Thanks to everyone who read and to Ghostwriter, tomfeltonlover1991, Callisto's Moon, and MelsieR for reviewing.

Laura checked her calendar, confirming her final appointment for the day. It was an initial interview for a new patient, meaning that it was likely to run a little long, but that was fine. Assuming it went well, it would end up fitting in the usual end-of-day slot going forward.

Her intercom buzzed as she located the correct folder—there wasn't much in it since the review of a patient's history was a big part of their intake interview—and she tapped it lightly. "Yes?"

"Your last appointment just arrived," Sylvie said. "Jamie Waite, and a Mr. Alex Freeman, with him."

"Thank you, would you send them in, please?"

"Of course."

There was a light tap at her door few minutes later, and she stood. "Come in."

The man who'd tapped on the door would be the foster parent, probably somewhere in his mid to late thirties by her estimation, and judging by the suit jacket and briefcase he was a professional of some form. The boy he waved in ahead of him was sixteen according to his forms, a little older than most of her patients, and not in any way happy to be here if his body language was any indication. He wore the typical teenage uniform of a t-shirt and jeans, although the 'Disobey' plastered across the front of the t-shirt told her that he didn't fit himself into quite the same mold as the man. He hesitated as soon as he was inside, hanging back until his foster father stepped around and ahead of him again, and she smiled and gestured them both forward.

"Hello. I'm Dr. Laura."

"Alex," the man said, offering a hand. "It's nice to meet you. This is Jamie."

The teenager in question shot a very definite scowl in Alex's direction but heaved a sigh and turned back to Laura at a pointed look, shoving a hand in her general direction. "Helloit'snicetomeetyou."

She shook Jamie's hand as well and then picked up her clipboard and nodded to the less formal couch-and-chair setup near the windows. "It's very nice to meet you both. Why don't we all have a seat, and we can talk a little bit about what brings you here and then go through the forms I sent you." If Jamie had been a little younger she'd have suggested the beanbags in the opposite corner, but with older teenagers it was generally better to treat them as adults unless and until they indicated that they'd be more comfortable elsewhere.

Alex nodded, and he—and Jamie, who might not be very happy with his foster father but didn't seem inclined to move very far away from him either—took seats on the couch while she took the chair on the other side of the small table.

"Were you able to get all of the forms filled out?"

"Most of them," Alex said, pulling a familiar packet of papers out of his briefcase and handing it over. "There were several things that neither of us was sure about, but I've made notes where that was the case."

Incomplete information was very common with children in foster care, and she took the forms with a nod of thanks. More than once she'd had patients show up with no information filled out and had to do the whole thing question-by-question so even a partially-complete set was an excellent starting point. "Thank you. Now, before we get started, why don't you tell me a little bit about what brings you here. Jamie?"

He crossed his arms over his chest and scowled at Alex again. "He said I had to."

"Jamie."

"Well, you did." His scowl flicked in Laura's direction before he dropped his eyes to his crossed arms, and it was fairly obvious that he had no intention of elaborating further.

Alex sighed. "About a month ago he started having nightmares. Bad ones, to the point that they were interfering with his sleep. They have lessened a little recently, but..."

"I'm fine," Jamie muttered. "It was just stupid."

"It sounds like the sort of thing that's usually beneficial to talk to someone about, though," Laura offered. "Otherwise there's a good chance that you'll start having them again at some point."

He shifted a little, a good indication that this time had already been an 'again,' but didn't offer anything else..

After few moments of silence she opened the packet in front of her. "We can talk more about that later. Alex, would you mind if we started the review with your history? Jamie can wait in the reception room if you'd prefer."

"Starting with me is fine, but he's welcome to stay," Alex said immediately. "I don't think there's too much in there that he doesn't already know, with the possible exception of some of the family medical history. I'm a little unclear why that's relevant myself."

"It's just part of the standard intake information that we collect, although it does tend to be more pertinent when the foster or adoptive parent is a relative of some form."

"Ah."

"Now, I see Jamie that has been with you for about four months now?"

"Well, that's how long he's been with me officially, but unofficially it's been since last Thanksgiving. It was supposed to be a temporary situation, but that isn't how things worked out."

Jamie scoffed but didn't seem inclined to add any actual words when Laura looked at him.

"And you're not in any way related?"

"No. We met at work, he's an EMT on one of the squads I run."

She nodded. Teenagers, especially older teenagers, had an unfortunate habit of ending up with whoever would take them. The 'good' situations tended to involve a friend's parent, but she'd seen it happen with both teachers and supervisors before. "I see there's no information listed for a partner, so is it just you and Jamie at home, or do you have any other children?"

"It's just the two of us."

That was a little unusual, but Laura didn't comment as she skipped past the blank page and to Alex's personal information. "You're a doctor?" That was surprising too, or at least the fact that he hadn't introduced himself as such was. "Do you have a practice?"

"No. I generally do a few shifts a week in the ER, but I spend the rest of my time running the city's emergency services department"

Hence knowing Jamie through the EMT program. She nodded. "You mention here that you have seen a therapist yourself—counseling after an injury?"

"There was an incident when I was working in the ER a little over ten years ago, and I ended up with permanent damage to my back. I met with the hospital's on-staff counselor for several months afterwards."

Jamie looked over at him with a little bit of curiosity which suggested that he hadn't known that before, and Laura continued down the form. "Nothing current, though?"

"No."

"And you've never had any issues with drugs or alcohol?"

"No."

"This note about current medications—complicated?" At least she was reasonably certain that that was what it said. From his handwriting she had no trouble believing that he was a doctor.

"I have a selection of different painkillers I may take depending on how my back is feeling on any given day. I generally try to stick to the typical over-the-counter stuff, but it runs the gamut up to opiods for the really bad days. They're correctly prescribed by my own doctor and all of that, but they do exist."

She nodded. "Does anyone in your family had a history of drug or alcohol abuse?"

"No. Although I will say that both of my parents are very much holdover hippies so I'm generally happier not asking them about that sort of thing."

"Do they live in the area?"

"They're in Wyoming. So are my brother and sister. Jamie and I are going to try to make it out to visit this summer, I think, if we can find a week that works for everyone."

It was a little unusual for a foster family to take a child along on a cross country trip if they weren't also foster-to-adopt, but Jamie didn't look surprised at that part so apparently it was something that they'd already discussed.

"Do you smoke?" she asked.

Jamie snorted and got a side-eye from Alex who gave a very firm, "Absolutely not."

"Do you?" she asked, turning her attention to Jamie for a moment.

"No. I don't want to be grounded and writing book reports for the rest of my life."

"So is that a 'no' or a 'not anymore'?" There was a section for tobacco in Jamie's portion of the forms too, but she didn't want to interrupt any information that he was choosing to volunteer by flipping papers.

He glanced at Alex. "Not anymore, I guess."

"It had better be not anymore," Alex agreed. "It's a nasty habit, and you are way too young anyway."

A perfectly reasonable opinion, but she kept her attention on Jamie. "I take it that you've been grounded for this before, then?"

"Yeah."

"And the book reports?"

He made a face. "If I'm really bad I have to write book reports before I'm ungrounded." He directed a glare at Alex. "Or before I get my keys back."

"And hopefully you'll remember that the next time that you decide to disappear," Alex said, not looking particularly affected.

Laura took a quick glance through the rest of Alex's form, but there wasn't a lot to dig into there, especially since the two of them weren't biologically related. "I'd like to switch over and talk a little bit more about you, now, Jamie. If you'd like us to speak privately, I'm sure that Alex wouldn't mind waiting in the reception area." Sixteen was a gray area privacy-wise, especially for a foster child, but teenagers in particular weren't always open in front of parents and surrogate parents.

Jamie shook his head immediately, shifting a little closer to Alex.

"Or he's welcome to stay, that's perfectly fine."

"You can say if you want me to leave," Alex said, looking at Jamie.

Another headshake.

"All right, then." Laura smiled and flipped back to the front of the packet. "You're sixteen, correct?"

"Yeah."

"And you've been in foster care since you were eleven."

The 'yeah' that followed that was considerably more wary.

"Have you ever talked to a counselor or therapist or anyone like me before?"

"My first foster parents took me to see some guy a couple times, but it didn't really fit in their schedule."

Laura locked down her automatic response, keeping it to only a nod. It wasn't the first time that she'd heard something like that, but that didn't mean that she appreciated it. "And we talked about smoking already, but have you ever used any drugs?" she asked.

"No."

"Alcohol?"

"No."

Far more emphasis there, and no indication that he was lying. "Can you tell me a little bit about your biological parents? I see here that your mother left when you were fairly young, but what do you remember about her?"

"Nothing. Just like Alex wrote down. I don't know how long she went to school, I don't remember her smoking or doing drugs, and I don't know if she ever had any medical anything."

"Okay," Laura agreed. There was obviously a lot to unpack there since this indicated he'd been school-aged when she'd left so he should have some memories, but that wasn't the point of an intake appointment. "What about your dad? It looks like you lived with him until you went into foster care so you must know a little more about him."

"No," Jamie said quickly.

"Jaim—"

"I don't!" Jamie said, interrupting whatever Alex had been about to say.

"That's fine," Laura said. "Can you tell me how you ended up in foster care?"

"He went to jail." A quick scowl at Alex. "That's all."

If Alex's expression was anything to go by that was absolutely not all, but Laura kept her own expression clear. It wasn't unusual for clients to take months—sometimes many months—to tell her things. "And you have an older brother? How long has it been since you've talked to him?"

Jamie calmed down almost immediately. "I don't know. A year, maybe? I definitely saw him last spring, but he had to get a new apartment after the school year ended and he never told me the address or his new phone number."

"And your...grandmother, it looks like? Your mother's mother, or your father's?"

"Dad's. I saw her last month. She's in a nursing home, but I try to go visit her when I can." He shrugged. "Sometimes she doesn't remember me, but mostly it's okay as long as I get there early."

He didn't seem particularly concerned about his lack of relationship with his brother and equally clearly seemed fond of his grandmother, and if he'd been with Alex since Thanksgiving Alex had to support the relationship, which was good. "Is she ill?"

"Some kind of dementia." Another quick shrug. "It's not always so bad."

That was a difficult situation for anyone to be in, never mind someone with no other family support, and she nodded sympathetically. "Do you have any other grandparents?"

"Not anymore. I never met any of my grandfathers, and Mom's mom died right around the same time she took off."

"What about school? You're a junior, I see. Do you enjoy it?"

He made a face. "It's okay, I guess. School."

"What's your favorite subject?"

"I don't know. Some of the electives are all right. French, I guess, or music theory."

"What about your least favorite?"

"Math."

Alex's lips twitched.

"And your work as an EMT? Is that paid, or...?"

"Volunteer." He looked over at Alex again. "I sort of got into some trouble last year and ended up on the squad as my community service."

"He's met his hours at this point, but he's stuck with us," Alex said, giving him a quick smile.

Jamie ducked his head but looked pleased.

"What kind of trouble required community service?" Jamie didn't carry himself like a fighter, and presumably if drugs had been involved he wouldn't have said 'no' earlier.

"Shoplifting. It was stupid. I mean, I knew it was stupid then too, but I was really pissed off, and..." He shrugged. "I was with my friend, and I wasn't really thinking, and it just sort of happened."

Acting out was a very typical reaction to a lot of things, and she tilted her head. "Can I ask what your foster parents at the time did regarding discipline?"

A snort. "Dumped me. About like usual."

She nodded. There was nowhere on the form where 'number of previous foster homes' would be filled in, and she sometimes thought that she should add it given the effects repeated rejection could have on children. "And what about when you get in trouble now? I know you mentioned being grounded and book reports. Is that pretty typical?"

"Yeah. Well, mostly I get looks, but..." He shrugged.

"What about before foster care? How did your parents handle discipline?"

He shut back down immediately. "I don't know. They just did."

"Jamie," Alex said quietly.

"He just did." He shook his head and pushed himself up off the couch. "I want to go home."

"Jamie." Alex reached out to touch his arm, and he jerked away.

"No!"

He was out the door a moment later, and Alex sighed. "I better go. I don't think he'll go far, but..."

"I take it there's some history there," Laura said. "Especially since he pretty specifically said 'he.' Abuse?"

"Severe." Alex hesitated and then opened his briefcase again and pulled out another sheaf of papers. "It's not on those forms, but Sonja—Jamie's social worker—said that I should give these to you. I'm...personally I'm very uncomfortable with that given that I don't have Jamie's permission and I guarantee that I wouldn't get it if I asked, but I am aware that legally he's a ward of the state, and I suspect they'll answer a few of your questions."

Even at first glance she could see that they were medical records which backed up his assertion of 'severe,' and she glanced at the door that Jamie had disappeared through. "I can try to help him, but it's likely to take time, and you understand that I can't make any promises. It could be months before he's willing to say anything. If he ever is."

"I understand. But I also know that he won't talk to me. When he's not pulling disappearing acts he generally hides in his room under his blankets."

She nodded. "And you also realize that I won't necessarily be able to tell you what he and I talk about. If he's comfortable with it I'm happy to include you in the sessions, but—"

"I'm very familiar with privacy. If it helps with the nightmares, that's what's important to me."

She probably should have expected that given what he'd said about the medical forms and nodded again. "Do you think you'll be able to convince him to come back?"

"I am reasonably certain that I can get him in the door. More than that..." He shook his head and then pushed himself to his feet. "If this is a good time let's plan on next week, but I really should catch up with him before he finds a bus."