It had been decided that the counselling sessions would take place every Monday, Thursday and Saturday between the hours of six and seven o'clock. The first Monday arrived and as six thirty rolled around Dr Hank McCoy found himself waiting patiently in his office, alone. Chin resting on his large blue hands watching the door, he knew that she would turn up eventually and that he could keep her there for as long as he wished once she did.
A few moments later and his suspicions were confirmed buy a thudding on the door.
"Come in" he called and was not overly surprised to see the door opened by Logan, he was carrying a small, struggling, grey cat by the scruff of its neck and getting his hand scratched badly by the sharp claws of its back paws.
He held the cat out towards Hank before depositing it on the chair.
"Stay!" he ordered and the cat stayed, looking as sulky as it was possible for a cat to look. "Good girl!" He cooed patronisingly, briefly scratching the top of the grey head with his large hands she raised her head and he scratched under her chin before nodding at Hank and leaving, closing the door behind him.
Hank turned back to where Joscelyn had been left and watched as she changed rapidly back from a small grey feline to the teenage mutant girl he was supposed to be counselling. She was wearing a pair of black cut-off jeans to just below the knee and a sleeveless red t-shirt that declared her to be the 'Property of the Pennsylvania Psychiatric Ward', she had thought it to be appropriate given the occasion but he was not impressed; the top of her head was covered by a black bandana almost the same colour as her hair, decorated with a pattern of red, circled pentacles.
"You're late." He told her.
"Yes, I am." She replied, challenging him to start an argument but he didn't, instead he pulled her file from the open draw next to him and handed it to her. All it contained so far was a picture, a short description of her mutant abilities and various diagrams of her DNA. She looked it over and handed it back unimpressed.
There was a silence as they each studied the other. He knew this wasn't going to be easy, she was the most difficult student in the school to counsel not only because she was so confrontational but also because she had the intelligence to be as difficult as she chose to be. He was however confident that she would eventually begin to trust him and open up. Until then he would have to persevere.
She was the first to break the silence, something he knew to be a good thing.
"So, Dr McCoy," she said settling back in her chair. "counsel me!" He sighed and leaned forward on his desk.
"Joscelyn..."
"...Joss" she interrupted but not rudely so he let it go and continued
"It's important that you understand that you are not being made to attend these sessions as a form of punishment but as a way to help you. As I told you on Wednesday I do think that you have several issues I have been wishing to address and I was speaking to the Professor about arranging a program of sessions with you even before the unfortunate incident involving Mr Summers." She beamed
"That did bruise something beautiful didn't it!"
"I do hope you're not proud of that fact!" he reprimanded sharply "I don't expect you have apologised to Mr Summers yet, but you should be ashamed of your actions." She was quiet for a moment and Hank was about to continue a little more gently when she looked up again.
"I'm not ashamed you know. I mean, I realise it wasn't necessarily the best course of action but I don't think that's going to stop me doing it again should the occasion arise." She paused "Is that one of my issues? Because, you know, I really can't get past three on my list, but affectionless psychopathy has a certain ring to it." He was surprised at her knowledge of such a term but reminded himself of her intimidating high results in the standard subject and IQ tests she had sat upon her arrival and continued.
"Yes, I think it is one of or at least part of one of the issues we need to address at some point. Anyway I would like to preface this by assuring you that if there is anything you particularly wish to talk about or don't want to talk about you just tell me and we'll talk about something else. I would also like to remind you that I am the one in charge here, not you. I am the authority figure and expected to be treated as such. Okay?" she shrugged, something he hated but he continued, rifling through his papers for sometime before finding what he was looking for, something Joss hated, she made a mental note to shrug more often.
"I was hoping to gather a little something about your past before we go much further if you don't mind" she looked up sharply and he thought he saw a flash of alarm in her golden eyes before she caught herself and returned to her state of indifference. "Shoot."
"Now, your parents died I believe when you were six, yes?"
"They didn't die, they were killed." She stated shortly.
"Ah, okay. What did you do in the ten years between your parents death and arriving here?" he asked, watching her carefully, pen poised.
"I don't want to talk about my parents." She muttered, he noted that down.
"I'm not asking you about your parents, I'm asking what you did after your parents. Did you go in to state care, live with friends?"
"No"
"What did you do?"
"I don't want to talk about this." She blinked back images the images threatening to surface in her mind and shook her head. Hank noticed that she had begun to rock back and forth ever so slightly, suddenly looking every bit like the six year old he was trying to discover. Taking pity on her and cursing himself for prying so deep so soon, he nodded and making a further scribble of notes smiled at her.
"Would you like a lollipop?"
He held out the tub of sweets that he kept in his desk for the younger children, hoping she wouldn't be insulted. But it had the desired effect, she stopped rocking, reached in and just like a small child hovered there for a moment examining the options before she took out a lemon one with a plastic stick. Joss had always hated the way the paper sticks came apart in her mouth and wasn't sure Hank would appreciate her spitting it out on his plush carpet. He put the jar away and watched her unwrap and inspect the sweet closely before putting it in her mouth. Looking up she seemed to remember herself and smiled a little.
"Thank you."
"No problem. What would you like to talk about?" she shrugged again and he resisted the urge to tell her off.
"Why don't you tell me my list of six issues that need addressing urgently?" He smiled, glad she was willing to continue and produced a list he had written up whilst waiting for her late arrival; Hank was a prolific note taker.
"Well, we've got; the topic of your parents, which we will leave for a later date" she inclined her head in agreement "anger management, inability to trust, substance abuse, alcohol abuse, violent tendencies." He had been ticking them off on his fingers and now stopped holding up his hands. "Six very deep issues I'd say wouldn't you?" Joss laughed, he waited for her to finish. "I'm glad you find it amusing." She took the list from him and read it again.
"It's not amusing, it's fucking hilarious!" she giggled a while longer before returning his list and noticed that he did not look at all amused, she stopped laughing. "What? Come on, you don't seriously believe all this shit? Substance abuse? What, have I been mainlining heroin in to my fucking eyeballs every morning and not noticed it?" Hank remained stern.
"Firstly, please refrain from using such language in these sessions, I won't tell you it betrays a limited vocabulary because I don't particularly wish to be assaulted today but you can take it as said. Secondly, do you not think that the smoking of marijuana comes under the heading of substance abuse? I know Dr Grey certainly thought it did when she chose to inform me of the results of your weekly blood tests. Mind altering substances are illegal for a reason Joscelyn." She looked suitably subdued and remained silent allowing him to continue.
"The same goes for alcohol abuse." she pulled a face, he continued "Would you agree that the consumption of half a bottle of single malt every evening to knock yourself out before being carried to bed constitutes alcohol abuse or dare I say alcoholism?"
"Logan," she said angrily "Bastard!" Joss sat up late with Logan most nights helping him through a bottle of Jack Daniels until she fell asleep and he carried her to bed, they had agreed that anything they talked about in their late night sessions would stay there, she was surprised he had gone back on that. Hank shook his head.
"Again your blood tests showed evidence of it and Logan's refusal to comment merely confirmed my suspicions. My senses are almost as sharp as yours or Logan's, Joss, and both whiskey and marijuana have strong odours, you know that."