(Violet's Pov)
We were currently waiting for Louis and the others to come over to our home. I was helping Clementine with the snacks but she would slap my hand and we both would laugh. It wasn't a hard slap just a playful slap.
"Hey no snacking." She tells me and I smirk and grab ahold of her waist.
"Come on, you're baking cookies and don't expect me to NOT snack on them?" I asked her and she laughed.
"I know you love my baking skills but Ruby and the others would like some." She tells me and I kissed her neck.
"Bah the cookies are mine." I joked and we both laughed but I did get to have at least one cookie out of this. We hear a knock at the door and Clementine moved away from the plate of cookies. A flaw was made and I grabbed three more cookies.
"VIOLET!" I hear Clem yell and I hear some laughing as I tried to get away.
"The cookies are all mine." I say as I was able to dodge her.
"BLIND WOMAN WINS!" I yelled and I head to the living room.
"Well damn glad to see you having fun there Violet." Louis says and I nod.
"Hey trust me, once you try Clem's cookies, you'll do the same." I tell him as I offer him one. He takes it and I see him take a bite and his head moves to Clem.
"Clem." He says.
"No, Violet already took like four of them, no more till everyone has one." She says.
"Booo." Both Louis and I say and I hear more laughter.
"So, when is the wedding again?" Ruby asked and I took a bite of another cookie.
"Oh, we already had it." I say as if it wasn't a big deal.
"WHAT?!" She yelled and I look to where she is.
"Yea like… months ago." I say and take another bite of my cookie.
"Why didn't you tell us?" Louis asked and I shrugged as I ate my cookie.
"It was a small ceremony." I hear Clem say and I nod and finished my cookie.
"Well, if you were on a budget-."
"Louis, we love you but I wanted the small ceremony because you tend to go a little… overboard." I tell him.
"I do not…. Oh, wait yes, I do." He says and I laughed.
"He has seen the errors in his ways, good for you young grasshopper." I say.
"I do have to ask why are you so happy?" Brody asked.
"It might be her new medication." Clem says.
"Wait new medication?" I hear and I nod.
"Mhmmm, had some issues with depression." I tell them.
"Wait-."
"I'm fine now, it's just kicking in after almost a week surprisingly." I say and eat my third cookie.
"So, wait are you ok with going to the event?" Louis asked and I nod.
"Oh yeah, fine as can be." I tell him and I lay back on the couch a bit.
"She's fine, it's not like any of us are talking." Clem says and I nod at this. I nod at this and then we had to get ready to head out. We didn't know if people were going to wear their uniforms so we just dressed casual for this event. When we got there it looked pretty tame from what I could see. I could smell the hot dogs and hamburgers and I felt Clementine holding onto my arm since I didn't want to bring my white cane. We heard some soldiers talking to each other and I held onto Clementine's arm.
"Shit hey Aldon." I hear and turn a bit.
"Oh… Aldon?" I hear and then feel a hand on me and I turn a bit.
"Shit is that Kal I hear?" I asked.
"Hear, can't you…. Oh, shit I'm so fucking sorry." He says and I wave it off with a smile.
"Dude it's fine, oh this is Clem." I say as I introduce my wife to them. Fuck it feels nice to call her my wife.
"Oh, hell you're the girl that helped us." I hear Kal say and I nod.
"Yep, I mean I wasn't the only one but yes I did help a little." She says and I smile at her.
"So, what have you been up to?" Kal asked us.
"Shit, trying to deal with being blind, but I'm glad I have really good friends." I tell him.
"That's great, what about you Clementine?" He asked.
"Been going to school for culinary, it's great." She tells him. We talked to more people and I could tell that Clementine was actually having fun here. It was good. I was glad she was having fun, she deserved it.
"So, you two find any husbands?" I hear Jared asked and I feel Clementine hold onto my arm a little tighter.
"Oh no, still in that single life." I tell him.
"Oh, sorry I assumed with the wedding rings." He says and I look to him a bit. though I couldn't see his face I could tell he was confused.
"Oh shit, no it's just promise rings, just a little joke we did." I tell him.
"Oh, like you two would get married if you couldn't find husbands?" He asked and I nod.
"Yeah, but knowing Clem here she'll find a husband quick, dude she bakes amazing cookies." I tell him and he laughed.
"Well, I hope you two have fun." He says and I nod as we walked around more. at one point we all met up again and got something to eat and we were seated at one of the spare tables. I of course sat next to Clementine and I was feeling… nervous. To be fair and honest this usually happens when I feel like something terrible would happen, but for some reason I didn't know what.
"Hey who the hell is that?" I hear and then I hear Clem groan a bit.
"What who?" I asked.
"Gabe." She mutters and I look to her.
"Should we go?" I asked.
"Hey Clem, who the fuck are these people?" I hear Gabe say and I rubbed my face a bit with my free hand.
"We're Clem's battle buddies, who are you?" Ruby asked. I could hear she was already annoyed.
"I'm Clem's Boyfriend." He says and everyone at the table laughing.
"You, you're Clem's boyfriend? Funny how she never mentioned you." Aasim says.
"Well, we don't talk about our relationship a lot, don't want people to annoy us with the whole wedding and when we will have kids." He says and I take a breath.
"This is David's stupid son, the guy that was telling us about how he supposedly served in our group." I tell them.
"Excuse me?" Louis says and I nod.
"Hey I was over there." He says and I could feel him glaring at me.
"Like hell you were, now back the fuck off." I tell him.
"Not my fault you fuckers weren't in my group, this idiot got a bullet to the head like a moron." He says. I hear Louis get up so I quickly get up and hold his shoulders.
"EXCUSE YOU?!" Louis yelled.
"Oh, what the fuck was his name… Right Marlon." He says and I quickly grab Louis by his arms.
"HOW DARE YOU!" Louis yelled and I was able to keep him back.
"He's a fucking idiot, he don't know what he's talking about." I tell him quickly and he stopped moving but I could tell he was seething with anger.
"Maybe you should get your eyes checked, oh wait, you'll never see again, right?" He laughed and I take another breath. I had to stay calm, can't cause a scene here.
"HEY!" I hear Ruby yell.
"Oh, what are you going to do about it short stack?" He asked.
"The fuck is wrong with this guy Clem?" Louis asked.
"He's an idiot that should shut up." Clem says and I keep my hold on Louis.
"Just go the fuck away man." Aasim says.
"Why should I? My dad was in the service and so was I, I got stories too, there was this one dumb red head that got shot up like a fucking rag doll, think her name was Minerva. Stupid girl thought she could talk to people haha" He laughs and I froze a bit. He knew about Minerva's death, how did he hear about that, I know his dad knew but I doubt he'd tell anyone about that.
"WHAT IS YOUR PROBLEM?!" Clementine yelled as I see her get up so I let go of Louis and grabbed her hand. Trying to not make a scene was hard.
"Look Clem I get it you're a nice person by why hang out with these people? Look we can just go to my place-."
"HEY! If she doesn't want to go with you, she doesn't have to." I hear Brody say.
"Hey, I'm just speaking the truth, you should come hang out with me Clem, leave these losers behind." He says.
"These are my friends you asshole." She says and I get up and I can see his blurry body and I don't know but I just fucking snapped. I let go of Clementine's hand and I go up to him and grabbed him by the front of his shirt and pulled my fist back.
"VIOLET!" I hear but I just started to punch him. I couldn't help it, he disrespected Clem, he disrespected my friends, we did so much for everyone and we still get treated like crap by people like him, they needed to learn and if talking didn't then beating them would.
"YOU. MOTHER. FUCKER!" I yelled between punches and I feel someone try to grab me but I moved so they couldn't.
"YOU DISRESPECT ME ALL YOU FUCKING WANT, BUT YOU WILL NOT DISRESPECT MY FRIENDS, AND MY FUCKING WIFE!" I yelled as I kept punching him. I was then pulled off by a bunch of people, I could hear people call for any medics and I was seething with anger. So much fucking anger for this bastard.
"LET ME KILL HIM, THAT FUCKER DESERVES IT HE DOESN'T KNOW MARLON OR MINERVA YET HE'S LAUGHING AT THEIR DEATHS!" I yell as I tried to go after him again.
"ALDON STOP!" I hear and then I feel two hands on my face and I was still seething with anger. This good day was going bad, but I didn't care.
"Violet, Calm down please." I hear Clementine say.
"NO! HE NEEDS TO FUCKING PAY, HE NEVER SAW WHAT WE DID, HE BASICALLY STOLE HIS DAD'S STORIES, HE FUCKED AROUND AND NOW HE HAS TO FIND OUT!" I yelled as I tried to get out of the grips of whoever was holding me.
"Pull her back." I hear and I was being pulled away as I tried to plant my feet into the ground and it worked for a bit till my bad leg gave out and I was taken far away. I was still mad, I was still being restrained, I wanted to kill that boy, how dare he call our friends losers, they weren't losers, they were great people, how dare he talk about Marlon and Minerva, he didn't know them, he didn't know anything about any of us. I kept trying to get out of their grips.
"Let me go." I tell them.
"Not a chance, you may be blind but knowing you, you could still find him." I hear and I shake my head.
"He needs to pay; he needs to fucking pay." I say and I feel someone hug me.
"Stop this right now, we can go home ok." Clementine says and I shake my head.
"Why, why does he keep getting away with his shit." I say as I calm down a bit, I was still being restrained and I grip my hands into fists and I was still angry.
"Come on we can go home, Louis and the others don't mind it, we can have our own fun." I hear and I shake my head. I was still angry and I hear the words mutter from person to person and then I hear that oh so familiar heartbeat. I feel a hand on the back of my head rubbing it gently. I hear and feel the calm breathing and that oh so familiar heartbeat. It was racing, I hated it when it was like this because it was out of fear or stress or something bad so I tried to calm myself down. If I calm down, she would calm down. But it was hard. I was filled with so much rage.
"You can let her go." I hear and I feel some hesitation and once my arms are free, I hugged Clementine instantly. She needed to calm down I didn't mean to scare her.
"Ruby needs to check your hands." She whispers and I shake my head.
"No, not now." I tell her and she still rubbed the back of my head.
"She can check them while you hug me." She tells me and I nod. I feel Ruby grab my hands gently.
"Do they hurt?" She asked.
"N-no." I stuttered and I tried to breath, I couldn't breathe and then I feel my hands shaking.
"Shit, shit." I hear and I feel them move me to the ground a bit and I feel myself shaking a little more. I don't know what was going on and I was scared, I feel someone place my head on their lap and I tried to breath. It was so damn scary. I ended up blacking out at some point and when I finally did wake up, I saw that we weren't outside. I get up a bit tired and a little sore.
"Oh, thank god." I hear and feel a hand on mine and I was looking at who it was.
"Hey how do you feel?" I hear and shake my head as I felt a little sick and confused. I lay back down and looked up to the ceiling.
"Where?" I asked.
"The tent they had set up it's a medic tent." I hear and I nod and I feel the thumb rub on my hand and I grip it a bit.
"I uh… did I?" I tried to ask.
"You had another seizure." Clem says and I felt awful.
"When can we take her home?" I hear and I looked to Clem a bit.
"Seeing as she beat someone… it's going to be a bit." I hear and I put my hand to my face.
"He fucking deserved it." I mutter.
"Vi." Clementine says and I stay silent.
"Look, he was bothering us, and shit can't you let it slide?" I hear Louis ask.
"She broke the boys jaw and might have given him a skull fracture." I hear and I felt even worse. Was I really that bad? I didn't care that I beat him to a bloody pulp, he deserved it, I just felt bad that I did that in front of a lot of people, that I embarrassed Clementine and the others.
"She has to come down town, I'm sorry." I hear.
"You can't be seriously arresting her?" I hear Clementine say as she held my hand a little tighter.
"He's pressing charges on her." I hear and I sit up a bit.
"He's the one that wouldn't leave us alone." Clementine tried to say.
"That doesn't excuse the fact that he is pressing charges after she beat him." I hear again and I look to her a bit.
"Can't you put her on house arrest?" Louis asked.
"Sorry but no." I hear and I look to Clem as best as I could.
"Can-."
"It's fine." I tell them.
"What? No, he-."
"I said it's fine." I tell them again and I feel some hands on me. I got up a bit and I feel them put my hands behind my back.
"No this is bullshit he keeps bothering us and when we did ask for you to help us, you said nothing can be done, he knows she has PTSD, and he kept pushing and pushing." Clementine says angry.
"Clem stop it's fine." I tell her.
"NO, IT'S NOT, HE DESERVED IT!" She yelled at me.
"Yeah, this is bullshit, he was harassing them." Louis and the others kept talking.
"Look, it's fine ok, just… go home, I'll call when I can." I tell them as they take me out the tent. They take me to their vehicle and I can hear Clem and the others still arguing and I shake my head a bit as they helped me into the car. I hear the door close and then start up.
"I mean they do have a point." I hear.
"It doesn't matter." I hear and I clear my throat a bit.
"Look I know what I did was wrong but he has been bothering me and Clementine, he knows I'm a soldier, I served with his dad, he's upset but-."
"Look I get it but you broke his jaw." I hear the officer say a bit irritated.
"Don't you think if a kid like that was harassing your kid, you'd do the same?" I hear the other officer say.
"Well until he drops the charges, she still has to go in." He says and I nod.
"I get it." I say and sit back more in the back and I think a bit.
"Um… is this a bad time to say I suffer from seizers? I don't have my medication on me." I tell them.
"Fucking hell, you're fine without them." The officer says.
"Hey this is serious; look we can let you call your friend to bring your medication." The officer says and I nod at this. When we get to the station, they go through the process of getting me in, taking my photos, and then putting me in a room for a bit. Not a cell but a room. I hear the door open and I turn to the sound and then someone walks in.
"Hello, I'm detective Jacobs, and I have a psychologist here with me her name is Mrs. Kaleb, I heard you were involved in a fight?" He asked and I look to him a bit.
"I'm not going to deny it, I willingly came here." I tell them.
"Say's here you're… damn barely hitting twenty-five." He says and I nod.
"Yes sir." I say.
"So, what happened?" I hear him ask.
"I'm going to be honest here, I suffer from PTSD, I've been abused a lot as a kid and I'm blind as fuck… so the fact I was able to hit him in the jaw enough to break it, seems like an accomplishment to me." I tell him.
"Did you like hitting him?" The doctor asked and I take a breath.
"After all he's done, ain't no shame in hurting him." I tell her truthfully.
"You know abuse is illegal right?" She asked and I laughed.
"Not where I'm from, can beat your kid black and blue as long as the scars can be hidden." I tell her.
"On to the topic of the assault." I hear the detective say and I look to where his voice was.
"Look, he started it, he kept bothering us and I just… I snapped ok." I tell them.
"You could have just walked away." He says.
"Last time we tried that He grabbed my friend and I was pulled to the ground, so no not really… he keeps harassing Clementine every time he sees her, keeps lying his ass off, keeps… look I knew his dad in the service-."
"You were in the army?" I hear the doctor ask and I nod.
"Yes, it's part of my PTSD, and why I'm blind." I tell her.
"So why didn't you report his harassment?" The detective asked and I laughed.
"We did, many times, same thing is said over and over, 'If he doesn't do anything physical you can't make a report.' Even after he pulled me to the ground… so at this point I took matters into my own hands since trying to tell cops does nothing… should fix your laws." I mutter and look to the side a bit.
"Well, what did he say to set you off?" I hear.
"He talked about some friends of mine that died in the war… he acted like he was in our group but he wasn't I remember who was in our group and he wasn't there, he ain't been over there, fucking chicken shit." I mutter.
"That still doesn't-."
"Give me the right to beat him? He laid his hands on my friend-."
"How can you tell if your blind." The detective says and I keep silent.
"My one eye is blurry but I can see when someone places their hands on another." I tell him. We ended up talking more and once the detective was done talking to me, he left the room and I could still hear the doctor writing on some paper.
"Have you thought of getting help?" She asked.
"With what?" I asked.
"Your PTSD." She says and I nod.
"Yes, but I don't want to talk anymore." I tell her and we just stayed silent. She ends up leaving the room as the officers come in and take me to another room so I could make a call.
"One call… do you need help?" I hear and I nod as I tell them the number and I put the phone up to my ear.
"Hello?" I hear and sighed.
"Hey Lee, uh… I'm in a… bit of trouble, I'm down at the police station-."
"What? What happened? Are you ok?" He asked me a bit worried.
"Yes sir, I'm ok I just… got into a fight and well… anyway I was wondering if you could go to my house and pick up my seizure medication for me, I really need it." I tell him.
"Oh right, yes I can get that, have they said anything about bail?" He asked.
"Uh no, um… my court date is in three days I'll know by then." I tell him.
"Shit… alright I'll be over there, are you sure you're, ok?" He asked.
"Yes, thank you Lee… did Clem come home?" I asked.
"No, she hasn't, look if I need to get you a lawyer-."
"No, it's fine… I ain't ashamed of what I did, just… when she does get home can you tell her I'm sorry for embarrassing her… and if our friends are there can you tell them the same thing?" I asked.
"I don't think you embarrassed them." He says and I sighed a bit.
"I'll be over in about twenty minutes ok." He tells me.
"Yes sir, and thank you." I tell him and then we both hang up the phones. They take me over to a cell and I take a seat on the benches and just waited for Lee to come. When he did I could hear him as he says my name. I get up from my bench and go up to the bars.
"Violet, are you ok?" I hear him ask.
"I'm fine sir, did they let you bring my medication?" I asked.
"Yes, they have to keep it with them though, safety reasons." He says and I nod.
"I explained when you needed them… Jesus what happened?" He asked.
"Beat the hell out of Gabe, broke his jaw and I think they said I gave him a skull fracture." I tell him. I felt a bit down at this point, he must be ashamed of me.
"Well, when they tell us what your bail is-."
"Please don't pay my bail, I just… just promise me none of you will pay my bail." I tell him.
"Why not? We don't care we understand-."
"I just… please don't pay my bail, and make sure Louis don't either, knowing him he'll post it right when they say the amount." I tell him.
"Violet you can't stay locked up in here." He says.
"I ain't ashamed of what I did, I just… feel like I embarrassed Clem and the others… and it happened in front of a lot of people… just promise me you won't let anyone pay it, I'll be fine." I tell him.
"You don't get a say in this, right after we hung up Clem came home with the others, she was a mess, she tried to tell us all that happened but… look if you're worried about the money, you don't got to pay us back, this was just an accident." He says.
"What if I do it again? And again, Lee I just… I don't know." I tell him.
"What if we get him to drop the charges?" He asked.
"Fat chance, boy won't drop them and we all know it." I tell him.
"Look, I'll get you my lawyer, and if you want to pay us back then you can do a little farm work with me, but don't just think you need to be staying here locked up because he don't know when to shut his mouth." He says and I look to him a bit.
"I don't know what they're going to do, but for now, just let me wait till my court date." I tell him.
"I'm still getting you that lawyer, don't worry we can get this all settled." He says and I sighed but nodded. The next few days passed by slowly and I was currently cuffed in a court room as I was sitting with Lee's lawyer, who was ironically named Jesus.
"Don't worry Violet." I hear him say as I messed with the cuffs a bit. when the judge came in we stood up.
"Alright what do we have here?" The judge asked.
"Your honor my client was physically assaulted by Mrs. Everette just for talking with his friend." The lawyer for Gabe says.
"I doubt that was the reason, says here a bunch of witnesses saw your client harassing her and her friends as they told him to leave them alone, only way I was able to obtain this information was due to over one hundred people coming to my home with some words." The judge says and I felt like shit. They might just get a different judge since he said that.
"Your honor, my client here suffers from extreme PTSD, Mr. Garcia is known to try and act like a soldier when he hasn't left the states at all, he talked about my clients-."
"Save it Jesus, though due to the amount of veterans and active duty members of the service statements on what they have seen, I can see the consistency of Mr. Garcia's harassments, now Mrs. Everette, did assault him to the extent that his jaw was broken, and I'm not going to waste the courts and peoples time on trying to settle a matter that can be settled in civil court, or Everette here can take the option of going to a psychiatric ward to try and deal with her PTSD, along with paying for the medical bills of Mr. Garcia." The judge says.
"Sir with all due respect, she is a hazard to the people, what if she snaps on a child?" Gabe's lawyer states.
"You think all soldiers shouldn't have children than? May I remind you this here is a military based town and you and I both know your brother was also overseas, should we take his children away because he suffers as well? Do you think my own father should have never had kids? Your own father as well?" The judge asked him and he sounded pissed off.
"They haven't-." I hear the gavel bang and I put my hands to my ears a bit at the loud sound. I waited a bit before I moved my hands.
"-And if you say one more word then the first time your brother messes up then his kids will be taken by the state, do you understand me?" I hear the judge say.
"That-."
"Am I understood?" The judge asked again.
"Yes sir." I hear.
"Now… Everette, you will be taken to a psychiatric facility you will be there for the course of three years, you may have visitations unless stated otherwise, you will be back here in three years to see how you have progressed, on top of that you will have to pay for HALF… of Garcia's medical expenses now does this seem fair to everyone?" The judge asked.
"Sir if I may." I hear Jesus say.
"What is it?" The judge asked.
"We are also wanting to file harassment charges against Garcia, there have been reports of his harassment to Both Everette and Clementine, and I do believe he needs to be held responsible, had he left them alone when asked he wouldn't have been in this position." Jesus says.
"We will look into that, given the fact we have these statements and past statements, though I have stated that only half the medical expenses need to be paid by Everette due to her own actions and stated in her report that she wasn't ashamed of what she had done, as for Garcia he must pay the rest, now if I have to come in here again for you Mr. Garcia for harassing these two, you will be locked up, we are not going to tolerate this in our town and I have had it with hearing about you and your actions." He says and I just stood there.
"Now, are we done?" The judge asked.
"Yes, your honor." I hear both Jesus and the lawyer say.
"Alright, payment for the medical bills is three hundred seventy-five dollars for Everette to pay, and to be dropped off at the psychiatric hospital, we are done here." The judge says then banged his gavel and I get taken to the side.
"Hold on, can she talk to her family real quick?" I hear Jesus asked and they talked for a bit before I was taken to a room and I sat at the table. I hear the door open and I feel someone wrap their arms around me and I knew it was Clementine. I hugged her back gently and kissed her on the cheek.
"That's not fair, after the shit he pulled." I hear Louis say and I couldn't help but smile just a little.
"It's fine, I kinda put myself in this situation." I tell them.
"Well, we can try and-."
"Don't try anything, this is fine… least I'm not going to be locked up you know." I say and I look to Clementine as she still hugged me and I laid my head on her shoulder a bit.
"I'll come and visit every day." She tells me.
"No don't go doing that, just visit me at least once a month, that's all I ask." I tell her.
"This isn't right." I hear Mitch say.
"It's fine, I'm fine with this, look Clem I need you to go into my bank and pay the half of the medical bill I'm responsible for, and if you need to pull out any money you and your family might need while I'm gone." I explained to her.
"We're fine Violet." I hear Lee say and I shake my head.
"I need to pay for the lawyer." I tell him.
"No, you don't, I did this pro bono." I hear Jesus say.
"I insist." I tell him. Everyone was quiet and I sighed a bit.
"Look I messed up and I have to deal with the consequences of my actions… I could have just let him leave or I could have left the area but I didn't." I tell them.
"He just kept-."
"I know… look just be happy I'm not in jail, and maybe this might help me in the long run… don't get me wrong my doctors are wonderful people trying to help me but this might work out a little more with my issues." I tell them. We got to talk for a while longer and then I had asked if Clementine and I could talk to ourselves and everyone left the room and I look to her as she took a seat next to me.
"Guessing we have to put the whole family thing on hold hu?" She asked and I hold her hand.
"Sorry." I say quietly.
"No don't be… hey maybe they'll let you leave early?" She asked.
"Maybe, not to sure but if they do that would be great… the past few days I was thinking I embarrassed you and the others so I was kinda praying you wouldn't leave me." I tell her.
"Why would I leave you for something that wasn't your fault." She asked and I shrugged a bit.
"I don't know… was thinking lot of things on my own… but… I'd understand if things got a little hectic with all this stuff." I tell her.
"I'll try and visit as much as I can." She says and I shake my head.
"I told you once a month is fine… hell if you come twice a month that's fine too." I tell her and she held my hand gently.
"It's going to be fine." I tell her.
"None of this is fine." I hear her mutter and I smiled sadly.
"Going to be hard to sleep." I mutter and I hugged her gently.
"Yeah." I hear her mutter. It wasn't long till I had to head out and I gave Clementine the information she would need if she couldn't make it to the hospital at any point. It was about four months in when I had gotten to the hospital and if I have to be honest some of the doctors here were nice, and some were assholes that didn't understand, how the hell they were able to work in a facility meant to help people only God would know.
"Everette, you have a visitor." I hear and I get up from my bed and placed my book to the side as I come out and see Clementine and I smiled as I go over to her.
"Hey, how are you?" I asked.
"Fine, and you?" She asked and I chuckled as we headed outside.
"Fine, how's school going?" I asked and we talked for a while. She tells me she is loving her classes and has a few ideas, she even said she might go into business to own her own bakery or even a restaurant.
"The only thing is… I'll be gone for a year." She tells me as she looked to her hands a bit and I look to her.
"So?" I asked.
"So, I wouldn't be able to visit you anymore." She tells me and I wave it off.
"Clementine, if this is what you want, go for it, you are bettering yourself, you are really good at what you do." I tell her.
"Yeah but-."
"Ah, no buts, do you want to do this?" I asked her and she shrugged and I think a bit.
"Clem… don't think you have to just stay here for me, if this helps you with whatever path you want to take you take it, don't just give up on that because you won't be able to visit me… now I'd get it if you missed AJ or your family, totally fine." I tell her.
"You are my family too." She says as she shoved me a little and I laughed.
"Yes, but if you are more worried about visiting me then doing what you want to do, then we got a little problem." I tell her.
"But-."
"Ah, no buts, do you want to do this?" I asked her.
"…Yes, I do." She says and I nod.
"Then do it… if it helps you further your new passion, do it… but if it ends up stressing you out then take a step back, calm down, and just relax." I tell her.
"They tell you that here?" She asked and I nod.
"Yeah, most of my outbursts have to deal with stressing out, and with me thinking about how I'm going to either pay people back for all the help I get, it just… stresses me out and I think the worse… with anger issues." I tell her and she hugged me gently and I smile as I hear her heart beating.
"Well, I know just saying not to worry isn't going to help but, you do know you don't have to pay any of us back… unless you want but we will find a way that's easy." She says and I nod as I hold her to me.
"So, any new foods I'm going to have to try when I get out of here?" I asked her and she laughed.
"Oh yes, I have a lot of new recipes, I wish they would let me bring some here but, you know." She says and I laughed at this and I nod.
"Yeah, I know." I say as we stayed like this and I feel her rub my back.
"So when would you be leaving? Or did they not set a date?" I asked her.
"No date yet, but I did tell them that on Christmas and any other holiday we spend together I have to come home, so it'll be basically a year with a few weeks added due to that request." She explained and I nod. We stayed like this and would talk here and there until the visitation time was up and she had to go home. We say our goodbyes and I head back to my room and I go back to reading my book. Over the next few weeks, I would go to my group sessions and currently I was in one.
"Ok so last sessions we all talked about how you all felt about specific topics, now let's talk about how you could change the way you act, we do have a new member so we are going to introduce ourselves and why we are here, I do apologize." The doctor says and I leaned back a bit in the chair.
"Hey I'm Kelly, I'm here because I have what they call Bi-polar disorder, and the reason I'm here is because…" she stops and I know people didn't judge her for not saying why they were here, who wants to talk about that. Turns out she was here because she went off on a girl at school and if I have to be honest, she said they were bullying her.
"I don't see why that should bring you here." I stated.
"Mrs. Everette you know-."
"Yeah, yeah I know, don't defend yourselves from bullies and let them get away with it instead of letting them suffer the consequences of their actions." I say and I hear a few people laughing.
"Well since you are being a little talkative today would you like to say why you are here?" She asked. She wasn't being rude in anyway by stating this so I shrugged a bit.
"Beat a boy to a pulp that I broke his jaw after he lied and talked about my dead friends." I tell them.
"Wait and they sent you here?" Kelly asked and I nod. When we finished the session, they let us have the rest of the day for free time and Kelly wanted to talk with me more and I was ok with that.
"Ok, so he talked about your dead friends… and you beat him… and they sent you here?" She asked again and I laughed.
"Kind of the gist yes, but it's better than jail, and with me being blind it's way better, I'll admit I did technically get a slap on the wrist for what I did." I tell her.
"But he didn't get jail time?" She asked and I shrugged.
"I don't think so, but I think he's learned to leave me the hell alone." I joked and we both laughed at this.
"So do you have someone waiting for you? Or are you in here for good?" She asked. I smiled as I closed my eyes and thought of Clementine.
"My old battle buddy, she's letting me stay with her… oh and our ducks." I tell her.
"You have ducks?" She asked with a giggle and I nodded.
"Yeah, first pet I owned and I get a duck, we were on leave and there was this animal petting zoo kind of thing at the farmers market… and I just… got a duck." I say and take a breath.
"But then my battle buddy thought she would get lonely so she got another duck… let me tell you this duck thinks it owns the place, it's funny, I make the bed, duck is like no I'm going to take the blankets off and lay on the pillow." I say and laughed. We chatted for a bit and at one point she let it slip that the reason she was being bullied was because people had found out she liked girls.
"I uh… fuck." She mutters as she tells me and I wave it off.
"Hey trust me, ain't nothing wrong with liking women… I had two girlfriends." I tell her.
"Oh, so wait, are you still friends with them? You said had." She asked and I keep my eyes closed.
"… My first girlfriend died in the war, she was… shot up… and the other one is currently my wife… though by legal stuff I'm Mr. Everette but I'm fine with either or." I tell her.
"That must be nice… how did her parents take it though?" She asked.
"Oh, they are very supportive of their daughter, as long as she is happy all is good in the world, trust me if I did anything to upset their daughter, they'd let me know tenfold." I laughed and then sat up.
"Alright everyone time to head inside." We hear and we get up and I told Kelly if she wants, we can talk during our free time, no judgment, no bad things, just talk.
"Everette, you have a quick visitor." I hear and I go over to the desk and I see Clem and smiled.
"Hey, everything alright?" I asked.
"Oh yes, I just have some news." She tells me and we get taken to a separate room.
"Is it bad news?" I asked as we get taken to the room.
"No actually it's good news." She says and I nod as we take a seat.
"So, I got done talking to Jesus a few days ago and they think they can shorten your time here." She tells me and I twiddled my thumbs a bit.
"I uh… I think this is really helping me, I mean… I don't mind staying here longer." I tell her.
"That's fine, Jesus just wanted you to know it is possible, but I told him you were doing better and that you might want to stay longer." She tells me and I nod at this.
"Is there anything else?" I asked her.
"Well… I've been talking to a few doctors and I found one that is willing to help us." She says and I look to her.
"Really?" I asked and she nods.
"But if you still want Louis-."
"Shit he can help if he wants too, just the fact you found a doctor willing to help us… s-so after I get out?" I asked and she grabs my hands.
"Well yeah, you're going to have to start getting up early to get me my weird cravings." She jokes and I laughed.
"Shit… wait I need to get the surgery and stuff before all this." I tell her.
"Got it all planned out for you, when you get out, we will talk to the doctors at the VA, they told me who we can go to and the best one that they personally request if you want." She tells me and I smiled at this.
"So… will they let me sign the uh." I tried to ask her.
"If you want, you can sign the birth certificate… but you'll be Mr. Everette." She tells me and I nod.
"I don't care as long as I can." I tell her and she grips my hand tighter.
"So how are you?" She asked and I told her how everything is and how I feel a bit better talking about stuff. She was glad, I could hear it in her voice. I felt over the god damn moon right now.