The Dreams

Chapter Twenty Nine

Rina could not say that she was surprised to find Penny and Charlotte in the doctor's office when she came for her next appointment. She had tried her best to explain her sudden relapse into excessive sleep over the phone, and apparently that had been enough to get her an earlier appointment as well as additional support in the form of Penny.

Seeing both of them together made her feel a bit ganged up on. She glanced back to Hibiki in the waiting room and seriously contemplated running back to drag him in with her just so she did not feel as though she was so obviously outnumbered. That would not do. She was not entirely sure she wanted him to be around to hear some of what she had to say today. There was no telling where the discussion might go and having him there might just make things awkward. She would have to steel her resolve and handle this on her own.

She took a deep breath and took a seat in Dr. Charlotte's office. As nervous as she felt, she knew that this was all happening so she could feel better.

"I hope you don't mind that I invited Penny to join us today," Dr. Charlotte began the session.

"It's fine. I'll gladly take any help I can get at this point."

"One good thing is that we're here talking together to figure this out this time. Last time you weren't able to talk or move by the time Penny got involved," Dr. Charlotte pointed out.

"Yeah. I'd really prefer for it not to reach that point again. The spring semester is going to start soon and I need to be there."

"Hopefully between the three of us we can get you back on track again," Penny chimed in.

"The three of us?" Rina asked.

Penny nodded. "Charlotte, you, and me."

"You think I'm going to be able to help you figure this out?"

"Of course," Penny replied. "We're all dealing with new territory here so it only makes sense that we need your opinions and feedback to figure out what is going to work. We don't have a blueprint for treating this yet."

"So we still don't know what's wrong with me?" Rina asked with a sigh. "We're just going to be making guesses."

"We're going to make some incredibly educated guesses," Dr. Charlotte chimed in. "We know your symptoms. We have theories about the cause. As long as we work together we can make an effort to determine an appropriate treatment."

Rina considered it. She trusted both of these women to use their best judgment. If they thought she would be of use to them then she supposed she would have to believe it.

She took a deep breath and did her best to calm her mind. The last thing she needed right now was her nerves getting the best of her. The more nervous she got the less of a handle she had on the rest of her emotions, which resulted in the outbursts and anxiety she had been experiencing over the last few months.

"Okay," she finally agreed. "I'll do what I can to help. Just remember that I don't know anything."

"You know more than you think," Dr. Charlotte insisted. "Don't sell yourself short."

"I'll try," she promised.

"We're going to put you into a trance to keep you calm while we try to dive into your psyche again," Penny explained. "Last time you were in a unique situation and I could not do much to prepare you, but you were also not in a position to do anything at all to fight back. We need you to be calm this time."

"Okay," Rina agreed, although she felt her heart rate pick up at this urging that she would need to be calm.

Of course, she panicked. Her mind had a funny habit of taking directions and trying to run in the opposite direction. Staying calm when told to remain calm was a nearly impossible feat. She took a deep breath to get a bit of a grip. She had been getting to know Dr. Charlotte bit by bit over the course of her appointments here and she felt that she could trust her judgment of the current situation and the actions that needed to be done. Penny had already been inside her head once before, and the prior experience was enough to make Rina feel as though she could trust her. They had already done something similar together before so she felt confident that they could get through it again.