Participants:
| Scene Title | Exclusive |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | What exactly does it mean? |
| Date | November 23, 2010 |
YMCA
Amadues pro'd his quid, which means Bella has a quo left to offer, in order to make this an equitable exchange (or an exchange at all). Due to registration concerns, Bella has been forced to rent out another room in the local YMCA, something she does grudgingly not being a great fan of religious organizations. Still, as far as religiosos go, it could be worse than one that can generate one of the most fabulously gay songs of the 70's. This comforts Bella, or at least she tries to be comforted by it, as she waits in a room painted with a late 70's color sensibility, sitting in a fold-out chair that she keeps having to shift in, to stop her butt from getting numb. What Bella does for the sake of science! See, it's not just others who suffer. She endures torments of her own.
Amadeus helps Keira along, having tried for a very long time to actually convince her to come to therapy. With her hurt leg, he's been helping her a lot, including into this room, and down into a chair. He's in his AC/DC shirt, but wears a tie around his neck since this is a formal meeting and all. "Keira, Bella, Bella, Keira."
Keira's looking rather grumpy today. Having a gunshot wound in your leg will do that, though thankfully it will only be a few more weeks before her leg will be mostly healed. At least it didn't hit any of her tats, otherwise she would have been angry. As it stands, she's totally planning on shooting that slant eyed asshole who shot her. She's not sure which one did, really, but she now has a grudge against asian types.
It took a while for Amadeus to even convince her of the merits of therapy. She looks rather normal, save for the rather nice black cane she carries around, with a polished silver handle. She wears a business suit today, just because she felt like looking like a pimp. Or something. Once seated, she turns a frown upon Bella. "Hi."
Luckily Bella is not here to deal with issue of trauma induced racism. That's not really her area of expertise. To be fair, she's not a couple's councilor either, but she'd much rather deal with emotions laced with, one hopes, affection, rather than the strictly hate-ridden.
The psychiatrist is, herself, dressed in a black turtleneck sweater - very James Bond - and khaki slacks. She has flat bottoms shoes on, having steered clear of heels when she can lately. A notepad rests in her lap and she looks from face to face, a polite smile on her features.
"It's a pleasure to meet you, Keira," Bella says, with cordial warmth, "please, make yourselves comfortable. Or as comfortable as you can be…" she wrinkles her nose in good natured commiseration, "I'd like us to start by setting some goals for this therapy. Figuring out what it is we want to work on and, just as importantly, work towards."
Amadeus takes a seat next to Keira, arms crossed. He looks down at her leg a few times, just making sure it's alright, then turns his attention back to Bella when she starts talking. "Keira gets mad and thinks I don't wanna be with her every time I say I wanna bang other women again."
Bella lifts her hand to stop Amadeus right there. "First of all, there are some ground rules in this space. You speak for yourself only. And Keira speaks for herself. However close you are, you can't read Keira's thoughts. Let Keira say what she 'thinks'."
Keira's arms are crossed over her chest, the woman offering a frown in Bella's general direction. It's not that she doesn't like the other woman. She's rather nice, in fact. It's just the fact that she doesn't quite want to be here. The only reason she said yes was just to shut him up. As such, Keira promptly crosses her arms over her chest, turning a frown toward Amadeus.
As Amadues speaks, Keira's frown grows even more, but Bella's interjection prompts raised eyebrows.
Okay, maybe this shrink lady isn't so bad. Keira quietly judges the situations for a moment, before leaning back in her seat. "I want to know that he wants t'be faithful t'me. It doesn't exactly help when he mentions every other fuckin' day that he misses fucking other women. Like I ain't enough."
"She don't fuckin' get it. She's enough for me, I like fuckin' her more than any chick I ever had, but I like fuckin' other chicks too. It's like… havin' a favorite food, I like tryin' other shit once in a while." Amadeus explains, shrugging his shoulders as if this is the most obvious thing in the universe.
Oh, this is going to be fun. Bella listens to Amadeus and Keira with the same slightly furrow browed intent, an expression meant to convey interest and attention, along with a certain sympathy. To smilingly listen to people being upset would be creepy. "Keira - it sounds like what bothers you is him saying he desires other women. Amadeus - you seem to feel that Keira is bother by your desiring other women at all. Is that a meaningful difference, in your eyes? Because it seems to be a big difference to me. Keira, if Amadeus were to stop talking about his desire for other women, do you think you'd be less upset at him?"
"Talkin' about it really don't help much, no. And I bet you wouldn't be as happy if I decided to go do shit with fuckin' Richard Cardinal or somethin'." This is rather obviously directed to Amadeus, the tattooed woman frowning over at him. "What I want is to try and make this work. Try and have a functional relationship. Sometimes I wonder if I'm tryin' with the wrong person, even though I love him so fuckin' much. Sometimes, I wonder why I love him like I do."
She's grumpy, her leg doesn't like that she went anywhere, and she's still waiting for that painkiller to kick in.
"I won't fuck Delia, and you won't fuck Cardinal, I don't see how that's a bad fuckin' deal. I don't care who you fuck, as long as it's not him, and as long as you come back to me." Amadeus looks down Bella, gesturing with his hand for some sort of confirmation. "Don't you think that's a sweet fuckin' deal?"
"Well," Bella says, "it's not really me who's to judge. Keira is the one who is the final decider as to how acceptable an arrangement is. Keira, you say you want a functional relationship. What would that mean, to you? You mentioned fidelity - what else would you want from a relationship with Amadeus?"
Keira frowns to Amadeus. "As if you had a chance with Delia, and it's different. Delia is my family. My sister or my cousin or somethin', hell if I know." She sighs softly, pinching at the bridge of her nose for a moment, before turning her eyes back toward Bella, tilting her head to one side. "I don't think it's a sweet deal. I want fidelity, yeah. I want to know that I'm the only one he wants. But…doesn't seem like that, most of th'time."
"You're the only chick I feel like talkin' about feelings and stuff with, you're the only chick I'm gonna go to a psychologist chick for. You're the only one I care about enough to give up sex for weeks just to take care of her fuckin' leg." Amadeus shakes his head in disapproval, grunting. "But you'd rather be hung up on me wanting to bang some dumb slut I don't give a shit about."
Bella's eyeslids dip when Amadeus invokes that word. A reprehensible word, poisonous to Bella's ears when spoken in that way. This is not, however, the time to interject with her political position. She can fix him in more subtle ways, after all. If she's smart. "Keira, desire isn't something you can control. Feelings are difficult to change. Actions, however, are different. It's too much to ask Amadeus to want only you. It is, however, reasonable to ask that he be only with you. He can't control his feelings, necessarily, but he can control his behaviors." Her gaze shifts to the young man. "Please, Amadeus, it doesn't help to accuse. Keira has a reason to feel the way she does. If you do care about her, you have to consider her feelings, not simply dismiss them."
Keira bristles, her knuckles white as she clasps her cane. "If the girl you want to bang doesn't mean shit to you, then why th'fuck do you want to fuck her?!" She scowls, turning her gaze away from Amadeus. "I 'preciate you takin' care of me. You've been good t'me. But…sometimes it feels awful, t'have you oggling other chicks while I'm sittin' right in front of you, and I fuckin' love you."
Keira frowns over to Bella apologetically. She's not quite used to the couples therapy thing, and it feels like she's just sitting here and fighting with Amadeus while Bella listens. It feels a little on the embarassing side.
However, Bella's words are intelligent andquite helpful, really. "I don't give a shit if he wants to be with other women. I look, but I don't fuckin' touch. It's more about…I want 'im to control himself. I don't want to share."
"I don't want this to hurt you." Amadeus scoots his chair over next to her's, sliding a hand around her shoulders. "Look, if this, like, really fuckin' hurts you, if it's a big fuckin' deal, I'll try and chill out a bit. It ain't like I'm gonna cheat, you know I've been fuckin' chicks on the side since I was seventeen, I ain't afraid to tell you if I did it."
"I think asking for monogamy is perfectly reasonable," Bella says, choosing to take a positive tack rather than backtrack to prune out the less than delicate instances in Amadeus' speech. Keira chose to be with him. She must have some basic level of tolerance. "And I think that's a pledge you should make to one another. To agree, in all seriousness, to be exclusive with each other. Make it official, so that you both understand what you've decided upon, together."
"Oh, he knows I am monogamous. He's the only one who can probably fuckin' handle me." She shrugs, leaning back in her seat and fiddling with her cane's handle. "I thought we had made it official back when we decided to be exclusive, but maybe I wasn't clear enough." She sighs softly, pinching at the bridge of her nose once more.
"I just thought it was somethin' you had to get outta your system, but I know you're very fuckin' serious now, so…" Amadeus sighs, trying his best to be patient as he gently ruffles her shoulder. "I'll be exclusive."
Bella's brows arch, unable to hide her skepticism. "Amadeus, I suggest in the future, that you take Keira's wishes more seriously. It will help you avoid these kinds of misunderstandings. Communication is at the heart of every working relationship. Usually that means talking, though there are other ways to communicate your needs. You just both of you have to be willing to listen for the other and, just as importantly, be willing to speak and believe you'll be heard."
For a moment, it really looks like Keira is about to hit Amadeus; however, frowning, she leans back as Bella speaks. "What she said. I fuckin' talk all the time, and sometimes, like right now, it feels like you don't even care to try and listen." She runs a hand through her hair. "Doesn't always feel nice, y'know?" She tilts her head toward the son of Deckard.
Amadeus leans in, pressing his lips against her's very briefly, then nods. "I'll try an' fuckin' listen and stuff. I know you're bein' serious about all this now, that you ain't just in a mood, so don't fuckin' worry, alright?" He stands up, straightening his tie. "I'm gonna go get us some ice cream. I think we're cured, doc. Come on, Keira."