I've had this idea for a while now. I hope you guys like it. I'm still working on Closer than Family, but I'd really rather focus on this right now. Let me know what you guys think! :)

Chapter One: Medic

"I don't have anything to say." Medic dismissed. He finished cleaning the needles he had used for surgery earlier that day. He placed them on the stainless steel table beside him in a perfectly straight line. Each needle had been devoid of the blood they previously held. All blood samples were now stored at perfect temperature in his closet.

"I don't believe that." The designated team therapist deadpanned. She wore a grey business suit, and her chestnut hair was cut right below her chin. Her steely eyes were cold behind the frames that shielded them, and pale fingers gripped the pen tighter in her right hand. She had been fighting with Medic for the past half hour, trying to get a word out of him. "Mr. Kastner, may I call you that?"

"Medic is fine."

"You were instructed to cooperate with me. You know the consequences should you not." The therapist, or Miss Julie Harrison as she introduced herself, warned. Medic set the needle he was working with down on the table. Three days ago, after a long fight over control points at Dustbowl, the RED team was informed by a hesitant Miss Pauling that they would all be undergoing therapy. Each person would have a private session first, and once everyone had met with the therapist, the team was to undergo a group therapy session. Miss Pauling was also quick to silence the rising protests with a warning that should a teammate refuse to speak with the therapist, that teammate would be shipped off to parts unknown as retribution, with no hope for reconciliation. And with that, each teammate took the therapy session a little more seriously. But, that didn't mean they were going to make it easy for the psychologist.

Miss Julie Harrison was a very cold-hearted woman from what the team had seen. She was older, possibly even older than Medic himself, and took no nonsense. For this, Medic could only assume she was the only one brave (or stupid) enough to deal with the mercenaries. She had a bad attitude, and didn't seem to sugarcoat anything. It was a wonder why she decided to go into the mental health field to begin with. But then again, she was speaking to a doctor who typically spent his free time dissecting his teammates and performing experiments on them under the guise as a "physical."

"I have no respect for your profession," Medic began.

"And I none for yours," Miss Harrison retaliated. "So let's begin. What do you like to do for fun?"

"You can't be serious." Medic sighed. "Paperwork."

"That doesn't sound very exciting." Miss Harrison pressed.

"It isn't but it's calming." Medic explained. He walked over to the sink on the other side of the infirmary to begin washing his bare hands. The cleaning fluid smell strongly permeated the room before dying down. He dried his hands on his pants, and turned back to Miss Harrison. "Next."

"Tell me about your family. Are your parents still alive?" Miss Harrison looked up from her clipboard.

"No." Medic thought. "I actually have no idea. I suppose they probably are deceased, but I cannot say for sure. It's been twenty years since I last spoke to my parents. Having seen them, even longer than that."

"Are you married?" Miss Harrison asked without looking up, hand still writing.

"Ha, hardly." Medic rolled his eyes. "Legally yes."

"Please elaborate."

"My wife and I are married eight years now. Six of those eight years I had no idea she was alive. I suppose now we're a bit…closer. But that only seems to be because of the children." Medic waved his hand flippantly. He hated giving up information about his personal life. After Mann Co. fell apart and was put back together over a year ago, most of his private life had been leaked to his teammates. However, once things had settled down and returned back to normal, there seemed to be a shared, silent agreement between the team that their personal lives would not be discussed.

"You have children?" Miss Harrison asked. If Medic wasn't wrong, he detected a hint of surprise in her voice. That was the first emotion he seemed to get out of her all day.

"Ja, drei." Medic answered. He didn't seem to realize that his internal translator had momentarily failed. He was too caught up in his thoughts to catch it. Miss Harrison made a mental note of it. "Twins, they are eight years old now, and a one year old."

"Cute." Miss Harrison answered. "Tell me about them."

"Klaus and Ella are very close. I missed out on most of their younger years, but I do get to occasionally see them when work permits. Klaus, I believe, will make a good surgeon one day. Ella, I cannot say. She takes after her mother, meaning that she is very unpredictable. Violet is obviously still too young to tell, but she seems to be very calm for her age. I think I've only ever heard her cry but twice. It's very peculiar."

"That is interesting." Miss Harrison responded with a monotone voice. Medic could tell she really didn't care. The Administrator must have been paying the woman quite well for the information she was gathering on the mercenaries. Not only did she have a recording of what the mercenaries were discussing aloud, she had physical evidence of written word. "And how is your relationship with your immediate family?"

"As I mentioned earlier, my relationship with Rose is strained at best, and nonexistent at worse. There is definitely room for improvement, however I simply do not have the time to deal with her personal issues on top of trying to manage that of a team of men. My relationship with my children is much better. We spend a lot of time with each other, and occasionally I get letters or phone calls from them, telling me about their day and what's going on in their life. They are all extremely independent, a trait, I can only assume, inherited from both their mother and I."

"Your relationship with Rose, was it?" Miss Harrison finally looked up. "Would you change any aspect of it if possible?"

Medic thought for a moment. "If I could go back in time, knowing what I know now, I wouldn't change a thing. There are things about our relationship that I absolutely despise, and there are things that I love about her. I still care very much for her. It's just the affection I feel towards her is minimal. I would appreciate if we change the subject now."

"Very well." Miss Harrison concluded writing. "Let's talk about your career, shall we?"

"I wouldn't change a thing."

"This is off the books, Medic." Miss Harrison assured. Medic knew nothing was ever really off the books. "What do you like about working for Mann Co?"

"I have resources to fund my research." Medic explained simply. "I am autonomous in what I do. The battlefield is something akin to a good way of researching how well my teammates perform with the enhancements that I've performed on them. Not only them, but the various equipment that I've built as well."

Medic was now sitting on the end of the surgical table, knees having worn themselves out from standing for so long. Miss Harrison had claimed his desk as soon as she arrived, and he didn't bother fighting it in the middle of surgery on Scout. He had looked at his medigun in approval and waited for her to finish writing.

"And what don't you like about this job?" Miss Harrison asked the lottery winning question.

"What don't I like about this job?" Medic laughed. "For one, Mann Co wouldn't possibly be harmed in sparing more supplies for medical purposes. Add increased rations and personal supplies and we'd be perfectly fine."

"I'll be sure to make note of that to pass along to Miss Pauling." Miss Harrison nodded. "Could you provide me a list of items in which you need?"

Medic pointed to a sheet that was laying atop a stack of papers on his desk. "Already have."

"This is in German." Miss Harrison squinted.

"Miss Pauling has asked me to tutor her in German. She'll have no problem reading it."

"I see," Miss Harrison tucked the paper away into the stack that was clipped to her cardboard. "Moving on: how is your relationship with your team?"

Medic took some time to think the question over. How was his relationship with the members of the team? That was a good question. "I would say in good standing. There are somethings that annoy me, such as Scout, Spy's smoking, and Demo's drinking. But I like to think that those are just quirks to their personalities. We've functioned fairly well from this point. And even at our lowest, we've managed to stick together to accomplish our goals."

"Would you consider anyone on the team a friend?"

"I would prefer the term acquaintance."

"Why?"

"Why?"

"Why."

"I can only assume that a friend is whom one would share intimate details of one's private life to. Someone whom one could confide in. I share none of that with any of these people." Medic explained curtly.

"Not even Heavy?" Miss Harrison pressed.

Medic hesitated. He did share quite a bit of his personal life with him, and Heavy did so with Medic. Heavy's daughter even referred to Medic as an uncle, and Medic's children did the same with Heavy. "We separate our work life from our private life."

"You just defined friendship as someone in whom one could confide in. By that, I can only assume that Heavy and you are friends." Miss Harrison continued to write.

"Fine. Heavy and I are friends." Medic rolled his eyes.

"Precisely." Miss Harrison punctuated with her pen. "Was there anything else you wanted to talk about?"

"Why is the Administrator requiring this of us? What is her motivation?" Medic interrogated.

"That is all for today. Thank you for your time, Medic." Miss Harrison dismissed. She began packing up, with Medic glaring at her the entire time. Medic watched as she pushed her way through the infirmary doors and disappeared around the corner. He huffed to himself and swung his legs off of the surgical table. He took a seat at his desk and began working on his paperwork. He felt strange, almost like a weight had been lifted off of his shoulders. He didn't believe therapy helped. It was a complete placebo effect. He put his pen down and sighed. He reached over and picked up his phone. It rang twice.

"'Ello?" Rose called through the phone.

"Rose?" Medic asked.

"Hans?"

"I just wanted to call to tell you I still hate you."

"I hate you too."

Medic smiled to himself with bliss.