The weekend vanished like blood in the water.

Trent didn't really remember the rest of Saturday. Sunday was better, but he was more or less floating through spacetime on a bed of laughter and dizziness and lethargy. He remembered crying a lot and very hard at one point, though it might've been more than one. He remembered eating, laying around a lot with his friends and lovers. He thought there might've been a few phone calls in there, one from Tabby and one from Jen, but that might've been dreams.

He awoke Monday at nine in the morning to the sound of crying. For a few seconds, he laid there, unsure of what was happening. Then he rolled over and saw an unfamiliar figure facing away from him. That's who was crying softly.

"Jessica?" he murmured. "What's wrong?"

"Oh fuck," she whispered harshly. "I'm sorry, I was trying to be quiet."

"What's wrong?" he repeated, sitting up.

"I...nothing."

"Jessica."

"I had a nightmare. It doesn't matter. You should go back to sleep."

"I'm up now," he replied.

He felt emotions conflicting in him, but not for long. He definitely still harbored resentment towards her. He still remembered. He hadn't had any panic attacks or flashbacks to anything she'd said or done to him, but she had been pretty nasty. But it was easier to push that away than he thought it would be, and that was mostly because he believed her. And they did have good times together. For awhile there, she really had been his safe harbor from his fucking nightmare of a life.

"Tell me about it, Jess," he murmured.

She hedged, but only for a little bit. Then she rolled over and sniffed and wiped at her eyes. "I hate doing this in front of you," she whispered.

"Why?"

"Because I don't want you to think I'm trying to fucking manipulate you."

"I don't think that. I can tell when you're bullshitting, Jess. And if you really don't want to talk about it, that's fine, but...I don't know, I'm here, I'm awake, I'm not really stoned anymore, and I want to help."

"Why?"

"Because you aren't a monster. Because you feel bad about what you did. Because...I believe in forgiveness. And moving on. Letting the past die, and burying it. Because you're my sister. As much as I think 'but they're family' is horseshit, I can't deny that there's something there." He sighed. "But I'm here to listen."

"...thank you," she whispered. "It was...a nightmare. Really bad. So bad. I was in a graveyard...it was your funeral. It was so dark and rainy. Dad and mom and Brad were filling in the hole. I was so scared, but I wasn't sure why first. And then I heard you. In the coffin. You were still alive. And you started screaming for me. And they ignored you, like they didn't hear you. And then dad throws me a shovel and tells me to help and...that's when I woke up."

Trent stared at her for a moment, then scooted closer and put an arm around her. "I'm so sorry, Jess," he murmured.

She hesitated, then hugged him, squeezed him really, and started crying again. He held her, rocking her back and forth gently, murmuring "Shh, it'll be all right."

At some point, he heard a faint creak on the stairs and looked over. Bea stood there, looking cautiously. He mouthed 'it's fine', and she lingered for a moment, then nodded and headed back upstairs. After another moment, Jessica's crying tapered off and she slowly let go of him.

"I'm sorry, this has to be so fucking annoying," she muttered.

He looked around and saw a box of tissues sitting on the armrest. He grabbed it and passed them to her. "It isn't. At this point, I'm used to it."

"What do you mean?" she asked.

"So...all these girls you see? Pretty much everyone you've met but Candy, they've all been through...just so much. So fucking much. I mean, Candy has too, but her trauma is...more distant. And so there has been a great deal of girls crying in my arms. Lots of healing of emotional trauma. I guess it was my turn, finally...what?"

"I just...I never thought you'd end up like this. I always thought, hoped really, that you know, you'd find some sweet, beautiful girl, probably a nerdy girl or maybe a tomboy with a heart of gold, and settle down and have a family." She got a weird look on her face. "I kinda wished...no." She shook her head suddenly. "No, I don't want to tell you."

"Oh, come on, you're going to taunt me with that?" he replied.

"No, I don't want to say it to you. It's not mean it's just...weird. I don't want to say."

"Okay, if you don't want to say, you don't have to."

She looked at him awkwardly, slowly losing the small smile she had, and then she looked like she was going to cry again. "You're so nice! You've always been nice. And it's like that just makes everything that happened so much worse."

"It, uh...you know, Jessica, we're going to have to find a way to move past it."

"How can you just-"

"Jessica...because that's the only solution. That's the only way forward. Make peace with the past, let it die, bury it. Move on. It will haunt me, for the rest of my life, but ghosts can be robbed of their power if you're persistent enough. And I know you can't just get over it, but...well, I guess this is the kind of thing I'm going to say when it comes up. Sorry if that's annoying."

"No, it's-you're right." She still looked awkward.

"What?"

"Just...do you remember...crying? While you were high, not before?" she asked.

"...vaguely? Yeah, I do, sorta. What happened?"

"Um. You just looked at me, and then just started crying, and apologizing? Like over and over again?"

"For what?" he asked.

"I don't know, that's the thing, we couldn't get a coherent answer out of you. It made Mae really upset and she made me go up to your office for a little while." He sighed. "No, it's okay. She wasn't, like, mean about it. Kind of stern, but not angry. Or, well, I could tell she was angry, but she didn't yell at me or anything, and Bea was agreeing with her...all your girlfriends are so scary," she whispered.

He laughed, he couldn't help it. "Wait, what? Seriously?"

"Yes! Mae is like...crazy? I mean, I know she said that, but, I don't know there's just something about her. Like she's unpredictable? And she is...crazily in love with you. I'm really sure she'd kill someone for you."

"She would, not that I'd ever ask her, but yes, she would."

"God. And then Bea. She is just...intimidatingly attractive."

Trent held in a laugh, badly. "I said literally the same thing to her!"

"That makes sense. Like she's so pretty, she's smoldering. She looks like a goth model! But she's also just so serious all the time! Even when she jokes she's serious. And just...scary efficient, and wicked smart, too."

"That's Bea. And Ann?"

"Ann...I didn't see it at first. But she kinda makes me nervous. There's this like...calm, to her. This subtle chill. It's like nothing really gets to her. She reminds me of this soldier I had in class who'd been through really bad shit overseas. He was nice, polite, funny sometimes, but just so fucking calm. Like goddamned preying mantis calm. It was creepy. And, like, I hate saying that, I hate thinking that, but I don't have anything against them."

"That's fair. What about Claire? Candy?"

"Claire is kind of like a lighter version of Ann's intensity, and Candy is...really scary. I just...can't with that woman. I mean, she seems really cool, and I guess she is if she's so defensive of you, and if she fucked you-is there seriously no problem with you banging your girlfriend's mom? Like really?"

"We discussed it a lot," Trent replied, "and ultimately decided it was worth investigating. Also, she's my fiance. Well, they all are."

"What?! All of them!?"

"Well, not Candy, obviously. She's already married. And not Claire. But yeah, Mae, Bea, and Ann are all engaged to me."

"But, like, how?"

"They all agreed they want to marry me, and since we can only marry one person, I'm going to marry Bea, like with a wedding, and then Ann will marry Mae. We'll probably have the weddings back to back."

"That's...wow. That's so insane. But, like, I'm not judging! I think it's kinda cool actually...so what about Claire? She seemed, like, really protective of you."

"We're almost boyfriend and girlfriend. She's aromantic but not asexual."

"So...she doesn't love people, but she does fuck?"

"Not quite. She loves people, just not romantically. So we hooked up a few times to help her alleviate her, uh, need. But after that, she had like a mini breakdown because she had the shittiest fucking jobs ever and no way out. I put her together with Mae's parent's and they let her move into Mae's old room and quit her jobs. She's...a lot happier now."

"Fuck, if I met a guy who could save me from working stupid jobs when I was working them, I'd be in love, too. I'm so proud of you," she said, then hesitated. "Sorry, it's not like you need me to be proud of you or anything-"

"No, Jess, it's fine. I...thank you. I appreciate it. I am proud of you, too. You stood up to dad when it really mattered, thinking you'd be going with them anyway. That took guts. Serious guts. And I respect that, and am proud of that."

"...thanks," she murmured.

He nodded, then rolled over and hunted around for his phone on the floor. He found it and rolled back over, then found Jessica staring intently at him.

"Were...were you...checking me out?" he asked.

"What!? No! Fuck off! I was...looking for your scar. I heard you were shot."

He wanted to say that was obvious bullshit, because it was, but he decided that the alternative was too weird and let it slide. "Um...fine. Here." He rolled a bit more towards her and pulled up his boxers.

"So a hunter did this?" she murmured, reaching out and touching it.

"Um...yeah. It sucked but it wasn't that bad. It was just a graze. I got really lucky, honestly," he replied. He began to ask when she'd heard about it, but realized they must've told her while he'd been stoned off his ass.

"That's...um, crazy," she murmured, withdrawing her hand suddenly.

"Yep." He looked at her for a moment. She wasn't looking at him and quickly began to hunt for her phone. He looked at his own phone. This was getting weird. He saw he had several text messages. A lot actually.

The first was from, of all people, Bea's dad: Hey Trent. Heard you had some kind of fight with your dad and bro? And that it really fucked you up, but you won. And I wanted to say I'm proud of you for that, and that you're a real hardass, and I'm glad Bea's with you. Come see me sometime.

"Oh fuck," he groaned.

"What? What's wrong?" Jessica asked.

"Trent? Are you all right?" Bea asked, hurrying downstairs abruptly. She must've been just out of sight up there, lingering and listening protectively.

"I'm fine, it's okay. I'm fine. I just...Bea, look at this text I got from your dad."

She took his phone and read it over, her eyes, going back and forth, began to widen. "Oh my God," she whispered, putting a hand over her mouth. "Oh my God, Trent. I...I can't with this, oh my God, I fucking can't."

She passed him the phone back. "I know, right?"

"What's wrong?" Jessica asked.

He passed her his phone. "This message was sent from her dad."

Jessica read it over, her smile getting bigger. She passed his phone back. "That's so sweet! That's so nice! Does he, um, know?"

"Yeah," Bea said, "he knows. He knows it all. He knows I'm fucking Trent and Trent's fucking Mae and Ann, too."

"Wow. That's so nuts," she murmured. "I-I mean, in a good way."

"Yep," Trent said. He saw another text from Tabby: Hey man, Mae told me some about what happened and I just wanted to say, I know some of what you're going through, and I'm so sorry, and I want to help if I can in any way. Even if that means flying over to your town and giving you some more ass. I'll do it, like for real, not joking.

"Holy shit," he whispered.

"What?" Bea asked, standing. "Who's that from?"

"Tabby. She's literally offering to fly up and let me fuck her in the ass if it'll make me feel better...I'm strongly considering saying yes."

"Say yes," Bea said. "Seriously, me and her can do an anal threesome."

"Oh my fucking God, yes. Okay," he replied, typing out a response.

"Wait, that's your...boss?" Jessica asked.

"Yep. She's a great boss. Um, I gotta piss. Bad."

"Let's go," Bea said, taking his hand and pulling him up.

He sensed a sudden urgency with her and let her guide him to the bathroom. She followed him in and closed the door firmly behind her, then leaned against it, crossing her arms and staring at him.

"I seriously gotta piss, babe," Trent said.

"So piss, we need to talk," she replied firmly.

"Fine." He walked over and started going into the toilet. "Okay, what is it?"

She began speaking, then walked over and put her mouth to his ear. "That girl wants to fuck you, okay?"

"What?! Why do you say that?" he replied.

"You and her got very close and cozy while you were stoned. Check your photos."

Trent finished up and then opened his photos and checked. "Oh. Wow, yeah," he muttered.

"Told you," Bea said.

He'd taken a selfie in the foldout bed. He had his arm around Jessica, who was all up on him, down to her bra, tucking her face half into his neck, one eye looking up at the camera with a shockingly sexy smile as she grabbed his chest.

"Um...wow. Like...holy shit. What the hell?" he whispered.

"I mean it's fine if you want to hit that, but-"

"What?!" he whispered sharply, turning to face her and setting his phone aside like it was too hot to handle all of a sudden. "You're fine with it if I bang my sister?"

"I mean...duh. It'd be hot. Babe, did we not do brother-sister roleplay earlier? Like...come on, honey."

"But that's a huge difference!" he whispered harshly. "Like...ugh. This is too much."

"Sorry, babe. But I want you to hit that. I know Mae does."

"Why do you know that?"

"You know why. We talked about it after you took that pic. Ann's cool with it. Claire is, too."

"Jesus, how many people know my sister wants to fuck me?" he muttered.

"Um...five."

"So who else?!"

"Candy."

He sighed. "Of course she does." He frowned deeper and looked at the photo again, certain that perhaps he'd been overzealous in his decision that Bea was right. But no, it didn't stand up to scrutiny. All it took was one look at that pic. They looked like lovers. If you didn't know they were related, you'd assume she was his girlfriend who was very smitten with him, or maybe a hooker.

"I was not ready for this," he muttered.

"So, like, are you actually mad or grossed out?" Bea asked.

"...no."

"I figured. Take your time with it. And if you don't want to, that's fine. But...be careful."

"Wait, so...I mean, do you trust her?"

Bea twisted her lips, considering it. "...enough," she replied. "I trust you, and you seem to trust her. Do you?"

"...yeah," he replied. "I trust her in my heart, I know that much. I think maybe I'm still settling how I feel in my head, like logically? But emotionally...yeah, I gotta admit that I do."

"Mae wanted to talk to you about this," Bea said after a moment.

"About...trusting me sister?" he asked. She nodded. "Great."

"She seemed conflicted, but she wouldn't elaborate. Anyway, um...yeah, good idea to wait. And I need to start making sure everything's ready."

"Ready for what?"

"For Mae's trip today."

"What trip...oh. Shit."

"Babe, you don't have to go. It's fine. She understands. We all do."

He shook his head. "No, I want to go. And I'm not out of my mind stoned anymore."

"Yeah, you seem back to normal. I mean, your response times are a little slow, but that makes sense...if you're sure. But I'm driving."

"Yeah, that makes sense," he agreed. "I'm going to go talk with Jessica and then take a long shower. I feel dirty."

She laughed. "Maybe you go up to no good already. I mean you were down here alone with her two nights in a row, in a bed, in your boxers."

"Shut up," he muttered and headed out of the bathroom, followed by the sound of Bea's laughter. He headed into the living room and found Jessica looking at her phone with an odd smile on her face. For a moment, he was struck by the notion that she wasn't actually looking at it, more that she was pretending to be absorbed in it.

She looked at him. "Everything okay?"

Trent stared at her. Something was a little off now, as compared to how she'd been before he'd gone in. But not...bad? Whatever, this was way too much. "Yeah, fine," he replied. "Did you deal with the, uh, hotel situation at all?"

She lost her smile. "No, but I got a message from them. They say they still have some of my stuff and they'll hold it for me until I come get it. Kinda curious to see what they managed to recover."

"Okay, um...we'll go out there later today. I have something I need to deal with. I'll be gone a couple hours. Um...you good to stay here?"

"Yeah, I'll be fine. Who else will be here?"

"Um...I don't know." He looked back to Bea. "Who's coming?"

"Molly is. So it'd be you, me, Mae, and her. Ann has opted to stay here," Bea replied.

"You good with that?" he asked.

"Yeah. Ann's been cool with me," Jessica replied. She still looked vaguely nervous as she said it, like she was putting on a brave face, but it wasn't that obvious. He considered it for a moment, then decided to go ahead with the plan. She was still getting back on her emotional feet, it would make sense that she'd still be nervous in general.

"Okay, cool. I need to shower." He headed upstairs.