I was not, however, amused about anything in the morning. I had moved to my bed during the night and it took me ten minutes to even get to the bathroom. I was unrecognizable in the part of the mirror left on the wall. Both of my eyes were blackened, my nose badly swollen, my cheek purple to match my eyes. I felt so sorry for my poor face. 

I peed, which hurt, but there was no blood in it. I swallowed more morphine and glanced at the living room on my way back to bed. Bella snored on the couch. Everything had been cleaned up and put away. I couldn't believe it.

When I woke up again later that afternoon, if anything I hurt more, but I went out to lay on to the couch, groaning. There was an empty pint of vodka on the table next to my gun.

"You're alive," Bella said, emerging from the kitchen. "That's good to know." She looked at me gravely. "You look like shit, girl. I mean, really bad. I've never seen you ever look so bad."

"Thanks, Bells."

"No, really, I mean, damn." She was upset. "We didn't get out of foster care just so this kind of shit could happen to us. What about that number or whatever? Doesn't this constitute an emergency at least?"

"I don't think so," I said, though it felt kind of emergencyish. I did not believe the Powers That Be would agree with me.

"Don't you think Reed would consider this an emergency, Heidi? Seriously?"

I shifted my position slightly, trying to ease the pain in my side. I had a huge bruise on my thigh and on my upper arm. My torso was a painting of its own. "Yes," I said honestly. My hand was black and blue, the fingers swollen, though none broken.

"Well, I hope so, because I already called them," she said. She gave me a look of challenge and her chin went up at my shock.

"Please tell me you're joking." I half hoped she was and half not.

"I'm not joking, and they were totally cool about it. A lady answered and I told her I wasn't sure if it was the right kind of emergency but she said I was right to call and she would see what she could do." Her voice was 100% defensive.

But I only focused on the small hope they might let Reed come home over this. "Okay," I said, too out of it to say anything else about it. I didn't want him to see me like I was but it was out of my hands, which in itself was kind of a relief.

She looked at me warily. "Just okay?"

"Coffee?" 

Her face relaxed in relief. "I thought you'd be pretty mad."

"Might be later." I lay there, trying not to breathe or move. "How'd you get this all cleaned up?"

"I had some coke in my jacket."

I sighed.

"Shut up, you know I hardly ever do it. Came in handy, que no?" She went into the kitchen and came back a minute later with a mug. "It's instant, because I didn't consider it safe to use the coffee grounds full of canister shards."

The mug had a straw in it and she held it and positioned it so I could sip. "When did you call?"

"Last night after you went to sleep. Midnight or so." She patiently remained crouched while I drank more coffee. My jaw hurt but it hard been worse before.

"You said I was okay though?" I didn't want Reed worried I was in the hospital or something.

She looked at me and it was part skepticism and part pity. "You are not okay, Heidi, c'mon."

She was probably right. "You know what I mean."

"I do, and I did make it clear you would eventually be okay, but that at the moment there was a pretty fucking big situation here that he clearly needs to come home and deal with." She saw I was done and put it on the coffee table by the gun, which sat with the empty liquor bottle, a pile of glass, and an orange. It looked like a Tarantino movie scene. "Yes, I said it nicely," she added before I could chide her.

"I'll bet," I murmured, closing my eyes again.

It was awhile later that I woke up again to hushed arguing on the porch; Bella and Reed. "You have to do something! She could have fucking killed her. You get that, right? She almost did!"

"You have no idea how much I get it, d'accord? I just, I went to my crazy sister, before I left this last time; I told her! I told her what would happen, and it will now happen, but this! What do I do about this." He sounded close to losing it.

She said something I didn't hear.

"This is calm for me right now!" he said truthfully. "I don't know what to do. This is, it's, quelle horreur!"

"Yeah, well, wait till you see her," my super rude and tactless best friend said.

"J'al peur," he said, and indeed he sounded scared.

"N'aie pas peur," she said. Don't be scared. I couldn't tell if she was being nice or reprimanding him. "Man up. This isn't about you. She's the one who was probably fucking terrified. Can you imagine what it must have been like!"

I wished she would just shut her mouth for once in her mouth-running life.

They came in and I dreaded the scene about to happen, even though it meant he was home.

"I'm okay," I said before anything else, but with my good hand I pulled my hair so it was across my face. It wasn't exactly clean and shiny but better than the alternative. "Don't look. You didn't have to come home." Even saying the words hurt my ribs. "Your sister's an asshole."

He dropped his bag and then was kneeling by me. "I came as quickly as I could, chérie; je suis desole." He took my hand holding my hair and gently tugged it.

"Don't be sorry," I said, holding it there. "It's not your fault she's fucking insane."

"Let me see," he insisted, but didn't tug any harder.

"It's bad," I warned him. "Don't freak out, okay?"

"He'll manage," Bella said, a warning of her own to him.

I let go of my hair but put my hand over my eyes because I was incredibly embarrassed and I looked like a prizefighter. Who hadn't won any prizes.

He could see enough of my face though, and his was stricken. "No, mon Deiu, this is what we took you away from," he said, sorrow heavy. "How did this happen? I'm so sorry, bebe, I cannot believe this happened again, I swear I told her before I left not to come near you . . . " His voice broke and I chanced removing my hand. He had his own hand over his face trying to keep his temper calm as he often did after dealing with Remy.

"Hey," I said, our roles reversed so I was pulling at his hand now. I saw Bella had gone into the kitchen to at least give us some semblance of privacy.

He let me move his hand and I was blown away to see he was crying. I'd only seen it twice before in twelve years, and both times he had been really drunk.

His eyes widened at seeing the rest of my face. "I'm going to kill her," he said, his breath catching as he wiped his face. He tried to hold his breath to stop crying and it came out in a sob and he shook his head and said "I'm sorry, I never thought you were in any danger, I swear to you." He went to take both of my hands but then noticed the injured one, and in his eyes I saw his mind bend a little too far. "I cannot--" He stood up abruptly, hands in fists, and was out the front door before he could lose his temper in the house.

Bella came back in. "Okay, fine, you win. I take back everything I've ever said."

I just looked at her, doped up myself, not recovered from his tears, and having no idea what she was talking about.

"Hey, when I'm wrong, I admit it," she said, which was kind of a stretch. Actually, it was a total lie. "I didn't realize it was, like, a real thing. I didn't get he felt the same way you do. So okay. So I didn't know that. It still sucks he disappears."

"Shhh," I said, because I didn't know what she was talking about, and I didn't know if he was smoking on the porch or if he had gone further down the road to rage in the trees where I couldn't hear. "You're crazy."

"Heidi." She had both hands on her hips. She was wearing black leggings and a long white Cleveland jersey, her hair in a long ponytail. Hightop black Converse were on her feet. "Please. That was not some platonic shit I just saw, if you are too stoned off morphine to notice, by the way," she further narrated. "I thought he was just, I mean, that . . . well."

"That he was using me as a home base?" I suggested. "I never thought that. But what you're saying's not true. It's a, whatchamacallit, a mirage."

She smirked. "Sure. In fact, Romeo has now earned his nickname, which I will totally say non-sarcastically for the most part because I must admit to respecting the jerk a lot more than I did yesterday."

"Mmm," I said, drowsy. I wasn't really listening to her. "I hope they let him stay. He said he should be done soon. All done. Forever." I remembered it was all hush hush. "Shhh," I said again. "That's a big fat secret."

"Yeah, it all is, isn't it." She peeked out the blinds. "What's he doing; going to kill her now?"

I wouldn't put it past him. "He's calming down."

"Rage-a-holic, huh. That figures." She continued watching.

I closed my eyes. "He's not. She just brings out his hatred. He's not like that, Bells."

"I know," she surprised me by saying. "He's the best of the best of the best, with honors. I know. I've heard it once or twice." She had a bottle of vodka in her hand when I opened my eyes again. She stuck her tongue out at me and drank some, mock offered it to me, and slipped it back into her pocket.

"Their mother was a monster," I said, the only way I could sum up their childhood. I wasn't making excuses for Remy, which she knew. Or even Reed. More of an explanation.

"Yeah, well, there's no shortage of those in the world." She straightened one of the remaining unbroken things on the shelf over my fireplace. "You should rest, and everything. You've survived some intense damage, girl."

"I've had worse," I said, though I hadn't, which she knew. I was tired, though, except I didn't want to miss any time with Reed.

"He'll be here," she said sternly. "I promise."