A/N Thanks to everyone who read, faved and alerted. A huge thank -you for all you wonderful people who leave us writers your reviews. Reviews feed our creativity. Writing is a joy but the drafting, proofing, editing and polishing isn't anywhere near as alluring, so you reviewers make the difference between me writing something fresh that feeds my creativity and excitement or uploading a chapter that I've crafted and grafted. Which brings me to my next point lol. I had every intention of posting this 2 days ago but since buying my new computer I've discovered another flaw in the latest Word. It let me inadvertently wipe a file by incorrectly saving chapter 7 as chapter 6 so I lost hours of edits and redrafts.
As to some people's concerns over the competence of Dr Wilder, I think that things will be clearer after you read this chapter. I will say though that psychiatrists are medically trained doctors first and foremost and most still use a medical model to diagnose and treat mental disorders – often with drugs – so it isn't so surprising that they place such emphasis on diagnosis. As to the duty of care issue – there is plenty of research that supports the view that many clients shrink-shop. They move from one to another therapist when they don't get results, but are unwilling to tell their therapists that they aren't happy and the professionals then assume that the presenting problems have been resolved. George was just making sure in case this happened, that he'd warned Tony that he felt he was in physical danger.
Warning: The next two chapters will no doubt offend fans of Ziva and TIVA so my recommendation is to save yourselves and me the drama of you reading, then flaming me and me responding. Just remember there are more than enough stories out there that won't offend you, so read those instead. That's what I do with the TIVA stories.
Internal Conflicts
Chapter Six
Appointment Five:
George Wilder looked out into his waiting room and swallowed nervously. This whole business was so far outside of his area of expertise, let alone his comfort zone but the bottom line was that his client was in pain and he needed help and support. Tony had come to him to get that support, so he just had to suck it up, put his apprehensions aside and just get on with it. Of course he would offer to refer Tony to the acknowledged expert in the syndrome now that they had a clue what they were actually dealing with. The bottom line was that though, the uncertainty of not having a diagnosis was scarier than finding out that he was woefully unprepared for what was to come.
Taking a deep breath and striding out into the waiting room with his calm therapeutically confident persona, otherwise known as a game face firmly in place, he made his way to Tony and shook his hand while making a visual assessment of his client. While the man still looked strained and exhausted, there was a definite improvement from several days ago. He smiled and invited him into his office, wondering what this session would bring.
As his client sat down on the sofa he smiled at him. "So how did you find being at Solace?" he inquired, referring to the health resort he had sent Tony to four days before, so that he could dial down his stress levels that were rapidly becoming dangerous.
"Pretty good, Doc. I've managed to meditate a bit and the yoga and massages helped too. I even slept for four hours last night," He reported and George noted automatically that his affect was less frenzied, his speech less staccato, even his body language was a little less tense.
"Good, that's good. I'm going to suggest that you stay there for a while longer. It definitely seems to be helping you. Well I wanted to see you since I think I might have a handle on what has been causing all these issues for you. I spoke to the other psychiatrists and psychologists here in the practice and we agreed on a diagnosis after I consulted with the recognised authority on this particular condition. He's even offered to take over your case, especially during the treatment phase, although," He reassured the man opposite him who was beginning to protest, "If you really want me to, I'll continue to act as your therapist. Just hear me out first."
Tony still looked panicked but nodded. "Yeah, okay. So I was right wasn't I? Anthony DiNozzo is certifiably mad, a sandwich short of a picnic, a few fries short of a happy meal, loony tunes, mad as a hatter, not playing with a full deck, cra- cra, insane in the membrane, got a screw loose, wigged out, batty …"
"Tony," his doctor interrupted his diatribe. "I said before that Anthony DiNozzo isn't crazy and I am still of the same opinion. My colleagues and I concur that you have a condition that is reasonable rare called Multiple Identity Cognitive Conversion Confusion Condition or MIC4.* It is a stress related dissociative condition seen almost exclusively in actors – definitely exacerbated by physical and mental exhaustion and it's thought to be caused by taking on multiple roles at the same time. According to Dr Harrington-Smyth who is the world expert on MIC4, in his experience it only ever occurs in actors that submerse themselves fully in their roles while juggling too many in too short a time frame, such as yourself Mr Mike Climately.* Along with additional stress, if it's severe enough, it can cause them to lose their real identity and adopt one or more of the ones they have been playing." The psychiatrist was at pains to explain everything calmly and carefully, not wanting his client to misinterpret what he said or panic.
"You keep talking about roles, but I haven't worked any undercover roles for a while. Surely if it was going to happen that I developed this MIC4 disease thingy it would have been when I was working for almost a year on the La Grenouille case and also going to work and having to be me during the day because it was a secret that I was undercover. I definitely got caught up in my alter-ego Tony DiNardo then but I'm not doing anything at the moment. So I don't understand how this happened now." He argued, puzzled.
Dr Wilder looked pained. He was hopping that a simple verbal prompt would be all that was necessary. Dr Harrington-Smyth had recommended trying it first, but hadn't been exactly sanguine that it would work. It seemed that it wasn't going to be so easy to resolve and he just hoped he didn't blow it. His client really was doing it tough.
"No that's not what I meant, Mike. It is Anthony DiNozzo that's the role, he doesn't exist. It's a fictitious character created for a television show about a real life agency called NCIS. You're an actor called Mike Climately and you've played that character for the past eleven years. My young protégé, Dr Jordan Perrot is a huge fan of yours. She was so excited when she saw you leaving my office after your last appointment. It's really how I finally figured out what we were dealing with. Just a pity that she never saw you here before. We would have figured it out a lot sooner." The psychiatrist responded to his client who looked eviscerated, as well he might.
Standing and walking over to his small office fridge, Wilder withdrew a bottle of sparkling water and handed it to his confused client who sipped it and looked at him with wounded eyes. After taking a breather to give Tony aka Mike time to process the information that the psychiatrist had delivered, they started up the discussion again. His client, while still not wholly accepting of the diagnosis or his real identity, nevertheless had questions and Wilder was glad since it indicated that he was willing to listen.
"You said that MIC4 occurs when someone takes on multiple roles but according to you I've been "playing" Special Agent Anthony DiNozzo, for 11 years so how do you explain that?" He asked, emphasising the word 'playing' using air quotes.
Wilder nodded. "Good point but it seems that it can all be explained by retroactive continuity which effectively had you playing multiple roles. According to my research, it is the alteration of previously established facts of a work of fiction that directly affects continuity." He clarified, seeing confusion in Mike's eyes.
"In the opinion of my junior partner Jordan, your character probably would be eligible for the Guinness Book of Records for the most applications of retcon for a single character in a television series and your fans are very unhappy about it. It seems that the character of Anthony DiNozzo has had numerous instances where his character has been completely rewritten as well as other occasions where the retcon has been of a more minor nature." George referred to his notes before continuing.
"He went from being technologically competent in the first season to being a techno-dummy in the next to make room for a new character who was a computer genius. From being 2IC, responsible for training junior members to being a joke that no one took seriously. From being a professional and talented team leader capable of maintaining an outstanding case closure rate, plus a highly skilled, under-cover operative to being a kept around for comic relief. Not to mention your most important role as a mere love interest for the new producer's golden girl. Instead of the capable and competent cop and agent, you got to stand around while she beat up all the bad guys and she saved your pathetic hide every week because you were the damsel in distress to her knight in shining armour."
Wilder thanked his lucky stars that Dr Jordan Perrot, his young protégé was so clued in on all this popular culture stuff. She'd sat him down and showed him a montage of episodes and provided a NCIS for dummies primer. He'd have been so totally up the proverbial creek without a paddle without her expertise in this case.
"Jordan and a few other experts I've consulted in mass media and film studies, agree that the Ziva character was written hoping to recreate the chemistry between you and another of your leading ladies, Jessica White* in your previous TV show. They wanted to capture the teen and twenty something female market and fashioned a character based on the Max Guevara role that has far too many characteristics in common with her for it to be simply a coincidence…"
"Well as Gibbs says, there's no such thing as a coincidence," Mike chipped in, his Tony persona firmly in control, although the psychiatrist could see the doubts still there about what he was saying. Clearly, he needed to make the case.
"Max was a genetically manipulated, child prodigy, trained as a super soldier, taught to be a deadly assassin who would kill without mercy. She was capable of whooping some serious ass in hand to hand combat, and she escaped her upbringing and evaded a depraved father figure to seek personal redemption as a young twenty something to find a family. She was athletic, dark eyed and had long dark hair, and was a brooding, sexy, Latino type. Ziva was pretty much a carbon copy of all of the above, apart from the genetically enhanced bit or the father figure since it was her biological father that had created a trained killer and finally, she was supposed to be Israeli."
Pausing, Wilder drew breath before continuing. "The missing link that they failed to recreate successfully was a character that had vulnerability and inspired affection, her fierceness wasn't tempered by empathy and loyalty. Their character had psychopathic tendencies and her abusive and bullying predispositions made it hard to feel empathy for her, unlike the emotional connection that the Max character so easily evoked in the audience. Unfortunately though, the violent attributes fed into the recent popular phenomenon within a certain sub-population of younger females. They seem to equate bullying, physical intimidation and beating up of individuals they perceive as having dissed them, as strength of character and something to emulate. She became a role model for all the wrong reasons."
Wilder frowned, since he considered this disturbing development where some females saw binge drinking, drug taking and brawling as the height of female equality, strength and something to strive for. In researching how to help Mike with this MIC4, he'd been shocked at how many of these fans thought that it was perfectly fine for a law enforcement character to knock an injured agent/colleague to the ground, perfectly fine to cock a loaded gun at her team mate's chest and thigh and threaten to pull the trigger. He'd been stunned to discover that there were even fanart depictions of the scene, apparently celebrating her whooping her superior's ass. By not showing that there were serious consequences for this behaviour, these impressionable fans got the strong message that this was the epitome of strength rather than weak, cowardly behaviour that was abhorrent to a civilised society.
He was equally dismayed to see that in the same episode where there had been no consequence for such violent, criminal behaviour, it also wasn't the only example of her assaulting a colleague. Earlier, the same character had assaulted her Mossad superior because of her rage at him for arranging for her apartment to be blown up by a gas leak to rid it of incriminating evidence - again without any type of consequence. Considering they were supposed to be writing a procedural crime show about law enforcement, the psychiatrist felt like it sent a highly dangerous message, a double standard that was worrying.
He personally might not watch much television and many people would simply brush off his concerns as being inconsequential, since it was only a TV show and shouldn't be taken seriously, but he begged to differ. Books, music, TV show and movies were the new narratives that moulded the next generation in many ways. Forged attitudes in morals and ethics, societal mores and enculturalisation in much the same way that fairy tales had done in simple peasant, agrarian populations in earlier centuries. These simple tales served to highlight vitally important messages.
Where good and bad were clearly delineated and the forces of light triumphed over evil, where those committing crimes against others faced consequences that discouraged violent and dangerous behaviour. But the writers of this show seemed Hell-bent on flouting the law constantly, the people supposedly enforcing the law seemed to break it constantly and get away with it because they were the stars of the show. It honestly scared the crap out of him. What ever happened to the black and whiteness of Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia and Darth Vader?
Realising he'd been engaging in some serious wool gathering, Wilder ploughing on again. " Well as I said, when you start looking for similarities between Max and Ziva there are far too many to be brushed off as mere coincidence. And in another example of retcon of your character, when they decided to write Anthony DiNozzo's father into the show, they cast a popular Hollywood leading man. That's when they chose to rewrite canon yet again and all the abuse and neglect that Senior had done to your character was conveniently forgotten as if it never happened. Anthony DiNozzo Senior became a loveable rogue and conman who never would have lifted a hand to his son, chiefly because the actor was such a popular figure who'd worked with acting luminaries such as Spencer Tracey, Fred Astaire, Steve McQueen, Bette Davis, Paul Newman and Sir Laurence Olivier." He looked over to see how Climately was handing all this information but he still didn't have the light of recognition in his eyes, rather a quizzical frustration, as if Mike was striving for something just out of his reach.
He referred to the extensive notes Jordan had prepared for him. It would have been much simpler if Climately had consulted her in the first place, since he barely watched television. She would have cottoned on to what was going on much sooner. Sighing inwardly, he bravely plodded onward and upward, knowing that this was going to be a slow and steady race. Honestly, if someone had predicted even a month ago that he'd be explaining retcon to an actor battling a case of MIC4 he'd had laughed in their face…and yet here he was doing just that.
"Around the same time as they cast him to play your father on the show, the then executive producer gained ascendency of the hierarchy, effectively letting him recast the show with one male and female star as the lead characters. Everyone else became peripheral bit players and DiNozzo in particular, became even more of a joke. Rumours were rife that he and various screen writers disliked the Tony character and so used the opportunity to do a spot of character assassination. According to my assistant, the only reason they bothered to keep him around was, purely as a love interest for the female lead. Seemingly a small but vocal minority of fanatical fans obsessively paired him with Ziva, even going so far as to attack any other actor cast as his love interest.
Truly, I'm not entirely sure why they decided to ship him with their leading lady since he was such a joke by now, except to be a major cockup so she could play the ultimate bulletproof Mary Kate and save him ad infinitum. The only fly in the ointment was your reluctance to play TIVA scenes, knowing it would be a disaster – been there and done that, I believe was the rationale. To keep you sweet and prevent you walking because if you'd left the show, the lunatic fringe could turn nasty if you weren't there to play the damsel for Ziva to save and the buffoon whose butt she could kick, they let you direct some episodes. Then they continued along their path of teasing shippers while not outraging the other viewers and merrily butchering your character."
Seeing Mike still looking dubious, he pulled out a concrete example of retcon to illustrate his argument. "Okay…in a stunningly blatant example of retroactive continuity, in season eight Tony and the character you were in a relationship with at that time, had a conversation. You discussed whose place you would eat dinner at and by implication, spend the night and you decided that E.J. Barrett would come to your apartment. Yet by season ten, when they finally wrote an episode showing your apartment, ironically so your suddenly devoted father could stay with you, the writers for some unbeknownst reason gave you a single bed. Making a big deal out it, stating that you didn't have workmates or dates back to your place, ever." The psychiatrist saw him nodding.
"Your right, I remember that - Gibbs was holding rule 12 over both our heads about us dating and told me to stop seeing her. And although I defied him, I started getting nervous and tried to break it off with her but E.J. was pretty damned persuasive, plus we were really good together." He confirmed, his Tony persona clearly dominant at that moment.
"And if you go back even further, to season 1 when you travelled to Gitmo on a case, there would appear to be more evidence that this wasn't the case. Unlike Gibbs and your previous partner, who both made the claim that women preferred to sleep with guys in their own bed, not the guys, you seemed to be utterly gobsmacked by the concept. You certainly didn't state that you never slept with woman at your apartment – in fact your reaction suggested quite the opposite." He glanced at Mike who was still nodding in agreement. "And that was just a fairly minor detail in comparison to most of the retcon Tony has had to deal with."
Pressing home the slight advantage he had gained, George continued doggedly. "You couldn't understand why you were behaving so uncharacteristically, leaving you job so soon after being rehired to go chasing overseas for months? It's simple really - after the actress they kept trying to pair you up with left the show unexpectedly, causing much outrage amongst her fans, they used you to keep them from becoming more volatile by writing in a romantic kissing scene into the next season to placate them and try to prevent them causing even more trouble over her departure."
At that point George watched Mike closely, hoping to see some signs that he remembering what had happened since it was pivotal to the crisis and his recovery but although he saw a flicker for a split second, it was gone. It was obviously expecting too much for him to re-integrate back into his real identity in the space of a single session but he was an eternal optimist, after all. Going back to the data that he wanted to cover before their time was up he pressed on.
"But…even with a new EP after Mary Sue had gone, when it would have been a perfect opportunity to rehabilitate your character, especially with an episode flashing back to your time in Baltimore, they dropped the ball. Previous canon had established that Detective DiNozzo had a closure rate as a detective to rival Gibbs and he also spent a year undercover to bring down a Mafia Don. Which you think would have been the perfect opportunity to showcase your skills. Instead they wrote a disappointing, mundane episode, with you in uniform, where your performance was less than stellar - definitely not canon Tony pre- season 5, more like screw-up Tony season 6-10. This culminated in you as per normal, requiring someone to rescue your butt, this time your NCIS boss was cast in the role since your usual Mary Sue wasn't there. Frankly, I'm beginning to wonder how your character Tony actually manages to blow his nose unassisted these days. "
He looked at Mike who was looking stressed, confused and flat out exhausted. No wonder - the poor bastard still didn't know if he was Arthur or Martha or more accurately he supposed, if he was Tony or Mike.
Dr Wilder sent him back to Solace Health Retreat. They agreed on a treatment program that would see him coming back every day for the next week at least to continue the re-integration treatment program. He didn't want the actor to be on his own until he was well and truly centred; he also wanted him to refrain from associating with people that had inadvertently helped provoke the condition. He sent him off with extra homework apart from relaxation exercises. He wanted him to watch various episodes from seasons 1 and 2 and season 10 and 11 on DVD, courtesy of Jordan's personal collection and her portable DVD player, to prove to Mike that what he was remembering weren't real memories.
After writing up his case notes he would call Dr Harrington-Smyth to report how the session had progressed and inform him that Mike didn't want a referral to see him at this stage. His client left his office , Very Special Agent Anthony DiNozzo still pretty firmly in ascendance as his dominant identity but he'd seen burgeoning signs of Mike trying to make his way back. Being an optimist ,he had faith that the reintegration of Mike Climately would soon be au fait accompli.
End Notes:
A/N1 Multiple Identity Cognitive Conversion Confusion Condition or MIC4 is not a recognised psychiatric condition – it is a figment of my fertile imagination. I did warn you this was a parody *shrugs apologetically.