1 | Almost Happy ▷ Sam Wilson | ✓

15 - ILLUSIONS

THERE WERE MANY TIMES WHERE IT MADE PERFECT SENSE THAT NICKY'S CAREER INVOLVED HELPING PEOPLE. Growing up, not many people had helped him, certainly not his family, and it came as a huge surprise to the people who did that he was so willing to help everyone else. If anything, it made sense that he would be bitter and selfish and, for the longest time, he was, but somethings changed and someone changed him, and it was easy to say he was changed for the better.

So it made sense that he wanted to find that person. No one could blame him for wanting to find the one person who truly understood and truly helped him. No one could blame him for wanting Terran back.

"So how has the 'seeing your ex at church every weekend even after all she had done to you' thing been doing?" Nicky asked lamely, smiling weakly at Richard who was back in the chair across from him, grinning at the question.

"It's going as well as it always is," Richard replied, shrugging and leaning back in his seat, "Though, I mean, there's some stress at work that's been going on, and I was just invited by her parents to a little party they're having, so that's there too..."

Nicky listened intently as Richard began to talk about his work and about the party, writing down quick little notes about what he had talked about, but also, and most importantly, the little things he talked about that recalled to things that seemed to have had a great effect on him and how he had ended up in this position. While the man had come to him just to be able to talk, Nicky could see there were just some things that were affecting him and he wanted to make sure they could find a time to address them later on.

"What do you write there anyways?" Richard asked, because he was much more talkative and open than most of his other patients, catching Nicky off guard with his inquiry. It wasn't suspicious or demanding by any means, rather it was as if someone was just asking him what book he was reading.

"Notes about the session," he explained, tapping the pen against his notepad, standing up to walk him out, "People you mentioned, dates, things like that. If you had come here because you had anxiety or depression, say, I would write down symptoms. It all depends, but that's the basics."

"Okay," Richard nodded, walking out the door Nicky opened and walking down the hall, motioning towards the sticky note in his hands with the date for his next appointment, "See you later."

Nicky walked back towards the room after having walked halfway down with Richard, closing he door behind him and glancing towards the clock. He had half an hour before his next appointment was to begin, his standard.

He spent fifteen minutes finishing up his notes, making sense of his scribbles and essentially making sure that all his notes would be understandable for later on when he worked on his patient files.

The second half of his fifteen minutes were spent decompressing, shaking off the weight of whatever session he had just had and making sure he was going to be a blank slate and mentally well for whoever was going to walk through the door and request his aid.

He had learned a meditation to help himself decompress and generally help himself remember things and keep focused, transcendental meditation. It had cost him a fair amount of money to learn it, having to go to a person who taught him the fundamentals, explained to him the psychology, and then gave him his mantra and had follow up sessions to make sure he knew what he was doing, but it all paid off in the end, so he figured he might as well use it whenever needed, and just for health.

He finished his meditation just as the time began, but he didn't hear the door to the building open just yet. Figuring she would be late, he decided to just stand and do a power pose, throwing his legs shoulder width apart and his arms at a V above his head. Rhett had showed him a video on power poses after the man had completely failed his first back-to-school night talk in front of parents, making sure neither of them ever publicly humiliated themselves due to nerves ever again.