New Years eve
"hello Jade" says Beck as he walks in
"who invited you, also my heart is no longer yours, truthfully I don't think it ever was" says Jade
"ok that hurt, I had a girlfriend up in Canada but she cheated on me, now I understand why you were always so scared that I'd cheat on you and I realize I was wrong to be so mean to you about it" apologizes Beck
"I appreciate the apology but it wasn't the cheating I was afraid of, the first day of school where she showed up I was taken aback by her beautiful eyes, I was afraid you'd take my chance at happiness away from me, that's why I was always prissy around her, I loved her so much and didn't know she loved me back, I didn't know how to deal" says Jade
"that's fair, I'm dealing with my own sexuality issues, I'm not sure how I feel or what I should feel, Cat invited me over after I told her about my girlfriend cheating, it was a long flight from Toronto but so worth it, I really am sorry, new year new life right" says Beck as Cat walks down the stairs in a beautiful dress
"ok who is the hot brunette in the amazing red dress" blurts out Beck
"Cat and hands off" says Trina
"ok I understand but why brunette" asks Beck
"it's my natural hair color, I got some red highlights layered in to lighten it a bit, also I'm not as dumb as I made myself out to be in school, I had an aversion to the meds, I thought they'd get rid of the giggly me" says Cat
"so what about the agreement we had for me coming here to start over" asks Beck
"Jade gets to decide that, she knows you best" says Trina
"what were the terms of the deal" asks Jade
"he moves his RV here and pays rent and helps with groceries, in return we could see if he'd be a good boyfriend, I made sure to tell him the latter wasn't a given but we all kinda like him so I put it there as an option" says Cat
"if he has nowhere else to go then ya he can live here, on the boyfriend front I'd want to try Robbie first but he seems dead set on giving his life for Tori if it comes to it and absolutely refuses to start anything so I guess if he does end up giving his life so Tori can live you'd be a good second choice" says Jade
"wait so I'd like be able to kiss all four of you and no jealousy…, I mean it's been a dream but never once had I thought I'd be given an opportunity" says Beck
"I thought you'd have a problem with poly relationships" asks Trina
"so did I but honestly my cousin was in one and she told me it's interesting to try at least once, also Erica is my cousins cousins daughter, bless her soul, she'd have been a great mom, please tell me Cat voted in that election, I heard it was a big one" says Beck
"nope they wouldn't let her, they let her get up to the point of putting the ballot in the machine but stopped her before she could, they asked to see her ballot and violated her right to a secret ballot and said oh sorry Hun you aren't allowed to vote, they told her that her kidnapper brainwashed her and that she wouldn't be allowed to vote in any election going forward because it wasn't her voting freely and of her own choice" says Trina
"oh my God that's mean, I studied psychology in my last year of high school as an extra curricular activity and from what I can tell from what I read kidnappers who kept their victims as long as Cat had been would convince their victims not to vote" says Beck as Erica runs in and hugs Beck tightly
"ok she seems really excited" says Tori as Erica whistles a perfect B flat
"I swear she looks like her mom, Erica do you know who I am" says Beck as Erica signs 'uncle Beck'
"you and Hannah were close right" asks Jade giving Trina a hug
"ok that's amazing, she must have a photographic memory because I only met her once when she was little, and yes Hannah and I were extremely close, she told me everything, whether I wanted to know or not, her first period, her first crush and her first kiss are only a few of the things she told me, Erica is the daughter of Hannah's crush, James Jones, she slept over at his house one night and wore pj's to bed, she woke up naked and no clothes anywhere in sight for her to put on, he took her phone, she found it and called me to come walk her home, the last time I ever saw her that scared was when my dad yelled at her for messing up spaghetti at the family reunion, even that didn't compare to how scared she was that day" says Beck
"whoa you let your cousin walk home naked" asks Cat
"I didn't have a choice, besides my dad picked up some clothes the night before to congratulate her on passing a hard test, she handed me a towel to hide her from peeping eyes and changed, I knew better than anyone that if her parents knew she'd had sex before marriage they'd have disowned her, only after she died in the hospital after giving birth to Erica did they find out and trust me they were mortified they'd scared their daughter so much that she couldn't bear to tell them she was raped" says Beck
"wait how old was she" asks Tori
"just turned fourteen the day she gave birth to Erica, I was ten, there was a four-year difference between her and I, she was like an older sister to me and she acted like it, she liked the phrase you wash my back I wash yours, she didn't mean it in the sense it's usually used in" says Beck
"how did she mean it, also if you want you can cuddle me tonight, strictly cuddles, none of us are ready for that step yet" says Jade as Erica jumps into Beck's arms
"is this a test, Hannah liked girls more than guys she meant like protectively, when I was walking home with her she had no idea what even happened to her or her clothes, all she knew is she woke up naked and in pain down there, when we got to my house and she looked it up all blood drained from her face, the only words she said was 'I'm dead', not only was she convinced she wouldn't live to see Erica but she was convinced if anyone found out she was raped and pregnant she'd be as good as dead to her family, my dad was getting suspicious that she was there for nine months so I told him what happened to her and he took her to the hospital, letting her believe that he believed she needed to go for stomach pains, explained to the nurses what was going on where she couldn't see and they took care of it" says Beck
"how'd she die" asks Sabrina as she comes out to hug him
"Hannah was in a lot of pain, the doctors found out after that she died because of an internal bleed caused by giving birth to Erica, at the time they tried to get her to surgery to fix the problem but she refused, she told them as my dad remembers 'I refuse to live to see the guy that raped me every day in my daughter, give her to a family that will respect her and love her as their own, if it's my time to die then don't play god and save me', I never forgave my dad for letting her let herself die in fear, it's one of the reasons we didn't always get along and why they didn't like jade" says Beck
"you said she liked girls more than guys, what's your proof" asks Akina
"she only slept over because they were doing a science fair project together, she'd been asked out by this girl Christine the week prior and she had to admit she liked the kisses more than she'd thought, like I said she told me everything, might explain why he raped her" says Beck
"is this douche still walking free" asks Cat holding in a scream
"yes he lives on the other side of LA why" asks Beck confused
"because it makes my blood boil that he's getting away with rape and murder" says Cat
"whoa ok I can see the rape but murder…" questions Beck
"the body does strange things during pregnancy Beck, it's entirely possible the hormones caused her blood to breakdown right cuz" says Cat
"if you can prove he knew she had a blood disorder then ya he'd be on the hook for murder" says Cassandra
"does having a bleeding disorder count" asks Beck
"yeah why" asks Cassandra
"because her blood was really runny, she told me her first period was bad, I told her no details but she said that when she's on her period she couldn't leave the house" says Beck
"oof remember the time I had that one infection Torbear" says Trina
"how could I forget you turned my one and only white blanket red" says Tori
"ya took weeks of throwing it in the laundry to fix it, it wasn't my fault, I had asked dad to make sure we had pads and he forgot" says Tori
"that's fair" says Tori as she heads for her shower
"Can you prove James knew she had that blood disorder" asks Rebecca
"yeah I can, I happen to know he was in the room with my dad when she was diagnosed at the hospital, he took her rollerblading the week before he raped her and she fell and wouldn't stop bleeding so ya I know for a fact he knew" says Beck
"I'll get David on that right away then" says Rebecca walking away to call her brother
"ok even after everything we've been through Beck I can't bear seeing you this down, what if I said I found a way to bring her back" says Jade
"she's been dead for fourteen years Jadelyn there is no bringing Hannah back" says Beck
"I didn't mean like that, my parents always said I had some sort of ability to detect the dead aaand well let's just say since Erica showed up I've been doing a lot of drawing of this dirty blonde girl that kinda looks like a cross between you and Erica" says Jade
"wait detect death as in….." asks Beck
"a day or so before they die and they visit me, was Hannah short or tall" says Jade
"short for her age but taller than her family was at her age" says Beck
"so like five foot three?" asks Jade pulling a drawing off the table
"OH MY God, is she like here or…." Asks Beck nearing tears
"when Erica arrived I saw her following her, she's so proud of Erica you wouldn't believe, she does things that are specific to that person, so for instance Tori has mentioned a tapping, Hannah says if your ears feel cold she's talking to you and if your arms feel cold she's giving you a hug" says Jade as Erica stares at the picture of Hannah
"you really did bring her back to life, Erica it's ok, that's your mom" says Beck as Erica signs I remember then hugs Jade tightly as Cat comes running in all scared
"guys Tori she Uhh….. I uhhhh" stutters Cat
"she pass out in the shower again? , I warned her about using her normal hot water routine" says Jade
"uh huh" says Cat as she gulps
"well she's not dead, trust me I'd know, cool her down with a cold bath or shower rinse, her body just isn't able to cool off fast enough at those temperatures right now" says Jade
"Kay kay" says Cat as she runs back up to cool Tori off
"Tori doesn't always have problems with hot water in the shower, hasn't for about a week" says Trina
"she implicated herself as well Trin which means they were doing stuff, hot water alone isn't a problem but right now at this point in her healing if you distract her with kisses or touches, her brain gets confused and forgets it's job keeping her cool in the shower so she overheats, it happened with her and I two days ago so that's how I know" says Jade
"that makes sense, I kissed her while she was doing laundry and she completely forgot she was doing laundry and just pulled me to our bedroom and we made out for half an hour then she went down to the laundry room expecting her clothes to be done, will she be like this from now on, I really hope not" says Trina nervous
"not likely no, the fact that she remembers the task she was doing before the kiss means likely her brain is rewiring itself, if anything you guys making out with her in those scenarios is actually helping her" says Cassandra
"how so, right now it just seems to be hurting her" asks Trina
"think of it like a game on a computer, the cancer screwed up her save file, not enough to stop her from doing things but enough that she becomes easily distracted by her emotions, chances are she'd be distracted by just about anything right now, what you guys are doing is showing her that tasks get rewards, kinda like a dog except its training her brain to remember and focus on tasks to earn such rewards" says Cassandra
"isn't that treating her like a child" asks Jade nervously
"no not at all, actually she's reacted to the chemo better than ninety percent of the people who are caught soon enough to even be treated, most I've met forgot how to walk, talk and go to the bathroom, the cancer basically turned Tori inside out, the cancer reversed that but the brain needs to relearn things, I'd call getting distracted by love when you're in a relationship with four girls and maybe Beck one day down the road a good problem to solve, with time she will be able to fight the urge to completely abandon the task at hand to let her emotions take control, I'd say give her a few weeks, when did the distraction stage start" says Cassandra
"like last week, she was pretty stable before that" says Trina
"if anyone kept tabs on Tori's stability instead of focusing on her lips it'd be you Trin" says Jade
"ya well I may love her to pieces but I care about her survival more than my happiness, after all I'm not the only one she makes happy, I mean how selfish would it be of us if one of us didn't make sure that she was ok just so we could play with her body" says Trina
"you've really come a long way Trina, I might have been one of the only ones that knew you and Tori couldn't have been blood sisters but never in a million years did I see you becoming this selfless" says Beck
"ya well rude awakenings tend to do that" says Trina
"wait so you didn't know you were bi" asks Beck
"nope, the moment Cat kissed me my world changed, I realized that I liked girls and guys so I couldn't be this snobby girl anymore, I owed it to Cat to grow, unfortunately it led to me full on crushing on Tori and Jade, never in a million years did I expect Tori to like me back" says Trina as Tori walks down the stairs in a robe
"ya see the problem was I hated myself for how I felt, now with my laundry list of problems I don't have time to feel regret or hate for how I feel so Beck if you want to make out with me and if I enjoy it I'm not gonna ask you to stop" says Tori
"Cat said there'd be a test before I could do that with any of you girls though" says Beck as Cat walks down the stairs
"Tori is the test Beck, if you can make her feel safe after everything she's been through then you have a chance with the rest of us" says Cat
"I'm confused" says Beck tilting his head
"Ryder and Daniel's actions have basically made her scared to trust boys, not only did Ryder try to use her for a grade but after you left, he also spread lies about her, things like oh she's so stupid for letting jade stop her from kissing you…., things like that, the jokes got so bad she had to beg the school to let her do schoolwork from home, Tori is the most vulnerable of us, if you can make her feel safe around you then you gain our trust as well" says Trina
"Trina is right, if I'm being honest there are moments I have trouble trusting her, she has made mistakes but she's willing to admit them and adjust, do you think you can do the same" says Tori
"all I can do is try right, wait so just to be clear if I pass the test all four of you would be my girlfriends, do I have that right" says Beck
"basically ya, fair warning Tori bites when she's in the mood and she won't be unless she feels safe, so if you find her biting your ear, fingers or shirt know you're close" says Jade