Page 47 of The Ones We Fight For

“It’s not your job to hold everyone together.” Talia shook her head solemnly. “We all love it when you’re happy, but I know I would rather see your real smile than the one you try to force on your face to fit a part. You can be vulnerable at your appointment today. You don’t have to be perfect. There’s no test you have to ace. No one is grading your participation. This is for you, not everyone else. Do you remember the night I met you?”

“Yes,” Piper sniffled. “I didn’t drink enough to forget.”

“How did you feel that night?”

“I….” Piper looked at her feet.

“You don’t have to tell me, but these are the kind of hard things you’re going to have to face in therapy, and—”

“Alone.” The word was rushed, spewing from Piper’s mouth in a single syllable. She cleared her throat and tried again. “I felt alone.”

“Okay.” Talia held back her own tears. The urge to wrap her arms around Piper and rock her like her own mother used to do when she was little was overwhelming. Instead, she settled for reaching for Piper’s hand and squeezing it gently so she could still focus on driving.

Alone. That was the best way to describe how Talia felt in New York City every day without her mother. Her new family in Archwood made her feel further from that lost person every single day.

“I know you know this already, but you have me. Always,” Talia reminded her.

“I think… never mind, it’s stupid,” Piper shrugged and looked out the window, her cheeks flushing with embarrassment.

“It’s not stupid. What is it?”

“Sometimes I think my mom sent you to help me,” Piper whispered as they pulled into a parking spot in front of the therapy office. “She would have done something like that if she knew I needed it.”

“Sometimes,” Talia smiled and unbuckled her seatbelt, “I wonder if your parents knew that I needed you guys, too. You ready for this?”

“I think so.”

Chapter 17

Walker

Whatever Walker had been expecting from Carter when he returned from his appointment, it wasn’t what he got. When he dropped his nephew off, Carter did his best to break the car door off its hinges when he slammed it shut behind him. After therapy, the car door was spared any drama, and Carter’s general attitude was leaps and bounds better.

“So… it went well? You didn’t have a hot female therapist or something, did you? I swear I said you needed a guy,” Walker teased. In the back of his mind, he really did hope that Carter had gotten someone who wouldn’t easily distract him and his raging hormones.

“It was a guy,” Carter affirmed.

“And?”

“And what?”

“I want you to tell me how it went. I’ve never been to therapy, so I have no idea how it works.” Walker started the car and looked behind him to back out of the parking space. He allowed Carter to collect his thoughts, pretending to be ultra-cautious of hitting cars that were nowhere near the van. He already knew it would take a bit of prying to get any information; like himself, Carter also took a bit of time to process.

“It was… nice.” Carter shrugged noncommittally.

“Nice? You have to give me more than that. I can’t keep guessing how you’re doing, it’s… it’s stressing me out.” The statement came out a little more frantic than Walker would have liked, and he regretted the second cup of coffee he downed earlier with Talia. His coffee consumption lately was getting out of hand.

“Geez, maybe you should go to therapy,” Carter grumbled, and Walker shot him down with a look of aggravation. “Okay, fine. He mostly just asked me a bunch of questions about myself. What I like to do, what my home and school environments are like, and what I currently do when I’m feeling… off.”

“And what do you do when you’re off?”

“Right now… I just kinda… shut down and bolt.” His nephew looked at him nervously then quickly added, “but he said that’s completely normal.”

“Carter, I’m not judging you. I’m just trying to figure out a way to help,” Walker explained with a wave of one hand for him to continue.

“He gave me some tips, and it wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be. We talked about Mom and Dad a little bit, but it was mostly him trying to figure out why I was so uncomfortable being there. I guess I have a hard time letting people see me if I’m… having a moment. I don’t like it. It makes whatever I’m feeling at the time worse when everyone is around watching me, ya know?” Carter looked over at him hopefully.

Walker gave a slow nod of his head. He could understand the feeling of wanting to hide. There were only two people he had ever felt comfortable sharing something deeply personal with. One of those people was dead. The other was Talia.

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