Chapter 2: Old Friends

"Dr. Stephens I know I haven't called you very often but you said if I was ever truly in need of help with a diagnosis I could always turn to you. Well I have a very interesting case that keeps popping up on my doorstep, literally. Although once you see the case file you may take that as more of a bad joke than a serious statement."

"So the hotshot student finally calls his one time teacher for help. You finally found a case that was too tough for you to solve huh? I guess Xavier has been bothering you again, huh? " The man on the other end of the phone chuckles remembering the last time he had been called.

"You are closer than you think Eric. It is his grandson. Same symptoms, same exact abilities. Ability to lie under hypnosis, recollection of self imposed false memories to cover up his own illness. Those eyes are the same too. I want you to sit in on our next session. I know you are busy and I remember what happened with Xavier. I will give you the full fee if you only show up. Is that doable?"

"Full fee? You really are desperate for my help aren't you? IF you are really that desperate then I want triple or we can call this conversation over." I really hope he says we are done. Xavier still scares me and he is drugged to the gills staring up at the light all night and day. Please let him say no.

"Done! Be here tomorrow afternoon at four. The session is at seven but there is a lot of information we have to go over, including the video tapes of the sessions I have had with him so far." Thank God I thought I was going to have to give him my first born to get him here.

"SHIT!" I'll be there at three. Since when did you start getting permission to put camera's in your session room. I didn't think that that was allowed without the patient's permission?"

"Well technically it isn't, but I just bury it in contract. Almost everyone overlooks it so I can get away with it legally. It makes it much easier to diagnose sometimes. Other times, however, when I watch them they just get worse and worse. This patient, Vincent, is one of those cases that make me cringe even on tape.

"Well, I have a patient in a few minutes Mort. I have to go. I will see you tomorrow. Until then just take a break from the boy's case and relax. You sound beat." I don't know why in the hell I started out so low I should have tried to get at least a month's fee out of him. We both know that neither one of us wants to see the boy if he is even remotely like his grandfather. Let's just hope that dead boy is wrong in his diagnosis. Just let him be wrong, please just let him be wrong. Bad thing is as much as we hate to admit it, he has never been wrong. He has almost a hundred percent diagnosis and treatment record. It is almost sickening, to think he is in a damn mall. Quite possibly the best psychiatric mind in the world and he is in a damn strip mall.

"Yeah I feel it. I will let you go, then. Remember drugs are only a step. It could just be a childhood trauma causing the problem. You still have Ms. Michaels at 4, right? I'm serious just try regression. IT can't hurt can it?"

"How do you remember my schedule so well?"

" Well she is the only patient that you haven't cured, but hasn't left you, even after 10 years. What other patient could it be? Besides she comes into my office at the end of the month to make sure you aren't implanting hypnotic suggestions in her head. She is very frightened of that, you know."

"Sure things teach see ya." HE hangs up before he can even hear Eric Stephens reply. He doesn't even like him, he was the worst shrink he had ever met. Eric would only use half the tools at his disposal in an effort to keep his patients coming back and as soon as they started to catch on he would finish the treatment and prove that all his work was worth the time. Ms. Michaels was one of those people that would have stayed on the titanic because it was supposed to be unsinkable. She would also be the person whose room broke off and floated up to the rescue boats proving that the claims were right, She was just that damn persistent.

She may not have scared him like Vincent did but she was annoying as hell. She would come in and ranting and raving about how much Eric had helped her get over her fear of opening up to strangers. All it took was six weeks of sitting there trying to make small talk with her. He cures her about as well as a good beating with a hammer would. He has been through her head more than even Eric has and he has only seen her for two months. After the first day he had known what was wrong with her. Absolutely. Fucking. Nothing. She was hit by her ex husband and after he left the fear of being a hypochondriac was gone. She could fear that she has every neurosis and physical malady she could get info on and a few that she made up for good measure. IF Eric does ever cure he it won't be because he helped her work through it. It will be because he either hypnotized her to believe that her husband would still hit her if she did it (highly unethical but he might do it. He has to be sick of her incessant babbling about her childhood by now I know I am) she was going to hurt herself by doing it, or give her something else to do when ever she felt she was getting sick maybe a twitch or something. Just something that would take the place of the symptoms of the illness. It is a sort of quick fix and isn't a 100% reliable but it would be the kinda fix that is right up his alley.)

"Shit! I need to get the file together for tomorrow. I hate this stupid case! If I had my choice I would have just thrown him in the asylum like I did with his grandfather. The old man never did anything but freak me out and his goddamned grandson has finally topped the old man in that category. If Eric can't help he is going to the loony bin I don't care anymore I am out of this business. If he goes to the loony bin I am going to retire I don't need to put up with anymore crazy idiots. I need to get out of this line of work. I'm too old for this crap."