Dietrich's Loss (Patreon)

Introduction

This story exists because I wanted to explore the reason behind comments made about Dietrich here and there within other stories. About him having dropped off the face of the earth, about him having been something of a problem for Damian and things like that.

Because I wanted to story to not be explicitly sexual, I made Dietrich’s therapist the PoV character. Even if Dietrich wasn’t going to have sex within the story, he is too much of a sexual guy for his mind not to go there. Having the story within her PoV also let me expand what we’d learn about the clinic and, as part of the original writing, would let me take the story outside the clinic.

Now, I have removed about 8k words from this story in the middle, everything dealing with her visit with Bobby Orr. For those who know the character, you’ll have an idea why I removed that section. For those who don’t, here are the basics of my reasons.

I realized a few years after writing this story that I am the cardinal sin of inserting my, definitely uninformed, opinions in the mouth of an ‘expert character’ and having her reach a conclusion that I think is objectively wrong. As I don’t know any psychologist, I can’t confirm that, but I’m sufficiently confident about it that I’m removed the section.

I believe there is enough explaining what the visit is about for its impact to still work, without having to give the details of it.

I would definitely ‘reframe’ the story if I were to rewrite it, but I am pleased with it.

Dietrich’s Loss

“Doctor Irmal,” a man called after her. Isabel looked up from the tablet she’d been reading and looked around. Behind her a tall brown bear had his arm raised and was walking quickly in her direction.

She stopped. “Doctor Threcklec, what can I do for you?”

He smiled at her. “For starter, you could call me Sebastien. You’ve been here for two months, surely you’ve realized by now I don’t run things quite as formally as most clinics, or hospitals.”

The serval returned the smile out of politeness. “I have, Doctor, but I’m not quite comfortable with that. I prefer keeping things professional between me and my patient, as well as the rest of the staff.”

The bear nodded. “Alright, I can respect that. I was wondering if you could give me an update on Dietrich Orr.”

“Unfortunately there isn’t much to say. I’ve had two sessions a week with him since he was admitted six weeks ago. In that time he hasn’t volunteered more than grunts or curses.”

“In your professional opinion, do I need to move him to a more intensive program?”

“No,” Isabel said immediately and then continued in a calmer tone. “I’d still like some time with him. I’m actually going to talk with him right now.” She tapped her tablet. “I’m hoping that he will open up soon.”

“Alright, keep me appraised. His family is expecting results.”

He turned and headed back down the hall. She watched his back for a moment before continuing on her way. She was grateful for being here, but she wasn’t entirely comfortable.

Doctor’s Sebastien Threcklec’s work was ground breaking, and demonstratively effective, even if most of the medical community wouldn’t acknowledge it. But having admitted that, she hadn’t expected his techniques to be quite this extreme.

Fortunately she wasn’t directly involved in that side of the treatment, Observing them had been quite enough for her. She was happy to provide counseling to the patient who benefited from it, and she did her best to ensure they didn’t need anything more intensive.

She unlocked the door and entered the room. Dietrich Orr still couldn’t be allowed out of his room. He could get violent, and he was surprisingly strong, even after over a decade without training.

“Good afternoon Mister Orr,” She greeted him, sitting on the chair by the desk. The tiger was lying on his bed, his back to her. This time the covers were pulled up. Every so often he tried to intimidate her by exposing himself, and once, masturbating in her presence.

She’d observed that he was endowed well above the average for males of his height, but had remained impassive. She’d spent seven years in an asylum, specializing in violent patient, she’d been exposed to far more intimidating sights, and had learned not to react to them.

“How are you doing today?” She asked.

His response was a grunt.

She brought up his file on her tablet. “I see here that you ate your breakfast and lunch without complaining, threatening or trying to seduce the nurse. That’s good.”

This didn’t even garner a grunt. He’d done all three multiple time, and while the nurses were trained to deal with threats and complaints, the first nurse to be assigned to him hadn’t expected the seduction and had given in. Fortunately all Dietrich had asked for was a phone, probably expecting that if he reached out to his family he could convince them to get him out. That hadn’t worked out, and afterward every nurse who dealt with him received special instruction on how to handle him.

She went through his file, glancing at the notes she’d made, then at his history, what Doctor Threcklec had written down from interview with Dietrich’s brother, as well as from news clippings. Dietrich had been quite popular in the entertainment news, as well as the specialized body building magazines during his career.

During previous sessions she’d tried to get him to talk by asking about how he was now, this time she was going to use a different tactics.

“I read that you started training when you were just a teen. Did you get into body building because you felt you needed to get bigger for protection? Were you bullied by your brothers?” The file said he had four, but there were little details about the family dynamics.

That earned her a snort. Not because of how his brother’s treated him then.

“You started competing at eighteen, that’s kind of young, isn’t it?”

No response.

“You won your first price at twenty-two, this doesn’t say what it was.”

A shrug.

She read further in and the whistle that escaped her was genuine. Somehow in her previous reading she hadn’t paid attention to the number there. “This says that by the time you were thirty one you were making over two million a year in advertising revenue. And a few years later you lost Mister Universe to…” She tried to find the name, but it wasn’t there. “Someone else. No wonder things went down hill form there.”

A snort. “What the fuck do you know.”

She looked up in surprise. “That’s true, I don’t know. That’s why I’d like you to talk with me, so you can explain things.”

He whirled on her. “You fucking think I’d spend my time drunk if I wanted to fucking talk?” he screamed.

“I think that if you talked you wouldn’t need to drink so much.”

The anger evaporated and he turned his back to her again. “I think you don’t fucking know what you’re talking about.”

“Mister Orr, I’m not your enemy. I’m here because I want to help.”

He whispered something.

“I didn’t hear that.”

“Can you bring back the dead?” She had to stain to understand him.

“No, of course not,” She replied in surprise.

“Then get the fuck out.”

Stunned she watched him for a moment, then left.

What had that been about? She hadn’t read anything about him being involved in an accident, or causing a death. Did he mean his father? His file had a mention about him dying a few years before Dietrich hit big as a body builder. Except that didn’t make any sense, if that had been the cause his descent in alcoholisms would have started much sooner. No, the timing indicated the loss of the title was the cause, or something happening around that time.

She knocked on the door frame to Doctor Threcklec’s office.

“Yes?” The bear looked up from his computer.

“Is there information missing from Dietrich Orr’s file?” she asked.

“No, it’s as complete as I was able to make it, why?”

“Is it possible he was involved in an accident that killed someone? possibly as the driver.”

“If it isn’t in the file, I doubt it.”

Isabel paused. She knew the clinic owed its expansion because the Orr family had donated a large sum of money. She didn’t want to step on sensitive toes.

“Is it possible his family could have buried the incident? I know they’re rich, and rich folks often have a habit of making unpleasant event disappear.”

The bear leaned back in his chair, his mass making it protest loudly. “It would be very difficult for something you describe to be erased completely.”

She nodded. “I understand.” She did. It was an unfortunate side to a clinic such as this that most of the money came from private donors and that meant they were treated special, even if it impaired her work.

“I’ll contact his brother. I’m sure that if I impress on him that it’s needed for his treatment, he’ll provide me with the information, even if it isn’t public knowledge.”

“I didn’t mean to put you in a difficult position, Doctor,” she said quickly, surprised at his willingness to pry in their donor’s affairs.

He chuckled. “It isn’t difficult at all. Our patient’s needs is what must come first.”

“Won’t that endanger the donation?”

He waved it aside. “Not at all, I explained to Damian that his money wouldn’t grant him special treatment, and he understands, but if it turns out he didn’t, well that’s irrelevant. We need to see to the patient. We managed without the money before he bestowed it on us, we’ll manage without again if needed.”

The serval looked at the bear, stunned. “Thank you Doc… Sebastien.”

He smiled at her, then checked his watch. “I should have something for you in a couple of hours.”

Sebastien got back to her later that day, as he said he would, to inform her there had been no incident involving Dietrich causing a death. He sounded confident that he’d been told the truth, but she still had her doubt. Not that she could do anything about it.

Over the following days she considered what her strategy should be. From his reaction she was confident a death he’d caused was behind Dietrich’s decent into alcoholisms, so she would try to get him to open up about that.

She unlocked his door and entered the room. “Good afternoon Mister Orr.”

“Good afternoon, Doctor.”

She had a moment of stunned surprised at being answered, then closed the door before doing anything else. He was sitting on his bed, wearing the pajamas that had been provided, which he’d never worn before.

He smiled at her.

“You are looking better,” she said.

“Thank you. I feel better, and I have to say you are looking amazing today.”

Isabel didn’t show her reaction to his compliment, as she studied how she felt. She was flattered by it, a little excited. Dietrich was a good looking man, even with the extra weight, strong, virile. Her ancestral brain acknowledged him as a good provider and wanted her to have his babies.

“Thank you.” She sat down. “I’m glad you’re feeling better. Hopefully you’ll be amiable to answering questions?”

He leaned against the wall and beamed at her. “sure. Go ahead.”

She couldn’t keep her ear from tilting to the side. The change was too drastic, it was a facade. Did she want to put it to the test, or make use of it? She could ask a hard question and shatter it right now, or go along and see what he was trying to accomplish.

“You’ve been dry for weeks now, how does that feel?”

He shrugged. “Not that bad anymore. it was kind of rough the first few weeks, But I think I’m over the worse of it.” He moved a little, spreading his legs ever so slightly. If she hadn’t been looking for him to do something, she would have missed it. The fabric was pressed against his crotch and outlined everything quite clearly. His finger moved slowly against the inside of his leg, back and forth.

Even knowing what he was doing, she found her heart speeding up, and it took a little effort to keep her breathing from giving her away.

“What are you looking forward to doing, once you leave the clinic?”

He smiled at her, and slowly licked his lips. “Oh, I can think of a lot of things. There’s so many of them I can’t do here.”

She realized she’d licked her own lips in response when she felt her tongue go back in her mouth. She looked at her tablet to give herself a moment to regain control of herself.

“Like drinking?” she asked, looking back up at him.

He chuckled. “That would kind of defeat the point of me coming here, wouldn’t it? No there’s something far more enticing I’d like to do.”

“Why don’t you tell me about it?”

He scooted to the end of the bed, which put her within easy arms reach. The motion had pulled the cloth even tighter against his crotch, and she could see the veins on it now.

He places a hand on her knee. “I’d much rather show you.”

“Mister Orr, I’m your therapist. The kind of behavior you are implying would be completely inappropriate.” The knowledge didn’t stop her breath from catching.

“Now now, doctor. It’s only inappropriate if we get caught.” He slid his hand higher on her leg.

She had to admit he was good. She was actually tempted, even though it was an act, she knew he was gay. She smiled at him. “I know what you’re doing Mister Orr.”

His smile didn’t falter, his hand was now rubbing her thigh. “Oh really?”

She swallowed. “Yes. You’re trying to seduce me, like you did that orderly when you first arrived. It won’t work.”

“Oh, I don’t know about that,” he crooned. “I can smell that you’re interested.”

“That might be true.” She took his hand and moved it off her thigh to his lap. “But I’m not a slave to my desire, Mister Orr. That means I don’t have to give into whatever you want. You can’t manipulate me with promises of sex.”

The smile faltered, and his eyes became harder. His mouth moved for but no sound came out. His hands clamped into fist. “Get the fuck out of my room.”

She left, and once in her office made notes.

*

The next three weeks went back to the old pattern of him grunting and not answering her. She was starting to think she would have to recommend to Sebastien that he needed the more extreme treatment.

“Good morning Mister Orr,” She said as she sat down.

“I don’t want to do this,” was his muffled reply

She looked up, this was new. His back was to her, and the covers over his head.

“What don’t you want to do?”

“This.” A hand came up from under the covers and waved at her and him. “You sitting there, talking and me trying to ignore you. Why the fuck do you keep coming back. Isn’t it obvious I don’t want you here?”

“It’s my job.”

He was silent. She looked at her tablet, then to him. She decided to take a chance.

“What do you want, Mister Orr?”

“I want a drink.”

“What else, that isn’t going to happen, neither is sex.”

He sighed loudly. “I guess if I can’t have that I’d like to workout. I’ve been cooped up in here for ages.”

“You haven’t exactly been the most well behaved patient.”

“Come on, I haven’t done anything in a while now.”

“You tried to seduce me, three weeks ago.”

“Yeah. Sorry about that.”

Isabel stared at the tiger’s back. He’d apologized, and actually sounded like he meant it. this was a first.

“How about I make you a deal, you get to—”

“No!” he bolted to a seated position. “Absolutely not! No deals. That’s Damian’s thing. He finds out something you want and then makes a deal with you to give it to you.”

“Damian, that’s your brother, correct?”

Dietrich nodded.

“When you say he made you do things. You mean things you didn’t want to do?”

He nodded again.

“Illegal things?”

Dietrich laughed. “Of course not. He’s too fucking smart to do that.”

“Did he abuse you?”

He shook his head. “He’d have to care about me for it to be abuse, right?”

“You don’t think he cares about you?”

“I know he doesn’t. As far as he’s concerned I’m just a thing.” He fell silent, and Isabel waited him out. He chuckled. “That isn’t fair. Things have a use in his eyes, I’m completely useless.”

“I’d say that him bringing you here demonstrates that he cares about you on some level.”

“If you think that me being here is about me, you’re fucking wrong. He threw me in here so I couldn’t cause problem to the family.”

“What kind of trouble?” Maybe she was on to the cause.

“Like saying things I shouldn’t.”

“Such as?”

“I’m not going to say.”

“This is a session, anything you say here is protected by doctor patient confidentiality.”

“I’m not talking about it. Period.” The tiger’s tone was final.

“Alright.” She thought about the situation. She could keep pressing, now that he’d opened up a little, but if she pushed too hard he’s shut down again. “I’ll talk to doctor Threcklec about allowing you out of your room. In return, I’d appreciate it if you came to see me twice a week. You don’t have to talk with me, you can continue to ignore me while I ask questions, but I’d like to do that in my office instead of your room.”

His lips curled up slightly.

“Can you agree to that?”

He took a moment to answer. “Yeah, I guess I can.”

“Thank you Dietrich.

*

Doctor Threcklec approved allowing Dietrich free reign within the clinic on her recommendation. She made sure not to be present when his door was unlocked so he wouldn’t think she was supervising him. she also didn’t try to check in on him through out the day, although the clinic wasn’t so large that they didn’t cross path.

There was a knock on her office door.

“Come in.”

The tiger entered and looked around. Her office was large, as were all the therapist’s. Doctor Threcklec wanted to make sure no one felt cramped when helping a patient. She had a few plants, who relied on the gardener for their survival, since Isabel was known to kill plants simply by looking at them. She had paintings of nature on her walls, as well as a reproduction of one of Van Gogh’s self portrait, the one where he wore a straw hat.

“Mister Orr, I wasn’t expecting you to come in today.”

Dietrich Shrugged and sat on the couch before her desk. “I figured this would go better if you didn’t have the hunt me down.”

“I wouldn’t have done that, but I’m happy you came.” She closed her laptop and pulled out her tablet, bringing up his file. “Since you came of your own free will, is there anything you want to talk about?”

“No. You said I didn’t have to talk if I didn’t want to, just show up.”

“That’s true. In that case, I was wondering if I can ask you questions about your brother, Damian. You brought him up in our last session.”

“I’d rather not.”

“How do you feel about him?”

The tiger was silent for a moment. “I hate his guts.”

“Why?”

He leaned back then looked at the entirety of the couch. “Shouldn’t I lie down for this?”

“If you want,” She replied and then, to bring the focus back on what she wanted. “Why do you hate your brother?”

Dietrich sighed as he stretched, resting his head on the cushioned armrest. “Because all my life he’s been there to steal everyone’s attention away form me.”

“How did he do that?”

He snorted. “By being born.”

“Babies will do that.”

“You don’t get it. It wasn’t just when he was a baby. I’m only a year older so I don’t really remember that time, but when we were kids dad was always focusing on Damian. Damian didn’t give a damn about it, but dad just dotted on him instead of paying attention to the rest of us.”

“So you’ve felt ignored by your father?”

“Yeah.”

“How did your brothers feel about it?” she asked when he don’t add anything.

“I don’t think Dominic cared, he’s always been used to doing things on his own, he didn’t need dad’s attention. Donny and Danny had each other so they probably didn’t noticed it as much.”

“Have each other?”

“They’re twins, so they were always together. I don’t think I’ve ever seen them apart.”

“So that leaves you.”

“Yeah, me. All alone. When I won my first prize dad patted me on the head with a ‘that’s great son’ and then went back to paying attention to Damian. That son of a bitch had dad wrapped around his little finger and he wouldn’t let him go for a minute.”

“Do you feel that’s a little harsh?”

“You try living with the know it all and then you tell me about being harsh. At least when I was in the circuit, people paid attention to me, noticed me.”

“How did your brother react to your success?”

“Damian? he didn’t give a shit. He was busy doing his thing, he breezed his way through school. I think that by the time I was nineteen the asshole had started taking university courses online. I fucking know he didn’t stay in college because he was learning anything there. He’s always had it so easy.”

“And you didn’t?”

“Not the way he did. I didn’t have his brain, and I knew it. so I worked hard to get buff, that got me some attention, but it was hard work. Not like him, who could get any guys to drop their pants just by saying a couple of word.”

“Did you wish you had that ease with men?”

“What? or course not. I always thought there was something wrong with the way he can get into people’s mind and get them to do what he wants.”

“You say he got into other people’s minds, it isn’t something he did to you?”

“He couldn’t I was too stubborn for him. I wasn’t going to be one of his toys.”

“Did you see him once you left home?”

“Sure. We all went home for the holidays, I ran into him there an we… hung out.”

“How did he act during those gathering?”

“He acted fine. It was all of us together so he was on his best behavior.” He chuckled. “He could actually be fun to be with at times, and then he’d get all cerebral and point out how I should be doing things.”

“What about once your body building career ended?”

Dietrich was silence for a long time, then sat up. “I don’t want to talk about that,” he whispered. “Look doc, How about we cut this short? I showed up, hell I even talked. So I’d like to go now.”

“Alright. we can pick this up next time Mister Orr.”

*

She didn’t get him to open up during the next session, or the ones after that. She didn’t have to force him to show up, but he just sat there and grunted his almost answers.

During that time he functioned normally in the clinic, spending most of his time in the gym, and quickly regaining his definition. This lasted close to a month, then there was the incident in the shower.

*

He was sitting on his bed, knees to his chest, arms around them.

“Do you want to tell me what happened?”

“No.” His voice was weak.

“Mister Orr, Dietrich, If you won’t talk to me, I can’t recommend to doctor Threcklec that your door be unlocked again. I’m on your side.”

He let out a bark of a laugh. “You’re not on my side, you’re on theirs. All you are interested in doing is telling me how to live my life, just like Damian did.”

“You broke the rules, Mister Orr.”

“oh, get off it! it was just sex! me and him had sex, nothing more!”

“You forced yourself on Timothy.”

“Bullshit! I didn’t force him to do anything. He wanted to have sex with me.”

Isabel sighed. “Then please tell me what happened?”

Dietrich sighed angrily. “Fine. I was working out, like I always do. He was watching me, He’s been watching me for a while. I let him, I don’t mind it. Today he approached me and he complimented me on my body. We got to talking, he wanted to know how I got this ripped, so I told him about my career and about working out a whole lot.

“He got closer and closer and he started touching me. Nothing inappropriate, just my muscles, but I could see the look in his eyes. I’ve seen it often enough in the eyes of my fans, he wanted me. So I suggested we go to one of the bathrooms. We got naked and his hands were roaming all over my body, and not just my muscles, he was on his knees worshiping my cock, licking it, rubbing it. He…”

“That’s enough.”

Dietrich stopped talking, but she could see by his expression that he was reliving what had happened, and enjoying it. She gave him a few seconds.

“Mister Orr,” She called, forcing him to focus on her. “here is the thing. Timothy has been abused by his father since he was a young boy.”

“What do you mean, abused?”

“I mean, his father raped him.”

Dietrich looked at her, horrified.

“After a few years,” she continued, “He started selling Timothy to his construction buddies. You can imagine what they did to him. Through years of being used by his father, who was a physically imposing man, as well as his friends, also physically imposing, Timothy has developed a response to such body types. He wants to please them. He’s very intuitive and can pickup on what a man wants without him saying much, a look, a comment, is enough.

“He’s here because his father got him addicted to heroin, and his mother was finally able to get Timothy away from him. In the last year and a half he has made a lot of progress on being his own person. In that one session of sex with him, you’ve undone that work.”

Dietrich looked stricken. “I didn’t know.”

“You couldn’t, but that is why we have rules. Because you don’t know what brought the other patients here and something as simple, and apparently harmless, as having sex can undermine their progress.”

He put his hands over his head. “I didn’t mean to do that.”

“I know. and because of that, I’ll recommend that you be allowed to go to the gym once a day, for an hour of supervised working out, but I’m afraid that for the time being, you’ll have to spend the rest of your time in your room.”

Dietrich nodded.

*

Over the next two week Dietrich was withdrawn and uncommunicative. During the four sessions with him Isabel tried to draw him out, but to no avail. After that she ended his confinement.

Over the next few days she checked in on him, he spent most of his time working out, making sure to stay away from the other patients. She decided to give him a week before trying to get him to come see her.

Which is why she was surprised to have him knock on her door the next day. She let him in and he sat down.

“How are you feeling?” She asked, taking her seat.

“Crappy. How’s… Tim?”

“Timothy. He isn’t my patient, but from what I hear he’s coming along.”

The tiger nodded. “I hope he’s going to be okay.”

“I’m sure he will be. His therapist is very good. Since you came to me, does that mean you want to talk?”

He opened his mouth, but didn’t say anything. His ears folded back and he looked at the floor.

“It’s alright. Do you mind talking about your family again? Not your brothers, but your extended family. I believe you have uncles?”

“Two, Bobby and Byron.”

“Do you see them often?”

Dietrich shook his head. “Byron lives in New York City, I’m not sure who with, Martin was his boyfriend, the last time I saw them. Bobby is still in Swissvale as far as I know.”

Isabel canted an ear questioningly.

“It’s in the Pittsburgh area, in Pennsylvania. That’s were we’re from. Our family’s always been on the east coast until Donny and Danny moved to San Francisco. They’re video game designers so they wanted to be closer to the other big game developers.” he sighed. “Damian moved there too after dad died. He bought some company which he turned into a multi national conglomerate. Dominic lives in Washington DC, to be closer to… to his friend, but he also has a house in San Francisco.” He chuckled. “Well, a decade ago that how things stood. Things might have changed since then.”

“How about you? did you move to San Francisco too?”

“No, not really. With doing the body building circuits I was almost always on the move. I spent a lot of time in LA filming advertising and even a couple of movies.”

“Anything I might know?”

“I doubt it. I played the bad guy in ‘When the sky crashed down’.”

Isabel shook her head.

“I was the lead’s best buddy in ‘To get the girl’. You never head of that one, trust me, it was so bad the production company tried to bury it while it was still being edited. but if you look online there’s usually a few rough edits floating around. I also had a few guest roles on TV shows. But that wasn’t what I wanted. it was my manager who thought it was a good idea for me to be more visible.” He became silent.

“Isn’t becoming a star what everyone wants?”

“Not me,” he whispered. he rubbed his face. “I mean, not acting. If you watch one of those movies, you’ll see. Even if I’d wanted to, it would never have happened. I’m a horrible actor. I’m not like that guy in the aughts.” he frowned. “I can’t remember his name, but he was a body builder, who became an action star. Anyway that wasn’t for me. I was happy being a champion body builders, and filming a few ads spot for the companies backing me.”

“When you leave here, where do you think you’ll settle?”

Dietrich became pensive for a long moment. “I think I’m going to get a house in Oklahoma. McAlester I think.”

“Why there?”

“What?” He shook his head. “No reason, It’s just a thought.”

Isabel made a note to look into the city, something had happened there. “You have nephews, nieces?”

“Nephews, seven of them. Don and Danny’s kids. Aaron, Alexander, Adam, Aiden, Arthur, Albert and Anakin. Fuck, they were seven the last time I saw them. We haven’t even…. Man I wonder how they are like now.”

Isabel brought up all the names on her tablet. When she looked up he was gazing at her. “Sorry. I was just checking something. I didn’t notice it when read your file, but each generation’s names starts with the same letter.”

Dietrich chuckled. “Yeah. It’s a family tradition. Grandpa’s name was Robert, his brothers were Richard, Ronald and Reginald. Great grandpa was Howard… I know he had a brother, but I can’t remember his name, it also started with a ‘H’. Grandpa did the family tree and it goes back all the way as far back as he could trace.”

“Really? how far back did it go?”

“Some French baron in the twelve hundred named Etienne de l’Or.”

“That’s quite far. and his children were also named the same way? Same first letter?”

“That’s what grandpa said. I never really paid attention.”

“Did you get along with your grand father?”

Dietrich smiles. “Sure, He was a great guy. He was one hell of a great f… fun guy to hang out with.” he quieted. “He died the year before dad passed away.”

“Your father died in an automotive accident I believe?”

Dietrich laughed, which surprised the serval. “You could say that. A car fell on him. Dad was a mechanic. He owned his own garage and he didn’t do a lot of work himself anymore, but he still loved it, so he made sure to do so once in a while. The lift the car was on failed and the car crushed him. He lasted a few hours in the hospital, made it through a few operations, but he didn’t make it.” He sighed and wiped his eyes. “When we found out the lift’s manufacturer had already had negligences charges brought against them, but they hadn’t fixed anything, Damian tore that company apart.” the tiger shuddered.

“Legally?”

“Yeah, that too.”

“Why did he do that if you brother didn’t care about your father?”

“The company was putting other people’s life in danger. they were… they weren’t good people.” He paused, searching for words, then gave up. “My brother’s complicated.”

“If I could get your brother to visit you, would you want that?”

“Damian?”

“Yes.”

“No. I don’t want to see him.”

She nodded. “How about anyone else.”

Dietrich thought about it, then shook his head. “No. I don’t want any of them to see me here. it would just be too awkward.”

“Alright.”

“do you mind if we stop here? I’m kind of hungry.”

“Not at all. Thank you for talking with me.”

He gave an hesitant smile. “It was… nice.” then he left.

*

It took the serval over two weeks to complete her research from what she’d gleamed during her conversation. Dietrich was more comfortable talking during the next sessions, but she noticed he always stirred the conversation to the rest of his family. She didn’t mind. She didn’t want to pry into his story until she was done researching.

Once she was, she finally had an idea of what had caused Dietrich’s descent into alcoholisms.

“How are you feeling today Mister Orr?” She asked as he sat.

“I’m good. It’s really nice to workout intensively again.”

“It shows.” She smiled as he flexed without thinking about it and her ears warmed. She took a drink of water. “I’d like to talk about McAlester.”

The tiger looked at her, confused.

“The town in Oklahoma, you mentioned you might settle there once you leave here.”

He shrugged. “It’s just a name I pulled out of the air. I might go anywhere.”

“Except it isn’t, is it?”

His face hardened. “I don’t want to talk about it.”

“I think you should Dietrich. Something happened there, didn’t it?”

He swallowed and looked at the floor. “You know.”

She didn’t say anything. All she had were suspicions. She knew he’d landed at The Tulsa International Airport and rented a car there, the clerk had noted on the agreement it would be returned at the McAlester city branch. That was where Dietrich disappeared from the media. There were a few pieces about him after that, but nothing with him. He’d mentioned bringing someone back from the dead so she thought what ever it was had happened there.

He looked up at her, pain in his eyes. He closed and wiped at them.

“I won’t force you to talk, Dietrich, I can’t, but I think you should. What ever happened there, you can’t keep it bottled up inside you.”

He took a deep breath. “Her name was Helena.” His voice was flat. “We met at one of the competitions’ after party. We had a great time. I brought her back to my hotel room, we fucked all night.”

“You file says you’re gay.”

“That file knows fuck all about me. I like to fuck, yeah most of the time it’s guys, Hell pretty much all the time, but once in a while, if a girl catches my fancy, and she says yes, I’ll fuck her too.” There was anger in this tone. he took a breath and when he continued he was calmer. “Anyway, that’s what she told me when I saw her again three years later. I partied hard in those days. lots of alcohol, sometime drugs. I rarely remembered what I’d done. I certainly didn’t remember her. And I must have forgotten to use a condom, because she introduced me to Eric, my two year old son.”

“You have a son?” even as she asked, she realized her mistake.

Dietrich closed his eyes and as silent for a long time. He held back sobs with effort. “I didn’t believe her. I mean I was a body building champion, rich. The ‘this is your kid’ routine wasn’t new on me. and like I said I don’t fuck women a lot, but she was a tigress. And she didn’t want anything from me, she just wanted me to meet my son. We did a paternity test, but even before it came back I knew he was mine. I could feel it, or maybe I just wanted it. Anyway, the test was positive. Erik was my son.” He took a deep breath.

“Did you tell the rest of your family?”

“Hell no. I knew what they were going to say.” he calmed himself. “I didn’t see why Don and Danny should be the only ones to have a family. I could have one too.”

“Why would you think you couldn’t have a family if two of your brothers each had one?”

He looked at her in confusion for a moment. “They don’t each have a family. They have a family. They’re one family. They’re both raising my nephews.”

Her years perked up. “What about the mother?”

“They relinquished the rights to them at birth. It was part of the contract. Don and Danny wanted to raise their sons by themselves. It’s only ever one family per generation,” he whispered, and he had to wipe his eyes again.

“Alright, so you didn’t tell them. what then?”

“I was still doing the circuit, so I couldn’t see them often, but any chance I got I’d stop in McAlester and spend time with them. Erik was such a handsome boy and strong, he took after me in a lot of ways.”

“And Helena?”

“We got along well enough. We didn’t fuck if that’s what you mean.”

Isabel’s ears turned red. “It wasn’t. But she was the mother to your child, how did you feel about her?”

“I didn’t love her, if that’s what you mean. I know she’d… I just didn’t. She knew that. She was okay. Like I said, she didn’t want anything. I offered to get them a better place, but she was happy with the apartment she had. She wouldn’t take my money other than to buy clothes for Erik and pay for the baby sitter.” He grew silent.

“What happened then?”

“One year,” he whispered. “I got to be a father for one year. that’s when I lost the Mister Universe title to….” He chuckled. “To that action star’s grand son actually. I didn’t mind. Hell I think that on some level I wanted to lose.”

“Why?”

“To spent more time with my son. I couldn’t be a father and never be there. I had money and even if I got out of the circuit my fame would guaranty I’d get advertising contract for a while. Damian would make sure it was well invested so I wouldn’t have to worry about it. I’d be able to be a full time father, be there do teach him about… about life and everything. I really wanted it. I’d even found him a shirt with ‘world strongest son’ on it.” his gaze became distant. “I was going to be the best father he could have.”

This time he cried, and she let him.

when he stopped and opened his eyes there was anger behind them. “That’s why isn’t fair. I was suppose to there with them. that’s how it’s suppose to work. I was suppose to be in the apartment with them when the fire burned it down. Instead, my flight got delayed because of a storm in Tulsa. When I finally made it to her apartment the building was just ashes on the ground. I was frantic, I looked around for them they couldn’t be dead, because I hadn’t been there. I knew this was going to happen, but I didn’t mind it because I knew I was going to die with them, I wasn’t suppose to be left behind to feel their loss.”

“What do you mean you knew it was going to happen? Did someone cause the fire?”

Dietrich shot up. “I did! don’t you get it? One family per generation. If there’s a second one they always die before the son’s ten years old. So I caused them to die, but I should have been there with them. Sure on some level I hope we’d be the exception, there’s always one of those once in a while. Dad didn’t have any eccentricity. Great Grandma died of old age with Howard. It was possible we could have two families, wasn’t it? but even if it wasn’t going to happen, I was going to be with them to the end.” He paced around the office.

“Dietrich, you didn’t cause this. Accidents happen. I understand that losing your family hurt, but the delay saved your life.”

He planted his fist on her desk and glared at her. “I didn’t want to survive. I wanted to die with them, how it should have been. But that isn’t the worse. In that moment, I wanted it to have been Donald, Daniel and their kid who’d died instead of mine. I wanted it so badly that I turned around planing on going there and killing them myself.”

“But you didn’t.”

“I made it half way to the airport when my anger ebbed enough for the pain to surface. I grabbed a motel, a bottle of scotch and drank it all to dull the pain and the guilt so I could sleep.”

“Dietrich, it wasn’t…”

“Don’t finish that. I swear, if you say it wasn’t my fault one more time I’m going to punch you.”

She could see he was serious and backed her chair away.

“You don’t know anything about my family, how the rules work, so you don’t get to tell me what is and isn’t my fault.”

“Then tell my what those rules are.”

The tiger looked at her in shock, then laughed. It was loud and deep, he lost his balance for a moment, and had to sit back on the couch.

“Oh this is just fucking brilliant,” he said when he’d caught his breath. “Damian shoves me in here so I won’t blab about the family and there’s the doctor asking me to tell her. He fucked up big time.” He leaned back and looked at the ceiling.

Isabel roll the chair back to her desk and took a moment to calm her own nerves. “D… Mister Orr, anything you say in here is confidential. If you’re worried about revealing some sort of illegal activities, I can promise you that no one will ever find out about them from me.”

The tiger chuckled. “Illegal? Doc. we don’t do a fucking thing that’s illegal, but you wouldn’t believe how my family works. You don’t believe Erik’s death is my fault so how the fuck would you believe anything else?”

“Mister Orr, I can’t help you get better without knowing everything.”

Dietrich sighed. “Don’t you get it doc? I’m not here to get better. My brother brought me here to get rid of me.”

“I refuse to believe that.”

“Hey. What you do or don’t believe is completely irrelevant. You said it, You can’t help me unless I tell you everything, but you won’t believe it, so I’m stuck here unless you just let me go. Damian’s got me in a nice little prison without having to get me arrested.” he leaned back. “Fuck, no sex for the rest of my life. Ah man, this place is Hell.”

Isabel stood and planted her hands on her desk. “Listen to me Dietrich, my job is to see to it that you get to the underlying cause of your addiction so you can get over it. I’m going to see you be better and leave this clinic. The only way you’re going to be stuck here, as you say, is if you refuse to work with me. If you tell me about those so called rules, I promise you that you’re going to walk out this clinic eventually.”

Dietrich stretched his arms on the back of the couch and beamed at her. “Really? How about we put that to the test. What do you think of me having sex with my dad for the first time when I was eleven?”

*

“Mister Orr,” the secretary said, “Your one O’clock is here.” She was a gazelle, of Northern Africa ancestry Isabel judged, by the way her antlers curved. Isabel had been surprised such a powerful man as Damian Orr live secretary, instead of a reception kiosk, like pretty much any other business she’d had to deal with over the last decade.

The office was cozy, wood paneling, reproduction of classic paintings, even potted plants in the corners. She avoided looking at them, she knew very well she couldn’t actually kill plants by looking at them, but there were just too many dead plants in her past for her to want to take any chances anymore. Even the gardener at the clinic had started giving her the evil eye.

“You can go in Miss Irmal.”

“Thank you Alice.” She entered the office, and it was a stark contrast to the reception. Very large, where the other was small. The walls were stark white, as was the floor, although that was veined with grays and browns, marble she guessed. The glass wall behind the black desk looked over the city. From this height, she could see the bay.

She read the room as belonging to someone with a sense of entitlement. He had a lot of money, but he wanted the visitors to notice him, not the wealth. He felt like he ruled over the city, this building was his castle.

The tiger seated behind the desk studied her as she walked toward him. His blue/gray eyes fixed on her. When he stood it was with a fluidity that surprised her. She’d known he wasn’t fat, she’d seen many pictures of him taken at events, while she researched him, but the way he moved spoke of exercise, no, more than that. He moved like he was on the hunt. He had martial art training, she guessed.

He extended his hand to her and smiled. “Doctor Irmal, I must say it’s a surprise to see you.”

She kept her surprise in check. She had only identified herself as Isabel Irmal when she made the appointment, and indicated she was looking to consult with the owner of Diamond Industries.

She shook the hand. Damian’s grip was comfortable, strong, but not crushing. Two exact up and down and he let go of her hand.

“Thank you for seeing me, Mister Orr,” She said, taking a seat.

“Please, call me Damian.” He sat. “And I hope you don’t mind if I call you Isabel. Titles and last names are so formal.”

His voice was deep, but soothing, perfectly pitched to put her at ease. But she recognized the attentiveness in his eyes, she’d seen it in almost every therapist she’s ever worked with. She was probably mirroring it herself. he was paying attention to every things she did. He would pay attention to every word she said.

“Sometime formality is preferable,” She said, testing the water. Dietrich had said very little about this brother, and her research had revealed only a well crafted image. A successful business owner who gave back to the community through charities and grants. Nothing was hidden about his family, but any articles about him stayed carefully away from the others.

“I disagree.” He smiled. “Formality puts walls between people, the use of first name is still respectful, but it allows us to connect on a more personal level, a friendlier level.”

She returned the smile. “I suppose that’s true, but I’m surprise someone in your position is interested in being friendly.” Except, as open as his body language was, it was too controlled. He had walls up, no, walls was the wrong analogy. He let the outside world see him, but he wouldn’t let anyone get close. A moat, that was a better word for the defenses around him.

“I find that being friendly lets me accomplish more than if I was distant and stern. After all, it’s much easier running a large business if the people working for me enjoy it. Fear never helps I find.”

She nodded in agreement, glancing at his desk, the surface was turned off, not surprising, he wouldn’t want a visitor to see what he was working on. A stylus casually tossed to the side, a tablet sightly pass the edge of the desk, and a frame. She couldn’t see what was on it for her position, family?

“I suppose that’s true, but you must admit that makes you a rarity among business owners.” She’d looked into the company structure, and he was right. He paid well, and the satisfaction rating among his employees was impressive, both with their job as a whole and with their interaction with the owner himself when they had them.

But she wasn’t seeing someone looking to make his employees happy. He was creating loyalty and control. Somethings Dietrich had said came to her. His brother would find what you wanted and use that to get you to do things. Manipulation, of others and, she glanced at he desk again, of perceptions. The stylus, the tablet, they looked like they had been thrown there without attention, but they were exactly where he wanted them to be to give that impression. Manipulation, control, and perfectly clean image. On the surface Damian was perfect. Oh my God.

He raised an eyebrow. “If I might ask.” She only now realized he’d been silent this whole time. “What did you just realize?”

“Excuse me?” only years of practice kept her voice from revealing anything.

“Your breath caught, right after you glanced at my desk for a second time. I’m curious what insight in my psyche it gave you.”

She had been right, he was studying her, as she studied him. Was he looking to assert control? gaging her so he could manipulate her? She didn’t show any of her worries. She had found no indication of violence in his pass, which, granted meant little with his wealth, but she was confident that Dietrich would have mentioned that to her.

“You’re a psychopath.”

He smiled. “Very good. Since I know my desk wasn’t enough to let you reach that conclusion, what else led you there?”

She watched him. He was very good. She’d dealt with sociopath and psychopath in her time working with violent patient at the asylum, and none of them had shown his ease at body language.

“Your company.”

He tiled an ear in curiosity.

“I’ve looked into it. You work very hard at keeping your workers happy, but that’s how you control them, isn’t it? A liberal use of he carrot, and when the stick is needed, it’s very discreet.”

“I never use the stick, to use your phrasing. It never gives practical results.”

“Then how do you deal with those who oppose you?” The question was out of her mouth before she could stop it. For all her training, his response had piked her curiosity.

“Do you mean people who try to attack my company? attack me? or employees who disagree with my decisions?”

“The people within the company, how do you handle those who don’t want to do what you tell them?”

“Since I have them do what I pay them to do, it isn’t something I have to deal with often.”

“But it does happen, doesn’t it?”

“Yes, sometime someone will object to my decisions. I listen to their objections. If they are valid I will incorporate them. If they aren’t I explain why they are wrong.”

No, that couldn’t be right. psychopath were all about ego stroking, their egos. “What about the people who screw up?”

“Then I have them transfered to a position more suited to their abilities.”

no, no, no. psychopath didn’t deal well with setbacks. Those in power stomped on those beneath them who didn’t do their part to make the psychopath’s ego feel grandiose. This entire company was only there to make Damian feel bigger. A penis substitute on the largest scale she could think of.

psychopath did not take into account other people’s weaknesses when making decisions.

Damian was smiling at her and she forced herself back in control. Whatever he was, as curious as she was about him, that wasn’t why she was here. She was here for her patient. Maybe he’d lied to her, she had no way to verify, but that didn’t matter.

“Why did you bring Dietrich to the clinic?”

His smile widened. “So you are his therapist.”

“You know I’m a doctor, you have to know.”

“I knew you worked for Sebastian, and your presence here made it highly likely you were, but I didn’t call him to verify.”

“Fine, so why?”

“Because my brother needs help.”

“Why that clinic? there are plenty of other clinics, with your money you could have sent him to anyone of them.”

“I know my brother. He would have left an gone back to his drinking. He was killing himself and I felt he needed the help, that he wanted it or not.”

She knew that was a lie, even if Dietrich hadn’t told him the truth she would have known. He’d waited ten years, no brother who cared and had access to someone like doctor Threcklec would have waited that long. She didn’t confront him on the lie. knowing he lied was enough.

“Do you know why he needs help?”

“He’s an alcoholic.”

“Do you know why he’s an alcoholic?”

“He was used to the lifestyle his status as a bodybuilder champion gave him. He over indulged to the point it affected his career. When he was no longer a champion, he continued drinking because it was the cheapest way he could mask the disappointment and self-loathing he felt about allowing himself to get so out of control.”

The reasons he gave were perfectly valid, and told her he didn’t know the truth. She nodded her agreement with him.

He stiffened. “That isn’t the reason.”

How had did he figure it out?

“You relaxed just before you nodded,” he said. “You were relieved that I didn’t know the true reason.” He leaned forward. “What is it?”

She shook her head. “Doctor patient confidentiality.” Dietrich had made it very clear he didn’t want anyone to know about Eric.

He leaned back. “I respect that.”

She narrowed her eyes. “You aren’t going to try to convince me to tell you?”

He shook his head. “If I didn’t want you to do your job, to the best of your abilities, I wouldn’t have sent him to Sebastian’s clinic.” He smiled. “Mind you, I am going to investigate the events surrounding his descent in alcoholisms and I’m confident I’ll find out the truth on my own.”

Just what kind of psychopath was he? no, that wasn’t important. She was here for Dietrich. She was going to have to tell him Damian would look into it. She had a thought.

“If I ask you not to look into it, would you?”

“Now, why would I do that?”

“To respect your brother’s privacy.”

“I won’t, but I would advice you to stop trying to convince me.”

“Why?”

“You just told me not to bother looking for the inciting incident in Dietrich’s public life.”

She opened her mouth to protest, then closed it. If the cause had been part of Dietrich’s public life there wouldn’t have been anyway to keep Damian from finding it, great, she’d just made his search easier.

“Alright.” she had spent enough time sparring with him. It was time to do what she’d come here to do. “I want you to have Dietrich removed from the clinic.”

“No.”

She stood and planted he hands on the desk. “Listen to me. You have no right to keep your brother imprisoned there just because he revealed some family secrets.” She caught sight of the frame in the corner of her eye. two tigers, adult and child, seated and on his lap.

“The picture is of my father and me. You are welcome to look at it.”

She was torn. She was curious about the dynamics between the two the image would reveal, but she didn’t want to get side tracked.

“Please go ahead. I’ll respond to your accusation once you have satisfied your curiosity.”

She waited for a moment, then looked. His father, Brian, was seated, a young Damian, four? Maybe five? Seated on his lap. They were waving at the camera. Damian was smiling, but it looked artificial, the result of someone who not only didn’t smile often, but had only seen smiles without experiencing the emotions behind them. Why did he have a picture like that on his desk?

She looked away from it. Damian was studying her. “Did it help you understand me?”

She shook her head.

“Are you ready to listen to why I will not take my brother out of the clinic?”

Right, Dietrich. She had to stay focused on him. “I am.”

“I can’t take him out. Sebastian was quite clear on that. until he decides my brother is ready to leave, he will stay there.”

Isabel frowned. “So once Doctor Threcklec releases him, you won’t concoct a reason for him to stay?”

“I didn’t concoct the reason that placed him there,” Damian replied, sounding indignant. “I have no reason to force him to stay there.”

“Not even to protect those family secret?”

“If my brother is in control of his addiction, I have no reason to worry about him revealing them.”

She looked him in the eyes, trying to gage if he was being truthful, but she couldn’t read anything in his expression. She sat back down.

“Are you satisfied with my answer?”

“Only if your telling the truth.”

“I have no reasons to lie.”

She snorted.

“I appreciate you have no reason to believe me, Isabel, but that remains the truth. Dietrich isn’t worth lying about.”

Her ears pushed forward. More than once Dietrich had indicated his brother thought very little of him, this agreed with him.

“Now,” Damian said, steepling his fingers. “I’d like to ask you some questions in return. You’ve indicated my brother has told you some of our family’s secret. I’d like to know what he told you.”

“Doctor patient…”

“Confidentiality. Yes, yes, I know.” He waved it aside. “How about this? You tell me what Dietrich revealed to you, and I will not investigate the real cause of his descent in alcoholism”

Well well well. Dietrich had also predicted that behavior. She hadn’t planed on going this way but the moment he’d asked about it she’d remembered it and hoped for it. The only thing Dietrich wanted to protect was Eric.

“Alright. Give me your word you won’t look into it and I’ll tell you.”

“You have it.”

She nodded. “Well, he basically told me everything.”

*

“What do you think of me having sex with my dad for the first time when I was eleven?” he’s said.

She looked at him, stunned. Even with her training, such a revelation took away her control. “He raped you?”

Dietrich rolled his eyes. “Of course not. I had sex with him.”

“How can you say that and then tell me he didn’t rape you?”

“Because I’m the one who initiated it.”

“No, he convinced you of that. that’s what abusers do. they make you think it’s your fault.”

Dietrich nodded. “Yeah, that’s what I thought.” He got up and headed for the door.

“Where are you going?”

“I said you wouldn’t believe me, so I don’t see a point on wasting my time here.”

“I can’t help you with what was done to you if you don’t talk with me.”

He sighed. “Doc, nothing was done to me. If you want to help me, you’re going to get your head out of your expectations. My family? We’re not your typical family.”

She’d remained there for a moment after the door closed too stunned to do anything. Then she grabbed her tablet. She had to have missed something in her research on his family. If something like that had been done to him at such a young age, someone must have noticed it and done something about it.

Two hours later, after the deepest research she knew how to do online she had nothing. The name Byron Orr had popped up in relation to some show in the teens, as did his other uncle, Bobby, in relation to him stopping a pedophile. She didn’t find anything about Brian.

The name Dominic Orr surfaced, but in a story where he was giving a report in Senator Melowes stead, reading a little more she found out he was the senator’s aide.

She couldn’t believe that Dietrich’s father had abused his children that way and no one ever caught on, because she was sure that if he had done that to him, he’d done it to all of them. She was ready to dig deeper, but her next patient arrived and he had to set Dietrich aside for the time being.

After that she decided to wait until her next session with Dietrich before doing more research, she was hoping to get him to reveal something she could use guide it. Unfortunately he didn’t show up for his next session, or the one after that. She saw him about the clinic, for his supervised weight training time, so she knew he wasn’t sulking.

When he missed the third one she went knocking on his door, then entered. She immediately turned her back to him, he was in the process of putting his pants on.

“You know, if you don’t want to see me naked, doc, you’re going to have to give me a little more warning before you come in.”

“Sorry.”

“S’ok, I’m presentable again.”

She turned. He was sitting on his bed, wearing pants.

“I’d like to know why you haven’t showed up for your last three sessions with me?”

“I don’t see a point.”

“How can I help you if you won’t come talk to me?”

“You can’t help me if you won’t believe what I tell you.”

“I believe that you believe that’s how it happened, but…”

Dietrich groaned. “You know what? lets go to your office.”

“This room is sound proof, you can scream if you want to.”

“I don’t want to scream. You’re office is bigger. If you’re going to have me pacing in frustration I want the space to do it.” She had to run to reach her office first and unlock it.

She sat behind her desk, and he paced. She gave him a full minute then opened her mouth.

“I just can’t understand why it’s so difficult for you to accept that I initiated things with my father.” His arms waved about as he paced.

“You’re expecting me to believe that one day, out of the blue you just decided you wanted to have sex with your father?”

He stopped. “Of course not. I’d been watching Donny and Danny have sex for a good two years by then.”

“And they are?” she tried to remember but it have been two weeks and she’d seen many patients in the mean time.

“My brothers, twins, a year older than me.”

“And just how did you see them having sex?”

“We shared a room.”

“Three to a room?”

“It was a large room, in the basement, and they only needed one bed. Dom had his own room because he was the oldest, and Damian had his because, well, because he was Damian. I had to share one with them until we moved to a larger house when I was fourteen.”

“And they had sex in front of you.”

“Sure, where else would they do it?”

“They could have done it elsewhere, or when you weren’t around.”

“Elsewhere? like hide the fact they were having sex? Why the fuck should they do that? It’s sex, it wasn’t like they were doing anything wrong. Shit, and you’re thinking the problem is with my family?”

“Alright, fine. How did you feel about them doing it next to you?”

“They were on the other side of the room. And until I was eleven I didn’t care. I knew they enjoyed it, but I didn’t get it and I wasn’t interested in finding out. I learned to tune them out and go to sleep.”

“And they never did anything to you?”

“Of course not. I was eleven.”

“From what you said, they were ten when they started.”

“Yeah, well, those two were precocious, dad said so.”

“Alright, so you were eleven.”

“Falling asleep while they were having sex became more difficult, the sounds they were making, the scents in the room, they were making me feel funny.”

“Funny how?”

“I didn’t know at first, but then I started getting erections while they had sex. the first time I ran out of the room and asked dad if there was something wrong with me. he said there wasn’t, he was just a sign I was growing up and he sent me back to bed.”

“that’s it? he didn’t touch you?”

“No. I really wish you’d stop trying to make my dad a bad guy in this.”

“I’m sorry, it’s just that…”

“I know, I know. you and the rest of society can’t believe an adult could ever have a normal talk about sexual organs, he’d have to freak out. jeez, society is fucked up. You’d think by now they’d be able to have a mature reaction to an adult situation.”

“Alright, I get your point.” It was a good thing he was too busy pacing and gesticulating, her ears were burning in embarrassment. He was right that she’d jumped to a conclusion that was completely unfounded.

“okay,” she said once she had control of herself. “Why did you go see your father when that happened?”

“He always told us that if we had questions, if we were curious about something to come see him and he’d help us.”

“Your father was exceptional.”

Dietrich smiled. “Yeah, dad was the best.”

“What happened after that.”

“I started watching what Donny and Danny were doing. Before you ask. they weren’t putting on a show, they weren’t putting themselves on display for me to watch, but I could see what they were doing, at least the way their body moved, grinding against each other. So I started mimicking them, grinding against my pillow and it made my cock feel good. From there it was an easy reach to jerking off.”

He stopped moving behind the couch, smiling.

“Good memories?” She asked.

He startled. “yes, sorry.”

“it’s alright.”

“Anyway, not long after that I caught Danny…. What?”

“No longer pacing?”

“oh, err, well, this pajamas is sort of flimsy. They kind of show…” She hid a smile as he blushed.

“Your erection?”

“Yeah.”

“That didn’t seem to bother you before.”

“I was trying to get a reaction from you then.”

She smiled. “Dietrich, I worked in an asylum before this, I’ve seen naked people in all sort of situation. I appreciate the concern you feel for me, but if you feel like pacing, or siting down, just do it.”

He thought about it for a moment then sat down, trying to do so in a way his erection wouldn’t be obvious. “okay, so I caught Danny giving Dominic a blowjob on the couch and I got an erection and got really curious as to what they were doing.”

“One of the twins sucked off your older brother?”

“Sure.”

“What was the other one doing? Donny? Donald?”

“He was fucking Danny.”

She stared at him, the completely casual way he said it being what convinced her he wasn’t making this up. “So Donald, Daniel and Dominic?” She asked, her5 voice quivering with some discomfort.

“Yeah. Dom was thirteen, so he’d been having sex for about as long at them.”

“with whom?”

“Dad and his friends.”

“your father’s friends?”

“No, Dom’s friends, he’d bring them for sleep overs once in a while. I always figured it was because they couldn’t have sex at their house.”

Isabel fidgeted, this was starting to be more than she was comfortable with. twins committing incest was tolerable, even somehow expected, she realized, but this was turning into a whole family thing. She wanted to stop, but she was afraid that if she didn’t let him finish he wouldn’t want to take it up, or she might not have to courage to get him to finish.

“Alright, so you saw them.”

“Yeah, and of what they were doing, I was really curious about the blowjob. I went to dad to ask him, but he was busy with Damian, as usual. No, it wasn’t sexual, come on, he was ten. anyway, I only knew of one time I could be sure dad wasn’t going to be busy with Damian. So I waited until the entire house was asleep, and I sneaked into his room. Like all of us dad slept naked and I crawled under the covers, and started playing with his cock until he got hard.”

“Weren’t you worried about his reaction?”

“No, he said he’d always help us.”

She nodded. “And you already knew he had sex with your older brother.”

“oh, I didn’t know that then. I learned that after. anyway. once he got hard I licked his cock. He woke up then and we sixty-nined. I think we should stop now.”

“Why?” She asked, suspiciously.

“Your hackles are up. I think I might have gone a little pass your comfort level. and I’d like to take care of this.” he pointed to his erection, hidden from her view by a raised knee. “I know I can’t have sex, but I can still take care of it. So I’ll just go to my room and, you know.”

She nodded and pointed to a door on the wall behind her desk. “that’s a bathroom, go there, I’d rather not have you walk around with an erection.”

“Thanks, I wasn’t looking forward to that.” He headed in the bathroom.

Isabel continued staring in the air even after Dietrich left. Out of reflex she’d check the clock as he came out of the bathroom and he was in there fifteen minutes. She couldn’t believe that Dietrich hadn’t been abused by his father. She just couldn’t.

Over years of training the subject of sexual abuse had come up often, and when it dealt with children it always came down to the same point. Children were incapable of purposely engaging in sex of their own volition. And yet, Dietrich said he did, as did four of his five brothers.

She had trouble breathing.

There was a knock on the door, and Jezebel poked in for her appointment. Isabel waved her in. She hadn’t realized she’d spent forty-five minutes zoning out.

The recorder going, before she knew she wouldn’t be able to take her usual notes, Isabel got Jezebel talking about why she felt her life was better because she took heroine. She’d only been here for two week, and still felt her father was a monster for bringing her here.

Isabel tried to focus on her, but Dietrich and his brothers kept intruding. How had the twins, Donald and Daniel, discovered sex? Had it really been without their father’s influence? And Dominic? Dietrich said he was having sex with his father. Had he been the first his father abused? the one on whom he’d honed his skills to the point where he was able to convince the other children they were initiating it?

She looked up when she realized Jezebel had been silent for a tome. The doe was looking at her. “I’m sorry,” Isabel said. “Do you mind if we take this up later?” She hated asking one of her patient to pay the price for her issues, but it was apparent she couldn’t focus right now.

The doe stood and scoffed. “Right, like you give damn about me. All you care about is that you get paid each time I sit down on your stupid couch.” She stormed out.

Isabel should have… what? right now she had no idea what she should have done, and that was the problem. She couldn’t afford to let her other patient’s treatment suffer. So she needed to resolve this problem.

She went to Doctor Threcklec’s office.

“Isabel, what can I do for you?” he asked, setting aside the tablet.

“Can you let Dietrich Orr know that I need to postpone his next few sessions until I’ve dealt with things?”

“Are you alright? Did he do anything to you?”

She shook her head. “He just dropped a bombshell on me and I need to process it.”

Sebastian leaned back in his chair. “Do you want to discuss it?”

She thought about it. Getting a second opinion could certainly help, but this was the kind of information that could destroy a family. Her own reactions showed she couldn’t expect doctor Threcklec to not react to it. Dietrich would never talk to her again if he learned she hadn’t kept his confidence.

She shook her head. “I just need some time to process it.”

He nodded. “I noticed Jezebel ended her session early. How is she doing?”

“I ended it. I should have asked her to come back later.”

Sebastian’s ears straightened. “It must have been quite the revelation if it rattled you this much.”

“That’s why I want to take some time before having another session with Dietrich.”

The bear nodded. “What do you want to do with the rest of your sessions today?”

She focused on him and realized she hadn’t even considered that. Who did she still have to see? Matilda and Billy. Could she afford not to be there for them? Matilda, yes, she was coming along nicely and jumping a session might actually be good for her, let her know she was improving.

Billy was more problematic. Even after three months he still barely opened up and when he did she could never trust he was telling her the truth. He might see the cancellation as a sign his tactics were wearing her down. But maybe someone else could take a look at him? a different perspective couldn’t hurt, could it?

“Do you think Doctor Novial can see Billy today? His session is for four this after noon.”

“I can ask him. If he can’t, is there another doctor who you feel comfortable seeing him?”

“No. I don’t think any of the others would be compatible. If doctor Novial can’t see him, I will. I’ll have most of the afternoon to work through this, I should be able to to pay attention to him at least.”

“Do you think you should take a few days off?”

That was one of the think she admired about Sebastian. Unlike many other institution which pushed ‘caring for the patient’ to the point where the doctors suffered, he knew that a well rested doctor could do far more for her patient than an exhausted one.

“I’ll make the arrangement myself for my patients over the next few days.”

“Alright. As usual, if there’s anything I can do to help, let me know.” With a thank you she left his office.

She gave herself three days, and only had to see one patient. Mister Wilbury was too set in his way to deal well with a different doctor after six month with her. But he was in the morning of her third day so she was well centered by then.

She dealt with Dietrich’s revelation by doing research, on his family, on the abuser/abused psychology, on child psychology as it related to sex. She didn’t expect to find anything new, but the act allowed her mind to work through the issue, both Dietrich, and her reaction to it. She was more than willing to accept part of the problem might be her view of the world and not his family, if the evidence supported that.

By the end of three days, she hadn’t come to any conclusions, but she felt better. She’d been at ease with Mister Wilbury as he discussed how he abused his wives over the years. As expected she hadn’t come up with anything new. She wasn’t entirely willing to dismiss that Dietrich had been abused by his father yet, but going over the recordings she had to admit that Dietrich didn’t show any of the classic signs of an abuse survivor.

Over the next week she used her free time to do more research, and came up with a new Orr, although she didn’t think he had any bearing on Dietrich’s case. It was in an old news paper from 1824, that had been recently digitized. A picture of a tiger named Baldor Orr that was part of an advertising for his horse hosting and training.

After that she couldn’t do more research, she had too much information in her head and all she needed to do was keep busy while it settled in place and gave her answers. That’s how she found herself in the gym, Pulling on the handle and watching the weights slates go up and down.

A hand caught her and stopped her. “You’re going to hurt yourself.”

She looked behind her and Dietrich was there. “I’m just pulling weights,” she said.

He chuckled. “I noticed that, but you’re up to twenty reps, and the weights kind of high for that. You could tear muscles. What are you trying to accomplish?”

“Nothing, really. I just need something to do.”

“I’d recommend the treadmill or cycles. You can raise up a good sweat and less chances of hurting yourself.” There was no condescension in his tone, just concern.

“Thanks.” She looked at the cycle, and back at her hand. “Actually, if I wanted to train, what would you recommend I do?”

“Depends what you’re looking to get out of it.”

She thought about it. She wasn’t in bad shape, but unlike her previous job, which had her running a lot to keep up with difficult or violent patient, now she spent most of her day sitting at her desk. A great improvement for her stress levels, but it was bound to catch up to her. She didn’t want to end up like her mother who was still fighting, and mostly loosing, with her weight.

“If I just want to stay in shape.”

“So not really looking to build definition?”

“Well, I wouldn’t say no to some definition, but I don’t need to look like you.”

He chuckled. “I doubt anyone needs to look like me. Bodybuilders tends to take it to an extreme. Even I should probably ease off, since I’ll never compete again.”

“Why don’t you?”

He shrugged. “Force of habit I guess. Anytime I’ve used one of these, I’ve been pushing myself as hard as I could. I don’t know how not to do it. So you won’t mind definition, but it isn’t what you’re looking for?”

“Yeah.”

“Okay, so more endurance than strength. How often a week can you work out?”

It was her turn to shrug. “Everyday I guess. The gym’s right here, it’s just a question of using it.”

“Do you mind if we workout together for the next few weeks? It’ll probably take three to fine tune the weighs to what you’ll need.”

“I might not be able to always be here at he same time.”

“That’s okay. Unlike you, my schedule it mostly open. Do you have your tablet?”

“No, left that in my office. I didn’t plan on needing it here.”

Dietrich went the the desk and borrowed one there. The clerk checked with the orderly at the door before handing it to Dietrich. Each patient was different, so it was impossible for everyone who worked at the clinic to know what could and couldn’t be allowed. It was the orderlies’ job to keep on top of that.

“Okay,” he said. “I’m going to build you a schedule that’s two days endurance and one day strength.”

“Won’t I get faster result if I do it more often?”

Dietrich chuckled. “I thought you weren’t looking to look like me.”

“I just meant…”

“I know, but doc, getting in shape is like counseling, it doesn’t work over night. You have to give it time.”

She smiled. “alright. You’re the professional after all.”

Dietrich paused and looked around. “Yeah, I guess I am.” He chuckled to himself. “I guess I am,” he repeated to himself.

He showed her the machines she would used, Her endurance training was on Monday and Friday, and consisted of cardio bike, Rowing machine, Step machine, push-ups and and chin-ups. Her strength training was on Wednesday and consisted of squats, leg curls, bench press, shoulder press, pull ups, curls, press downs, and calf raises.

Those where the ones Dietrich needed to supervise until they found the correct weights for her to use. She was going to use seventy percent of her max weight, but it would take a few sessions until they worked it out.

He handed her the tablet. “Now just send it to yours and bring it so you can keep track. I’ve arranged it so you can go through everything in about an hour. If you want to workout longer, I can add a few strength exercise, or you can stay on the cardio machines longer.”

“So twenty minutes instead of fifteen?” She handed it back. Dietrich didn’t take it. he was looking over her shoulder. She checked.

Timothy was walking through the gym, heading for the free weights. She looked back to Dietrich. She didn’t see desire there, which relieved her. There was concern.

“Is everything alright?”

“Should I apologize to him?”

“Do you feel like you should?”

He nodded. “But I don’t want to make things worse for him.”

“You know what not to do. Do you feel strong enough to resist the temptation?”

“I don’t know. But I’m pretty sure the shame of causing him a setback is going to keep me in check.”

“Alright. I’ll be by the counter.”

The look he gave her was fearful. “You’re not going to supervise?”

“I trust you to do the right thing, I don’t need to hear the words you’ll exchange.” She waited until he was moving toward Timothy before heading to the counter and returning the tablet.

When she turned to look at them, Timothy was getting up from the bench, smiling at Dietrich. They were three quarter, with Dietrich’s back to her so she couldn’t see his face. The way he held himself made her think he was feeling small.

“Should these two be together?” The orderly asked. He was a large bull.

“Mister Orr needs to confront his addiction as much as Timothy. And if things don’t go well, you’re here to separate them, Mike.”

Timothy said something and put a hand on the tiger’s stomach, making him tense. With exaggerated care Dietrich took the hand to removed it, shaking his head. Timothy replied, with stubborn body language and tried to press himself against Dietrich. He didn’t seem to care that people were in the room, some of them watching.

Isabel thought the behavior odd for someone who was suppose to be doing better. She’d have to bring it up with Doctor Slavir.

Dietrich took Timothy by the shoulders and moved him away. She thought she could his hands shaking. By the body language the next words Dietrich said were harsher. He released him and walked away.

“Are you okay?” She asked him when he was close.

Dietrich shrugged. “I think I hurt him more than you thought. He wanted to do it again. When I said no, he said he’d do anything for me.”

Isabel frowned, that was definitely not the kind of behavior she’d expected out of Timothy. “You handled it well.”

He gave her a weak smile and looked over his shoulder. Timothy was back to doing curls. “I’m going to head to the cafeteria. I’ll see you on Wednesday doc.”

A week later she scheduled a session with him. She’d reached a point where she’d accepted that Dietrich was telling her the truth as best as he remembered it, and it was all she could work with. She wasn’t entirely convinced yet nothing had been done to him, but she was going to set that aside for the time being.

“Morning Doc,” his greeted her sitting down. “How are you feeling?”

“I’m okay. My legs are a bit sore.” She’d pushed herself hard, trying to find the maximum she could push. “And I’m also more at ease with your situation.”

“I figured, since you asked me to come back. I didn’t take you for the masochistic type.”

“I’m not, although this job often forces me to endure a lot to help a patient.”

“So what do you want to talk about?”

“You’re brother, Damian.”

“I’d rather not.”

“You have to deal with him and what he did to you.”

“It isn’t that he ‘did’ anything to me. not like you probably mean, like I told you he never cared enough about me to bother. It’s just that he isn’t the kind of person I’m comfortable talking about.”

“Alright. I don’t want you to tell me about him, not right now. What I’m more interested in is your interactions with him when you were kids. I’m going to guess he too had sex with your father?”

“Yeah, when he was eleven. That year he had sex with all of us.”

“You all had sex together, yes?”

“Sure, but it wasn’t the same with him. He wasn’t having sex for the fun of it.”

“You mean he didn’t enjoy it?”

“Oh, he did. But what he was doing was exploring our bodies and his. how it worked, what caused what reaction. By the time he was twelve, He could play us any way he wanted.”

“Play you?”

“Yeah. He could make us cum under five minute or stretch out for hours. He kept me on the edge for three hours one time. By the time he let me cum I was ready to kill him.”

“Why didn’t you take control of things before that?”

“I was tied up.”

“He tied you up?”

“Yeah. I let him.”

“Why?”

Dietrich shrugged. “He knew my buttons. He was praising me, how buff I was getting. How big my cock was, how great a top I was.”

“And you let him tie you up.”

“I wasn’t even thirteen, and I’ve never been the smartest guy. You heard the line ‘praising will get you anything?’ well that was me, even back then. I’ve always had a big ego, and stroking it would usually be more effective than stroking my cock when someone wanted me to do something unwise.”

“How did you feel afterward.”

“Oh I loved it. He was right, it was probably the best orgasm I’d had at the time. that’s why I hate him so much. he always makes you like it. it doesn’t matter what he gets you into, by the time it’s over you might be pissed at him, but it was great. He’s always fucking right.”

She gave him a moment to calm. “how about your extended family? sexually, what was the situation?”

“You want to know if I’d had sex with more than my brothers and father?”

“Yes.”

“Of course I did. I had sex with my uncles, my grandfather and his brothers.” He leaned back and smiled. “Fuck, grandpa was so fucking good. We’d visit him every so often and had a great time.”

“How did his wife feel about it?”

“I don’t know. Grandpa’s dad and mom are the only one who were together for a long time. As far as I know, till they died.

“So the other wives couldn’t deal with their husband having sex with their children and left? but she could?”

He shrugged. “I don’t think any of them knew. Mom abandoned us when I was four, and she never showed up again. Grandma died when dad was seven. I can’t give you details about anyone before great-ma, but I don’t think any of the mothers stuck around to see one of the kids reach his tenth birthday.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know. It’s just how it happens. One of the rules.”

Isabel made a note to come back to the rules at a later point, it wasn’t the first time he’s mentioned that. “So your great grandmother was fine with your great grandfather having sex with all of you?”

“Yeah. I mean, I never met them. They died a couple of years before I was born, But from the story grandpa told She couldn’t keep up with him when they were younger.

“she had to send him to see his friends so she could rest. When Richard got old enough to be interested in sex he helped out, but it wasn’t until granddad was old enough to have sex too that great-pa didn’t have to go see his friends for sex. Not that he stopped that, great-pa put the lot of us to shame when it comes to sex drive. the guy never, ever stopped. Even in his old age, he had more sex than Byron and Bobby do.”

“Those are you uncles.” She said, having placed tham by the first letter of their names. “How old are they now?”

“Byron’s eighty, Bobby’s seventy-six.”

“And they still have sex?”

Dietrich laughed. “Or course. We usually have sex until we drop. Grandpa had a private room at the hospital during his last days, because we figured the staff would have a problem with us riding his cock.”

“Don’t you think that was dangerous to do? at his old age? If he was in the hospital he had to have problems already.”

“He did, but I couldn’t tell you what it was. But he didn’t die from the sex. He was conscious and sane, asking for it. We just love sex. And it wasn’t like there was anyone else who would fuck him. Grandpa never had anyone stay with him in his old age, unlike Bobby and Bryan.”

“Oh? Who do they have?”

“Byron had his boyfriend. He might not be with Gary anymore, a couple of years was as much as his boyfriends could take before being so exhausted the relationship broke down.”

“Exhausted?”

“Yeah, uncle Byron always through appearance was important, so as much as he loves younger guys, his boyfriend was always close to his age. Not many guys in their seventies can keep up with his sex drive.”

“And Bobby?”

“He has his kids looking after him.”

“Kids? I thought you said there was only one family per generation?”

Dietrich opened his mouth then closed it. he was silent for a long time. “Doc. Do you mind if we end this here? I need to think about how I’m going to answer this. We’re going to be threading on a subject you might have trouble with.”

“I think I should be okay, after all I did find my footing with your family.”

“I know, but this is different.”

“Alright, Then I’ll see you tomorrow at the gym?”

Dietrich smiled. “Sure thing doc. Oh, now that you’re pretty much found your weights, What’s your diet like?”

Her ears warmed. “probably not as good as it should be.”

He nodded. “what do you normally have?”

She sigh. “I usually grab a few sandwiches from the cafeteria for lunch. Dinner tends to be something from one of the places on the way home.”

“Breakfast?”

She looked at him. “A toast? if I have time I might butter it.”

She saw the smile he tried to hid. “Alright. Now that you’re training, you need to make sure to have a balanced intake of carbs, proteins and amino acids. Do you mind if I write you up menu options for you meals? They’ll be things the cafeteria makes. I’m guessing you haven’t bothered looking, but the food’s quite good. You won’t have to do anything, except take the time to sit down and eat.”

“My days are rather busy, Dietrich.”

“Doc, if you can’t find a way to make time for three thirty minute breaks a day, maybe you need to see a doc of your own.”

She had to smile.

“If it helps, I can follow you around and twist your arm when ever necessary for you to eat. As you know, I am quite strong.” He flexed a bicep.

She laughed. “No, that won’t be needed. I’ll make sure I have the time.”

“Just remember, I’ll be checking in on you.” With that he left.

She brought up her weekly schedule and looked at it, seeing what she could shift to make the needed time.

*

The next day, she received a message from Dietrich with the list of menu options. For breakfasts there was an option of three brand name breakfast shakes, and four meals offered at the cafeteria. Lunch was six option from the cafeteria, and dinner was five. With that were some brands of pill supplements he recommended she added.

She discussed the choices with him during her training. The pills were to fill in the gaps with some of the amino acids the meals couldn’t cover. She observed that he had a protein shake before training, but he pointed out he was doing intensive training so needed the extra protein. So long as she continued with her regiment, she wouldn’t need it.

*

The day after Dietrich sat on her couch, thoughtful. “Alright,” he finally said, “Before I can tell you about uncle Bobby’s kids, I need to explain something. Each one of us in my family, we have something we call an eccentricity. It’s something that turns us on more than the rest. We don’t need it to get turned on, but we do really enjoy it.”

“So it’s like a kink?”

“yeah, but it might not be as weird. For example, for me it’s being worshiped. If a guy does that to me, I’ll be hard in an instant.”

“What if he then decides he doesn’t want to?”

Dietrich paused in what he was about to say and she thought he couldn’t believe anyone might want to say no to sex with him.

“Well, it would be inconvenient, but there are other guys out there, and unless we’re talking while I’m stuck here, I know where to look to find willing guys. Here I’d go jerk off.”

“Alright, so it isn’t a compulsion that needs to be satisfied.”

Dietrich shook his head. “Like I said, it’s just an especially effective turn on. So, mine is being worshiped. Dominic, it’s being dominated. Don and Dan, for them it’s tag teaming. I don’t think I’ve ever seen them have sex without the other. Damian it’s manipulating others.”

“So everyone in your family has such an eccentricity?”

He nodded. “Except dad. As far as we know he never demonstrated any.”

“Maybe he kept it hidden?”

Dietrich smiled. “Doc, in my family we don’t keep sex stuff hidden. IF dad had one it was so ordinary we just never noticed it. Okay. now our eccentricities aren’t normally anything extreme, or illegal, most of the time it’s just extra fun.”

“but?” She prodded when he became silent.

He sighed. “But, once in a while, someone has one that’s more extreme. Actually both my uncle’s eccentricities are extreme, and while I’m sure you’ll think Bobby’s is worse, I’ve always considered Byron’s to be the worse of the two.”

“Really? I would expected you to say Damian’s was the worse.”

Dietrich shook his head. “I don’t like the asshole, but I’ve never seen him do anything really bad, he’ll just manipulate you into something you wouldn’t otherwise do, and you’ll like it.”

She nodded. “Alright, your uncles then?”

“You ever heard of the show ‘Predators’?”

“I don’t think so.” Although the name did sound familiar.

“Uncle Byron produced it. It documented psychopath and sociopaths, it ran for almost a decade I think. okay. My uncle Byron’s eccentricity was teens. He loves having sex with them, but more than that, he loves making them desperate to have sex. catching them when they’ve had a bad night on the town, tried to score but didn’t manage it. He loved cornering them and playing off their desperation. I’m almost certain the reason he pushed the show was so he would have an excuse to research how other serial rapists proceeded.”

“He raped them?”

“None on them ever said rape, or sent the cops after my uncle, but I know he broke one of our sacred rules, although he’ll happily said he never did.”

“Which rule?”

“No, means no. You don’t keep on a guy after he said no to you. There’s plenty of guys out there we don’t have to ever be so desperate we have to force ourselves on someone else.”

“And he pushed a guy to have sex with him?”

“He never outright said so. And I think that technically, no guy ever said no, but I know he drugged many of the teens he had sex with.”

“With what?”

“Alcohol, Mushrooms, I don’t really know, but I know his preferred one was hornweed.”

“Hornweed?”

He nodded. “You ever heard of Enhance?”

“Triplanil, sure, it’s the drug that helps people with low sex drives.”

Dietrich, nodded. “Yeah, well the active ingredient in it is derive from a plant we call hornweed. He grows wild on a piece of land we own in PA. We’d go camping then when I was a kid. I ate some, an the effect of the plant are way stronger then what ever they put in the pill. I only had a couple of leaves and I was almost out of my mind with horniness for the rest of the day.

“Uncle Byron would bring groups of teens there, and he’d get them to ingest it without them knowing.”

“He told you that?”

“No. I caught him doing it. I didn’t know he was there, he didn’t know I had gone on a hike. He was mixing it in the meal he was cooking. The guys he’d brought were off exploring the area and I confronted him. I couldn’t believe he was doing that. He laughed it off, he wasn’t doing anything bad. They were just going to have a good time. I might have believed him if I didn’t know first hand the effect or the fact I knew he had no problem targeting straight guys.”

“Did you report him?”

He shook his head. “He’s family, I couldn’t do that to him. I was twenty-one, he was older. I told myself he knew what he was doing, and it was clear it wasn’t the first time he’d done it, and no one had ever complained, so he had to be right.”

“But you no longer feel that way?”

“I haven’t for a long time.”

“Would you report him now?”

“He’s eighty. What would be the point.”

“His victims deserve justice, don’t they?”

Dietrich looked at his feet. “He’s family. I can’t.”

She nodded. She couldn’t do anything, other than help him reach a point where he would be able to do what was right. Even if doctor patient confidentiality might be a gray area here, She couldn’t report anything if Dietrich wasn’t going to support it.

“Alright, How about Bobby?” She wondered what his eccentricity might be, considering he’d said she would consider it worse than Byron’s.

Dietrich sighed. “Uncle Bobby’s eccentricity is young children.” He stopped there.

She was about to prompt him to continue when the pins fell into place. She felt herself become cold. How dare he!

Then she saw the look Dietrich gave her. A mix of hurt and anger and she forced her reaction under control. She wasn’t suppose to let her judgment affect her sessions. As she regained control, Dietrich’s expression soften.

“I want to assure you, he has never forced himself on any of them.”

“You said the eccentricities were sexual.”

“They are, but it isn’t a compulsion.”

“How do you know he doesn’t force himself on them?”

“Because he loves children too much to ever want to hurt them.”

“That’s what pedophile will tell…”

“He isn’t a pedophile!” Dietrich stopped himself and, with effort, sat back down. “Alright,” he whispered, “technically, he is.” He forced himself to meet her gaze. “I’ve seen him with them, he genuinely loves them.”

“You’ve seen him have sex with them?”

“No. not when they are kids, but when they are older, I’ve met some when he had barbecues. And yes, I’ve had sex with some of them, but it was consensual.”

“He remained in contact with them?”

“Yeah. He stays in touch as best as he can, those who live close enough drop by every so often. I know his neighbor was really close to him the last time I visited them.”

“And that neighbor?”

“His one of his kids.”

Isabel frowned. This was way outside the norm. Normally pedophile didn’t keep in contact with their victims, once they were too old, they just moved on to the next victim. And those victims rarely stayed attached.

“Alright.” she said, her tone guarded. “What does your uncle do?”

“He allows them to explore their sexual curiosity without judgment.”

“With him.”

“Yeah, it isn’t like he would trust them with someone else. He doesn’t push them, he lets them proceed at their own pace. If they don’t show any interest he doesn’t rejects them, he continues to care for them.”

She sighed. “Dietrich, Children at that age are influenceable. they don’t get into something like that without being pushed into it.”

It was Dietrich’s turn to give her an incredulous look.

She raised a hand. “okay, I know your family is different, but you have to accept you’re an exception.”

“Doc. You need to read some anthropological books.”

She raised an eyebrow.

“what? I read. I did a lot of flying when I was competing, there isn’t much else to do when traveling coach.”

The edge of her lips quirked up against her will. here was a guy who identified himself as not very smart, and he was reading anthropological books.

“Look, he continued. Even today, in remote tribes in Africa, The boys become sexually active as young as eleven or twelve, the girls sometime younger. That sexual maturity at sixteen thing that’s a social construct imposed by society. My family is only the exception in that we don’t agree to be bound by what society says we should be.

“My uncle lets boys who are becoming sexually awakened explore that sexuality in a safe environment.”

“You understand I have a difficult time accepting that.”

“I do. I know that the need to protect children in ingrained deep in all of us, including my uncle.”

“So those boys just find their way to him on their own?”

Dietrich shrugged. “I don’t know. It isn’t like I had long discussions with him about it, or interrogated the guys I spent time with. I do know of a handful of time when a father, who was one of his kids, brought his own boy to him.”

“And what happened?” she asked, dreading the answer.

“I only know of three of them, two, nothing happened. He baby sat them everyday for a month or so and they never showed any interest, and the third became one of his kids.”

“How do you know that?”

“I met the fathers and kids at a barbecue and they talked about their experiences.”

She had a very difficult time believing him. His uncle had to have the largest cult of personality she’d ever heard of.

“I’m going to let you process all this,” Dietrich said, although she hardly paid attention. “Let me know when you want my next session to be.”

She nodded, and then she was alone.

She put her elbow on her desk, and head in her hands. This was beyond the scope of what he knew how to deal with. And she’d thought herself immune to shock after her time at he asylum.

She was pleased with herself that she was able to put that problem aside while she dealt with her other patient. And to stop for her lunch, something that felt odd, instead of grabbing something quick and eating while she worked.

She spent the weekend thinking it over, and by Monday she’d figured out what she needed to do. She found Dietrich in the cafeteria. He reminded her to have her own breakfast. She finished it quickly and caught up to him in the hall, next to his room. She pushed him in and closed the door behind her.

“Err doc, I don’t think this is a good idea.”

She stopped and went over her action, then groaned. “No, this isn’t what this looks like.”

He grinned. “Right, because they never say that.”

“I’m serious Dietrich.”

“Alright. What can I do then?”

“I want your permission so I can go talk to your uncle Bobby.”

*

Damian’s eyebrow went up. “You spoke with Bobby?” She couldn’t tell if he was amused or irritated. “And what did he say?”

She looked at him, sitting there, expecting her to do as he said. She smiled. “If you don’t mind, I’ll recount it in my own way.”

His only acknowledgment was the canting of an ear.

*

“You what?” Dietrich yelled, and Isabel was happy the room was soundproofed.

“I want to go talk with your uncle.”

“No, Absolutely not.” He paced in the small room. “I didn’t tell you all that just so you could go confront him and try to solve what ever problem you decided he has.”

“That’s not it.”

He glared at her.

“I promise you Dietrich, I don’t want to talk to him because I feel I need to ‘fix’ him. I have to talk to him because…” She threw he hands in the air and if there had been more space she’d be pacing too. “Look. You told me something pretty extraordinary. That an adult was having sex with a child and there was no abuse involved. It goes against everything I know. Nowhere in the literature does it say this happens. Sure there’s been plenty of groups that have claimed it, but anytime a professional looked at them closely, they found the child was being molested.”

“Bobby would never!”

“So you’ve said.” She forced herself to stay calm. raising her voice, escalating, wouldn’t help the situation. “And that’s part of the problem. You telling me about it.”

“Are you saying I’m lying?” His voice was softer now, but there was menace in it.

“No. I understand that you believe what you’re telling me, but I need to know if it’s true or not.”

“I already told you it is. Why can’t you accept that?”

“Because I know the mind will see what it wants to see, and not always what’s there. To be able to help you, I need to know that what you are telling me is more than your interpretation of it.”

He paced a few more time in silence than sat down. “What if you decide that what he did is wrong?”

She didn’t immediately answer. She knew that what his uncle did was wrong, but this wasn’t about him, it was about Dietrich, and what she could do for him. With first hand information she could help him see the truth.

But she wouldn’t lie to him. “I promise, no matter what I find, I wont report him to the authorities, I’m only going there so I can help you.” And she wouldn’t. If she lied to him all her work would be undone. She would have to find a way to work through the knowledge she was leaving a pedophile free to roam.

He put his head in his hands. “I’m going to have to tell him you’re coming.” he said without looking up. “You can’t just show up unannounced.”

She’d have to talk with Sebastian. He had to approved the phone call, but she thought she could make it happen.

“Alright, Let me set it up for your session, after lunch. He’s retired, so you expect he’ll be home?”

“If he isn’t he’ll have his phone with him.”

“Alright, then I’ll see you then.” She left to go make the arrangement.

*

She sat at her desk, Dietrich on the other side, looming and looking at the phone on it.

“I don’t know if I can do this,” he said.

“It’s your choice, I can’t force you.”

Dietrich snorted.

“True, but I won’t force you.”

“I know. I guess I wish you would, that way if this goes wrong I could blame someone other than me.”

Before she replied he punched in a number and set the phone to speaker.

It rang twice then was answered by someone sounding much to young to be Dietrich’s uncle. “Hello?”

The tiger frowned. “Hello, I’m trying to reach my uncle, Bobby Orr?”

“Oh, he can’t come to the phone right now. he’s busy with my dad. I’m not suppose to tell you what they’re doing.”

Dietrich smiled. “It’s okay, I won’t ask. When will they… When are you going home?”

“Why do you want to know that?”

“Because I want to make sure I won’t disturb him and your father when I call back.”

“Oh, Okay. We have to leave before four, so we can be home by five. Dad’s got to cook dinner before mom gets home from work at six.”

“Alright, I’ll call back after that.”

“Okay. what’s your name? I’ll tell him you called.”

“It’s Dietrich.”

“Okay, bye.” The call ended.

She shut down the phone. “That boy’s father is…?”

“Having sex with my uncle.”

“And the boy?”

Dietrich shrugged. “I can’t know for sure, but if he knows they’re having sex, I’m guessing he’s one of my uncles kids. He wouldn’t expose one who wasn’t to it.”

She nodded. “Would they both have sex with the boy?”

“It depends on how old the kid is, and if his father’s okay with it.”

She canted her head.

“I told you, he doesn’t force them. So he won’t have sex with them until they are ready. The sheer logistic of a child and an adult means anal can’t happen until he’s the right age.”

“What age is that?”

“I don’t know. I did it at eleven, but I know my family’s unusual. I guess it’s something you’ll have to ask my uncle. he’ll be able to tell you.”

“Alright, Since the child will tell your uncle you called, I expect he’ll stay close for when you call again, so how about four thirty? I’ll have finished my last patient by then.”

He nodded.

*

Dietrich didn’t hesitate as long before punching in the number this time.

It rang three time, then. “Hello,” said a deep baritone.

Now Dietrich hesitated. “Uncle Bobby?” he finally asked.

“Dietrich, how are you doing? It’s been far to long since you called, what have you been up to?”

The tiger looked at her, the question on his face. She kept hers neutral. it wasn’t for her to say what he should and shouldn’t say.

“I’m okay. I’m in rehab.”

“Rehab? oh.” The cheerfulness fell out of the voice.

“You had to know.”

“I knew you’d fallen on hard time when your career ended, and I’d heard you’d taken up drinking, but I didn’t realize it had become this bad. I’m glad you’ve sought help.”

Dietrich chuckled. “Wasn’t really my choice, but that’s why I’m calling. My therapist would like to talk with you.”

“Of course, tell him to call when ever is convenient.” Dietrich didn’t add anything. She’d asked him not to reveal the reason for her visit.

“She’d like to do it in person.”

“In person? Well, that’s rather unorthodox, but certainly. So long as I have a few hours warning I can make sure I’m available.”

“Okay, I’ll give her your number and she’ll contact you.”

“Alright. Dietrich, are you okay? How are they treating you?”

“The rules are a bit restrictive. I can’t have sex.”

“No sex?”

“No, but there are good reasons for it, so I’m managing. I haven’t jerked off so much ever in my life.”

“I… I don’t know what to say. Have you thought about looking for another clinic?”

“It wouldn’t work. This is the right place for me. I’m actually getting better.”

“I’m glad to hear it. You need to come visit, it’s been too long since we’ve spent time together.”

“You’ll be my first stop once I’m out of here. I swear.”

“Good. Have a good evening Dietrich.”

“You too uncle.” She remained still and silent as Dietrich cried. “Fuck I miss him,” he eventually whispered.

“You’ll get to see him again.”

“Thanks doc. I hope you’re right.”

She put a hand on his arm. “You told him the truth, you are getting better.”

He dried his eyes.

“It’ll probably take me a week or two to make the arrangements to go there.”

Dietrich smiled. “just remember to use the gym at whatever hotel you stay at.”

She chuckled. “Sure thing coach.”

*

Isabel waited until most everyone had gotten out of their seats and and the disembarking was well underway before standing. She didn’t like flying. The crowding, the noise, the constant annoyance of her neighbor trying to engage her in conversation, or, upon finding out she was a psychologist, trying to get her to give out advice.

This was only her third flight in her life. The first one had been when she was five, a trip to Europe with her parents, two brothers and grandparents. She didn’t remember the trip, but the videos showed her enjoying herself.

Her second flight was when she’d been invited to Oxford to participate in a symposium. She had hated the flight, but loved being in England. She’d taken an extra two weeks vacation and explored London as well as the island. She’d met a guy there, a charming sheep dog, and he had spent the last week showing her the sights during the days, and his bedroom during the nights.

They’d promised each other they’d stay in touch when she left, and he was going to try to visit her in Philadelphia. For three months they chatted daily, but it tapered off after that, the work as well as the distance cooling what they had felt for each other until she didn’t remember him most of the time.

She wondered what he was up to these days. Had he found himself a girl and settled down? was he too busy with his chemistry work to have time for a relationship? She was projecting. She was the one who kept herself too busy with work.

She made it the front of the plane and handed her phone to the stewardess so she could remove the Faraday lock from it

Ever since the Airbus disaster of 2032 Airlines had cracked down on phone usage on planes. They’d tried to outright ban them, but they were too ingrained in daily life for that to work. For a while they gave a box to each passengers and they had to keep their phones as well as any other devices with wireless capabilities in them. But again, people were too used to them and would sneak them out to use them. It didn’t matter what fine they imposed on them, people were simply too addicted to their devices.

When the uproar cased by the airlines resorting to banning people from flying due to breaking the rules became too loud a firm stepped in and offered a solution. A bar the attacked to the back of the device and jammed all wireless transmission from it. This let the passengers use their phones to distract themselves during the flight, but not run the risk of interfering with the plane’s systems.

The attendant handed it back to her and she stepped into the airport. As she put her away it buzzed. It buzzed again as she looked at the screen. She had two messages waiting, one from ten minutes after she’d boarded the plane, and the second thirty minutes later.

“Isabel, it’s Sebastian.” his tone was urgent. “There’s a problem with one of your patient. Call me back as soon as you get this.”

She listened to the other.

“Isabel, the situation’s getting worse. I had to restrain him. I know you had high hopes for him, but I’ve had to transfer him to my wing of the clinic.”

She cursed and called him back. “Sebastian, what’s going on?” She ask as soon as he answered. “Which of my patient are you talking about?”

“Isabel, finally. Why did you take so long to get back to me?”

“I was in the air, they’d faradayed my phone. Now, who are you talking about? what did he do that warranted taking him to you wing.”

“Dietrich Orr, he attacked Timothy.”

She stopped and was bumped by the people walking around her. “That’s…. That’s impossible.”

“I didn’t want to believe it myself, but I’ve seen the result, and when we tried to pull him away, Dietrich became violent. I haven’t been able to get a straight word out of him.”

Despite the seriousness of the situation she couldn’t help the thought that of course he couldn’t get a straight word from him, he was as gay as it came. “Look, Don’t do anything until I get there.”

“You know the procedure Isabel. I have to start on him immediately for the treatment to be most effective.”

“Sebastian, please. I’m just three hours away. You’ve already waited the two hours it took for me to call you back, you can wait that much longer, can’t you? I’m his therapist, I need to talk with him before you start on him. I need to know what happened.” She forced herself to start moving again. She had to get to her car as fast as she could.

“Isabel, he was raving, I don’t know that you’ll get anything out of him. I know you don’t like my method, but it works. I will help him.”

She heard Bobby. ‘you lot just shove pills into them until you fix what you think is wrong and in the process you destroy everything that made them special. “Sebastian, please. I have to be there, he trusts me I can’t let him go through this alone.” Doctor Threcklec didn’t use pills, but she had no doubt what ever made Dietrich who he was wouldn’t be there by the time he was done.

She almost tripped. She couldn’t let him go through that. Whatever had happened, she couldn’t let Dietrich go through that, even if it cost her her job.

“Alright,” the bear said after a long silence, “I’ll wait until you get here, just, Isabel, don’t get your hopes up. I don’t think there’s anything you can do for him.”

We’ll see about that, she thought, but what she said was, “thank you.” She ran to her car.

*

She ran through the clinic for Sebastian’s office. The door was open, as it often was, and he was working at his desk. “I’m here,” she said, panting, “take me to him.”

He nodded solemnly and stood. She followed he to the restricted wing, Where only Doctor Threcklec and a hand picked group had access. This was where he housed the patients normal method hadn’t helped.

“Isabel, remember, He’s retained because he was dangerous.”

She looked at the bear in disbelief.

“He hurt Timothy and when he pulled him away he broke George’s arm and Emily has a concussion.”

“Is he sedated?”

Sebastian consulted his watch. “I sedated him when he had his second bout of rage, that was four hours ago, It will have worn off by now.”

He unlocked the door and opened it. The room was very much like Dietrich’s normal room, but only had the bed, but with leather restraints. The tiger wasn’t wearing those, he was in a straitjacket. Sitting on the bed and glaring at them.

“You muzzled him?”

“He nearly bit my hand off,” The bear said.

“I’m taking it off.”

“Isabel, don’t.”

She whirled on him. “Damn it, Sebastian. He’s my patient. I’m not going to be able to talk to him with the muzzle on.” She didn’t wait for him to say anything. She turned to Dietrich. “Dietrich,” she called to get him to look away from the bear and at her. The anger in his eyes was bright. “I’m going to take the muzzle off, alright?”

The anger diminished slightly and he nodded. He leaned his head forward so she could reach back an undo the buckle. Once off she threw it away with a disgusted look at Sebastian.

Dietrich was opening and closing his jaw, moving it side to side. He settled his glare back on the bear.

“What happened?” Isabel asked.

“Didn’t he tell you?” Dietrich growled.

“Dietrich, please look at me.” She hesitated a moment before placing a hand on his thigh. “He told me that you attacked Timothy.”

“I didn’t!” he yelled at her.

She met his glare and didn’t look away. “What happened.”

He snorted and looked away.

“Dietrich, I can’t help you if you wont talk to me.”

“Like you give a damn.”

“Dietrich, have I ever lied to you?”

He glared at her. “I don’t know.”

The answer took her by surprise.

“I never…” she started.

“You expect me to believe it’s coincidence this,” he nodded to what he was wearing, “happened when you were away?”

“I went to see your uncle, like we discussed. He can’t,” she hesitated for a moment, “he can’t wait for you to visit.

Dietrich closed his eyes tight and rested his head against the wall. “You said I’d get out of here.”

“You have my word on that, but you need to talk to me.”

His sigh was interrupted by a sob. “I just want to go home, Doc.”

She squeezed his thigh. “You will. Please tell me what happened.”

Dietrich took a deep breath and his sobs ebbed. “I was working out. I don’t know if Tim was around then, I didn’t notice him. I headed for one of the bathrooms afterward, to shower and change. He pushed his way in as I was closing the door. He wanted to have sex again. I told him no. He insisted, said I was the best he ever had, better than his dad, and his dad’s friends. I told him no again. I tried to explain that it wasn’t good for him, that it was against the rules. He didn’t care. He ripped my pants open and groped me. I pulled his hand away and opened the door to push him outside. He shut it and said that I had to have sex with him. When I said no again, he banged the back of his head against the door, hard enough there was blood.”

“That’s a lie,” the bear said.

“Shut up, Sebastian,” Isabel told him, surprising him, and herself, with the anger in her voice. “Continue Dietrich.”

“After that he dug his claws in his arm and raked them deep, He did the same to his chest and screamed. I tried to make him stop, but he pushed me away. he claws his face.”

“Dietrich, you’re stronger than him, how could he push you away?”

“I was trying not to panic. I didn’t want to hurt him so I didn’t use all my strength. When the orderlies opened the door I’d decided to be more forceful, I was holding him so he couldn’t hurt himself, but they pushed me away, they piled up on me.”

“They were keeping you away from him.”

“I was trying to help him! While the bunch of self important wanna be cop were holding me down Tim was still clawing himself!”

She looked at the bear.

“He was the threat. His hands were covered with Timothy’s blood.”

She didn’t say anything and turned to looked at Dietrich again.

“Then they threw me in here and hosed me down.”

She nodded. “Doctor Threcklec said you had a second outburst of violence.”

“Of course I did. What did they expect me to do when they walk in with this in their hands.” he moved his arms up and down. “I’m an Orr. I’m not someone’s little bitch who lets himself get mistreated. I defended myself.”

Isabel glared at the bear. “You told me you restrained him because of the outburst.”

“The straitjacket is procedure, Isabel.”

“I don’t care. He shouldn’t be in here. He tried to help Timothy.”

“You can’t be believing what he’s saying.”

“I am.”

“You expect me to believe that Timothy hurt himself because Dietrich here wouldn’t have sex with him, when your patient has already demonstrated his disregard for the rules?”

She wanted to scream at him, but escalating here wouldn’t help any more then with a patient. “yes, I do. Dietrich has told me many unbelievable things. My trip was to confirm one of them. I now know that he has never lied to me. That incident taught Dietrich the danger in breaking the rules, and he has not broken them since.”

“Isabel, open your eyes. You’re too close to him. Timothy told Stanko what happened.”

Doctor Stanko Slavir was the doctor who had taken over Timothy’s therapy when Doctor Jenifer Lawrence retired. She hadn’t interacted all that much with the tall moose, but he was well spoken and she hadn’t heard any gossip circulating about him.

“Did you talk to Timothy?”

“No, Stanko felt that after the trauma it was best if Timothy only dealt with someone he was already comfortable with.”

“Alright, I’d like to see the recording. I want to hear what Timothy said.”

“Isabel, do you really think that’s necessary?”

“I do. We have two testimony that contradict each other. You accused me of being too close to my patient, but can’t the same be said of Doctor Slavir and Timothy? I’d like to hear for myself what was said, specially considering that I saw Timothy coming onto Dietrich a few weeks ago.”

“You didn’t say anything,” Sebastian said.

“I mentioned it to Doctor Slavir. You can ask Victor, if you don’t believe me, he was in the gym when it happened.”

The bear was thoughtful for a moment. “Alright. Let’s go to my office.”

“What about Dietrich?”

“He’s staying here.”

“Sebastian, be reasonable.”

“No, Doctor Irmal, He stays. Nothing will happen to him, until we’ve looked into this, but I won’t risk letting him out.”

She took a tissue out of her pocket and dried the tiger’s eyes. “I’m going to be back. I’ll fix this.”

He gave her a small smile. “Thanks doc.”

After the bear locked the door she followed him to his office. Sebastian sat down, making the chair creak and navigated through menus and folders. She turned away each time he asked her to so he could enter passwords, eight, all told. The session archive was under more layers of security than she thought.

Every doctors here recorded their sessions, it was standard practice, so they could go over the session. But every offices was also wired and recorded them to a protected archive, both for the protection of the therapists and the patient. If at any time, this one a perfect example of it, there was a conflict or an accusation of misconduct, they could be retrieved and examined.

Sebastian frowned, and typed some more. He grumbled under his breath.

She watched him work, his demeanor becoming more frustrated as time passed.

“What is going on here?” he finally said. “I can’t find any of Stanko’s session with Timothy.”

“I thought the recording happened automatically, based on our schedule.”

“It does, but for some reason it didn’t record his.”

“Then maybe we should talk to Timothy ourselves?” She asked.

“I’d rather ask Stanko for his recording,” the bear answered.

“Do you think that’s wise? I don’t know anything about how a system as the one used here work, but I can’t imaging it’s easy for a fault this specific to happen by accident. If doctor Slavir engineered it, wouldn’t it be best to not alert him we know about it?”

“Why would Stanko do such a thing?” He shook his head. “Doesn’t matter, if it is an accident, I can apologize for stepping on his toes afterward. Do you mind if we use your office to talk to Timothy? I don’t think here is appropriate, and I want an official record in the system.”

“I don’t have anyone schedule, there won’t be any records.”

“I’m going to override it and set it to record until I turn it off.” He typed a few commands and stood. She went to her office, while he went to get Timothy. She took her phone, placed it on her desk and set it to record. A moment later Sebastian was back with Timothy. He had him sit on the couch was the bear stood behind Isabel.

She looked at Timothy, bandaged and worryingly eying the bear and suppressed a chuckle. “Sebastian, can you get a chair, you’re too imposing, standing like that.”

With a blush of embarrassment he left and came back with the chair from his office. Seated to the side of her desk and nodded to her, letting her lead the conversation.

“How are you doing Timothy?”

He shrugged. “I’m okay. my arms and sides itch, but the nurse said that’ll pass in a few days.”

“I’d like to talk to you about what happened between you and Dietrich.”

“Is he okay?”

The earnestness of the question made Sebastian look to her.

“He’s in lockdown, because of what happened.”

“Oh.” Timothy said.

“Why don’t you tell me what happened?”

“I’m not suppose to.”

“What do you mean?”

“I’m only suppose to talk about it with Stanko.”

Isabel kept her surprise to herself, while every doctor wanted his patient to be comfortable around them, Timothy’s use of Doctor Slavir’s first name spoke of a level of familiarity that made her uncomfortable. By Sebastian’s frown she could tell he felt the same.

“Did he say why?”

“He’s my doctor, he knows what’s best.”

“And he told you not to talk about it to anyone, not even the other doctors?”

Timothy nodded.

Isabel’s concern went up, what was a doctor doing encouraging secrecy? A large part of the treatment was about getting them to open up, stop hiding what they did, how they felt.

Because of the recent research she’d done on abuse in preparation with talking to Bobby, she was getting a bad feeling about this. She couldn’t voice it, not without running the risk of influencing Timothy’s answers, so she’d have to choose her questions carefully. She’d start with a simple one.

“What do you think of Doctor Slavir?”

Timothy gave her a confused look.

“Stanko.”

“Oh. I like him. he’s nice. He’s good, but Dietrich’s better.”

What could he mean by that? He’d barely interacted with Dietrich, and except for this last time the only real interaction had been when they…. She’d just gotten her confirmation without expecting it. She glanced at Sebastian, but he didn’t show any indication he’d worked out the implication of what had been said. But if preferred Dietrich, why had he said he’d been attacked?

Maybe he didn’t understand the implications? “You know Dietrich’s in trouble, don’t you Timothy?”

He looked at the floor and nodded.

“Did you know he was going to get in trouble?”

He opened his mouth, but shut it before saying anything.

Sebastian looked at her strangely.

“Do you know what’s going to happen to him, Timothy?”

He shook his head.

“Doctor Threcklec, why don’t you tell him what will happen?”

Sebastian frowned and she indicated Timothy.

“I’ve taken Dietrich to my wind for treatment.”

“When is he coming back?” Timothy asked.

“What do you mean?” Sebastian asked.

“When will he be back here?”

“He isn’t. He’s going to stay in my wing until he’s ready to leave the clinic.”

Timothy frowned. “that’s not right.”

“What do you mean?” Sebastian asked again.

“He said that….” Timothy clamped his mouth shut.

“Who said what?” the bear asked his tone demanding.

“Sebastian, please,” Isabel said. He might have had training as a therapist, but that was more than two decades ago. his own technique didn’t ask for the tact this situation required.

Timothy had pulled his knees up to his chest and was holding them, a wall between him and the danger he saw in the bear. She thought about taking Sebastian outside and telling him, but it would only be her word against Doctor Slavir, and Timothy would never say anything under direct questioning.

“Timothy, you said Dietrich was better than Doc… then Stanko. How is he better?”

Sebastian looked at her, clearly trying to figure out what she was doing.

Timothy smiled. “Well, he’s much bigger, for one thing. Stanko’s not small, but he isn’t as big.”

Sebastian’s frown looked like it was about to reach the bridge of his muzzle, and she could understand, Doctor slavir was a good head taller than Dietrich, and wide shouldered. Even with the tiger being a body builder, no one would ever say he was bigger than the moose.

“But Dietrich’s also better at it. I know we only had sex once, but he felt so much better. Stanko makes me feel good, but Dietrich makes me feel amazing.”

The bear coughed. He’d finally realized what Timothy had said.

“That son of a bitch,” the bear growled and stormed out of her office.

Isabel watched the door bounced off the wall and close again. She hadn’t expected the bear to react quite that way. It took her a moment to react.

“Stay here Timothy.” She calmly left her office and closed the door, then ran to doctor Slavir’s office. The door was kicked in. The desk had been shoved out of the way and Sebastian had the moose against the wall, holding him by the neck and his other arm wound back hand in a fist. He was screaming obscenities.

She jumped and wrapped her arms around the bear’s. “Sebastian, no!” She was fully aware now that he was much stronger than she’d thought and he could probably shake her off easily. Under that thick layer of fat had to be solid muscles for him to have pushed the desk all the way across the room. But she couldn’t let him strike the moose, not in front of a patient.

The doe’s eyes were wide as she held herself.

“Let go of me, Isabel,” the bear growled. “This son of a bitch has to pay for what he’s done.”

“What is Threcklec going on about?” Slavir managed to wheeze, fighting to pry the hand around his neck off.

“You can’t do this Sebastian,” she said, trying and failing to pull his arm down. He could lift her with just one arm. How strong was he?

“Like Hell I can’t.”

He wouldn’t see how wrong this was. She hoped his priority were still intact. “You’ll traumatize the patient.”

The bear stiffened and looked over his shoulder. He whispered a curse. “Get her out of here, Isabel.”

“Not until you promise me you won’t do anything to doctor Slavir.”

“He doesn’t deserve that honorific,” Sebastian spat.

“I agree, but I still want your word. You’re a doctor too, if he won’t act like one, you have to.”

Slavic was looking at them brow furrowed. He wasn’t fighting Sebastian’s grip anymore, but he breathed normally.

“Fine, I won’t give him the pounding he deserve. Now, please get Miss Willis out of here.”

Isabel slowly let go of his arm, in stage, in case he broke his word, but he lowered his arm.

She went to the doe and placed a hand on her arm. The doe jerked.

“Miss Willis, I need you to come with me.” She had no idea what had caused her to fall into addiction, but this wasn’t helping.

The doe looked at the bears back. “Is? is everything alright?”

Isabel shook her head and helped her stand. The doe’s legs were unsteady as Isabel lead her out of the room. Outside she waved the first orderly she saw over. She had no idea what the fox’s name was.

“Please take Miss Willis to her room, and made sure she has a large cup of chamomile tea to calm her nerves.” He took her arm and lead the doe away.

Isabel took a breath to calm herself before returning in the office.

“… think this is about?” Slavir was saying. “but I’m sure we can talk and resolve this like the professionals we are.”

Sebastian snorted.

Isabel moved next to the bear. “Maybe we should talk this over,” she said. “Working your anger off on him isn’t going to get you answers.”

“Wanna bet?” Sebastian replied.

“Damn it, Threcklec. What is this about?”

The bear looked over his shoulder at the closed door, then grabbed Slavir’s chair, which had been overturned and righted it. “Sit down,” he said, letting go of the moose.

Slavir rubbed his neck. “I want you to explain yourself, Threcklec.”

“Sit the fuck down!”

The moose stared at the bear for a moment, then sat down.

Sebastian grabbed the corner of the desk and pulled it back in place, then sat on the edge of it. It allowed him to get off his feet and retain the psychological advantage of height, Isabel observed.

“We just had a conversation with Timothy Cartrage.”

“Without me?” The moose said.

“Yes, without you. When I couldn’t find any archived recording of your sessions with him I thought it best to talk with him without any chance you’d coach him.”

Isabel picked up the items that had been scattered on the floor when the desk was shoved and put them back on it.

“Why would I coach his answers?”

“To hide the fact you’re having sex with him.”

“Sebastian, that’s preposterous. I have no idea what Timothy told you, but I have not had sex with him. For God’s sake, he’s a patient.”

“Then explain how it is there are no records of your sessions with him?”

“How should I know? I don’t know anything about computer systems. Might be a glitch in the system.”

“Then why would Timothy say you had sex with him?”

“I don’t know. He’s never given me any indications he was interested in me.”

“Really?” Isabel asked from the floor. She was reaching under the desk for a tablet. “You’re exactly the body type he’s attracted to.” She snagged it with a claw.

“That may be,” the moose replied, “but he didn’t show any interest in me. From what I’ve gathered he’s interested in that tiger you’re treating, the one you couldn’t stop from fucking or hurting him.”

Isabel felt her anger flare at the accusation but she didn’t let it control her reaction. “I don’t make a habit of controlling my patients, do you?”

“Aren’t you suppose to be helping them?”

She stop and exchanged a look with Sebastian as she deposited the tablet. “I don’t see how controlling them helps anything.”

The moose snorted. “And what do you think he does?” he pointed to the bear.

“My methods are my own,” Sebastian said. “And my results are proven. I hired you to treat patient, help those you could so they wouldn’t have to deal with me.”

“And that’s what I do.”

“Then why are you talking about controlling them?”

Slavir sighed. “Because that’s all some of them understand and you know it. That Dietrich Orr looks to be one of them.”

“And how would you know?” Sebastian asked before she could comment. Since he had the conversation again she went back to looking for items off the floor.

“Timothy talked about him, a lot. The tiger never leaves him alone.”

“Really? And you didn’t let doctor Irmal know?”

“I sent her a few messages about it.”

“No you didn’t,” She said, reaching under the couch.

“I did.”

She thought it was his phone all the way at the back. “I never received any.”

“I can’t help that. All I know is that I sent them. When you didn’t reply, and your patient didn’t stop harassing mine, I figured you knew what he was going and didn’t care. maybe you were even encouraging him.”

If she hadn’t been straining to reach it she would have told him how stupid he was for thinking that.

“You think doctor Irmal would let her patient do such a thing?” Sebastian asked.

“How would I know? all I know is that she never made him stop.”

“Didn’t you read Timothy’s file when you took over his case? Even if you didn’t. You were here when Dietrich had sex with him and had to be locked in his room. At no time did doctor Irmal defend his actions.”

There, she’d slid it closer.

“Of course she wouldn’t after the fact. but how do you know she didn’t encourage his actions?”

She grabbed it and slid her arm out. She rubbed her shoulder as she looked at the display.

“I can check the backups for her sessions with him.”

“If they’re there. For all you know that glitch erased them too.”

“Then I’d give him access to my own recordings of the sessions,” Isabel said. “Maybe you should give him access to your recordings and clear this whole thing up.”

“I didn’t make any,” the moose said.

The serval stood and turned the phone so Both men could see the display. “You’re recording Miss Willis’ session.”

“Her case is complicated.”

“And Timothy’s isn’t?” Sebastian asked.

“I don’t think so.”

“Doctor Lawrence seemed to think differently, and she’d been working with him for two years.” The bear paused. “Anyway, why don’t you let me check your phone and confirm you haven’t made any records of your sessions with Timothy.”

“No.”

“No?”

“All my patients’ recorded sessions are on there. I can’t chance that you’ll listen to one of theirs by accident. I’ll pull them up and you can see that there aren’t any.”

“No, I don’t think so. They have to be filed, so it should be easy to see if there are any or not.”

“You can’t do that.”

Sebastian shrugged. “How are you going to stop me?”

Isabel tried to leave the recording program, but couldn’t. “His phone’s locked.”

“Go get Victor, he’s handy with phones.”

Victor was a name she knew. He was the bull who usually supervised the gym. She handed the phone to Sebastian but he refused it.

“Keep it.”

“Is it safe to leave you two unsupervised?” she asked.

“I won’t start anything,” Sebastian promised.

She hurried to the gym, where Victor was talking with the giraffe behind the counter. She showed him the phone, explained what Sebastian wanted him to do, and then, with a stop by his locker for his own phone, they came back to Slavir’s office.

The bear and moose were having a staring contest when they entered. Victor sat on the couch and set to work. She sat on the other end of the couch.

“What are we going to find?” Sebastian asked.

The moose glanced nervously at Victor, but didn’t say anything.

“If there’s anything on there,” the bear said, “Victor is going to find it.”

Slavir thought it over. “Look. You have to understand, Timothy didn’t give me a choice,” he finally said.

Sebastian’s hands closed into fists. “So you did have sex with him.”

“Of course I did. He was practically begging for it.”

“Your job was to help him!”

“I tried! But all he did was go one and on about how good it had felt to be fucked again. He wanted it again, but that tiger was locked in his room so he asked me for it, he begged me.” The moose deflated. “I’ll tell you everything. You don’t have to bother breaking into my phone.”

Victor stopped working and looked at the bear’s back.

“Keep going,” Sebastian said after a moment of silence.

“Damn it, Sebastian, you don’t have to,” Slavir said.

“Are going to unlock it?”

The moose didn’t answer.

“That’s what I thought.” The bear leaned in. “I don’t believe your story, Stanko. It’s too damn convenient. Your word against that of your patient, who has a history of being attracted to buff guys. Who’d believe him when he said you started it.”

“I didn’t.”

“Then you shouldn’t mind us listening to the recordings. They’ll just support what you said. But that’s not what I’m afraid of. What I’m terrified to find on there are recordings of you having sex with other patients. I’m really scared to learn that I put people who came to me for help in your grasp, and you abused them.”

The moose didn’t react, but Isabel couldn’t tell if it was because he was controlled or it wasn’t true.

“No matter what I do find on your phone, You’re done, Stanko. You’re fired, and I’m going to see to it you lose your license.”

The moose stared at the bear for a long moment, then he laughed. “You? You’re going to threaten me with making me lose my license?” he became deadly calm and glared at the bear. “You torture people for you own pleasure and pass it off as ‘treatment’. Where do you get off saying what i did was wrong. The people here? they don’t want to be cured. They’re here to run away from their problems. Well some of them preferred going back to what they had before, but you wouldn’t let them leave, so I made sure they got some, if they gave me what I wanted.”

“I’m in.” Victor said.

“Don’t look through it,” Sebastian said. “Isabel, call the police.” He looked at the moose. “You’re sick, Stanko.”

Slavir rolled his eyes. “I’m not. I’m perfectly sane. I just got fed up with listening to those losers. They weren’t going to change. they didn’t want to change.”

“You’re wrong,” Isabel said taking out her phone.

“Right, because that sexual predator of yours was doing such a good job. He was after my Timothy, He couldn’t get his claws out of him.”

“So you made sure he wouldn’t be able to get to him again,” Sebastian said.

“Damn right I did. If she’d done her job and gotten his sexual obsession under control I wouldn’t have had to resort to something drastic.”

Sebastian shook his head sadly. “Stanko. Dietrich wasn’t here for a sexual addiction. He’s here to deal with his alcoholism, and except for breaking the rules once, he did everything he can to work with doctor Irmal to resolve his issues that lead to that. You point to him as someone here not interested in changing, when he’s one of those who will get out of here without my help.”

While Sebastian spoke, the emergency operator came on and Isabel explained about needing the police to arrest Stanko Slavir for sexually abusing at least one of his patients.

*

The police weren’t at the clinic for long. as a precaution doctor Threcklec had everyone restricted to their rooms for the duration. The officer in charge tried to talk with Timothy, with Isabel and Sebastian supervising, but he didn’t understand what was going on and wouldn’t cooperate.

But they didn’t need him. Like most abusers, Slavir had collected his mementos, in his case the recordings of the sessions. He’d forced seven of his patient to have sex with him, four women and three men. Sebastian had only listened to enough of the files to confirm what was happening.

He was sitting behind his desk, a glass of scotch in hand. Isabel was seated on the other side, water in hers.

“What am I suppose to do with them now?” he asked.

“Assign them to other doctors.”

“To what end? with that kind of betrayal, they’ll never trust a doctor.”

“It won’t be easy, but the only other option is to give up on them, and I know you don’t want to do that.”

The near nodded. “Can you take one?”

She shook her head and put her glass on the desk. “Actually, I’m not sure I’ll be staying.”

Sebastian’s head snapped up. “What? why? It can’t be because of what Stanko did. I’ve returned Dietrich to the general population.”

“No, although Dietrich is partially related to. I’ve had to think about your method when I thought you were going to work on him, and I’ve realized I don’t agree with them.”

“You can’t think he was right, that I do it because I enjoy torturing people.”

“No, I don’t. I know you and I know that you truly want to help them, and believe that it’s the only way. But even though you’ve been successful, Who are they when they leave? Your method destroys a part of them, they aren’t who they were when they arrived. For all the standard counseling doesn’t work with everyone, at least it leaves them who they are.”

“And you think that’s better? That they be ‘who they are’ but still a victim of their addictions.”

She sighed. “I don’t know. I’m not saying you have to stop. What I’m saying is that I couldn’t deal with one of my patient ending up in your hands. That’s what I realized with Dietrich.”

“I see.”

“You’re a good guy, Seb, and I’m not just going to quit over night. I’m going to stick around until my patients have pulled through, so I’ll be here for a few more years, but I’m not going to take on new patients.”

“I’ll have to adjust your pay accordingly as you have fewer and fewer patients.”

“I know. I’ll manage.”

She stood and checked the time. “Have you eaten anything?”

The bear snorted. “Ive been a little busy with all this to have dinner.”

“Come on then, It’s a bit late, but I’m sure the cafeteria still has something.”

“I should stay and go through this. I still have to figure out how Stanko managed to block the recording system.”

“It can wait. You need to eat and think about something else. better yet, talk. This can’t have been easy on you. I’m a pretty good listener.” She gave him her best smile. This wasn’t a date, she reminded the part of herself that was enumerating the ways in which Sebastian Threcklec was a good provider. She was only having a meal with her boss and allowing him to vent some of the frustration he had to be feeling.

But if it lead to more, that part of her said. Bobby did say you needed a sex life. Bobby wasn’t a physiologist, she reminded it.

He was still right, it replied.

*

The tiger seated across the desk from her didn’t react. He might as well be a statue, in that expensive suit, eyes fixed on her.

“What you know,” he finally said, “is extremely dangerous. You have no idea what I can do to you because of that knowledge.” His tone was beyond cold, it was glacial, just like his bright blue eyes.

That voice and those eyes had probably sent many running out of this room screaming. And even with the last piece of ammunition Dietrich had given her, she had to fight to remain seated.

She took a moment to make sure her voice wouldn’t betray her. “I know you can’t hurt me,” she said.

He raised an eyebrow. “And what makes you believe that?”

She smiled at him. it wasn’t forced, it came naturally, from the confidence she felt in trusting that what Dietrich had told her was as true and everything else. It might even had been a slightly cocky smile.

“Because I’m a good person.”

Damian’s stare remained fixed in her for a moment, then he nodded. “This situation would be much simpler for me if you weren’t.” He leaned forward and rested his elbows on the desk. “By that admission, you aren’t here to extract money or favors. I’ve already said I wouldn’t interfere when my brother was ready to leave the clinic, but you don’t look to be ready to leave. What do you want?”

“I want you to pickup Dietrich in three days, at one pm mountain time.”

The tiger quirked a smile. “Do you?”

“Yes. He’s been with us for two and a half years. Doctor Threcklec has given him the all clear. You brought him to the clinic, I think it’s only appropriate that you be the one to be there when he leaves.”

“I don’t expect Dietrich is pleased with that arrangement.”

“We discussed it, and he agreed to it.”

“My brother agreed to spent time with me, just the two of us? Tell me, Doctor, what exactly did you do to him?”

“I listened to him. Something that if you had taken the time to do would have avoided all of this.”

“I have listened to him my entire childhood. I have not heard him say something new at anytime.”

Isabel shook her head. “You don’t know how to hear what he’s tried to say. Before this meeting I thought it was because you were just too egocentric. Now I think you’re just not equipped emotionally.”

“That is a fair assessment. Will you tell me what he’s been saying?”

“No. It isn’t my place. Since you’ve promised not to look into the true cause of is alcoholism, you’re going to have to wait until he’s ready to open up to you on his own.”

“I don’t think either on of us will live quite that long.”

She shrugged. “Then you’ll have to be content with the knowledge that he won’t be a threat to your family anymore.”

“I can be content with that.”

Isabel stood. “Then we’ll see you in three days.” She turned and headed for the door.

“I haven’t said I would be there.”

“You’re a man who feels he has a duty to his family, Mister Orr,” she replied without turning. “You’ll be there.”

*

Epilogue

“He isn’t coming,” Dietrich repeated, fidgeting.

“It’s still fifteen minutes to one,” Isabel replied. “He still has time.”

“You know, if he doesn’t show up it’s no big deal. I can call a taxi.”

“He’ll be here,” she repeated. She had no doubt he would. From what Dietrich had told him about his brother, and what she’d seen herself, Damian wouldn’t abandon him.

“I don’t think…,” the tiger started, but stopped as a cloud of dust became visible in the distance. “I’ll be.”

The car was dark blue, and none of the dust stuck to it as it came to a soft stop in the closest parking spot. The door opened and a Damian got out. He wore black slacks and a gold trimmed green wool shirt against the cold.

“You came,” Dietrich said.

“Isabel indicated you needed a ride, so I came and I’m…,” he looked at his watch and waited for a long moment, “on time.”

“You’re early, actually,” Isabel said.

the tiger shook his head. “Your clock is slow. Are you ready to go home?” he asked Dietrich.

“No.”

Damian canted an ear.

“You’re taking me to the airport.”

“And where are you going, if you’re not coming home?”

“That’s none….” Dietrich closed his mouth and breathed. “I’m going to see uncle Bobby. I promised him he’d be my first stop.”

“And how are you paying for your flight?”

Isabel could see the tension in Dietrich’s body, but his answer was calm. “Bobby’s paying for it.”

Damian’s ears were straight. “You have to be commended Isabel. You have worked wonders on my brother. Not one snarky reply.”

“Maybe now you’ll treat him with some respect,” She replied.

It was Damian’s turn to take his time replying, using the time to study his brother. He finally nodded. “I believe I will. What time is your flight?”

“Four.” Dietrich turned and hugged her. “Thanks for everything doc.”

She hugged him back. “You did all the work. I just listened.”

“You’re selling yourself short. I have no idea what would have happened to me if not for you.”

“Just take care of you from this point on. and remember, if you ever need to talk, I’m just a call away.”

“I will.” He let her go and headed for the door. “Oh, and you better invite me to the wedding.”

“I’m not getting married,” She replied.

“Sure doc,” he said, clearly not believing her. Had Dietrich heard something she hadn’t? Sebastian hadn’t given any indications he was planing on proposing.

“How fast does this thing go?” Dietrich asked his brother as he opened the door.

“very fast.”

“Good. We need to stop at a motel first so I can fuck you.”

Damian looked at his brother over the top of the car. “You want to have sex with me?”

“It’s been over two years since I’ve had sex. Right now I couldn’t care who you are.”

Damian smiled. “I’m going to like this new you.” He got in. “But it might be best if you got a flight in the morning instead.” He closed the door, and a moment later the car was out of the lot.