CHERYL POV:
I woke up a few hours later. I still haven't processed what the hell just happened. Thank god we don't have any alcohol in this house. I hear a knock on the door. "Come in Rose." I lay back down again. "Is it ok if Clare comes over, I need to talk to her." I nod. "Yeah, is everything ok between you guys?" I ask her. She perks up. "Yeah we've never been better I'm still kinda in shock from last night." I nod. "She can come over, just she can be here all night because I don't want to many people here right now." She nods. "Ok I'll call her now." She walks out. I turn around into my pillow and cry. I know she is going to be ok, it just still hurts to know she almost died and that Rose had to see that.
"Cheryl. Can we talk?" Rose ask. I turn around. "What's up? You like you've been crying." She sits down on my bed. "Umm So umm Clare and I were in my room being teenagers and she said something that I wasn't ready to hear." I sit up. "What did she say?" She takes a deep breath. "She said she loved me and I kinda freaked out and it got awkward and she left and," she lays back in the bed. "I'm so stressed." I rub her arm. "Do you love her?" I ask her. She looks at me. "Yeah I just wasn't ready to tell her." She sits up. "Give it a day and than talk to her." She nods. "Ok." I get up. "Im going to go to the hospital to see Mom, do you want to talk to her?" She shakes her head. She does this thing where she switches almost who she's comfortable talking to, she also still calls me Cheryl and Toni mom. She's never really told us why it's probably just easier for her. "I just want to go to sleep and try to forget what's happened this week." She storms out and goes to her room. I go drive to the hospital. I go to her room. "Hey." I close the door behind me. "The twins were here with Veronica." She says as I sit down. "Yeah I figured they would be here. Veronica asked if she could, they've been with her since last night." She smiles. "They don't stop with questions." I laugh. "I'm just happy your ok."
Once Toni gets home she goes upstairs to rest. "Thank you again for watching them, I don't know what I would have done without you." I tell Veronica. "It's fine, I love your kids and we are in laws." She jokes, I smile. "Cheryl." I look up the stairs and see Toni clearly frustrated over something. "I'll see you later." Veronica leaves as I go upstairs. "What's wrong?" She looks at me exhausted. "Both the kids are sound asleep. How does she do that?" Toni says looking at both of them. I laugh quietly. "Because actually knows what she's doing with kids." She laughs, she walks into our room and lies down. "I never wanted Rose to see me like that." I sit down on the bed. "I know."
NARRATOR POV:
Everything was great in the Topaz house hold, well that's what Cheryl and Toni thought. Little did they know that the oldest Topaz has been sneaking out. She quietly walks out of her room. "Where are you going?" She stops and turns around and sees JJ. "Ah nowhere." She whispers. "Ok." He says. "Don't tell our moms that you saw me." His eyes widened. "So you are going som-." She puts her hand over his mouth. "Shhhhhh, I'll see you tomorrow. You never saw me leave." He nods. "Bye." He goes back to his room. She gets up and goes to the Wyrm. "What are you doing here?" She ask Clare. "I'm sorry I thought you were ready." Rose puts her helmet on the counter. "I'm not." She walks over to Clare. "I like you and I want to be with you. I just wasn't ready for you to say it." She sits down at the bar. "I'm sorry." She turns to Clare. "I love you too."
TONI POV:
I wake up to the phone ringing. I look at see Rose calling me. "Why are you calling me at 12:00 in the morning?" I ask concerned. "I need you to pick me up from the Wrym. I snuck out to meet Clare and I got drunk." I sit up and grab my shoes and jacket. "I'll be there in a few stay there." I hang up. "Where are you going?" Cheryl ask. "Rose is at the wrym and needs me to pick her up." She sits up. "Your not going anywhere, I'll pick her up." She gets up and leaves. I lie back down in bed. "Ow." The pain in my side begins to hurt. "Mom, I cant sleep." I look over at JJ. "Come here." He slowly climbs into bed. "Where's mommy going?" He ask. "She had to do something." I run his back. "Oh." He starts to doze off. "Are you ready for school tomorrow?" I ask but it's to late he's asleep. "I'm sorry." I hear Rose. "It's ok."
"What have we told you about sneaking out?" Cheryl ask. "You've done the same thing." Rose says she looks at me. Cheryl looks a me confused. "What?" I sit down. "Rose can you give us a minute?" Rose walks out and closes the door. "What the hell is she talking about?" She ask. "I had no choice, it was Serpent business." I stand up ignoring the pain in my side. "Cheryl I didn't want you to worry about me any time I had to." She looks at me. "This is why I left the serpents so I didn't have to leave at random hours of the night. And I'm guessing Rose was with you one of those times." I look down. "I'm sorry, I didn't tell you." She walks to the door and turns around. "If you didn't almost die a few days ago, I would tell you that your sleeping on the couch tonight, but I'm not going to do that." She walks out. I take a deep breath. "Cheryl." She closes the door.
"Are you done yet?" JJ knocks on the door. "No. Give me a minute." He knocks again. "Are you done yet." I get up and open the door. "Yes." I smile, pick him up and go downstairs. "Toni you really shouldn't be picking him up." I turn to her. "I'm fine, and besides that's the least of my worries today." I look over at Rose. "You ready?" She shakes her head. "Not really, It's weird." She gets up. "Don't get sappy yet."
"Thank you for everything, like treating me like you kid, and dealing with my problems." Rose says. "Hey. First, you are my child not matter if you came from one of us or not, Second that's our job to do that." We both laugh, it gets quiet for a minute. "I'm sorry you had to see that last week, that was the last thing I wanted you to ever witness. It was you or me and I wasn't losing you because of my stupidity." I tell her, I never wanted her to see me or Cheryl in that much pain. It breaks my heart thinking that she when through that, especially after her past. She pulls me into a hug. "It's ok, it better happen now than when I was younger." We hear a knock on the door. "Rose your aid is here to meet you, she'll be with you for a little bit helping you get used to college." Cheryl says walking in. "Ok." Rose takes a deep breath. "Come on."
I take her hand before we drives off. "She'll be ok, she has an aid and if anything isn't ok we'll know." She takes a deep breath. "Your right." We drive home. On the ride things got loud between the twins. "Mom, I need to pee, and JJ's being mean!" Cheryl turns around. "Jason I swear to god if you keep up with fighting with your sister, you will be in so much trouble when we get home!" She yells. Both of them shut up. I pull into a rest stop. "Who needs to go to the bathroom?" Both Cheryl and Mary raise their hands. "Do you want to get out JJ?" he shakes his head. Both Mary and Cheryl get out. "Why are you being mean to Mary?" I look at him. He shrugs his shoulders. "What's up? You've been acting up recently." I ask him, he looks down. "I don't want to lose you." He looks up, my heart drops. Right because I almost died a week ago. I knew it would effect Rose but I didn't really think about JJ or Mary. "Jason, I'm not going anywhere. I'm fine now." I reach over a wipe his tears. "I love you, Mary, Rose and your mom to much to leave you guys." I get out and open him door. "Are you sure?" He looks at me. "Yes. I'm not going, not yet at least. I'm not going anytime soon." I wipe his tears again. "Ok." He smiles. "Just with Rose leaving and, and what happened, happened to, to you. I, I-." I stop him. He keeps talking fast and stuttering. "Hey, stop you're getting worked up. Take a deep breath and slow down." He takes a deep breath. "Hey, Rose will be home for Christmas and stuff like that. Ok?" He nods. "Ok, you need to apologize to Mary when they get back." He nods. "Is mom still mad at you?" He ask, probably trying desperately to change the subject. "Yeah a little, but we'll be fine. We just had a disagreement on something personal."
BANG! I look over and see Cheryl on fall to the ground. "No!" I run over. I see blood pouring out of her stomach. I try to stop The bleeding. "Hey you're going to be ok." She nods, she slowly closes her eyes. "Stay with me." It's already to late. "Cheryl, please." I start crying. "Toni." I look over at the voice, it sounds familiar. "Toni." I walk over to it. "Toni!" It yells
"Toni!" I wake up, it's Cheryl. I look at her confused. "Cheryl." I cup her face. I smile. "You had another nightmare. Toni maybe you should actually talk to someone for once." I realize where I am. Maybe I should, I've been denying that I need help for a while, maybe it's time. I nod. "Yeah maybe I should." She shakes her head. "No. There is no maybe, you are seeing someone." She takes my hand. "Yeah, I will." She's right. She lies back down and goes back to sleep. I'm still thinking about what JJ said, and I why I was only thinking about how it would effect Rose. JJ is a really sensitive kid, and I don't think either me or Cheryl explains what happened to me. We explained what happened to me to Mary. JJ also has hard time understanding things. "Mommy. My stomach hurts." I look over and get up. I pick him up and we go to the bathroom. I put him down and he admittedly throws up. I sit down next to him near the toilet and rub his back. "Your ok." I reassure him. "I'm sorry for waking you up." He says quietly. "It's fine I was already up."
