Caretaker and Whumpee are in a relationship. It's not going well. Whumpee lies constantly, keeps secrets, is doing a lot of 'overtime' at work, coming home later and later. And then they get snappy at Caretaker whenever Caretaker tries to bring any of this up.
Caretaker doesn't want to break up with Whumpee, but they know things also aren't working between them, so they get a therapist. Privately, without Whumpee knowing. They vent their frustrations about how Whumpee's attitude and behaviour is hurting them. About how they think Whumpee might be cheating because they're being too secretive around their phone, and, no matter what lengths Whumpee goes to to hide them, Caretaker has seen those fucking hickeys.
It sounds like a classic case of cheating. Whumpee's fallen in love with a co-worker, or is maybe having a secret affair with their boss. The usual dramas. But Caretaker still loves Whumpee despite all of this, and they want to try to make it work. So they work with their therapist to come up with a way to have an actual conversation with Whumpee. Non-confrontational, open, "I just want to hear you out."
And it works. A little too well.
It starts out hostile. Whumpee is defensive as usual, and then they just... break down. The truth comes tumbling out. Whumper has been abusing them for months, threatening them to keep quiet, hurting them so badly they've had to miss shifts at work to go to the hospital then make up the lost hours with overtime. And Caretaker listens with increasing horror as Whumpee gets more and more upset because fuck they have misjudged this terribly.
They comfort Whumpee the best they can, then immediately text their therapist.
"We had the conversation. It's... a little more complicated than I thought."
