Case Files
Teasers & Deleted Scenes
"Transcript"Washington, D.C. June 2008
DATE: 06/26/08
CLINICIAN: Dr. Kay Baylor
CLIENT: 129799
DOB: 08/26/1971
PURPOSE OF SESSION: DOJ evaluation
Client referred by superior for evaluation on 06/20/08. Reported depressed affect, volatility, withdrawal. Medical history/health questionnaire collected and on file.
In initial observation, client is reserved, uncommunicative. Possibly uncomfortable in clinical/therapeutic setting.
TRANSCRIPT OF INTERVIEW:
KB: I would like your permission to record this session, so I can transcribe it later. Though my evaluation will be based on our conversation, nothing you say will be repeated to anyone. The transcript will be kept private, and the tape will be destroyed after the transcription is done. Do I have your permission?
(Client nods.)
KB: I'm sorry. I need you to give or withhold permission out loud.
Client: Yes.
KB: Thank you. Let's talk about why you're here.
Client: My boss told me to come.
KB: And your personal goals for this session?
Client: I'd like him not to send me again.
KB: We'll work toward that. Why do you think your superior requested this evaluation?
Client: (offers cellphone) Number three on speed dial. You can ask him.
KB: Then I'd know why he thinks he sent you here. Why do you?
Client: (puts phone away, folds arms over chest, leans back in chair. Appears to consider before answering.) Because he thinks I'm acting weird?
KB: Are you?
Client: If I thought so, I'd stop.
KB: But you believe Agent Reyes disagrees.
Client: Between you and me? Reyes isn't the first person I'd go to for a judgment on "normal."
KB: Why so?
Client: Do you know him?
KB: I've met him.
(Client does not continue. Body language still closed; expression challenging.)
KB: Agent Reyes's level of emotional detachment passes professional and approaches pathological. Have you observed other characteristics that make you doubt his judgment of your behavior?
Client: No. No, that's-- It sounds even worse when you say it. Mind if I borrow that line?
KB: If you plan to use it on Agent Reyes, I should warn you, it won't come as news to him.
Client: (laughs) I bet not. No, I just want to impress my teammates.
KB: Then be my guest. I understand one of the agents on your team was severely injured last month.
Client (after several seconds of silence): Yeah.
KB: That's a rare occurrence, isn't it?
Client: It's not-- We know it can happen. We see horrible shit all the time. It's a dangerous job.
KB: So what happened at the end of May was routine?
Client: No.
KB: You were a police officer before joining the Bureau.
Client: Yeah.
KB: Were you involved then in circumstances in which an officer was hurt?
Client: If you're sneaking up on suggesting that "Officer down" is a cop's least favorite ten-code, yeah, it is.
KB: How did you feel when it happened?
Client: You don't feel when it happens. You just do. You have opinions later.
(Client looks out window.)
KB: How do you feel right now?
Client: Fine.
KB: You're with the Behavioral Analysis Unit.
Client: Are you saying that "fine" is not enough to go on?
KB: I was hoping for a little more than that. Yes.
Client: Look, I know this scene. I've directed it. Quit trying to find the back door into my head and ask for what the hell you want.
KB: All right. Why haven't you visited the agent who's hospitalized?
(Client seems startled, and doesn't immediately reply.)
Client: I have.
KB: Once, according to the record at the nurses' desk. On the morning of June 3. But not since.
Client: Hospitals creep me out.
KB: Did you tell that to Agent Reyes?
(Client doesn't reply.)
KB: Tell me about that visit to the hospital.
(Client looks down, then toward the door.)
Client: It wasn't... I wouldn't say "visit."
KB: Why not?
Client: It... He was out--sleeping, unconscious. He didin't even know we were there.
KB: We?
Client: The team. He was delirious. We took shifts watching.
KB: You're overqualified for that, aren't you? A nurses' aid--
(Client jerks head, raises hand.)
Client: They wanted to restrain him. He was... That was what happened to him. He was...chained like a dog. Like a fucking dog. And starved. Then the son of a bitch took a knife to him--
(Client stops abruptly. Hands clench in lap, face averted. Anger. And...?)
Client: He looked helpless. Jesus, he looked as if he was never going to leave that fucking hospital bed. But we had to be there because he was still trying to get away. He'll be helpless when he's dead.
KB: You and your teammates rescued him.
Client: No. No, he did that. We just... Just brought him an ambulance. Just...
KB: Tell me what you're seeing.
Client: That front yard--maybe two dozen people there. And we're no fucking use. I cleared the house, but it didn't need doing. I wanted... Nobody needed anything I could do. He wasn't helpless. We were.
KB: You wanted to act.
Client: Fuck, yes. In my job, if you're not doing anything, you're failing. What the hell was standing there watching going to do for him?
KB: Even though there was nothing you could do.
Client: We were there to save his ass. We were supposed to help.
KB: So you feel your team didn't do its job.
Client: No. I don't feel that. No.
(Client is silent. Appears to be controlling strong emotion, but the nature of the emotion isn't clear.)
Client: All those people there. Three of them... Falkner caught him. He was falling, and she caught him. And Worth was right there. We didn't even know if it was safe, but she starts checking him over. And he... He took the son of a bitch out. Everything we were there for, what we all wanted to do--they did it.
KB: When you say "we," do you mean, "I?" "What I was there for?" "What I wanted to do?"
Client: I would... I would have traded places.
KB: Even with the injured agent?
Client: Yes.
KB: Why?
Client: I watch their backs. I let him down.
KB: He wasn't in the field.
Client: I know. But... I sat in that goddamn room. Even his breathing sounded like a fight. And I couldn't help.
KB: You felt the way you did that night.
Client: I didn't save him. Was I supposed to walk in there and look him in the eye and say, "Get well soon?"
KB: Do you think he blames you?
Client: I wish to hell he did. It would be easier.
