“Excuse me, miss Porter, but I think it would be best if you stepped out of the room.” Dr. Phillips insisted calmly.

“Why? What’s going on?” Bette asked, suddenly alarmed as she stiffened in her chair.

“Nothing is wrong, Bette. Don’t worry. It’s just not… procedure that someone be in the room when I discuss treatment options with patients.” Dr. Phillips responded, still incredibly calm.

“What? What is there to treat?” Bette asked, angered by his calmness during the hectic situation.

“Don’t worry, Bette. Just please leave the room for 10 minutes, then you can come back in and Tina can tell you everything you need to know.”

Bette cast a glance at Tina who nodded, before stalking out of the room angrily.

“All right, Ms. Kennard, do you remember signing a slip that said I could speak with your psychiatrist if a medical emergency arose?” he asked in his calm, tranquil voice that always seemed to calm even the most nervous of patients down. Tina nodded and he continued. “Well, I took the liberty of doing so, I hope you don’t mind, and we came to the conclusion that it would be best for your health if you discontinued taking the Prozac and continued just with the cognitive behavioral therapy.

“But…” Tina started to object, she was confused, how could they do this? Couldn’t this severely damage her relationship with her child, and ultimately, Bette? This wouldn’t work. It couldn’t work. She was a strong believer in therapy, but what she had was serious.

“Now, Ms. Kennard, I assure you we went over every possible option, and this is the best one. Neither I, nor your psychiatrist can sign a Prozac prescription in good faith. Now, I want you to let me know if any of the symptoms continue to occur, and your psychiatrist, who is a very nice man by the way, said that if you ever feel very strong depression or have any thoughts of suicide, or harming Angelica, he wants you to call him or 911. OK?”

Tina was stunned. She just nodded.

“Oh, also, in addition to the cognitive therapy, he thinks you should come in for weekly visits, or if your case gets worse, he will assign you a different anti-depressant.”

“But I took Prozac before, and it didn’t affect me at all.”

“Yes, well, pregnancy can have strange effects on the body: Hormonal changes, weight changes. Lots of things can happen in nine months. Especially when you’re carrying a little human inside you. OK, well, I’ll just let you think about that. Do you want me to send Bette in?”

Tina nodded. “Could you?”