༄ 𝖼𝗁𝖺𝗉𝗍𝖾𝗋 𝖾𝗂𝗀𝗁𝗍 ༄

THALIA'S KNEE BOUNCED up and down rapidly as she sat in Sheriff Peterkin's office, biting at her nails. The odds of Thalia getting out of that room with no criminal charges was slim, and that alone made her want to jump out of the nearest window. Thalia didn't want to think about what Ward's reaction would be. She hadn't called him yet, and she didn't want to. "Oh, back again, are we?" Sheriff Peterkin walked into her office, Thalia's thick file in her hand.

Peterkin liked Thalia, and it killed her to see how far the redhead angel had fallen. Thalia shrugged. "Not by choice." she muttered as Peterkin sat at her desk.

"Did you call your uncle? He coming to get you?" Peterkin opened Thalia's file, documents going back to her time in foster care over a decade ago resting behind more recent ones.

"Not yet. I want to call my dad. If he's even around." Thalia fiddled with the bracelets on her wrists.

"Is that a good idea?" Peterkin didn't have enough evidence to convict Thalia's father for child abuse, partially because Thalia didn't even know his last name. Thalia didn't live with her father, or she would have more information on him. The time she did spend with him when she was little, living in house, she had no recollection of. The abuse was so bad that she repressed it all. Her father never paid Whitney the child support he owed, so there wasn't a financial record of him to trace either.

Thalia shrugged. "Yeah, you're right. I don't even remember his phone number." she said in defeat.

Peterkin pulled out Thalia's illicit materials Shoupe had confiscated and bagged up, placing them on her desk. "Well, that's good, because Ward's on his way. Let's talk, kid," Peterkin began, and Thalia sighed. "You need to tell me where you're getting this stuff."

"I'm not snitching on anyone." Thalia declared, her arms crossed over her chest.

Peterkin had planned for this. "Okay. It's either you tell me where you're buying these drugs, or I'm charging you with possession and shipping you to the mainland. Your choice." the Sheriff leant back against her chair.

Thalia would rather be arrested than be known as a snitch. Besides, if she gave Peterkin her dealer's name, she'd have to find a new dealer, and she couldn't go that long without weed. "I guess you're charging me." she said, and Peterkin took a deep breath.

"I know you've had a tough few months, kid. Your accident, rehab twice. But you have to get off this path, because I can't guarantee I'll always be able to help you. If you keep killing yourself with this crap, you will get caught. You will get arrested. You will go to jail, and by the time you get out, no one will care about you anymore. I know you don't want to be a junkie like your parents, so don't be. Give me a name, and I'll protect you." Peterkin spoke softly, in a motherly tone. Thalia needed that.

The redhead sighed. "He lives in the motel. The one I grew up in. Second floor." Thalia wasn't telling Peterkin anything else, and that was enough information for the sheriff to go off of.

Peterkin noticed Ward walking into the building, and she knew she was running out of time. "You're gonna get better, kid." she spoke, and Thalia nodded, standing and leaving the office.

After paying for her bail, Ward walked silently to the car. They didn't speak the entire drive home, but Thalia was in deep shit the moment Ward pulled into the driveway. The arguement lasted a while, and Thalia was sentenced to her room, where she sat by her window with a book, exhaling smoke from one of her other vape pens into the night sky. Wheezie could be heard on the other side of the door, asking her father what had happened, but Ward didn't give his youngest child any information.

It was quiet in the house because Rafe wasn't home, and Sarah and Wheezie were entertaining themselves, leaving Thalia to herself. She enjoyed the peace. As she stared at the ceiling fan in her room while laying on her bed, Thalia didn't expect to have a visitor. She sat up at the sound of a third object being tossed at her window, and moved towards the scene. When Thalia opened the windows, Pope was standing on the lawn, a few stones in his hand. "Hi!" he whispered, looking up at Thalia, her red hair braided over her shoulder.

Thalia frowned, unsure of how to react to the Pogue at her window. "Hold on a second," she quickly locked her door before climbing out of her large windows, sliding off the roof and landing on her stable leg. "What's going on?" Thalia pushed her hair out of her face, standing in front of Pope.

Pope shrugged, a baseball cap backwards on his head. "I was worried. We were worried about you," he corrected himself quickly. "What happened?"

"The usual. Peterkin tried to scare me into snitching, Ward showed up, paid the bail, I'm grounded." Thalia brushed off her encounter with the police. It was business as usual for her.

"Are you sure you're okay? You look a little off." Pope said, unsettled at how casual Thalia was being.

Thalia's medication was unbalanced, but she couldn't make sense of that. "You don't know me, Pope. I'm fine. What happened after I left?" she changed the subject, her hands fidgeting at her sides.

Pope tried to hide his hurt at Thalia's harsh words. "John B found a bag in the boat, and as we left to go back to his house, we were chased by the marsh by these guys with guns. They were shooting at us, but we got away. In the bag was a compass that was John B's father." he explained.

"Are you fucking with me? You were chased through the marsh?" Thalia repeated, looking beyond Pope to see JJ operating the HMS, hidden by the night.

"Yeah. It's insane," Pope said, and then he could've sworn he heard Rafe's voice in the distance. "Is that Rafe?" he whispered.

Thalia walked towards the house, hearing her door rattling in her room. "Oh, shit. You got to get out of here before he sees you." Thalia ordered, and Pope nodded.

"See you around?" he asked hopefully, backing away towards JJ.

Thalia nodded. "Thanks for the visit!" she shouted in a whisper, managing, with a struggle, to pull herself back into her bedroom. Thalia unlocked her door, rubbing at her eyes to put on the facade that she had been asleep. "What do you want?" she asked, pulling the door open.

Rafe walked in the room, shutting it quietly behind him. "What the hell happened to you? Dad won't tell us anything." the blonde asked, sitting down at Thalia's desk.

The redhead flopped onto her bed, the ceiling fan catching her focus. "I got arrested. Shoupe found my drugs. Peterkin tried to get me to snitch." she listed her evening, turning her fan on a higher setting to watch the blades spin faster.

"Did you?" Rafe asked quickly, straightening his spine in alarm.

"Did I what?" Thalia questioned, uninterested in the conversation her cousin was holding.

"Jesus Christ, Thalia. Did you snitch?" Rafe said, his face in his hands.

Thalia sat up with an eye roll. "No, I didn't snitch," she lied. "Is that why you're here? To make sure you can still get your shit from Parker?" Thalia knew Rafe used Parker as his weed dealer too, and she should've known her cousin didn't care about her as much as he cared about drugs.

Rafe sighed. "I'm here because I'm worried about you. Rose said something about your meds going out of balance." he admitted, and Thalia stood up, scoffing.

"My meds are fine, Rafe." there were things Thalia had to do if her meds weren't working right, but she didn't think she needed her meds at all.

"No, they're not. I can tell. You're acting like you were when you first came home from rehab. You're shaking, you're angry, you're not thinking straight. I know you, Thally. I know you're not stupid enough to be caught with drugs. You only mess up when your brain is messed up." Rafe stood up, holding Thalia by the shoulders to keep her from pacing.

Thalia knew Rafe was right. "I have felt off, I guess." she admitted, pulling one of her blankets around her body, sitting on the floor.

Rafe nodded. "What are you supposed to do when this happens?" he questioned, running a hand through his hair.

"Up my downers, sleep it off, see the shrink as soon as possible." Thalia repeated, standing and moving towards her bathroom.

"Do that, then. We don't want another episode," Rafe said as Thalia opened a pill bottle. "I'll grab you some chocolate." he announced to his little cousin, knowing the treat helped her settle down.

Thalia pulled on a t-shirt and cotton shorts, climbing into her bed as Rafe returned, placing the bar of chocolate on Thalia's nightstand. "Thanks." Thalia muttered, hating saying that to Rafe.

Rafe rolled his eyes. "Goodnight,
Thally-bear." he said, shutting off Thalia's lamp and closing her door, allowing her to sleep off whatever had unbalanced her in peace, without the distractions of his sisters.

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