It wasn't everyday one suddenly found oneself dressed in their ideal date outfit plopped onto a chair at a lovely bar with a live blues band and mood lighting. Not even here in Atlantis, at least not for as long as Leanne had been here. It also wasn't every day that plopped on the opposite seat at a cosy little corner table was a beautiful man who also happened to be her therapist. Now this was odd and potentially awkward in too many different ways for Leanne to worry about. Might as well go with it.
"Well… hi! Hope you weren't doing anything too important." Leanne told Neal with amusement despite her flushed cheeks.
Fortunately, Neal had been enjoying a free hour or two without any appointments when he’d suddenly found himself sitting across from one of his patients on what was clearly meant to be a date.
“Fortunately, I think my bosses are used to [...] Atlantis,” he said, reaching for the glass of wine that was on the table in front of him.
Leanne wasn’t exactly familiar with the ethics of a counselor/patient relationship, having never had one before, but she was pretty sure this was at least somewhat frowned upon. At least neither of them had actually worked towards being on a date with each other. Hopefully Neal was the sort to also go with it.
“Right. So, how’s things?” She had her favorite beer in front of her and reached for it without noticing the dainty amber ring that was usually not on the finger of her dominant hand. Once it knocked against the cold bottle, however, Leanne stopped and looked at it before taking a drink. “I’ve new jewelry, apparently.”
Just going with it seemed like the best thing to do when Atlantis was involved, even if it was hard not to think about the ethics involved. Developing a personal relationship with a patient didn't seem like a good idea, but there was nothing saying they couldn't enjoy a friendly drink together, he supposed. He had to admit, the atmosphere of the place was nice.
“Part of the set up?” he wondered when she mentioned her ring, momentarily distracted from her question. He was dressed a bit differently than he had been, but the clothes were his. It was curious that Atlantis would go so far as to put new jewelry on her, if that was what she meant.
“Guess so, I don’t remember putting this on. Or buying it though I might have done back home…” Leanne replied, eyes narrowed as she watched the light dancing on the amber stone. “I might have had it back there. Same with the outfit.”
Shrugging, Leanne took a swig of her beer, finally, and looked back at Neal. “Place is nice, isn’t it? Good music.”
Neal nodded, telling himself to relax. He did feel a little awkward, being on an obvious date with a patient, but the music was great, exactly to his tastes, and just because Atlantis had put them in this position didn’t mean anything unprofessional had to happen here. Truthfully, it was easier to relax if he didn’t think of it as a date. Things like flirting had never really been a part of his repertoire.
“Yes, it’s very good music, he admitted, offering her a smile.”
Leanne smiled back, suddenly hyper-aware that she needed to make conversation that wasn’t as deep as the stuff she often told Neal during their sessions. Completely different vibe, different topics and different feelings, but exactly because of their previous relationship it all somehow felt fake. Like if she made small talk about the weather, he would be thinking of some truths he’d helped her come to terms with or something to that effect. She sighed, thinking it best to just acknowledge the weirdness.
“Do I get to ask you about yourself in this scenario, then? Like, what was growing up like, and when did you find you wanted to be a therapist and what makes your crappy days a little bit more bearable?”
“Uh, yeah, sure,” he said. Talking about himself wasn’t really his forte. Neal was a lot more used to getting other people to open up about themselves or just analyzing people in general. Making small talk about his own life, not so much. He had a feeling this was why he didn’t have a girlfriend.
“Well, my dad is an FBI agent at home,” he added, deciding he probably should go ahead with a real answer. “I kind of followed in his footsteps, but my focus was profiling. I guess I’ve just always been interested in what makes people tick.” Being a therapist hadn’t really entered his mind until Atlantis, but that was what he’d been asked to do here.
It was only fair that the tables turned a bit when they weren’t in his office, Leanne thought. She smiled as Neal went on, nodding here and there. “Interesting. But here you don’t do much of that. I guess we’ve both been given jobs just a little to the left of what we usually do. Yours sounds harder.”
She raised her beer in his direction. “Thanks, by the way. We don’t do much therapy back home but it’s been helpful.”
It was different in many ways, but Neal found he did enjoy working with patients, helping them deal with the things that happened here in Atlantis or in some cases in their own home worlds. It was rewarding in a different way than his usual work was. It helped, too, that he genuinely liked working with Claire and Sam.
“I’m glad I can help you,” he admitted honestly, tipping his own glass towards hers.
“Glad I can be helped.” Leanne replied with a wink, settling back on her chair. Maybe this wouldn’t be so wrong. Maybe they could be friends eventually.