Breakfast was light the next day, as no one had much of an appetite. When they arrived at the therapist's office, Laura was suddenly starving. "Do you think there's a vending machine here?" she whispered.

"Do you really wanna know what's in a Russian vending machine?" Steve countered.

"Right now? Yes."

The doctor stepped out of her office into the small waiting room. "Herb, Roberta, come on back." Herb and Roberta stood and motioned for Laura and Steve to follow them. They did, and the doctor closed her office door behind them. "You must be Steven," she said, extending her hand to him.

"Steve's fine," he replied.

"Ok," she agreed. "And who is this?" she asked Steve, reaching out to shake Laura's hand.

"This is my wife, Laura," he answered.

"It's nice to meet you, Dr…?" Laura prompted as they shook.

"Dr. Gregory, but please call me Loretta."

"Sure."

"Let's have a seat," Loretta suggested.

Laura, Steve, and Roberta sat on the couch. Herb sat in an armchair. Loretta sat in the chair opposite him. Steve took a deep, calming breath and immediately felt Laura's hand in his. It amazed him sometimes that they'd gone from her doing her level best to pretend he didn't exist to her anticipating his needs and reading his body language. He squeezed her hand and looked at her gratefully.

"So, this may seem like a silly place to begin, but, Herb, Roberta, why do you call your son Steven if he prefers Steve?"

Roberta was baffled by that question. "We call him Steve sometimes."

"Not often. Not in literally years of therapy."

"I'm fine with Steven," Steve interrupted defensively. "I don't have a problem with it."

"It's just not what you normally go by."

"Well…"

"Laura, what do you call him?"

"I always call him Steve, unless I'm using his full name, I guess."

"Do you have a problem with that, Steve?"

"Of course not," he said firmly.

"Steve, who are the people you're closest to in the world?"

"My wife, of course."

"Who else?"

"Well," he hesitated. He glanced nervously at his parents. "Her whole family really. Her dad, her brother, her grandma. I'm also really close with my cousin, Myrtle."

"Do any of those people call you Steven?"

He shook his head. "No, but I have an ex-girlfriend who always called me Steven. It's not like I've never been close to anyone who does."

"Why didn't your relationship work out with Myra?"

Steve's brow furrowed. "How do you know her name?"

"I know a lot about you, Steve. It's colored through the lens of your parents' perception, so I'm looking forward to getting to know the real you, but I know a lot about you and your life."

"So why did you need me to introduce you to Laura?"

"I didn't. I was just being polite."

"This is kind of weird," Laura interrupted.

"Don't worry, Laura. I have a very open mind."

"Ok."

"So, Steve, why didn't your relationship work out with Myra?"

Steve looked at her, slightly exasperated. "If you know anything about me, you should know that! Laura Lee Winslow has been the love of my life since I was five years old. The second I started to believe again that she might be within reach, I was ready to dump Myra."

Loretta nodded. "Do you think you would have gone back to her if Laura had chosen Stefan?"

Laura scowled. "What kind of question is that?"

"I don't mean anything by it, Laura," Loretta assured her. "I'm trying to get him to see something."

"See what?"

"Answer the question, Steve."

"No," he replied. "I never would have."

"Why not?"

"Because I would have been devastated. I could never have loved again after knowing what it feels like to be loved by my soulmate."

"Is that the only reason?"

"What do you mean?"

"Other than the fact that she's not your soulmate, was your relationship with Myra perfect?"

"Hey!" Laura exclaimed in offense.

"Was she ever a little… overbearing? Was she ever dismissive of your feelings?"

"Oh, all the time," Steve admitted.

"So the only person in your life who calls you Steven, other than your parents, is someone who didn't see or respect you completely?"

"Oh," Steve said softly.

"I just think it's worth noting that your parents are so overly formal with you."

"We call him Steve! Not all the time, and maybe not when he's not around, but we call him Steve and Steven interchangeably," Roberta said firmly. "We named him Steven. I don't appreciate the implication that it's wrong for us to call him by his name, especially when he says he doesn't care."

"Steve, does anyone else call you Steve and Steven interchangeably?"

"Well, no," he shrugged, "but I really don't think that's a big deal. Out of all the things we could be talking about right now!"

"I agree," Loretta said. "I don't think it's a big deal, but I find it interesting, and I find it especially interesting now that I know it's a sore spot."

"It's not," Roberta exclaimed.

"So let's talk about the elephant in the room. How is this visit going?"

Herb and Roberta looked to Steve to answer that question. Loretta looked to them. "Herb, what do you think?"

"I don't think my opinion is the important one here. I think we should ask Steve."

"We will ask Steve, but we're working on self-reflection, so I want you to start."

Herb nodded and sighed. "I think it's going very well. There have been some awkward moments, but that's to be expected after being apart for years."

"Sure," Loretta agreed. "Roberta?"

"I think it's been going well, too, and I'm very, very glad to see my son," she admitted, looking at Steve meaningfully.

"What else are you feeling?" Loretta pushed.

"You didn't ask Herb that."

"He didn't need me to."

Roberta exhaled sharply. "I've been feeling a lot of guilt. I still think it's going well, but I've been feeling guilty, and sometimes, I've been able to express it and apologize, and other times, I haven't."

"Ok. Good. Thank you for sharing that." She turned to Steve. "Steve, how do you think it's going?"

"Honestly, I think it's been an amazing few days. My parents have never taken off work for me before, so that's been a pleasant surprise. They've lived here for years, and I used to visit a couple times a year, and this is the first time they've gone sightseeing with me. When were all together last, at that family reunion, Laura was just furious the whole time, and she tried to conceal it, but she just couldn't hide it from me. I could feel how she was feeling. It's so nice to just be feeling a little nervousness from her now. I know everything isn't perfect, but when we decided to do this, we had no idea what Herb and Roberta's reaction would be. I'm really excited that they're trying so hard."

"That's good to hear. Why did you and Laura decide to surprise them this week, Steve?"

Steve and Laura exchanged a guilty, secret-filled look. "They've been on my mind a lot lately." That much was true.

"Your parents? Why is that?"

Steve shrugged, though he definitely knew why.

"Maybe it was Christmas," Laura suggested.

"Maybe," Steve agreed. He smiled at her gratefully.

"So you really are here to rebuild, Steve?"

"Yes. Absolutely. That's the only reason I'm here."

"That's good, but it's important that you realize these things don't happen overnight. Your parents have been putting in the work for years. You're gonna have to do some emotional labor too while you're here."

"I'm willing to do that," he nodded.

"And, Laura, he's going to need your support while he's doing that," Loretta added.

Laura nodded. "Of course."

"Over the course of the week, Herb and Roberta, you need to start getting some things off of your chest. Steve is owed some apologies, and I know you both want to give them to him. Steve, you might find some of this overwhelming. Like I said, they've been working for a long time, and they might be ahead of you. You are allowed time to process. You don't have to be constantly telling them you forgive them. All I'm going to ask you to do is listen to them and really hear them out. That's your only job. Herb and Roberta, you need to start having these conversations. You don't need to get through them all this week. Hopefully, you four will be in closer contact after this trip, so these conversations can continue. I want to spend the rest of this session talking about communication strategies. Let's start with something simple. Have you two told Steve why you set up this appointment?"

Steve's brow furrowed. "Isn't this a standing appointment?"

"We meet weekly," Loretta answered, "but normally on Thursdays."

Roberta reached out for Steve's hand and squeezed it gently. "We wanted you to see us putting effort into this as soon as possible," she explained.

"Roberta," Herb scolded before Loretta had the chance to intervene.

"That's the truth," she argued.

"It is, but you're dodging the question to suit what you need to get out of this conversation."

She glared at him. "You could let the doctor correct me if that's what I'm doing." She pulled her hand back from Steve and rolled her eyes.

"I was showing off," Herb shrugged. "For the kid."

"I think I'll take it from here, Herb," Loretta suggested. "Why don't you tell Steve when you called? That should be easy."

"At the space museum," Herb answered.

"We weren't walking away from you for work," Roberta explained. "We don't wanna do that to you anymore. We needed to step away from you for you! So we could call Loretta."

"Now, Steve, I have some follow-up questions here that I could ask, if you'd like me to, but why don't you start? You should feel comfortable asking questions. You shouldn't feel obligated to let them take the lead."

"Ok," Steve nodded. "I guess I can ask a question. Um. What did I do that made you guys think, 'We need urgent psychiatric care'?"

"Steve," Laura scolded softly.

"What?"

"Wait, Laura," Loretta interrupted. "I know you heard what I heard, and I'm glad that he has an influence like you in his life who catches things like this, but I wanna see if Herb and Roberta heard it." Laura and Loretta looked between Herb and Roberta. "Herb," Loretta encouraged eventually. "Give it a try."

Herb stared at her for a minute, a bit of panic in his eyes. Laura rarely saw him flustered. Steve had seen that look in his eye before. When he was a kid, it used to mean he would be lashing out soon, but that hadn't been the case since the transformation chamber. He was much calmer and less hot-headed now. "I'm sorry," Herb answered eventually. "I didn't hear it. I don't know what I'm supposed to say."

"Roberta?" Loretta prompted, shifting everyone's attention to her.

She swallowed hard and took a deep breath before meeting Steve's eye. "Steve, you framed that question in a way that made you the wrongdoer. You didn't do anything wrong. We hurt you by the way we behaved at the museum."

"Oh," Steve replied. He looked to Laura for confirmation, and she nodded at him sympathetically. "Ok. So why did you guys need to move up this appointment? And why were you acting so weird at the museum?"

"First identify what you were feeling," Loretta coached.

"We were feeling guilty," Roberta explained.

"Why?" Steve asked.

"Secondly, identify what you did."

"We never reached out when you went to space. You almost died up there, and you never told us, so we wouldn't have known until we read it in the newspaper, and we never reached out even though everything turned out ok. We should've called. We should've been grateful for a second chance with you, and we should've started this work then and there."

"Thirdly, apologize sincerely."

"We're sorry, Steven," Herb said firmly, making very direct eye contact.

"We are so, so sorry," Roberta whimpered.

"Finally, explain what you'll do differently in the future," Loretta prompted.

Roberta and Herb looked at each other, clearly unsure. "The next time you go into space and almost die, we'll definitely call," Herb shrugged.

"Herb!" Roberta scolded.

"I'm sorry!" he replied. "It just doesn't seem like a circumstance that is likely to repeat itself."

"Oh, it definitely won't," Steve interrupted. "Laura made me promise I'd never go into outer space again."

"That's right," she agreed, squeezing his hand and looking at him sternly.

"Thank God," Roberta agreed.

"Ok." Loretta shifted in her seat and leaned forward, clasping her hands together. "But you two still need to find a way that your behavior will change for Steve."

"Well, we'll never lose touch with him again," Roberta began, "if he's ok with that, so hopefully, he'll tell us the next time he does something scary, and we can be there for him."

"But we were still in touch with him then. He didn't tell us," Herb argued.

"Why didn't you tell your parents, Steve?" Loretta interrupted.

Steve thought for a moment. He looked at Laura. "I guess I was mad at them. I wasn't ready to admit it to myself, but I was mad at them. I remember I called to tell them we bumped back the wedding, and…"

"Hi, Mama! It's Steve. Steve Urkel. Is Papa around?"

"Sure, you wanna talk to him instead?!"

Steve frowned. "No. I wanna talk to both of you, if that's ok."

"Oh. Sure."

He heard her muffled call to Herb and some brief indistinguishable complaining before he heard his father's voice.

"Ok, Steven, what is it?"

"You're both on the line?"

"Yes," Roberta replied.

"Good," Steve chirped. "I just wanted to let you both know that Laura and I are postponing the wedding a little bit."

Herb snorted. "What a surprise."

Steve swallowed hard. "Well—"

"When is the new date, Steven?" Roberta asked.

"Well, we haven't actually set one yet."

"Uh-oh," she cringed.

"No, it's not anything to be concerned about. It's just—"

"You know, son, we were expecting a call like this," Herb interrupted.

"If you ever get it rescheduled, give us more notice this time," Roberta added. "We'll need to have plenty of time to schedule our surgeries around it if we can."

"Right," Steve frowned. "Of course."

"Is that all, Steven?" Herb asked. "I have to get to bed. I have an early meeting tomorrow."

Steve paused for a long moment. "Yeah. That's all."

"Can we say hi to Laura?" Roberta asked.

Steve was grateful he didn't have to lie as he looked around his new, cramped Houston apartment. "No. Sorry. I'm actually not home right now."

"Oh," Roberta frowned.

"Again, what a surprise."

"Well," Steve said, clearing his throat urgently, "take care, guys." He hung up before they could respond. He leaned back against the couch, sinking into it. Deflating. Then he forced himself to take a deep breath. He slapped a smile on his face and dialed the only number that he knew could get his mind off of this.

"Hello?" Laura answered.

"Hi, babykins," he grinned brightly.

"Hey, honey," she cooed.

"I'm missing you so much right now, darling."

"You saw me yesterday," she laughed. "How are you ever going to survive six months without me if you can't even make it 24 hours?"

"I have no idea, my love." His heart finally slowed as he got lost in banter with her.

When Steve finished explaining this interaction, he took note of how Laura glared at Roberta and how Herb and Roberta's eyes were locked on the floor.

"Well, that was grim," Loretta concluded. "Somehow, that seemed darker than most of the interactions you two have ever described to me, which tells me a lot about how you've been coloring things in our conversations. That needs to stop."

Steve swallowed hard. He looked guiltily at his mom, feeling, quite irrationally, like he'd gotten her in trouble. "It wasn't that bad," he shrugged.

"Yes, it was, Steve," Laura said firmly.

"No, I'm probably exaggerating."

"No, you're not, Steven," Roberta admitted. "You're definitely not."

Herb leaned forward and looked back at his son. "But all we can do is explain how we were feeling, name what we did, apologize, and change. You know how we were feeling then. We've told you. We were feeling worried for your mental health. We were feeling skeptical of all the big changes you were going through, mostly because you never let us talk to Laura. During that phone call, we were dismissive and cruel, and I'm so sorry about that. Your mother is too. It's not going to happen again. It's not just about staying in touch with you. It's about really listening to you. From now on, when we talk to you, we're going to really listen to you. I promise."

Steve stared at him for a long moment. "Ok," he agreed. "Thank you, Dad."

"Thank you, son, for being so patient."

———————————————————————

Their session was less tense for the remainder of their time, and Laura and Steve had to admit they had seen real progress. As Herb and Roberta stopped to pay their bill, Laura pulled Steve aside. "Are you ok, baby? That was a lot."

Steve smiled softly at her, grateful for her care and attention. "I'm ok, Sweetums. It was a lot, but I'm feeling… hopeful. Laura, I've never seen them try so hard. I've never seen them try at all."

"You are so strong," she said softly. She reached up and cupped his cheek.

"Thank you, Laura Lee."