Watson Sessions # 5 (Patreon)

*** The fifth session takes place on Tuesday December 12th, one week after the 4th session. This fits in between chapters 35 & 36 of the Brotherhood story.

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

"Hello Julie," Maria said, as she and the blonde teen entered the room.

The two of them stopped just inside the door, as Maria did the introductions.

"Amanda, this is Julie. Julie, this is my, daughter Amanda."

Julie noticed the slight hesitation in Maria's voice at the word daughter. The word itself also caught Julie slightly off-guard, she'd been expecting to hear 'niece' instead. Of course, she did her best to keep her expression neutral.

"Hello Amanda," Julie smiled politely. "It's a pleasure to meet you."

"Hi," the teen said. She looked pretty much as Julie might have expected. She was an inch or so shorter than Maria, slim and somewhat attractive. She had shoulder-length dirty-blonde hair, hazel eyes, and her skin looked slightly tanned, though it was a shade or two lighter than Maria's. The girl was wearing skinny jeans, a small black t-shirt, and sneakers. 

Maria looked to Amanda and said, "I'll be in the waiting room if you need anything."

Amanda nodded, "Ok. Thanks mom."

Maria excused herself, and closed the door behind her. Amanda made her way to the sofa and sat down at the end, her right arm leaning on the armrest. 

She looked a little uptight or anxious, but that wasn't unexpected for her first time with a therapist.

Julie took her seat and asked "So Amanda, what would you like to talk about?"

"Uh, my mom." After a moment she clarified, "Actually I guess both my moms."

Then she laughed slightly and shook her head as she whispered, "Aw crap."

Julie raised an eyebrow, "What is it, Amanda? Is something wrong?"

The teen shook her head. She had a bit of a wry smile on her face as she replied "Nah, I just reminded myself of something. Way back when uh, Sadie first came out to me and Jenny? When mom said our dad was trans, I asked if we were going to have two moms. And she said no we wouldn't. Except it turns out we did, just not both at the same time. And the 'other mom' wasn't who I expected."

She paused, then frowned "Crap, do I have to start referring to them as mom-one and mom-two or something? What's the best way to talk about this stuff, if you don't know which mom I'm talking about?"

So far nothing Amanda had said and nothing in her tone or body language suggested she was upset. She was perhaps a little nervous though, and that was making her talkative.

Julie replied, "Whatever you're most comfortable with is fine Amanda. If I get confused I'll ask." She then asked, "How long have you been calling her 'mom'?" She made a slight gesture towards the waiting-room, to indicate she meant Maria.

Amanda grimaced slightly, "It's not even a full week yet. That's actually why I wanted to talk to you? The adoption stuff was all done last week, on Thursday."

"Oh, I see." Julie was surprised, that was only about two months from when the topic first came up. "How are you feeling about that?"

Amanda frowned, "It's complicated." She sighed, "I guess I wasn't really prepared for it? I thought I was... But when she told us all last week it sort of surprised me."

She sighed again then said, "Beth's been calling her 'mom' since we first discussed it, back in October? And we've all been calling Beth our sister. Mom said right from the start we could keep calling her 'Maria' though, which is what we'd all been doing. All except Beth."

Amanda hesitated slightly as she frowned again. "I thought I'd just keep calling her 'Maria'... Like, I didn't want to forget our real mom? Except... Beth really isn't mom any more. I mean, she's so different. And she doesn't remember anything from before? Like with Sadie, she remembers it all and even though she's definitely my sister now, there's also a few little things she does or says that remind me of dad? She doesn't like being called that, but you can ask her stuff about back then and she remembers it."

Amanda sighed once more, "With Beth though... There's just nothing. Maria, I mean mom told me that stuff's all still inside Beth, like mom's in there somewhere... But sometimes it's hard to believe."

After another pause she added, "We never went through these sorts of questions with Sadie, because there was no replacement dad. Like, we never had to worry about whether or not to call somebody else 'dad', because there was nobody trying to replace her. And because she was like, right there, with all her old memories and stuff."

Julie hesitated as she thought through what the girl just said. Finally she asked, "Is it easier to accept Sadie as your sister, because you know your dad's still there in a way?"

That brought another frown to the teen's face. After a few moments she nodded slowly "Actually yeah. I never really thought of it like that before? But I guess it's because Sadie isn't a stranger. Like, at first she acted a lot more uh, dad-like? I mean, her mannerisms and how she talked and stuff. Not that she acted and talked like a guy, I just mean little quirks and things? A lot of that's gone now, but it happened slowly. So yeah, it meant even though from the outside she'd completely changed, there were enough little clues and hints at first, that she wasn't a stranger."

Amanda added, "It also took me a while to get past that and really accept her as my sister rather than my dad. But I think it helped overall, because it meant I knew who she was."

She sighed again. "With Beth though... I 'know' who she is because we were all told, and I mean the resemblance is there. She totally looks like Jenny's sister now. But... How she acts and stuff is so different. I still accept her as a sister, I'm not saying she's not family. Just that, it's hard to know who she really is."

"I'm sorry," Julie said. "I know that must be very difficult for you."

The teen nodded quietly, with a slight frown and a distant expression.

After a pause, Julie asked "How does that tie in with how you address your new mother?"

Amanda sighed once more, "So when Maria told us the news last week, Beth was really happy and she started to cry. And she thanked Maria... I think she was thanking her for adopting us? She said 'thanks mom'. Then Sadie said it too. Sort of like, making it a thing." 

She frowned, "I kind of panicked a little? Like I said, I'd planned on just calling her Maria... But it was like, I realized that mom was gone. That she was gone and me trying to like, honour her memory or whatever was probably just making Beth unhappy? Like, Beth wants us all to be sisters and wants us all to have a mom? So if I kept saying 'Maria' then maybe I'd be making Beth think I wasn't happy with Maria as our mom or something... And like, if our real mom wasn't coming back, then trying to honour her memory would just be upsetting who she is now?"

She took a deep breath then sighed. "So that's when I decided... It would make Beth, our old mom happier if I accepted that she was gone and started calling Maria 'mom' instead. So that's what I've been doing since then..."

Julie nodded slowly, "It sounds to me like you love Beth a lot, and you wanted to make her happy."

"Sure," Amanda shrugged. "I mean, she's still family. Whether she's our mom or our little sister?"

"Do you miss her as your mom?" Julie asked.

That brought a thoughtful look to the teen's face.

Finally she said "I guess so, yeah. But I mean, she's only been Bethany for about two months? Like, it took about that long for me to stop missing Sadie as our dad and just accept her as herself?"

She frowned as she added "And to be honest, if Beth did somehow become our mom again I think I'd miss her as Beth? Like I'm kind of used to having her around as Beth now."

Julie asked, "Do you think it makes a difference in how you relate to them both, that Sadie's er, transition was something she wanted but Beth's wasn't?"

Amanda frowned again as she seemed to be thinking that through. Finally she shook her head "No. And I'm not sure it matters to them either? I mean, we eventually found out that what happened to Sadie wasn't really her own choice, right? It was because of an accident, but she got used to it. And now I know for a fact she's really happy with who she is."

After a slight pause, she added "And actually, even though Beth's quiet and sort of shy or timid, I think she's happy too. She's not as outgoing as Sadie, or as mom used to be either, for that matter. But I think Beth's happy too. Happier than she was when she was our mom..."

She frowned again after her voice trailed off.

"Your mother wasn't happy?" Julie asked. "Was that because of Sadie's situation?"

Amanda sighed then shook her head. "Mom was always uptight. She wasn't unhappy, I mean she wasn't always unhappy? But she was always uptight. And after the stuff with Sadie last year, mom was more uptight and less happy I think. Beth though, she may be quiet and shy, but she seems happy. She doesn't have that stress or whatever? And she's got all of us sort of there for her, looking out for her and stuff. And she knows we all love her."

Julie smiled, "It sounds like you all have a very loving, caring family. You look out for each other."

"Yeah," Amanda smiled as well. "I guess we do."

The two were quiet for a minute or so. Eventually Julie asked, "Is there anything else you'd like to talk about?"

The teen looked thoughtful, then she frowned slightly. "Mom said she's told you pretty much all our secrets. Like obviously you know about how our family's been through some weird changes and stuff. You know about magic and that we're witches and all that?"

Julie nodded quietly.

"What do you think of all that?" Amanda asked. "I mean... It's like, we're not a normal family right? None of this stuff is normal."

That brought a slight grimace to Julie's expression, before she answered "I appreciate that the specific details, the ah, magical aspects of your family's experiences are unique. But taking a step back and looking at things from a broader perspective, relationships change and evolve over time. People transition, without magical help. And there are tragedies and accidents in the world, which don't involve magic. Everyone's experiences are unique, but there are always commonalities. And we're all human. We all have our own ways of reacting and responding to these things."

Amanda frowned again, then asked quietly "What about stuff like, getting cursed?"

Julie sighed slightly. "Without addressing anything specific, I think someone being 'cursed' could correspond either to an accident, or if it were in retaliation for some perceived crime then I think it might correspond to someone being reprimanded or punished. Those are situations people deal with, and those are things I can and have helped people work through."

The teen was quiet for a few moments, staring at some point on the wall with a thoughtful frown on her face.

"Is there something specific you'd like to talk about, Amanda?"

The blonde shrugged slightly then sighed. "Mom told me that you already know about what happened, to me and my uh, friend."

"Would you like to talk about that?" Julie asked. "Or would you like to talk about the fact that your mother told me about it?"

Amanda shrugged again, "I know mom was upset. She tried to hide it at first. Like I guess she was kind of torn between wanting to be the authority figure and stuff? I mean I know I never should have told told any of that stuff to Britt. And I knew I'd be in trouble when Britt started talking about it in public. So I guess mom didn't want to seem like she wasn't angry with me. But I know she thought what happened to me and Britt was too much."

"Do you think it was too much?"

The teen rolled her eyes, "Well duh, of course it was too much! I mean, we could have both just been grounded for a few weeks. Take away Britt's phone so she couldn't blab our secrets online. There's probably a dozen ways it could have been handled that would have made more sense and wouldn't have completely turned our lives upside-down."

Julie asked, "Are you angry? Or unhappy, about what happened?"

She nodded. "Yeah. I was angry with Britt at first, for breaking her promise to me and stuff. Then I felt sorry for her, when I realized how much her life was messed up by being cursed. And when I got cursed too, it freaked me out."

There was another sigh and a frown as she continued, "But like, after the shock wore off and stuff? I knew we both screwed up. And I knew the timing was bad. Like, that's really what it came down to? If those guys weren't trying to kill us, probably nothing would have even happened."

Amanda hesitated then sighed again. "Anyways, it's been a month now. Britt and me are both kinda getting used to stuff. And I'm glad we're still friends, like the way things turned out at least we can still be together..." 

The teen blushed as her voice trailed off, she looked embarrassed at that line of thought. 

She quickly added "And when those guys attacked at the school last month, Brittany was really brave! She helped save me and Sadie and Ashley. Like, after everything that happened to her she could have just walked away and left us. But she risked her life for me and my sister and Ash. I think that's important. I think it means something."

"I agree," Julie nodded. "It sounds like Brittany is a good friend. It sounds to me like you and she care for each other."

Amanda blushed again but nodded "Yeah. I guess we do."

"Sort of like how your family has been through quite a lot, but you've all stuck together and you all look out for each other?"

The teen frowned slightly but finally agreed, "A little, yeah. I mean, even though Britt's life got completely changed around last month, and I got cursed too... Like I said, the way it worked out we're still friends. We've been sticking together, and helping each other."

Julie nodded, "I'm glad for that, Amanda." She then added, "We're almost at the end of our time. Is there anything else you'd like to discuss? Or would you like to invite your mother to join us for the last few minutes?"

Amanda blushed again "Oh! I didn't mean to use up all the time." She stood up, "I'll go send mom in. I mean, this was supposed to be her session but she brought me instead." 

Before Julie could say anything else, the teen hurried out to the waiting room. A half minute later Maria came in and closed the door behind her.

"I know we've only got a few minutes," she said as she sat down on the sofa. "How did it go with Amanda?"

Julie admitted, "I'm not sure what she thought of me or the session, but I do think she's coping with everything pretty well. I think you all have a very caring, loving family, and Amanda knows that and is an active part of it."

Maria nodded, with a proud smile. "They're all really good kids, and they love each other a lot." 

"Not just the girls. You're part of that as well, Maria." Julie smiled, "I understand the adoptions are all official now? Did you have them rushed through?"

The brunette blushed, "Ah. Yes. I don't like to take advantage too often, but we do have the luxury of calling on 'divine help' from time to time." After a moment she admitted "We could have had it completed back in October, but I didn't want it to seem too miraculously fast."

Julie felt her eyebrows going up. "Oh... I see." She cleared her throat then asked "How are you handling it? The adoption I mean?"

Maria grimaced. "I'm now mother to four teen girls, Julie. Honestly I'm terrified."

She took a deep breath then added "I'm also incredibly happy. After we'd agreed to treat it as a done deal back in October, I wasn't expecting there to be such a large impact when it became official. But I was wrong. It's been frightening, overwhelming, and wonderful."

Maria wiped away some happy tears as she added "All four of them are calling me 'mom' now. And all four of them are my daughters..."

"Even Bethany?" Julie asked. "I know you've had mixed feelings about how this would play out, because of the history between the two of you..."

"Especially Bethany," Maria stated. "She's the one who needed this most. She needed to belong, to know she had a place in the world. She needed a family. Of course she had all that before, but it wasn't 'official'. It's silly how much power a piece of paper can have over us all. But really it's not the paper. It's what the paper represents."

She took a deep breath then said, "It's one thing for all of us to tell each other we're family. For the girls to tell Beth she's their sister, for me to tell her she can call me 'mom'. But having that official paperwork means we aren't just telling it to each other. We've told it to the whole world. Nobody can tell Beth she isn't really my child, or she isn't really Amanda's little sister, because we've declared to the world that she is. That can't be taken away. That's why that little piece of paper is so important."

Julie smiled, "Well said, Maria. Now, before we finish up for today, have any of the other girls asked to meet with me?"

"Not yet," Maria shook her head. "At the moment I don't think we'll be booking another session, unless Amanda wants to come back. I know we'll all be busy with the holidays coming soon, so let's leave it for now. I'll be in touch in January, if things change, ok?"

"Sounds good," Julie agreed.