Breaking Point
"Do you want them to leave?" Doctor Stevens asked Yang as he motioned to Blake and Weiss.
"We wouldn't hold it against you if you wanted some personal time." Weiss said gently as she saw Yang's near vacant expression as she stared at the floor, Blake's ears were folded down just as they had been after last night's events.
It had been a session that was just supposed to be with the three of them. It had been agreed upon in the beginning that any group sessions (i.e. with Jaune and his team) would be discussed before-hand. Yang was silent for a moment or two longer when she sighed deeply, lilac eyes nearly void of her fiery spark that the monochrome pair had come to know, "No you two can stay. After…you two deserve some answers."
Doctor Stevens and the pair looked at one another. He then looked back at Yang, "Ok Ms. Xiao-Long let us begin then. Tell me what happened last night."
They had wanted to talk to Ruby about last night's events. However the reaper was very (and uncharacteristically) closed off. The only reaction they had gotten out of the reaper without speaking to her directly, was a raised eyebrow when she saw the black journal on the desk. Other than that, there was only a, "I'll be back later", in a monotone voice before she grabbed the book, a pen, her bag, and Crescent Rose before leaving. In fact it was so curt, that they hadn't even gotten two words out before she had closed the door on them.
So that left only one other option…the good doctor. Yang, Weiss, and Blake regaled the doctor with finding Ruby back at the dorm. They discussed what Ruby had told them and how everything with the reaper seemed somewhat…well they wouldn't use the terms 'ok' or 'normal', but it was a vast improvement of when they had last seen her. Then Weiss started explaining how she had woken up to Ruby fidgeting in the bed and had been wanting to tell her off, and that was when she heard the muttering. Blake had jumped in at that point, explaining the attempts to awaken the cloaked leader and then up until Yang woke up and Ruby wanting to them to leave.
The doctor had nodded along and made notes when necessary, "So this is about your-about Summer Rose then." He said slowly correcting himself as he had almost referred to the late huntress as Yang's mother.
"Summer Rose is and always will be my mom." Yang growled out seeming to have read his mind in why he corrected himself.
"My apologies. I didn't mean to imply-" Dr. Stevens started to say.
"We found her notebook." Blake said softly, placing a hand over Yang's to attempt to calm the brawler down, and to get to the point of their meeting, "Weiss had read it to us once Yang had realized she had been trapped in a memory of those events."
Dr. Stevens nodded slowly, internally thanking the faunus's protection of the blonde's wrath, "I see. Well then let's start with that. Summer Rose's…disappearance."
"She died on a mission. She didn't disappear. She died." Yang said defiantly, "She broke her promise."
"Promise to who? You or your sister?"
"Us. Well to Ruby mainly…" Yang corrected herself last minute, "It was the night before the mission. Well…"
"Take your time. We can start from wherever you want to."
Blake and Weiss gave Yang a supportive look as the blonde closed her eyes and sighed, "Our parents were on the same team. As you know;" she motioned to the doctor, who nodded, "Early in my childhood or ours rather…our father and mother would rotate on missions so that way we had one parent at home with us. I can recall one mission where I guess dad had gotten hurt or something, so he had made the decision to retire as a full time hunter and teach instead. Mom was supposed to follow after him. And for a time mom was home with Ruby and I…but one day they had an argument…"
"An argument you say?"
"Yea, I can't really remember the words, but I know mom was angry and so was dad…" Yang said slowly, "It was that day in fact that mom had made the promise to Ruby and I…mainly to Ruby. She was old enough to know that they had gone on missions, but had understood that they were mostly home with us. I guess something happened and Mom had to go…even though she promised she'd stay."
Dr. Stevens nodded as he wrote his notes, "And I take it that was the last you saw of her?"
"It was a normal night, but looking back I should have realized something was wrong. It didn't feel right; but we did what we normally did. We said good-night to Dad and went up to our rooms to wait for Mom. She'd always read to us before bed." Weiss and Blake saw a bitter smile at this, and gave each other a look, "She came in and tucked both Rubes and I in. We picked out a story from our book and she read to us. We asked for one more story…and funny thing was, even though it was past our bedtime, she said ok. Like it was completely normal."
"It wasn't." Stevens commented.
"No it wasn't." Yang sighed out, "Afterwards she tucked me in and picked Ruby up. She told us that she loved us and that we should always remember that. I knew then that she was saying good-bye without saying it, she saw it too; however something passed between us and I kept quiet."
"For Ruby's sake?" Blake asked softly.
Yang nodded, "Ruby had hugged her close and I heard her ask if we could have the special pancakes for breakfast and Mom said yes…that we would be together to have them…carrying Ruby out of my room was the last I saw of her. Next morning I heard Ruby crying, I went downstairs to see Dad trying to comfort her…explaining that other kids needed Mom's help and she had to go. Dad caught my eye and shook his head. I knew she went on that mission that they had argued the night before."
"Did you ever find out what kind of mission it was?" Weiss asked.
Yang shook her head, "No, but after all the…secrets…we heard about, I suppose that is one of the things that we will never know."
There was a moment of silence. Stevens closed his notebook and took a breath before asking, "A bit off topic, however learning about your…feelings in regards to promises…do you ever reflect on the day that Ruby left you on Patch?"
Weiss and Blake watched as lavender eyes turned red. Blake winced as she felt Yang's hand tighten on her own, "Do. Not. Drag. Ruby. Into. This." Yang growled out enunciating each word.
"Yang please." Weiss begged softly, "He is trying to help."
"Help? He is accusing Ruby of…" Yang trailed off, blood red eyes dulling only slightly, "being like mom…"
Blake felt the hand loosen and she immediately pulled away to make sure circulation still flowed. Once she made sure the hand was alright, did she re-grab her partner's hand in support, "Yang easy please. Breathe and calm down. This is as much for you as it is for Ruby."
"But we are here because of Ruby. To find out why she felt the need to write about Mom in the first place. I mean like I said, she was young. I didn't think she really remembered or understood a lot at that age."
Doctor Stevens looked hesitant, but then quickly schooled his features. Weiss saw this instantly, "You know something." She accused darkly, not liking the way he was hiding something about her best friend.
The bumblebee pair looked between him and the former heiress, "I cannot say." He said, "Ms. Rose had not done any harm to herself or to any individual."
"That wasn't a denial." Blake stated firmly.
"Nor was it admitting anything." He pointed out.
"Enough with the bull-shit. What do you know?" Yang demanded.
Doctor Stevens sighed, "As I said, I cannot directly break doctor-patient confidentiality. It goes against policy. However I can explain that children learn by example Ms. Xiao-Long."
"Meaning what exactly?" Blake asked.
"They develop certain…attitudes or coping mechanisms." He said as he re-opened the notebook to a blank page.
The three young woman looked at him, "What exactly are you eluding too?" Weiss asks slowly.
He remained silent and merely looked at Yang over his glasses. Yang glared darkly at him and then her expression changed as what he wasn't directly telling them, "You mean somehow this was our fault?" Yang asked softly.
"The goal of these sessions is to not criticize anyone for past inadequacies or mistakes." Doctor Stevens said gently, "It is about healing, or alleviating, symptoms of a concerning issue or condition. One prime example is being the way heavy emotional trauma is handled. Do you see where I am heading with this?"
"I do and I don't appreciate it doc." Yang said darkly.
Blake and Weiss looked at each other and it dawned on them what the good doctor wasn't directly saying, "Ruby learned this avoidance behavior." Blake stated and looked at Yang now, "You had said your father was indisposed both physically, mentally, and emotionally. You practically raised her, and even when your uncle would come around, he wasn't much help. You never dealt with your own traumas." Yang winced at the explanation, but then Blake turned to the doctor, "You spoke with her yesterday. You knew everything about them. You figured this is where the problems started. You had her write in the journal."
Stevens sat back and merely kept his mouth shut. However eyes can be telling, and there was a sudden chill in the air, eyes went to Weiss now, "You hurt my partner. You hurt my team."
There was a glyph forming next to her and both Yang and Blake instantly recognized it as one of her summoning glyphs. To the doctor's credit, he did not even so much as move a muscle, "Woah easy there princess." Yang said quickly eyeing the glyph as a large blue ice paw the looked like the beginnings of a beowolf coming out of the glyph before it vanished suddenly.
Yang watches as Weiss deflates a bit, but still keeping her icy glare at the doctor, "Forgive her. She is normally the well composed one out of the three of us…however before I start feeling like I made a mistake in reeling her back in, perhaps you can elaborate."
Stevens has his eyes on Weiss, not in wariness, but in an analytical gaze, "Interesting reaction Ms. Schnee."
"I was defending my partner and my team." Weiss answered in a tone that matched her moniker of 'Ice Queen', "I do not take kindly to people that directly hurt them."
There was a moment of suffocating silence that followed. With a click of his tongue, Stevens decides to give in, if only slightly so that they may see the bigger picture, but not give too much information away on his other patient, "Forgive me. I did not mean any harm. While I cannot confirm nor deny the accusation made by Ms. Belladonna, what I can say is that it is my…suspicion…" He says carefully now, while shifting his posture, "that past childhood traumas spilled over into adulthood; and coping mechanisms have been mimicked and refined in order to…protect…one's self."
"Until they no longer worked." Blake said.
"Again I can neither confirm nor deny this."
"Ah ha." Yang stated skeptically, "So tell me again how digging this stuff that we had buried fairly decently needs to rear its ugly head."
"There is nothing more toxic than yourself guarding your secrets, hiding your tears, silencing your screams, and destroying your soul." He answered knowingly, "Now then let's go back to my original question. Do you ever reflect on the day that Ruby left you on Patch?" Yang opens her mouth to answer when he cuts her off, "Please Ms. Xiao-Long, think long and hard about this. Surely the events of last night resurrected something dormant that you have 'buried fairly decently'."
Yang scowls at him as he twisted her words onto herself, but then deflates and sighs, hiding her face in her hands, "Ok fine. Yes. I hate to admit it, but when Ruby left without a word it was…hard. Looking back on it, I pushed her away. I was not in a good place mentally and emotionally. So at the time I was more than numb, and didn't exactly care. I mean I had told her to do what she wanted…and she wanted to leave so she did."
"Ok good start. Now, in this moment, tell me how you feel." Yang, Blake, and Weiss looked visibly uncomfortable, "I know this isn't easy. I never led you to believe that it was going to be. However like we established, it is not good to hide your feelings. Even if you think you've had them handled in the past."
"It hurt ok? Looking back on it, she hurt me." Yang admitted softly.
"You told her to go." Weiss said looking at the ground, "But you didn't really mean it."
"Yes…no…I don't know." Yang said, "Part of me would have been disappointed if she stayed. She always did what she felt was right…if she had stayed-"
"If she would have stayed, then you may have saw it was for selfish reasons." Blake finished for her, "Or you would have been angry because you would have saw it as out of pity for you."
Yang shrugged. Stevens looked between the young women and allowed them to have a brief moment of silent reflection, "What about the two of you?" He asked after that moment was over.
"Us?" Weiss and Blake asked together.
"Yes. How do you both feel about this?"
Yang looks at them as well in silent question, "Helpless in a way I suppose?" Weiss answered but it came out as a question, "I'm not used to feeling like I cannot do something. At least not anymore…"
"Same." Blake admitted seeing that it was her turn to speak up, "Seeing Ruby not responding to us this time was heartbreaking. I've just never seen her breakdown like that. She always appeared to be strong despite her…disadvantages." Seeing that Yang was going to challenge her, she quickly said, "You know what I mean, stopping Torchwick, getting to Beacon two years early, having being made team leader…"
Yang raised her hands in surrender, "Right ok. Fine yes. That is true."
Blake sighed, "Thank you. I'll try and watch my phrasing."
"No. Be honest. Say what you mean. That is why we are hear. This is a safe environment. Now Ms. Schnee, this feeling of helplessness-"
"Stems from my social bureaucratic upbringing in that I could do no wrong. That everything had to be perfect because I had to 'bring honor to the family name' because gods forbid I do one little thing out of line to bring 'disgrace' to my holy than thou art father." Weiss quickly explained cutting the man off, "Thank you for bringing that up."
"I was actually going to comment on being the 'best teammate' Ruby could ever have. Your promise that you made to her that you mentioned to me in our first session…" Stevens said.
"Oh."
This made Yang laugh at the expense of the former heiress, "Nice Ice Queen. Way to dig your hole."
"Thanks Yang. Thank you for that."
"Hey you jumped the gun." Blake said not bothering to hide her shit-eating grin.
Weiss gave them a deadpanned look, "Ok enough of that."
"Quite. We are almost out of time. So we'll get to your family problems that you have repressed later." Stevens commented lightly, hiding a small chuckle behind a cough at the antics, and the displeased look on the former heiress, "Right now Weiss I would like to know if this changes how you view your promise to her."
"No of course not." Weiss stated firmly, "She is not just my team leader, she is my best friend. I will still do my damnedest to make sure she knows that I am always there for her. Even when she thinks she can handle things on her own." She added the last part silently.
Stevens made a note in his book, "And you Blake?"
"I'm not running from this. I am through with running. Ruby didn't give up on me when I revealed my past, so there is no way I am giving up on her."
"Ok." Stevens snapping his notebook closed, "Well this has been productive."
"Wait we are done?" Yang asks.
"For today yes. I have my next appointment that I need to get ready for. You girls have the tools needed for this next task. I'll see you all same time next week." Taking this as their que to leave, they got up and left the room to head back to their dorm room, feeling in a slight knot.
This brief moment of silence lasted for all of two minutes before there was a knock on his door, before he could give consent for the person to enter, it opened and he was greeted with glaring silver eyes with a scowl to match as she slammed the book on his desk, "Ms. Rose. Please have a seat. I take it you completed you homework assignment. Tell me, how did it go?" He asked as he got out another file and a different notebook.
"You are one SOB, you know that doc?" Ruby asked sarcastically.
"I've been called worst, but we are not here for me. We are here for you, so…let's review shall we?"