28.

The rest of Winter's day had gone by relatively smoothly. She'd had a few new patients and a few old ones, all of them were pretty interesting, There was one boy who was narcissistic and really into himself who was forced to see her because of his mother, Mercury had come in again but didn't listen to a word she had to say and admitting to another fight, then a girl who had a hard time saying no to people. Apparently one of her friends joked around and asked her to steal a car. Then she did. Nobody had pressed charges, but the parents thought it was a good idea to try and break this little habit of hers.

Overall, a pretty easy day in the grand scheme of things. But she was definitely ready to head home. Winter leaned back in her chair, cracking her back with a groan of pleasure. She felt the aches in her back disappeared and went limp from relaxation, leaning back in her chair with her legs sprawled out below her.. She'd tried to use the beanbags again, and the kids all seemed to have really liked it, but her back was thick with knots after a few hours. In her mind it was worth it for the kids.

Winter laid like that, her eyes closed, for a solid ten minutes. The sounds of the city barely reached her window, but the sounds were clear even from this height if you listened. Groaning, Winter sat back up and finished up typing up a report, her eyes watching as the sun sank below the horizon, creating a beautiful mosaic of color that Winter was forced to look at every few seconds. It took her awhile longer to do her report than normal, but hey, those colors were pretty distracting. Maybe I should paint the apartment to look like a sunset? Winter thought as she powered down her computer and pushed in her chair. The idea was quickly shot down though, Weiss probably wouldn't like it.

Soon enough, Winters computer was off and she was closing the door to her office behind her. The halls were quiet, vacant of children and other psychologists alike, even Amy had already left for the day.

The waiting room looked like a small tornado ad gone through it, with crayons, books for reading and coloring, and a few random toys were thrown all around the floor and tables. Winter was pretty sure that the cleaning crew would be around in a few hours to clean it up, but she couldn't help but bend down and straighten out a few things. "The kids always leave such a mess, don't they?" She heard a voice asked from behind her. For once, voice didn't shock her, but brought a light smile to her face.

"I think that making messes are in their nature. Whenever I have younger kids in my office, half of them always try to throw toys out the window. The other half always get a bit too curious about what's in the beanbags" Winter chuckled as she picked up a few crayons off the floor. She turned and seen at the other side of the room on his knees, trying his best to get something from under the chairs.

"That's nothing. One of my first patients was a boy who ripped every piece of paper he could get his hands on to shreds before trying to eat them. Writing reports was a hassle for that one" He chuckled as he tossed the crayons into the bucket. "We sure picked an odd field to get into, didn't we?" His face was full of levity, with a charming grin that she'd never seen on his face before. He looked like he was at ease as he took a seat in one of the chairs.

"I guess so. But I never pictured myself doing anything different" She admitted, taking a seat a few chairs away from him, her hands resting comfortably on her lap. He turned to her, his natural poker face made it hard to tell exactly what he was thinking.

"That's a shock to hear. With your family's business, I feel like most kids in your situation would grow up dreaming of being like their father" He talked in a very soft way, not pushing her to answer,but clearly curious. Winter knew she didn't have to respond, but his soft caring voice made it impossible not to explain. If it wasn't clear before now, this made it pretty damn crystal clear that this guy was incredible at his job.

Winter shook her head slowly, "Not me. Father's company was always that. Fathers. He always wanted me to take it over, trained me to, tried to send me to school for it, but I never wanted that. I did as I was told and nothing else. Then, my sister came into the picture. Suddenly, nothing else really mattered. I skipped classes to play with her, day dreamed about her during my tutoring, and snuck her out of the manor as much as possible to get her a taste of the real world" Winter suddenly got quiet, she'd never told anyone this before. Even her mom didn't really know this story… But, she felt like it was time to say it aloud. "Then one day, she looked really sad and didn't wanna talk. She didn't talk for a full week…" Winters voice slowed down as she remembered those dark days.

Weiss had always been fragile, not that she'd ever admit it. Winter was positive father had said something to her sister, something bad. Weiss had shut down. It was probably the scariest thing that had ever happened to Winter, and on top of that she had to sit their and do nothing. Doing nothing, well, it made her sick to her stomach. So, she decided not to be useless.

"I ended up going to the library and reading as many psychology books as I could get my hands on. I tried everything I read, and eventually, it worked. She talked again." Winter looked at , his gentle smile more than enough encouragement to keep talking. "Ever since then, the only thing I wanted to do… Was this" Winter chuckled, scratching the back of her head, feeling her heart thumping. It wasn't nerves, anxiety, embarrassment, or anything bad like that. It was from excitement, confidence in her choice, knowing that she was in the right place. It was the first time she'd really felt like she'd bet on the right thing.

"Well, if it means anything, I think you're right where you belong" leaned over and gently put his hand on her shoulder, squeezing the perfect amount so she felt cared for. As his hand fell, he looked down at the ground, and the air changed. He put his hands on his knees and took a deep breath "By the way, that family you've been visiting… Had there been any, issues?" His voice sounded a lot less confident than she was used to hearing, which was pretty dang odd.

"W-What do you mean?" Winters words stumbled out of her mouth quickly, nervously. Does he already know? Winter thought as her leg started to bounce without her consent.

"Any strange behaviors? Does the guardian ever go off by himself for awhile and come back… Different?" His head was still hung low and he wouldn't meet her eyes, like he didn't really want to have this conversation.

"No, nothing like that. Why do you ask?" She wondered, trying to think of any reason he would ask that. Sure, Qrow was a little… Ok, a lot weird. But going off by himself and coming back different, whatever that meant? He'd never done anything like that while she'd been around. He was always with the girls and was almost always in a good mood.

"Professional curiosity, I suppose. Keep an eye out, and tell me if you see anything like that" He sighed, voice had equal parts concern and relief infused in it. Everything about this talk was odd for him. Winter wasn't used to being so concerned. "Shouldn't you be getting home? It's late"

Winter nodded, looking out the window, it was already well past dark. How long had they been talking? Suddenly Winter felt exhaustion crawl up her back and start to close her eyes without her permission. "Yeah, guess I should. What about you?" Winter yawned, standing up and stretching her legs. stood up, back straight as always, with his arms folded behind his back as per usual.

"I have a few more things to wrap up here, but you go home and have a nice night. See you next week, Winter" His eyes looked tired, but he tried his best to give her a smile as he nodded before turning back and walking slowly back to his office.

Winters stomach felt off and she wasn't sure if it was from excitement from the first part of their conversation, nerves from the tail end, or the sense of loneliness that had gripped her without her realizing it as he walked away. "Goodnight, …" She almost whispered, knowing she was too late for him to hear her.

Winter stood in the office like a statue, hardly even breathing as she let the silence spread like an illness. It was funny, her apartment felt the same way.

The elevator dinged as it opened, revealing two random businessman standing on opposite sides of the elevator, both of their eyes were glued to their phones, not even looking up at her as she walked in. Winter leaned against the back of the elevator, trying her best to be equidistant from the two of them. "Um, how was your day today?" Winter asked the one to her left, trying her best to sound excited with a forced smile at him.

He looked up at her with a look of confusion at first, but that quickly shifted into a look of annoyance. He huffed at her angrily, before turning even farther away from her. He reminded her of a pouting child. Jesus, I was just trying to make a little conversation. Winter thought, deciding that the guy to her left was officially a tool.

She looked at the guy to her right, and caught his gaze for a second before his eyes went back to his phone. Probably the biggest 'please don't talk to me' signal she'd ever received since her father's legendary glares.

The two of them scurried like cockroaches out of the elevator the moment it opened, and Winter couldn't help but groan. She was a therapist, wasn't talking to strangers supposed to come easily to her or something?

The night air was starting to cool off and it bit at her in the best ways, and was exactly what Winter needed. It fought against the exhaustion, opening her eyes wide, letting the city lights dance in her eyes. The honking cars and grinding breaks, the sound of ongoing conversations from passerbyers was better than the radio, and the smell of pretzels filled her nose as she took a deep breath. The city felt like it was alive in this moment, and it felt like her friend.

Winter looked and noticed a small cart down the block selling pretzels and she felt her stomach grumble, and remembered that she'd only really eaten an apple today. I really should start packing lunches… Was the only thing that filled her mind as she walked aimlessly to the pretzel stand, her stomach guiding her.

She made it about three steps before a door swung open in front of her, coming about an inch away from hitting her in the face, "Shit!" She yelled, jumping back and grabbing at her nose, trying to feel if it had been smashed. "What they heck's you're problem!" She screeched after making sure her nose was still in one piece.

"My problem? What's your problem! I've been out here for over an hour waiting for you to get out! I thought I you'd already left!" An all too familiar voice growled at her in annoyance.

"Qrow?" Winter asked, astonished, "What are you doing here?" Qrows legs came into view and he quickly pulled himself out of his car. It wasn't the normal red pickup truck though, instead it was a slick black car that looked like something the star of a movie might drive. Honestly, it wouldn't shock her to hear if that was why he'd gotten it.

"I tried to call you, but apparently you're worse at picking up your phone than Ruby is. Come on, we're gonna be late!" Qrow waving her into the car. Winter took a step back and rubbed her temples which were starting to hurt.

"I'm sorry, but again, why are you here?" She cried in confusion and anger. A few strangers looked at her, but she glared at them and they all ran away a lot quicker than they'd come.

"You don't work on the weekend, right?"

"No, but that doesn't-"

"I'll get you home before you know it, but please trust me, you're gonna have fun, but we have to go" Qrow got into the car and starting it up. The roar that came out of it as the key turned was, um, a little cool, but that's besides the point!

"So I don't get to know what we're doing though?" Winter sighed.

"It's a surprise, but you're gonna like it… Hopefully" Qrow tried to assure her. Winter weighed the options, but the exhausted she'd been feeling only a few minutes ago was already long gone. She also didn't have anything going on tomorrow, so she could afford to be a bit tired.

"Do I have time to go home and change first?" Winter whined, suddenly all too aware of how stiff her outfit felt. Qrow looked at his watch, his thumb tapping the steering wheel quickly like a metronome.

"Do you live close to here?" Qrow grunted, and it looked like he was biting his lip a little. He really didn't want to be late to, well, whatever she was getting dragged to.

"Yeah, a few minutes away. I'll take my car and-"

"No time, get in and tell me where to go. We'll be in and out, then we'll go" Qrow talked fast and clearly, this wasn't someone that was taking no for an answer.

"What about my car?"

"We'll get it later! It's in the parking garage, right? It'll be fine, even if we get it in the morning" a hand went through Qrows hair, "Well, are you coming?"

Winter hesitated for a second, not sure what to do. words were in the back of her mind, this was the first time that she'd ever really seen Qrow away from the girls, and she had no idea what to expect. Maybe she should be scared, especially after ominous questions, knowing about the scars, ebing really alone with him for the first time… But if she was being honest, it was hard to fight the smile that was blooming on her face. In fact, she didn't even try to fight it. Her heart was beating fast in the best way, she wasn't scared, she was excited. Maybe that was wrong, she had no idea, but there was only one way to find out.

"Yeah, let's go" Winter beamed as she climbed into the car, curiosity and excitement were filling her to the brim. The second the door closed, Qrow was whisking her down the road, to where? She had no idea. But she couldn't have been more eager to find out.

Authors note-

So from here on I think I'm just gonna post one chapter, but I'm gonna make that chapter longer. So overall it's gonna be about the same! Hope you guys are still enjoying, because this is a lot of fun to write! Thanks again to everyone that's still here!