Watson Sessions - #3 (Patreon)

*** Note: you didn't miss anything, I didn't write up the second session. That took place on Tuesday October 10th, the day after the Watsons celebrated Thanksgiving. The whole session was just Maria telling Julie what happened, and if you've read the final scene in Taste of Regret then you already know the details.

The third session takes place on Tuesday October 24th, which aligns with the end of Chapter 6 of the Brotherhood story.

Reminder, this series contains *Spoilers* for the 'Taste of...' trilogy and for the 'Brotherhood' story. ***

"Hello again Maria, have a seat." Julie felt her smile fade slightly.

Maria looked stressed again, tense. It looked like she had something worrying her.

As she took her seat on the sofa, Julie asked "Is everything all right? You look worried. Last time you were here things sounded like they were going well."

Their second session was the day after Thanksgiving, and Maria had spent the hour smiling as she recounted how the five of them came together like a family, that all four girls pitched in and they had a really good day.

Maria sighed "Julie, this will probably be our last session for a while. Something's come up. There's a threat. I mean a life-and-death threat, that could put Sadie and Amanda's lives in danger, as well as my own."

Julie frowned, "That sounds serious. Do you want to talk about it?"

"There's not much to tell," Maria shook her head. "I just found out on Sunday. A group of men are... I suppose they're hunting us. Those of us in the coven. They tried to kill two young women on Friday, and we know their intention is to kill all of us."

"I see," Julie frowned again. "Are Sadie and Amanda in the coven then?"

That brought a blush to Maria's face, and the brunette sighed. "Yes. Since the end of September. I was worried there might still be people looking for them, the same lot that kidnapped Amanda last month. It seemed that they might be safer if they were learning magic. So I invited the two of them, and Sadie's girlfriend Ashley as well. Now it seems like instead of helping keep them safe, I've just put them in more danger instead."

Julie asked, "Is there anything you can do? I don't imagine going to the police would help?"

Maria shook her head, "No, the police wouldn't be any help at all with this. These men are using magic to try and kill us."

They were both quiet for a few moments after that. Julie had no idea how to respond or what to say. She still wasn't entirely comfortable with the whole topic of magic, despite the demonstration Maria gave her at their first session. 

The light spell had been impressive, but Julie couldn't help trying to come up with rational explanations for it. She didn't question or argue with Maria on any of the other magic she mentioned, she just accepted it all at face value. She had hundreds of questions, though.

Finally she asked, "Ok, so that happened on Sunday. How did things go before that? At our last session you were happy about the way Thanksgiving worked out for the five of you, did that good mood carry on through the rest of the week?"

Maria smiled slightly. "The past two weeks have been quite the roller-coaster. We rode the high from Thanksgiving through the rest of that week. Then last Monday, there was an incident at school. I'll spare you the details but all four girls were suspended for four days."

She sighed as her smile faded. "Jenny might have earned the suspension but I think the bottom line was the principal was wrong, and either too stubborn to back down and admit he made a mistake, or perhaps the man's just queermisic and took the opportunity to unjustly punish four sisters because one's trans and another is gay."

Julie could hear the frustration in Maria's tone, though she was obviously trying not to dwell on it.

"Anyways, we all decided to leave that behind us. It did lead to some conversations on Wednesday and..." Maria hesitated.

Julie could see a mix of new emotions on the brunette's face. Fear, pride, excitement, and worry. After a few moments she prompted, "And?"

Maria smiled nervously, "The topic of adoption came up. Officially, all four girls are orphans. I'm their guardian, but Amanda and Sadie will be eighteen next summer, they'll be adults and won't require a guardian. And in five years, the same will be true for Jenny and Beth."

With a sigh she added, "Beth is still dealing with a lot of things. And she specifically said she missed having a mom. She doesn't know Liz's parents are still alive, but she doesn't remember them or know who they are regardless. She believes her own parents are both dead, otherwise why would she have to live with her 'cousins' and I?"

Julie frowned, "I remember you said Liz's memories were ah, taken from her. What does Beth remember?"

Maria sighed again and shook her head. "Almost nothing. She has functional knowledge appropriate for a girl her age. And she remembers some details of Amanda's and Jenny's lives. She doesn't remember much about Sadie. Her own life though... She doesn't seem to remember anything before the day she returned to us, after Liz's funeral. She's basically got full retrograde amnesia, for her entire life up until just over a month ago."

"Oh," Julie frowned.

Maria was frowning as well. "It's not the first time our Goddess has doled out what I'd consider excessive or cruel punishment."

Julie asked, "Your Goddess? So it wasn't you, or other people in the coven who did that to Liz?"

Maria shook her head "I could never do anything like that. I knew something had to be done about Liz but I wouldn't have been able to decide what, let alone do it. And I would never have done this."

Julie nodded slowly in agreement. She couldn't imagine doing that to someone. She had enough trouble imagining what it must be like for the young teen that Liz had become.

Finally she asked, "So there's been other occasions where you've disapproved of your Goddess?"

Maria hesitated, then sighed as she nodded, "Yes. Before I was invited to join the coven, I first found out about magic because I was asked to help them with another young teen. Her birth certificate said she was sixteen at the time, but she could have passed for twelve. She was tiny, skinny, weak. Her affect was all over the place, she was unstable. She alternated between acting like a young adult, a teen, and a child. And her education and aptitude were just as unusual. She had college-level language and comprehension skills, but her maths and sciences skills were barely grade-school. I thought at the time she had dyscalculia."

Julie nodded for Maria to continue.

"Eventually they told me the truth. That tiny odd little teenage girl had originally been a twenty-two year old university student, in the third year of a maths and physics program. She was originally a large, strong, athletic young man." 

Maria hesitated again. "I was never told what her crime was, or who she'd been before. I did some digging though, based on knowing roughly when she'd been changed. I'm pretty sure I know who she was. I still don't know why she was cursed, but... She went from being a popular young man with a potential future in sports or a career in maths or sciences, to a weak tiny teen girl, with a serious learning disability in the exact area she used to specialize in."

Julie gulped slightly. "That's terrifying, Maria. This girl, were her memories taken too?"

"No," she shook her head. "I was told she remembered everything. She knew who she'd been, what she'd done, why she'd been cursed." 

Maria added, "Within a week or two, the girl had already decided she was happier in her new life. She said she wouldn't want to go back even if she could. That was nearly three years ago. She's almost nineteen now, though she looks fifteen or sixteen. She seems happy though. She's got a girlfriend, and the two of them travel quite a bit. She doesn't talk about her past at all."

"Ok." Julie thought for a few moments, then asked "You mentioned adoption earlier, then we got side-tracked. Would you like to discuss that?"

Maria smiled, though she looked nervous as well as happy. "Right, yes. Bethany said she wanted a mom, she wanted all four girls to have a mom. Then Sadie suggested if I adopted all four of them it would mean Beth would be their sister rather than cousin, and all four would have me as a mom, and it wouldn't 'expire' when they were eighteen. It would mean we were all a 'proper forever family'."

"Sadie suggested that?" Julie asked in surprise. "And also, 'Bethany'? I thought her name was Elizabeth?"

"Right," Maria sighed. "She told me she was uncomfortable sharing the same name as her cousins' dead mother. She said she wanted to change her name to Bethany. She'd still be Beth to all of us of course. We talked it over and she was sure, so I set the ball rolling on that for her."

She continued, "And yes, I was shocked that my er, brother-turned-niece would suggest adoption. But family has always been very important to Sadie, and I think she knew it would make Beth happy."

"What did the others think of it?" Julie asked.

"Beth of course liked it right from the start. Amanda took a little convincing, and Jenny a little more. But not a lot. It was basically decided by the time the five of us finished lunch."

Julie asked, "And what do you think of it? I sense some apprehension."

Maria sighed. "I'm terrified. I don't know how to be a mother, I never wanted kids. Now I've got four of them." She sighed again. "Amanda suggested that we all start acting like the adoption's gone through already, which made Beth happy. It means they're all calling her 'sister' now. The three of them still call me Maria, but Bethany's started calling me 'mom' already and that's..." Her voice trailed off.

"Uncomfortable?" Julie prompted.

"Yes," Maria nodded. "I mean, I still can't shake the memory of her pointing a gun at me, the hatred in her eyes. If she hadn't been stopped, she would have shot me. And I know that wasn't Bethany, that was Liz. And I know Beth has no idea any of that happened. It's just... It's a lot. That was only a month ago. A month ago she wanted to murder me, and now she wants me to be her mother."

She shook her head and sighed yet again. "And I know that wasn't really her. Beth is a shy, confused, possibly frightened child. She just wants to fit in and feel like she belongs. I feel guilty that sometimes I still see Liz when I look at her. And I'm worried what might happen in the future, when those old memories come back to her. How will she react, if one day she suddenly remembers how much she hated me, or remembers that she tried to murder me? That might be just as much torture for her down the road, to know she once tried to kill the woman she now calls mom."

Maria sighed again and stared down at the carpet, looking guilty. "I wonder sometimes if it might be better for her, if she never recovers those memories. And that makes me feel awful, because that's basically me picking Bethany over Liz. And I don't know if that would truly be best for her, or if it's just me projecting because Liz and I had some issues with each other."

Julie pointed out, "Liz tried to kill you, that's a little more serious than just 'having some issues with each other'. At any rate, you're talking about things that may or may not happen in the future. It's probably not that helpful right now to worry about that sort of thing. And I get the feeling it's not your choice anyways? From what you've said, it's up to this Goddess of yours, if and when that happens."

"Right," Maria nodded. "You're right. I know it's not helpful worrying about this stuff now. But it comes up, because of the circumstances, the situation. I'll be having dinner with the four of them tonight. Maybe Beth will ask me to help her with her homework or something. Of the four, she's the one who's most desperate for a 'mom', the one who needs me the most. At the same time it's literally only been five weeks. Five weeks ago tonight, she was a grown woman my age, who wanted to kill me. Now she's a young teen who's calling me 'mom' and looking to me for help and advice and acceptance."

Julie could see some tears in Maria's eyes now, and subtly moved the box of tissues a little closer to her. 

"Why the tears, Maria?" she asked softly. "Are they for you, for Bethany, or for Liz?"

Maria shook her head, smiling sadly. "I don't know, Julie." She took a tissue and dried her eyes, then said "I suppose for Bethany. And for the other girls too, I guess."

Julie gave her a compassionate smile, and asked "Why are you sad for Bethany?"

"I suppose I feel sorry for her. And I still feel guilty." Maria sighed. "She's basically innocent, and out of the five of us she has no knowledge of magic or anything else that's happened. She's just struggling to find her place and fit in. And she doesn't deserve having me think of her as the hateful spiteful bitter woman who tried to kill me and a friend of mine. Because she's not her." 

There was sadness in her voice, but Julie could tell Maria still had some unresolved anger. She suggested, "You're still angry with Liz, but you have nowhere to put that now."

Maria sighed again, "Yes, that's about right."

"And why tears for the other girls?" Julie asked.

The brunette frowned, staring at the floor again. "More guilt, I guess? They're all just... They're really good kids, they're doing the best they can to cope with situations that nobody should ever have to deal with. Jenny misses her mother the most, but she's also been going out of her way to bond with Beth. She spends almost all her free time with Beth, she looks out for her at school."

After another sigh she continued "And the older girls, they're dealing with this threat now. Amanda, Sadie, and Ashley, Sadie's girlfriend. They only joined the coven at the end of September, now we have to step up their training and hope they'll stay safe. Meanwhile Amanda's dealing with the loss of her mother just like Jenny."

Julie asked, "And Sadie?"

"Sadie..." Maria frowned again. "You know, for a long time I thought my brother was gone. That Sadie replaced him. I thought she remembered enough of his life that she could pretend to be him. This past month, living with all of them, watching the girls interact and be themselves, I realize now that my brother never left." 

She clarified, "I mean, Sadie is a different person in the sense that she doesn't act like he did. And of course she has different goals and opinions than he did. But I don't act like I did when I was a teen, I don't want the same things I did back then. That doesn't make me a different person though. It just means I've grown and changed. It's the same for Sadie. Spending all this time as a teen girl, going back to high-school, dealing with the emotions and hormones and everything else? Of course it's changed her. But everything she used to be is still there too. My brother was a lawyer, and all those years of knowledge and experience are still there. Even though she thinks law is boring now, she still knows how it works."

"That's encouraging, isn't it?" Julie asked. "I mean, knowing your brother isn't really 'dead', I hope that at least lessens some of the guilt for you?"

"I suppose. Maybe." Maria sounded reluctant to agree, but Julie knew it would take time.

She asked, "Hypothetically, if you could go back in time and change the past, would you? Knowing what you now know, would you want to undo things, so you never changed your brother?"

That brought a thoughtful frown to Maria's expression. She stared at a spot on the wall for a minute or so, then finally sighed. "No, I wouldn't. I know how happy Sadie is now. I know how her sisters have accepted and embraced her. As much as I regret the bad things, I wouldn't want to take away the good things. And I know Sadie wouldn't want me to do it. It would be even worse than when I reversed the curse on her last summer. At that time she only had a few days as a little girl. Now she's had almost a year and a half. Fixing my mistake would mean 'killing' who she is now. And it would mean all the other positive things that have happened since then, would also be lost."

"What about Liz, or Bethany?" Julie asked. "Is her situation now an improvement? Or is she worse off than before?"

Maria sighed again. "That's really hard to say. I can't tell, subjectively, whether she's happier now or not. Objectively, I guess I'd say she's probably in a better place now? Even before everything else happened, Liz was always uptight. I think her parents put a lot of pressure on her, among other things. Now she has a second chance, and she's surrounded by sisters who love and accept her, who are looking out for her and trying to help her."

Julie nodded slowly, and just watched quietly for a few moments.

Finally Maria gave her a wry smile, "I know, I know. Objectively if things have worked out better for everyone, then why am I so upset about it all. If it was that easy, you and I would be out of work."

Julie smiled back, "I know, Maria. And I know you know. It's still good to be reminded of that, now and then."

She changed the subject, as they were just about at the end of their time for today. "When do you think you'll be able to resume our sessions?"

Maria sighed, "No idea. Probably not until the threat's passed. I'll be in touch. Hopefully it won't be too long."

"Ok Maria," Julie stood up. "Good luck, and I hope you all stay safe. You can always reach out to me by email if you need to."