Rahim wouldn't have muched cared if Zoe was clinical or not. The way she was handling empathy was impressive. Rahim couldn't help but to be impressed. He'd seen a lot of empaths go to shit over their abilities overwhelming them, Avery being one of them. Rahim cleared his throat and nodded, but it took him a moment longer to get over the anger he'd let through. His voice remained the same regardless.
At the start of the story, when he mentioned the day he was detained, he felt a flare of anger he hadn't felt the first time, as his mind thought through the whole circumstance of that day. He'd just dropped his daughter off at school, and gone to work, promising her that he'd take her to the store after school, for a Halloween costume. She'd been asking since June. Then he hadn't come home that day. Or for the following three years. He hadn't let himself think about that the first time around, and it tripped him up this time. The catch even reflected in his tone, as he stuttered over the next line of his story.
But then he forced himself to be calm, forced himself to control his emotions, to continue the story. He forced down the anger inside of him, almost violently, until it was hard to feel, even for himself. But toward the end, he felt the same discomfort, the same dread, the same emotional exhaustion. He was too focused on controlling his anger that he failed to control the other emotions. Seemingly aware of his failure to control all of his emotions, he felt irritated about how this entire run through went. He could suppress his emotions perfectly, three days ago, back when he had no emotions.