Part Eleven

Ozpin woke early on July 5th. He and Oscar had watched the fireworks the night before from a restaurant parking lot, getting home at around midnight, but his internal clock still woke him up at five a.m. expecting an hour drive to work. Tired but knowing he wouldn't be able to go back to bed once he saw the time, he stretched and worked his bad leg to be mobile enough to get out of bed. It was always so stiff, and stretching and pulling it limber was always a process. Then: shower (best thing in the world to limber up), dress, morning physical therapy, and get breakfast ready - cereal and cinnamon rolls, all he had to do was pour milk and orange juice - for when Oscar's alarm went off at seven. He pulled out his suitcase, packed the day before, and opened it up to go through his checklist again.

He had a lot of time to spare after that, and he took a walk around his small block to warm up his bad leg a little more. It felt almost bendable when he came back, and he stretched it out on his front porch with a cup of coffee, taking his morning medication and watching the sun shrink the shadows of the street. He always loved the quiet of a summer morning, before everyone was up, the weather warm but not hot.

Oscar apparently slept with the window open, Ozpin heard the alarm go off from above and he smiled, giving his son a little time to come down off his own volition. Inside of fifteen minutes Oscar stumbled down, wearing only the minimal stitches of clothing, rubbing his eyes and trying to remember how thinking worked. Oz had poured milk by then, and he watched his son slowly come on line.

"Are you packed?"

"Huh?"

"Your suitcase. Are you packed? We're being picked up in a little over an hour."

Finally, Oscar snapped awake, hazel eyes blinking open as he realized what day it was. Oz silently counted in his head: three, two, one…

"Ah!" Oscar jerked to his feet and stumbled out and upstairs.

"Don't forget your wetsuit!" Ozpin called, smirking into his orange juice.

By nine o'clock Oscar was on the front porch, duffle bag and backpack in hand, and Oz went through the list: five sets of clothes, swimwear, underwear - then go back and get some - books, sunscreen, shades, hat, beach sandals - then go get those too, you're not tracking sand into wherever we're staying - travel chess set, and the obligatory phone-id-keys.

"But what about you?" Oscar said, going through the other list: five sets of clothes, underwear, books, sunscreen, shades, hat, beach sandals, morning and evening medication for two weeks and two days, notebook for Miss Winter, phone-id-keys-wallet.

"All set, then," Oz said. "Thank you for being so responsible as to check in on me."

Oscar shrugged. "Someone has to do it."

Oz smiled, even as he felt a pang of guilt that Oscar felt the need to do that. Fifteen minutes of Oscar pacing the front porch and a minivan arrived, Ruby sliding open the door and waving manically. "We're here! We're here! Look at the limo service!"

"It's not a limo," Weiss could be heard correcting. A driver came out and Ozpin was spared the burden of walking with his suitcase. Oscar took his own bag, following the driver to the back of the van and Oz maneuvered into the vehicle. There were, apparently, three rows of seats. Front and passenger - driver and Winter. A middle row for the girls, and the back row for the adults: Tai, a sleeping Qrow, and now Ozpin. He frowned, wondering where Oscar was supposed to sit, but all of the girls shifted to one side to make room for Oscar, who stuffed himself in and shut the van door as they all tried to figure out seatbelts. Ozpin himself took several minutes to set his bad leg - he had the room but it took him a while to figure out the sweet spot. By the time he was done the driver was back at the wheel and they slowly pulled off of Pine Wood, hooking on to Main and making its way to the highway.

With Qrow snoring in the middle seat, Oz looked over to Tai. "How long is the journey?" he asked - hoping he was audible over the loud din of the children.

"Two and a half hours," Tai said. "We'll take a break once we're in Massachusetts, stretch our legs."

Oz nodded, and pulled out a book, wedging his elbow onto the arm rest to keep his book at eye level and prevent car sickness. In the span of ten minutes he'd managed to tune out the children and lost himself in the fantasy of magic and adventure and happy endings. The hum of the highway and the sound of his son laughing, the quiet of the back row of seats, the promise of adventure, and a good book soothed his mind and he drifted in the other world until he felt a weight on his shoulder.

Confused, he turned to see Qrow, still sleeping, had managed to slide sideways, his head now on his shoulder. Circumstantial touch, not something dangerous, and Ozpin stared for several moments, trying to decide what to do. He looked over to Tai, saw he had noticed, and smiled awkwardly.

"He's been pulling double shifts to take the time off. He only just got home when we picked him up."

"What the time did he wake up yesterday?"

"Noon so he could pack. He worked a twelve hour shift."

Oz nodded in sympathy, and looked at Qrow again. Better to let him sleep…

A little over an hour into the drive they pulled off the highway - they had just passed Sturbridge Village and pulled into some kind of diner. The children all piled out of the car to move around, Tai following almost immediately to keep them contained as the driver stepped out to refuel and Winter got on the phone. Qrow was still sleeping on Oz's shoulder, and he wasn't exactly able to move around anyway with his bad leg, so he contented himself to being able to listen to his friend's even breathing as he looked out the window. The girls were crowded around an outdoor vending machine, trying to figure out what to have and slowly forming a line, Oscar in the back. Once they purchased their snacks they moved to an outdoor picnic table where Tai was motioning them to join. Weiss was first, then Ruby, then Yang, and finally Oscar made it to the vending machine.

He smiled as he saw Oscar fumble for his money, realizing he'd never checked to see if Oscar had brought any and started for his own wallet in preparation for Oscar asking. That was when he saw him. Ozpin blinked, uncertain his his eyes were deceiving him, but there he was: tall, broad - he had a beard now, and he was walking right up to Oscar god in heaven what if-

Oz switched gears, reaching instead for his phone, knowing there was no way he could wrangle himself out of the van in time. Be careful, he wrote, stay on your guard. He hit sent and glued his eyes to the vending machine: get the text get the text please get the text and pull out your phone-

Oscar looked down, reaching into his pocket and reading the message. He stiffened, but now he was upon his son and Oz's entire body was tense. Oscar turned around and looked up and up and oh god what if he recognizes Oscar as his son he would never forgive himself he would-the man smashed his fist into the vending machine and it rattled, and Oscar, wide eyed, reached down and pulled out a bag of chips.

Ozpin held himself perfectly still, afraid to even breathe, but Hazel Reinhart only said a few inaudible words and walked off, getting into a sedan and driving away.

Oscar ran immediately back to the van, climbing in, and Oz was just so relieved that everything had turned out fine that he leaned forward, forgetting the weight on his shoulder and the indignant "Wha…?" shimmying to the edge of the seat to run his hand through his son's hair and see that everything was okay, it was okay, god it was okay…

"Dad?" Oscar asked, voice small. "Who was that?"

Oz exhaled, overcome with what ultimately amounted to wasted emotion, because everything was fine, everything worked out, he could breathe.

"I'm sorry," he said, leaning back into his seat. He adjusted himself and only then realized that Qrow was still next to him, rubbing his eyes. Failed on two counts, then, he mused. He gave his son a heavy gaze. "That man just now, he was Gretchen's brother."

Oscar lost all color, instinctually looking back outside to the long gone car. "The girl in the accident?" he said, voice small.

"Yes," Oz admitted.

"And who the hell is Gretchen?" Qrow asked next to him, red eyes still tired but looking between the two of them.

"... someone from my past," Oz said, guilty that he had woken Qrow from a well deserved sleep.

"Gretchen Reinhart was one of the people who died in the accident," Oscar said. "He's mad at Dad for surviving."

"... what?" Qrow asked, more awake now.

"He came to the house when I was at school," Oscar said, "Dad had to go to emergency care."

Wide, red eyes, and Oz quickly looked down before he saw more, burning with shame that Qrow had to hear this. "Oscar, you don't need to relive this," he said. "Sit with the others, I'll talk to Mr. Qrow."

"Dad… you can't shield me from everything."

"I know," Oz said, humiliated that Qrow was even listening to this. "But there've been too many things I should have shielded you from and I didn't. Please give me this." He glanced up, held Oscar's eyes, and he nodded, lips pursed, as he got out of the van.

Ozpin closed his eyes, tilting his head back and made himself breath. "I'm sorry," he said softly. "I didn't mean to wake you."

"Shouldn't apologize for something you couldn't control," Qrow said, and Oz turned to see Qrow sitting sideways in his seat, elbow resting on the top of the seat. "You gonna give me details? Or does it hurt too much?"

"No, it's just…" He frowned, trying to find the right words. "When I woke up in the hospital, after the accident, she wouldn't visit. It was two weeks before I could go home, and when the staff said I had a visitor I thought… but it was the brother of Gretchen Reinhart, the girl who was killed in the accident. He was grieving so deeply, lost in his loss. He demanded to know why I survived when she didn't, what audacity I had to be grateful to be alive. He was most disruptive, and the staff asked him to leave. He wouldn't, and he was escorted out."

"Okay," Qrow said, voice still rough. "I can get that, but then what's this about going to emergency care?"

"That was after I had come home. I had told her everything, and she thought the entire matter was silly, and that it could be worked out if we just sat and talked. She said the only thing that made sense was that I had gone out of my way to antagonize him."

"... From your hospital bed?" Qrow demanded, indignant.

Ozpin shook his head. "That was her way," he explained. "If she didn't understand something she gave it meaning, and the entire world could not change her mind, nor god himself. Recovery was going to be six months - I couldn't even drive, she had to take me to doctor's appointments and she hated taking the time off. I was in a wheelchair. After being home for a month, she told me that she had done me a favor, that she had found Hazel Reinhart's number and invited him over so the two of us could talk and work out our issues."

"What."

Oz was staring at the roof of the car, unable to meet Qrow's eyes.

"I remember sitting in the living room, Oscar had left for elementary school barely an hour prior. She was getting ready for work when there was a knock on the door. I could hear his voice from the living room, he and Salem talked a little, and she just… she invited him in, said we had all day to talk, and then left for work."

"Fucking bitch," Qrow cursed, and the vulgarity washed over Oz and warmed something deep inside him. He'd never heard someone echo such a reaction about Salem, and it made his emotions over it all valid, and he sank into the carseat, at ease to hear such an aggressive tone.

"I tried to talk," he said, the words coming out a little easier. "I expressed what I had been doing before the accident, what I could remember, but he was fixated on my surviving and Gretchen not. He was… he is wounded in a way that cannot be healed, and nothing I said could help him. He got more and more angry and he…"

He closed his eyes, remembering being lifted out of his wheelchair by his lapels, shoved to the side and his bad hip banging against the coffee table and all the pain.

"Salem had gone to work," he said, voice barely audible. "My phone was in the bedroom, and the house phone was a wall mount. I had to wait for Oscar to come home and ask him to give me the phone."

"Jesus fucking Christ," Qrow spat. A hand slapped on his shoulder and Ozpin stiffened, still remembering the iron grip, the slow-motion sensation of falling and knowing it would be bad. He turned, saw that it was only Qrow touching him, and he forced himself to relax. Qrow's red gaze was intense, furious, and he was shaking in a way that made Ozpin wonder…

"Fuck," he said again. "You had no right to go through that. What the hell is wrong with... I don't even know… Shit there aren't enough swears for this. What a clusterfuck! Oz…" His eyes, technically looking at Oz but also lost in the fury, they focused on Ozpin and the hand at his shoulder went to the back of his neck. Ozpin stiffened again not the neck not like her but Qrow leaned in, filling his field of vision. "Oz," he said again. "I'm so fucking sorry that happened to you."

… No one had ever said that to him before, except for Oscar, and Oz closed his eyes before the emotion overtook him. He held himself still, afraid to share the emotion, but he finally took a breath.

"... Thank you," he said, hating how small his voice was.

"Don't thank me for doing so goddamn little."

"Qrow, language."

"Shut up Tai I got a right to swear after this. I can't believe-"

Oz reached out, touched Qrow's knees, caught his gaze. "Not in front of the children," he said.

"Not in front of the children?" Yang repeated. "What, were you gonna kiss or something?"

Ozpin decided not to answer that, letting Qrow handle his niece.


That night, after they had arrived at the lake house, screamed over how big the house and lake respectively were, ran around like idiots, picked their rooms, unpacked, played beach volleyball, and ate an absurdly big supper, Tai asked Qrow what had happened on the drive up. Then he'd cursed as bad as Qrow as they realized just how screwed up Oz's relationship with his ex was, and just what his purported Year of Hell looked like.

That night he'd dreamt of Summer, those last weeks in the hospital before she finally passed, and how numb he was after the funeral. He woke up in a bad mood, needed three cups of coffee instead of two to wake himself up - and he knew that was a bad sign. He spent the morning walking around the lake, air boxing on occasion, fighting invisible enemies to articulate how he was feeling. He hadn't needed to do this in years, and he was a little worried to see how often he would need to do this as Qrow got closer to Oz. He also worried that any of Oz's problems would make Qrow backslide - five year coin or not he was still Qrow, walking bi-disaster capable of drinking himself into oblivion if he had just one bad day. He still thought about Clover's revelation that Qrow had spent years not believing that Raven was as twisted as she was, and good influence or not Oz's baggage might be a tipping point.

Then he thought about Yang being excited over the idea of her uncle having a boyfriend, and he could finally smile, because sometimes children were wonderful things. He loved his little girls.

He pulled out of a walk and into a jog, and came back in time to help grill lunch. Qrow was just getting up, still untwisting his internal clock and sitting in a daze on the porch, next to Oz who was reading a book. Tai smirked. They were a cute couple, when they figured it out.

Several hot dogs and hamburgers later, the kids went back to the lake, determined to make sand castles in the rocky New England version of a beach. Ozpin was in his spot on the porch, "supervising," Qrow sitting on the railing, and Winter came out of the house with a laptop, sitting in the swinging loveseat and opening it up as Tai finished packing up the grill.

"Miss Winter," Ozpin said, eyes finishing a paragraph and closing his book. "I have a number for you." He reached into a pocket and pulled out his wallet, popping out a card and handing it over.

"Robyn Hill, Litigation Firm," Winter read, looking up in question.

"My divorce lawyer," Ozpin said.

"While I would love to divorce my father, I don't think the firm would be very helpful to me."

"You misunderstand," the professor said. "You are right, one of their lawyers helped me with my divorce, but their firm is more diverse than that. They also handle custody cases, and that was a particular bone of contention for me. Precedence dictates children stay with their mothers and that was utterly impossible in my situation. My circumstances were such that I did not feel it safe to interact with my ex-wife for even an email or voicemail. They helped build a case to declare her unfit and to give custody to me."

"I don't understand," Winter said. "You were living in California. This firm is based in Massachusetts."

"Yes," Ozpin said, nodding his head in such a way that it was patently understood that that was all he was going to say on the subject.

Tai glanced at Qrow and knew that he saw it too, turning his eyes from the beach to look at Oz more carefully.

"You will find this particular point very interesting," he added with a smile. "Their portfolio is quite diverse, not only do they handle separation and custody, but when I looked them up before coming here I realized they also have their hand in corporate prosecution."

Winter snapped to attention. "What?" she asked.

"It says so on their website, and I called Ms. Hill last week to ask permission to hand out her number. She said she was particularly interested in the idea of taking Mr. Schnee down. If there is difficulty suing for custody, there may be room to have him charged criminally, and that would settle several problems in one."

Winter's eyes were double in size, and Tai was more than a little impressed. Qrow whistled in agreement.

"This is… this is… I don't know what to say…"

"You don't have to say anything," Oz said. "Just use the opportunity to the fullest."

"... Yes. Of course. Thank you, professor."

"You're gonna make us look bad, Oz," Qrow said, smirking and shaking his head.

"Yeah," Tai said, "I don't know that we have nearly as much to offer." He crossed his arms and leaned against one of the porch pillars, hooking one foot over the other. "But there are some basic quality of life stuff you need to know. When we were building a case against Raven, the cops asked us for all documents pertaining to her. We unlocked our phones, let them read emails, voicemails, text chains, everything. I even turned over my computer so they could data mine it from the time before she left. Any stuff you have ahead of time will speed up the process - they still have to subpoena and collect everything, but if they already know what they're looking for that helps with the mining."

"And this might sound stupid, but doesn't matter if it's cops or lawyers, be nice to them. They get even a hint that you're bad news and they'll make life worse for you. I learned that the hard way, got too in the face of one of the investigators and it turned into a whole mess."

That was putting it mildly. Tai coughed. "You and your disaster energy," he muttered.

"Hey, I fixed it, didn't I?"

"Yeah. After you nearly came to blows and they threatened to arrest you."

"Somehow I'm not surprised," Winter said in a flat voice. "But I take your point."

"Yeah, lay off the ice queen aesthetic."

"Qrow."

"What? She wants help."

Tai rubbed his face and let it drop. He listened to Winter type on the keys as she took notes. "What else should I know?" she asked.

"Well," Tai said, shifting his weight. "If you really want to come out the other side of this healthy, you're going to want therapy."

Winter looked up from her laptop. "What?" she asked, her alto voice low and almost accusatory.

Tai shrugged. "Don't knock it until you've tried it," he said. "After Raven and Summer… I shut down. I'm not proud of it, but I did. I could barely get up out of bed, I walked around the house like a zombie. Qrow's drinking started to really tick up, and Yang and Ruby were still in diapers practically. I legitimately couldn't tell you what the girls ate for about a year before I realized how bad things were getting." He could still remember the morning he woke up, and instead of thinking about Summer's side of the bed he thought about what the girls were going to eat - he had started to mourn all over again - he'd forgotten Summer…! - but the question finally started to sink in, and he belatedly realized he wasn't even sure what food he had in the kitchen. Then he realized he couldn't remember when the girls had last eaten - he moved to their bedroom to check on them. Both of them were asleep, and they were so small, and someone had to take care of them, and…

He shook the memory off, cringing at himself. He saw Qrow watching him, also remembering.

"The girls were too young," he said, "They didn't really know what was going on, but I knew I needed help to put myself back together, so I went online to find somebody. First one didn't work but the second one did and… I say this a lot but you learn a lot in therapy. I got more than learning how to deal with Summer's loss, I learned how to handle the girls without putting my grief on them, I learned more about Raven and Qrow than I thought possible, and I learned what normal reactions looked like."

"Normal reactions…?

Tai shook his head. "Not 'normal.' Like, all reactions are legit, but how to recognize an extreme reaction, how to break it down and not just be all over the place. My stuff with Summer, it was all normal, but how I was handling it wasn't, I was letting myself be torn to pieces because I thought that's what I deserved."

"Tai…" Qrow said, but his eyes were down, thinking about how little help he was during that period of their lives.

"I brought the girls with me because I didn't have money for a sitter, so they grew up knowing what asking for help looked like and how to get it. I know for a fact that they wouldn't be as healthy as they are if I didn't go to therapy. We went again when Yang walked in on us talking about Raven's parole, and again when things got really bad with Qrow, so the transition wouldn't be so hard. That was more family therapy than just therapy, Yang and Ruby had a lot of questions about Qrow's rehab and what would he look like when he came out."

"You never told me this," Qrow said, frowning.

Tai shrugged. "You were just out of rehab. I didn't want you to feel more guilty than you already did. I was afraid you'd fall off the wagon again." He knew Qrow was going to mull that over for a while, so he turned back to Winter. "If the idea of help is something you're not ready for yet, then legally there would be a papertrail from the therapist's notes on the kind of abuse you and Weiss and your brother went through. I don't know if the boy would be ready yet - it looks like Schnee trained him to be a tattle tail - but after you get custody it might help. Where does your mom fit into this?"

Winter frowned, looking away and pausing in her typing. "She's... not well," she said.

"Then get her a sponsor," Qrow said, immediately understanding the pause. "I wasn't big on therapy the way Tai is, but Clover got me through a lot of shit when I was putting myself back together - he might as well have been a therapist for all he was doing on top of throwing me on the wagon over and over. She's gotta admit the problem though, and if she's anything like me she'll be a stubborn sonuvabitch with all the excuses in the world. Don't let her push you away, don't let her hide away, don't let her be anything but cold sober when she interacts with you and the family. Set the boundary and feed her to the crows when she crosses it, or she'll never learn." He just his chin to Tai. "He had to throw me out twice, then the girls staged an Intervention, before I finally got my head on straight. Or bi, as the case may be."

"I'm so sorry you all had to go through that," Ozpin said softly. "You both are extraordinary for being as well-adjusted as you are."

Qrow scoffed. "Define well adjusted, Oz. I'm still a disaster, I just learned how to ask for help."

"For such a simple task it is a herculean endeavor," Ozpin said. "The self-imposed barriers one creates to make asking for help seem insurmountable, the societal pressures that create the myth that asking for help be a weakness, a country born on independence and pioneer spirit so deeply ingrained in our psyche it has twisted into libertarian isolationism instead of communal and societal growth." He leaned back, tapping his cane on the porch. "I have another idea for a paper."

Tai smirked so hard he turned his face so Qrow wouldn't see. God, his brother(-in-law) was a goddamn muse for the professor.

"You've given me a lot to think about," Winter said, voice low as she turned and looked at the kids making their sand castle. Her eyes were on Weiss, Tai knew. Her face was soft in profile, the faintest of smiles at watching her sister. She turned back to the adults. "I'll start research tomorrow," she said firmly. "Thank you."


Weiss snuck out of the room quietly. Ruby and Yang apparently didn't know what it meant to get up early, so she slipped into the bathroom to change and go for her morning jog. She enjoyed jogging in the morning. She did play sports and conditioning was important. If she was going to be the best, she needed to keep it up over the summer. She waved at Professor Ozpin who was having a cup of coffee on the porch as she headed out. Winter was probably going through her emails and setting up her day now that she was head of whatever sector she was setting up here in New England. Mr. Qrow was probably still dead to the world, given that he usually worked late night shifts.

The jog helped Weiss wake up a bit more and she was back in an hour. Professor Ozpin offered suggestions on stretches and she always listened to him. Given his limited mobility, he probably knew more stretches on how to limber limbs than a gymnast. Then it was a shower. Oscar was usually up and spending breakfast on the porch with his dad, which gave Weiss time to have breakfast with Winter inside where it was air-conditioned. In another hour or so, Ruby, Yang and Mr. Qrow would probably be up and eating, and then she'd talk with her friends about what to do for the day.

That had been their routine for the past three days and Weiss liked it.

(Though, if Ruby and Yang kept her up as late as they had been, she wasn't going to be getting up so early anymore….)

She poured her cereal and milk and smiled. No Father. This was bliss.

"Good morning, Weiss," Winter greeted, coming into the kitchen.

"Good morning, Winter," she replied with a smile.

Her sister sat down with her coffee, but wasn't smiling. Weiss shrugged. Probably business stuff. Weiss was already going over what to do for the day. Could she maybe convince Professor Ozpin to show them his recipes for some of those cookies…. After all, it was supposed to rain that afternoon with thunderstorms. Or maybe camp stories around the fireplace instead of a campfire? Hmmmm. She smiled.

"Weiss," Winter said softly.

"Yes?"

And her sister Looked at her. Serious, and heavy.

"Professor Ozma and I had a long conversation yesterday. You need to know what I'm planning."

"...Okay?"

Winter squared her shoulders. "I'm going to sue for custody of you and Whitley."

Weiss's jaw dropped.

"But I'm not going to start proceedings until I have enough to win." Winter looked her right in the eye. "I'm going to need your help."

"Wait, what? You can do that?"

"I'm planning to. I need anything you can give me that's documented."

"Documented?"

Winter nodded stiffly. "Do you keep a journal? Has he left you any voicemails or emails or texts that you still have?"

Weiss immediately pulled out her phone and unlocked it, handing it over. "Look at whatever you need," she said resolutely.

Her sister's shoulders relaxed a fraction of an inch. "Thank you. I'm going to dig through this a lot today, take notes, etc. You'll need to submit them properly when we start the case, so don't lose them. And don't let him delete them."

Weiss gave a cold smile. "Do you have a spare harddrive?"

Winter smiled. "There's one other step we'll need. And I do mean we."

"If it gets me out of there, I will."

Winter grimaced. "Mr. Xiao Long mentioned it. We're going to need to enter therapy."

Weiss immediately froze. "But… therapy is for people with problems."

Her sister arched a brow. "We have problems."

"No, not like that," Weiss replied. "Like, for victims of abuse, survivors of trauma. People with disorders. We aren't that." Weiss shook her head, not sure how to explain it. "Yeah, Father will yell at us and go on for hours at a time, but he's never hit any of us, he hasn't done child abuse."

Winter's shoulders dropped and she got up and pulled Weiss into a hug. "There's more kinds of abuse than physical," she said softly. "Mr. Xiao Long and his family, they all went through therapy and have come out stronger for it. Mr. Branwen as well. And Father has damaged us in a way. We need to make sure it doesn't scar us."

"I don't know..."

"Think about it," Winter said. "I'll go through your phone, I'll be going into therapy myself. You're welcome to come. But only if you're comfortable. And I think you'll benefit from it."

Weiss's thoughts were swirling. She had a lot to think about.


Needless to say, Weiss was sullen all day. She didn't have much energy for… anything. Not to say she didn't try, but… Therapy? That wasn't for her. That was for people who suffered heartache, abuse, damage. People who suffered trauma. Her father didn't traumatize them. Yes, he yelled, and bad days were… bad, but he never raised his hand, he never hit them. You saw what bad people did in movies. All her father did was yell for hours. And he didn't listen.

That didn't mean she needed therapy. Therapy was for people who couldn't handle day-to-day life. Weiss was top of her class, she did all her work on time, didn't struggle in any kind of school work, she had friends, she wasn't isolated or vulnerable or picked on like Oscar. She didn't need therapy.

"Weiss?" Ruby had asked after lunch. Oscar was with his dad, looking over a book and the other adults were in the house somewhere. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," she growled.

"Really? Because you seem kinda… distant."

Weiss rolled her eyes and gave an exasperated sound. "It's fine," she repeated.

"Okay… just… if you need anything…"

Weiss whirled, "I said I'm fine!" And all the swirling feelings inside of her just started raging out of control. "You wouldn't get it! You have a great dad! You had a super-mom! You don't get what it's like! I'm sorry I don't fit into a normal definition of fine, but for me, this is fine!"

She had to be fine. She didn't need therapy.

Did she?

She scoffed and stormed away into the house and up to the bedroom that she and her friends shared and gave the door a good slam. Weiss fell face first onto her bed and just lay there. She didn't know what to do, and what Winter had said that morning was still swirling around in her head.

…. And she didn't even have her phone to look anything up!

"Argh!"

Almost an hour later, Weiss was still moping around in her room when there was a nock on the door.

"Go away!"

The door opened and Yang stepped in. "No can do," she said. "It's not often someone can get Ruby upset. I've got her okay and she's with Dad now. Now what the hell is up with you?"

"Nothing. Everything is fine," she growled.

Yang gave flat eyes that seemed to flash red and stepped right into her space. "Bullshit, Ice Queen. Something's bothering you, so spill it."

Weiss stood up and faced Yang down. "You are not my parents or Winter. You do not get to order me around."

"Well someone has to, Ice Princess," Yang snapped back. "Because you don't get to snap at Ruby like that."

"Oh, I'm soooo sorry," Weiss shouted, hand on hip and finger waving. "I'm so sorry that you've had such a happy great life that you can't take it when someone points out that the rest of us don't have such wholesome lives. I'm soooo sorry that I pointed that out. It's so unfortunate that you had to have-"

"Stop saying that we've had perfect lives," Yang pushed her finger away. "You weren't there. You don't know how bad it was after Summer died. You don't know what it was like to watch Uncle Qrow drink himself to death. You don't know-"

"Well you don't know!" Weiss shouted back. "You don't have to walk on eggshells every day, wondering if you're going to set someone off-"

"Yes, we do know that! We just-"

"Exactly! You 'just'! Well it's not just!"

"That's not what I'm saying!"

"Then speak clearly!"

Yang was so furious it looked like she was burning, but she stopped and took a step back before taking a breath. They were both panting, and they had both been screaming.

Weiss let out a sigh and stepped back as well, sitting on her bed.

"Look," Yang was quieter, "we get it. Your father's a world-class jerk who can wind you up in knots and has you learning to lie like a cheap rug to get around him."

Weiss snorted.

"We may not get all the details of it, but Ruby and I, we know what it's like to get through a tough time." Yang sat down on the floor. "After Summer died, Dad was a mess. I had to learn how to cook so that we didn't starve. I kept looking at box instructions and stuff and I still messed up, but at least we could eat. Uncle Qrow would look after us, but he was forgetful because he was drunk most of the time. It wasn't until Dad started therapy that he started to function again. Same for Uncle Qrow and A.A. And that was after Ruby and I learned how to do an intervention. Ruby doesn't remember a lot of that, because she was still so young, but I do. I know what it's like when things are rough. Not the same way, but rough doesn't really care as long as it's rough."

Weiss let out a gusty sigh, letting her head sink into her hands.

"Winter said she's going into therapy. She wants me to as well," she said, her voice small. "Therapy is for people who can't handle things. It's for people who've been abused. I don't fit either of those categories. I just can't figure out why Winter thinks I need therapy as well."

She felt Yang sit next to her on the bed. "You remember when we had health?"

"Second quarter, I got a 97."

"Of course you remember that," Yang chuckled. "Our last unit was on mental health, you remember that?"

"I did my project on exercise and how it lowers stress levels."

Yang lightly cuffed her head. "Stop showing off that perfect memory. The whole point of that project was to realize that there's a stigma on mental health and that we should be okay with understanding how to ask for help."

Weiss pulled out of her hands and offered a flat look to Yang. "And how do you know that? I'm the one who got a perfect score."

"Because I also got a perfect score," Yang said tartly, but not meanly. "I did my project on therapy."

Weiss held her lips together. Winter had mentioned that the Xiao Long family had done therapy, but was she allowed to bring it up? Was that some sort of breach of trust or mental health? Instead, she simply said, "Uh-huh."

"It's like I was saying before, Ruby doesn't remember it very well, not the first time, but I remember Dad going to therapy. He just came to us one day and said he needed to be better, but he didn't know how, so he was going to get help. And he did get better. Then when things got bad with Uncle Qrow, and he checked himself into rehab, we were going to therapy again. Ruby and I had a lot of questions, and the therapist helped us understand everything."

"If a therapist just helps you understand things," Weiss grunted, "then why can't friends do that?"

Yang let out a frustrated sound. "It's different. Like, both the therapist and all of you, you support me and don't judge me. But the therapist…. Our therapist was outside all of this and just… knew the questions to ask to help us think about things differently. Weiss, we got your back, but Ruby and I can't do that."

"That doesn't explain why I need therapy."

Yang scowled. "Are you happy? When you're back living with your dad?"

"Yes."

"So you'd go back in a heartbeat."

"No."

"Then you're not happy." Yang looked her right in the eyes. "You deserve to be happy."

Suddenly Weiss's emotions were raging all around her again and she could feel her eyes watering. She immediately buried her face into her hands again. "No, I don't," she sobbed. "Mom's had it so hard, Dad works hard all day and puts up with stuff, I just have to be there for them, but I don't want to anymore. I just want to hang out with you guys…. Run around… Eat Professor Ozpin's cookies, or read books with Blake, or anything that involves not going home…. What kind of person does that make me?"

"Human," Yang replied, pulling Weiss into a hug. "And humans need help sometimes."

Weiss just sobbed.

Later, she went to Winter. She ignored her tear-stained cheeks, ignored her pounding headache, and held herself straight. "I wish to go to therapy."

Winter gave a relieved smile.


Author's Notes: True to life moment: the two of us didn't realize we were being abused until our therapist told us That Person was abusive. That's the kind of revelation Weiss is having right now, only instead it's about what therapy is and does. Image can still remember the start of the school year after our Da passed away, and she was walking through the halls and she could sense something wasn't right in her brain. She went to therapy to figure out what was wrong and in the very first session she was told That Person was abusive and we needed to get away was such a weight off our shoulders to realize there was a reason That Person was like that.

Weiss's story is necessarily different, but the two of us are firmly in the camp that - like Tai says - you learn a lot in therapy, and it's for more than people who are abuse and trauma victims. Everyone in this fic has gone or will go through something beyond the pale, and they have to figure out how to help themselves. Tai shines again in this chapter as a result, he's low-key the healthiest of the bunch with Winter as an almost-second, but all of them have something to give Winter as she starts to plan the war she's about to declare.

And we get another item on Oz's Year of Hell checklist: Not only was there an accident, but there was fallout from the accident in the form of Hazel Reinhart. Also Qrow does a Good and Oz melts a little more. We also get to do a scene from the show but have it in a completely different context and perspective.

Next chapter: Honestly, next chapter is a favorite of ours - the Return of Self-Indulgence! OzQrow everywhere!