by Saless
Chapter 60

Erica continued to try and calm Sarah down, but nothing was working. She was about ready to call 911 when Jill suddenly burst into the room. "Who's attacking Sarah?!" she yelled, with Mike coming in right behind her.

"Nobody! I somehow triggered a memory of something her mother did to her a long time ago and I can't snap her out of it!" Erica cried out, slumping to the floor at the foot of the bed.

"Her mother?! But I thought…" Jill started to say, then cut herself off and ran over to Sarah.

"Wait! She'll just try to get away from you, don't scare her more!" Erica exclaimed, reaching out to grab Jill's leg but missing.

"I won't scare her; you're the one who triggered the memory." Jill replied, but Sarah did recoil from her and she retreated before Sarah could become any more hysterical.

"If it's a memory of her mother that's doing this, maybe I can help." Mike offered. He stepped forward, but Jill grabbed his arm to stop him.

"NO! That's the worst thing you could do right now! Vash! Can you do anything?" Jill said.

Already working on it. was his reply. He became visible and approached Sarah, but got the same response. So he became invisible again.

Sarah suddenly grabbed him where he'd been rubbing up against her and clutched him to her chest. Ack! he squeaked, but soon she was crying into his fur and stroking his feathers absently.

Sarah finally began to calm down when Vash started purring and kept muttering, "Jaime" over and over again.

"Damn!" Mike exclaimed when he finally made out what she was saying.

"What?" Jill asked when he didn't say anything else.

"Sarah has a teddy bear named Jaime! I remember her mother complaining that she should get rid of it, that she was too old for stuffed animals. She always blew it off as just a memento of her childhood or something, as she just kept it up on a shelf in her room and never took it down." Mike said, never taking his eyes off of Sarah.

She is dealing with the pain of the memory the same way she did then. What set her off? Vash asked. Jill had to ask Erica, as Sarah was in no shape to relay the message.

"I don't know! She was putting herself down and I told her not to call herself a freak, and she just totally lost it!" Erica sobbed, unconsciously reaching out towards Sarah from where she was lying on the floor.

That doesn't help. Her shields are as tight as ever, I can't get anything else out of her. I don't even know what memory this is, it's not one I've seen any sign of before. Vash said in frustration.

Jill knelt down and drew Erica up against her in a gentle hug. "It's alright Erica; it's not your fault." she said. Erica tensed at first, and then turned and sobbed on her shoulder.

"Damn, what happened?!" Mike growled in frustration. He looked helplessly at Sarah and Erica. Is there anything I can do? he thought.

Just be here and keep your anger and frustration in check. That's all you can do for now. Vash said sadly.

Eventually Sarah fell asleep, Vash still held tightly to her chest. "Erica, can you tell us how you knew it was a memory of her mother that did this?" Jill asked when she'd managed to calm her.

"The bond." Erica said with a sniff as she wiped the tears from her face. "We were talking through the bond when it happened and I got this image before she shut me out."

"What image?" Jill asked patiently.

"I think it was in Sarah's old bedroom at her parents' house, when she was twelve or thirteen. Her mother was furious about something, totally out of control. She was holding Sarah up by her throat against the wall and seemed like she was really going to choke the life out of her. That's all I saw." Erica said, more tears streaming unheeded down her face.

Jill sat back in shock. "I had no idea…" she said softly.

"Neither did I! She never said anything bad about her mother! In fact she always had good things to say. Although…" Mike trailed off, frowning in thought.

"What?" Jill asked.

"Well, it was around that age that she stopped really talking about her parents at all. She'd never gotten along with her father, though she never actually said anything bad about him. But she was always saying good things about her mother. Then she just stopped. She didn't talk about them at all from then on." Mike said.

"Why didn't she ever talk about this with any of us? We would have understood why she didn't want to see her parents if she had." Jill said.

She didn't know. Vash said.

"What do you mean, she didn't know?! How could she not know?!" Jill replied.

She repressed the memory. She does not consciously know it ever happened. She stopped talking about her because she couldn't let herself think about her lest the memory resurface. That's why the memory's are so hard to find. Whatever Erica said must have been very similar to whatever her mother said to trigger the memory. Vash said.

Jill and Mike looked at Erica and she said, "Don't look at me! I just told her to never call herself a freak! I wasn't going to hurt her!"

Jill sighed, "This isn't getting us anywhere. Mike, would you put Sarah on her bed? Be careful of Vash." Mike carefully picked up Sarah and laid her on the bed, then pulled the blankets off the floor and covered her with them, making sure not to completely cover Vash.

I suggest the three of you leave the room until I call for you. There is no telling what state of mind she'll be in when she wakes. Vash said.

"Okay. Come on Erica, we'll let Sarah sleep for a while." Jill said.

Erica grabbed her robe on the way out and threw it on before plopping herself down on the oversized couch. "I wanted to protect her from John, but it was me I should have been protecting her from." she said after Jill and Mike sat down on either side of her.

"Hey, you had no way of knowing this could happen, none of us did! You didn't do anything wrong!" Mike said firmly. Jill pulled her into another hug.

"That's right. Even Sarah couldn't have predicted this, she'd buried that memory way too deep for that. I just wish I knew exactly what happened." Jill said.

"Yeah, what could have made Sarah's mom act like that?" Mike wondered.

"It's not Sarah's fault!" Erica growled.

"Whoa, I didn't mean it like that!" Mike said. "I just meant that I wonder what was going on that she reacted so badly to. Did Sarah accidentally break something that was really valuable to her or something? I can't imagine what it could be, but something must have happened."

"Is there any history of mental illness is Sarah's family?" Jill asked.

"Not that I know of." Mike replied.

"Sarah is not crazy!" Erica said angrily.

"Erica, calm down! I was referring to her mother." Jill said.

"Oh. Yeah, she must have been off her rocker to attack her own child like that." Erica agreed sheepishly.

Jill sighed wearily, "Well, there's no use worrying about it now. We won't be able to get any answers until Sarah wakes up, and maybe not for a while after that. I'd better call in sick for her."

"Erica, why don't you lie down for a bit?" Mike suggested. Jill had already gotten up to get the phone, so Erica shrugged and laid down. Mike got a blanket and draped it over her and then joined Jill at the kitchen table. When she got off the phone he said, "This is really bad, isn't it?"

"Yeah, it is. I get the feeling this isn't the only memory she's repressed like that. They could all come pouring out now, and she's going to need all our help to deal with it. That's bad enough, but with her powers she could do a lot of damage if she loses control." Jill said sadly.

Mike winced, "Ouch, I hadn't thought about that angle. What about Erica? She's not doing too well, either."

Jill nodded, "I'm not surprised. This all happened while they were having a conversation over their bond. I don't know how it works for them, but it is probably a lot like it happened to Erica, too. Her concern for Sarah distracted her from it, or she might have been in as bad of shape as Sarah is. I'm afraid this is going to be very hard on Erica, too."