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From:

killingtool

He nods.

It's not dangerous. I just don't need to see.

From:

heyboss

Sheehan nods and gives him a grim smile before he opens the door. His stomach drops. The sight of it, the horrible knowledge that this was a place for a child, it hits him in all the wrong places and, for a moment, he's certain he's going to be sick. It's filthy, dilapidated, a deliberate attempt at cruelty by parents who had means but no will.

"That is not fit for you, Max. I - I have a proposal for you, okay?"

But he straightens up and comes back to Max, all calm.

From:

killingtool

Max, down the hall, just nods.

From:

heyboss

He joins him in a few steps. "Why don't we brainstorm a space together? Something just for you?"

From:

killingtool

The answer to this is just

????

Held up for him.

From:

heyboss

Sheehan tilts his head. "Do you want a place just for you?" he wonders. "I love having you in that cabin and you can continue to use it, though."

From:

killingtool

Something about it makes him uneasy. It's too much. It feels like a second shoe will drop. It feels like a trap. It feels too good to be true, too comfortable. He's scared of being too comfortable. Having Sheehan's cabin still be Sheehan's, so he has to be careful with it and it's not really his... that's fine. But his own place.

His own place that used to be that place.

What if it changed back?

What if the Admiral decided he shouldn't have nice thing?

What if he isn't doing good enough and the Admiral decides he has to push him to do better and he's strapped down again?

Eyes a little wide with fear, he shakes his head.

From:

heyboss

Sheehan nods. Easy. "That's just fine. You've got the cabin you're in now."

He takes a drink. "Come on. Want to keep going down? Just take a walk before we go back?"

From:

killingtool

That's a much easier question. He nods and he'll take a sip of his own tea. It's nice now, just warm instead of hot. Having warm beverages has been eye-opening. It makes his throat hurt less from the dry.

From:

heyboss

Sheehan nods and takes him back to the steps, leading him to the third floor. "Is there anything that you need? Anything different in the cabin you're in now? More clothes, bigger bed?"

From:

killingtool

Huh.

Beds get bigger?

He thought they only got bigger when it was for two people. And he hadn't slept in his parent's bed. He'd just slept on the couch, back then.

From:

heyboss

He smiles. "Yes, Max. They get bigger. They can be as big as you want them to be. And if it isn't comfortable, then you'll need a better one."

From:

killingtool

Sheehan, you have boggled him. 'Comfortable'? What?

I'll think about it.

From:

heyboss

"That's all I ask," he says, inclining his head. "As long as you have everything you need, I think I'm happy."

From:

killingtool

That makes him frown and start typing in a little.

Aren't you supposed to fix me? Doesn't that mean you gotta punish me for what I done?

From:

heyboss

"Punish you?"

He shakes his head. "No, Max. This is not about punishment. If punishment like you know worked, you'd have a much different life. We all would, I think."

From:

killingtool

Then what?

What is this?

Why does he want him to have what he needs?

You can't raise me up right, Doc. It already happened. I'm already a monster.

From:

heyboss

"That's alright," he says as they walk and he means it. "I'm not here to raise you. I'm here to help you counteract the raising you were given."

From:

killingtool

Wait, what?

How's that work?

From:

heyboss

He looks over and shrugs. "It depends on you. We'll work on you learning new ways of doing things. New values about yourself. We're going to take everything you were taught about yourself and how the world works and we're going to challenge it. And then you'll learn how to challenge your views on your own until you're able to do this independently."

From:

killingtool

That all sounds so simple. It can't be that simple. People can't change that much. They don't change that much.

But he won't say that.

How'd you learn all that?

From:

heyboss

That gets a sheepish chuckle. He hadn't really explained. "I'm a psychiatrist," he explains. "A doctor for the mind."

From:

killingtool

That makes him stop.

I ain't crazy.

From:

heyboss

Sheehan looks back at him. "No one said you were, Max. But you've been touched by trauma, by hard things in your life. That changed the way you saw the world and how you react to it."