To bed a princess. (for lack of better title)

"That's..." Joule stuttered, not even knowing how to finish the sentence. The objects that had been floating came crashing down to the floor. He blinked, staring at a spot on the wall, his brain trying to process everything he had learnt.

Don't think about it. Don't care. It's not your business. It's easier not to care. But... Jacquine...

"What... the actually... fuck?" When he did manage to get some words out, they were not the most profound ones in the universe. "Her mother did that? What the FUCK? How STUPID and TWISTED IS SHE?"

He began pacing, up and down, all over the room, running his fingers through his hair. "WHAT THE HELL? SHE THOUGHT SHE WAS PROTECTING HER? EVERYONE FAILS. WE FUCKING DEAL WITH IT. WHAT DID SHE THINK? THAT SHE COULD MAKE IT ALL BE OKAY? IT'S NEVER ALL OKAY. SEE THIS, THIS IS WHY LOVE IS STUPID. THIS IS WHY PEOPLE ARE BETTER OFF WITHOUT IT. THIS IS STUPID."

"Rewrite her entire life...?" Gabe echoed softly letting the words sink in. Fury took over and before he could stop himself he telekinetically ripped the scotch bottle from the doctor and sent it flying into a wall.

"How did she think that would fix things?" he asked, trying his hardest to keep his voice level despite his anger and having to talk over Joule's yelling, "How would that not make everything worse?! She's letting her live a lie! That's not going to help her get over what happened! This is just going to keep hurting her! This mental flux she's in is only going to lead to her getting traumatized even more!"

"I can understand why her mother would have thought that was a good idea at a time, but you seek professional help. Not let her mother wipe her mind," Nicky said, his brow furrowing in disgust. He saw no reason why anyone would think that was a good idea. He had dealt with people worse than that, and never had they resorted to such a terrible measure. He sneered, folding his arms across his chest. "What she did caused more harm than good. How can anyone claim that as love? It is selfishness, and her mother thinking of herself. She rather wipe Jacquine's mind than deal with making sure her daughter was closure. That is no act of love."

Rachel heaved, and her lunch of a protein shake and light salad were no more. She was still shaking a bit through the rest of Ryner's explanations.

Jacquine was... that happened to her. And then her mom made her forget. That was- that was so wrong on so many levels. She nodded at Nicky's input, "Why didn't she get her therapy? Mental alteration powers are already morally ambiguous enough as is. Who let that happen?"

The alcohol was spreading fast inside Ryner as he he listened to outrage of their friend/teammates demise he became more drunk by the second.

'Hey, listen' Ryner blurted out 'I know stuff about things. But you need to think about the things I said'

He leaned forward but Gravity was working to well and ryner leaned back with a grown.

Unbelievable, Gabe thought as he watched Doc speak, the biggest source of information on the situation and he can barely manage a coherent sentence, should've smashed that bottle sooner. Gabe opened his mouth to go off on the doctor but reigned in his anger and shut it. He instead sought out a seat of his own to collapse in and worked to calm himself down.

Nicky raised an eyebrow, rather unimpressed with the display the good doctor was putting on for them all. He tilted his head to the side, a dangerous smile spreading across his face, as his eyes narrowed.

"I would have hoped that our source of information would be a lot less intoxicated in order to deliver us the information we need," Nicky said, venom practically dripping from his words as he tucked a stray strand of his hair behind his ear. What sort of farce was this, when they were stuck with an alcoholic as their resident doctor? Really, he thought that anyone who came from good money would be able to hire a person better suited for the job. A monkey in a tie could most likely do a better job, and not feel the need to drink itself silly.

Nicky would certainly be exchanging words with one of the higher ups about this.

Rachel, for one, empathized with the doctor's need for a stiff drink. Hell, she barely touched the stuff and even SHE could go for the sweet numbing sensation of booze right about now. She put on a more collected demeanor, trying to push past her throwing up just moments ago.

"Cut the tone," She said, and turned to Ryner, "I realize... it must be pretty hard telling us about this. It's a sickening thing. Maybe it's best we get you to a room, yeah?" She then looked at the rest of the team, "We all also need to speak about this- as a group- really soon. Jac is going to need help getting through this and we're all going to have to be in this together to support her. Enough in-fighting, enough arguments. We've made it this far together, we need to start acting like a unit- for her sake," She sighed, "Like it or not, I'm pretty sure Jac thinks of us as basically her new family. And I'm not going to let her down on that."

Kade started laughing. It was a hollow, frantic, almost broken sort of laugh. Of course Nat would say something like that . Of course everyone would decide that what Jac's mother had done was wrong. It wasn't. Not to him. You protected the people that you loved, no matter what. So making them forget something? That was fine, to him. Even if it had gone wrong, the intention was still the same. Love made people do stupid things, but that didn't make those things wrong. Love.

He glanced at Nat, and laughed again. "So we're doing that again, huh? Awesome. Really wish you hadn't smashed that bottle, Gabe, I could go for a drink right now." Not that there would have been much left, the rate the Doc had been going at it.

"I dunno about you guys, but I've got plenty of things I'd like to forget. Scrambling Jac's brain is more of a mercy than letting her live with what happened to her. This doesn't change anything. Jac is still Jac. And she doesn't have to know. Better for her, and for everyone."

"Better?" Nat spat the word out, staring at Kade in disbelief. "How is messing with her head better? It's stupid and selfish! Her mother should have let her make her own choices and dealt with her own issues by herself. She had no right to make a choice like that for her. NO RIGHT. When we fail, that failure is ours and we've gotta learn to LIVE with it. CARRY it. Fucking DEAL with it. Not FORGET it like COWARDS. No one ever asked Jacquine if she even WANTED to forget. If she were OKAY with someone FUCKING WITH HER BRAIN."

Nat rubbed his head in frustration; it felt as if it were about to burst. His vision blurred slightly, but he ignored it in his anger.

"As much as a lot of us probably want a drink right now it's not helping anyone," Gabe murmured probably drowned out by all the other voices in the room. Gabe fought back the resurfacing irritation before he threw something or someone else across the room. He glanced up at the others readying himself to speak again. 

"We all have things we want to forget but that doesn't mean we should. Hiding a broken vase doesn't mean it's suddenly not broken. I know what happened to Jacquine was awful but forcing her to live in a perpetual state of denial is only going to make things worse in the end," he sighed and ran his hands through his hair,"but that aside maybe for now we should drop this and regroup later? Jacquine is going to be coming back soon I'm sure and if she does consider this group her family then it won't do her any good for her to see all this chaos."

"Would all of you SHUT THE ACTUAL FUCK UP!?" Rachel screamed, jolting out of her chair and knocking it back. Looks like all her bottled up pressure was finally letting loose.

First she directed her ire at Kade, "First of all, how fucking DARE YOU suggest that this was a mercy? Have you SEEN WHAT THIS FUCKING DID TO HER? What the FUCK KIND OF MERCY IS THAT?"

She continued to glower, "Secondly, I don't even KNOW what the fuck kind of shit happened to you, but it's really FUCKED UP that you think you could make that kind of decision for someone who was FUCKING RAPED! Unless that's what the fuck happened to you, you should CLOSE. YOUR FUCKING. TRAP."

She was breathing heavily now, probably the angriest she's actually ever shown to the group. She shoved her way out of the room, "I'm fucking done with you all."

Nicky pursed his lips at the little display, humming in distaste in the back of his throat. This group was just so magical. Full of idiots, suicidal assholes, and dimwits galore. Oh, this show's popularity was probably thanks to all of it.

Nicky sneered slightly, glaring at Kade for even saying that what Jacquine's mother was okay, before turning on a pumpkin-spice-latte soaked hell, and making his way from the room as well. He had seen enough for the day, had had enough of these idiots. He ignored that mangy mutt that belonged to Nathan as it decided to go over to sniff at the puddle left over from his latte, bumping into him as he passed.

There was no one in this group worthy of conversing with, was there? Nicky needed a drink--

He had bought some eggnog earlier, luckily.

"So are you saying that she should remember it? That she should be forced to remember, to live with the fact that one time when she tried to help, someone took that and crushed it? That her whole god damn LIFE WAS RIPPED TO PIECES? ARE YOU SAYING SHE DESERVES TO REMEMBER THAT SHE FUCKED UP SO BADLY THAT SHE'LL NEVER BE THE SAME?"

Kade hadn't meant to snap. He hadn't meant for all the sockets, and what was left of the lights to spark. He hadn't meant for that. He didn't want to get angry, not now, and not about this. But he couldn't help it. He wasn't even angry on Jac's behalf, was he? No, he was turning this around and making it about him. Again. And getting yelled at. Again. Fucking selfish idiot.

"It doesn't matter any more," He said when he'd finally calmed down. "What happened happened. And we can't change it."

Rachel was really getting tired of this immature brat's shit. She turned around right as she was about to exit, glaring practical daggers, "No one decides what's best for the victim, that's THEIR FUCKING CHOICE. You don't fucking ERASE the memories that the problem exists that only makes it more likely for it to FUCKING HAPPEN AGAIN BY MAKING THE SAME CHOICES! That's not help that's FUCKING REGRESSION!"

She turned back around, thoroughly fucking done and raising a single middle finger as she strode past the threshold of the room. She needed to do something to vent, maybe tune up her bike. Something to do to not think about... all this.

Ryner hadn't really expected the result that had happened before him. If he were honest he didn't know what the results would be if he told them but he felt it necessary too.But they know now and that's all that matters, hopefully they will tread a bit more carefully around Jacquine. He had some more to tell them but due his inebriation all that could come out was

'Funnish you say that sparky' was all he managed after hearing Kade's comment.

He lay back and looked at the ceiling as the world was spinning slightly.

---------

Jacquine was skipping down the hallway happily, holding three flower crowns in her hand as she hummed a little tune to herself. She was excited to see Gabe and Ryner's faces when they were their flower crowns that she made.

She spotted Rachel walking towards her, Jacquine didn't notice how angry Rachel she was as she called out to her.

'Madam Acrylic, Madam Acrylic!' Jacquine called happily, showing off the flower crowns 'Look, I made the flower crowns for Mister Gabe and Doctor Ryner but I had some spare and made a third one for you.'

She presented the third flower crown to her and pointed at the flowers petals.

'If you look closely it has cute little dots on the petals, like your little freckles.'

Rachel was still fuming when she made her way down the hall, but when Jac stopped her, the anger she was feeling quickly turned to guilty sadness. This beautiful woman- too good for this world, too pure. She made her a flower crown to match her freckles honey no that's too cute.

Tears welled up in Rachel's eyes and she embraced Jac in a hug, doing her best not to just completely let it out and sob uselessly.

Jacquine was taken aback by the sudden hug but smiled and hugged her back.

'You liked it! I knew you would!' Jacquine said happily as she hugged Rachel tighter.

Gabe ran his hands through his hair again. Everyone was angry, the room was a mess, Jacquine would be back soon, and the doctor was still trying to talk. He let out a sigh and tried to think of a way to turn the situation around. Keeping things from getting worse would probably be a good start.

"Doc, are you really sure it's a good idea to keep talking? Almost everyone is gone, wants to punch you or both. Maybe you should take some time to sober up and give everyone some time to calm down so we could maybe discuss this as a level headed team?" As he spoke Gabe went to work tidying the room up, picking up the shattered scotch bottle pieces with his powers, moving a dog away from the spilt coffee, and keeping an eye on Kade, Joule and Doc to make sure nothing else happens.

This was turning out to be one hell of a first day.

Gabe's words were had fallen on deaf ears. Doc had fallen asleep on the couch as the alcohol had fully got to him.

------------

Jacquine was the first to break the hug between her and Rachel. Happily placing the flower crown she made for Rachel on her head.

'Now you are a beautiful queen' Jacquine proudly announced, with hands on her hips 'but where is Mister Gabe and Doctor Ryner? I would not wish for them to feel left out.'