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Please note, this is slightly revised from the original story posted in Wheelchairfiction - felt it needed a little updating.

Chapter 1 - Prologue

They say that stress is bad for you. Well it was bad for Annie, hot-shot lawyer who couldn’t control her impulse to win in court. As a defence lawyer, she was great at getting her clients out of a tight spot and as long as they told her they were innocent, she was paid very well to believe them. But it had taken its toll on her private life. She had little time to see friends and family, her mother often made frantic phone calls to her cell phone telling her she’d been to her apartment and found the remnants of a box of cereal and a carton of week-old milk in her kitchen and that was the sum total of food there. She explained that she never ate at home, she was a lousy cook anyway and eating out was easier. Her mother was not easily placated though and kept on at her. She rarely took time for eating and her exercise regime consisted of battling along crowded city streets and on the metro platform for the next train. Her bank account was the healthiest thing about her. Unlike married colleagues who would go away with their families at weekends, she would work at home, leaving her apartment a bit neglected. She occasionally found time to shop for something decent to wear but it was always something for work she ended up buying. She rarely took any holidays and often went without much sleep.

It was no surprise then that one day in her office, having got up that morning feeling lethargic and exhausted, pacing up and down in front of her office window with its fantastic view over the city skyline, she fainted right in the middle of dictating a letter to a client. Her secretary panicked a little and called emergency services, but she had already come round when the paramedics entered the office a few minutes later. Annie was sat in her office chair with a glass of water in front of her looking embarrassed, especially when the paramedic started asking her questions about the last time she ate and what she’s had. He looked concerned and insisted she have a drip fitted to re-hydrate and get some energy in her. After that she was carted off to the hospital where they ran some tests. Satisfied she was neither diabetic, anorexic or epileptic, the ER doctor told her the results. In effect she was suffering the affects of too much stress and a poor lifestyle, which until now she had been getting away with because Annie was young and reasonably fit. Outwardly she looked fine but inside she was suffering because she worked too hard and didn’t relax enough. Her blood pressure was too high, she was a bit underweight and her metabolism was a mess. In short he ordered her to see her own doctor and get some help with stress management. With that, they let her go.

Annie was ambitious, but not stupid and her fainting embarrassment was not something she wanted to repeat itself anytime soon, so she went to her own doctor and sought advice. He recommended she see a therapist, all too aware that the young woman was in danger of burn-out if she didn’t do something to control her stress soon. Giving her a card, he assured her that the psychiatrist was very good, if a little unconventional at times, but he seemed to get his clients through the stresses and strains of modern life. Annie thanked him and promised to give him a call.

A week later she knocked on the door of Dr Nathan Brown, renowned psychiatrist and confidant of the wealthier population. She entered and they began her sessions. They met twice weekly for a few months and got to know each other. He prescribed unusual things like making her read a good book and telling him all about it, or going to see a great movie. Things she hadn’t done in years were suddenly proving interesting and a bit of a distraction, but not a cure for her driving ambition. When Nate, as he had instructed her to call him, told her that they were reaching an impasse in her treatment, she looked surprised. She had been for a medical the week before and he had the results. Whilst her energy levels had improved due to eating better, her blood pressure and stress readings were the same.

She didn’t want to listen to his advice about a change in career, or even reducing her workload, she wanted a magic wand and he didn’t have one. Nate told her that there was no point in continuing with therapy if she didn’t like his advice. In truth, he wanted to end her treatment so he could ask her out. In the hours they had spent together, Nate had fallen for Annie, but he was also scared for her because she was so stubborn.

A few months passed and Annie started seeing another therapist but wasn’t getting what she wanted from her. It wasn’t like Nate’s sessions, where she felt at home and comfy with him, even if she didn’t always like his advice, she liked him. So when he called her, asking how she was, she answered honestly and wanted to see him. He invited her to his office and they talked as friends rather than in any official way.

She told him she needed to do something radical or she would explode but that she couldn’t give up her job. “Then, apart from your job, what are you willing to give up?” he asked.

“Anything,” she replied.