2.) Session

"What do you want from me," Beckett said as she sat in her therapists' office, arms crossed.

"I don't deal in wants. You came to me remember? What's happened since we last talked?"

"I took myself off the case."

"And how do you feel about that?"

"How do you think I feel? I'm sitting around doing nothing but whining."

"I wouldn't call it whining."

"Then what would you call it?"

"Healing. Why did you take yourself off the case?"

Beckett looked at him. She hated how her therapist always asked questions. It was his job sure but he was making this harder than it should be.

"Because it's what you told me to do."

"I didn't tell you what to do Kate, I merely made a suggestion. It was your choice to listen or not. What made you change your mind?"

Beckett looked away from Dr. Burke. "I went off on a suspect. He wasn't even the right one. I've gone off on suspects before, it's just part of the job but this time was different."

"How so?"

"He's a trained sniper. I didn't even care if he was the right one or not, I wanted to go at him. I um… I also questioned my captains' judgment." Beckett bit her lip and whispered, "I'm compromised," she said as tears welled up in her eyes.

"That's okay," said Dr. Burke.

"No it's not," she said turning to look at him. "I have always fought through every trial in my life. When my mom died I did everything I could to become a cop to bring her killer to justice and I'm still doing that, I haven't stopped. I have done everything and then more to bring the kind of justice to others that my mom never had. I have maybe taken only a day or two from being sick but even then I pushed through those. I've been attacked, been in nearly impossible to escape situations, had guns shoved in my face and nothing has ever stopped me."

"Until now."

"I don't see how this is any different," Kate said knowing her words were untrue but unwilling to face them.

"It's different because you were shot. You flat-lined Kate and the doctor's were able to bring you back. You can't go around thinking that hasn't affected you."

"I can sure as hell try."

"But you took yourself off the case. You had to have realized your limitations. You're not a superhuman Kate and no one expects you to be."

"I expect it."

"Maybe so but you've trusted others to take on a case that you don't feel confident in doing right now. So deep down you know that your expectation has no foundation. It's okay to not be okay. That doesn't make you weak or any less of a person."

"Just damaged," she said.

"So what if it does. Turn it into something positive. You can walk away from this case but you don't have to let this one or the shooting define who you are. Turn them into strengths the way you turned your mothers' murder into one."

Beckett wiped away some tears and placed her hands on her knees. "You know what I don't even know why I bother with this, it's just a waste of time," she said standing up.

Dr. Burke didn't bother to stop her only saying that, "You know my door is always open to you."