CSI:New York : Who Are You? (Don Flack/OFC fanfic)

The Evaluation

Olivia found herself frowning at the water running down the wall of the makeshift Chinese pagoda. She watched it serenely glide down the scored stone and into the small pond at the base. The noise was meant to be soothing, relaxing, but it only managed to annoy her. It was too damn clichéd to have a stress reliever like it in a shrinks office; and if the woman sitting across from her wearing a grey pinstripe suit, a polite smile and a sympathetic look in her eyes thought it was going to help any, then she was seriously misinformed.

Dr. Marie Rennick tilted her head ever so slowly to one side and surveyed Olivia frowning at the fountain. 'Does the fountain bother you, Olivia?'

Olivia turned to the woman, eyes heavy-lidded and held back the urge to tell her it did, because she knew that was exactly what she wanted to hear. 'I don't have any feelings about it either way.'

'All right,' the doctor said softly, but her tone told Olivia she didn't believe her. 'We've been sitting here for five minutes and you've yet to answer my question,' she went on, her voice was still soft but held an underlying edge of authority. She posed the question once more. 'Why do you think you're here, Olivia?'

Suppressing a sigh, Olivia steeled herself and turned a stern gaze to the woman's eyes. 'I'm here,' she began, voice heavy with displeasure, 'because I'm unstable. Is that what you wanted? For me to admit that?'

The doctor offered no reply, just simply made a note on the clipboard in front of her, before looking over her glasses at Olivia. 'Why did you choose that word? Unstable?'

Olivia gnashed her teeth together. 'It's what everyone keeps me telling me. My old boss never failed to remind me what a loose cannon I was,' she said matter-of-factly.

Dr. Rennick nodded knowingly. 'Detective Sanders. Yes. He tried to get you into therapy many times.' She was reading through her notes.

'He failed on that.'

The doctor lifted her head and met Olivia's cool gaze, noted the smug look on the young woman's face. 'And yet your current superior, Detective Mac Taylor of the New York Crime Lab recommended therapy too and here we are.'

'He suggested I talk to someone. Therapy wasn't implied,' Olivia amended without being gentle about it.

'Why was Detective Taylor's suggestion so different?'

Olivia crossed one leg over the other. 'He didn't make it sound like it would be a life or death situation. My last job, they made it clear if I didn't see someone I would be suspended.'

'And Detective Taylor hasn't suggested at this?'

'That's right.'

'Why do you think that is?' The doctor asked, tilting her head again.

'Maybe you should ask him.'

'Maybe he has firm faith in you.'

'Maybe,' Olivia shrugged.

'How does that make you feel?'

Olivia gave her head a shake. 'What?'

'Knowing that he has faith in you surely makes you feel something.'

'I guess...it makes me feel that maybe not everyone thinks I'm unbalanced after all. What d'you want me to say?'

'And how are you unbalanced, Olivia?'

She let go of a deep sigh of frustration and eyed the doctor. 'Isn't that your job, to tell me why?'

'I'd like to know how you feel.'