Naturally, disclaimer to Tammy, but additionally to Tori Amos for the use of her title.

Everybody Else's Girl

Darra Chandler waved at the destruction and chaos within the nursery. Pillows, quilts, and what seemed like hundreds of soft toys littered the ground. At least they'd had the sense to remove fragile things from this room after the fifth time that a coincidental wind storm had swept through it. The entire scene looked like a macabre battle from out of Valden's history books.

"I'm not crazy, I swear to you! You just saw it! She cried and it upset the entire room, the entire house if the door had only been open!" Oh, but they wouldn't make that mistake again. "Please, please, just take her. Just for a day, or an hour, or-" Darra let out a sharp sob and dropped Trisana into her sister's arms before she rushed out of the room, away from the screams of her own daughter.

x

"Arrel," Valden nodded sharply to his brother and flapped a limp hand at his sister-in-law. His free hand clutched at Darra's beneath the table.

"She has been back under our roof for only three months. Already she has flooded the west wing of the house, twice. Yesterday her wind broke ornaments amounting to seven gold crescents. She has to go, Valden. She's too risky to have around and she scares the servants so badly they can't do their work." Arrel sighed, "I'm afraid that the girl is too much a monster. She can't stay here anymore, you'll have to find somewhere else."

x

When Murris said that Tris was too destructive to remain in his home, Darra didn't cry. Valden was glad, because he felt like crying himself. "You're right. Thank you for having her for this long, we had thought that perhaps she would settle down here. After all, the episodes occur more rarely these days. We'll reimburse you, of course, for the trouble she has caused." Saying that almost made Valden wince, for it was a lot of money no matter how well the business had been doing.

Emmine shook her head, her pleasant melodic voice distracting Valden from his calculations and Darra from her memories. "There's no need. The incident yesterday wouldn't have happened had Elos and Hanet kept their hands to themselves, and she does her fair share of work around the house." Despite Emmine's sympathetic voice, her eyes showed only fear.

x

"She'll have none of this nancy, gentle raising with me," Uraelle's voice grated at Darra like a bad itch, who would have thought one could make 'gentle' into an insult? "She'll clean any surface she can peer over, mark my words! You aren't to visit her, mind. I've heard, you know," she settled accusatory eyes on Darra's soft face, nostrils flaring. "Heard from my sister's children, all of them, that your presence makes the girl forget that she's the least bit human."

Darra was almost ready to walk straight back out of this horribly dead home, to take her daughter back to the room of soft toys and dolls that had been where Tris was to grow up. Unfortunately the room and toys were long gone. Darra's nieces appreciated the toys more, and the room had since become the nursery for Darra's boys. "Yes," she agreed in a whisper. "As long as you take her."

x

Tris hadn't seen her parents for four years and she probably would have gone without seeing them for four more, but then Cousin Uraelle died.

At first it was Aunt Emmine who ventured into the garden shed to take Tris home, but she got no further than three steps into the empty building before Tris's glare and the increasing violence of the hail storm outside made her flee. It was Tris's father who came next. He only managed two steps before he lost his confidence and the impossible came in the form of hail falling from the ceiling of the room. His mind scrambled for an explanation- the roof was in tact, he knew that. Soon he was yelling at his daughter while she furiously scrubbed away at tears.

Stone Circle Temple was just three hours away, which both Valden and Darra were thankful for. Neither of them believed that they could remain near Tris for even that length of time.

x

Niko looked at the cross girl who had made a fine traveling companion. The ship had made good time with her on it and she rarely complained apart from when he was cryptic. His next journey would need to be speedy, but Tris was just a girl and needed a solid home. Didn't little girls love being surrounded by other little girls? He didn't like leaving her here, but his lifestyle wasn't suited to Tris's needs.

"You'll be happy here."

"I won't unpack my bags."

"You will, eventually."

x

It had been mentioned to them before, the idea that most new mages went on travels to 'broaden their horizons'. Tris thought the term was a load of rubbish- she could broaden her horizon as much as she pleased without leaving Discipline. "It won't be forever, Tris. You'll come back here and still have Lark, Rosethorn, and your foster-siblings," Niko made quite the sight as he sat on the roof. "Do you really think that any of them would let you out of their lives forever?"

"Why not? It's happened before," Tris snapped. She was furious at the suggestion that she should leave, no matter how delicately it had been phrased.

"Give it more thought, Tris. You're considered an adult now, you can't be palmed off from guardian to guardian. It's your life and nothing can happen in it until you say so." Niko could say no more, so he squeezed her hand firmly and began to muster up the courage to stand. Of the four visits he had made up here he hadn't yet felt safe on the roof of Discipline Cottage. He stood with one palm rested on the chimney before a soft voice made him sit down once more.

x

When Tris was twenty-six, with one arm filled with a bundle of blankets and the other taken hostage by a toddler, she managed to laugh at the disarray in the nursery. "I wanted it to be colourful for the babies that are coming," sniffed little Iselle. Indeed, Tris didn't think that her daughter had intended to create a living mural.

"Don't worry," Tris said soothingly, "if I can't fix it I'm sure one of your grandparents can- they've coped with a lot worse. Besides, it's pretty." Or it would be, she thought privately, if only that dog didn't look like a rabid chicken. "But it does need to be fixed before Aless and Leton come to live... and they're not both babies, Elle. One of them is older than you ."

She thought of telling Iselle the exact ages of the children who would soon join her in the nursery, but Tris's daughter only got confused by concepts of time that weren't 'forever'. There would be sun, sky, and earth forever. Elle would be loved by her mother, father, uncles, aunts, numerous grandparents, and her baby sister forever. Tris sometimes reflected on how strange it was, that at Iselle's age she herself had only known the concept of 'temporary' and had wanted, for the most part, to be alone. Though she had passed from home to home, Tris had belonged to no one until she was ten.

Now she rather believed that she best liked belonging to everyone, even if it meant taking ownership of three mages under the age of four and another teenage mage who, in Tris's opinion, was far too interested in boys. Living just for one's self wasn't nearly so interesting as living for one's family.

She's been everybody else's girl,
maybe one day she'll be her own.

Author's Note: Another version was about Tris's acceptance of herself as unique and her growing to realise that the opinions of strangers doesn't matter. Instead I decided that I wanted to explore her moving as a child and although it's no masterpiece I liked writing it. Darra and Valden weren't abusive or impartial to Tris, they were scared by her and couldn't continue to excuse (or pay for) the damage that she did. Tris wouldn't be sent from home to home simply for making light rain whenever she cried- we've all seen what she's capable of.