Mercy laughed airily, trying not to hurt herself. Lynne entered the room quietly, setting a tray with Trinity's soup across the girl's lap. She looked around the room and nodded happily. The snow had stopped falling outside, leaving the sunrise to glisten through the perfectly clear sky and off the fresh snow.
"We're having our bwrw eira cymanfa (Buru Eira chymantha -Festival of Snow) tonight, if you would like to participate." Lynne said to the room in general. Everyone simply looked confused except Ianto, Mercy, and Carlisle. Mercy looked at her excitedly, Carlisle, chuckled, and Ianto looked pensively out the window.
Trinity scooped the hot soup down her throat. She jumped when Alice squealed with excitement. She glanced up at Lynne. "What exactly is that?" she asked curiously.
"I have to go home to Bella," Edward said politely.
"It's an annual festival, held during the first snowfall." Ianto turned to Lynne, smiling slightly still.
"Are you going to need any help?"
"Not really... I think Molly and Alex have it in hand."
Trinity was lost to the conversation. She continued to eat her soup in silence.
Jasper gazed at the younger of the broken girls, wondering what happened to change her mood so drastically.
Mercy tried her hardest to make a happy feeling in the room, but her body was still too weak to try any of that. Jack shifted subtly, staring at Ianto and Trinity carefully. Mercy laughed, reaching slowly behind herself to pat Jack's head. 'He's just Jealous... ' she sent. 'You can leave me for a while, it's like I'm in danger here. Take him and go help Lynne cook some more. Trinity needs to sleep.' Jack chuckled.
"How are you so smart?" He asked aloud, sarcastically.
"I'm the older one." Mercy chided.
Trinity smirked. For once, she knew what was going on. She sighed contentedly as she finished the soup and was glad that her stomach didn't turn uncomfortably. She grabbed the tray and made her way to the kitchen with it. She smiled slightly at Lynne. "Thank you," she murmured, blushing. "But from now on, I'd like to prepare my own meals." She set the tray on the counter and took the time to get a better look at the house. It reminded her of some old forgotten childhood fantasy of her dream house.
She turned to Mercy. 'You'd better explain everything in full detail...soon,' she thought as a threat. She hadn't meant to be so cold toward the one of the few to be helping her adjust to her new life. 'And as soon as you're better...I want to learn everything there is to being in the Sanctuary.' She turned back to Lynne. 'And tell me your connection to this woman...she's just a mortal...like me, but you're immortal...so why would a mortal outside of your job mean anything?' Her thoughts were a jumbled mess as she tried to sort through everything and put any extremely painful memories to the back of her mind.
The young girl went back to the bed and laid down.
Alice frowned and crossed her arms in a pout. 'If she falls asleep...there goes our shopping trip.'
"I thought vampires were supposed to be the most patient things on earth." Mercy teased.
Jack chuckled.
"We are," scoffed Alice, sticking her tongue out.
Trinity looked between them, confused. She shook her head and curled around herself just inches away from Mercy. A sudden, terrible thought crossed her mind. What would happen if she died? The thought of dying terrified her to no end, even though it would release her of her every day reminder of the nightmare that she had lived through. She looked up at Mercy regretfully. 'Sorry about those thoughts....'
"It's not your fault." Mercy said quietly, closing her eyes. "Go shopping with Alice and Ianto... It'll be fun."
Trinity sighed dramatically. "Shopping isn't what I constitute as fun," she grumbled.
Alice laughed manically. "I swear, you're worse than Bella!" she chimed. She grabbed Trinity by the wrist and dragged her out to the Porsche. "Don't worry! We're never coming back!"
"Vampires," growled Trinity. 'Blood sucking murderers,' she thought.
Ianto sighed and followed them, but not before sharing a rather intimate moment with Jack.
"Ianto!" Alice called. He sighed and grabbed Jack by the wrist and dragged him along.
Mercy smiled and waved amiably as they went out the door.
Trinity sat in the front passenger's seat, only to give Jack and Ianto the back. She crossed her arms over her chest as Alice peeled out of the driveway and sped out of Westport.
"You'll have fun," Alice told Trinity, having already seen everything in her head.
Ianto sat back and watched the road speed by. Alice must have been going at least 90 miles per hour once they hit the city limits. Jack seemed slightly on edge.
"What's wrong, Cariad?"
"Just worried. Nothing major." He shrugged. Ianto didn't press further, he knew if Jack wanted to tell him, he would, and if he didn't. Then things tended to get interesting.
Trinity gripped her seat tightly, feeling on-edge with Alice driving so fast. She knew that she should not have allowed Mercy to talk her into this. They were in Olympia before Trinity could register much. "Can't I just stay in the car and wait for you lot to come back out?" she begged.
"Nope!" chimed Alice. "From what I've seen, you need new clothes anyways."
As soon as they were parked, Jack dragged Ianto out of the car by his hand. Alice was already dragging Trinity across the parking lot into one of the higher end stores.
"What's gotten you excited then?" Ianto asked, striding to keep up with Jack.
"I don't know."
Trinity sighed heavily. What was so exciting about shopping? "Hey...I just realized that I don't have any money. Can we go back now?" she asked hopefully.
Ianto chuckled. "You're a mysterious man, Jack."
Alice giggled gleefully and shook her head. "I have enough money for everyone..."
Trinity sighed heavily. She followed Alice into several high designer clothing stores while Jack and Ianto went off on their own. The young girl could hardly keep up with Alice's enthusiasm. She watched as the spiky-haired vampire picked out about half the clothes in one of the stores and pushed her into the dressing room to try them all on. "I don't see the point in this," she grumbled after three stores and Alice had already bought out about half the mall in clothes.
"You need to reintegrate with society," explained Alice as she handed Trinity a pair of jeans to try on.
"But these clothes won't fit five months from now," Trinity complained.
"Then we'll just have to go shopping again," chimed Alice.
They met Jack and Ianto in the food court for lunch. Trinity stuck her nose up at most of the food. "We can just go back for lunch...with her crazy driving and all," suggested Trinity, nodding to Alice. She noticed that Jack and Ianto each had several bags from Spencer's. Her eyebrows rose and they all laughed around her.
"Actually...going back would probably be best," agreed Alice, nodding. She dragged Trinity off and still managed to hold all the bags of clothing that was meant for Trinity...as well as the various gifts that she had bought for everyone.
They all got into the car and Alice drove off...after stuffing the bags into the trunk of course. "Oh...and I bought some gifts that are from you for everyone," informed the short vampire.
Trinity eyed her wearily, wondering if this was Mercy's idea of a practical joke to send her shopping with a maniacal vampire. "Oh...erm...thank you," she managed curtly, pressing her forehead against the glass, willing for another wave of sickness to pass without incident.