Page 28 of None Of Your Business

“Good session?”

“David and Todd are turning a corner,” Webb says, dropping into the chair across from me and opening her folder. “Robert and Elena are the most interesting case in the cohort right now. Chloe’s husband still isn’t coming. I’ve suggested she raise it with him.”

“She’s not ready for his answer.” I nod along, making my own notes. “The new solo attendee?” I ask once we’ve covered the rest.

Webb looks up. “Rowan?”

“Tell me about her.”

“She’s observant. Quiet. She left a lot of fields blank on her paperwork.”

Rowan doesn’t strike me as someone who stays anywhere she doesn’t want to be, which means something made her.

“What about her partner?”

“She didn’t list one.”

Webb hands me the clipboard.

Name: Rowan Callahan

Age: 26

Referred by: Dr. E. Mercer

Dr. Mercer? I rack my brain, but nothing clicks.

I review the list of presenting concerns. She checked four boxes: Communication difficulties, feeling unheard, difficulty expressing needs, disconnect between self and partner.

“She’s a valid data point,” Webb says, gathering her belongings. “And she drew a remarkably accurate sketch of Robert while he was talking. She’s good.” She picks up her bag. “Same time next week?”

“Same time next week,” I confirm before she leaves.

Picking up the form, I slot it into my folder with the rest of the cohort paperwork.

I came here tonight to observe a study I’ve spent fourteen months building. Instead, I’ve spent an embarrassing percentage of the hour watching Rowan draw people.

Next Tuesday, she’ll be back.

That’s fine.

Completely fine.

I have meetings next Tuesday, work, an entire life that does not require me to personally observe these sessions.

I look at the chair on the far left one more time.

Fuck.

Eight

I hate the ER. Everyone who knows me professionally knows it, and those who know me well know why. They know something broke during my residency, which drove me to walk out of emergency medicine and into psychiatry. They’ve also learned not to ask.

Everything here is consequence, but I prefer what comes before. The slow, quiet unraveling of a mind, not the physical rupture of a body on a trauma bed.

There’s time in psychiatry. Sometimes not enough, but time. Time to notice a change or to ask another question.

I push open the ER doors anyway.