Participants:
| Scene Title | Like Oil And Water |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | Abigail comes to Sonny for the name of a therapist. Teo comes up. Much like oil and water, all around. There is .. tears. |
| Date | March 19, 2009 |
Dr. Bianco's Office
It's sonny's spa/office. it's VERY upscale.
The Bianco Clinic isn't quite as busy as it used to be, and that's something that Sonny's actually rather grateful for. A lot of the frivolous people have left New York for greener pastures in light of all the troubles, so it means he's actually had gaps in his schedule.
Right now, Sonny's just in his office doing paperwork. The waiting room is empty, but the phone rings. The overly done-up woman at reception hits the button to activate her headset. "Good afternoon, The Bianco Clinic." A beat, "No I'm sorry, Dr. Bianco isn't seeing patients this week. But you are on our list in case of cancellations for next week, Mister Collins. Yes. All right now. You have a great day. Buh bye."
He's not taking Clients. Little odd. That's what runs through the blonde's mind as she makes her way to the front desk. Too thin for her own good, drawn, but getting better as time goes by, her hands come to rest on the secretary's desk. "Hi. Would Dr. Bianco be available? My names Abigail Beauchamp I'm an acquaintance of his" The southern lilt playing out. She does not look like Bianco's kind of acquaintance, or even the kind of client that he gets.
The woman gives Abby an up and down appraising look. The kind of look that is judging the worth of her clothes, her hair, her general status. She narrows her eyes and purses too-plump lips. "Is Dr. Bianco expecting you?"
"Likely not. But I would be eternally grateful if you at least let him know that I was here" Lord, she could go for her pills right now with the way the woman was looking at her. "Please" Tack on please, be nice. Fuck, where was Brian to intimidate. He was finding a parking spot. "Unless he's out and then, .. I could leave a message for him"
"Abby. What are you doing here?" Dr. Bianco rounds the corner, file in hand, white lab coat over his shoulders.
The receptionist was about to open her mouth to say something snide, but she replaces it with a polite smile when she spots her boss. "Hello Doctor. I was just about to tell you that you had a visitor." Oh, how sweet.
She can see the wiping of the woman's face. Knows whats going to be said as opposed to what's actually said. "I was asking your receptionist if I could schedule a.. meeting with you, so I could ask you something. She was about to call back to you and see if you would meet with me, she very kind" She doesn't lie easily, but she's not the receptionist. She can't be mean. "Do you.. have a minute. I need some help. If your inclined to help me" Since they go together about as good as oil and water. Her thumbs worry at the side of the counter, out of sight of the receptionist.
They may not click on matters of religion, but Sonny has respect for the young healer. "Of course, Abby. Come on back. Trisha?"
The woman at the desk visibly stiffens. "Yes, doctor?"
"Abby, would you like a coffee, a glass of water? Trisha makes a great latte." The doc realizes his receptionist was being rude to her.
"Water, I could use some water" She can't blame the woman, really. Sonny deals in the upper class, Abby's right there at the line above the poverty line. Not quite, but, she's certainly not middle class. "Thank you Trisha" In advance.
Being the fetch-girl for Abby seems to gall Trisha, but she moves to the cooler and returns with a bottle of spring water that she hands to the bartender.
Sonny motions back towards his office. "Please come in." His smile is polite and professional, but it's easy to tell that the doc has other things on his mind.
Serves the woman right. But then, she should have just found a way to get a message to him somehow. But none the less, the blonde shuffles behind Sonny, looking this way and that as they go, silent, clinging to the bottle of water as they go towards his private sanctum in the building.
Sonny shuts the door behind Abby once they're both inside. He moves over to his desk and sets the folder down, then pulls back the curtains to let a little more light into his office. "What can I do for you, Abby? Please, have a seat." He motions to one of the comfortable chairs across from his desk. Rather than sit down behind it, he sits in the one beside her. He picks up a coffee mug and sips from it. Despite his Evolved talent, there's dark circles under his eyes and undeniable tension in his face. The lights out in the clinic proper seem to hide it, but the less clinical light in the office deepen the shadows.
He looks almost as bad as her. Or he's ill, something. The anxious healer takes a seat on the chairs, sinking down into them, still holding the water bottle close. "I need" There's a frown. "Elisabeth said that I needed to find someone to talk to. Someone who specializes in.. PTSD whatever that means. I don't.. I don't know anyone, much less any other doctors, I don't see doctors since I can fix whatever's wrong, usually, on my own. I can't.. afford to see someone, but I need to see someone. I was hoping you might know someone, who.. might help for a lot less money than they usually do" There. It's out there. She needs help. "If you don't, it's okay. I'll see if someone at church knows someone"
"Post-traumatic stress disorder," says Sonny. The explanation comes almost as a reflex. Then he slows it down, blinks and considers her. She's coming to him for help, despite the fact that they've never really seen eye to eye.
He thinks for a moment and takes the time to look at her as a doctor assessing a patient. "I think I know someone who can help. She's very good. Helped a lot of people since the bomb. Specializes in talking to the Evolved. She was my doctor for awhile, actually."
She looks like a stiff breeze might tip her over. Poster child for it really. The way she holds onto the bottle, can't quite just meet his eyes, opting instead to keep them levels at his mouth. "I would greatly appreciate it Sonny. I really… would. Elisabeth would too."
Sonny stands and goes to his desk. He pulls over his rolodex and flips through it until he finds a card. He examines it, holds it between two fingers, then steps over to Abby and offers it down to her. "You can trust her. I've…told things to her that I've never told anyone else and she's never breathed a word of any of it." The card says, 'Doctor Agnes Yee, Psychologist.'
Trust is a hard thing when your Sonny, Abigail, or any number of those who work elbow to elbow with other people. "Do I tell her you sent me?" The cards taken with great delicacy, examined, before it's summarily worked into her wallet produced from purse. oneof maybe three things now, in the brand new accessory. Money, registration card, business card, tucked with others.
"I'll give her a call, explain that you're going to get in touch with her." Sonny's tone is gentle. He won't ask what happened. That's not for him to pry into. "And don't worry about payment. Dr. Yee is working off grants from the government. From some of the money from the memorial funds." Which is not entirely the truth. He'll make sure the difference is covered.
Bob head. Blonde locks see saw gently on her shoulders. "Thank you" It's sincerely spoken. "Thank you Sonny" He won't ask, but he deserves it. "I was kidnapped again. Kept on Staten Island. Teo and others, got me out … a week ago? Week ago" her sense of time is still skewed. "How.. is Teo. Last I knew I think he was living with you"
There's a slow tic of realization across Sonny's face. Oh. Well. That explains a few things. "I…" It's complicated. Officially he's no longer with the Ferrymen. Officially, he and Teo are not living together. But they are. "He's…Teo." says the doc. "It's complicated."
"If you were being held captive, it explains why he's been so distracted. He doesn't tell me much."
"He's.. had a lot on his plate. This last month. With Helena and Al somewhere, and myself, leading phoneix until they can get her back" Now she cracks open the bottle of water. "He's having to deal with me being so…" She doesn't think there's a word to describe herself right now. SHe meets Sonny's eyes though. 'He giving you the circles under your eyes? The lady at the desk said you weren't taking patients this week, so it can't be your gift"
"I just need a break," says Sonny. He's guarded. No one knows about him and Teo - or so he thinks. So it's difficult to dance around this subject. "I've had less patients lately. A lot of the people who had appointments have left New York for awhile. So I thought I'd use the time to catch up on some paperwork."
"From him?" There's not dancing around that. She knows, it's written on her face. "Do you need me to talk to him? I can try and do that. I haven't sat and talked with him since before.. Staten. Right after he got out of the hospital" She doesn't consider the blubbering mess she was on the bathroom floor of the safe house talking.
Sonny waves a hand towards Abby. "No, no. It's…no. It's…" A sigh. "You have enough to deal with. Teo and I will work things out." Just how much does she know? And how? He'd like to think Teo would have told him if Abby knew, but he knows that's really just wishful thinking. There's a lot the young Italian doesn't tell him. Like the fact that Abby was held prisoner.
Another nod of her head. Purse of her lips and look down at the floor. "Okay. Just.. " Abby looks up, squinting a bit. "He needs his ass kicked. Now and then. He carries around a lot of guilt. Not always his own. They hang, around his neck, like the yoke on an ox. Every now and then, he just… He needs someone to take it and put it to the side, the ones that aren't his, that he doesn't.. have control over" For all that she's been quiet, the pills have been actually doing their job. It's a calm moment with a clear mind.
Sonny looks at Abby for a long moment, then glances away and picks up his coffee mug. "Hard to do when he doesn't tell me anything." The words are half-murmured into his lukewarm coffee. "I had no idea you were being held prisoner. Hell, I didn't even know he was a Phoenix leader." His jaw grits. "I don't think I really know him at all."
"In a brothel of all places" that elicits a small laugh from the blonde. "Did.. you think maybe that he's.. trying to separate his love life Sonny, from his work? That he doesn't want to come home after a long day, and drag work home with him. That he wants to come home to someone, and just be Teodoro Laudani, instead of Teo, head of phoenix" It's not an accusation it's just her, enlightening.
So. She does know. Sonny's cheeks redden. And when he realizes they're red, it makes him even more embarrassed. "Yes. But that leaves me wondering what the hell he's doing every time he leaves the house. Maybe he wants that. But is wanting that really fair to me? Compartmentalizing isn't healthy."
Then, a deep, slow breath. "No one knows, Abby. No one. You can understand why it would be disastrous if anyone found out." Not because they're both men, but because Teo's a terrorist.
"Sonny.. I have too much to deal with right now, to go running around spouting that the mayor's son is laying with the leader of the vigilante's. I wouldn't go spouting it in the first place. What Teo and you wish to do with each other, is none of my business. Your good for him. Believe it or not, your.. good for him. You help him focus and realize there's.. more than just .. never ending scenario's of death, and blonde healers who are always getting taken and needing him to save them. Maybe… he doesn't tell you because he doesn't know whether your wanting in on that part of him. There's so much about him that I still don't know." Abby's fingers scrape at the label. "He got burned too Sonny. Badly. That's why when we all moved, he didn't move with us. Alexander.. burned him. Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice…"
"He cheated on me," says Sonny. He isn't quite sure why he suddenly says that. It doesn't come out as a blurt, more as a low murmur. He stares down at the arm of his chair and rubs his face. He closes his eyes and swallows a sudden tightness in his throat. "I told him I wanted to know what he was doing. That I wanted to be part of things with him. But he still keeps me at arm's length. And he still sleeps with other people."
Oh lord. Disappointment. "I'd say.. that i'm sorry, but…" There's a soft sigh from between her thin lips, a shake of her head, eyes closed. "But i've heard it too much lately and I hate to think of saying it to another. Did he say .. why he did it?"
"Because he was drunk. Because he's holding all this shit on his own shoulders and won't let anyone else take some of the weight off." Sonny grits his jaw and stares off at a spot on the wall. "Because whoever this guy is came on to him. I don't know. That's what I've been trying to figure out. It's almost like he's trying to make me break it off with him. Because he feels like he'd deserve it."
"Because he's scared, and he can't walk away, because he wants it, he wants you and he…" God, counseling Sonny on Teo. "Sonny, his self esteem is .. non existent"
Sonny stands and sets his coffee mug down. "I don't think he does want me. He wants someone for comfort, like you said. Someone who can be separate from the rest of his life and let him forget everything. But being that guy has been driving me crazy. It's made me jealous and worried. But he doesn't seem to have any desire to open up to me. Everything that's happened lately, I've pushed for. And all my pushing did was make him fuck someone else." He blurts that out before he realizes how crude it sounds. He pulls in deep breaths. "I'm…I'm sorry Abby. You've been through a lot. The last thing you need is to hear about my relationship problems. Dr. Yee will take care of you."
"Then don't fuck him Sonny" It's a foreign sounding word coming from her lips. "Relationships aren't about fucking. Making love. Screwing. It gets in the way. love is not screwing. That's lust. Love is.. being there when they have a bad day and a cup of coffee for them. It's sitting on a couch and watching a movie and joking about something that's wrong with the continuity. It's about standing beside them when the shit is falling and helping support them, so they don't fucking fall apart" It's not snapped back, but it's frustration. "I'm sorry he screwed someone else. Al screwed SOMEONE else. Screwed someone else after telling him that he loved Teo. And then he turned around and screwed Teo's aunt. If you don't put the focus on what you two do with your bodies with each other maybe then, you can focus on what NEEDS fixing"
"You are making a whole hell of a lot of assumptions about our relationship, Abby." Sonny's voice tightens. He tries very hard to keep his temper in check. "It's not about sex. Half the time we just lounge on the couch and watch movies or get take-out for dinner. It's bloody domestic. All of it. And I think that's exactly what scares Teo. I want a real relationship. A committed relationship. What needs fixing is that Teo needs to actually talk to me instead of pushing me away." He grits his teeth and sinks back into the chair behind his desk. "I think you better go now."
She wasn't trying to make them. but there's some line she crossed, between the both of them. The blonde's eyes well up and the bottle of water trembles in her hands as she nods. "Thank you" She's gone back to formal with him. "For your help Dr. Bianco. I won't bother you further" Up from the chair she pushes herself, making for the door as fast as she possibly can.
Sonny should probably stop. He should probably apologise. But that really did strike a nerve. He slumps forward int the chair and buries his face in his hands. He reaches out for the curtain pull and yanks on it hard to block the natural light out of his office.
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