"Welcome to the St. Franciscan Life Center, Samantha. I’m Sister Margaret. Why don’t you have a seat so that we can talk?" the nun dressed in a drab brown habit suggested. Sam sighed and nodded as she took a seat.

She looked around the small room. Its walls were bare wood save for a few small pictures hanging in strategic places. There were large panel windows to her left letting the early afternoon sun stream in through the blinds and the room itself had a somewhat woodsy smell to it. It was comfortable and non-threatening, lacking in the usual antiseptic impersonal feel that Sam was used to. But any way you looked at it, Sam didn’t want to be there.

She had reluctantly agreed to give the Center a try because Brooke had begged her to. Not asked, requested, or pleaded but out right begged her to go. Through her tears the blonde had explained how she was afraid of losing Sam, exposed her vulnerability and fears for Sam to see. She told the emotionally wounded brunette how she felt that Sam was drifting away from her and that she just wanted to hold on to her as tight as she could. Faced with such open honesty, Sam couldn’t find it in her heart to say no to Brooke. If it would make the distraught blonde feel better, Sam would try just about anything.

"So, Sam…may I call you `Sam’? Or do you prefer Samantha?" Sister Margaret asked.

"Sam’s fine. Samantha is too formal," Sam said quietly.

"All right then. Sam, can I get you anything? Coffee, tea, hot chocolate?" Sister Margaret offered. Sam shook her head.

"I’m fine," she said. Sister Margaret nodded.

"All right. Why don’t we start with a little back history then? Have you ever been to a therapist before?" Sam snorted.

"I’d use the term `therapist’ in a very loose sense, but yes, I have," she commented dryly.

"I take it that it didn’t go well?"

"A horrible disaster would be an understatement," Sam retorted.

"Would you like to tell me about it?" Sister Margaret asked carefully.

"Not really, but I suppose I don’t have much of a choice," Sam said, plainly irritated. Sister Margaret shook her head.