WARNING - MENTIONS OF SELF HARM AND SUICIDE
"You need to stop growing so fast." Kyle says to Bruno as he brushes his fur with the dog brush he found. "I can't pick you up anymore cause you're too big!" He says, smiling as Bruno barks at him, shaking his body before running over to the tennis ball, returning it to Kyle.
"I bet you're glad you've been talking to us now." Pete smiles as he walks over to Kyle, watching him throw the tennis ball into the field before they walk there themselves.
"Yeah, never thought I'd rely on a dog this much." Kyle scoffs.
"Dogs are great company. I guess that's why I chose to train in canine therapy; I can do a job I love with the added bonus of having dogs around." Pete says, glancing at Bruno as he runs back towards them. "So, are you ready for your weekly assessment?" He asks as they sit down on the grass.
"Ugh, why do they have to be weekly?" Kyle moans, hating this time of the week.
"It's part of your recovery. I recon we'll be able to stop them soon." Pete says, amazed at how far Kyle had come over the weeks.
"Does that mean I can go home now?" Kyle asks as Bruno bounces up to them, dropping the ball in front of him, so he throws it across the field again, smiling as he chases after it.
"You will be soon. And asking me every time we have a counselling session isn't going to speed it up." Pete chuckles. "So, the first question is on a scale of 1 to 10, how do you feel right now. 1 is not great, and 10 is really well."
"An…" Kyle says as he thinks about it. "8."
"Why an 8?" Pete asks.
"I miss home." Kyle says, too much honesty for himself but it helped him a lot now when he was being open about his feelings. "I feel like I've just been forgotten about here, like I'm a distant thought they'd have and they wouldn't care about."
"Do you really think your family would give up on you that easily?" Pete asks, getting a shrug in reply. "They decided to send you here to get better, so they can have their brother back. I can't imagine how they must have felt when you were in hospital. They took time to decide to put you in a mental health facility like this."
"Yeah, I guess." Kyle says, knowing he could have been put on a hospital word, but he was here, with a lot more freedom and Bruno, who he had grown to love more than he expected. "I just don't want to feel like a burden when I do go home."
"Why would you feel like that?"
"Because they know what I did, what I had been doing to myself. I don't want them to watch me all the time to make sure I wouldn't do it again but they probably will."
"I guess that takes me on to my next question. On a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being extremely likely, do you have any kind of urge to self harm, or suicidal thoughts now?"
"It's a 0." Kyle says, smirking as he catches Pete's gaze. "Okay, a 1. Dr Lizzie said my scars are going to most likely be permanent, meaning I'll always have a reminder of what I did. I don't want to make it worse, for them to be even more noticeable. I know it didn't solve anything, and I didn't really help me either."
"Didn't really?" Pete questions.
"When I did it, I thought it would help me forget about what was going on, but it just made me feel more pain. At the time, I felt painless, because I would focus on cutting myself, but it actually didn't solve anything. I've got other things to do instead of self harming, and they're better. Apart from the breathing techniques as they always make me start yawning for some reason." Kyle laughs, shaking his head lightly as Bruno runs back up to them, lying down near them.
"Yeah, Lizzie mentioned that it made you yawn a lot, then set her off. You've got to be the first person that's happened to. But there's other techniques you've got that are just as good." Pete smiles. "And you've got Bruno."
"But I'm not going to have Bruno forever. I'm going to have to leave him here, then what do I do?" Kyle sighs, not ready for the day he had to leave his puppy behind.
"You've still got time with him. And you never know what may happen when it comes to you leaving." Pete says.
"Brax would never allow me to keep Bruno. Casey's always wanted a dog, and Brax wouldn't let him get one. I know he won't change his mind for me." Kyle says.
"I would say otherwise but you know him better than me." Pete says. "And how is your arm doing? Have you had any troubles with it since your last hospital appointment?"
"Nope. It doesn't ache anymore like it did a couple weeks ago. Those physio sessions really helped. And Lizzie said she was happy with how it had healed and I was able to get full function back with physio." Kyle replies.
"Well that's definitely great news. How about you have a few more physio sessions just to make sure everything's okay, then we'll start thinking about having some sessions on what happens once we discharge you." Pete says.
"Okay, that sounds good." Kyle nods.
"Brax, have you seen the spare pack of nappies?" Ricky asks as she looks around the flat. "I forgot to swap the packs over when I finished them earlier and Emi really needs changing."
"Rick, they're right here." Brax says, walking to the shelving unit where the spare pack sat beneath it.
"I was just testing you." She smirks, catching a nappy he chucks her.
"More like baby brain." Brax scoffs.
"I'm not the only one who has baby brain. Who forget where their phone was the other day when they were holding it the entire time?" She grins.
"Yeah, okay." Brax frowns. "I was just having a bad day."
"You can't blame Emilia or Kyle for that." She lightly jokes as she starts changing Emilia's nappy. "He's going to be okay, and the fact you haven't heard from Pete yet is a great sign that everything is fine."
"An update on how Kyle is doing every now and then wouldn't hurt them." Brax mutters.
"I guess it's more for them. If they were to update their patients families, and then something was to badly change, they can't be to blame for misleading the family." Ricky says.
"Yeah, that would make sense."
"I know." She grins.
"What's got you in such a great mood today?"
"I managed to get a good nights sleep now Emilia is sleeping more at night. I was thinking we could go to that parent and baby group I showed you the other day, now that she's getting bigger it could help us to know what to expect next."
"Sure, just not that one Kyle went to." Brax says.
"And why's that?"
"They were all vegans, including their kids. One of them was trusted with their kid even though she thought she could get her daily intake of protein from an apple. I'm not a nutritionalist, but even I know that isn't possible." Brax says.
"Brax, we all know Kyle only went to that certain group because he fancied one of the other mums there, and she was single as well." Ricky smiles. "Maybe it could have worked between them if she wasn't so…"
"Uptight? Posh? Rich?" Brax smirks.
"Yeah, to put it bluntly." Ricky laughs. "Can you pass me the duck baby grow." She asks, Brax picking it up from the side and passing it to her.
"He'll find someone one day." Brax says.
"Yeah, and they'll be great together. It would be great if he could find a girl that could give him the world, we all know he deserves it." She says.
"Yeah, he just needs stability for a while." Brax says, glancing at his watch. "I need to go for that meeting, will you be okay here for a while?"
"Yeah, we've got things covered. See you later." She smiles, kissing him goodbye.
