Sin & Savior

CHAPTER 2, PART 3

Elsewhere, an entirely different, albeit equally entrancing, meeting of minds was set to occur.

"Well..." Scarlett mused, with an uninterested quip, "...you can start by fixing me, I guess?" She stumbled as the remaining words left her lips, and she aimed for a seat on the conversation couch the doctor had gestured she find a comfortable seat in.

"Well, that's easier said than done, but we can certainly begin with some interrogative questions and go from there, yes?" she said, her eye contact hazy, gorgeous, and unbreaking. It was at this point Scarlett had difficulty concentrating on the simple answering nod she was intent on issuing—she had always questioned whether or not she was bisexual whenever she considered the ways in which certain women would find themselves to be so absolutely stunning in her eyes. But rather than cross-examining her own unclear, ambiguous sexuality on a whim in the midst of active conversation, she steadied herself, blinked her eyes four times to evict the stars from them, and fixed them on Maria's own, groaning slightly at the difficulty in doing so.

"Yes, ma'am." The doctor looked back at her with an obscurant expression before very clearly stating, "Please, do not call me 'Ma'am.' I'm appreciative of your honorific for what it represents, but I prefer to go by my own name. Thank you." She said, presuming the best, before watching Scarlett uneasily clear her throat and state her name loudly and clearly following a brief apology.

"Pardon me. Maria. I just..." She cleared her throat again, but more softly this time. "...My mother never allowed me the use of first names with her or any of my family, so it feels really strange for me to say. Please forgive me." She said, her tone solemn and ingratiating.

"No worries. And no time like the present to make a change and 'update your software,' hm?" she said, with a thick-lipped smile spread curlingly across her face.

Scarlett blushed, then looked down and away and just nodded while smiling before looking back up at Maria. She was absolutely breathtaking, from head to toe. Distractingly so. As if she were meant to have wings and a halo. She had an aura about her that belied the presence of angelic royalty, but she was so grounded and humanistic in her behavior—a combination difficult for Scarlett's mind to reconcile.

"Now," the doctor announced sharply, "on to our interrogative. Let's start from the very beginning: tell me about your earliest childhood memories to the extent you're able to do so. This process is, as a warning, going to be an incredibly traumatic one. But if you're honest with me, patient with yourself, and committed to the process, the emotional labor of unearthing these old wounds and healing them has the possibility of being the greatest thing you ever do for yourself and your life. Dr. Manley informed me that you're a particularly therapy-averse young woman. I think you'll find that my particular counseling curriculum, treatment plan, and therapeutic process are rather non-traditional in that it's tailor-made to suit the individualistic needs of the patient, as informed by the analytical psychology principles of Carl Jung, as well as your own personality profile. The goals for therapy, interventions, techniques, and explorations of personal and collective unconscious are designed with your own specific background in mind. My aim is to facilitate personal growth through self-awareness more than relying on talk therapy or giving an ear to listen, although of course, I'm happily present and here for that, too, once times call for it."

Scarlett nodded understandingly as a small smile peeked at a solitary corner of her mouth before hastily returning itself to its neutral position. "I'm still scared, even more now than I was when I got here, but I'm willing to give your methods an honest try so long as you're willing to be non-judgmental with me and give me the space to be terrible at it early on," she said, shifting softly in the seat below her.

"Of course. In fact, it's no less than expected," Maria said kindly. "Now, as early as you can remember. Give me everything. Don't lie to yourself, and don't hide yourself from me—everything stated here is protected from the rest of the world by doctor-patient confidentiality. Unless you're immediately suicidal in any way, which I would need to report to higher authorities, what happens between us STAYS between us. No questions asked.""...Alright." Scarlett sighed as she got started speaking. "My earliest memory? It all started with my mother screaming..."