~You could offer the world, baby,

But I'll take this instead, yeah, yeah~

Niall didn't have to wait long to meet the man whose name was on that file that caught his eye. On his third day of work, the first appointment of the day, at nine a.m. bright and early, sitting on the other side of the wood table in the therapy room, was Connor Rodes.

The hair on his arms stood up. His blood pressure hummed and he bounced on the balls of his feet. Because this, this was the screaming man. And there were crutches laid gently against the wall. The intrigue was going to kill Niall before the file was even opened.

Kyle was calm, meeting the man for the first time. "Hello, Connor. I'm Kyle Jordan, one of the two therapists in the building. This is my intern, Niall Horan. Do you mind if he sits in on our session?"

"No," Connor grunted. A tall stocky man sat in the chair many other people needed help had sat in. And like many of them, he didn't think that he needed mental help.

"So, you're experience paralysis of your left foot below the ankle?"

"Yep," Connor's short responses either indicated that he hadn't had his morning coffee, or that he really didn't want to be there. Niall couldn't pick an answer, so he moved to sit next to Kyle for the first time since he had started the job. The chair to the older man's right was always there, but standing in the corner kept him alert. Now there was nothing that could possibly make him fall asleep.

"The doctor's have found nothing that could be causing this." Kyle said, trying to state the facts plainly and not offer opinion.

"They haven't looked hard enough if you ask me," Connor threw out, the statement loaded with expletives that made Niall look up from reading over his superior's shoulder. "And don't give me that conversion disorder bull."

Kyle raised his eyebrows slightly, enough for Niall to notice. This man needed a plan of attack to treat him, to understand him. "What is your opinion on this?"

"I can't move my foot. The problems in my foot, not my head."

"Conversion disorder manifests itself in neuro-"

"Shut up!" Connor yelled, causing the guard standing in the corner behind him to poke the criminal with a baton.

Niall jumped into the situation, seeing that Kyle didn't know what to do. Which was very unprofessional for someone who is supposed to know what to do in scenarios exactly like this one. "Let's forget about the foot thing for a minute. We're not out to get you here, Connor." The inmate began to mumble, but he was cut off. "We can play some UNO? Sound good?" He didn't really have a choice, since Niall was already pulling the deck out of the drawer and dealing four hands.

"I'm innocent," Connor fumed, not happy with Niall's deflection. "There's no problems in my head! Because I didn't kill anyone!"

No one responded to his statement. Kyle kept reading Connor's file as they played, the game culminating in the guard winning and the patient being relatively calm. Once the session was over, Kyle sighed heavily and the two of them went about their day. Life never slows down in a prison.

At six, the two of them were debriefing and discussing treatment plans for several inmates when Niall brought up the highlight of the day. "So, what do we do about Connor?"

Kyle kept typing up his notes on the computer while Niall watched him closely. "I'm going to pass him off to Wendy," He sighed. "Who has more experience with conversion disorder!" The last part was added at a raised volume towards the intern, who looked less than enthused and ready to interject.

"You're the boss," He tried to say in a pleasant voice, but it still came off as childish.

"Brains are wild and insane, Niall. And people are stupid. But we should all know our limits," Soaking the lesson into his brain was something that Niall didn't want to do, but he could at least recognize that it was good advice. He just didn't want Kyle to practice what he preached. "Wanna get drinks after this?"

"I'm only 20."

A simple reminder, and Kyle chuckled. "That explains it." Niall furrowed his eyebrows at the statement. His own boss thought he was a child. Clenching his fists, he would not allow his eyes to move from the clock slowly ticking towards 7 - telling him that he could go home. There was no way Niall was going to punch his boss only three days into work. Doing some anxiety exercises, he was calm by quitting time, but far from done with his day.

---

The day following Niall's last final, he started working the night shift at Wal-Mart, stocking in the back room. After all, there was no time like the present to start paying off those student loans and saving up for a house. The pay on the internship, like most jobs of that caliber, was not good.

Working at Wal-Mart required less original thought and was more manual-labor based. Great exercise, decent pay, and he didn't have to talk to anyone, unlike his day job. During the school year, Niall hardly slept anyways, and he didn't want to ruin his schedule when he went back to school in the fall.

Unfortunately, like everyone expected, all of the other employees working the night shift were absolute terrors. Always trying to talk to him, start up conversations. Like human beings, and he hated it. Couldn't he just do his eight hours of hard work and clock out without speaking to anyone besides the manager?

This night was no different, as Niall's coworker Andi was working right next to him. Most shifts he entertained her questions and was very polite and cordial. Now that Kyle had pushed his buttons in the similar way that conversations with his brother did, Niall wanted to break her neck.

"So what are your weekend plans?" She asked, sliding a box over to him.

"Do you really care?" Niall huffed back, putting the box up on the shelf with so much force that he felt bad after noticing the Fragile stickers all over it. Yikes. Plates.

Andi was taken aback by Niall's rude attitude that night, figuring he must have had a rough day. "Sorry I asked," She tried to take it back, but his feathers had already been ruffled. Muttering to himself for a couple minutes angrily before he was silent again. What was happening to the always outgoing Niall? "You okay, buddy?"

That set him off again. "I'm not out to make friends here!" A short and loud sigh. "I'm just trying to get to the next part of my life!"

Niall still hadn't changed.