"It wasn't as uncomfortable as I had thought it to be," Ved said with a shoulder shrug.

"Yeah? I'm glad you agreed to it."

"As if you'd left me any choice."

"Hey, you chose to book another session! Don't you blame me!"

"I only did that because I knew you'd do it anyway. Tell me if I'm wrong."

Reyaan opened his mouth to protest but then closed it without a word, 'cause Ved wasn't wrong at all, he would have compelled him for the next session anyhow.

"I know you, Rey. You are one stubborn ass."

"Yeah, whatever."

And they both ended up sharing a laugh.

Reyaan glanced at Ved and a smile made it's way onto his lips looking at Ved, laughing like that after such a long while. He was willing to hold onto the hope that Ved's decision to give therapy a chance could help with a proper diagnosis and probably a better lifestyle henceforth. He just wanted for his friend to be happy.

_______________________________

Seven sessions into it, the therapist had called for Reyaan to meet her, personally. He had received the call from the doctor's office an hour before he'd be leaving his workplace. It was late evening, he'd just gotten free from his office and was heading for the clinic now.

The fact that he was called worried him because this meant that they couldn't tell whatever it was to the patient directly and wanted the family or close contact to know first.

"Hey, Bhavya! I'm a little late, sorry for that. Tell me what is it?"

"Oh hey, Reyaan! No no, it's fine. Yeah, just give me a minute, I'll have the files fetched."

"Sure"

"Please take a seat"

In a moment or so, her attendant brought the files, Ved's files and she sat across Reyaan with a serious expression on her face.