~~
Trinity
~~
Reece wouldn't let me leave the room at all, but he did send people in to see me. While I sat in my room, Reece was getting the kids ready for school and driving them like he apparently did every day since I slipped into my comatose state.
Sitting in my room was boring though. So, I needed some company to come and see me. The first person that came was Juniper. She came running into the room while Paul got their kids off to school.
I could smell Juniper coming as she ran up the stairs. Not to mention her pounding footsteps were easy for me to notice. She wasn't exactly trying to hide the fact that she was on her way up to see me.
The door to my room burst open without her even stopping to know. That was the Juniper that I knew. She was going to come in and see me on her own terms just like she always did.
"Trinity!" Juniper called out to me when she saw me sitting up in my bed. "Oh Trinity, thank you for waking up. I am so happy and excited to see you." She ran all the way over me and skidded to a halt. "Damn you, Trinity! How could you go and do something like that? How could you leave us all just hanging with nothing to explain what happened? I mean I.. I.. GAH! I could hit you for that."
Instead of hitting me though, she threw her arms around me and hugged me tightly. She was crying against my shoulder, sobbing as she got out all of the emotions that she had been holding back.
"I missed you, Trinity. I missed my best friend. I know that you were always so busy, but we used to talk at least. We would always share what was going on. Why didn't you tell me what was going on? Why didn't you tell me that you were having a hard time? Why, Trinity? Why?"
"I'm sorry, Ju. I didn't mean to hide things from you. I just thought that everyone would think that I was weak if I told them about those voices that I was hearing. I know now that it was just Hekate reaching out to me. It was just her playing games with my head. But at the time, I didn't know that. I didn't know what was going on. And I thought that you would all think that I was not fit to be the Luna, the Queen and the Goddess. I thought that I would be locked away." I hung my head and just felt the shame wash over me. It was everything that I had been feeling. It was the truth. I knew that I needed to tell this to people. Yet it was still hard. It felt like I was bearing the most intimate parts of my soul to her. And even though she was my best friend, it was hard to let her see these parts of me.
"Trinity. Look at me. Please." Juniper was trying to encourage me to lift my head and look her in the eyes. I didn't really want to. Not yet. But she wasn't ready to give up just yet. "Look at me, Trin. Please. I need to see your eyes. I need to look into them."
"Fine." I finally stopped resisting her and looked her in the eyes. "What is it, Juniper?"
"Huh. It is you. With that defeatist way you were talking, I thought that maybe you had been replaced with some sort of clone or replica. I thought for certain that this sappy little crybaby right here couldn't have been my best friend. I mean, you look like Trinity. You sound like Trinity. But right now, you definitely are not sounding like Trinity."
"What are you even talking about, Juniper? I'm acting like I usually do." I didn't see what it was that she was talking about. I was me. I was no one but me.
"Well, you might think that you are because of the way that those voices had brainwashed you. However, I know better. I have known you for ten years now, don't you think that I know what you act like? So come on, cut the bullshit. You're not to blame here. And even if you were having this issue for real and it wasn't some psycho bitch trying to manipulate you, do you really think that we would turn our backs on you? We all love you, Trinity. We would have worked with you. And not to mention, I could have helped you." Juniper was being super supportive and helpful, but I was still feeling like shit for having left my children for so long.
"No one could have helped me, Juniper. There was just way too much that was going on. I was literally being driven insane by those voices. I was at my breaking point when I followed it and the triplets into the underworld."
"All the more reason for me to help you out, Trinity. I mean, seriously, what the hell did you give me that gift for if not to help people. And you count as people, right? So, sit still, shut up, and let me do my job here."
At that moment, Juniper grabbed my hands. I could feel that she was gathering her power in the center of her palms. She, like Griffin, had learned over the years to use her magic without making the light shine. She was able to do it discreetly now. That was how she was running a successful psychology practice. She focused mainly on children, but she would treat anyone. She wanted to help as many people in the world as she could, but she was limited to where she was. At least there were a lot of people in the immediate area that were getting the help they needed because of her.
Now that Juniper was working her 'magic' on me, I could feel the emotions that I had been bottling up just slipping away. She was using the gift that I had given here years and years ago. She was using it on me. She was helping me to forgive myself. She was helping to calm the severity of the emotions that I was feeling. She was softening the blows of the memories of my recent 'traumatic' events. She was, as she had said, doing her job.
"Th..thank you, Juniper. Thank you so much. I..I can't believe that you did that for me. I..I can't believe that I temporarily forgot that you could do that. Thank you."
"It's nothing, Trinity. You're like a sister to me. And, if you and that 'candy pants' of yours weren't going to figure out that I could help you out on your own, then I just needed to take matters into my own hands." She was grinning happily at me. I could tell that she was feeling proud of herself when she said that to me, but I was still stuck on something else.
"U..uh..uhm 'candy pants'?" I had no idea what she was talking about there. "What are 'candy pants'?"
"Hahh!" She shook her head and sighed at me. "I can't believe I have to explain this to both of you. Reese's pieces are candy, right?. Where are our Reece's pieces? They're in his pants. Hence, 'candy pants'." That had me cracking up. She was so hilarious. And only she would be the one to think up something like that.
"Ha ha ha. Juniper, you're so damn hilarious. I don't even know how I would survive without you." I reached out the little bit that I could and hugged her. It was again a weak hug, but I swear that I was hugging her as tightly as I could.
"Are you just now figuring that out?" She laughed right back at me. "Come on, Trinity. I thought we were friends here. Aren't we supposed to know all these things about each other by now?"
After that, now that the tension had passed, the two of us just sat there and talked for a while. We talked about a lot of the stuff that happened while I was gone. She gave me her take on things and what she thought was going on. And I was surprised that she said Reece was holding it together well enough. I guess that, like me, he was hiding it as best as he could. Most people hadn't even known how hard things were for him. Or at least, they pretended that they didn't notice.
I let her talk to me about what was going on with her and Paul, not to mention their kids. They all seemed to be doing well, which was good to hear. And she told me that she had gotten baby fever lately and wanted to have more. Paul was on board as well. So apparently, now that I am awake, I should expect their announcement sometime very soon.
I was happy to just sit and talk to her like that. It felt halfway normal. It was even reminding me of when I was pregnant with the twins and on bedrest. I would sit with Juniper here in my room, well in the old version of my room. During that time, we would just sit and talk for hours on end. Or we would watch a movie or play a board game. I wonder if she would be willing to do that again sometime soon. Because if I knew Reece and Griffin at all, which I did, then I would be on bedrest once again. I was probably not actually going to walk again until the triplets were here.
That's fine. I knew how important it was. With having been through it before as well as having been through the underworld with the boys. It was all going to be fine. They would survive.. I would see to it.
