Fall Into Me

..XIII..

The yacht was a sleek three story machine with six bedrooms. Three of those were located on the mid deck, all en suites. One bedroom was on the upper deck, and the remaining two were on the lower deck. The captain - a woman by the name of Emily (also hired by Fiona) - had the upper deck room, whilst Lorelei and Helena had the two lower deck rooms. The others had the rooms on the mid deck. There was a jacuzzi and bar on the sundeck, along with sun pads, a main saloon where they could all gather which led out onto dual sided balconies. A formal dining room, and a sky lounge which took them to the bridge deck, which had an outside dining table. The medic room was located on the lower deck. Finally, there was the main aft deck, with a huge semi circle sofa where they could soak up the sun and relax. Everything was designed in bright white and oak wood panelling.

There were three Nightingale's in total on that boat. Emily, Lorelei and Helena. They each had their own roles within the ship, but Lorelei was the one who lurked in the shadows nearby, who would appear from nowhere and scare the crap out of everyone, which she found absolutely hilarious.

Helena said that being sedated all the time would contribute to the memory loss. Mona hadn't been given a chance to wake up properly, or for her mind to get out of its survival mode. Until then, she wouldn't remember much at all. Helena seemed fairly confident that Mona's memory would return in a few days, when she realised she was safe and nothing would hurt her here. Which was all well and good, but Mona couldn't shake the feeling that it wouldn't come back for longer than that.

No longer hazy from sedation, Mona was a lot calmer and didn't fear for her life every second she was awake. She still hadn't spoken a word, unable to get anything out, but no one was pressuring her, least of all the pretty black-haired woman. Minerva was giving Mona space to heal, including staying away at night but Mona was finding she didn't much care for that.

Being alone was far worse than being around people, because Mona didn't get bad vibes from anyone on the yacht, and she knew deep down they were all safe. Being away from Minerva in particular distressed Mona to a massive degree, making her feel sick and uneasy, but Mona couldn't voice that, unable to speak.

They'd been on the yacht for three days, and Mona was learning about the people there. Esme was her sister, Theo and Diana her best friends, and Vivienne was Diana's wife. Bits of memory came to her about them, little facts and things and once she had the memories, they didn't disappear, which Helena said was brilliant progress. The infections Mona had were healing up, so were the wounds that had caused them, though her ribs ached and left her in agonising pain, so Helena had been dosing her with pain medication under Minerva's watchful eye.

Everyone around her was calm and gentle, understanding of her situation, but none more so than Minerva. Mona couldn't tell at first how badly Minerva was hurting, but then she'd heard her crying softly to Esme. The sound had made Mona feel physically sick but she didn't know how to make it better, and had scampered away. That same evening, she'd found Minerva curled up with Vivienne on one of the sun pads, neither of them noticing she was there. Minerva had her eyes closed and looked absolutely exhausted, head resting on Vivienne's shoulder, whilst Vivienne was pressing her hands into Minerva's sides, pushing around her waist and lower back slowly. A bolt of jealousy had gone through Mona and she'd gone to her cabin, unsure why she felt that way. They were friends and Minerva was struggling, there was no reason for her to harbour feelings like jealousy about it.

Mona was still trying to piece together the last few weeks, the timeline all messy to her. The only thing she properly remembered was that woman, the one with the old gown and the crescent moon ring. Mona had started calling her Not-Minerva in her brain, to make it easier for her to separate the two. Her likeness to Minerva was startling, but extremely comforting to Mona. Whatever she'd been through, Not-Minerva had been there the whole time, keeping her sane. Mona thought maybe that was why she gravitated to Minerva, why she wanted to be in the same room as her, because having Not-Minerva around was all she really remembered, and it anchored her to reality.