"What exactly do I do?" Yuna asked.
"Just see if you can get him to say anything. Anything at all," Dr. Paine said, and opened the door to Seymour’s room. She gestured for Yuna to go inside. "There isn’t much time. I can’t allow visits for very long and he has to speak with a lawyer later today."
The door closed behind Yuna. She knew the security guards were just outside the door, and they were very alert to noises, even silence too quiet or too long. Still, she felt scared, a feeling which she was suddenly ashamed of, seeing Seymour sitting on the bed.
He was half-curled up, his arms wrapped around his head, his hands holding his face on either side. One leg was stretched on the bed, the other sloping off with his bare foot on the cold floor. He sat like that, not responding, and not seeming to notice her as he rocked back and forth slightly, wearing nothing but his boxer shorts and a T-shirt, which he was chewing on.
Yuna took a small step towards the bed and stopped, for Seymour was very much aware of her presence and gave a low growl as she came close.
"Come on, you remember me, right? Here, take that out of your mouth." She took another small step toward him. He didn’t move, but the growl was not abated.
"You going to hurt me?" she asked, this time not coming closer.
Seymour went silent. The sleeve of his T-shirt fell from his mouth. He stared at Yuna for a few minutes and eventually uncurled himself.
"Seymour?" she asked.
He blinked. "You a cop?"
"No, I’m not a cop," she said, and went closer to the bed.
He moved backwards, away from her, but said nothing. No growls or snarls.
"I’m not going to hurt you," she said, holding out her hand slightly, as if trying to coax a small stray.
"You’re with Tidus."
"Yes. He’s my best friend," she said, then realized what he meant. "He’s not going to hurt you, either. He’s a nice guy."
"What about Auron?"
Shit. Auron was a cop. "Auron’s in isolation; he can’t hurt you."
Seymour shook his head, but didn’t say anything for a while. At first Yuna thought she’d hit a dead end. Then he spoke, and it wasn’t comforting. "He must’ve found out about Kinoc."
"What about Kinoc?" Yuna asked, hoping he’d also explain who the hell Kinoc was.
"I killed him."
* * * * *
Yuna’s time was spent. ‘There’s always tomorrow’ the doctor had said. It wasn’t as comforting as it was meant to be. Yuna didn’t feel like going back to work, and Rikku wouldn’t be back until late that night.
She decided to go speak to Tidus.
"Man, you look like a bus ran over your best friend," he said.
"Not quite," Yuna said.
"Don’t you have work?"
"D. Paine cleared me to help with a case. It’s barely in my jurisdiction and I’m not sure I know what I’m doing."
"But you’re a social worker. There aren’t any kids here."
"Seymour’s a kid… sort of. He’s been here since he was sixteen."
"Yeah, but he’s nuts," Tidus said.
"He’s scared."
"Yuna, he’s attacked Wakka and Lulu with a broom at least three times. He keeps stealing things so he can break something else. He throws things."
"He never threw anything at me."
"Yeah, well he wanted to throw a chair at me."
"He’s afraid Auron would do something."
"Ah," Tidus said, conceding that he’d lost that part of the argument.
"Tidus, I’ve seen kids like him. They’re only six or seven, but they don’t know how to be nice because they never learned."
"I think he’s past learning, Yuna," Tidus said.
"He learned somewhere," she said. "I spoke to him a while ago."
"What’d he do?"
"He almost cried," she said. "I’m not saying he’s not dangerous, I’m saying I know there’s a reason. But I’m not sure I want to know what it is anymore."