Our Experiment

11: Therapy

This, along with the nightmares, always haunted her. Don't think she didn't wonder if he had moved on. She feared that the most.

The nightmares became too much and prompted Mr. A to do his own research and he was recommended a well-known and highly praised therapist from a co-worker who said their wife and other family members had been going to for years. So, when Justice was 5 months along, she went to her first appointment to see Dr. Maxwell. A man also in his mid 40s but with a more relaxed yet still professional approach.

"Please, call me Danny." He said the first time he met Justice. He had stood as soon she entered the room and even offered to help the heavily pregnant teenager to the couch. Before he began asking questions or even began the session, he made sure that she was comfortable.

Justice found it much easier to open up to Danny. She felt much more comfortable, he had empathy for her and concerns for her worries. Even if he had never gone through what she had, you wouldn't be able to tell by how empathetic and logical he was. Justice left that first meeting feeling a sense of relief and that was the first night since the tragedy that she had slept without nightmares.

When she was 6 months pregnant, Justice's doctor placed her on bedrest. She spent most of her days watching TV, streaming videos online, eating and unfortunately left alone to her overthinking mind. Her mother and father kept her company often as well as her younger brother Eric. But for the most part she was alone.

Dr. Maxwell, concerned with how this would affect her mental health, began to email her daily as a morning check in and he visited her weekly to have their meetings in-home. He also gave her his work cell phone number and told her to call any time she needed him.

Danny was a huge help to Justice and with the support of her family and her therapist, she felt she would make it through all of this. It helped her stay mentally strong through everything.

Unfortunately, it did not completely omit the nightmares and her family was woken up on numerous occasions to her screaming in her sleep.

Every time it was her father that burst through the door and quickly grabbed her daughter and rocked and lulled her until she fell asleep.

* * *

PRESENT

The sound of the alarm rang obnoxiously throughout the room. Justice's eyes opened slowly and she groaned in annoyance before slapping the alarm clock into silence. Longing to succumb to more slumber, she rolled onto her side and closed her eyes again. Before she could grasp sleep again, Mr. A poked his head, eagerly through the door. "Justice?"

She responded groggily, "Hmm?"

"I heard your alarm clock. Are you getting up yet?"

"Yeah." she mumbled, her eyes still sealed shut.

"Well, when you get up, meet me downstairs. I need to talk to you."

"Okay." Justice mumbled into her pillow.

When her father was gone, she rolled over onto her back and stared up at the ceiling. She was so exhausted it took her a minute to process their brief conversation. Taking a glance at her clock and seeing that it was after 8am, she knew she better get up. It wasn't early enough to laze around.

Without a second thought, she rolled out of bed and headed out the door. Walking down the stairs, she wiped at her tired eyes as she lazily searched for her father. She found him sitting at the dining room table with a newspaper in hand and sipping from his coffee mug.

Pulling up a chair, she sat down across from her father and forced her body to sit up right and her eyes to stay open as her eyelids felt like lead. Mr. A looked up at her curiously. "What time did you go to bed, Justice?" he asked.