Chapter 7: First sesion
Nathalie headed to Adrien's room to talk to him again. She had already thought that this was what they were going to tell the therapist, but the only thing missing was for Adrien to agree.
Nathalie entered finding Adrien playing or at least trying to play one of the games that his father had bought him many years ago.
Nathalie saw how she only moved her fingers on the control without her character passing the wall she had to jump over. Adrien only had a sad expression on his face. Plagg was sitting on his head lying in a little ball just like a cat would. Slowly, Nathalie walked over and sat on the couch right next to Adrien.
"Adrien." he put the controller aside when he felt the seat next to him sink "How are you?"
"Good."
But Nathalie knew that wasn't true.
"Adrien, I was thinking about taking you to therapy. I know it's something that would help you a lot. But I need to know if you would be willing to attend the sessions with Dr. Simson."
"But, it wouldn't put our identities at risk?" Adrien said unsurely.
"Yes, I know what you're thinking" Nathalie adds "Still, I have the perfect story so that Dr. Simson does not suspect of us. He is a therapist. He can help you."
"I don't know, Nathalie." Adrien put his feet up on the couch, hugging them.
"Adrien, I know you don't like this, but we can't let anyone know our secrets. That wouldn't do us anything good," said Nathalie.
"I know Nathalie. I'm just tired of lying, I just want to be able to tell the truth for once."
Noticing the dilemma Adrien found himself in, Plagg decided it was time to intervene.
"Adrien, I think this time she wants to help you." Plagg floated from the seat next to him "Maybe that man can be of support. If you don't feel comfortable, you could leave."
Adrien thought about it for a moment before nodding.
"I will go. But, Nathalie, is my father going to be present at that session?"
"You don't want him to be there?" Nathalie noticed Adrien visibly uncomfortable with the idea of her father going with him.
"No, I don't feel comfortable with him nearby. I don't know if he is going to like the things I'm going to say in the session." Adrien mentioned.
"I understand Adrien. Don't worry, I'll make sure your dad stays this time, okay? We just want to help you. He will have to understand whether he likes it or not. I... I'll make him reason."
Adrien thought that maybe he could try it just this once.
"What do I have to say?"
Nathalie then proceeded to tell him what she had planned.
Nathalie was talking on the phone. On her tablet she was taking notes of what the therapist Gabriel mentioned to her was recommending for the appointment.
"I understand." Nathalie took note of what the doctor was telling her. They had called the doctor asking for a reservation and offered him a fairly large sum of money for his services and for his silence.
"We will be there" Nathalie wrote down a few more things. "Thank you very much sir."
Nathalie hung up the call and turned to Gabriel.
"It is done. Dr. Gerald has already checked his schedule and has time this Monday. He will see Adrien."
"Alright" Gabriel got up from his seat "Can you check my schedule and make sure I can accompany Adrien to his appointment?"
Nathalie still hadn't mentioned to Gabriel what Adrien asked of her when she went to talk to him.
"Adrien only asked me one thing" Nathalie said forcefully "You can't go."
"What? Why?" Gabriel was surprised that Adrien didn't like him being present in the session with the therapist.
"He said he doesn't feel comfortable telling those things with you around." Nathalie raised an eyebrow, as if Gabriel didn't understand the indirect message Adrien wanted to give him.
Oh, it was that... he had to respect Adrien's wishes no matter what.
"I understand. Then I'll stay here and wait, I guess." Gabriel sat on the couch in his room. "Have you already prepared what you're going to say?"
"Almost. I still have to check with Adrien about the alibi we're going to use. I'll talk to him right now." Nathalie headed to Adrien's room.
Nathalie was explaining to Adrien what they would say during the session with the psychologist. Sitting in the living room of the mansion, he listened again to the story that Nathalie made up for their visit with the therapist.
"Do you remember what we are going to say Adrien?" Nathalie crouched down next to him.
"Yeah. My dad and I fought months ago; which caused our relationship to crumble and no longer be the same."
"Very well, Adrien." Nathalie took him by the hands "Remember that that is what we are both going to tell the therapist and we are not going to mention anything about the Miraculous."
"It's not like that's a lie." Adrien whispered quietly, but loud enough for Gabriel to hear. Gabriel knew very well what he was referring to, so he preferred not to say anything.
Adrien got up from his seat and followed Nathalie to the car.
"We will return immediately after the session." Nathalie went ahead to go to their destination.
She motioned for Adrien to get out to get into the car. Gabriel stood at the entrance giving instructions to the bouncer to take them to where the doctor's office was located. He watched as the Gorilla got into the car.
"See you later, have a nice trip." Gabriel said before Nathalie got in and closed the car door.
Neither Nathalie nor Adrien said goodbye to him. The only thing Gabriel could do was wait.
Gorilla was driving through one of the best parts of the city. Gerald gave them the address of the building where the therapy company he worked for was located.
Nathalie was in the back with Adrien in the car. They both didn't say anything and the Gorilla, silent as always, drove directly to the destination that Gabriel indicated to him.
Nathalie was very serious.
Adrien thought she was upset with him.
"Nathalie, does my father agreed with this?" Adrien asked as he watched the buildings go by from the car.
"Of course, Adrien. I suggested it to your father myself and he accepted."
Nathalie could notice how uncomfortable Adrien seemed with her presence. Adrien saw her out of the corner of his eye, but for a moment he could see Mayura in Nathalie's place. Adrien looked away.
"Don't worry about anything Adrien. Just try not to be nervous, I'm sure that the doctor will be there to listen to what you have to say."
Nathalie hesitantly placed her hand on top of Adrien's. Adrien looked at her.
"You won't be upset?" Adrien said timidly.
"Not at all Adrien. This is to help you." Nathalie replied softly and Adrien didn't take her back.
Adrien and Nathalie arrived at the place where they were summoned. They entered the building and headed to the doctor's office. They arrived at the entrance, noticing that on the door there was a sign indicating the doctor's full name.
Dr. Gerald Simson.
"Are you ready Adrien?"
Adrien nodded.
Nathalie knocked on the door of the doctor's office. They waited a few moments until the door opened. A tall, middle-aged man with somewhat messy hair stood at the door.
Dr. Gerald.
"Hello young man, lovely to have you in today." Gerald demonstrated with joy "Welcome to my office."
To Adrien Gerald sounded quite friendly.
"Good morning, Mr. Simmons." Adrien said politely.
"Oh, you can call me Gerald if you want, there's no need for formalities."
Gerald then turned to Nathalie.
"It's a pleasure to meet you in person, Miss Sancoeur." Gerald extended his hand and Nathalie took it. "And where is Mr. Agreste?"
"He decided not to attend. I am Adrien's responsible adult who will be in charge of bringing Adrien here. These are Mr. Agreste's orders."
Well, that for Gerald was too unfortunate.
Gerald put his hands together, deciding that then he would begin the session.
"If you allow me, I'm going to start the session with Adrien." Gerald stepped aside and gestured for Adrien to enter "Come in, Adrien, let's get started."
Nathalie addressed him.
"Adrien, I'll stay in the waiting room." Nathalie took a seat on the armchair that was outside. "I'll be here if you need me."
Adrien nodded and entered Gerald's office. He pointed out some of the chairs he had in the office.
"You can sit in any of the places where you feel comfortable, take your time to settle in."
Gerald took a seat in another of the armchairs. He examined Adrien for a moment. He noticed that Adrien seemed a little tired.
Gerald sat down and took his notes to start taking notes. Preparing his pen, he prepared to start recording the session in order to listen to it again later.
"Adrien Agreste, right?"
Adrien nodded.
"How would you like me to refer to you?" Gerald took a small sip from the cup of coffee he brought with him just before the session.
"Adrien." the boy said timidly.
Gerald read Adrien's body language; he seemed a little nervous.
"I understand that you are nervous, Adrien. There's no need to feel like so," Gerald said gently. "You can trust me. You can tell me what is happening to you, if there is something that is very private, I will not say anything to anyone."
"You promise." Adrien wasn't quite sure whether to trust him.
"I promise." Gerald raised a hand to take his oath.
Adrien decided that this time he would trust Gerald.
"I know you're here because you haven't been feeling very well and you're experiencing a low mood, Adrien."
"I've been feeling bad for a few months now," Adrien explained, a little nervous about forgetting what Nathalie told him to say. "I've been able to get back to normal before, but now I feel like I can't do it." I feel like it's a very difficult thing to do.
"It sounds like you're having a hard time moving on again." Gerald identified something that he had seen in many of his patients. Difficulty moving forward.
"Yes, I was able to move forward with the help of my friends and Nathalie before." Adrien was feeling less nervous.
"You've done it in the past, but recently you think you can't do it anymore, Adrien?"
"No. My mother disappeared a long time ago, and that affected me and my father. Much more to my father. Since my mother left, he was never the same" Adrien remembered the day his mother disappeared. That's when his father changed completely.
"And how did that affect your relationship with your father, Adrien?" Gerald knew a little about the Agreste family. It had been almost a year since Adrien's mother, Emilie Agreste, had disappeared.
"My dad and I lost the relationship we had for a few months. He's gotten colder since my mother left."
Oh, that was it. Gerald had already heard about what happened to Gabriel Agreste's wife. He saw it on the news. It was a big scandal. After that Gabriel Agreste hardly appeared in public. Only Adrien and Gabriel's assistant, Nathalie, appeared in person. He had heard many rumors about what happened to Mrs. Agreste, but he always associated it with gossip. He never thought he would have any of the family member as his patient.
"Okay, it's something you weren't expecting and that affected you a lot." Gerald deduced. "And then you've been on your own and apparently Miss Sancoeur noticed that there was a change in you. How do you feel coming here, Adrien?" Gerald asked.
"I feel a little disappointed in myself, because someone like me shouldn't have those kinds of feelings."
"It's okay, it's normal for you to feel that way." Gerald readjusted himself in his seat "So, from what you're telling me Adrien, I feel like it was a little difficult for you to come here. And, do you know why your caregiver, Nathalie, brought you here?
"I think Nathalie was trying to make me feel better, she noticed that I was sad the other day. I feel like I'm not good at anything, and that Nathalie feels sorry for me. I just hope it can help. Nathalie is not happy with how I'm behaving" Adrien was trying to remember word for word what Nathalie said.
"So, she suggested you take therapy to help you get better?" Gerald was being as friendly as possible with Adrien.
Adrien nodded once more.
"Well, Adrien, it seems like Nathalie cares a lot about you. Now, let's start with your father, can you tell me more about him?" Gerald was very curious about Gabriel Agreste.
"My father distanced himself from me a long time ago, he no longer eats with me, nor does he spend time with me. He and my mother wanted me to have a good future so I did everything they asked of me. Especially my father."
"Is that why you were a model Adrien?" Gerald remembered that Adrien had retired from his modeling career. Or at least that's what he read.
"Yes, that was the reason." Adrien was surprised that Gerald knew those things, although he was a public figure it was to be expected.
"And you were comfortable doing those things, Adrien?"
"Well… Not really. I only did things because my father asked me to, not because I really wanted to do them. I wanted to please him."
"I understand, your dad wanted you to do things, even if you weren't so comfortable doing them."
Adrien nodded.
"Well Adrien, about how you've been feeling, have you had any kind of negative thoughts?"
"Yes, sometimes I do." Adrien answered.
"When you have those types of negative thoughts, how do you feel?"
"I feel empty." Adrien didn't really know what to say. "I don't know how to describe it."
Gerald decided to help him.
"Well Adrien, how do you feel when you're sad, do you feel more energetic or more tired?"
"When I am sad?
Gerald nodded.
"I feel like I don't have the energy to get up in the mornings sometimes" Adrien remembered the feeling that invaded his body every time he tried to do something in the last few days.
"So, you have trouble getting up?" Gerald asked again, to see if he could come up with the answer he was looking for "It sounds like you're so tired that it's hard for you to get up, you feel heavy and that it's no longer worth it. How do you respond to that?"
"As if I had no choice, I live with Nathalie, my father and I take time to get up. I've gotten sluggish these past few weeks."
Gerald could see that Adrien was having a hard time doing everyday tasks.
"Then you make the effort to get up, do you think about the problem often?"
"Yes, I don't want to feel like that." Adrien responded.
"You tried to tell yourself that you shouldn't feel that way, but you still couldn't get rid of the feeling, right" Gerald readjusted himself in his seat.
"Yes." Adrien hugged himself in the seat.
"And when you started telling yourself that, you felt good or you felt worse." Gerald asked.
"I felt worse."
Gerald was beginning to understand what was happening.
"Very well Adrien, how about we move on to another topic. I know from Nathalie that you are going to start a new course in a few months but you still don't know what you are going to do when you grow up at this point."
"I know I'm probably not the only one, but I still don't know what I would like to do for the rest of my life as a career. I only know that my father must have already chosen for me."
"I see. But you would like to choose something that you like, right?" Gerald realized that Gabriel had some control over Adrien's future. That was a problem.
"Yeah. And even if I had the freedom to do so, I still don't really know what to do with my future yet." Adrien said.
Gerald wrote some things down in his notes. A boy who still didn't have the slightest idea what to do when he became an adult, who had a rather complicated relationship with his father and an absent mother.
"Tell me Adrien, do you have anyone outside your family circle that you like to be with?"
"I like to be with Marinette" Adrien saw that Gerald was waiting for an explanation of who she was. She's my girlfriend."
"It seems like you enjoy going with your girlfriend Adrien, that's good. Does she know how you feel?"
"I only have one person I count on other than Nathalie and that is Marinette. I have friends, but I don't feel comfortable talking with them about it."
Gerald could see that Adrien had more trust in his girlfriend and Nathalie who was his guardian.
Gerald wrote some last notes. An alarm activated on Gerald's cellphone. The session time had ended very quickly.
"Well, unfortunately it's the end of our session. That would be all for today, Adrien. Let's talk to Nathalie, shall we?"
Adrien felt calmer. The doctor's first impression was pretty good. Gerald told him to leave the room. Nathalie was sitting waiting for Adrien.
"Stay outside for a moment, Adrien. I'm going to talk to Nathalie so we can arrange the next sessions with you.
Gerald opened the office door
"I can talk to you for a moment, miss Sancoeur, it's important. Gerald motioned for him to enter the office.
"Adrien, wait for me here." Nathalie entered the office with Gerald. "Tell me, Mr. Simson, how is Adrien?"
"Well miss, according to my diagnosis, in simple words, Adrien seems to be in the early stages of depression."
Nathalie's eyes widened.
"Does Adrien have depression?"
Why hadn't she noticed it before.
Nathalie felt very guilty.
"Yes, it seems to be the case. It's still too early to tell for sure, I need more sessions with him." Gerald assured her. There was another very important thing that Gerald noticed and needed to mention: the way Adrien mentioned his father, Gabriel Agreste, during the session.
"His father was mentioned by Adrien several times. Is there something that Mr. Agreste has done in particular which made Adrien behave like this?"
Nathalie expected a question like that. But for obvious reasons she couldn't tell him the truth. She would tell him the disguised truth that she devised if the opportunity presented itself.
"He's made some pretty questionable decisions while raising Adrien," Nathalie explained, hoping he wouldn't ask for explanations. "I myself tried to alleviate the impact that some of his decisions had on Adrien. But I couldn't do anything else."
Gerald needed Gabriel there. Without him, he wouldn't be able to do much to help Adrien.
"Miss Sancoeur I probably also need Mr. Agreste to come here. He is part of the problem; he probably needs counseling too. Maybe he contributed to Adrien feeling, well, like that..."
"I know, I tried for a long time to convince him to do it, but he just wouldn't listen to me."
Gerald thought about what he could do to help them.
"I'll talk to him personally," Gerald said. "Can you give me his number, Miss Sancoeur? I may arrange family therapy in this particular case."
"I'll give it to you." Nathalie started looking for Gabriel's number and sent it to the doctor.
"Adrien will have to go a long way," Gerald had already seen several cases like that in his 31-year long career. "But as long as he attends the sessions, I will do everything in my power to help him."
The doctor opened the office door finding Adrien waiting.
"Oh Adrien, before you go." Gerald took out a bowl that was full of candies "You can take one of these. Choose the one you want."
Adrien looked at the contents of the bowl. It was full of candies of different types. Looking carefully at which one to choose, he took a chocolate and put it in his pocket.
"I'll see you in the next session. See you soon Adrien, Nathalie. Have a nice day."
"Goodbye, Mr. Gerald." Adrien waved.
Gerald closed the door to his office once Adrien and Nathalie left. He organized his notes and saved a new folder that he had created specifically for Adrien. He put it inside one of the drawers of his desk neatly and closed it. He had managed to gain Adrien's trust pretty quickly.
But there was something strange about the session he just had with Adrien.
They are hiding something.
In all his years as a therapist, Gerald had learned to read people, but in this case, he could see that they were not telling him the whole truth. Adrien's body language was quite evident. Miss Sancoeur managed to hide her feelings from him very well. She seemed like she was used to doing it, he had already seen it on TV a couple of times.
Maybe with Mr. Agreste he could get the truth out of him about the whole matter, if he really decided to attend the sessions.
Gabriel was waiting for Nathalie and Adrien's return. Looking at the time on the clock, he assumed that they were already on their way, since the appointment had already ended. He was a little worried about how everything would have turned out with the first meeting with the therapist.
Gabriel heard the car parking at the entrance of the mansion.
It's them he thought.
They both entered. Nathalie guided Adrien gently hugging his shoulder.
The entire atmosphere of the mansion changed in an instant, even without the Miraculous, Gabriel could sense that something had not gone right in that session.
Nathalie had a sad expression.
"Welcome." Gabriel tried to sound as friendly as possible "How did it go?"
Nathalie crouched down next to Adrien; her gaze soft.
"You can retire to your room Adrien; I need to talk to your father for a moment." Nathalie squeezed Adrien's shoulders in a gesture to assure him that everything was fine.
"Okay, Nathalie."
When Adrien left, Nathalie walked forward and motioned for Gabriel to follow her.
"Let's talk privately."
They both went in the living room and Gabriel urged her to sit down.
Nathalie sat down gently in one of the armchairs in front of the fireplace.
"And what did the doctor say? It's bad?" Gabriel put his hands together from where he was sitting, watching Nathalie's actions.
"It's worse than we thought, Gabriel." Nathalie looked at the paper the doctor gave her.
"Is Adrien unwell?" Gabriel was worried about the way Nathalie reacted when they got home.
"After all that time we were in Mr. Simon's office on..."
Nathalie started having a coughing fit that Gabriel had to stand next to her and pat her on the back until she calmed down.
Nathalie took several deep breaths and released them as she regulated her breathing. With some force she removed Gabriel's hand.
"Tell me Nathalie, what diagnosis did Dr. Gerald gave to my son?" Gabriel was impatient to know the diagnosis.
"Adrien has symptoms of depression, Gabriel." Nathalie said, sadly.
Gabriel felt like his heart sank.
"What?" For Gabriel, it wasn't something he expected to hear.
"Adrien confessed that he has been feeling very bad for months."
He had been so... selfish.
"Gerald said he's not 100% sure. According to his diagnosis, it seems to be the case."
Nathalie felt guilty. If only she had stopped Gabriel earlier, things would be different. Maybe if she had paid more attention to Adrien in the beginning, things wouldn't be so bad right now.
Gabriel was starting to feel guilty too. Months…that meant Adrien was suffering alone since his mother left.
And he was to blame for leaving him alone when he needed him most.
Gabriel hid his face in his hands.
It can't be.
Emilie was going to kill him, but Nathalie didn't do it first.
I'm back with updates after a short break.