Luna was starting to get the hang of things at Starbase Bravo, or so she thought. There were now a few appointments under her belt that had gone reasonably well and the increasing familiarity of her surroundings was starting to abate her ever-present anxiety a little. She didn’t really have any friends there yet, but that was par for the course for Luna. The counselor was a loner, and while she loved helping people at work, social relationships tended only to bring pain, and more often than not an uncomfortable reminder of the things about herself she didn’t like, or more on point, was ashamed of. It was a hard habit to break, but the walls were up and built of Tritanium. Books were much more comfortable. Books didn’t make fun of the reader. Not generally, anyway.

As she sat in the comfortable and cosy surroundings of her Counseling office in sector hotel turquoise, Luna earmarked that particular realisation of self-shame as something to unpack later on. Right now, she had work to do. She was expecting a patient any time and his record had been an interesting read. Initially a Cadet at Starfleet Academy, Elias Barrington had become a non-com after leaving Officer training due to an incident during an exercise. Luna couldn’t help but wonder if that’s what he would want to speak about, or if it would be something else. Either way his career path was unique.

Elias was precisely on time. That was to say he was precisely five minutes early. He had long ago adopted the stance that to be early was to be on time, and to be on time was actually to be late. Given that the counselor’s office door was shut, and he seemed to be the only one here, he took a seat in the waiting room, a padd held in his hands as he ran through his work list for the day after this appointment.

He was lost in lists for a couple of minutes, but then a soft chime interrupted him, and he closed the files he was working on, noting mentally that he needed to chase at least three deputy heads of minor departments for missing TC-014’s and stood. Crossing the corridor, he waited for the chime to announce to the counselor that he had arrived for his appointment.

“C…come in?” Luna called from the other side of the door. Seeing Elias enter she stood from her position behind her desk, moving into the center of the space. The Counselling office wasn’t huge, being just the right size to house two couches facing one-another with a rectangular coffee table in between and two chairs at each end of the coffee table with three feet or so of space around the whole setup. Beyond the seating was a small office space in the single room marked off by a desk propping up a computer terminal. To the left of the desk as one sat at it was a replicator. There were a couple of large plants in corners which Luna had now determined were definitely fake and had left alone, and the councillor had strewn around some throws and cushions to try to make patients more comfortable and the room more relaxing.

“Yeoman Barrington?” She asked.

The counsellor was tiny, looking lost in the middle of the small office. He only spared their surroundings a small look before focusing on her.

“I am indeed,” he said, allowing a small, rare smile to soften his somewhat harsh features as he offered his hand. “I take it you are Counsellor Black? It’s a pleasure to meet you, ma’am.”

She was young, he realised, and obviously very early in her career. That was fine… he’d been seeing counsellor’s for a very long time, courtesy of an old promise, so he knew the routine.

The counselor confirmed her identity, shook the offered hand and bade Elias sit. She then offered him a drink from the replicator before their session started, and all without stammering once. Not bad for a new acquaintance, or so she thought. Ma’am was a term she still wasn’t used to, such was her self esteem or lack thereof, to her the moniker seemed more suited to someone else more important.

Elias accepted a drink, a simple glass of water. Normally he didn’t, but then, normally they assigned him to a grizzled old counsellor, one who took one look at his long counselling file and realised he was a no-hoper. That kind of counsellor knew the steps of the dance between them and people like him and he didn’t give them any softness. No breaks. Not even the couple of seconds respite while he took a sip from a glass of water.

“So, Counsellor…” He sat back in the chair, not relaxed exactly, but with his body language more softened than normal. “I’m sure you’ve read my file. Where would you suggest we begin?”

Luna gave the question some thought. She had indeed read his file and it was long and interesting if perhaps somewhat unfortunate. Survivor’s guild had developed into obsessive compulsive behaviour and control issues. Luna resolved to start there. But first…

“Um, well um, I normally start just with new p… patients by mentioning my stammer, it’ll go away in time just um, ignore it? Oh and please try not to finish my sentences for me if I get stuck.” She added a slight smile to signal this was something difficult, but she was on top of it and, largely, she was. Luna was a changed person from when she first arrived on Earth. It was  sweet smile, too. She was pretty, but many found her submissive personality awkward at best and infuriating at worst. But Elias hadn’t come to talk about her.

“I see you um, your previous counsellor diagnosed you with O.C.D.,” she continued, reaching for the second glass of water she had replicated for herself. “H… how have your symptoms b.. been recently?”

“Understood.” He nodded. “And I will make sure not to do so.”

Tilting his head back slightly, he frowned as he thought. For some reason he wanted to be honest with her, which was new, so he had to think on that for a moment as well.