When morning came, Lyam groaned as he slowly rolled off of his office chair. His neck was aching and his muscles were sore. It wasn’t exactly a good quality sleep, but it was what he desperately needed at the time. While still trying to wake up, he dragged himself around the office, trying to clean up and recollect what had happened before his slumber. Absent-mindedly, he picked up the phone, holding it to his ear, just to make sure the call wasn’t still going. 

“Good morning, Lyam. Is there anything on your mind?” Red asked right away. 

“Heavens me, you’re still here?!” Lyam jumped at the sound of the psychologist’s voice. With the scare forcing him awake, he remembered that he ranted a lot of his discontent to Red for hours last night. The avian was surprised that it didn’t drive her away. “You don’t quit, do you?” 

“Like I said, I am only here because you need help.” She explained once more as he looked over all the notes scattered around his desk. Just the sight of it made him anxious, but was hesitant on saying anything to the doctor.

‘I shouldn’t be saying anything about the case.’ the detective thought to himself. He was cautious of what came out of his mouth, just in case this was an attempt from the Royal Owls to spy on him. As his mind wondered what he could speak of to keep the caller busy and out of his business, the loud drilling from across the streets disturbed the morning peace. It gave Lyam quite a scare. “Gah! This city is in shambles!” He exclaimed, pounding on his desk. The avian was clearly angry. “The government only cares about tourism nowadays! Raking in money from rich people outside the state, only to build more facilities to accommodate visitors! What about the people that actually live here and defend the government? Our drinking water needs better filtration! The living districts are taking turns having blackouts! This ain’t right, I tell you! It just ain’t!” 

“You are right, it isn’t. It seems the government has their priorities backwards.” She responded, confirming his feelings. 

Red’s words calmed the anger within Lyam. He was happy to know that he wasn’t crazy, that someone actually listened and agreed with him. Because of this sense of comfort, the avian spent almost his entire morning speaking on the phone, pouring his dissatisfaction out on the therapist. That wasn’t to say that he didn’t get anything done. While he was running his mouth, he took the time to sort out the items he had in one or two of the cardboard boxes. 

Seeing how productive he would be when he had someone to talk to, the heron allowed these longer conversations to happen in his day to day life. Especially in the mornings, where he needed to just wake up and get himself started. He could clean out the boxes, one bit at a time, all while talking about whatever he felt like ranting to the doctor. Music, Culture, Sports team, his favorite brand of alcohol and why; Anything. And whenever he felt better, Red would retreat from his phone line, allowing him to do his work in peace. 

There were times when he felt like he had said something that might have crossed the line and made Red uncomfortable, something too boy-ish or crude, something that was stating his political stance; but to his surprise, the psychologist didn’t judge him. As much as the heron knew he should feel happy about this, he was paranoid. The idea of Red being some spy from the Royal Owls still lingered in the back of his mind. He cannot deny the noticeable improvements to his life and his motivation since talking to the good doctor, finding himself less tense and having more patience; he lost the need of drugs, alcohol or even a trip to the club to relax. The more he had a positive impression of Red, the more he wished to analyze her to make sure she’s a friend and not foe. 

“So, um…” Lyam cleared his throat to cut a previous conversation short, wanting to test the therapist’s true intentions. He was hoping to act natural, but all he did was make himself seem awkward, and he was pretty sure that she could tell. “I was wondering if you know anything about the Royal Owls.” He blurted out, and immediately felt stupid about it. It felt way too obvious what he was doing, if Red was truly a spy. 

“No, I can’t say I do. Are they related to your work?” Red asked, with curiosity in her tone.

The moment Red started talking, Lyam was hyper-focused on every word that came out of the her mouth, making sure he wasn’t missing any giveaways she might be displaying. “Well, kind of.” He replied to the therapist, not wanting to reveal too much information just yet. “I’m just… curious. Would you be more interested in hearing about the Royal Owls or about the city?”

“If you think that would help, then yes. I am here to listen to you, and any problems you may have.” Red replied, 

“R-right…” The heron responded, wondering if he should try to prod a few more times, just to make sure. “Well, I’m just thinking that… you might be bored of hearing me rant about the city all the time.” 

“Of course not, you bring up very good points about the city. I hope these talks are indeed helping you.” The therapist said, ready to hear anything he needs to get off his chest. 

“Really?” Lyam’s expression lit up. Concluding that perhaps Red really isn’t someone he should be worried about. Although he doesn’t feel safe talking about his job, at least when it came to other things, he was more at ease with the doctor. In the next coming days, he tried to test the doctor’s interest in the Royal Owls a few more times, and each time he did, the results came back the same. Red didn’t seem to mind what the detective rambled about as long as he was comfortable. There was no preference to hear anything specifically. Any questions the therapist asked weren’t ones that would make him reveal anything specific, but were focused on his feelings and perspectives. She even helped Lyam find the blindspots in thinking, and that certainly has some relatability to his job in solving mysteries.

The more Lyam expressed himself, the more he was able to organize his own thoughts and that certainly helped him see the clues for his cases in a clearer light. Not only that, controlling his behavior was much easier than before. He was not letting the negative emotions get to him, resulting in him whining less and less. 

One evening, while coming back from a freshly solved case, he passed by the club and was face to face with a familiar bird. “Be careful of who you talk to!” the cockatoo squawked. Once again, he was chirping up a storm to every bird that walked by, yelling the same words every day. 

“They are trying to take over our minds! Our lives!” As the crazed avifauna essentially threw papers at everyone that passed by. Lyam picked up the paper, taking a glance before discarding it at the next trash bin. Oddly, he didn’t have the same annoyance he once had for the bird. Now he understood his struggle to make his voice heard, just like him.

‘Maybe this Therapy thing actually is helping.’ Lyam thought to himself as he continued to walk to his office.