REPERCUSSIONS

Chapter One

Some sessions she dreaded. Psychiatrists were supposed to be impartial, to treat all patients equally, but the honest ones admitted there were patients they like more than others. And these honest psychiatrists—ones she thought were the best at their work—also confessed there were patients they didn't like and even feared. One of her mentors told her, "Paula, there's going to be patients you're going to have to force yourself to stay awake during their sessions. There's going to be patients you'll despise. And then there'll be patients you're going to fight and root for. And those are often going to be the toughest and most challenging."

He'd been right about that, as he was about a lot of things. As she walked to her office Gyson considered that the patient she was about to see was certainly challenging, certainly tough, and certainly one she was fighting and rooting for. She smiled as she realized she was looking forward to this session. The man was intelligent, well read, brave, enormously complicated, and a great challenge. She thought she was and could continue helping him if her skills were good enough, and if the man could be persuaded he was worth it. She'd nearly lost him at the end of one session. She'd recognized he was a man with a strong moral code, but his reaction to what he thought was even a suggestion the he might regard her in anything other than a profession way stunned her. She thought she'd lost him after that session, a prospect that hurt her professional pride, but more deeply worried her because she thought he was at a crucial point where their sessions might be helping him. She was more than ready to clear him for duty at that point, but feared he wouldn't come back. But the next week she found him waiting for her. He was, for all of his troubles, one cop she would bet her savings and, more importantly, her professional reputation, on Robert Goren never hurting a criminal, let alone a civilian.

Even in the early evening, she felt safe in the street around her office, but there was one alley that was dark and long. Even on the brightest days, shadows filled the alley, and at this time of day, it was impossible to see into its depths. As she passed by it, she glanced down it. She could just make out several wildly moving figures at its end. In spite of the cautious voice in her head telling her to mind her own business, she hesitated. She heard muffled cries of pain and stepped into the alley. A flash of light illuminated the alley, and she saw Bobby Goren's bloody face through a forest of legs. Their eyes met for the briefest of moments, and Goren subtly shook his head. His face disappeared among the forest, and she lurched back on the sidewalk.

Shame and fear swept over her. "I've got to help him," she thought. "She seized he cell phone and dialed 911. She gave the operator the address and the nature of her call with what she thought was remarkable clarity. The operator assured her help was coming and forbid her to interfere with the attack. But as she shut her cell phone, she knew she had to do something. She stared up and down the street. For once, it was empty. She rushed over to a trash can, shoved it over, and kicked it as hard as she could.

"Help!" she screamed. "Fire! Help! Fire!"

Sirens sounded in the distance, and several people appeared from the houses. She screamed again. Just before two gratifyingly muscular young men reached her, three men stumbled out of the alley. They blinked in the sudden light and stared at the growing crowd on the sidewalk.

"Cope!" the last man out shouted into the alley. "You gotta get out of there!"

The sirens grew closer, but they still seemed terribly far away.

"I"m outa here!" one of the other men shouted as he fled. Another man hovered in the alley's entrance, then took off after his companion. The third man stared down the alley. She saw blood on his shirt before he spun and ran after the two others. The sight of that blood propelled her into the alley. A fourth man nearly knocked her over. She was close enough to him to smell the alcohol on his breath and see the blood on the billy club he carried. She didn't consider stopping him; all of her attention was on the lump she could just make out at the end of the alley. She left the man to the crowd and ran towards the lump.

"Detective Goren," she said as she dropped to her knees. She ignored the trash and rocks and glass littering the ground.

He was curled into a ball and lay on his right side. He shivered and weakly held up his left hand, which was smeared with blood.

"Please," he said. "No more. No more." She could barely hear him, and his words were mushy.

"Detective Goren," she said. "It's me. It's Dr. Gyson."

He turned his head towards her, and she stifled a cry. Bruises rose over his face, and a gash over his right eye streaked blood. His lip was split and bleeding, and his knuckles were burst and bleeding.

"You...You shouldn't be here," he mumbled. "They...They'll hurt...Oh..." He shivered.

"They're not here," Gyson soothed him. She gently brushed his curls, where she felt sticky blood. "They ran away. Hold on. Help is coming."

He blinked and struggled to speak.

"Take it easy. Please."

He gasped and coughed. Bright, red blood trickled from his mouth.

"Cops," he mumbled. "One of them. I know...Another...Used to be...Cops...How could they..."

"Oh, no," Gyson thought. "All of our work...The therapy...All the progress we made...This could break him mentally...Even if he survives physically..."

The sirens suddenly filled the air and stopped. Gyson looked up to see two young EMTs rushing towards her and Goren.

"The EMTs are here," she said.

"Al...Eames...She'll be so upset..." His left hand clutched her arm. "Eames," he said forcefully. "You've got to warn her. They may go after her. Call her...Now...My cell phone. It's the first number."

The EMTs reached them just as he thrust his cell phone at her. "Call her. Warn her." His eyes glazed over with pain and fear, and he fell back on the ground as the paramedics began to work on him.

Gyson stood and stepped out of the way. She punched Goren's cell phone and wondered how she could tell Alex Eames what had happened.

END CHAPTER ONE