Tigress let out a low growl as she pulled her speed bike to a stop outside the large glass building. This whole thing was stupid. It wasn't like she had injured Po that badly! Her tail lashed behind her angrily as she approached the entrance. Master Shifu had ordered her to see a therapist, saying that her anger as of late was starting to get more and more out of control. She rolled her eyes at the mere thought of her anger being anything other than in complete control. But she wasn't one to defy her adoptive father, so she did as she was told.
She wasn't really sure what would come of this. She didn't have any "deep seeded" issues she needed to work out. She was who she was and that was all there was to it. She approached the directory, finding the name that Shifu had given her and heading for the stairs to get to the third floor.
Shifu had ordered her to go and said that the doctor he was sending her to was an old friend of his. That didn't really help Tigress feel any more at ease about being there. She wasn't one to talk about "feelings" or her personal life.
Opening the door onto the third floor hallway, she found the door with the doctor's name on it and entered. She forced a polite smile to the receptionist when she looked up from her computer. "You must be the two-thirty." She said, pointing towards the door over her shoulder. "Doctor Lian is waiting for you."
Tigress nodded and pushed up this door, walking into a nicely furnished office. A large and comfortable looking couch was against the wall near the doorway, a chair set across from it with a coffee table in the middle. In the other corner was a glass desk with a computer and various folders. The bookcase behind it caught Tigress's eye as it was filled with books, pictures, and certificates.
She glanced back to the feline sitting behind the desk in the room, a lioness. With a warm smile she stood up from her seat behind her desk, walking around the front of it to greet Tigress. "Ah, you must be Tigress. Shifu said I should expect you. I'm glad you came, here have a seat." She said motioning to the couch near Tigress. Without much show the tiger took a seat, folding her arms over her chest and crossing one leg over the other. Then lioness sat across from her in the chair, pulling a folder and a pen into her lap. "My name is Dr. Naomi Lian, but Naomi or Lian works just fine. I'm forty-two years old, I've got a husband and two children and I've been a therapist for around ten years. What about you? What do you do for a living?"
Oh god, she was trying to do the bonding thing.
Tigress didn't answer at first and settled for staring daggers into the coffee table before her. Her tail twitching irately by her side as she bit her lip. Shifu may of ordered her to come here, but she had no intention of making things easy.
"The silent treatment, huh?" Naomi said after a moment, opening the folder in front of her and placing her glasses on her nose. "Shifu wasn't kidding when he said you'd be a difficult case. I was hoping it wouldn't come to this but... let's see..." She said, reading a few lines off the file in front of her. "You're twenty-nine years old with no children of your own. You're an accomplished and well respected Kung Fu Master. You train the local police officers in hand-to-hand combat techniques. You're a fully licensed paramedic who also spends her free time at the shelter for underprivileged and abused children." She read out loud, looking over her glasses at Tigress when she finished. "You're a walking contradiction."
Tigress flexed her claws in her lap. She was going to kill Shifu for handing over so much personal information on her. Naomi, seeing Tigress flex grinned and shook her head. "No, I didn't obtain that information from Shifu." She said, holding up a piece of paper with a screen shot printed on it. "Your friend Po has a facebook page. He really admires you."
Okay, scratch that. The panda would die instead.
"So I think the first question I have to ask is why you're a certified paramedic? You're a well respected Kung Fu Master who teaches others how to take down opponents. It would almost appear that you're in the business of hurting people more than helping them." The lioness stated.
Tigress flinched at those words. "You don't understand the first thing about Kung Fu. It isn't about hurting people. It's about respect, discipline, having control over yourself, patience, and defending yourself and others." Tigress said lowly, glaring at the lion who was... grinning? Why was she grinning? Wait... damn it, she had gotten Tigress to break her silent treatment. Tigress let out another growl. "Don't play mind games with me, Doc. I don't want to be here, I don't want to talk to you, and I certainly don't appreciate you digging into my private life."
"Then I suggest that instead of playing the role of the silent loner you starting talking with me." The doctor replied, closing the folder and putting it on the table. "I made some phone calls earlier this week when Shifu told me you would be coming. The Captain at the police department speaks very highly of you. Says that the techniques you've trained his officers in have reduced the need for deadly force and have saved not only the lives of his men but the lives of several suspects. Your supervisor at Rapid Medical Response speaks highly of you as well. He's worried he's going to lose you to a medical doctorate and a job at the hospital."
Tigress growled and rolled her eyes, how many people had this woman called?
"Spoke to your friends at the Jade House. Crane, Viper, Mantis, Monkey, and Po all look to you with high regards. I also spoke to several of your coworkers. They all say the same. But this isn't about them and what they think of you, this is about yourself. Shifu says that he's noticed a change in you lately. You seem angrier, prone to arguments with the others, he says the other night you almost broke Po's wrist when he accidentally spilled water on you. And while none of your coworkers mentioned any anger issues with you at work, I think it's only a matter of time until it starts spilling over. So tell me Tigress, why have you been so angry lately? How are you feeling tight now?"
"The truth?" Tigress asked, raising an eyebrow. "I'm feeling very angry at the moment. Here I sit with what little free time I actually have being forced to talk with a 'doctor'," she said, holding her fingers up as quotation marks when she said 'doctor', "who wasn't good enough to hack it in real medicine so she spends her days sitting in a comfortable chair asking people 'and how does that make you feel' for... what, a hundred dollars an hour?" Tigress snapped, her eyes narrowed in annoyance at the lioness.
To her credit, Naomi didn't appear phased by the outburst, she simply sat back in her chair and folded her hands in her lap. "And how does that make you feel?" She asked, smirking slightly. Tigress huffed and let out a growl.
"Alright, I'll tell you what I see thus far from just these past few minutes. You hold yourself to a high standard. You take pride in being there for everyone who needs you to be, no matter if it means you have no time for yourself. But being there for your friends isn't good enough for you. So you take a low paying job as a medic, helping people on the street and training the police in disarming tactics in an attempt to prevent more injuries. You volunteer at a children's home with your, and I'm quoting, 'little free time', but I can almost guarantee that you haven't taken a day for just yourself in a long, long time. So tell me, Tigress, what do you feel the need to repent for?"
Tigress's eyes widened for a split second before she put her emotionless mask back in place. "I don't know what you're talking about."
"Yes, you do." Naomi replied coolly, "You know exactly what I'm talking about. You give of yourself as much as you possibly can until you have nothing left over from yourself and then once you've tapped yourself out you spend your nights on the road providing quality emergency medical care to people who need it and to those who couldn't afford the hospital bill if they had gone to the emergency room. You give and you give and you give. And it isn't that you're the self destructive type either, no... something happened... I'd say when you were younger. And ever since you've been trying to make up for it."
Tigress clenched her hand for just a second, but Naomi's keen eyes caught the motion. Tigress was up out of her seat in a matter of seconds, heading for the door. "We're not done." Naomi called as Tigress opened the door. "Yes, we are." Tigress replied without even stopping, heading out the door.
Naomi got up, walking for the door as Tigress left the office. She grinned slightly as she stood there.
"Teresa," She said, addressing the receptionist. "You're going to get a phone call in about an hour from Tigress. Give her my home address and set up an appointment for tomorrow at one in the afternoon."
