3-Way

Part Nine

We arrived at the doctor's office and I could tell Prince was nervous. I was too in a way because I didn't know what the doctor would tell us. We were walking away from the bike when he stopped me. "I-I don't know if I can do this. What if he says something and I have to go to a hospital." I took his hand turning to face him. "Baby I'm not going to let anyone take you away. Just trust me, okay? He sounded really nice on the phone and wanted to talk to you." Prince took a deep breath before holding my hand and we walked in together. There was a secretary there. "Ah, you must be Delphine. Dr. Murphy is waiting for you in his office." I said my thanks and we walked to the doctor's door. Prince opened it and an older doctor was sitting behind a desk with reading glasses on. He smiled. "Ah, you must be Prince." Prince nodded shaking his hand awkwardly before we sat down in front of the doctor's desk in these fine leather chairs. I had my backpack by my feet and I was sitting on one side because it was still tender to sit down. "So, Delphine tells me you have DID." Prince nodded. "Its...what I've been told. I was told I had schizophrenia when I was little." The doctor stood up taking off his glasses setting them down on his desk before walking in front of us. "Schizophrenia isn't caused by trauma. It's something passed down from someone who already has it." The doctor said. Dr. Murphy turned and looked at me. "Prince knows what his alters look like?" I nodded reaching into my bag for the drawings. "Here you go." I handed the drawings that Prince did of Camille and Jamie to Dr. Murphy. He was looking at them. "I see some features being of you, Prince." He said. Prince looked at us. "I think they're supposed to be his mother and father...well we think that..." Prince held my hand tighter. "He hasn't switched in a few days...Is that good or bad?" I asked. "Switching between alters is caused by stress or a reminder of the trauma from his past." It was making sense because when Wade and I would fight he would switch. Anytime someone got intimidating with him he'd switch. But he didn't switch when Wade wanted to fight him. I stroked my thumb over his. "Do any of the alters cause self harm?" The doctor asked him. Prince shook his head...then he stopped mid shake. "Well...Jamie drinks and smokes a lot. I've gotten addicted to cigarettes because of him. But Camille doesn't cause self harm. She doesn't really hurt anyone she's just very...lusty." The doctor nodded. "Delphine...why don't you sit outside?" Prince gripped my hand tighter. "N-No." He said. I didn't know what to do. "U-Um..." Prince shook his head. "Prince, it's okay she's going to be right outside." Prince wasn't letting my hand go. "I don't want her to go away. Please let her stay." "Doctor, I've seen him switch. It's okay. Prince is scared to death you're going to take him to a hospital or something." The doctor sighed. "Okay well...Maybe separate yourself from him. Just on the opposite side of the room. I need to see him when he switches. Stress will trigger the alters." Prince was still afraid to let me go, but I looked at him. "I'm gonna be right over there sitting on the couch, okay? Do whatever the doctor tells you." He was about to cry. He was so scared and it hurt me. I almost wanted to cry, too. "Prince...let go of my hand...it's okay. I'm gonna be right here with you just over there." He looked at the sofa and his hand was shaking as he let me go. I kissed him on the cheek before getting up with my bag and sitting on the opposite side of the room. Prince was sitting there looking at his fingers and I couldn't really hear what the doctor was saying to him, but I was watching both of them. Eventually...I heard the giggle. It was Camille. I noticed that Prince would change the way he was sitting as Camille. They were talking and talking for what seemed like ages as the doctor was taking notes behind his desk. I kept watching them and I watched as Prince went from Camille to Jamie. Jamie sat with his legs open, leaned back, cursed a lot. Talked filthy. Even the doctor was shocked as Jamie asked about the doctor's wife inappropriately. I was glad a professional was seeing this the way I've been seeing it for awhile now. Eventually, the doctor walked over to me as Prince was sitting in the chair. "I must say...he definitely has DID." Obviously. "Yes, but what can we do about it? What is something we can do to help him?" The doctor sat down his notes. "All you can do is therapy. There isn't a cure for what he has. If he had schizophrenia there's at least a drug for that. But for what he has...only therapy can help him." I felt my stomach get queasy. "O-Oh...so that's it?" I stood up. I saw Prince coming towards me. "As I said...there isn't any medicine that can help him." Prince held my hand as soon as he got to me. "Okay. Thank you for your help." This really didn't help at all. "But I gotta say, Prince is definitely different than most patients with DID. He's aware of when he's going to switch and knows exactly what his alters look like." Again, this was stuff I already knew but I just smiled. "What about him switching? Why hasn't he switched?" The doctor picked up his notes. "From what I've gathered, Prince..." he glanced at Prince. "I'll tell her..." Prince said. I looked between the two. So, Prince must've told the doctor something I didn't know but was soon going to find out. I picked up my backpack. "Ready to go?" I asked Prince. He nodded. I thanked the doctor again and we left the doctor's office. "So...What's going on?" I asked him. "I'll tell you when we get to my house." I nodded. We got on his bike cutting through the suburbs. We took the long way because I didn't want to see the accident. I was feeling a lot of emotions at the moment. I was feeling sadness because of losing Wade, I was feeling defeat because I really thought there was something out there for Prince, and finally...I felt anger. I was angry because Wade was gone and because of how much of a jerk he was while he was alive. I held onto Prince whimpering when we hit a hard bump that hurt some. We got to Prince's house and walked in. "That was a waste of time..." I told Prince. He shook his head. "It wasn't for me. I think it's going to help us." I sat my bag down on the living room couch. "I want to show you something." Prince said. I was curious because he had a sort of nervous tone in his voice. I followed him to his bedroom. "Sit down." I did as he said. "What's wrong, baby?" I asked. "If I show you this...Promise you won't freak out?" I nodded. "I promise, Prince." Prince walked over to his dresser drawer and I tucked my legs under me so I could sit cross legged. The last thing I was expecting him to pull out was a gun. I tensed up. "P-Prince, why do you have that?" I asked him. He walked over to me. "This gun...was the gun my mother used to shoot my father and..." I was watching him. He was about to switch alters. I wasn't quite sure who was going to come out. I stayed quiet until Prince came out from his deep gaze into space and looked at me with a wicked smirk. "Hi, Jamie." I knew exactly who it was. Jamie smirked. He sat down beside me staring at the gun. "You know...Prince didn't know how to handle it when his mama shot his daddy." I was listening. "Is that when you came to be, Jamie?" "Fuck no! I came to be when his daddy decided to start beating him with extension cords, pieces of two by fours, smacking his knuckles with guitar strings." I always thought Jamie came into existence when Prince hit puberty, but he's been around longer than Prince thought. His voice broke and it sounded like he wanted to cry. "Man...We never fucking deserved that." Jamie sobbed. I moved closer to him putting my hand on his back sitting on my knees behind him. "We didn't do shit. We never did anything to nobody." He sniffled and wiped his tears still holding the gun. "Jamie...why didn't you guys turn the gun in?" He shook his head. "Because Prince's mama told us not to. She...we saw what she did." I couldn't help but put my arms around him laying my head on his back. "Jamie...You, Prince, and Camille are strong because of what you saw." "But no one thinks we're real. We are real. I protect Prince I keep him in line. Camille fucking...she does something. I don't know." I placed a kiss gently on his back through his clothes. "We went to the doctor today. There's nothing we can do, but I know Prince doesn't want to lose you two. I know it's hard, Jamie but you gotta be strong for Prince. He's scared and-" "Yeah but you hurt him! You told him to go away when the reason he yelled is because he hated that asshole!" Jamie yelled and pulled away from me. It hurt my heart hearing those words, but it was true. "You only care about you! And how you feel! You don't care about how WE feel." I looked away. "Jamie..." "It's true! Look I fucking get it that you lost your kid and had doctors doing God knows what to your pussy, but what you said hurt us." I looked away letting a tear fall. "I'm sorry, okay? I'm sorry I did that to you. I love Prince. I love him so much and I was angry and I screamed! It was an accident!" I looked at him. "I know he's watching us. I know he's listening. Apart of me just wants to run away with him and just forget about this place." I sobbed wiping my eyes. Jamie was staring at me. "I-I lost our baby and I felt bad. I knew it would upset him, but with that and losing Wade I was a mess. I didn't mean to scream at him." I started sobbing harder and Jamie sat the gun down before kneeling down. "Why do you wanna be with us?" I smiled through my tears. "Because you, Prince, and Camille are human. You exist and there's no denying you exist. I'm sure you guys were picked on at school because of you guys being so different." "Yeah we did. It was fucking horrible." Jamie cupped my cheek stroking my tear away. "It's hard for you to only love Prince. And Prince will have to accept that one day. When we want to come out we need to." I watched his eyes. "Why do you drink and make Prince feel bad? He doesn't like doing that stuff." Jamie pulled away from me grabbing the gun from the night stand. "Because...I don't know. I just...I like it and he doesn't. Prince is a pansy." "He is not a pansy! Jamie you are the only alter we have trouble with..." "Then fucking get rid of me then!" I stood up. We were screaming at each other. "I don't want you to leave Prince! He needs you to protect him in ways that I can't!" I yelled. Jamie started pacing he was still holding the gun. He stopped and was breathing heavy before he put the gun to his head. "Jamie, no!" I ran and tackled him to the hardwood floor. I sat on his hips as he was screaming. "Let me do it! Let me do it!" Jamie was screaming at the top of his lungs. I held his arms down and kicked the gun that had fallen on the ground. "We need you Jamie! We need you!" I screamed. Jamie was kicking and screaming and crying. I kept holding him down and he was breathing heavy trying to fight me. "Just let me go..." He stopped fighting as I was sitting on his hips. I watched his eyes getting heavy as we were both breathing heavy. "Jamie...I'm sorry." When I let go of his arms he put his around me and I laid my face in his neck. We were so tired from fighting one another that we just fell asleep on the floor.

I woke up before he did a couple of hours later and saw the gun laying on the floor. I quietly got up and picked it up before leaving out the double doors and walked a ways off to go bury it in the backyard with my bare hands. When I came back he was rolled onto his side. "Prince...Jamie...?" I sat on the floor and he opened his eyes. It was Prince and he crawled towards me to hug me. "My hands are dirty I need to wash them. Let's go drive somewhere. Just you and me." I said. Prince nodded rubbing his eyes and while he was looking for his keys I was washing my hands. "I think one of them hid my keys. I'm not sure which one, but I can't find them." He sounded like he had panic in his voice. "Baby, it's okay we'll find them." I helped him look for his keys. "Where does Jamie hide them?" I asked. "He usually hides them...oh wait I found them." They were in one of his heels in his closet. "Such a strange hiding place." I giggled. Prince laughed a little too. "Camille hides them in high places that I can't reach. She can climb stuff better than I can." It was good that Prince was finally comfortable with talking to me about his alters. I kissed his lips before we walked to his bike. "Where do you wanna go?" He asked. I wasn't really sure. "Prince...let's run away." Prince looked at me like I was crazy and put his hands on his hips. "What?!" "Yeah! Let's just...leave. Let's go somewhere and just get away from Greensville." "What about your mother? And your father?" He asked. "I know they'll be upset if you ran away. And I know they want you to finish school. I know you want to stay here and I want to stay here." Prince was right. "Yeah...I'm sorry. I don't know what I was thinking. I just...with all that shit with Wade it got me shook up for a bit." Prince came over and hugged me and I hugged his neck. "I know school is pointless, but I want you to finish it for your parents. Then we can do whatever we want, baby. Just me and you." I nodded putting my nose in his shoulder. "I'm sorry about the baby..." I whispered. I felt him shake his head. "It's not your fault. I love you no matter what happened because it wasn't in our control. Even with Wade...it was just his time." I pulled away some and kissed him. "So...what are you going to do now that you don't have to prove you're a good musician?" Prince smiled a little. "Work hard and hope I get a label one day. Maybe when you graduate in a couple of months we can go to LA. That'll be fun, won't it baby?" I smiled. "Yeah that'll be different for us. And for you. And we can...I don't know we can do something new together. Lisa and Wendy and I can do stuff while you're with the boys." I felt so excited now. I was smiling so big my cheeks hurt. "It does sound fun. I can't wait." Prince said. "So, why don't we just stay here for a bit? Or I can take you home. And we can just stay together." I remembered the song he wrote. "Rasberry Beret". "Prince...I want to hear your song. Raspberry Beret." Prince smirked. "Which one? I edited it and changed a few things." We both went inside and I sat in the living room while he grabbed his guitar. "I think I want to hear both versions." I called to him. Prince brought out this purple acoustic guitar. "I think instead of guitar I'm gonna put violin or keyboard in there. I know Lisa came up with something on keyboard." He looked so excited to show me this song. I sat crosslegged on the couch facing him as he started to play the first version. The version he wrote me. It was about how he met a girl working at a 5 and Dime and when he heard the doorbell chime he saw she was wearing a Raspberry Beret. Eventually, the couple in the story make love and she tells him all the places she had gone and the lovers she had in her day. When he woke up, he heard the door again and his green eyes turned to blue. There was a note on the floor that said "This is for you" and she left him her raspberry beret. When he finished the song it sounded so good with the acoustic, but when I heard the edited and revised version it was almost the same, but different. Almost better. "Trust me, baby when I get Lisa and Wendy on this they'll help me out." I leaned over his guitar and kissed him. "They both sound great. I love them both. I can't wait to hear what Lisa and Wendy are going to do to it." He sat the guitar down on the coffee table. "I think I want to see Luna today. Would you like to come with me?" I smiled. "I'd love to. Does Selena know about me?" Prince nodded with a small smile. She helped me...understand what happened with you and...the baby." I stroked his cheek leaning my forehead on his shoulder. We just held each other for a bit. "Divinity...I feel happy. For the first time in a little bit I feel really...really happy with you." I picked my head up kissing his jaw. "I feel happy, too. I'm going to need you when the funeral comes. And honestly...I don't even know what to do. Before we go to Selena's we need to stop by Turkey Creek if that's okay?" "Of course, baby. We can do that." I felt the nervous butterflies in my stomach thinking about what I was going to do or say to them. The Drapes. I was worried and I was scared all at once, but I knew Prince was going to be there the whole time...holding my hand.