Dictation - 3 [Voice][Dated for the 18th]

[drabsolutelynot]

Hello everyone, I just wanted to notify you th---

[Rosen is very abruptly cut off by an aggressive fit of coughing, broken intermittently by wheezes and what sounds like choking before devolving into more coughing.

~Guess who caught a cold in the storm~!

And he looks like the walking dead, his normally tanner skin having gone powdery white and his eyes bloodshot with dark bags beneath them, which is why he's opted for a voice recording. Also because he doesn't want to reveal the fact that he's pathetically knotted up in his blankets despite it being mid afternoon]

---Sorry. [He swallows hard trying to steady his voice]

I wanted to notify everyone that I will not be a-available at the clinic for the next f-few days. 

['For reasons of illness' goes unsaid as he quickly tries to end the recording as a new wave of coughing starts to overtake him]

Comments

[lifetothefullest]

Some, yeah. We get basics at the FBI, I went to a class or two in college, and I've picked up some things from knowing a lot of people with--or training to get--medical degrees. Also I'm really accident-prone.

[He adds the last part as a joke, but it's also true; it's not the whole story, of course, but more than enough reason on its own.]

[drabsolutelynot]

[That last part is the farthest thing from a surprise]

W-with most people I wouldn't bother trying to train them- [He wheezes a bit as a cough seems to be brewing but dissipates before it can even get out of his throat] -B-but you're a fast learner.

[And Lance has proven himself a talented and quick hand with whatever he's put his mind to learning]

[lifetothefullest]

[Hey, surely there's someone else who's managed to fall out of two different trees two years in a row and break their arm both times, right?

RIGHT?

He brightens at the compliment, ready to affirm that he's indeed a fast learner and it won't be a waste of time or anything, but there are more important things to focus on.]

I don't think you're supposed to be suppressing a cough.

[Just saying. In fact, he's pretty sure that's one of the ways you end up with pneumonia.]

[drabsolutelynot]

[Rosen grimaces before making an attempt at the soup, less out of hunger and more out of avoidance of addressing Lance's annoyingly accurate statement]

C-can I ask you why you decided to become a psychologist? I mean, rather than an MD or something along those lines

[lifetothefullest]

[Well, mission accomplished, he supposes. Sort of. He'll take it.

The question, though, earns some hesitation; he has different answers for it depending on how honest he feels like being and who he's talking to, so he has to decide exactly what and how much to say.

He studies the table for a short time before responding.]

I thought about it. Becoming an MD, I mean.

[He'd considered several other fields too, especially in his short break between high school and starting college when he realized just how fast everything had gone and that he really needed to make a decision.]

I wanted to do something that would help people, and ultimately it came down to that I wanted to work more personally with individuals that a doctor normally does. I've um... I've been to a lot of doctors, but I only remember the name of one of them; the three therapists I've seen--although one was a psychiatrist, not a psychologist--I know whether they were married, how many kids or pets they had, where they went to school, what their hobbies were outside of work...

[And all of them, even the psychiatrist he'd only seen a few times, had made much more of an impact on his life than the medical doctors had, even though the latter had all been very competent and well-meaning people.]

[drabsolutelynot]

You wanted to tr-treat the patient as a whole not as a body of symptoms.

[Rosen's eyes rest on Lance, red at the corners and clearly exhausted, but intent on him. Curious.]

[lifetothefullest]

Something like that, yes.

[And he wanted to try to give people hope that even the worst things don't mean your life is ruined. There's always still hope.]

I thought I could make a greater impact working as a psychologist than I could as a doctor. Besides, I've never been a huge fan of hospitals.

[He adds it as a weak joke, and sure he could've just worked a practice instead, but he doesn't really like those either. There's always something so cold about them, no matter how warm the doctor is.]