A few more weeks have passed now. Erik had finally opened up to the doctor and talked with her about what had driven him to jump over the waterfall that day that seemed so long ago now. He had cried. Openly. He was moving forward though.

Today, he is once more standing in front of the window in his room. He’s been standing there since sunrise. He’d gotten to watch the sky changing colors. He’s waiting. Waiting for the doctor to come and tell him how he’s doing thus far. He always looks forward to find out how he’s doing.

He hears his door open and doesn’t turn around. “Good morning.”

"Morning Erik. How are you?" Jordan asks. He's made a great deal of progress, she has good news for him today. At some point during his stay he had stopped being Mr. Sokoll, and simply become Erik. HE was not typically so informal with his doctor though.

“Doing okay,” he answers while still watching out the window. “Watched the sunrise this morning. It was nice.”

He turns from the window slightly to glance in her direction. "How are you today?"

"Tired, but fine. Now that all this medication foolishness is straightened out. Hopefully I can get Kerry released to my care again soon. " she says.

"Are you nearly ready to leave here?" she asks him getting straight to the point.

He nods as he listens to her talking about Ker. There was still some things he wanted to learn about the girl. He hadn’t gotten a chance yet to put his own theories to the test because the hospital seemed to have gotten fairly busy for some strange reason. There were now more orderly’s on duty and such. It was irritating.

“Really?” he says in reply to her asking him if he’s nearly ready to leave here.

"I'm going to keep you here for another week, mostly for observation. Then you'll be an outpatient. You'll have to visit me at my practice two times a week." She tells him.

He nods and turns back towards the window. “Does Jayme know yet?” he asks. He’s not sure where he’s going to go once he does get out of here.

"Not yet, I wasn't sure if you'd want to tell him." Jordan says.

“Yeah,” he says. “I’d like to tell him.”

He pauses. “Has things around here slowed down yet?”

"Not really, thank gods, they're aren't really my patient load. Did you want to call him now?" She says.

A nod was given as he finally turned away from the window. “Yes please,” he answers. “I’d like to call Jayme. To tell him the news of my progress.”

He starts to walk across the room towards the door.

Jordan takes him to the staffroom, to make the phonecall.

He follows and closes the door behind them. It’s a bit on the noisy side out in the hallway. So many new patients. He watches her dial the phone and takes the receiver from her. He listens to it ringing on the other end.

"Hello?" Jayme answers almost immediately.

“Hey Jayme,” he says. “I’ve got news.” Erik doesn’t bother saying who it is cause surely Jayme knows his voice entirely by now. It's been nearly three months since Erik was first brought here.

"Oh, I guess it's good news, you sound enthusiastic, Erik." Jayme says with a chuckle. Maybe they'll let him go home soon.....Does Erik have a home? Jayme isn't sure if he has anyplace besides Ceci's or not. He waits to see what his friend called to tell him.

“Yeah. It’s good news,” he says. “Dr. Lane says I only have to be here for another week. Just for observation. Then I’ll be outpatient. I’ll have to go for sessions at her office.”

Does he have a home? Yes and no I guess you could say. Surely he’d be able to go back to Cecily’s. However, he’s already made it clear that he doesn’t want to see her again. Sure, he’ll make an effort to go and see Cecily. But not right away probably. Not unless he’s sure that she’s there by herself.

"Oh hey that's great news. I'm glad to hear that Erik." Jayme says.

“Yeah it is. I’m looking forward to getting out of here,” he answers. “Anxious to get back to work, too. Not entirely sure yet what I’m going to do once I do get out though. Other than going back to work... that is... if you still want me there to work for you.”

"Oh of coarse, you can come see it, all the remodeling is almsot done. But it'll be eight days efore the new registers get here. What do you mean you don't know what you'll do besides work?" Jayme says.

He glances over at Jordan as Jayme asks him that question and then away again. “I don’t know. I’m sure she is probably still staying at Cecily’s cause she’ll have had no where else to go...”

"Yes, she is. You need a place? I have some rentals opened." Jayme tells him. He also has a spare room, but he isn't sure if it would be riight for him to offer to another man. Jayme gets strange notions at times.

“I... um...” He glances towards Jordan again. “Can we talk about it when you visit next?”

"Sure we can do that. Do you need me to bring you anything?" he asks.

“Just something to eat that doesn’t have any meat. The cafeteria workers still can’t seem to get my meals right. Even after all this time.”

"Sure, I'd bring you that anyhow. I'll see you tommorow then. I'm glad you're going to be back at work soon." Jayme tells his friend.

“Me too,” he says. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

He turned and handed the phone back to Jordan. “He’s coming to see me tomorrow.”

"Good, he'll probably bring you something to eat, I have no idea what is so hard about the assholes in the cafeteria simply giving you a salad." Jordan said.

He nods. “So now what?” he asks.

"Well, we've covered most everything, we need to sit down and let you set some goals, what sort of things you want to get out of your outpatient treatment. Which will revolve around a lot of behavior modification, your previous behaviors for dealing with stress are what got you here." She tells him. "That and anything else you want to talk about, anything you want to go over or bring up?"

“I don’t want to end up back here,” he says and leans back in the leather chair he’s sitting in since they’re still in the staff room. “That’s for sure.”

"I don't want to see that either. What do you think we need to work on to keep that from happening?" She asks him taking a seat herself.

“Well....” he starts to say. “I should probably not think so low of myself, eh?” Have I mentioned yet through all of this that Erik has a thick Russian accent? I think I’ve forgotten to. So I’m doing so now. Erik has a thick Russian accent when he talks. Including with his ‘mind voice’. “Keeping things bottled up until I lose it probably isn’t such a good idea either...”

(The Russian accent hasn't been noted here in these threads, but I know it's beeen noted in may others, so I'll let it slide, everyone else should too.)

"We'll work on you bottling things up believe me. Your self image is another good point to focus on. Anything else you'd like to touch on?" the doctor asks him.

(Mkay... I tend to forget about it sometimes x.x)

He shrugs slightly. “I’m not entirely sure really,” he says. “I know that by dealing with me bottling things up, it’ll probably help with the going off half cocked and wanting to die crap.” Yes, crap. From having been in here for nearly three months and actually talking to Dr. Lane for a while now, he’s realizing, slowly, that he can’t just go around trying to kill himself when something goes bad.

"Yes, how are you sleeping?" she asks.

He shrugs slightly. “Alright I guess,” he answers. “When I can get myself to fall asleep that is. Don’t seem to sleep for very long though.” Yes. Erik still has nightmares. Not as bad as they were but they’re still there.

"We'll try to work on that. I can help you some." she tells him.

He looks at her curiously. “You can?” he asks. “How?” He doesn’t mention that Jayme has helped him with his sleeping before. He doesn’t just go around volunteering other people’s magic and such.

"We can work on it, set some triggers to help you wake up before the nightmares get too far, and then some triggers to help you fall asleep, with hypnosis. " she explains.