Chapter Two

Eddie was released from the hospital a few days later. The doctor had prescribed some painkillers and the nurse had given him a physical therapy schedule. He had a long road ahead of him, but none of the damage was permanent.

After entering his apartment he locked the door behind him and hobbled over to the kitchen. He opened up the refrigerator and instinctively reached for a beer. He paused for a second…Sydney said he was supposed to cut out the drinking…before grabbing the can and cracking it open. It's not like he was going on trial (or whatever she had called it) today. He needed something to take the edge off the aching in his knee and hand…not to mention the constant pain he carried around in his heart. He took a long sip of the beer before settling in on the couch.

He flipped on the television set, not particularly paying attention to what was on the screen. He had his own depressing program playing on a constant loop in his head.

After assessing that the creature was dead Rose turned her attention towards Eddie. "You were supposed to wait for me!" Rose snapped.

Before Eddie could reply he heard a panicked voice. "She's lost so much blood!" Adrian screamed.

"Shit," Rose swore when she saw Jill in his arms. She took Adrian's face in her hands. "Adrian. You have to heal her. Focus…" she said firmly.

"I don't know…if I can…can I do it again…?" Adrian stammered, clearly rattled by the dying girl in his lap.

"You have to try," Rose said to him, clearly trying to hold it together.

Adrian placed his hands on Jill's chest and closed his eyes. "Come on, Jailbait…come on…" he whimpered. His green eyes flashed as he opened them up to look at the Dhampirs. "It's not working…nothing is happening…I don't feel anything…" Adrian sputtered.

"No, no…you cannot stop trying!" Rose yelled at the spirit user.

That was the last thing Eddie remembered. The doctors said he had gone into a state of shock and blocked out the rest of the traumatic event. The traumatic event…that's what they called it. Those words didn't even begin to skim the surface of what had happened that night.

The moment Eddie had been training for since he was a child. The moment when his Moroi needed him the most.

And what had he done? Absolutely nothing.

He had sat there completely frozen while Adrian tried desperately to revive the girl they had all been swore to protect. He was a failure. Simple as that.

There was no mourning period after Jill was laid to rest. A trial was held for the Alchemists and Moroi who had kidnapped the princess. There had been a number of Strigoi involved as well, but their whereabouts were unknown. All the while dissidents clamored for Lissa to be removed from the throne.

Everyone from the Palm Springs contingent had testified at the proceedings. Sydney had been under the most pressure, having to speak against her own people. After the criminals were charged and sentenced the Alchemist organization underwent a change in leadership. New representatives were placed in various Alchemists centers across the world. Together they worked collectively for the good of both humans and vampires. Sydney had been assigned to a center near Court.

Just as talks were set to begin on the legitimacy of Lissa's rule the Dragomir Queen found out she was pregnant. This news silenced the issue.

And life continued on. Eddie was assigned to work at Court. The guardians thought it best he if he didn't work in a one-on-one capacity. Basically they didn't trust him not to screw up again. He really couldn't blame them. Half the time he didn't trust himself.

Eddie knew he'd never been the person he had been before all of this. He didn't have the same drive to protect and serve as he once had. Though Sydney, Adrian, Dimitri, and Rose tried to keep his spirits up eventually his sour attitude pushed them all away. He still saw them around Court, but he was no longer a member of their tight knit group. In fact the brief conversation he had had with Sydney the other day was the most he had spoken to her in months.

The combination of the alcohol and painkillers started to take affect allowing him to have a deep and dreamless sleep for the first time in a long time. He woke up startled when there was a loud knock on his door. He debated ignoring whoever it was, but the knocking persisted.

"Just a second…" he said hoarsely. He momentarily forgot about his knee, but was quickly reminded of his injury when he tried to stand up. "Fuck," he muttered and reached for his crutches. He slowly made his way to the door and opened it enough to see who was on the other side.

"Hi, I went back to the hospital, but they told me you had been released…can I come in?" Sydney asked him.

Eddie unceremoniously flung the door the rest of the way open and trudged back to the couch. "I haven't seen you in longer than I can remember and now here you are again," he said.

"I tried to keep in touch," Sydney pointed out. She sat down in an armchair across from him.

"Yeah, but I was too much of an emo fuck for anyone to be around for more than five minutes," he replied.

Sydney paused before speaking. "None of us can possibly understand how you feel, but no one has turned their back on you," she tried to explain.

"It's fine…it's whatever," Eddie said to her. He rubbed his hand over his face. "How did you get roped into being the guardian errand girl?"

"I figured I was the most removed person from…that night," Sydney said. "And maybe you'd listen to me."

She wasn't totally wrong. She hadn't been in the room where Jill was murdered. "Okay, I have another question," he told her.

"What's that?" she said.

"How the hell did Adrian become a therapist?" he asked her. "I mean…first of all he's the poster child for needing a therapist and secondly, enough time hasn't passed for him to get the license or whatever it is you need."

"After everything happened…Adrian decided he wanted to give back…try to help people…since he hadn't been able to help Jill," Sydney explained. "So he started working at the hospital as a kind of art therapist."

"And that's who the guardians want me to see?" Eddie asked in disbelief.

"Why would you think that?" Sydney asked him in confusion.

"The card you left for me at the hospital…" Eddie explained and fished it off the end table next to him.

"Oh, that was my mistake…I meant to give you Dr. Tarus' card," Sydney said to him. "But maybe seeing Adrian too might help you feel better."

"I don't think I'm next Picasso," Eddie snorted.

"It's not about that," Sydney said. "It's about using it as an outlet to express yourself. I think it's pretty clear you're keeping a lot of things inside. "

"This is so ridiculous," Eddie said with a groan. "I liked it better when everyone was leaving me alone."

"And look how that turned out," Sydney commented, cutting him quite the look.

Okay…she wasn't wrong.