Life is beautiful, is it not? That's surely the mood that a certain young mental patient is in. She's had a few episodes since mixing medication and alcohol, but as of today hasn't actually taken her medication. She was told that it's bad for her, after all. There is a bottle of wine on her table, unopened, since she doesn't know that it needs to go in the refrigerator. Luckily for her it hasn't actually been chilled yet.
Someone knocks on her door and she ignores it. A knock comes again, prompting her to see who is there. Upon noticing someone that she doesn't really know nor wish to talk to, she ignores the door. Pesky neighbor. Right now Rose is enjoying herself by just sitting on the couch reading. Well, she's reading now that her head isn't hurting enough to prevent it. It's an epic tale, suggested by Michael. She's still only on the tenth page.
Oh, but shortly after those knocks? The door is opened with a key. While her sister does have a bit more freedom these days, it's supposed to be monitored freedom - and after an episode the other night when her sister not only /broke/ curfew, but was reportedly out with the man who found her, Hope is a bit livid. This place was chosen by her parents due to it being a higher security place - so much for /that/ happening.
After she enters the rooms, she frowns. Wine on the table? The bags she carries with her are dropped by the door, and she moves to lift the wine bottle off of the table. "Faith, sweetie, what's this?" Hope is well aware of /what/ it is. The tone of her voice suggests that she's much more interested in finding out what her sister is doing with it.
It's rather ironic that she doesn't even flinch when someone lets herself in. It's almost as if someone having a key makes them part of that place. Rose knows she'll make herself at home and actually say something if she's here for anything in particular. Besides, she's trying to figure out what exactly is being said in this book of hers. Narrowed brows make this evident as she rereads one of the sentences.
"Huh?" Rose looks up from the book and over to her sister. There's no shame in her outward appearance, no hesitation. She really is just showing love and attention to her clone, err, sister. "Oh, that's for this place. I figure it makes a nice decoration." She has absolutely no intentions of drinking it, whatsoever, but she also clearly didn't buy it.
"It's not a decoration, Faith." Hope exhales a sigh, bringing it toward her bags near the door, and slipping it in. Mixing alcohol with her meds is most definitely not allowed. "I brought you something," she says, by way of distracting her sister. "Something that will make a nice decoration." While still at the door, she pulls out a box with a cartoon hamster on it. Then she pulls out another, this one a little ball for the hamster to run around on.
"We can set this up over there," she says pointing to an empty area. "Then the hamster goes in the ball, and you'll always be able to find her."
If only it were that easy to distract her. Or, rather, if only she were quicker at it. "Hey. That was a gift." Rose actually looks cross for a moment. "Whenever you go somewhere for a meeting it's only proper." Apparently Rose has been quite busy in her free time. Who would have thought?
Still, she sits up straight and places the book aside as she notices the new toys for her hamham. Rose tilts her head as she tries to picture what fun this new invention can be. "Tripp goes in the ball? It won't hurt?" No sex is ever listed with the hamster but it is very much a female. "Like, Tripp can breathe in there?"
"Gift or not, if you're caught with it here, they'll send you back to a place like Green Oaks," Hope replies gently. "I don't want to see you going back there, okay? So I'll hold onto it for you, and when you're all better and can come home you can have it." Definitely not taking it away forever. "Now, why haven't you taken your medication today? It'll help with your headaches, and make the nightmares go away."
Hope then goes to maneuver the little track out of the box so that it can be set up. "See here," she says, pointing at the little holes in the ball, "Those are breathing holes. You'll just have to remember to take her out before you go out somewhere and put her back in her cage."
It still doesn't seem like something that sits well with her. "That that's silly. That I'd get into trouble. It's just a decoration." Rose shrugs, though, accepting things for what they are. "But I won't be going back to Green Oaks. That's important, you know. I think it's getting shut down, or new management or something." The way she says it is so passive, too, almost as if she weren't involved in anything bad at all. Space case. There's a long pause as she tries to consider the answer to the medication question. "I wasn't feeling well."
Rose stands now, hovering over Hope as she fuses with the hamster track. "Holes are very good," she comments before walking away. Tripp is removed from his cage and held delicately as she rejoins her sister. "It's like leaving an iron on." Odd way of saying it. Tripp is held before Hope as if Rose expects her to pet the hamster.
A shake of her head. "It's not a decoration, Faith. It's /alcohol/. Something that will not work well with your medication. Which you need to be taking." Hope frowns, then gets up and moves to the kitchen to get her sister a glass of water. Yes, she's treating her somewhat like a child, but it's out of concern and care rather than being mean. "Where did you get the bottle from anyhow?" Then the medication is acquired and she doles it out appropriately. "Come on, take your medication before the doctors get angry and they call me at school again?"
As she comes back to the living room, she nods. "It's like leaving the iron on, only the hamster might die," she says. Trying to treat her like an adult and still explain things at the same time. A hand slips out to give the hamster a pat on the head, and she asks, "Faith, do you remember what happened that night?"
"To me it's a decoration." She has absolutely no desire to open it, and likely wouldn't even know how to go about doing so without help. Rose actually makes a face as Hope mentions her medication. "I got it because I had a meeting here. I was told that when you have such meetings it's appropriate to bring a gift." The medication is looked at again before she finally just opens up. "I was told that it won't help, and might just be hurting me."
Almost everyone treats her like a child; she's used to it by now. "I don't want Tripp to die." But any thoughts of this are quickly forgotten when Hope asks the question. Rose tilts her head and genuinely looks confused. "What night? The night I got the gift? Sure I do!"
"Faith? /Who/ brought the gift?" It may be appropriate to bring gifts /normally/, but bringing them to a facility that deals with mental and addictions patients is just /bad/ manners. "Did Wit bring it? And the doctors aren't going to hurt you. They want you out of here as much as I do, okay? Please take them for me so you can get better and come home?" Sniff.
"Sweetie, Tripp is already dead. That night that you have nightmares about… he died. A vampire killed him. Do you remember? Do you want a vampire to kill your little hamster?"
Well, that's very direct. "Who brought it or who is it from? I think it's from the Mayor since I'm helping him out." See? It's completely innocent! And at the same time it should answer her question. Rose honestly just doesn't want to get anyone in trouble if they don't have to be. She does shift uncomfortably, that little wave of knowledge eating away at her. About the medication, that is. "But what if it's not helping? I don't want to be sick forever if I'm not going to get better anyway."
"Tripp isn't dead. See?" The hamster is held up for Hope to look at. Rose is actually looking stern about this. She does know that Tripp was someone else and does know that he's dead. At least, that's what she was told. "Nurse Ratchett said it was my fault." That should sum up why she reacts the way that she does. "I don't remember anything. When I'm forced to remember, it just hurts. Bad." Forced? "I kinda, well, I had this feeling the other night. Something seemed really familiar, so I thought maybe it was similar to a memory I don't have. But there's nothing there."
"Who /brought/ it," she clarifies, not thinking her sister at all mentally well at this point. The Mayor is an idiot, for more reasons than just eliciting help from a mental patient. "It /is/ helping. I promise you it is. Remember when we went to buy your hamster? Remember how you felt that day, and I got permission for your friend Wit to come see you? They'll take away your ability to go out and have fun with your friends if you don't take your medicine to make your brain better."
Hope exhales a sigh. "Hey, I know! We can take a road trip. Remember back home? We can go back there this weekend, and I can show you what I mean." There is a small pause, and she shakes the cup of pills. "If you take these. Then we can go away for a whole entire weekend, just the two of us. We could go shopping, and horseback riding, and see some of our old friends…"
Hope looks down, then, and begins to move away. "Ivan did." Oh, she's on a first name basis with him now? "Since I'm doing him a favor." It's so hard knowing something, especially when it isn't fully understood. How can Rose, of all people, explain what she does know. "But those were after." She's obviously stumbling and searching for words, but at least she's trying. "Some might not come back. You can't let them do that, Hope. You can't. They just don't understand."
Standing where she is, Faith almost looks like a lost individual. At least she's being an individual, which is far more than she had been. "I want something like that with you." There's a but coming, it's obvious. "But what about my health? What if taking medication for no reason is hurting me?" Rose sighs and sits down on her couch, obviously struggling. "They're strangers. I mean, they're not, but I don't know them. And they don't exactly keep in contact."
It is taking every ounce of strength she has to be patient with her sister. It's a losing battle, but still, she's struggling. Hearing Fontane's first name like that is just the match that is about to light the powder keg. "What. Favor." The words have to be bitten out like that, or Hope will absolutely lose it. She also makes a mental note to tell the front desk that until further notice, Fontane is not allowed in the facility. She /did/ warn him.
"If they are truly your friends, then they will come back when they're allowed to. Otherwise, they don't really like you and are just using you." Hope takes a deep breath, tries to shake off the anger, and then shakes her head. "The doctors aren't giving you the medicine for 'no good reason'. They're giving it to you so that you can function properly. Like you used to. To make you forget the bad dreams. So that you can come home to us. /I/ miss you, Faith! /I/ miss my best friend. I'd really like to know who's poisoning your brain against your getting better, but they're stupid, and unless they're a doctor, they don't have a clue what they're talking about."
She looks near to tears. "Please, Rosey? Take them and get better? I need you."
This is exactly why she's been trying to keep all of this on the secret side of things. She won't understand. "The Mayor needs me to help go after Green Oaks." There will be no mention of Will throughout all of this. "He doesn't want any place that like that operating in his area." This much is true, and she'll keep it at that. "But I know you, Hope, and how much you care about me. So I'm being good. I'm only talking to certain people and only people that can be out during the day." They just are busy during the day.
Rose lowers her head and keeps it there. "Just like the friends of mine from before I got stupid?" Her head shakes but she does well not to start crying. It's hard. "I miss you too, Hope! I'm just worried. I mean, what do the doctors know about it? Do they understand how they work?" The they being vampires. Tripp is petted slightly as she explains it, giving her strength. "I might know what's wrong with me. I just keep forgetting at times."
Damn woman. Rose finally looks up at Hope and sighs. "Fine." There goes the look of defeat. "Only for you."
The pills and the water are held out to her sister, and Hope gnaws on her lip. No, she will not feel bad for this. The doctor's know what they're talking about. The doctors /will/ make her sister well. "There you go"
She listens to what Faith says about the Mayor and shrugs it off as something that the parents fed her so that she'd cooperate. "I appreciate that you're being good. I really do. This place has been very good for you, hasn't it? The doctors here, they know what they're talking about, I promise. They don't want you to forget either. They want you to remember, and be yourself again. You just have to give them a chance, okay?" Sad little smile.
"Our friends from before, well, they just don't come because it's an awful long trip. If you want them to visit, I can get them here though. For you." A pause. "I can help you make new friends too. I can bring people by to meet you. Remember my friend Robert? I can bring him by to meet you, whenever you want me to."
A long look is given to the medication. There's fear in her eyes. No one ever listens to the crazy woman. Another deep breath is taken before Faith finally knocks back the pills and water. She actually takes the pills, no tricks at all. She's not happy, and it shows, but she isn't angry. She's just scared.
"Then why would they take my friends away? If I'm being good." Tripp gets her attention again as she tries to work it out. "I just heard no, never mind. You're right. I shouldn't argue." And just like that, she's defeated. Rose is now a yes ma'am waiting to happen.
"I'm not interested." It would be nice if she'd elaborate on that, wouldn't it? So finally she does, even if the pause is rather annoying. "I don't know them anyway. They'd just get mad and I don't want to do that." Rose wrinkles her nose as her mind skips topics, almost as if she's forgotten all about the sad. It's still there but she's mostly in a teasing mode. "Oh, so now I have to meet your boyfriend? Not afraid to introduce him to the crazy? Hope, I love you, but that's not a way to make a guy stay."
It hurts her to see her sister looking defeated, but really it is for her own good. She will get better this way! Hope closes her eyes, replying, "They would only prevent people from coming if you don't take your medicine." A slight pause, more of a hiccup in the conversation. "And if you stay out past your curfew again." Oh yes, Hope heard about /that/ as well.
"You don't /have/ to meet him, Faith. He /wants/ to meet you. I told him all about you, and he said he has a sister that was in Green Oaks, like you, but she still takes her medicine and she's all better now."
Well, then. She's going to keep doing what she's doing. Since she's being good and all. It would end well if Hope didn't have to go and mention that, but there's no anger here. In fact, Rose lights up. "But Hope! I got to play mini golf! And there were lights, and it was very pretty." See? It's completely innocent. She's completely innocent.
Boys. Ungh. Rose just chuckles as she shakes her head. "He just wants to meet me because he wants to kiss you." Sisters know these things, after all! The joy only lasts for a moment or two before she frowns slightly. "But she wasn't made sick by a vampire."
Hope sighs heavily. "But it was after curfew, and it's going to make the doctors upset. They can't make you better if you're upset, okay? So if you want to be out that late again, call me and we can let them know where you are so they don't worry." See? She really /is/ trying to be nice, but sometimes she's just not going to be able to be perfectly nice.
"Robert? I doubt it. He's just really nice to talk to. He's probably my first real friend here besides you." Though she's smiling brightly at the prospect that he might actually be interested. "Oh, I don't know /how/ she was made sick. I didn't want to pry too much. I could see if she could come talk to you if you want? I know she doesn't know you, but you share an experience at Green Oaks."
"Mini golf, Hope." She's not saying that to prove she was being good but rather is pointing out how awesome of a night that it was. "I didn't have a phone with me or I would have called. It was a sudden decision and I'm sorry. But it was fun." She seems to not have been hurt at all.
First real friend? "Right." Faith finds her feet, somehow, and stands. It's unstable at first due to the moment she was having but she quickly recovers. "He's your friend because he wants to kiss you." That is how men work, isn't it? Well, with normal women. Rose isn't normal. "Maybe I will have to meet him. I can't have you kissing someone who's faking." Again she scrunches her nose, something new she's picked up as of late. "She won't understand. It's different. It… well, I can't remember right now, but it is."
"We'll get you a phone that can just call me, okay? In case you ever get in trouble out there? I can have it here this afternoon." One of those child-phones that can only dial a specific cellular number, or emergency numbers. At least Hope will feel more secure knowing her sister has something like that. "I'm not angry at /you/ about it." She /is/ angry at the person who brought her out, and being as she knows who he is, he's going to get a rather nasty phone call in return.
"It may be different, but wouldn't you like to have another female friend that's not me come and visit you? You must get sick of me sometimes." A grin. "I'd offer to bring them together, but I get the feeling that they're off at different hours, so that would be difficult."
That's an odd concept. "A magic phone?" That's really neat! Rose at least seems interested, so that's something. "If you want to. I mean, I don't really have one. I should be safe out there, but things happen, right?" Even if she's not exactly having the best of days, she's not completely stupid. "It was my fault." She better take the blame, after all. "I didn't want to come back because I was having fun. You can't take me to see the lights at night."
Rose gets that look about her. Yes, that look. "They're not more church people, are they?" It's an innocent question, really. "They kind of annoy me. They all look at me the same and I hate it." She's not a person who likes it when people look at her with pity. "If they're not then I can do it. I just hate feeling like some sort of after school special."
"Sure, a special phone." Not a magic one, just a special one. "I could take you if Robert came with us. I'm not so much afraid at night if he's there." Which would sound stupid to anyone but her sister. "Just try not to have it happen again? Or call so that they don't call the police and send them to find you?"
That look is one Hope meets dead on. "They're different," she says. Not an exact truth, but it will do. "Robert goes to church with me, but he's like me. He's not going to look at you like that, I promise." She can't speak for the sister though. "I can meet with his sister first if you want? Then I can tell you how she'd look at you and if it's worth it to meet her."
Wow. "Magic." Her face scrunches again before Rose sticks Tripp in Hope's face. It's a cute hamster so she should be smiling, yes? "Please don't be afraid so much, my clone. You'll be okay. You're special. Protected." Of course, Hope will have no idea what this means but Faith does. Too bad she can't tell her. "We'll be okay, you'll see. The two of us." The way she's speaking might indicate that she's talking about the future in general.
It doesn't matter how much Hope likes the church, Faith can at least be honest about the people there. "Well, you said he goes out at night? That can't be too bad." He's obviously not so stuck up as some of the others. They aren't the twins. The twins have seen enough to be worried. Too bad that Rose isn't. "If she's okay, then I'll meet her. I just feel violated sometimes with them."
"Magic," Hope agrees, resignedly. "Hello, hamster," she says when the critter is shoved in her face. To distract Faith from anything that might be causing her continued stress, she reaches down for the little clear ball. Holding it up, she shows her sister how to open it. "See, you can just drop her in there, then we can put her on that cute race track."
While she waits for the hamster to go in the ball and run around, she nods. "He works at night. He helped me when my car broke down." At /night/. Heaven forbid she was out late enough for it to be dark and for nightclubs to open. "But he's not a vampire. He's good people, so I'm sure his sister is too."
If only she would listen! Hope would learn so much. Rose knows that she can't know the truth. She can't handle it. Sometimes she is blessed by being completely off of her rocker. Things can slip her memory or her mindset can change and that's okay. "Hamster train!" Tracks, and all that. With that, the hamster finds a new home in the ball.
The part where she was out at night doesn't slip past Faith. She just really doesn't care to say anything about it right now. It's been made clear that Hope really isn't ready to talk about some things, especially not now. "Well, then I'll meet him. Not here, though." This is her safe place, after all. He'll just need to meet her during the day. "I really just don't want any new visitors right now."
Hope let's her play with the hamster train, and she goes to pick up the two cups - the medicine one, and the glass of water. Then she watches the hamster in the ball, and grins. "You could make a hamster train. we can get you another." Eventually.
"We can go out for coffee, or grab lunch. Maybe we can meet at the mall. I'll give him a call and see what he says, okay? I won't bring anyone here until you're ready, though some people will be dropping stuff off when I can't get here because of class. They won't hurt you though. They'll bring you the phone, and hamster stuff."
That's exactly what Faith does, then. She takes the ball and places it on the track. Around and around it goes, holding her attention. Her mind is very much elsewhere but for the time it's better not to say anything. She laughs with delight as Tripp takes off on her own. "It's a one ball train. It's better that way." Choo, choo.
Rose continues to play with the hamster, even through the conversation. It's easier to avoid it by being otherwise occupied. "Yeah, sure. We can take him shopping. He can hold our bags." It takes a long time before she even tries to talk about the others. "Okay." There's no argument but she doesn't seem happy either. She just seems very… hamster.
Hence the distraction before telling her that others will be visiting - more or less checking up on her while providing services as well! Hope quietly watches the hamster as it runs around, grinning at the fact that something so simple seems to keep her sister so very occupied. "You sure? I bet a pink ball would look pretty cool on there too!"
An attempt is made to picture Robert carrying shopping bags around all afternoon, and she laughs. "Alright, I'll call him on my way back to school. Do you need anything before I go?"
The plan is backfiring. This is supposed to be her way of just not telling Hope about the things she can't yet handle. Something about it is mesmerizing, however. The hamster is adorable and is having so much fun! "Pink is your color." Faith can't help but point that out. "But you can get a hamham! They can run around together! Like bumper balls, or something."
This Robert person is nothing to Rose, really. He doesn't exist until she meets him. But she does have to wonder what he'll say if he's told upfront that he's been offered such a fun position. "Kiss him for me, eh?" Even in staring at the hamster she has to dig in at her sister. This is done before she shakes her head, ever slightly. "I was brought groceries, so I'm okay. Just come back tomorrow?"
"I'll get a hamster, and you can take care of her for me, okay?" After a slight pause, she nods. "They can be hamster sisters, and will probably love bumper balls." Or hate it. Either way, Hope isn't going to delve too much into hamster brains.
"I don't know him well enough to kiss him!" Flustered a little, Hope nods. She makes her way back toward the door, grabbing the bags and the bottle of forgotten wine. "I promise I'll be here. Same time, okay? I'll bring you my hamster to take care of, some more hamster food, and treats." Then she slips out the door before her sister can remember the bottle of wine.
