Author's note: So, this was supposed to be posted yesterday, but I honestly couldn't get any work done. With that, read, review, and enjoy!

Today is the day. After three and a half weeks of looking, calling, and talking, they finally found a psychologist that matches all their criteria. Her name is Maria, and she's worked with several mutant populations; that words is slowly becoming more acceptable, even if it's only in certain circles. Steve and Chief ask her question after question, Rita grills her, and Larry and Cliff make sure that if she harms the kids then there will be hell to pay. The only ones still not sold on the idea are Gar and Terra. That had been an even longer conversation.

"You said we weren't going to see another doctor!" Terra cries. She's not shaking, which is an improvement, but her body language is screaming that she's dangerously close to an attack. Gar is next to her, glaring at them all, and that hurts them the most, that he views this as a betrayal.

You said Chief was treating us. The man in the wheelchair winces, and then he draws back when he sees that touching the boy isn't wanted at the moment.

"You're right. I am treating you, Gar, but I can't help you with the emotional and mental trauma."

Steve knows that the words hurt Chief more than he'd be willing to admit. It had taken a long time for the kids to let him do his job, even longer before they started to willingly provide information on when they were hurt or didn't feel well. He doesn't want to think about how far this will set them back.

"You said that we were getting better." Terra whispers. Her voice shakes and Gar looks at her in concern. When Cliff goes to comfort her, Gar moves his hand away.

"Terra, this doctor can help you more than I can."

How? You never said you couldn't help us. Now you're saying that you can't. Gar's fingers move furiously, the only indication of how angry his is. Terra is curled into him, and after he batted Cliff away, none of them have made a move to touch them. Steve wants nothing more than to drop this conversation, but it's important, and they need to get their kids all the help they can.

"Gar, this doctor can help you with the anxiety and panic attacks. Maybe even help you with the nightmares. Chief can help you with the physical pain, not mental."

You said they were under control. And everyone has nightmares. His boy, and yes, they had always been a bit possessive of the kids, had expressive eyes that stared into your soul.

"Everyone had nightmares, you're right. But you never talk about them, and maybe if you did it would make them less scary." Steve knelt down in front of Gar, which was hard to do with the coffee table in the way. "She could give you tips on how to work through an attack. Maybe, when you're older, she can discuss more adult ways to help cope with them."

"We have to keep seeing her?" Terra hissed. And, ok, Steve didn't know how this conversation had gone wrong so fast. Larry, finally deciding that enough was enough, walked over so he was in front of the kids.

"Look, this isn't meant to hurt you. This lady has a job that is designed to help you. So, you're gonna go to the first appointment. If you don't like it, we can stop. But, if you do end up liking it, we'll stick with it." Larry waited until they were both looking at him again. "If you want, we can ask her if one of us can go in with you."

The argument went on for a little longer, until they reached the agreement that one of them would be going in with them. The current situation was who had that privilege; the woman, Maria, said she wanted to talk to the kids separately. Even today, as they were driving to a secure location, they didn't know who was going to be sitting through this hour. Terra was still angry, and refused to answer any of their questions. Gar, thankfully, wasn't as mad. He only responded to Cliff, who they assumed would be his pick.

There wasn't anyone in the waiting room, and Maria met them from behind the desk.

"Good morning!" She chirped. "I hope the drive wasn't too long for you? I know you wanted a secure place, and this was the closest one." She said apologetically. Steve waved her off.

"It was no trouble. We've traveled further in the past." He gestured to the kids. "This is Gar." Maria offered a tiny wave, but other than peeked out from Cliff's leg, he didn't acknowledge her. "And, this is Terra." The girl glared and pointedly looked away from Maria.

Rita offered a sympathetic smile to Maria. The woman didn't seem bothered. She grabbed some papers and handed them off to Steve.

"I know we talked about seeing them in separate sessions. I think that since this is their first time, seeing them together might be easier. You mentioned how they would want someone in the room, right?" Maria asked. Cliff raised a hand.

"That'd be me. It was the only way we could get them to agree."

"We're right here, you know." Terra grumbled. The girl was seeing this a form of mutiny. She had tried her best to get out of coming, from acting sick to actually hiding. Thankfully Gar hadn't acted out so hard, merely ignoring them for the more part. That wasn't much better.

"Hey, we talked about this." Larry reminded her. "Now, Miss Maria isn't here to hurt you. She wants to help, and the only way she can do that is if you work with her, not against her." Cliff took a hand from each kid and followed Maria about the desk and into of the side rooms. She came back out to hand Steve some more forms.

"I know you probably don't have all the information, such as family history, but anything you can provide would be go." Maria said. "Since they're minors, I'll share what I learn with you. If there are any glaring problems, then you'll be immediately notified."

"What kind of problems?" Larry questioned. Maria didn't flinch.

"Any self-harm indicators, or suicidal tendencies. I wish I could say that these aren't common with trauma cases, but that's what comes up." She passed Steve a pen from the desk. "I probably won't get much from them since it's their first time. The best we can do it be patient and understanding."

Rita paled when Maria talked about the potential of suicide and self-harm; Larry immediately reassured her. When there weren't any more questions, at the moment, Maria left them to go start the session. With nothing to do other than wait, the three of them picked a chair and settled it. Larry flipped idly through an old magazine, Rita alternated between the clock and the door, Steve went through and filled out the forms. The silence seemed to last forever. Several times, one of them would get up and try to see if there was anything coming behind the door, but there was nothing.

X

Gar knew he could probably leave the room if he wanted. Cliff had failed to shut the door all the way, and while he knew that the others were in the waiting room, Gar was confident that he could slip by them. Terra was sitting beside him on the couch, glaring at the chair where Miss Maria would sit, ignoring all attempts by Cliff to get her to talk.

"Alright, now that the adults are satisfied, let's get started." Miss Maria announced. She shut the door and sat down, smiling at them. Terra looked away.

"Now, I know that Steve mentioned that this might be a little scary for you." She began.

"Are you going to make us tell you everything?" Terra asked, her voice so full of hate that even Gar flinched. Miss Maria didn't seem fazed; if anything, she looked sad.

"No, Terra, I'm not going to force you to tell me anything. If you feel like it, you can sit here the entire hour and just glared at me." She brushed her hair back. "This is a safe space for you to talk about anything you want to. It doesn't have to be about what happened."

Terra didn't look convinced. Cliff held back a cry of frustration. None of them could force the kids to talk about this, but sooner or later, they would need to. Terra's panic attack had started to increase in frequency and that last few nightmares Gar had was bad enough that either Cliff or Larry had spent the night by his side.

Then what will we talk about? Gar signed. Miss Maria frowned and Cliff rubbed his shoulder.

"He wants to know what you'll talk about if they aren't ready." He translated. Curling up a bit, he wished he still had his voice. Chief had said that it was unlikely he would ever recover from the surgery, so he had to make do with sign language. It was fun, for the most part, until he ran into someone who didn't understand it. Miss Maria smiled at him.

"We can talk about anything. It could be about how you like living with the Doom Patrol, or something you enjoy doing." Terra relaxed a bit from her spot. "I always tell my clients that the first session isn't meant to talk about the big things. I usually have them talk to be about themselves, or the things they enjoy."

"So, if I liked pottery, we could talk about pottery?" Terra asked.

"Do you like pottery, Terra?"

"No."

"What do you think to do then?" She held Terra's gaze.

"I like playing games from Cliff and Gar." Terra looked down at her hands. "Or helping Rita in the kitchen. Sometimes Chief lets me help with the filing."

"That sounds cool. What kind of games do you play?" And just like that, everyone was talking. Gar didn't even realize that the hour was done.

"It was nice to meet you." Miss Maria said. "Do you think you might want to come in again?"

Terra looked at him. It was easy to talk without actually speaking, and Cliff and Miss Maria waited patiently.

"I think we could meet again." Terra said stiffly. It wasn't a full approval, but she wasn't yelling this time. They were led out of the room. Rita swooped in, pulling them both into a hug.

"Are you ok? Did it go well?" She asked quickly. Deciding that he was done with listening to the grown-ups talk. He wrapped his arms around her waist and pressed his face into her side. Rita instantly curled an arm around his shoulders.

"They both did well." She took the forms from Steve. "I asked them if they felt comfortable coming in for another session, and they said yes." There was more talk about paper work, which was boring, and then Cliff and Larry were leading them outside.

"Is it always going to be like that?" Terra asked.

"Like what?" Cliff helped her buckle in.

"With her asking all those questions."

"Maybe. It's her job to find out what's bothering you and how to fix it." Larry told her.

She seemed nice. Stop being rude about her. Gar said to her. Terra frowned.

"She was asking about everything. It was weird."

Larry just said that's her job. At least she isn't demanding we tell her. He still got nervous when someone asked him lots of questions. Steve said it would get better with time; the problem was that Gar wasn't all that patient.

"Ok, how about you two discuss it with Larry about what we're going to do about lunch. I'll go fetch the parents." Gar frowned as Cliff left their group. Rita and Steve weren't his parents, and they certainly weren't Terra's either.

His frown remained there for the rest of the drive home. When they got back to manor, he didn't follow them into the ground floor, choosing to go to the room he and Terra shared. He didn't like the assume that just because they were taking care of them that they could step in as parents. Not guardians, Galtry had been awful at that, but beyond that Gar was sure that he didn't want anyone else to fill in that role. His parents were the best, and he was angry that someone had decided to come in and take their place.

His mood didn't improve. There was a window ledge in the room, one that gave a great view of the west side of the house, and he liked to study the landscape outside. When Cliff came to take him to lunch, he told him he wasn't hungry. After a couple of tries, Cliff let the issue go, and told him that if he changed his mind that he could join them, and that his lunch would be put aside for later. Gar wrapped his arms around his legs and stared outside. He didn't want to be angry at the adults.

It was dark by the time Cliff came back. Frowning, the man walked over and sat down on the other side of the bench.

"You feeling ok, bud?" Cliff sounded worried. Not in the mood to sign, or really knowing how to articulate what he was feeling, Gar simply shrugged.

"Terra stumbled on some old parts in the garage. She says we should try to make something out of it; I could put together some bikes for you two. Get you running around outside." Gar didn't respond. "Kiddo, what's going on? Did something happen? Did you have an attack?"

Gar shook his head. Leaning against the window frame, Gar avoided looking at Cliff. He didn't want to talk, or do anything. There was movement on the other end of the bench, and then he was being pulled into Cliff's arms. It was hard for all the metal to fit on the small seat, but Gar didn't feel trapped; he just felt safe.

"Is today just a bad day?" He asked gently. Gar's fingers traced the seams where the metal had been welded. He nodded his head one more time. Cliff curled up around him, sometimes giving him short hugs.

At some point he drifted into a light sleep. He kept his eyes closed, and felt Cliff move when the door opened.

"I figured you ran off here." Larry said.

"Keep your voice down." Cliff whispered. A hand rubbed the back of his head, smoothing the hair down. "I'm staying here with him."

"I wasn't going to suggest that you leave. I just like keeping tabs on everyone." There were footsteps, and Gar thought Larry was leaving, but he came back and then something soft was draped over him. "Is he ok? Terra's worried."

"My guess is that it's just a bad day." That made him all the more frustrated. He didn't want to tell them the real reason why he was upset, and this was the first time that he wasn't actively telling anyone why he felt bad.

"Is it because of the session? I know Maria said she didn't want to get into the heavy stuff right off the bat-"

"No, I think it might have got him thinking. Give a heads up to the others. Crowding him probably isn't the best idea."

"Terra's going to come right away."

"Let her. She knows him better than us, Larry."

Terra wouldn't know about this. He hadn't told her much about his parents, other than the obvious fact of them not being here, or how they died. He didn't like talking about it. Cliff adjusted him and his face ended up pressed against a metal shoulder. Larger hands played with his hair. He'd heard some of them talking, usually when him and Terra were supposed to asleep, about diagnosing them. Some of the terms he didn't understand, like something called PTSD, but depression and denial seemed to be thrown around a lot. Every time they talked about it, Rita cried.

Those times he hated. Rita didn't force them to talk about it. Terra had been asked more than him, but whenever that happened, she reacted so poorly to it. Perhaps that was why they were pushing the whole therapy idea. When he finally decided to open his eyes, Larry was gone, and the room was dark. Someone had turned on the lamp in the corner of the room. Cliff leaned down to press a kiss to his head.

"Feeling a little better?" He asked softly. This time, he signed yes. Cliff looked relieved at that. "Good, you hungry, little man?"

Not really, but if he said no again he knew that there would be more people involved. Chief was insistent on getting them on a regular eating schedule, and he tended to get angry when something threw off their eating habits. He nodded, and Cliff stood up. Instead of setting him down, like Gar figured he would do, Cliff put the blankets down and continued to hold him. Gar wasn't surprised; since accepting more human contact, Cliff had been scooping him up for hugs or piggy back rides. He tapped out patterns on the metal plates as they walked forward.

Rita and Chief were there when they walked in. Terra, he found out later, was enlisting Larry on some adventure, and Steve had to make some phone calls. Squirming out of Cliff's arms, he took up his usual seat, and allowed Cliff to fuss over him. He could feel Rita's eyes on him, but he didn't look at her. That night, when Terra was wide awake next to him, she forced him to talk about it.

"Steve said to give you space."

I like being with you. I just didn't feel like talking.

"They want us to talk a lot, don't they?"

Gar couldn't help but agree.