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Post by Kylie Thorburn on Sept 30, 2011 15:05:55 GMT -5
The last time they tried hypnosis, Kylie was too strong willed to go under. She was still trying to reason with herself the whole reason for the hypnosis. "If I go under, and you bring me back out, would you tell me what really happened?" She raised an eyebrow again. "Or would you just tell me everything went alright and not remind me what happened so I wouldn't attempt to remember or so I wouldn't worry about what is really hidden in there?"
She figured that he probably wouldn't tell her everything that happened. Kylie wanted to know, but then again she didn't. She sat up a little straighter. "Can, can we try it? Just to see what might be there?"
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Post by Dr. Walter Everett Burkhardt on Sept 30, 2011 21:53:01 GMT -5
"It's up to you," Walter replied. "Whatever is buried in there... it could be very bad. If it's causing you to have these fits and become violent... There is a chance that remembering it might bring that part of you to the surface. So you have to decide whether there are things that you might not want to know. If you think it might be too bad... you might want to keep it buried. But if you're sure you want to know, of course I will make sure you remember it."
Of course he was lying. He had no intentions of letting her remember anything, at least not until he was ready for her to be "activated." Then all it would take for her to remember completely would be to use her trigger.
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Post by Kylie Thorburn on Oct 1, 2011 7:03:35 GMT -5
She didn't really believe that he would remind her what she remembered. Why would he if it was something very bad?
Kylie studied Dr. Burkhardt's face for a moment, as if she were trying to read him. In a way, he seemed like a closed book with a padlock on it because of his calm presence. Sometimes, Kylie could pick up a few things about people, but she couldn't with the doctor in front of her, and she didn't know if they scared her or not.
She thought of her options for a moment. She didn't really trust this Dr. Burkhardt quite yet. Did she really want him knowing something dark about her already? Of course, he already knew everything, but Kylie didn't know that.
"I think I might wait a little bit," she finally said. "I have been doing good for the time being and I don't want to ruin that. Besides, I don't know anything about you Dr. Burkhardt, other than you're a man who sits behind a desk and listens to people who could very well be going off the deep end."
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Post by Dr. Walter Everett Burkhardt on Oct 1, 2011 17:26:16 GMT -5
Once again, Walter smothered a smile. He expected as much from Kylie. In fact, he would have been positively disappointed in her if she did trust him so quickly. He had trained them all not to trust so easily. Trust was a luxury in this world, and very few people earned it. That was just one of the many reasons Siobhan frustrated him, becauise she was often too quick to trust.
"I understand completely," he said smoothly. "You've only just met me, and I can hardly expect you to trust me so soon. You've been seeing Dr. Cardenas for quite some time, and you built up a relationship with her. It will take some time for us to build our own relationship. All I can ask is that you give me a chance. Can you do that?"
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Post by Kylie Thorburn on Oct 2, 2011 17:05:16 GMT -5
Kylie thought that Dr. Burkhardt's smoothness might end up annoying her. He seemed really calm and granted there wasn't anything he should be not calm about, but there was just something that she couldn't put her finger on. On the other hand, however, he seemed like a person she could talk to with that calm personality. She didn't want to trust him, not yet, it was going to take a little bit. She was going to have to test him a little.
"I might be able to," she said as she studied him once again. Dr. Burkhardt put on a front and Kylie couldn't read him. "In order for this thing to work, however, I have to get to know you a little bit."
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Post by Dr. Walter Everett Burkhardt on Oct 4, 2011 14:28:39 GMT -5
One thing Walter hated above all else was when people tried to get him to talk about himself. He'd actually very nearly killed someone once for asking too many questions. But this situation was different. He was in control here, and he was confident that he could keep her from getting too close. After all, no one ever said he had to answer honestly. Lies were much easier to manage.
"But of course," he answered, unflappable as ever. "What do you want to know?"
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Post by Kylie Thorburn on Oct 5, 2011 14:44:09 GMT -5
For a split second, Kylie half expected Dr. Burkhardt to attempt to say something that she didn't have to really worry about getting to know him because this was about her. She had to admit she was slightly surprised that he agreed, but didn't show it.
"I think it's only fair I find out a little about you. How else am I going to possibly trust you?" She glanced on the wall near his desk and didn't see any pictures of family or anything like that. Looking back to him, she tilted her head to the side. "What made you want to become a psychiatrist Dr. Burkhardt?"
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Post by Dr. Walter Everett Burkhardt on Oct 5, 2011 22:46:29 GMT -5
Walter's expression was mild and slightly amused. It didn't surprise him that Kylie would be so guarded. What did surprise him was that she actually expected him to answer her questions honestly. The truth was, she couldn't trust him, and she shouldn't. But he had to make her think she could.
"Did you ask questions like this of Dr. Cardenas?" he asked, raising an eyebrow at her. "I suppose it was because people fascinate me. Everyone is just a little bit different, and it's interesting to work through each person's individul problems and figure out how to help them."
It was actually partially true. It was only the "help" part that was a lie. He didn't want to help them, not really. Oh, he did have some legitimate patients, and maybe he did help them some. But he was actually more interested in probing the complexities of people's minds.
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Post by Kylie Thorburn on Oct 5, 2011 23:09:45 GMT -5
"Possibly," she said raising her eyebrow back at him. "Besides, she was female, and I'm female. Females talk a lot better to each other than a female does to a male." Kylie was going to take her time with trusting the man sitting in the chair. One reason it was probably going to take her awhile to get to trust Walter was he replaced Dr. Cardenas. Kylie still found it suspicious that her previous psychiatrist, one that she thought she could trust with everything, just left her. She had trusted people twice and it only led to disappearances.
"Interesting answer Dr. Burkhardt," she said with a slight tone of amusement. "What about your family? Do you have any?"
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Post by Dr. Walter Everett Burkhardt on Oct 6, 2011 0:27:43 GMT -5
So Kylie, the good little soldier, as he'd called her, had learned to push back a little. That was interesting... he rather liked it. He found it amusing the way she arched her eyebrow right back at him, as if challenging him. Yes... it was very interesting indeed.
He looked almost bored as she asked him about family. No, he'd never seen any need for a family. He wasn't capable of love, after all, so if he had a family, it would just be for appearances. Walter didn't think the pretense was worth the trouble.
"No... no family," he replied. "I guess you could say I'm married to my work."
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Post by Kylie Thorburn on Oct 8, 2011 10:31:45 GMT -5
There was one thing that they had in common. Of course, Kylie did have the woman she did consider her mother, but they never really talked that much anymore. After she told Kylie to go out on her own and survive, she had done just that and it had been several years since she had seen her, so in a way it was sort of like Kylie didn't have a family.
"I suppose you'd have to be pretty much married to your work if you make it your job to talk to people who could possibly be going off the deep end. I can understand that." She looked around the office and didn't really see too many personalized items. "What do you do outside of work? Sure, you do work all the time, but there has to be something else you like to do."
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Post by Dr. Walter Everett Burkhardt on Oct 8, 2011 22:41:06 GMT -5
Now Walter was starting to get impatient. It was one thing to humor her a little bit, but he wasn't exactly in the mood to make up some stupid hobbies or something just to placate her.
So he dodged the question. "Is that what you think about yourself?" he asked, raising an eyebrow at her. "That you're going off the deep end? Many of my patients just need someone to talk to. You seem more like that type to me. Yes, I do treat some of the patients in this hospital as well, and many of them are far beyond my reach. But walk-in patients like yourself... I'd hardly think you were going off the deep end."
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Post by Kylie Thorburn on Oct 9, 2011 1:33:46 GMT -5
"Never said I was going off the deep end Dr. Burkhardt," she said raising her eyebrow again in a challenging way. "I'm just saying there are a lot of people that could be in worse situations than you really figure out and you help save them from that. For instance, just talking with someone and listening could save a person's life. There's more going on in there than even you know."
Kylie did catch that he stopped answering her questions and turned it back on her. "I used to think I was before I gathered my wits back together. Now, I'm perfectly fine. The only reason I come here is to make sure I'm still taking the little steps to make sure that whole mess doesn't happen again."
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Post by Dr. Walter Everett Burkhardt on Oct 9, 2011 23:48:09 GMT -5
"Very wise of you," Walter replied, nodding his approval. "You do seem to be very well adjusted, all things considered."
He was honestly enjoying this more than he should have. All he had to do was say her trigger and watch her go... but it was more fun to probe her personality a little more. She was feisty, that was for sure. She'd always been strong, and he was pleased to see that she hadn't changed.
"Have you ever noticed any signs... something you heard or something you felt, before you had one of your 'attacks?' Either a symptom that let you know it was coming on, or maybe something that might have set you off? I'm wondering if these attacks have anything in common."
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Post by Kylie Thorburn on Oct 10, 2011 17:17:18 GMT -5
Kylie didn't really like the fact that they were getting back around to her attacks. She didn't really like to talk about them. In fact, when she saw Dr. Cardenas, she understood and they would talk about other things. This time however, her doctor was male. Kylie was pretty sure he wouldn't want to hear about how cute some guy was or anything feminine like.
"I don't remember," she said quickly and shortly. Of course she remembered, but she didn't want to. She didn't want to mention it in fear of lashing out. "I don't think we're close enough yet for me to remember that much yet Dr. Burkhardt."
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Post by Dr. Walter Everett Burkhardt on Oct 11, 2011 22:30:01 GMT -5
Walter could tell by her quick response that she most certainly did remember, she just didn't want to talk about it. Of course, whenever a patient didn't want to talk about something, he found it was the one thing that they really needed to talk about. If he actually intended to help her, he would focus on that, force her to deal with it and get past it. Of course, he wasn't actually going to help her at all. But it suited his purposes to press the issue... and he could hide behind a claim that it was what he needed to do in order to help her.
Sometimes, Walter really loved his job.
"I realize that you don't know me very well yet, but I find that when a patient doesn't want to talk about something, that's because they really need to talk about it. I'm not going to push you--yet--but I think this is something we're going to have to talk about so that I can help you get past it. When something is blocked up inside of you, you can't fully heal until you learn to let it go."
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Post by Kylie Thorburn on Oct 12, 2011 10:37:49 GMT -5
"But when that thing that is blocked inside of you that could very well cause you to hurt or someone, or even possibly kill someone, then that is something that you might want to keep blocked in." She had a feeling that Walter was going to subtly push her in the direction of telling him what could set her off. Kylie wasn't one hundred percent sure that it would set her off again, but it did twice already and she was pretty sure that if she heard it again it would happen again.
"Besides, if I tell you what it was, it could very well set everything off again and I don't want to go through any of that again, especially after being normal for awhile now." If Kylie only knew that he already knew everything about her, she would leave right now and never return to England. "If you're lucky and I do end up trusting you, I might tell you what it was."
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Post by Dr. Walter Everett Burkhardt on Oct 12, 2011 22:38:12 GMT -5
If Kylie was actually aware of her trigger, Walter needed to know about it. He was completely confident that Siobhan had no idea what her trigger was, or that she even had one at all. Each of her "attacks," including her most recent one, had all involved other factors as well that could have caused her to lose it. So she never really seemed to put it together that it was that song, those words that set her off. It was best that she not remember, because if she figured it out, she might find ways to avoid it, to protect herself against it.
So if Kylie knew her trigger, Walter needed to find a way to erase that knowledge from her mind. But first, he needed to be sure she really knew it. But it was the first session... it was probably not a good idea to push her too soon. Otherwise there might not be a second session.
"Fair enough," he replied agreeably. "So, what do you want to talk about today? It's your session. You get to pick the topic."
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Post by Kylie Thorburn on Oct 13, 2011 20:52:15 GMT -5
Kylie had every right to be careful around Walter. Something in her mind told her to never trust the man sitting in the chair, but then again something else told her to trust him. There was never this sort of conflict in her mind before.
She shrugged as he asked her about what she wanted to talk about today. "For once, I have no idea. Dr. Cardenas and I usually talked about girly things, but I can't really do that with you, now can I?" Kylie looked up to him with a raised eyebrow. "However, if we are going to somehow end up trusting each other, and you don't want to read my file, there must be something that you want to know. Something about my past? If I've ever broke the law? Anything? If you don't talk about that, then maybe we could also discuss how this trust could be gained between us."
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Post by Dr. Walter Everett Burkhardt on Oct 13, 2011 22:33:42 GMT -5
"Girly things?" he repeated, amused. "What, like PMS? Or what guys you think are cute? Honestly, if you want to talk about those things, I have no problem with that. I have a patient who tells me all about her love life... including all the men she's slept with. In detail. Kylie, it's your session. I want you to feel comfortable, so you can tell me anything you would tell Dr. Cardenas. Pretend I'm not a man, if that helps. I could speak in a high-pitched voice, if you want..."
He was teasing her now, gently, and he gave her his best facsimile of a warm smile. "But seriously, I want you to feel that you are in control of your session, and not me. I think that's the best way to build trust... to let you talk about whatever you want to."
Oh, he was laying it on thick now. He was possibly pushing it a little too far in the other direction, but it was important that Kylie trust him. He didn't want her to try and switch to Dr. Richmond or one of the other staff doctors.
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