Jess is standing in the middle of Bella's living room, it was not a long drive to the farm she lives on, but it wasn't short.
Bella's in the other room talking to someone and left Jess here. She starts to browse the photos on the wall and the shelf, examine the decor of the room.
The furniture has a very old rustic, but camping style to it, the place looks like something out of those old homes from back in the day. But there is a TV here and other electronics here so their clearly not rejecting the modern world.
Then she settles on the photo frames, one is a wedding picture of presumbly Bella's parents, another is a family photo of them, a young red headed girl, Bella as a toddler, and two older girls.
One with short blonde hair and the other, long brown hair in a ponytail.
Another photo is of a older woman with red head and an older woman with short brown hair. Not sure who they are, then there is a photo of five young teenagers and two young men, clearly teenagers. Was that Bella's parents when they we're teenagers?
And lastly is a photo in black and white of an old man and woman. Who could they be?
"Hello?" Says a voice sternly. "Who are you?"
Jess turns around to look up and sees Bella's mum standing there and the younger red head, but now grown up is standing behind the mum.
"Bella!" Jess calls out nervously, but no response is returned. "Ah, are you a friend of Bella's?" The women asks.
"I guess I am..." Jess responds nervously.
"I see. Well, you're actually the first friend she has ever bought home so congratulations. What's your name and how long will you be staying?
You hungry, staying for dinner? I can make you something." Says the woman. "Kate, honey. Go upstairs and change, put your university stuff away."
"Yes, Mum." And Kate bounds upstairs.
"So, your name?" Bella's Mum asks again, putting her keys awake, taking her shoes off.
"J-Jess."
"Welcome Jess, I'm Fran. How long have you known Bella?"
"Not very long..."
"No worries, anyway, come, come." And she guides Jess to a room near the kitchen, it's a study and Bella is in there talking to her Dad and a blonde and brunette with purple streaks.
"Hey, I'm home."
"Hey, baby." Dad smiles. "Good day at work?"
"Yeah. You?" She responds.
"Yeah. So Bella was just telling me she bought a friend home and would like her to stay a while."
"So, a sleepover?" Fran asks curious.
"I guess." Bella says. "Alright, her first one. Only took her years." The blonde laughs.
"Sadie, shut up." Bella says.
"Bella." Her Mum scolds her. 'Sorry, aunty." Bella pouts. Sadie just laughs and ruffles Bella's hair.
"So, Jess was it?" Sadie asks. Jess nods. "This here is Kat. My girlfriend- wife?"
"Nice to meet you, Jess."
"Likewise." Jess shyly. "So, Bella. Why don't you take Jess upstairs to your room, get her unpacked and both of you shower and dinner will be ready soon." Fran directs.
"Yes, Mum." And Bella leads Jess upstairs, leaving everyone behind.
---
Everyone is cooking in the kitchen and preparing for dinner when Fran approaches Jess. "So, Jess. How's it going? My understanding is you and Bella work at the same place."
"Uh, yeah. She's my Supervisor, I'm a security guard - Day shift, part time."
"Nice, nice. How did you both become friends?"
"Uh, I guess we just did..."
"Are you okay? You look nervous."
"Uh, yeah. Why wouldn't I be?"
Fran stops what she's doing and turns to face Jess more. "Jess, honey. Stop." And she halts what Jess is doing just for a moment.
"Mrs Day..."
"Jess, I want to ask because my daughter and me don't exactly get along. She's more Dad's girl, um- Where you work, is everything okay there?
Is their anything going on at work that you want to talk about? Ever since Bella took up a job there, she comes home miserable. Has been snappy and short tempered, has no patience these days.
I raised her better than that, and you seem very aloof and anxious."
"Are you a cop? Because I'm getting the vibe you're a cop."
Fran laughs slightly. "I used to be. Did Bella explain to you I was a lawyer now?"
"Uh, she said something about you only taking civil cases."
"Well, I do. But sometimes I take criminal, only two to three a year. I re-trained to be a lawyer and I'm trying not to suffer burnout. It was years before I returned to a job of some kind, and it wasn't fair on my husband being the only one bringing in an income."
"Uh, Bella said something about escaping from somewhere, she didn't tell me much, but it altered all your lives."
"Yes, that. To make a long story short, the country I, my husband, my daughter Kate, her aunties Sadie and Kat grew up in was tyrancial.
I was blind and ignorant to what it was like a long time ago, I was a police officer then and one day, Kate came along, Julian came back into my life and it changed everything. It's a complex, traumatic story, but we headed for the boarder, picked up Sadie and Kat along the way and discovered there was other countries and life outside our own and they weren't...
People died for us to make it here and a-lot died in the past as well. We established a new life here, and I'm glad we did. Otherwise I would never have given birth to my daughter, Bella.
She wouldn't exist. Or she could have... But she might have had someone else as her Dad... I wasn't planning to love anyone ever. Who knows what the future would have been like had we stayed.
Anyway, enough about me. I'm genuinely curious, are you and Bella, okay? I looked into Future's Tomorrow Indoor Fun Park, and it had a large number of fines, summons from the android panel and human right violations.
But that was from like fifteen years or so ago, someone else was in charge then. I don't remember the man's name, and someone new took over, but that happened many years later and I haven't seem many violations recently, but with how my baby girl has become, I want to know...
You're the first friend she has ever bought home, but also work at the same place as her to."
"Fran, I'm not her friend. She's just taking pity on me, that's why I'm here. I think she's good friends actually with Brianna and Joe. They work at the same place, Brianna is a paramedic and Joe is a technician.
As for who's in charge, Maggie's... Never mind."
"No, honey. Maggie's what? Who is Maggie? You can tell me, it's safe to. If you don't feel safe or you feel uncomfortable about keeping something a secret, you don't have to." Fran says bending down to Jess, arms on Jess's shoulders.
Jess is silent and on the verge of tears, unable to speak. "Honey, if you ever want to talk about anything, you can. If you need help to figure something out, contact me." And she hands Jess her business card for legal office.
Jess reluctantly takes it and pockets it.
"Mum." Snaps a voice loudly and they turn to see Bella standing there looking angry. "Is everything okay, darling?" Julian, Bella's dad speaks up. Kate, Sadie and Kat remain silent, and turn away, not wanting to get involved.
"What are you doing?" Bella says louder. "Honey, it's nothing to worry about." Fran responds.
Bella pushes her Mum aside and confronts. "Jess, what did she grill you about? Are you okay? You look very pale like you're going to pass out.
"....."
"Mum, what did you say to her?!" Bella yells at Fran. "Do not raise your voice at me young lady! And for the record, you've been a brat ever since you took that job at that place." Fran says back and they both start to get into an argiment and head onto the back porch outside.
"Jess, do you want a glass of water?" Julian asks when Jess slips to the floor. "Jess!" Kat panics coming to her aid and sitting down beside her. Sadie does the same while Kate hugs her Dad, scared, saying nothing.
Jess can't talk at all. "Do you need a doctor, Jess? Do you not feel well? I can call an after hours doctor for you...?" Julian begins, reaching for the phone.
"No! No doctors!" Jess finally speaks. "I hate healthcare."
"Uh, o-okay?" Kat says worried. "You're weird..." Sadie says. "Your face is weird." Jess snaps.
"Excuse me." Sadie says annoyed. "Sadie, you started it. Shut up. She's going to be horrible to you if you're horrible to her." Kat scolds.
"I-I don't think I want any dinner anymore. Can I just go to bed? I'm tired." Jess whispers and gets up slowly, dragging her feet and slowly heading upstairs to Bella's room.
"That was concerning." Kat says. "Daddy?" Kate says, looking up Julian she's hugging.
"Uh, she might have some worries or something, Kate. Maybe even some trauma. I think... it's best we leave her be. I'm not sure what's going on.
Stay with your aunties, Kate and finish preparing dinner. I'm going to go outside and talk to your mother and your younger sister." Then Julian excuses himself and heads outside.
---
A few hours pass, and it's dark now. Dinner is long over and Jess is lying her in makeshift bed bed beside Bella's bed, awake. The moonlight is streaming in, she looks at her phone she had been ignoring for the most part since discharge.
There is hundreds of messages from Douglas, that had blown up his phone.
--
Where are you?! You haven't responded to a single damn message I've sent! You do not want to piss me off, Jess!
---
She finally texts back, seeing Douglas' status is as ONLINE right now.
Jess: Douglas
Douglas: You finally respond. Where the fuck did you go? You're in so much trouble.
Jess: I was in hospital, I just got out this morning.
Douglas: Fine, but why didn't you have your phone?
Jess: I didn't have it, I'm sorry.
Douglas: What do you mean?
Jess: Look, I'm sorry, Douglas. I'll make it up you from now, I sware.
Douglas: Is my tablet safe?
Jess: Yes, it's hidden the roof of one of the androids dressing rooms.
---
Even though that's a lie, she doesn't know where it is. Princess proably has it, but who knows. She's not fired or arrested so likely it hasn't been found by anyone.
---
Jess: Douglas, I'll be going back to work soon. Maybe Thursday?
Douglas: Whatever, just send me something or I'm coming after you and we're going to have a little chat.
---
Then he sends a photo. Jess eyes widen when she sees it's of her tied down and drugged out wherever he had kept her kidnapped after her took her.
"Jess?" Says Bella waking up and Jess hurriedly puts her phone away and faces Bella.
"Why are you awake? Did you have a nightmare?"
"Uh, yeah. Something like that."
"Jess, I'm sorry about earlier. You went to bed without any dinner. My Mum's been nagging me ever since I took the job at the fun park."
"It's OK. Are you okay? She said you had become short tempered and-"
"I'm more worried about you than myself right now. And I'm not bringing you here to sleepover to pity you.
I do want to be your friend. While your safety is important and you shouldn't have to spend time alone after release from hospital, I want to get to know you.
You seem very... odd?"
"I've always been described as odd, no one has ever liked me."
"Do you want to tell me what's going on for you exactly? Cause this isn't just job related stress, it's worse than that. I know you told us a bit about what you're running from, but not even that would be enough to cause you to have-"
"Lose my shit and go crazy?"
"I would rather not use those words, but you had a psychotic episode, Jess. A severe one and the fact you left after nine days without a diagnosis of follow up outpatient therapy is negligent of them."
"I'll be fine, it was a once off."
"And even if that is true... which likely it won't be because I have a feeling this will happen again, Jess. You need some kind of outpatient follow up, did you talk about how what you went though made you feel at-least?"
"No, I just ignored the staff, didn't really talk to anyone the whole time till they let me go. The psychiatrist I was assigned to, I think he was busy and didn't really have time for me."
"Unfortunately the health system is like that at times. But you deserve support, Jess."
"Bella, please drop it. I want to forget this ever happened."
"Jess, what you went through, it's not something you're just going to forget.
And I know me, Brianna and Maggie and others won't forget what happened to you anytime either."
"You held me down."
"We had to, there wasn't any way around it. You we're hurting yourself."
"They we're biting me."
"They? I don't know what you saw, but it wasn't real, Jess. There was nothing there."
"I don't want to dwell it anymore, please."
"Okay. So what do you want, Jess?"
"To come back to work, I don't have anything else going on for me at the moment. It's my life."
"Okay, I'll speak to Maggie for you. But you and me, maybe even Brianna and her fiance, Joe. We should get together outside work and hang out.
You need to develop a life outside work. Friends, but also hobbies."
"I'll try."
"Okay, I'll talk to Maggie. And when my mum and me got into a fight, Jess. What she said... If there is something going on I don't know about... It would be good if you talk about it with someone.
It doesn't have to be with a mental health proffesional."
And then out pair head back to sleep for the rest of the night.
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