I'm soooooo sorry! I don't want to make up excuses, so I'm just going to leave it at that, lol. I really hope you enjoy this chapter, though. Thank you for all of the wonderful the reviews, and for the people who continue to read my story even though there is sometimes a wait between updates!


Chapter 7

Jack stood in front of the mirror in the bathroom as he washed his face, the warm water soothing his cold and clammy skin. Turning off the running water, he gently dried his face. His reflection in the mirror was almost unrecognizable. The figure staring back at him looked almost 30 years old. His once young features had sunken in as if he had aged several years in just one month. He had been going to severe withdrawals and his hands seemed to be fixed with a shaking that he couldn't fix.

Jack took an unsteady breath as he walked out of the bathroom, trying to not look as terrible as he felt.

"You ready to go?" Bobby asked Jack as he reached the bottom of the stairs.

Jack replied with a simple nod and grabbed his coat as they both headed to the door.

"We'll be back later" Bobby called to Angel as left. It was an unusually cold and windy day, which seemed to fit both of their gloomy moods perfectly. The car ride was completely silent except for the soft hum of the radio. They didn't even fight over what radio station to listen to like they normally did every time they were in the car together. Bobby was in seemingly deep concentration on the snowy road, which was unusual considering he was usually an reckless driver. Jack just stared off into space sadly, too deep in his own thoughts to notice much.

Bobby pulled into a tiny parking space in front of a fairly nice looking building and turned of the noisy engine. He looked over at Jack, who didn't seem to make any type of movement the whole car ride. Bobby had finally convinced Jack to see a therapist. He knew that Jack wouldn't never agree to go to rehab, so a therapist was the best he could do. Jack wasn't opening up to anyone and Bobby was beginning to get desperate as Jack kept going downhill, figuring this shrink was Jack's last hope.

"I don't want to do this." Jack said finally after a long pause.

"I know..." Bobby replied, not exactly sure of what to say. "It'll be fine, don't worry."

Jack finally worked up enough courage and got out of the car with a deep sigh, walking into the building with Bobby following close behind him. Once inside they were greeted by the receptionist who had Jack fill out a few forms. After only waiting a few minutes a tall and slender lady came out of a door in the back of the room, announcing that she was ready to see Jack now.

Jack looked over at Bobby, hesitating, before standing up and slowly following the lady into another room, leaving Bobby behind. The doctor led Jack down a narrow hallway lined with several doors until they reached the one marked Doctor Stone where she opened the door and stood back for Jack to enter in front of her.

"You can just have a seat in that chair over there. Make yourself comfortable." She said kindly. "I just need to get a few papers first, and then we'll begin."

Jack did as he was told, and sat down in a leather seat in the back end of the room. The room was quite larger than he expected it to be and was filled with a bunch of items you would typically expect to see in this type of place. A bookshelf filled with large, thick books stood in along the wall. A few pieces of furniture were spread out through the room and a large rug covered the majority of the ugly carpet. The desk in the corner next to the door was covered in different papers and notebooks.

Dr. Stone shuffle around the mess of papers on her desk for a moment before grabbing the few that she needed and walking over to sat in the chair facing Jack.

"Hello, I'm Dr. Jessica Stone, but you can just call me Jessica if you'd like," she began, introducing herself. "And you must be Jack. It's nice to meet you." She added, smiling at him as she extended out her hand.

"Yeah. That's me." Jack replied skeptically as they shook hands. He didn't want to be here. How the hell was someone he just met supposed to be the answer to all his problems?

"Well I guess we should get started. We only have a short time, the first meeting always seems to go by quickly." Jessica said, sitting back comfortably in her chair and crossing her legs

Quickly? Jack almost laughed out loud. Yeah right.

A/N: I know that wasn't the best place to stop, but I wasn't sure how I wanted the first meeting to go so I just decided to stop there ) R+R