Chapter Seven:

Jeannie was absolutely fuming! How dare he discuss their problems with someone else! How dare he bring Dr. Bellows into this! She knew why he did, and it wasn't because he was now a close friend with both her and Tony, nor that she was very close friends with his wife, Amanda. It was because Tony needed the opinion of a psychiatrist, and who better to analyse what was going on in her head than Dr. Alfred Bellows.

Her question was if she was confused about what was going on in her head, how was someone else supposed to know?

She had never felt this way before. She had never lost someone so close to her before, someone who was such a part of her. How was she supposed to react? How was she supposed to move on, to be happy like she once was?

These were questions that she still had no answers to, even three weeks on.

She knew Tony blamed her for what happened. Oh, not that he had said that, he was much too kind for that. But she knew because she blamed herself, and if she blamed herself, of course he would too. He had every right too, of course. If she had been feeling well in the first place, she would have still had her powers. And if she had still had her powers, she wouldn't have left the party early. And if she had been paying more attention to the road, instead of just assuming that the cars would stop at the red light, things might have turned out differently.

After she left the house, she blinked herself away, so Tony wouldn't know where she'd gone. But in truth, she hadn't gone far at all, she had only blinked herself back to the beach, though a little further away this time. She had discovered this little rock pool about a mile away from the house, not long ago, and it was such a beautiful, peaceful and calm place, that it had now become one of her favourite spots. She just hoped Tony didn't know about it. She wanted to be alone right now and she needed time to cool off, before she did something that she'd really regret.

After assuring Dr. Bellows everything would be alright, and that he could handle everything, Tony said goodbye to him, and called Roger to ask him to come over. He had just started filling his friend in on what had just happened.

'You've got to help me find her, Roge,' Tony pleaded desperately.

'Don't worry Tony, we'll find her, she can't be far.'

Tony shot him a look, clearly thinking he'd forgotten who they were dealing with.

'Oh, right. Well, maybe she has gone far.'

'You're not helping, Roge.'

'Right. How about we split up, go to all her favourite hangouts, well, at least the local ones, and if we still have no luck...call her mother.' Roger tried to joke.

'Her mother?! Are you crazy, Roge? This is no time for jokes. Now if we don't find her in say, two hours, we'll meet back here and go from there, ok?'

'Roger that!' He said with a smirk, obviously not able to help himself.

With one last eye roll from Tony, they split up.

After searching for close to an hour and a half, Roger was close to giving up and heading back to report to his very concerned and worried friend. He had checked everywhere they had been in the past that he knew she loved or held happy memories, but so far, he'd come up empty. He decided to take the more scenic route back to Tony's house along the beach. If he was honest, he was also growing quite concerned about Jeannie himself. They had grown quite close since she had blown into their lives in a puff of pink smoke (well, really, for him, it was when he had accidentally discovered Tony had been hiding a Genie all this time). He considered her to be one of his best friends, and he didn't want to see anything bad happen to her. Since her accident, he had only seen her a handful of times, most of those were at the hospital. He had noticed she was not the same Jeannie that she once was, and rightly so.

Roger was just walking by a big rock pool when he spotted her. Jeannie was sitting on one of the rocks, right near the water.

'There you are, Jeannie! We've been looking for you everywhere!' He said, happy to see her.

Shocked, Jeannie raised her arms, ready to blink herself away.

'No, wait! Jeannie, please, just hear me out. I'm your friend, remember?'

Jeannie hesitated for a moment, then slowly nodded and lowered her arms back down.

Roger took this as a good sign to approach her, and seated himself next to her on the rock.

'Tony told me what happened today. He has been very worried about you, we all have. You haven't been the same since the accident.'

'Yes, so I've been told. But what happens if I don't want to be the old Jeannie anymore? Why can't everyone just leave me alone?'

'Because, the new Jeannie is not happy. How are you really feeling after the accident, Jeannie? And don't worry, you can tell old Roge. I won't tell anyone, not even Tony,' He promised, and he meant it too. As long as she opened up to someone, he could maybe convince her to open up to the one person who mattered the most, and who might be able to help her.

After a couple of minute's silence, he almost lost all hope that he could be the one to finally get her to talk.

'It's my fault.' She said so quietly, he almost hadn't heard her.

"What? How could you say that, Jeannie?'

'Because it is. I should have stayed at the party with Anthony; it wouldn't have been too much longer that we would have stayed. And who was I kidding driving that car home? We all know I'm no good at driving that thing.'

'Jeannie, let me ask you this. Did you ask to be sick?'

'No.'

'Did you ask for that guy to run that red light and slam into your car?'

'No.'

'Did you ask to lose your baby?'

'What? No, of course not! How could you ask such a thing?'

'So if you didn't ask for any of those things, why are you blaming yourself?' After receiving no answer, he continued. 'You know, Tony blames himself too.'

Jeannie looked shocked at this, 'What? How could he? It wasn't his fault!'

'He feels that he should have driven you home himself.'

'But I don't blame him at all! I'm sure he blames me though.'

'He doesn't, Jeannie. He is having just as much trouble coping with this as you are. He's just trying not to show it because he's more concerned about you.'

At this, Jeannie burst into tears. 'Oh, I'm such a horrible wife!'

'What are you talking about, Jeannie?'

'I was so wrapped up in my own feelings, I forgot about his! He lost a child too, and I made it all about me!' She sobbed, burying her face in her hands.

'He understands, Jeannie, he does. But the best way for the both of you to begin to heal is to do it together. You both lost a child, so why not grieve together?'

Jeannie hadn't thought of that before. Roger was right. And it was about time she start to open up and talk to her husband, see how he was dealing with all of this. Maybe, just maybe, they could start the healing process together.

'Come on. Let old Roge take you home. You have a very worried husband waiting for you.'