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“He in the living room?” Doctor Mellory Phillips asked as she entered the big house. The wife nodded, obviously still in shock and pointed a finger to a door on the right.

“He hasn’t moved in over an hour,” she said, her voice trembling slightly.

Doctor Phillips didn’t usually do house visits, but since Alexander McLean had sounded fairly concerned on the phone and ensured her that this was an emergency, she thought she’d make an exception. She’d managed to get most of the story out of Alex about what happened and had had to do her best not to scowl him. She’d been able to predict this was what was going to happen if Brian watched those videos in an uncontrolled setting. It was way too much, way too soon and above all, it was without any professional supervision.

Mellory hesitated only a little before opening the door. The brown Border collie that was usually asleep in her office during their sessions was now right up in her face. The young dog seemed tense and was unwilling to let her go further into the room. It seemed her owner’s state affected his dog as well and Mellory smiled calmly, getting to her knees to seem smaller and less threatening.

“Listen,” she said softly to the dog, who was studying her unsurely, “I know you’re just trying to protect him, and that’s wonderful. Bonnie, was it?”

Bonnie cocked her head to the side when Mellory spoke her name, but still didn’t move out of the way. Mellory was well aware that Brian could hear her from his spot on the sofa, but was careful not to address him directly. Instead she slowly reached out a hand and held it in front of Bonnie’s face to sniff. Bonnie came closer to her and her nose wandered over Mellory’s hand. With a small smile, Mellory reached out and petted the dog’s head. “There you go, you’re a good dog, Bonnie.”

Bonnie sat down and looked at her questioningly, “We gotta fix him, you and I,” was what she seemed to want to say.

Mellory nodded swiftly, and stood up, “We’ll take good care of him, Bonnie,” she said lightly. As she expected, Bonnie did not protest when Mellory moved passed her and got closer to the couch. She’d seen Brian in a horrible state before, worse than this, actually. She’d seen him lash out at nurses and doctors and had seen him tremble with fear whenever somebody even came close to him.

He didn’t do that now.

He seemed to just have tuned out for a bit. Mellory suspected it was to process what he’d seen on the videos. He didn’t acknowledge her presence, or his dog’s and just stared with unfocused eyes ahead of him, blinking sluggishly every now and then. Leighanne had said he’d taken his medication this morning, so that was good, but Mellory doubted that he’d remembered to take it tonight. He was in shock.

Understandable.

Mellory Phillips had seen the videos. She’d had to. Most of them were blurry and unfocused and not much could be discerned when you watched them. But as the dates of the videos progressed, so did the quality. She’d been able to get through them all, but not without pausing them a few times. They were sickening and disgusting and some of the most disturbing things she’d ever watched. She’d imagined that it was probably worse for his friends, the ones that the videos had been intended for.

And now Brian had seen them too.

Brian, whose mind had purposely blocked out most of the experiences on the video tapes, who had had only vague recollections of his time spent in the basement in Minnesota, whose disturbed memories could only be accessed through intensive hypno therapy, which Mellory was very careful not to take too far.

And now he’d seen the videos.

Damnit.

“Brian, can you hear me?” She asked calmly, taking her place in one of the chairs across from him, not much unlike she’d do, were they in her office. “It’s alright, just take your time.”

Like she expected, he didn’t move, his eyes didn’t even respond to her voice. Mellory was afraid that this was something that he had to deal with by himself and she was harshly reminded of one of her other human-traffic patients, who’d been in a catatonic state for almost three years now.

“Would you like to talk about the videos?” Mellory asked after fifteen minutes and saw him move just a little bit. A flash of hurt went through his eyes as he looked up at her. He hesitated for a second, then shook his head and Mellory breathed in relief, glad to have him responsive again.

“Your dog’s very in tune with you,” Mellory smiled slightly, giving Bonnie a side glance, “I believe she’d do anything for you.”

“Bonnie’s a good dog,” Brian said slowly and Bonnie wagged her tail slightly at the mention of her name and being a good dog.

“I can tell she is,” Mellory said friendly, “How old is she now?”

“Almost two,” Brian said, his face softening a bit when he talked about his dog.

“Very well,” Mellory said, “I bet you were shocked when she bit Nick, weren’t you?”

Brian frowned and turned his gaze towards his dog slowly, “Did she bite Nick?”

“Yes, Alex told me she did,” Mellory said calmly.

Brian shook his head in confusion, “No. I would know.”

“It’s okay,” Mellory assured him, “Do you remember why you were at Alex’ house?”

Brian’s frown grew deeper, doubtlessly recalling that afternoon, “I was... we were...” he said, his breathing speeding up and the panic evident in his voice.

“It’s alright, we can just take this slow,” Mellory said in a soothing tone. Brian’s distress was unsurprising, “Just take a deep breath.”

Brian obeyed meekly, his eyes full of trust and for the first time since she’d seen him, he seemed younger than his 27 years. He looked at her expectantly, but didn’t say anything.

“Is Thomas here with us at the moment?” Mellory asked.

Brian’s eyes shifted to a spot next to her, and he nodded stiffly, shrinking back slightly on the couch. “He’s always here,” he said quietly.

Mellory nodded back, “I see; was he there when you were watching those videos?”

Brian visibly recoiled and shook his head, “No,” he whispered, almost inaudibly.

“Nick and AJ were there, weren’t they?” Mellory said, trying to get the picture as clear as possible.

Brian seemed to think about that for a moment, “I don’t remember,” he said with a shrug.

“Do you remember what the videos were about?” Mellory asked carefully, hoping she hadn’t just pushed him into a corner.

Brian’s jaw stiffened and his gaze hardened, “I don’t think so.”

He was lying, Mellory could tell. She leaned forward a bit, “Did they make you remember?”

He looked straight at her and shook his head, “It seemed so unreal,” he said, “Like it was someone else. I... I couldn’t really see anything.” Mellory nodded, a bit relieved. It seemed like he hadn’t gotten to the really disturbing stuff in the later videos before Nick and AJ had interfered.

“I remember his voice though,” Brian whispered and the words almost seemed to physically hurt him. “I can hear it talking over and over and over. And I can’t shut it down. What am I supposed to do?”

Mellory’s heart ached for him as he stared at her helplessly, “It’s your mind playing a trick on you, Brian,” was all that she could say and he scoffed, disheartened.

“I’m really screwed up, aren’t I?” he asked.

“The fact that you are willing to talk about this is a very good sign,” Mellory assured him. “It’s not too late for anything.”

“I don’t want to remember,” he said fearfully, “but I feel like I can’t stop it. There’s these things, these little moments... I just... I can’t stop it.”

“That’s completely normal,” Mellory said quickly, “This is the way your mind is trying to cope with what happened, just a little bit at a time. But I would advise you to not watch anymore of those videos for a while. Because they can trigger all sorts of nasty reactions.”

Brian nodded, “I don’t know what I was thinking. I was just so angry that they’d kept this from me.”

Mellory understood; although she was the one that had told the group to keep the videos hidden from Brian’s knowledge. In fact, she’d advised them to keep all of technical and legal information about the kidnapping from Brian’s knowledge. The story needed to be told in a controlled and careful setting, but today she found out that she couldn’t influence all of it.

His wife was still waiting outside when Mellory came out of the room two hours later. She looked at her questioningly and Mellory nodded reassuringly. A wave of relief seemed to wash over Leighanne’s face.

“Keep a good eye on him though,” Mellory told her and she nodded.

“Of course I will,” she said, “Thank you, doctor.”