darker_london | Renee / Tasha - Visiting

It was one thing to visit Tasha in hospital, but quite another to enter the isolation area of Regents Park Children's Psychiatric Ward. As soon as the hallway door closed, Renee felt the oppressive atmosphere weighing down upon her heart. Her stomach wanted to reject the hearty lunch that Aunt Ivana had filled her with, and every instinct within her screamed to run the other way.

This was where she could have ended up. Where they'd kept Josie for a significant amount of her time here. The firebrand demon who seemed to have disappeared without a trace...

And now the half-familiar nurse was leading her down the hallway, Renee this time on the other side of the visit. Was this how Tasha had felt visiting her...? Probably not. She hadn't needed to come this deep into the institution... nor had she been locked in here before.

Maybe this was more how Deirdre felt.

The lock sounded heavier than her own had when the nurse opened Tasha's door. Tasha was still strapped to the bed, though. They weren't taking any chances with her. But at least she was awake.

Renee smiled as she sat by Tasha's side and gently stroked her hair. "Hey, beautiful."

Tasha's eyes shone with tears as she looked up at Renee. "Is it really you?"

"Of course it is, sweetie," Renee told her, leaning down to hug her cousin as best she could. "Have you been having nightmares again?"

"It was Avery," Tasha said quietly.

Renee frowned. "What do you mean, it was Avery?"

"I was right. It was Avery. It was Avery who was doing this to me!" Tasha's voice was growing louder as she got worked up. Gently, Renee took the girl's hand, trying to calm her.

"Ssshhhh... Tash... It's okay, I'm here. Why do you think it was Avery?" Renee was hardly fond of Avery at the moment, but she could hardly turn around and point the finger at him for this... right? Unless...

"He told me," Tasha continued. "On the walls. They were bleeding... and Avery... he showed me... when he tried to kill himself, when he slashed his throat... and then I saw myself with Jack, and..."

"It's alright," Renee interrupted her. She was trying to keep her voice soothing, but talking about Avery and Jack was exactly condusive to keeping her calm. On the one hand, these could just be nothing more than waking nightmares spawned by a guilty conscience over what she had done with Jack. On the other... well, who really knew what kind of powers Avery might have at his disposal? "I'll see if there's anything I can find out," she assured Tasha.

"Can you fight back?"

That was the question, wasn't it? "I don't know," she replied honestly. "Magick is... I've had to reassess a lot of my beliefs. I don't really know what's possible and what isn't."

"But you believe me, don't you? You believe me when I tell you that it was Avery?"

"Tash, I told you that I would look into it. There really isn't anything else I can do."

"So you don't believe me!"

"Tash..."

"Don't!" Tasha snapped, turning her head away from Renee. "Nobody believes me. I thought... I thought that you would understand..."

It broke Renee's heart to see Tasha in such a state, but what more could she possibly do? On one level, the idea that Avery was behind this did make sense... and it wasn't exactly hard for Renee to believe that if such a thing were possible, Avery would go through with it. He and Jake were beyond the point of reason when it came to Jack. And the images that Tasha described...

"Tash, I do understand. It wasn't so long ago that I was locked up here, too, with no one listening to my explanations of what happened," she said quietly. "If I thought you were mad, I wouldn't promise to look into this for you. I honestly don't know if what you are saying is possible. But I will find out. I promise."

Tasha looked back up at Renee, and slowly, she nodded. "Thank you, coz."

"You're welcome, dear." Renee leaned down and gently kissed Tasha on the lips, before rising and giving her hand a squeeze. "I should go, then. I'll need to talk to Deirdre."

A brief look of horror crossed Tasha's face, but she nodded her assent anyway. "Come back soon?"

"I will," Renee smiled. "I love you, Tash."

"I love you, too."

As much as she was glad to have visited Tasha, it was an enormous relief to just get out of that cell, out of that ward. The suspicion was twisting like a serpent in the pit of her stomach, though. The more she thought about Tasha's words, the clearer it seemed to become that maybe Avery really did have something to do with this. The images couldn't have just been coincidental, especially not the image of Avery's suicide attempt. That was a pretty big construction for Tasha's mind to make.

As she exited the hospital, Renee pulled out her phone and messaged Deirdre. I need to talk to you. Call me tonight? It was about time she heard her girlfriend's voice again, anyway...