"A Strange Bond"

Note: Tooth Fairy and Alpha chat over dinner preparation at his home, and while they eat he tells Alpha that he's decided to try seeing a therapist. The next day he seeks help from an unlikely source. Santa is skeptical, but Carol sticks up for Neil, and an unofficial appointment is made. Neil proves that he actually knows what he's doing.

Disclaimer: I am not a mental health professional, and this is by no means meant to be an example of how an actual session would go. It's more like they somewhat know each other, so there's a bit of trust there, and Neil uses a few of the tools he has at his disposal to basically be a sounding board.

This is going up later than I'd planned, but I finally caught the cold everyone else had, so my energy level tanked. I didn't get it as bad as the others, though, and it seems to be on its way out. :)

"Chapter 36: Taking Steps"

April 18th

Alpha was very happy to see that Tooth Fairy was in such a good mood when she responded to his invitation to come over. He greeted her with the usual hug and kiss, but something was different about him. There was almost a sense of purpose, as if he knew something she didn't, but wasn't quite ready to share it yet. She followed him as he led her into his kitchen.

"So, what are we doing today?"

"I thought it might be fun to make dinner together. How do you feel about steak and twice-baked potatoes?" Tooth Fairy got out his skillet (not cast iron, because that would have been dangerous for him!) and set it on the stove; the potatoes would take a while, so he just left it there for the time being.

"Och, you're going to spoil me!" She leaned against the counter.

"Darn right," he agreed, kissing her. "You deserve it."

Alpha hugged him again, then peeked at the recipe book he had sitting open on his counter. She got to work scrubbing the potatoes without having to ask where he kept them; she knew her way around his kitchen by now. "What should we do for a veg?"

Tooth Fairy, who was grating some cheddar cheese to be used in the potatoes later on, raised an eyebrow. "Aren't potatoes a vegetable?"

"Potatoes are a starch, luv."

"Mm...no, I'm pretty sure they're a vegetable." He hid a smile. Sometimes he just liked to mess with her, same as she did with him.

She chuckled. "All right, they're a starchy vegetable."

He laughed. "I'm just givin' ya a hard time. We're also having Parmesan roasted green beans. Unless you don't like Parmesan. Or green beans."

"There are only two foods I really don't like, and Parmesan roasted green beans sound delicious." She took a fork and began stabbing at the potatoes, poking holes in them so that they wouldn't explode in the oven.

"What foods are they?" Tooth Fairy put the grated cheese into a container, popped a lid on it, wrapped the block of cheddar, and put these in the fridge. He washed the cheese grater.

"Mussels. And that really surprised me, because I like oysters and clams and such. Not that I've had them very often, but before I went to live in The Hollow we were sometimes able to get our hands on some. I've never been picky. But there's just something about mussels...I tried them a few times, just to make sure I still hated them, I guess, and I just can't." Alpha made a face.

Tooth Fairy grinned when she stuck out her tongue. Man, that was cute!

Alpha went on to add, "Andrew didn't like them, either. I guess he either got that from me, or wanted to emulate my reaction. So, Alexander got to stuff himself with one of his favorites while we had something else. It always worked out."

He nodded, somewhat envying her ability to talk about her family without seeming to get sad. He had just about reached that point himself, and then Aiden had decided to butt in. Maybe he would get there again someday. "That's one. What's the other?"

"Haggis. Ironically." They had a laugh about that, and she asked him, "Any foods you don't like?"

"Creamed peas and lima beans. I'm not very picky either, but I hated it when my dad cooked lima beans. It didn't matter how he did it, either. I always choked 'em down without saying anything, because we were brought up to not waste food." Tooth Fairy preheated the oven. "I didn't try creamed peas until the nineteen-sixties. One of the previous Mrs. Clauses grew up during America's great depression, and she served it one night when I went to visit that Santa to discuss...something-or-other. I can't remember what now. And I didn't want to offend her, so I ate it."

"So considerate," Alpha teased, even though it was true. She was leaning against the counter, and he was leaning against the opposite counter near the sink while they waited for the oven to heat up.

"The trouble with that was, since I cleaned my plate she thought I liked it, so she made it every time I stopped by at around dinnertime." Tooth Fairy shook his head. "She was a really nice lady, but if I ever have to eat creamed peas again, I'm gonna throw up."

"Well, now I know what not to make you. Anything else I should know about? Favorite food? Food allergies?" Alpha placed the potatoes in the oven when it beeped.

Tooth Fairy set a timer to go off in an hour. "No food allergies that I know of. Like I said, I'm not picky, but I'm also not the most adventurous eater. Too scared to try sushi. And as for my favorite food? Hm...it changes, depending on my mood, but tonight's dinner is one of 'em. There's really nothing like a nice, rare steak."

"Hmm...that might be a bit of a problem. We don't really have beef in The Hollow, unless Robert or one of the others decides to be a klepto." She went into the living room with him, and they turned on the TV. "As they sometimes do."

"That's okay," Tooth Fairy put an arm around her shoulders. "Gemma's venison roast was out of this world, and if she was using your recipe..."

"I'll have to show ye how I do it! It's easy. And I think next time I'll use rosemary." She smiled a bit; Tooth Fairy was playing with her hair. It had been a long time since she'd had a man she loved do that!

"What do you wanna watch until the taters are done?"

"You pick. I don't really know any current TV shows."

"Okay," Tooth Fairy channel surfed for a minute or two before they settled in to watch Animal Planet.

Later on, as they sat at his table and ate their dinner, Tooth Fairy's mind turned to an idea he'd had while flying the previous night. His breakdown had been a wake-up call, and he didn't want to dump all of his problems on his girlfriend. Thinking back, it was obvious to him that seeing him like that had been very hard for her. This was something he still felt guilty about, and he had come to a decision to take a more proactive approach to his own mental health.

The trouble was, he didn't know where to turn at first. It would have to be someone he wasn't likely to run into in his town, so a Fairy therapist was out. Plus, his trust in most of his people just wasn't very high. He knew that wasn't really fair, but that was simply how he felt. He didn't trust a Fairy therapist because of his unique set of problems, and because of his relationship with Alpha. He would have to leave too much out, which would basically defeat the purpose of going altogether.

He had briefly considered seeing if there was a therapist at the North Pole who would be willing to see him, but he wasn't sure he wanted that either. He knew Santa's Elves were adults, but most of them looked enough like children to make him feel a bit uncomfortable about it. But something had occurred to him as he arrived home that morning, and he brought it up with Alpha when he realized he had been quiet for too long, and she seemed like she was about to ask him what as up. He skewered a sautéed mushroom and a bite-sized piece of steak, and ate it before speaking. "I've been thinking."

"Hm?"

"Well...about seeing a therapist." He pushed his food around on his plate with the tines of his fork, not looking at her.

"Ah." Alpha nodded thoughtfully.

He wasn't sure what he expected her to say, but her neutral response made him nervous. "So...what do you think?"

Alpha didn't want to sound too enthusiastic about it, but she didn't want to seem dismissive, either. She didn't want to admit it, either to him or to herself, but their time in the Time Bubble had been emotionally draining for her. The cuddling had been nice, and so had their bonding time, but the reason why they were there had made her so sad for him. She would do it again in a heartbeat, and she was glad to have been able to help him through it, but she had been so afraid of saying the wrong thing! And seeing him in so much pain, knowing that she couldn't make it go away, had broken her heart. She reached over and laid her hand on his forearm, and he put down his fork and took her hand. "I think if you feel like you need to do this, you should."

"I just don't want you to think...well...that your being there wasn't enough, or something." He finally looked at her.

She gently shook her head. "I don't think anything o' the sort. I think it's good that you know what you need, and that you're going for it. And I'm glad to be there for you. I love you. But I'm not trained to do what a therapist does. Maybe they can help you where I might not be able to."

He smiled and tucked her hair behind her ear. "I love you, too. And thanks..."

"For what?"

"For taking it so well, I guess. I mean, I'll have to talk about you."

"The horror," she deadpanned, then leaned over and kissed him. "You do whatever you need to do, luv. I'm here to support ye."

"So, it's...not weird, or anything?"

"No," she said firmly, "it's not. It's something I wish we had in The Hollow. You're taking care of yourself. What's weird about that?"

He smiled. "Well, when you put it that way, I guess there's nothing weird about it."

While they were talking, their food had gotten cold, but it somehow tasted better to them than it had before when they started eating again. He was so relieved! And she was proud of him for taking this step. Conversation eventually turned to a light-hearted debate about whether or not Pluto was a planet, and it continued as they cleared the table.

"They had all this time to make up their minds, and suddenly in 2006 they decide that Pluto actually isn't a planet?" Tooth Fairy shook his head as he went to put his plate and cutlery in the sink. "Gimme a break..."

"Don't change the rules in the middle of the game, in other words?" Alpha followed him into the kitchen.

"Something like that."

She stood with him at the sink and grabbed a towel to dry their dishes when he handed them to her. "Change is a constant, luv. They probably didn't have enough information to know when they first called it a planet. And there's still the word 'planet' in the name. It's a dwarf planet."

"Nahhh." He shook his head, grinning as he played along. "Don't like that. It's a planet."

"All right, here's one for ye; if Pluto's a dog, then what the blue blazes is Goofy?"

This question was so unexpected and random that Tooth Fairy laughed fairly hard at it. "Oh, Gods!"

"What? I'm serious." Alpha's grin said otherwise, and she lightly swatted his arm with the dish towel. This only got him laughing harder, which started them on a laughter feedback loop, and before long they were both laughing so hard that they couldn't stand up anymore. They doubled over and sank down to the kitchen floor at the same time, wheezing and gasping for air.

Alpha caught her breath just long enough to warble, "M-I-C-K-E-Y, M-O-U-S-E!"

They were both cry-laughing at this point, and that just put him over the edge. He slapped the floor and slumped over sideways, holding his stomach. "Ow...ow!"

Alpha weakly laid a hand on his back, and they eventually spluttered to a stop.

He sat up again, his hand still on his belly. "Ohhh, wow...Alpha, you just about killed me!" He leaned his head against her shoulder.

"Can't say I'm sorry, luv. I like hearing you laugh." She kissed the side of his head as they leaned back against his cabinets.

"Shouldn't laugh that hard on a full stomach." He chuckled, then had a slight 'aftershock' of laughter. "Ohhh...no, I'm not doing that again!"

Alpha couldn't help herself. "Aye...but seriously, what is Goofy?"

"Please, no more!" He giggled weakly and waved his hands.

"All right. C'mon, let's finish the dishes." She stood up and took his hand. "Can ye stand after that?"

"Yeah." He kept a grip on her hand as he got up, but he did so under his own power. He had needed that laugh! "But, to answer your oh-so-serious question, I always thought Goofy was a dog."

"Fair enough."

April 19th

Tooth Fairy arrived at Elfsburg at around noon, and after a bit of asking around he managed to track down Santa. Santa and Carol were in Buddy's nursery, and it was Carol who answered his knock.

Carol was expecting it to either be Bernard or Curtis, but she was pleasantly surprised to see the Tooth Fairy. "Tooth...Oh, I'm sorry, Roy, what brings you here?"

Tooth Fairy smiled at her little blunder. Evidently, Santa had explained the name situation to her, but he knew it would take some time for it to become habit. It mattered to him that she was trying! His smile faded when he saw that they were enjoying a family lunch. "Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to interrupt your meal..."

"Oh, no, it's fine." Carol stood aside to let him in.

"Uncle Molinator!" Buddy crowed; his speech was a little bit clearer now.

Santa quickly wiped his mouth and got to his feet. "Hey, get in here!"

Tooth Fairy chuckled and exchanged a man-hug with Santa, each of them receiving two rough thumps on the back. "Santa. Hey, Carol." He briefly hugged her as well, then waved at the little boy who hadn't gotten up from the low table. "Hiya, Buddy!"

"Hi! You want my chicken nuggets?" Buddy held up a nugget, dripping with ketchup. "I'm full."

"Oh, no thanks." Tooth Fairy waved a hand. "It's real nice of you to share, but I already had lunch today. I just came to talk to your dad for a minute."

"Okay." Despite his claim of being full, Buddy ate the chicken nugget before grabbing another one in each hand and leaving the table.

Carol shook her head. "There he goes again. Buddy, sit at the table to eat."

Santa smirked as she followed their son over to the toy box. While his wife was busy with Buddy, he turned to Tooth Fairy and nodded for him to follow. If Tooth Fairy just wanted to shoot the breeze, he would have called first. Something was up.

Tooth Fairy followed Santa out into the hall, and he was glad to see that no one else was there. "Sorry this is kinda out of the blue. I would've called, but...this isn't the sort of thing I wanna talk about over the phone."

Santa got a good look at Tooth Fairy's face, and he jumped to the wrong conclusion. "Oh, no...Alpha broke up with you, didn't she?"

Tooth Fairy squinted. "What? No! Where did you get that idea?"

"Sorry," Santa realized he'd put his foot in his mouth. "You just had this look, like something was wrong. Is everything okay?"

It annoyed Tooth Fairy that Alpha dumping him was the first thing that sprang to mind, and he considered just turning around and leaving. But he had been known to say the wrong thing from time to time himself, and he brushed it off. "Yes, and no. No one's in danger or anything, but...it's kind of been a rough couple of weeks. I was wondering if I could ask you for a favor."

Santa remembered how Tooth Fairy had saved Christmas by bringing him and Carol together at the Pole so that they could straighten their situation out, and he didn't hesitate. "After everything you've done for us? All you gotta do is name it."

Here goes...everything. "I was wondering if you could get Neil on the phone, and ask him..." He cleared his throat. Gosh, this was hard! With Alpha, he knew he could just say whatever was on his mind, even if he had to gear up to it a bit, but this was so much different. This was him admitting vulnerability to another guy! "Okay, don't laugh, but I was wondering...I need to see someone. And he's the only one I could think of..."

There was an awful moment of silence when Santa simply stared at him. Then the deliverer of presents put a hand over his mouth and stifled a snicker.

Tooth Fairy got very red in the face and turned to go. "Forget it..."

Santa immediately scrambled to correct his mistake, stopping Tooth Fairy's departure with a hand on his shoulder. "Whoa, hold on, hold on, hold on. I didn't mean to laugh, and I wasn't laughing at you. It's just...Neil's kind of..."

Tooth Fairy stopped, but he still looked annoyed. "Kind of what?"

Santa removed his hand from Tooth Fairy's shoulder and sighed. "Look, I've had him try to analyze me, unsolicited, and he was way off the mark...okay, mostly off the mark."

"Sounds like you're not his biggest fan," Tooth Fairy observed, dryly. Neil seemed okay to him, but then again, there was no sense of rivalry there.

"He's...an okay guy, I guess," Santa forced himself to admit. "He means well, in a sort of hippie kind of way. Before Jack froze him and Laura, he was teaching the Elves yoga. And we didn't always get along. I'm his wife's ex, after all, and he's Charlie's stepdad. We only really started to get along when Lucy was born."

Tooth Fairy thought Santa was being overly critical of the man, but he could understand why. That family dynamic would have caused some friction, no matter how well they got along, and they would have had more than their fair share of awkward moments! It was clear that Santa was somewhat biased, but Tooth Fairy still had to ask. "So, you think it's a no-go?"

"I don't know. Personality clashes aside, I haven't seen him legitimately do his job."

"Oh..." Feeling rather defeated, Tooth Fairy folded his arms and looked down in thought.

But Santa wasn't done. "Let me get on the horn with him. Maybe he can recommend someone who'd be a better fit."

"No...Thanks, but I don't want to bring unknown humans into this. It's not just me I have to think about."

"Hm..." Santa stroked his beard. "Have you tried The Hollow? It's a long shot, but maybe one of the former humans used to be one."

Tooth Fairy looked up and shook his head. "There aren't any. Alpha said she wishes there were."

Carol, who had overheard their conversation, left Buddy to his toys and went to the doorway. "I don't think you're being fair, Scott. Neil likes to push your buttons sometimes, but he's met Roy, and he's actually pretty good at what he does."

Santa was skeptical. "'Pretty good'?"

"Well, the Elves who took his yoga class all say so."

Tooth Fairy grinned at the mental image of himself trying to do yoga. "I don't think I can bend that way without throwing my back out."

Carol giggled a bit and shook her head. "It wasn't just yoga. Because of the toy shortage and everything else that was going wrong that year, some of them just really needed to talk. He was there for such a short time, but he really seemed to have an impact."

Santa was gobsmacked, but he quickly recovered. "Huh...Well, if you want, I'll call him up and see if he'll see you off the record."

"Thanks."

Neil was surprised to be receiving a call from Scott, but after pleasantries were exchanged and the reason for the call was made known to him, he was privately stoked that the Tooth Fairy of all people would come to him for help. He agreed to the visit before Santa had even finished asking him. "Are you kidding? It'd be an honor!"

"Great! That's...that's great." Santa's voice betrayed his doubts, but he quickly went on, "When would it be a good time for him to drop by your office?"

"I'm not at my office. I took the week off to get a few things done. I should be home by three today, so if he can make it, I'd say...about three-thirty?"

There was some indistinct conversation before Santa replied. "Yeah, he can make it. He wants to know your fee."

Neil gave a short laugh; he sounded almost giddy! "Since he's not human, officially this session won't even be happening, so it would be unethical to charge him. Just tell him to be at my house at three-thirty. Oh! How's he going to get here in the middle of the day? Does he drive?"

"Uhhh...have you ever heard of a Fairy Ring?"

3:30 PM

Tooth Fairy knew where the Miller home was, of course, having stopped there for years to collect the baby teeth of both Charlie and Lucy. Lucy and Laura were at the mall, according to Neil, and Charlie was away at college, so at least there would be some privacy for this.

Neil's eyes nearly bugged out of their sockets when a Fairy Ring appeared in his living room, and a very uncomfortable-looking Tooth Fairy stepped out of it. "How did mushrooms just...sprout out of the floor?"

Tooth Fairy looked back at the Ring, then over at Neil and shrugged. "Magic. How else?"

Duh. "Right...Well, welcome to my home. Looks different in the daylight, huh?"

Tooth Fairy dismissed the Ring and responded in kind when Neil came forward to shake his hand. "Yeah, it does. Thanks."

"Would you like some tea, or some coffee?"

"Coffee, please." Tooth Fairy rubbed the back of his neck. "Are you sure you wanna waive the fee? Because I can pay, and I feel like I should pay."

Neil beckoned for Tooth Fairy to follow him into the kitchen, and he talked as he brewed a fresh pot of coffee. "You pretty much saved Christmas that one year, and you funded my comic book addiction for a while when I was a kid. It's on the house."

"Heh!" Tooth Fairy hit upon an idea that was sure to satisfy both of them. "Tell ya what, I've got a bunch of old comic books from the sixties. They're not in mint condition, but they're yours if you want 'em."

Tooth Fairy didn't have to push. Neil's eyes lit up; here was an offer he could accept without feeling any professional guilt, and Tooth Fairy's sense of fairness would be satisfied. "All right, it's a deal. And if you ever want them back, just let me know."

"Nope. A Fairy always honors a fair trade, and they're just sitting in a box in my basement. Someone should enjoy them, and I haven't looked at them in years."

"Thanks. How do you take your coffee?" Neil took a carton of half-and-half out of the fridge and reached for the sugar bowl.

"Black."

Neil handed Tooth Fairy a mug of black coffee, added cream and two sugars to his own, and once again he gestured for Tooth Fairy to follow him. "Come on, we can go sit in my study. It's the closest thing to an office I have here."

"Sure."

Tooth Fairy was already having second thoughts about this, and when he saw the tiny decorative fountain on Neil's desk he wondered if Santa was right. Maybe this is a mistake...

Neil set his coffee mug on the window sill next to one of the armchairs and retrieved a pen and a legal pad from his desk, and it was only then that he noticed that Tooth Fairy was standing in the doorway with a 'deer in the headlights' look on his face. "Go ahead and have a seat."

Tooth Fairy did as he was told, taking a sip from his mug as he made a beeline for the other armchair. I collected this guy's baby teeth. This is weird! "Um...Listen, Neil, I know I asked for this, but...I don't mind telling you, I'm pretty uncomfortable with this."

"That's not uncommon." Neil sat down across from Tooth Fairy and clicked his pen. "So...Tooth Fairy..."

"It's 'Roy', actually. I prefer the nickname, if you don't mind." Tooth Fairy smiled apologetically.

Neil scribbled out 'Tooth Fairy' and wrote 'Roy' right next to it. "'Roy' it is. Like I said, a lot of people are a little uneasy when they first see a therapist. New person, new environment...well, I suppose that isn't really the case here. Would it help if we treated this more or less like an official session?"

Tooth Fairy slowly shook his head as he thought about it. "I don't know. This is new to me."

"Mm-hmm." This wasn't the first time he'd seen someone start to get cold feet. "You're here voluntarily, right? That means nobody's forcing this on you. But if you choose to proceed, I can promise you this; nothing you say here will leave this room. I won't even discuss it with my wife. You're in control here. Okay?"

This relieved him somewhat, and since he was already there he decided to go ahead with it. "Okay...well...where should I start?"

"Well, maybe you can elaborate a little bit on how you came to this decision. What brings you here?"

Tooth Fairy sipped his coffee again, then put down the mug. He chewed the inside of his cheek as he looked out the window, and he watched the cars go by as he began to talk. "I'm thinking about proposing to someone...but there's something I've been dealing with, and I just wanna make sure...I don't know."

"Well, first of all, congratulations," Neil smiled.

"Thanks."

Neil started making notes in shorthand. "You mentioned going through something, and wanting to make sure of something...?"

"Yeah..." Tooth Fairy tried to tune out the fountain, which was tinkling away in the background. "I guess I should start from the beginning."

He gave a very abridged version of what happened in The Hollow, how he met Alpha, and that he learned his sister had been killed there (At this point, Neil offered his condolences, which he accepted). He made no mention of Fairy wings, nor of the power they held. Instead, he told Neil about how he and Alpha had gotten back in touch in January, and how she had been there for him.

"She sounds like quite a lady."

"Yeah, she is. I don't know how a guy like me ended up with someone like her, but...after we spent some time getting to know each other, we realized we had feelings for each other, and we've been dating ever since."

Neil smiled at that. "You say you don't know how, but I think you summed it up pretty well. She saw you for who you were, and something just 'clicked'. It happens."

"I guess that's true." Tooth Fairy conceded, then sighed. "The problem is, I've kinda been leaning on her a lot. We both went through our own things, and I've been there for her too, but she seems to be doing the lion's share, and that really bothers me, y'know?"

"Mm-hmm," Neil nodded and wrote some more. "Has she said anything to you about this? About whether or not it's impacted her in any way?"

Tooth Fairy shook his head. "No...no, she's been great. I honestly couldn't have made it through this week without her." He smiled, remembering how she had taken control of the situation Aiden had caused, and how she had made him feel like things would turn out all right in the end, but then lost his smile again when he recalled his breakdown. The guilt for how much stress he must have put her through resurfaced. "But I know it's impacted her, and something happened a few days ago...I think I had a nervous breakdown."

Neil's expression turned to one of concern. This was the Tooth Fairy saying this. He squashed this judgmental thought and ignored the man's wings and title. This was a man who was in distress, and who had come to him for help. "That term's a little outdated, but can you describe what happened?"

Tooth Fairy squirmed a little in his chair. Even now, he had trouble admitting how bad it really was. "I just...kinda lost it."

Seeing that Tooth Fairy was having trouble articulating his thoughts, and having the idea that he was a little sensitive about his masculinity (and maybe a little sensitive in general), Neil tried to put him at ease by acknowledging the obvious. "This is uncomfortable for you."

"It's really uncomfortable." Tooth Fairy eyed the legal pad. His secrets...Alpha's secrets...had been committed to paper. If Lucy went snooping, or if Laura happened to clean in here, they could read about everything. This didn't feel safe...He didn't feel safe.

Neil saw the look, and correctly interpreted it. He nodded. "I get it."

"Ya get what?" Tooth Fairy blinked.

Neil tore out the page he had been writing on and got up to put it through the shredder. When he came back and sat down, his hands were empty; the notebook and pen were back on his desk. "All right...That was more to keep the details straight, and was mostly out of habit. I guess if we need to revisit something, or I need clarification, I can just ask you. Roy...I can tell that it isn't easy for you to open up, particularly with another man, but I'm not here to make you uncomfortable, and I'm not here to judge you. I'm just here to listen. So, if you really want me to help you, I'll need to know exactly what happened. Otherwise, I'm flying blind."

Now Tooth Fairy smirked and fluttered his wings, which couldn't be seen from the street, so he didn't bother hiding them. "Flying's my department." They chuckled briefly, and he sighed. "Okay...Alpha and someone I grew up with got into a bit of a scuffle, which he started, and long story short, we had to present ourselves to the mayor of my town...in front of the entire town...to tell them what happened. I can't go into the reasons why, but there was no way to avoid mentioning my sister's...what happened."

"Mm-hmm..."

Tooth Fairy took a deep breath and let it out again. "And the next day, people started dropping things off at my house. Cards, gift baskets, casseroles, and knocking on my door all day. I sleep during the earlier part of the day, but I got no sleep that day. It was just...knocking, knocking, knocking, and I couldn't take it anymore." His anger began to show now, although he wasn't raising his voice. It showed in his eyes, and in the way he gestured as he spoke. "It was private. It was my family member, my baby sister, and they never even helped me search when she went missing. Then they made it all about them, or so it felt at the time."

"It was an intrusion." Neil nodded, not putting words into Tooth Fairy's mouth, but merely summing up what he said.

"It was! I found out later on that an old friend of mine did look for her, so I don't know how many of them did or didn't. They never told me, so how could I know? And with all the stress of the previous week...and all that knocking...not being able to sleep, and the fact that now they all knew what happened to Brinna, I just..." But he couldn't say it.

He didn't have to. Neil nodded again. "You broke down." It wasn't a question.

Tooth Fairy nodded and looked down, folding his hands on his lap. "Gods...for centuries, I never cried. It wasn't the 'manly' thing to do. But since last November, I've been doing it a lot. And that day..." He shook his head, embarrassed to be admitting this to another man. "It just kept coming, and I couldn't make it stop."

"Were you alone when this happened?" Neil certainly hoped not!

"No, Alpha was there. She never should have had to see that. I've cried on her so many times, it's pathetic." He drank the last of his cooling coffee, then shrugged. "So, what have I got? Am I going crazy?"

Neil folded his hands and leaned forward. "'Crazy' is a four-letter word with five letters, not a diagnosis. I'd have to give you a psychological evaluation if you want an official diagnosis, and that would take a while. We can certainly do that, if you have the time. But no, you're not 'crazy' at all. You said you hadn't cried in centuries?" I can't even imagine being alive that long!

"Nope. Got a little misty-eyed at weddings, but that's about it. I don't think that even counts."

"Not really," Neil agreed with him there. "A lot of men don't like to be too emotional. Part of it is our upbringing, and part of it is just how we're wired. Men in general cry less often than women due to our differing hormones, and then it usually doesn't last as long, but we do cry. It's a release. It's normal, and it's healthy. Grief is one thing that can cause it, and when the grief is brought on by something so traumatic, like with you...it can really throw a guy off."

Another guy knew he sometimes cried, and the world hadn't ended. Tooth Fairy began to relax. "Well, it definitely did that. And some of it, I sort of blocked out until that day and the aftermath. Bits and pieces are coming back to me, and...I know what I want to say, but I don't know how to put it."

Neil shook his head thoughtfully, and he wondered if the Tooth Fairy had ever been shown healthy ways to process his grief before Alpha came along. "Well, it's clear that you've been holding on to a lot of pain. And holding it in for as long as you did, it makes sense to me that recent events are causing some things to surface."

This was somewhat frustrating to hear. He already knew that. What he wanted was a way to make his outbursts stop. "But I don't want to keep doing what I've been doing. I want to get back to how I was before. I mean, I'm usually a pretty happy guy! Sure, I've had my ups and downs, but I was in a really good place until everything came crashing down around me. And Alpha...she saved me. In more ways than one. She saved my life down in The Hollow, and now...she's saved me from loneliness. I've finally found my other half. I want to marry her eventually, but I also want to be...well, she deserves a man who has all his ducks in a row, and mine are scattered all over the pond."

Neil smiled. "You mind if I steal that one?"

"Sure, go ahead."

"Well, you've already made a step in the right direction by taking the initiative to seek help, but now I have to ask; are you doing this for yourself, or are you doing it for her?"

Tooth Fairy thought about it for a second or two, then answered truthfully. "Both."

"That's good. It's fine to want it for her, but you also have to want it for yourself."

"I do," Tooth Fairy nodded. And he did.

Tooth Fairy had the time, so Neil gave him a full psychological evaluation. It took a while, with Neil asking questions and checking boxes when Tooth Fairy answered them, and giving clarification when Tooth Fairy asked for it. And, finally, Tooth Fairy received a tentative diagnosis. "Granted, you're not human, so this should be taken with a pinch of salt...but I believe you have PTSD and Anxiety."

"PTSD and Anxiety..." Tooth Fairy repeated to himself. "I would've thought OCD would be on there because of the floss-winding."

"No, I think the floss-winding stems from anxiety and from your profession; the need to fidget, coupled with the fact that your job makes you more interested in dental hygiene than the average joe. You happen to carry floss with you at all times, and you wind it around your finger for use, be it to floss your teeth or to wind around your other finger. It lets the rest of you be still and calm, if you can focus on that one thing. I'm a little hesitant to say that you have depression, since those symptoms were brought on by recent events, but we'll just keep an eye on that."

"Huh..." Tooth Fairy blinked. This was quite a revelation! He always thought he just liked winding his floss, but now that he really thought about it, there was no real enjoyment in that act. It was simply something he did when he felt antsy! "So...what can I do about it?"

"That's something we'll have to work on, if you're up for it."

"Yeah," Tooth Fairy smiled. I'm not crazy. And I know what it is!

"I'd like you to come and see me once a week for the next three months, and then we'll see where you are. Are Saturdays good for you?" Neil retrieved the legal pad to write down Tooth Fairy's appointment time.

"Yeah, but I'm usually in bed until around three. Is that gonna be an issue?"

"Nope, no problem. We'll work around your schedule. How's this Saturday at four sound?"

Tooth Fairy's smile turned into a grin. "Sounds good to me!"

Note: We've been in April for quite a while now. Time to move on to May!