Authors Note: So, while I endeavor to one day be a therapist (an LCSW really, one day in the very far future a PhD, but not for a very long time), I am not now. I've never been to couples therapy, but did family therapy after my dad's break down when I was in high school (that was an interesting experience) and individual counseling; I can't say this is at all realistic. So, just take it for what it is, a lovely piece of fanfic. Thanks to all the people that reviewed, and yes, I really think that Jane would try to make it work. And as always a extra special thanks to Ebony10 for the beta.
Disclaimer: If they were mine, do you think I'd be going to the cheapest school this side of the Mississippi?
What if? Chapter 10: Dr. Jacobs, PhD
He hated doctors' offices. Even if this wasn't a typical doctor, it still smelt like doctors office. That sterile smell, that was harsh, but masked by freshness. Really it was hard to describe. He was sitting next to his wife, he wanted to reach out his hand to hers, but she seemed closed off, sitting there with her hands folded over her chest. He didn't know why she was acting this way, she had been the one to suggest it this time, he had just agreed. According to Abby's doctor, this was the best marriage counselor in Sacramento, he wasn't cheap. Maybe that's what was what was bothering her; they were going to see a man.
"Honey, are you ok? We can see another Doctor." He whispered to her. They were the only ones in the waiting room, but it was just so quiet, he felt the need to whisper.
"No, it's ok. He's the best after all." Sarah said, not looking at him.
They lapsed into silence again, and it was only anew more minutes before the doctor himself stuck his head into the waiting room and invited them into his office.
"How's it going folks, I'm Dr. Jacobs. Let me tell you how this is going to work. We all know why you're here, there's something wrong in your relationship, and you want to try to fix it. The first few visits I want to meet with you each separately. No, let me finish. I do this so I can see what each of you thinks is the issue and what each of you think needs to happen. Then we meet together to work on it."
Jane and Sarah both nodded. "Ok, so do you think that's going to work? I want you both to agree to this."
They both gave their consent. "Ok, just a few more things. What each of you say to me in privet is just that, privet. I won't tell either of you what's said when you aren't here. I might encourage you to share with each other, but I will not share for you."
"Sounds fair." Jane said.
"Ok, who wants to go first?" Dr. Jacobs asked looking between the two of them.
"I'll go." Sarah said speaking for the first time. Jane nodded and got up to return to the waiting room.
"Ok Mrs. Jane, why don't you tell me why you are here." Dr, Jacobs began.
"Call me Sarah."
"Ok Sarah, why don't you tell me why you are here."
"Honestly? I broke up with my boyfriend. Patrick doesn't know I was having an affair. He may be observant in most things, but he's always been oblivious in his personal life. I'm surprised he even realized there was something wrong with our relationship."
"Ok."
"My boyfriend said that he thought I should work on my marriage. Can you believe that? And then I come home to find Patrick drooling over a woman from work. He'd had the entire office team he works with over for a barbeque, and there was that little hussy, in barely nothing, and he was staring at her, not even bothering to hide it."
"So, do you think he's having an affair as well?" Dr, Jacobs always tried to keep an open mind. He usually got the eccentric ones, the couples that had no problem dating others until one of them broke it off.
"I don't know. He spends more time with her than with me. He took her to our daughters dance recital a few weekends ago. And then they all went shopping. I had a friend tell me she saw them all at the mall, looking like a family, shopping together. It made me realize that if I want to keep what's mine, we need to work on it."
"What do you think the underlying problem is?" This was usually interesting; some couples blamed others for their problems, but most just blamed each other.
"Well, we were fine up until a few years ago. Patrick was a well known psychic that helped others and the police. Well, he apparently pissed off one of the murders that he was helping to track down, and he came after us. Well, me and Abigail, our daughter. He was never the same after that. I mean, we lived, so I don't see what the big deal is. But he gave up the psychic gigs, and he started working for the cops, not as an outside psychic, but as a consultant who goes on the cases and is assigned to a team. It's beneath him really."
"So, a murdered wanted to kill you and that didn't change you at all?"
"You sound surprised, I mean, it didn't work, so no it didn't change me. I just wanted to go on like it never happened to show the world that we were a strong couple, but Patrick, he just couldn't let it go."
They sat in silence for a few minutes, Dr, Jacobs waiting for Sarah to say more, and Sarah just thinking.
"I guess what I really want is to know if we can make this work. I love Patrick, I really do. I'm sure you hear that all the time, and I'm sure your thinking how can I sleep with another man and still love my husband, but I do. I really do. I love him."
"I don't judge Sarah; I'm just here to help. Now, why don't you and Patrick switch places, go ahead and send him in. OK?"
Sarah nodded and left to send in her husband. Jane was nervous, he didn't know why; this was just a guy he could talk to, just to see what was going on, to try to fix his broken marriage.
"So Mr. Jane," Dr, Jacobs started when Jane had sat down, "Why don't you tell me why you're here?"
"Well, we've been having issues for a while, I've tried to get Sarah to do counseling for ages, but she's always resisted, said there was nothing wrong, but this past weekend, she came home early from some sort of charity retreat in the mountains and she had just changed her mind, she recognized that there was something wrong and she wanted to work on it."
Dr. Jacobs nodded, obviously Jane had not known about his wife's affair. "Why do you think she changed her mind?"
"Well, I think she may have realized what it was like to be me. She's always having parties at home without telling me, and I'll come home from a long case only to find a bunch of people in our house, that I hardly know, if I know them at all, and she doesn't understand why I might get upset. I can count on one hand the number of quiet nights we've had at home just as a family. This past weekend I was throwing a party to celebrate a job well done and the newest person on our team. It was just a small party, but still, she came home and there were all these people that she didn't know, and I think she just got it."
Dr. Jacobs just nodded, it made sense after all. "When do you think your problems started?" This was always the interesting question, most couples disagreed on when the problems started, and it was usually only the ones whose marriage could really be saved that agreed on the trigger to the problems.
"About five years ago now a serial killer named Red John tried to kill Sarah and Abby in retaliation for me 'slandering' him in the media as he put it. I wasn't supposed to be home that night, but I came home early. I'm not really psychic, I don't tell many people that, but you're my doctor, you can't tell anyone either, it would devastate Sarah if she knew I told you, but for some reason, that night, I just had a feeling that I should go home early, that my family needed me. I walked in on that, that monster standing above Sarah and Abby with a butcher knife, getting ready to kill them. I didn't even think before I hit him over the head with the golf club. It took months for me to get that sight out of my mind. I knew then that I couldn't keep doing what I had been doing; I had to stop the charade. Sarah was fine with it for the first year what with the book and Lifetime movie, but, after awhile, it just wasn't enough. I think, I changed, I wanted to spend more time with my family, and she didn't. She wanted to go on as if nothing had ever happened. And I couldn't, can't do that."
Jane stopped now, taking a deep breath. He didn't talk about that night often; he still got that sick feeling in his stomach and the lump in his throat when he thought about how close he had come to losing his girls.
"Alright Mr. Jane, why don't you go get Sarah and we can pick a time to meet next." Jane nodded numbly, knowing that this was going to be a hard thing for him to go through. He didn't like talking about that night and felt that they were going to be talking a lot about it.
They set up their appointment for the same time the next week, when they would meet together and try to work out some issues, Jane wanted it to work, but as he headed back to the CBI head quarters in his run down old blue car he couldn't help but think of Lisbon, and her reaction the first time she had driven in it with him. Her car had broken down on the side of the freeway, and Jane had just happened to be passing by when the tow truck arrived. She had never believed that it hadn't been planned by him, or that the "contraption" as she called his car, was any better than her poor car that had been towed away. He still laughed at the thought. Now why was it, he wondered, that he was thinking of Lisbon after getting out of a therapy session with his wife?
