Illecebra

Dr Dominic Gale leafed through his file as he waited for the elevator to reach its destination. It contained the medical notes of his latest referral, one Gwen Sutton. Without seeing the patient they were nearly useless as a diagnostic tool but helpful in avoiding the large blue eyes of Nurse Schluter.

Since her transfer to the hospital a month ago she had made it very clear that she found him sexually attractive. Dr Gale didn't need to be a great psychiatrist to see that. With a healthy amount of insight he recognised the small feeling of flattery the unwanted attention caused him but he could dismiss it as trivial. Without vanity he knew he was good looking, at 35 he was tall, lightly muscled and slender with dark hair.

Dr Paul Chatham, his friend in the department, thought Dominic was a fool not to take advantage of the beautiful blonde's infatuation. He pointed out that Anna Schluter had a body that any man would die for.

Dominic tolerated the advice because he knew that Paul's view stemmed from his insecurity. The other doctor bedded a whole succession of women who later wanted nothing to do with him, having been worn down by persistence and desperate charm.

Try as he might, Dominic had been unable to convince his colleague that he was a perfectly happy married. He was uninterested in any other woman apart from Stacey, his wife of ten years and mother of his two children. He had never cheated on her and no desire to ever do so. Not a day went by that he didn't thank God for allowing them to meet. He didn't care if his attitude made other guys think he was odd; he felt sorry that they hadn't found love like he had.

Anna Schluter coughed and was adjusting her nametag when Dominic glanced across.

Dominic barely managed to hold back a chuckle at her not-so-subtle attempt to draw attention to her large breasts. Fortunately the elevator had reached the fifth floor, which housed the ward he needed. He smiled politely at Anna and exited.

+++++++++++++++++

Gwen Sutton was asleep or resting in the bed when Dominic entered her private room.

He already knew that she was 22 years old, new to Sixville and that she had tried to commit suicide by slashing her wrists. The bandage on her left arm, which lay outside of the blankets, confirmed that fact. Seeing small, pale scars crosshatching her exposed skin informed him that she had a history of self-harm. He scratched his neat beard, mentally scolding the Attending who had failed to note that down.

With that faintest of sounds Gwen opened her eyes and sat up, drawing her arm under the sheet.

"Hello, Gwen. I'm Dr Gale. I'm going to be your doctor for a while."

His patient curled her limbs closer to her.

"You a shrink? I knew that guy thought I was nuts." She muttered sullenly.

"Now you told the Attending that you regretted trying to take your own life, is that right?" He asked softly.

The girl, her fringe hung over her eyes, nodded. Dominic could only see her pink lips.

"It was a mistake. I didn't really want...to die...I guess..." Her voice was low and made her seem younger than she was.

Dominic asked her a few more questions. He felt a pang of sympathy for the girl, a troubled mix of attitude and vulnerability. He informed her he'd be sending her to the psych ward with a session a day initially.

He left her, and though he knew he shouldn't, fully expected to help Gwen with her troubles. If he had one flaw it was that he invested a lot in the people he treated.

++++++++++++++++++++++

Dominic walked into his house, quietly enough to take Stacey by surprise when he kissed the back of her neck.

She turned in his arms and he embraced her, their lips kissing softly.

"Where are the monsters?" Dominic asked. It was nice to get alone time with his wife.

"Next door. Mrs Lees agreed to show them the puppies." Stacey grimaced, knowing that the subject of owning a pet was going to be brought up again.

Obviously, so did Dominic.

"I think we could see about getting one, don't you? The girls are old enough now to handle the responsibility." Dominic said, adding a pinch of salt to the simmering pot.

"Hey, its up to you! You know that I'm not getting up early to walk the thing, ever?" Stacey growled with mock indignation.

Dominic smirked. He knew that Stacey would probably fall heart and soul for the dog as soon as it was in the home. Her nurturing personality was one reason that he loved her.

"I'll ask Mrs Lees when I see her next." Dominic concluded, knowing his wife secretly approved. "How was your day?"

"Weird incident at the Church today, after I got the girls off..."

Dominic had started to open a bottle of wine but he stopped when he heard the concern in his wife's voice.

"What happened?" He asked, directing his full attention to her.

"Father Miller was in his office with a man; European by accent, I'd say, and they were arguing. I couldn't help being worried...."

Normally Stacey loved her part time work as verger to the Church but now she looked like she was going to cry. Dominic pulled her away from the counter and hugged her, running a hand through her wavy auburn hair.

"Go on..." Dominic encouraged. Seeing his wife troubled was enough to make him feel upset and protective.

"Well, that was it really. I mean, I got the impression...the other man was from the Church so...why would they be shouting at each other? I'm just being silly..."

"Did you ask the father what had happened?"

Stacey laughed softly against his chest and pulled herself together. Composed once more she kissed Dominic on the lips and returned to her preparations.

"Can you imagine me telling Father Miller I'd been eavesdropping?" She chuckled at the idea. The old man could be cantankerous even on a good day.

Dominic knew enough about the priest to let out a little laugh. "Maybe you could speak to Father Peters." Dominic suggested, mentioning the old man's assistant.

Stacey shook her head just as Laurie and Rosalie ran into the kitchen and both adults had their hands full fielding off demands for a puppy.

Dominic scooped up his daughters. He noted with sadness that Laurie's protests were beginning to sound sincere and grown up. Still, there was some time left. He listened intently, genuinely interested, as the sisters told him about their days at school and kindergarten.

"Guess what I saw today." Dominic told his kids.

"What, daddy?" Rosalie dutifully interested.

"Looks like they're setting up a fun fair in the park. Wanna go Saturday, huh?"

The news went down enthusiastically and, topped with the decision on the puppy his kids were ecstatic for the rest of the evening.

++++++++++++++++++++

Session 1

"Can you tell me when you started cutting, Gwen?"

Dominic knew that the topic was an awkward one for the girl but he needed to hear her answer. This was his first session with her and he knew that self-harming could be a crucial symptom in deciphering why his patient had tried to take her own life.

Gwen flicked her hair off her face and fixed a rather startling pair of blue eyes on Dominic. Her expression registered a combination of hurt and defiance.

"Sixteen, maybe...." She replied, reluctantly. At least she looked a lot better than when he'd first seen her. Some colour was in her cheeks and he'd even seen a cute proto-smile trying to emerge as he'd been talking to her.

"Was there anything that happened at that time, at home or school?"

Gwen toyed with her hair, which was sleek and shiny now that she was out of bed and able to shower.

"How long have you been in Sixville, doctor? Do you like it here?" Gwen asked back, delaying her own response. Dominic noted down the tactic.

"Me and my family moved here about four years ago when this job came up." He showed Gwen the framed photo of his family he kept on his desk. "We've been very happy here." He paused before asking, "Are you happy in Sixville, Gwen?"

"No." She stated flatly.

"Why did you move to Sixville? What were you hoping to find here?"

Gwen sat with her head in her hands as she pondered the question. Dominic could see her brain working behind her midnight blue eyes. They really were quite extraordinary, and Dominic was sorry to see such pain in them.

"My mom was from here." Gwen stated plainly. "I inherited a place. From my grandparents...we never came up here when she was alive though..."

"When did she pass over?" Dominic asked low.

"Last year. You don't have to put on the kind face, Doc. I never got on with the bitch." She let out a bitter little laugh, throaty and deep. "...She never really told me anything, you know? She never spoke to me really....She was a single mother and I was, like, this unwanted burden on her."

Dominic nodded, not saying anything to see if Gwen would fill the silence. He knew that cutters often had troubled parental relationships.

"Do you love your children?" She inquired.

"Yes." He answered after a brief hesitation. It wasn't that he didn't know the answer, just thinking how much to share but he believed reciprocity was a foundation of trust. "Do you think that your mother loved you, despite everything?"

"I. I don't know.... sometimes it was alright." She began to bite her fingernails and to rock gently. Dom's heart went out to her, her wounds were so raw despite the hard shell she was affecting.

"What happened when you were sixteen? Was there anything you can think of that made you want to cut yourself?"

"There wasn't anything, like specific, dammit." Her eyes flashed angrily.

"How do you feel when you do it?" Dominic pushed on, firmly.

"Like I can feel something for once, something real for once...I can't explain it really...I know it doesn't make sense, doctor," She told him rationally and pointedly. "but I need to do it....most of the time its as if I'm asleep and cutting is the most real thing..."

Dominic smiled at her sympathetically and conveyed his understanding to the troubled girl. He poured her a glass of water and handed it to her.

"Why don't you call me Dominic? We'll never get you better if we can't talk like normal people with each other."

+++++++++++++++++

Session 2

"Last time you said you didn't like it here in Sixville. Could you tell me what has made you unhappy here...?"

"I dunno...these feelings I have had my whole life...they got worse when I came here."

"What feelings, Gwen?"

"I dunno" She snapped then looked as if she regretted it. Gwen took a deep breath. "God, I'm really gonna convince you I'm cracked in the head...." Dominic could see she was rueful but he was glad she was resolved to commit to therapeutic process. "I look at other people and I find it hard to believe who they are...I mean...like....there's nothing behind them, mostly, or too much."

Dominic glanced up, concerned

"Can you go into that feeling? What do you mean?" He asked.

"Most people seem unreal or hollow or something..." She shook her head as if she couldn't believe she was revealing this. "but with other people its like their skin is barely holding everything in... there are some many of that sort in Sixville."

Dominic scribbled on his notebook and only just caught Gwen saying,

"They scare me."

++++++++++++++++++++

She was panting in his ear, short hot breaths. They hadn't had time to undress so her skirt was just roughly shoved up to her waist.

Anna Schluter seized the back of his shirt with one hand and grasped his ass with the other. Paul Chatham was grunting as his cock was thrust deeper and deeper into Anna's shaven twat.

She may have been wishing the dick belonged to a certain other doctor but Chatham didn't care. It was his dick she'd settled for and he'd take any pussy that was offered to him. More fool Dominic for not getting there first; he'd had his chance. Anna was a fucking goddess.

"Harder...fuck me harder...you bastard...."

The tubby man growled and picked her up and tossed her up against the wall of his office.

"Uh...bastard..." She insulted him, a trace of accent coming through.

Paul felt as if he were on fire. Dominic may have been happily monogamous but his friend preferred a string of casual encounters and leggy blondes, like this one, were his partners of choice.

He found suddenly his gratitude towards her replaced with resentment. He was puzzled for a second but the capacity to understand his motivations was blasted back, repressed deep, by his need to fuck this bitch.

He tore away her shirt until her bra was uncovered. The short man pulled the lacy red fabric down under Anna's large tits.

"Ungh..." She moaned, in pain or in excitement, Paul didn't care.

He pawed at her tits, squeezing them with both hands, his lower body pushed forward to pin her in place.

"You've great fucking tits." He announced and lowered his head nibble on a perky bud.

The slut threw her arms round his sweaty neck as a hand began to rub the folds of her pussy. Paul was no great lover but Anna was not picky. She'd needed cock and found a man willing to oblige. A man's whose weakness was women...

"Put your cock back in me...." She pleaded.

"I'll fuck you when I want to...or we stop...." Paul couldn't believe what he was saying. He knew, half subconsciously, that he was no great catch. He didn't want to piss her off but for some reason he couldn't help himself; he was saying all the things he'd always wanted to say...

"No...don't stop...please..." She begged as his digits slipped into her tight hole. She was aching with need. "aaaahhh mmmm...."

Paul twiddled her clit as she writhed against the wall, biting her lip as undulating waves of pleasure and discomfort swept through her flesh.

"Yes....uh...that's good..."

Paul's mouth had worked so hard on her naked breast they stung with warmth, and his wet tongue sent shivers over her skin.

The customary jollity of Paul's eyes was absent, replaced with hard wanting. Anna felt herself get wetter at thought. Transferring here had been the right decision....she knew that she'd be cumming soon.

She clung to two bookshelves so she could hump onto his slick hand as tomes were shaken to the floor.

"Awww...shit...mmmm"

Paul yanked her head back and deftly performed re-entry into Anna's bare snatch.

The nurse gasped as she climaxed, her body jerking like an electric chair baby.

"Jesus...." Paul exclaimed when her nails raked into his skin through his shirt. It was soaked through with perspiration so it clung to his back, dripping over his bare pimpled ass as he pumped into his exhausted lover.

He was thrusting in fast little spurts, faster and less comfortable than girls usually liked. Anna was beyond complaint. A tiny piece of consciousness realized that Sixville had gotten to her, after all. Dr Schroeder had said it would...

"I'm gonna cum soon....I'll pull out...okay?" Paul inquired, some of the old him returning for a moment and realising his throbbing cock was unsheathed.

"Don't you dare pull out! I ...want you to lick me clean after..." The bedraggled woman implored loudly.

"You're such a fucking slut." Paul cried, shocked but impressed.

"Ummmm....yeah..." She actually sounded proud.

"Oh...fuck..." The psychologist yelled as jets of his semen shot out of his cock and saturated Schluter's cunt.

"Well...lick me clean..." She commanded imperiously. She felt awake and alert in a slow kind of hyperawareness. As if time were crawling she felt her lover kneel on the floor and push his face close to her pussy and start to slurp his seed from her.

She noticed a shadow of a man passing the drawn blinds. No prizes for guessing who that had to be. Anna smiled and Dr Gale opened the door of his friend's office. She'd had just enough warning so that she could fix the intruder with a lusty, come hither look. With his head buried in Anna's crotch Paul was unaware they had been caught in this compromising situation.

Dominic's jaw dropped and he looked away, ashamed, shocked and stunned. Without intending too he looked back to confirm his first impression.

This time he saw everything. It looked like a scene from a porn movie and its hardcore star, Anna, was inviting him to join in. She rubbed and stroked her juicy tits as she tilted back her head to give a provocative little laugh.

Dominic had never seen such sight his whole life. He shut the door and walked away, telling himself that his straining hard-on was a perfectly natural response to erotic stimuli.

Anna scowled, but only briefly, before letting her second orgasm build and overtake her senses.

+++++++++++++++++

Ten minutes later Paul walked into Dominic's office. Some attempt had been made to tidy himself up but the term dishevelled was an understatement.

He looked embarrassed, sheepish and as if he wished the ground would swallow him alive.

"Dominic, what can I say....?"

"I should have knocked. I'm sorry." Dominic said, gently. "We don't need to mention it." Dominic figured Paul was single and Anna was a consenting partner, so really it was none of his business; cringe worthy, yes, but no big deal.

"We're good?" Paul asked, surprised and relieved.

"We are." Dominic confirmed, patting his mate on the arm. With an unidentifiable feeling Dominic realised he could smell the scent of sex on Paul.

"Nurses, eh?" Paul had had his fair share. "On the bright side, maybe this means she'll stop coming on to you." Paul added jovially.

Dominic was shocked to realise he was a little disappointed. The image of Anna's tempting tits flashed into the forefront of his mind.

+++++++++++++++++++++

Session 3

"In our last session you said "Most people seem unreal or hollow but with others its like their skin is barely holding everything in... there are some many of them in Sixville."

Dominic had written 'derealization?' on his notepad, next to this quote. It suggested that Gwen might be more seriously unwell.

"Does that include people that you are close to?" He inquired.

Gwen seemed reluctant to answer, shifting uncomfortably. She began to clench and unclench her hands unconsciously and her lower lips trembled.

"I know it sounds mad," She yelled before she caught herself, "but everyone is one or the other. It's hard to explain." Her tone made it clear that she didn't want to.

"Okay. We'll leave the explanation for the moment." Dominic knew when not to force it. He liked Gwen and didn't like seeing her discomforted. "Where do you come when categorising yourself?

"Sometimes I think I'm not real, like I'm just the skin on someone else, so I'm both....maybe... God, I sound nuts..." She yelled, slamming a hand down on the coffee table. "aaargh dammit!" She continued, venting her frustration with herself.

Dominic shook his head emphatically.

"You are not nuts, okay?" He said, scooping her into a paternal hug. "You're just telling me how you experience the world and once we understand that we'll know where we are, okay?"

Gwen nodded, her flushed red cheek cooling on Dom's blue shirt. He guided her back to her chair. Gwen looked a little happier as Dominic scrawled 'depersonalisation' on his page. It sat underneath 'derealization' and Dominic drew a plus sign, followed by an equal's symbol. Lastly he wrote 'dissociative identity disorder?'.

The possibility concerned him immensely. He was able to ease his fear by adding 'less profound conditions: disorganization or decompensation?'.

"How can you be both, Gwen? Can you tell me what that means?" Dominic probed tenderly.

"Well...It's like I'm not all of me. There's another part...or half...This scares me, Dominic...do I have to talk about this?" She really sounded like a little girl, like his daughters when they were frightened and upset. He nodded. "I don't know who I am, not really..."

Dominic agreed that they could take a break and Gwen trawled around the office, stopping only to closely examine a phrenologist's head.