3 days later as Cassandra walks in to the currently empty West home
"Jade control me" says Cat
"ok baby" says Jade lightly whipping Cat
"uhhh what did I just walk into sis" asks Cassandra speechless
"uhh you didn't announce you were visiting, Andre took everyone else to the beach for the day, please let us get dressed' says Cat as her and Jade run up the stairs
"did we really just walk in on their pre-sex play" asks Hailey
"I don't even want to know to be honest, I just found out she's my twin sister for sure, I don't want to assume she likes being dominated" says Cassandra
"you heard what she said, she asked jade to control her, that's actually a very dominant thing to do, to be so confident in yourself and in your stature in the relationship to let your lover control you" says Hailey as Jade walks back down the stairs
"I'm so sorry about what you saw, we were not expecting visitors, this is after all Cat and I's house at the end of the day, Cat expects visitors to announce they're coming to visit ahead of time" says Jade apologetically
"we certainly didn't mean to drop in unannounced, my phone service has been having issues lately, I'll receive texts just fine but occasionally texts won't go out and it won't notify me of that, I sent a text to Cat yesterday saying I was popping by today, Adriana, her fiancé and Jenna are here, they're in the car, the hotel they reserved turned them down, apparently it isn't just France they aren't allowed to be in but any French business period" says Cassandra
"Cat's phone is borked right now anyway, she can't send or receive anything, not even over wifi, sort of like Tori's toilet water damaged phone gimmick from the documentary but without the electrocution risk and as usual Cat stands firm in her stance that I can't buy her a new one, as it is she tried to say I couldn't buy this house because it cost too much and that I shouldn't dote on her like that, I only won the argument because my dad made me look for a house stating that we can't be homeless, you might as well invite them in, does Jenna like Sarah" says Jade as Hailey goes to get them
"Jenna fears the two year age gap, it doesn't help that when I took them clothes shopping and Jenna wanted this rainbow bikini and people made fun of her for it, so while Adriana and Rebecca left with a weeks' worth of clothes Jenna left the store with nothing new to wear, after that rainbow bikini incident she looked at many different clothes that she admitted she loved yet was terrified to put in the cart, so much in fact that when we got back into the car she opened up her suitcase and started shredding all her shirts, yes she came here to be with Sarah but now that she's seen people make fun of her she will use her schizophrenia as a barrier to love" says Cassandra as Jenna walks in with ruined mascara
"talk to me Jenna" asks Jade as Cat walks down the stairs in a flowing dress
"I came here to be with her but I can't subject her to the hate I got, if being with me means she has to live in fear to be happy then I won't do it, I absolutely refuse to let her choose to love me if it will make her a target" says Jenna
"being a former sex slave already makes her a target Jenna, she already lives in fear, she's almost sixteen and she's been judged her entire life, she believes that everyone wants to rape her because that's all she's ever known, she talked to Tori for an hour about how the day she was a free person your job was to greet and shake hands with all the freed slaves yet you kept coming back to her, how she spent three years dancing in the hotel room her and her mom were given hoping that one day it would be you dancing with her, that she missed your hugs more than anything, that before the first hug you gave her that she was determined she'd be made fun of for not being a virgin and that it meant that she wanted to be raped, the moment you gave her that first hug her life changed, she told Tori that suddenly she had a reason to smile and a reason to dance without fear, unfortunately she is also of the belief that because your father is a person of great importance that she is nowhere near the kind of person you'd want in your life, that low bearing fruit like her isn't worthy of someone of your status's attention" says Cat
"then I don't know why I came here, there is no way I could ever change her mind, believe it or not that wasn't my job that day, my duty was to remain unseen and to avoid a scandal, I reminded my father that he lost his job to get Adriana answers on why she did the touching, that our first month back my sixth birthday rolled in and my dad got arrested stealing a birthday cake for me because we didn't have any money left, that the rest of the government believed that he planned that big celebration as a point of making news for his re-election later that year and that it had actually been MY idea to throw that celebration so that they felt welcomed into society and that I was going to shake their hands if it was the last thing I did, I did not expect to be so hug central with her, I was very disconnected from reality due to being overstimulated by the amount of applause I was getting, for reasons I had not understood at the time my mind calmed down and the voices less pushy when in her embrace, I'd have taken her into my arms right then if I'd thought that I could have gotten away with it, even if only at the time to calm my schizophrenia" says Jenna as Belle walks in
"would you marry her if you date her" asks Belle
"only if it is her wish, my schizophrenia makes it near impossible to decide anything one way or the other, even with medication my ability to choose is often limited to what clothes I want to wear or buy or what I want to eat or drink, even then I often get laughed at by my own brain, honestly being a slave and being told what to do seems way easier than what I go through" says Jenna
"I guess in a way it is but she's next door getting ice-cream because she heard Adriana and her little sister were coming, I hope you like vanilla ice-cream" says Belle
"Vanilla is one of the only flavors I can have due to the ever lengthening list of sensitivities I seem to have, I couldn't even buy a cute bikini without being laughed at" says Jenna
"which is why I made sure to buy it for you Jenna" says Adriana handing Jenna a bag of clothes
"you didn't seriously do that Adri, why did you do that" squeals Jenna as she looks in the bag
"hey I always do what's right for my little sister" says Adriana as Jenna starts crying
"why is she crying" asks Belle
"it doesn't happen often but the voices in her head agreed with my statement, which means not even her hallucinating brain can deny my loyalty to her" says Adriana
"did you believe she was in love with my daughter before she knew" asks Belle as Sarah walks in with two ice-cream bowls and just manages to set them down as she spots Jenna
"I wasn't sure but I gave her a safe space so she could figure it out, Jenna slowly turn around, the girl you came for is standing behind you" says Adriana as Jenna slowly turns around and hugs Sarah
"you're not taking me back to Spain are you" asks Sarah
"no, if you want me then I'm here to stay, I'm not legally allowed to fly as it is but they let me this once, if I'm staying I need you to make the big decisions, it's been said already but my schizophrenia is bad enough that my ability to choose is severely diminished" says Jenna as Sarah hugs her tighter
"what does that mean" asks Sarah
"if she had a bank account it would be empty and her room filled with items for self Hate, the voices in her head can be very convincing, our father gave her his credit card last year so she could buy me a birthday present and fifty knives showed up in the mail with engravings like 'suicide knife', 'cutting knife' and 'life ender', those are the things she can be coaxed so easily into buying by her brain when she forgets her meds, which is why she doesn't have a bank account, car or bike, it gets worse when situations involve romantic feelings, if you want to be her girlfriend then you need to take control of the relationship, her inability to choose means others must take the initiative" says Adriana
"so I could kiss her" asks Sarah as Jenna blushes
"technically yes but I caution you to take the relationship slow, she may not be able to decide but she can still give input, you could cause a seizure if you overload her mind, please be careful with her, now girls eat your ice-cream I have to talk to Cat" says Adriana
"ok" says Jenna
"you called me sis, you never do that, I didn't think you'd actually accept the truth, you're not mad are you" says Cat
"how could I be mad at you, sure you made dad keep a secret, yes it means I'm younger than I thought, dad said you did it to protect me, I can't be mad at you for protecting me Cat" says Cassandra
"I've protected you for years, ever since I found out, I came up with reasons to call dad to discuss the plan, I'd made myself so unstable in Francine's eyes that she was definitely getting ready to send me away anyway, my public freak-out and the hallucinations that followed were just the icing on the cake, I'd have never imagined my life here would be this great, I'd never expected that my friends would agree to move here, my plans don't usually work out this well" says Cat
"dad said you were smarter than you look and he was right though he also thinks Ellen can speak to the dead and that's why she is as smart as she is" says Cassandra
"she definitely talks to someone when Hannah requests an hour alone to work on her self-esteem, someone named Elizabeth Valentine" says Cat
"…. That's great grandma's name, that's not possible, Ellen is named after great-grandma's sister Eleanor Valentine though Ellen does not like people using her full name which is fitting because neither did great aunt Eleanor" says Cassandra
"there is something special about Ellen, if she is indeed talking to family that has passed on then she can't see them because when I asked who Elizabeth Valentine was all she could say was Elizabeth is the short lady from our family that dad doesn't talk about" says Cat
"then she's definitely talking to Great-grandma Lizzy, she was the shortest member of our family before you and I came around and even then she would be shorter than us by half a foot, so basically a smidge taller than Ellen herself, I just hope word doesn't get out about that, people can be very judgmental about that kind of stuff, especially here" says Cassandra
"how can you stand up in front of the cameras and do those briefings, do you use a step ladder to get to the right height" asks Cat
"I actually never thought about it that way, in saying that I'm not the shortest press secretary Sicily has ever had, the last administration that told the truth…. So eight years ago had a press secretary who was just four feet tall so they had a podium that I could stand at that would be the right size proportionally to my height, how strong is your moral compass" says Cassandra
"it's not like yours but it's not that terrible either, so I assume that you're only staying a few days then heading back to Palermo" says Cat
"actually I've been working almost a year straight trying to get the press office back on the straight and narrow so I have a month of banked vacation time" says Cassandra
"I didn't think the government worked like that" asks Cat
"because of my age my pay had been cut but with that pay cut came paid time off, the cabinet understands that it can be a high stress job and that I wasn't planning on ever working for the government, that my plans had always been art related while they don't agree with my methods as to how I keep ego out of the briefings they can't disagree with the results, this vacation is the big test, no guard rails for a month and after that I might even do briefings at moms place here in Catania simply for the ease of travel, mom has a big open front room in the house it could be done at" says Cassandra
"I thought Mom lived with dad in Palermo" asks Cat
"unfortunately mom works for a government institution, has for ten years, mom and dad have only been together eight years, as the president of Sicily it would be a conflict of interest if they were married, the place she works for is the local Catania hospital, doing the same thing Isabelle does but over here instead of at the capital, there is one government paid doctor at each main hospital in each province of Sicilia to take care of specific people, for instance Isabelle due to her employment location deals with the government employees and their children, mom deals with at risk girls, victims like Cassidy who have severe brain damage as a result of the abuse they endured, it is mom's job to oversee any care they may need" says Cassandra
"why was Cassidy made to endure the painful treatment outside a hospital" asks Jade
"because the drug Gerald used can't be treated in a clean environment, it was designed to specifically kill girls and put the blame on the doctors for 'killing' the girls, had mom not dirtied up the IV site and taken her out of the hospital Cassidy would have died, mom did the right thing the moment she became aware of Cassidy being severely dosed with the drug, had Alex not connected the dots there is no way Cassidy would even be able to walk" says Cassandra
"I thought she had a special blood protein thing that she donates every year to save lives during flu season" asks Jade
"it could only do so much, it saved her body and muscles at the sacrifice of some brain functions, for example her ability to control her horniness is completely gone along with her ability to keep track and tell time, her memory is now a really hole filled swiss cheese, what memories she has could vary by day, she can no longer make her own food and she only remembers three names and her own isn't one of them, Gerald had intended to kill her and in many ways he succeeded, just not in the way he intended" says Cassandra
"at least Robbie stepped up to the plate and made an official thruple, I know you never got along with Alex but you were still her only friend" says Cat
"to be quite honest I was terrified of her, the rumors people had spread terrified everyone except Cassidy, they were together for three days before Gerald made his first attempt to kill Cassidy, Alex just couldn't push past the fear and love Cassidy after that, she was too terrified, Robbie's intention was to let them date and back away from the relationship but they need him now more than ever and that's why he agreed" says Cassandra
"absolutely not, you got that last point wrong, he loves them both and it shows, the only reason he worked the days she didn't is because he didn't want to create tension like he did with me, he cared about her but he didn't know her that well and she is his boss's daughter, think about it this way, say dad opened a grocery store and You and Hailey both work for him, do you really think Hailey would think it was socially acceptable to date you" says Cat
"uhhhhhh dad did own a grocery store before he became president Cat" says Cassandra
"yet her point still stands Cass she has a point, if Robbie had asked Cassidy out Mr. and Mrs. Frank would have seen it as extremely out of line and he would have lost his job on the spot but if she had had the courage to ask him out her parents would have had to deal with it or remove her from the business as an employee" says Hailey
"ugh I forgot your dad owned a legal firm before he was diagnosed with one of those immunocompromised disorders, that's why I love you, you don't hold back on providing me with the right information, my staff thoroughly enjoy you coming to the briefings, especially with the mock prep ones where you ask me a bunch of random questions to see if I can stay on message and not get angry" says Cassandra
"I do it because it helps you with your focus, which in turn helps later when we cuddle naked and do stuff" says Hailey
"see I knew there had to be a reason, you don't do well with Italian so I knew there had to be a motive behind you helping me, the news journalists have noticed a massive increase in my focus" says Cassandra as Sarah and Jenna kiss lightly
"awww" says Belle