Steven was going to meet with his therapist for the first time today. The therapist himself had seemed promising enough. His name was Ulysses Scheele, and he'd graduated from the West Virginia University with a Master's degree in psychology. He was living in Morgantown with a wife and three children. All seemed to go well for the man, really.

Steven wasn't sure the same could be said for him. After all, he'd recently had a mental breakdown that culminated in him attempting suicide. The last words he remembered saying before trying to take his own life were, "I'm a monster..." He ended up spending some time in the hospital with his father Greg, his grandmother Whitney, his aunts Goldie and Maya, his cousin Spinel, his girlfriend Connie, his first cousin Sapphire, Sapphire's wife Ruby, their daughter Garnet, Amy, Pearl, Belinda, Jasper, Peri, and Nyoko all by his side. While he was still recovering from the physical trauma to this day, he'd yet to fully recover from the psychological trauma. That's where the therapist would come in and hopefully help to fix everything. He'd have to, right?

Steven sat out in the waiting room outside Mr. Scheele's office. He was nervous how the therapist would take him. He didn't want Mr. Scheele to judge him for what he did, but he also didn't want to stonewall him if things got too uncomfortable. Then again, old habits died hard. Suddenly, someone opened the door. Steven turned to see that it was Mr. Scheele.

"Mr. Universe?" Mr. Scheele called out to the sixteen-year-old boy.

"Yep, that's me," Steven replied.

"I'm ready to see you now."

"Thank you, sir."

Steven got up from his chair without saying another word and followed Mr. Scheele into his office. Almost immediately, the boy and his therapist took to shaking hands.

"I'm going to take a wild guess and say that you're Steven Universe, right?" Mr. Scheele asked amusingly.

"Yep, that's me," Steven replied with a little smile. "And you're Ulysses Scheele, aren't you?"

"That's right. So what brings you here?"

Steven proceeded to tell the whole story about how it all came to this: watching his mother figures almost die right in front of him, Jasper kidnapping him and his family, witnessing his friend Lars overdosing and then going into cardiac arrest, finding out his mother was the same woman who faked her own suicide in 2006, his grandmother trying to kill him in a fit of rage, his cousin Spinel trying to kill him after everything she went through, experiencing an identity crisis, developing anxiety over possibly losing the people he loved, the mental breakdown, and lastly the suicide attempt.

"Um... wow," Mr. Scheele could only say. "That... is a lot to unpack. I can see now why you came here."

Steven laughed nervously. "Yeah, no kidding. Sometimes, it felt like there was some divine force out there that was pushing all these terrible things on me. You ever feel like that, Mr. Scheele?"

"I... well, I suppose so. I guess there might be a higher power somewhere that decides what happens or what doesn't happen, but we can save that discussion for another time. Right now, we're focusing on you. The thing I got from you is that you invested so much time helping others that you constantly put yourself on the back burner. It was because you never prioritized yourself above all others that your mental health suffered for it."

"Yeah, that's about the size of it. Given everything I described to you, I think I might also have PTSD."

Mr. Scheele nodded his head as if to show he understood. "That sounds about right. Personally, I'd go see a doctor for a professional diagnosis before being certain."

"Uh, thanks?"

"No problem." Mr. Scheele then turned his head to look at the clock on the wall. "Oh, would you look at that? We're out of time."

Steven looked somewhat disappointed. "Oh... that's a shame. We were only getting started."

"Well, you did spend a lot of my time going into great detail about every traumatic event that happened to you. That takes plenty of time to exposit during an appointment. But anyway, it was nice meeting you, Steven. I look forward to seeing you again... you know, if you want to."

Steven chuckled awkwardly. "Uh, sure. Thanks, Mr. Scheele. I look forward to seeing you again, too."

After going back to his motel room, the very first thing Steven did was call Connie on his iPhone. He was so nervous but excited all at once at the thought of telling his girlfriend what his new therapist was like. After the third ringtone, Steven pressed the "answer phone" button on the screen and started talking with her.

"So Steven," Connie began to speak. "How was your therapy session?"

"It went better than I expected," Steven replied. "Mr. Scheele actually seems like a decent guy."

"He does? That's great. So what did you tell him when you guys first met?"

"Uh, everything?"

"Everything?"

"Everything."

"Uh, Steven? I know the whole point of therapy is to work through whatever problems you're going through, but you think you could've started a bit smaller?"

"Well, I mean, why not? I'd have to reveal all that to him eventually, so why not get it all out there on the first day?"

"Well, at least you're seeing someone about this, and that's what really matters."

"Thanks, Connie."

"Ooh, gotta go. I've got a Chemistry exam coming up next week, and I need to study for it."

"Oh... uh, good luck."

"You too. Love you, Steven."

"Love you too, babe."

With that, Steven hung up. He looked outside and saw that daylight was already slipping away, something he hadn't noticed while talking on the phone with Connie. He also suddenly realized how stuffy it felt in the motel room, especially with no air conditioner in sight, so he slid open the window to get some cool air in. Once that was done, he plopped down on the bed and tried drifting off the sleep. This had been a long day. Maybe tomorrow, after he'd finished another therapy session with Mr. Scheele, he'd buy a mini fan to help cool off. Yeah, that's exactly what he'd do.