Chapter Sixteen- Safe In Your Arms

"Without you in my arms, I feel an emptiness in my soul. I find myself searching the crowd for your face- I know it's an impossibility, but I cannot help myself." –Nicholas Sparks Message in a Bottle

"Piper," Eddie, Fabian, Alfie and Nina said at the same time.

"Hi, I'm here to see Patricia," Piper said in her sweet, sing-song voice.

"She's a little preoccupied at the moment," KT said quietly.

"That's why I'm here. Something told me that I had to some. It's like a voice told me not to hide from this day anymore," she said staring off into the distance. After a few moments of silence, she went upstairs to be with Patricia.

"I wonder what all of this means?" KT asked. "I mean this seems so much more complicated than it should be."

Fabian gave the only thing that he could think of to say, "I think that the Knowledgeable One is more connected with emotion than any of us thought. Think of how much history revolves around emotion; the fight over Troy had to do with the heart of Helen. Think of how many wars there have been because of greed or jealousy. The Knowledgeable One holds all of these emotions aligned with the history. That is why this happened." They nodded their head in agreement and sat in silence for a while.

Soon it was dinner time, but neither Piper nor Patricia showed up. Actually, neither of them were around for the rest of the evening. It wasn't until after Victor's "It's ten o'clock. You have five minutes precisely then I want to hear a pin drop," that KT and Nina found out why. Both Piper and Patricia were snuggled up together in Patricia's bed, sound asleep. They had probably been that way for hours. One thing was for sure, no matter what separated those sisters, the other was always there for her when she needed it.

The next morning, was strange. Patricia was the first one up and ready. She was already downstairs when the rest of the gang crawled out of bed the next morning. Her and Piper were sitting and laughing at the table about something when the Sibuna gang walked in. "Hey Patricia," Eddie said as he planted a small kiss on the top of her head. She smiled at him like nothing had happened. She was unusually happy and, while it worried him slightly, he was glad that she felt good. Piper and Patricia continued to babble until about ten o'clock when Victor came down.

"Miss Williamson, does this girl," he pointed at Piper even though he knew exactly who it was and everyone knew who he was talking about, "have permission from her school to be here today?"

"Actually, Victor," Piper answered, "yes I have permission, but I'm supposed to be back this afternoon. Thank you for reminding me that I must be off soon." She smiled at him knowing that he would go away because he didn't know how to respond to this girl's behavior.

Victor went away with a confused look on his face and the Anubis kids laughed. "Well Pips," Patricia said, "it looks like you have to go."

Piper nodded and said, "Trixie, walk me to the door." Patricia followed.

"Trix," Piper started, "I'm glad we got to do this." Tears began to weld up in Patricia's eyes. There were very few things on this planet that she got sentimental about and Piper was one of the few people that managed to bring out her soft side. Neither said anything else because what could have been said didn't need to be. The other knew exactly what the other was thinking about: Sami. They hugged for a long time and Piper let go and went out the door.

Eddie came through the door and Patricia wiped a stray tear away before he could see it. What she didn't know is that he did see it, but he knew that it was none of his business and pretended like he hadn't.

He wrapped her in a loose hug and asked, "You okay, Yacker?"

"Yeah," she said as she buried herself deep in his chest. For some reason, she felt very safe in his arms; like nothing could ever hurt her. She learned long ago that this wasn't true, yet she wanted to have a moment of peace before she reentered reality so she buried herself even deeper.

Eddie smiled down at Patricia and let her pretend for a little while longer that nothing would ever hurt her again.