I sat in the waiting room, pretending to be interested in my phone and ignoring the stares of the others waiting and of the receptionist. People had been looking at me before I took off my hat and glasses to reveal my elven features. My height was enough to draw attention to me. I'd warned them when I made the appointment that I wasn't human, but apparently, no one had told this receptionist. She'd been quite flustered when she saw what I was. She at least was pretending not to stare. The others in the waiting room weren't so subtle. Finally, my name was called, and I was led to another room. "Yesanith, I'm Doctor Beckett." He stumbled over my name. "Call me Yessie or Sean." "Sean?" "That's what everyone calls me the days. Yesanith is too hard to remember and Yes is confusing. It started at work." "You don't mind?" "No. I've had to go by other names over the years." "Do you spell it S E A N?" "Yeah." I glanced around the room. There was a desk and a few chairs along with a couch. He saw me looking. "Unless you really want, I think we can use the chairs." "Good, because I don't fit on most couches." He nodded. "I'm sure you wouldn't. I have that for kids who might want to stay close to their mom. Have a seat." He gestured to a chair. "So, Sean, what brings you in?" "I'm claustrophobic. It’s a new development and it's getting worse." "It's causing problems?" "I struggle with bathrooms, closets, elevators, car trunks…" "Car trunks? Do you often ride in the trunk?" "No, leaning in to get things out." "I see. And you said this started recently?" "About a year ago. I could usually get through it if I needed to, but now I can't. My partner tricked me into an elevator. I nearly tore his head off. And I mean literally." "By partner, you mean…" "At work. I’m a consultant for the police. I was paired with Roy for when I have to go to a crime scene, and he helps me around the station." "Have you gotten into fights with him before?" "No. I’m not generally prone to violence, except maybe in self-defense. I used to be a knight when my people were still around. I might have been considered violent back then, but it was part of the job." "And this all started a year ago?" "About that." "Why do you think it happened? Was there some triggering event?" "I got abducted by the military and was experimented on for six months." The doctor looked up at me. "What?" "I was abducted and experimented on by the military. I'm immortal. I used to move around to hide that I didn't age. I stayed too long in the last town, and someone noticed. They call the army convinced them I was an alien." "And they took you into custody?" "They hit me over the head and kept me drugged. My immune system is different from a human. It adapts to what I need. It adapted to the drug and fought it off. I woke to being strapped down to a gurney in a cage. They continued to experiment on me all day, every weekday for months." "I see. And was there something that caused your claustrophobia to get worse or has it been a steady increase?" "No. It seemed to be staying the same until last month. Then, I was helping with that serial killer case. While we were after him, we were in a warehouse and some boxes fell on me and trapped me. They didn't want to unbury me until the paramedics got there." Beckett nodded. "That's probably for the best. You could've seriously been hurt." "I was. I had over a dozen breaks in my leg. He didn't double-take. "A month ago?" "I heal fast. I'm immortal." "And what exactly does that mean? Immortal?" "I don't age. I'm a thousand years old. My mom was over three thousand years old, and she looked eighteen. My dad was almost as old and looked twenty. "Physically, elves are hardier than humans. I don't get sick often. I can't get most illnesses humans do. Elven diseases are rare. It's harder to damage an elf physically. I’ve had accidents that would kill a human. When I do get sick or injured, I can focus my body's healing to a specific area, and even when I don't, I heal faster." "Like your leg?" "Exactly." "Have you ever been to counseling before?" "No." "Not even when the other elves disappeared?" "Psychiatry wasn’t very common six hundred years ago." “What happened to the other elves?” I shrugged. “I don’t know. They just disappeared. I’ve hunted extensively and never found a trace.” "So you've been alone for six hundred years. You seem to have adjusted and I don't think it has any bearing on your claustrophobia. I don't think you need help with that, but if you do, we can work on it too." "It isn't something I like, and I miss my people, but the claustrophobia is causing problems." Beckett nodded. "We’ll focus on that, then. We may need to talk about those times in detail. Can you do that?" "There isn't much to tell about me being trapped under the boxes. I lay there a moment before the others found me. They sat with me a little while, and then I passed out." "Then we'll start with your time with the army. You said they hit you over the head? Where was this?" "Out in the woods about 50 miles from the Northridge base. I used to worship out there." "And you're sure it was them?" "Yeah, one of the scientists admitted to it. They didn’t want to drug me until they could test the drugs for safety. They wanted me alive." "So why not a tazer?" "That's when I asked. I didn’t get an answer." "So you woke up in a cage? A literal cage?" I nodded. "Iron bars and everything. I was strapped down to a gurney with an IV administering drugs. It took a while for me to wake fully. With what they were doing to me, I thought I had been captured by the Unseelie again." "Who are the Unseelie and what you mean again?" "Long ago, before my grandparents were born, King Oberon and Queen Tatiana had a falling out. Tatiana left and the elves who agreed with her left too. She and the King divided Underhill in half. King Oberon saw humans as children, people to be cared for and taught. Queen Tatiana chose to hurt him by hurting them. All the things you hear about elves doing to cause trouble were them. We were constantly at war with them. "I was a knight, a soldier. Once, I was captured for information. It was two weeks before I escaped." "And you didn't have problems, then?" "Of course I did. I had trouble sleeping, nightmares when I did sleep, panic attacks, trouble trusting people I was close to, but no claustrophobia. And it took a while but I was able to recover from that." "In a year?" "No. But I had great improvements in a year. I didn't get worse." "That was two weeks. This was six months. Then, you had other elves around, and I assumed they helped too. Now, you're the only one." I shook my head. "There's one other elf. She's Unseelie, but we’re trying to be friends." "Have you talked to her about this?" "I don't trust her." "And you trust me?" "No. No offense. "None taken. Many people don't trust me when they first come to see me. We don't know each other." "But you work with people to help them. Kat doesn't. Kat's very nature is to be troublesome, cause problems, find weaknesses to exploit. She's someone to have a good time with, not confided. She knows I'm not good with computers. She intentionally sabotaged mine at the station. It was a simple prank and no damage was done, but I didn't know that. And I thought I'd lost everything." "And this is a friend?" "Frenemy? We met online originally, and neither knew what the other was. She was brought into the station and I met her face-to-face there." "And, despite her being Unseelie, you decided to continue your friendship." "My cousin, Robin, is special, unstable. His mom was killed. I don't know how much of his problems came from that and how much were from being half Unseelie. Kat is his half-sister. Robin and I were close. In part, I'm trying to be friends with her for his sake. There's also the fact that we are the only two elves left in the world. And we got along online." "Are you married?" "No. Elves don't marry." "But you live among humans." "There's never been a woman I loved that much, though, some have come close." "Do you have a girlfriend or boyfriend?" "I prefer women and not currently. I'm not very monogamous. But if a woman I was dating wanted that, I can do it. I have before. I have periodic lovers and I sleep with my best friend." "Why not date her?" "She doesn't want to." "Do you want to?" I shrugged. "I'm happy with what we have now." "Have you made other friends since you came here?" "I have." "Good. I don't want you to isolate yourself. You have people who care. Don't shut them out." We talked a while longer. It was going to be a much slower recovery than my first imprisonment. But I was a fighter. I didn't survive six hundred years alone to give up now.