Chapter Text
Basil looked at the name on the door, nervousness spreading through him. Dr. Michael Short. He inhales, then exhales, clutching his photo album tightly to his body with both arms. He doesn’t realize it, but he’s trembling as he goes to open the door, peeking his head inside.
He looks into a lightly dark green room, with wooden floors and a nice, fancy wooden desk. There are a couple of bookshelves behind the desk, filled to the brim with what look like textbooks and folders. Next to the bookshelves is a glass cabinet, which looks like it’s filled with…..empty wine and beer bottles? They look rather fancy, often having interesting designs on them. Basil takes particular notice of a white wine bottle with pictures of egrets flying and surrounded by pink flowers. Ugh. The designs of the flowers clearly are based off of roses, but whoever did it definitely didn’t use any sort of reference. This random aside in Basil’s thoughts is interrupted by what sounds like the sudden closing of a folder, as a rather jolly-looking suited man in a corner chair stood up, bringing the folder to the desk. His hair was short and black, professionally cut probably. The suit was a nice color of beige as well. It reminded Basil of clay.
”Ah, you must be Basil Spring. Please, come in. Don’t be shy.” The dark-skinned man smiles warmly, laugh lines defining themselves behind his glasses as Basil tentatively closes the door behind him. The man sits behind the desk, the plaque reading “Dr. Michael Short” clearly visible. He gestures to one of the other chairs in his office, which Basil pulls up and sits in, clutching the album to his chest, his heart pounding quicker. He can almost feel his nails puncture the cover of the album.
”Um…..h-hello. There. Um!” Basil clears his throat. “M-my name is Basil. Oh, uh, wait I guess you…already knew that….uh.”
Dr. Short brings his hand up a bit. “It is quite alright, Basil. I understand why you are so nervous.” He frowns sourly, looking through the folder he was just looking through. “Your experience with your previous therapist was……well, ‘unprofessional’ is the lightest way to put it.” He clicks his tongue in annoyance. “Complete breach of client/patient confidentiality. I wonder if he even kept his job after.”
”Oh….I um, wouldn’t want to be the reason that man got in trouble….”
”He made his decisions.” Dr. Short takes in a deep breath as he gets back up and grabs a seemingly random book from the shelf, opening it up next to the folder. “But, let’s not linger on that for too long. First of all….” The doctor brings his hands together, a solemn look on his face. “You are aware of the…specifics of my job, yes?”
Basil swallows nervously and nods. “Y-you are a…..c-criminal th-therapist.” Tears clearly threaten to spill out of Basil’s eyes. If he could hold the album close to him any tighter, he would.
”Basil.” Dr Short’s voice is gentle yet firm as he spoke. “Your circumstances are…well, let’s say that I have not had a patient quite like you. Regardless, the point of all of this is to help you get better, yes? So, don’t worry too much about what my job title technically is. I am your therapist, and that is what matters.”
This little speech managed to calm Basil down a bit. Right. He promised Sunny that he would get better. He promised Miss Polly. He knows that his friends hope that he gets better. Even if…he doesn’t quite believe that he deserves it yet. But, it’s what his friends want, so…
”Um, ok. Um, so…do you know about…about what I did?”
Dr Short nods solemnly.”That information was provided in your file.”
”Ah. Right, I…figured.”
Dr Short leans in, relaxing himself with his hands together ”Now then. Where would you like to start, Basil? I assume you’ve discussed a couple of things already with your previous therapist, but I think it would be helpful to hear it directly from you.”
Basil thought a bit. Well, he seems to already know about…..that. So, what else could he talk about? “I guess…I could talk about what happened when Sunny came back…”
”Ah, Sunny. Yes, that person was also mentioned in your file. If you are comfortable with talking about it, then please, proceed.” He moves his hand towards Basil indicatively, as Basil squirmed in his seat, trying to make himself feel comfortable.
”W-well….it all started when I woke up…..”