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Andrew & Mama Bee

What is it about Betsy that actually gets Andrew's (and then even Aaron's) respect? Everyone else loves her too. Unless she's drugging that cocoa, I want to know what's up! XD

I have no excuses for how long this got oh my god

I feel like this is less of an answer and more me just going BEE BEE BEE

Betsy won over the Foxes in part because she's genuine and in part because she is very, very good at what she does. She doesn't analyze the Foxes unless they ask her to; she guides them into analyzing themselves and helps them sort out the results. There isn't a thing you can say to her that she'll judge you for and she honestly believes that everyone is worth saving. Aaron will never be fond of her, but he needs her to get through to Andrew, and by the end of The King's Men he at least treats her with respect.

(Betsy cried over Seth–but she had to sit on it for days, because when she got the news she knew she needed to get to Allison, get to Allison now now now, hold her together before grief tears her apart. Betsy knew more than anyone how much Seth loved Allison; she knew that he was trying, she knew that he was trying so hard but that it was just too much sometimes to keep an even keel and can't we try another drug one that makes me better or one that will kill me faster I don't even give a fuck at this point Doc just give me something so I can sleep)

Which leads us to Andrew. (and the longest rant I hope I ever put on tumblr because WTF Nora)

It's funny, because "respect" isn't the first word that comes to mind when I think of Andrew & Bee, but I don't really have a single word to sum up their relationship. By the end of The Foxhole Court there are two people in the world Andrew cannot afford to lose. Neil is one of them; Bee is the other. I feel like this answer is gonna be split between how things are now and how my headcanon will always remember Betsy, so apologies in advance.

Bee will never be Cass to Andrew, but that's good — Cass was a dream paid for with tragedy and secrets, and the older Andrew gets the more he'll understand the toxicity of the entire situation. Seeing Cass at Aaron's trial kind of helps hammer that home but it'll take time for him to come to terms with it. Bee is the real deal, and although Andrew started as little more than her most interesting patient she quickly grew to adore her favorite problem child.

Mama Bee used to have a larger role in the books, but I had to cut out so many of her scenes and let Renee take on more of her personality & presence. (probably for the best because the last time she had a major role in book 3 Andrew nearly got annihilated and Bee had to put him back together again piece by jagged piece and it was bad, bad, bad) I even wrote three side stories with Bee and Andrew just because their relationship fascinated me, haha.

I don't remember if this last draft of Foxhole ever touched on Betsy's qualifications? Before she started working with Palmetto State, she spent years working with the justice system. She focused on incarcerated youths that everyone else thought were past the point of rehab, which means she has a lot of experience with addicts, volatile patients, and kids who tried on more than one occasion to do her some serious physical harm. She's kind of seen it all by the time Andrew's file ends up on her desk.

Andrew wasn't expecting much from a dumpy 43yo woman with laugh lines and an unending supply of chocolate, and he definitely didn't expect her to stick with him– he'd already gone through 12 different psychiatrists and more than one had said they weren't going to let him work with women ever again– but he learned early on that nothing he said or did could faze her. He still wasn't interested in opening up to her, but he was content to talk her ear off about anything and everything else that didn't actually matter. Honestly, he didn't have to talk about the important things, because Bee figured them out by the holes they left in his conversations. She noticed Day 1 that Andrew wouldn't talk about Aaron and she definitely noticed when Andrew stopped bringing Neil up in their sessions.

Bee gave Andrew her personal number at their first session, but he didn't start using it until after Kevin started as an assistant coach. Andrew & Kevin got into a fight one day that resulted in Andrew storming off the court and refusing to play for weeks. He called Betsy the same day just long enough to say "Should have left him to die, Bee!" - an unfriendly sentiment, but an undeniable turning point. Up until then Betsy hadn't had a name in Andrew's eyes; she'd been answering to "Hey You". (a shortened version of Hey You and the Moo Cows because of the shirt she wore to their first session)

When Andrew came off his medication he chose to keep seeing Bee. It was a strong suggestion by his legal counsel but the end decision was his, and he chose her knowing that the absence of his medicine was going to make things different. A part of him needed to see if she would look at him any differently without that smile on his face. If she'd misstepped that first session back he would never have returned to her office, and then who knows where Aaron & Andrew would be, but Bee can't misstep when it comes to Andrew.

Bee also has the dubious honor of being the only person Andrew ever yells at. The year after the events of The Raven King she has what looks like a heart attack at Reddin. Doctors have to give her stints to open up the blockages in her arteries, and Andrew spends the day sitting silent and still at her bedside. This isn't something he can fight off for her; this isn't something he can protect her from. It's a lesson in helplessness he wasn't expecting and never wanted. When Bee wakes up from the procedure and Neil asks her how she's doing she dopily says she is fine. Mistake.

"You are not fine and this is not fine and if you ever eat another fucking piece of chocolate again so long as you live I will fucking kill you."

Needless to say he ransacks both her office and her home and confiscates every scrap of junk food he can get his hands on. He also enlists Abby to write out a food and exercise regimen for Bee. Andrew accompanies Bee to the gym now and then, and he lets her sign him up for a 5K fun run with her.

When Andrew graduates and moves on, he and Bee keep in touch, phone calls and messaging and face-chat programs a la Facetime and Skype.