A Space For Healing

Job Details:

Job Sign-Up: Page 14, Post Number 334

Proof Of Possession Of The IIC:

-Capital Crocus, Diana's Townhouse, 1:01 A.M.-

Lying on her bed and facing the room door, Diana blinked and started at the door in silence. Sleep was a precious commodity the blonde was just not getting right now and she doubted that she would get any within the next few minutes. The blonde took a quiet breath and slowly sat up, then moved over to the edge of her bed and put her bare feet on the floor. A moment later she stood up and walked over to the dresser, then opened the top right drawer and fished the Infinite Improbability Chronometer out. Diana shut the drawer and walked back over to her bed with the device, then set it down where she had been sitting before retrieving her trademark white thighhigh stockings from on top of the dresser and going over to the bed again.

The blonde carefully sat down to the left of the Infinite Improbability Chronometer and put on the stockings, then stood up and faced the bed before kneeling to retrieve her black tennis shoes. The fingers of her right hand tapped rapidly on the floor until she managed to put her fingers inside the heels of the shoes... when she did that she pulled her arm out and brought the footwear along with it. Diana set the shoes down on the floor with the toes facing the door, then stood up and took a seat on the bed before putting them on and tying the laces.

Wearing her usual outfit of purple t-shirt, black skirt with pockets, white thighhigh stockings, and black tennis shoes, Diana grabbed the waiting Infinite Improbability Chronometer with her right hand and placed it in the palm of her left hand. She did not use it right away because her mind was focused on how she had treated Juno the last time she had visited the space station. The blonde was not happy with how she had treated someone who had shown her hospitality and she wanted to apologize to her hostess... if it was not too late to do so. If she were lucky there was still a chance to make amends with Juno, but the blonde had better get to the station soon.

Diana kept that in mind as she took a quiet breath and wound the Infinite Improbability Chronometer forty-two times, causing a pale blue light to engulf her just like it had the last time she had finished winding the device. Within moments she vanished from sight and was on her way to space.

-On board the space station-

Diana soon reappeared in the same hallway she had arrived in last time and it still felt as oddly warm and comforting as it had been during her first trip. The blonde turned to look out the window to the right, which was still showing the beautiful scene of white stars on an inky black background. As she looked she saw her reflection in the window and noticed that her long hair had turned bone white again. It remained that way for a minute or two before returning to normal and the moment it turned blonde again Diana faced towards the elevator down the hallway and was about to walk towards it when she heard a female voice behind her.

"Diana!" It called out. When the blonde heard it she froze in place and felt terror wash over her.

Had Melody Winchester's ghost somehow followed her to space?

Recalling the terror of their last encounter when the older Winchester had bound Diana with rope all over her body except for her nose and left the younger Winchester tied up like that, the blonde's calm facial expression changed to one of unbridled fear as she feared that a repeat of that unpleasant experience was about to take place.

"Diana! Hey Diana!" The voice called again. The hair on the back of Diana's neck stood up and she screamed before running for the elevator door as fast as she could go. She was four running steps away when the door opened automatically and out stepped Juno, who was clearly surprised to see Diana running towards her. The panicking blonde shrieked in surprise and quickly maneuvered to the left, then turned her body sideways to get by the stationary pink-haired young woman: it was a close fit, but Diana squeezed by Juno and darted onto the elevator, stopping at the very back of it.

"Diana! I didn't expect to see you here!" Juno called out.

Diana spun around and looked towards the other young woman. Juno was currently standing in the doorway and her presence meant that the elevator door would not close. She was about to order Juno to move when she spotted a floating green sphere with a face float past the pink-haired station manager's knees and float to within arm's length of Diana, then hover at knee level before looking up at her with beady red eyes.

"Diana!" It called out her name in greeting and a hole on its right side opened to allow a little flexible green arm with a little green glove on the end to emerge. It raised the arm and waved its little right hand at Diana.

"Hey Diana!" It repeated the greeting. The blonde took a few quiet breaths once she realized that it was the source of the voice she thought was Melody's. The terror slowly began to melt off of Diana's face and her breathing starting slowing down to its normal rate.

"Diana, you look absolutely terrible. Are you all right?" Juno asked.

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It took Diana two minutes and quite a few shallow breaths to finally calm down enough to come up with a coherent answer to Juno's question. Diana took a breath that was quieter than all of the preceding ones before making eye contact with the station's manager. It took another few seconds before the blonde finally spoke to Juno, who was waiting patiently with a look of concern on her face.

"I... I have been better, Juno." Diana replied truthfully. Juno had seen the blonde running at full speed towards her with her face showing undisguised panic... there was no way that Diana could cover up or downplay what had happened, so she was not even going to bother trying. The green sphere floated off to the side to permit Juno to approach Diana: the pink-haired young woman stopped only an arm's length away from the latter.

"I can tell. You look absolutely terrible, Diana." Juno repeated the assessment of Diana's condition she had made earlier.

"Are you OK, Diana?" The female voice from earlier asked the blonde. Diana's face showed fear and Juno was quick to notice that. The latter gave a thoughtful glance down at the floating green sphere as if she were trying to figure out something and the sphere's face looked up at her. About a minute later Juno had a look of realization.

"I think I know what the problem is, Diana. You're hearing Emerald's voice and that's causing you to panic!" The young woman hypothesized. Juno was only partially right. Emerald's voice was causing Diana to feel distress, but it was not the spherical robot's speaking that alarmed her. It was who the little green robot sounded like that was the real problem.

"A little while back I worked on Emerald's voice module and lowered her voice an octave so that it'd sound more pleasant, but based on your reaction I need to make another adjustment really soon." Juno commented on her work. She looked down at Emerald again and looked up at Diana like she was trying to make a connection between the two. Three minutes passed in silence before the other young woman looked at Diana and spoke.

"I might have finally figured why you're so upset. Emerald's voice reminds you of someone you really don't like, doesn't it?" Juno asked a question of her guest. Diana nodded because this time her hostess had hit the nail on the head.

"I'll fix that problem soon, but in the meantime it looks like you really need to sleep. Would you like me to show you to your penthouse suite again?" Juno asked a question that made Diana's sense of guilt flare up. They had not even been reunited for a full hour and the pink-haired young woman was already treating the blonde like they had been friends since childhood. She was also being rather generous in giving Diana the penthouse suite again instead of telling her to sleep in the hallway or in the park after leaving the station so suddenly without at least leaving a note giving a reason for her abrupt departure.

"Yes, Juno. Please do." Diana eagerly accepted the offer. Juno smiled at the blonde and looked down at Emerald, who floated over to the elevator control panel and extended her right arm to press the button on the floor the suite was on.

"Going up!" Emerald announced in a voice that tried to sound playful but fell far short of that goal thanks to how robotic it sounded. Diana did not scream or show outward signs of panic, but she did tense up a little when she heard the voice that sounded exactly like Melody's. Juno failed to notice that because her attention was on Emerald, who was now floating with her left side facing the panel and looking at her owner. The elevator came to life and the trio were headed towards the penthouse suite set aside for Diana.

-Diana's Penthouse Suite, the living room, some time later-

Diana had taken off her shoes and stockings before lying on the couch and facing the door on the left side of the room she had not been inside of yet. Juno had departed for the park, but not before extending an invitation to her guest to meet her there when the latter woke up. Diana had accepted it and intended to keep her word, but right now she was too tired to have any meaningful social interaction with her hostess, something that Juno graciously did not hold against the blonde.

The blonde mage was stuck in a state between consciousness and sleep and was thinking about her family. The memory from her past that was currently on her mind was the birthday when she had been gifted her childhood doll. That was one of the few happy moments of her childhood that she could remember in any great detail and that was due to it being one of the few times she felt anything resembling happiness.

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-A flashback to the past, Diana's eighth birthday party-

Diana was eight years old and seated at the long, rectangular table in the dining room with everyone in the family there, some more willing to be in attendance than others. Lucia, Gloria, Katrina, and Jessica were happy for their youngest sister while Ashley looked bored and was clearly there only out of obligation. Her siblings Melody and Lucius looked jealous that someone else was the center of attention and their parents George and Elizabeth looked like they would rather be anywhere else. As usual Olivia's face showed a look of barely concealed irritation, so it was hard to tell what she was thinking at any given moment.

Several gifts had already been opened by Diana and the remains of the wrapping paper could be seen beside her chair. She had received a purple dress that was just her size from Lucia, a pair of black dress shoes from Katrina, a birthday cake from Gloria that everyone had eaten and liked, and a purple hairbrush from Olivia. One last gift sat before Diana and it was from Jessica. It was in a small rectangular box wrapped with shiny purple wrapping paper.

"Go ahead, Di. Open it!" Jessica encouraged her sister. Melody sighed loudly, causing the shorter blonde to look at her older sister with an angry look.

"If you don't wanna be here the door's that way, Melody." Jessica snapped and jerked her thumb over her right shoulder to point towards the dining room doorway. Melody slumped into her seat with a pouting look on her face.

"Be nice to your older sister, Jessica!" Elizabeth snapped.

"This is so boring. I can see the wallpaper starting to peel. Can we get on with this already?" Lucius inquired. Jessica turned her withering gaze towards the blond young man who looked like a male version of Lucia with a few inches more height and short hair as the key physical differences. In terms of personality and temperament they were worlds apart.

"Hey Lucius, do you want some more cake or something?" Jessica asked. The blond male blinked.

"No. Why?" He asked.

"'Cause you obviously need to stuff that giant mouth of yours with some cake so that you'll shut up!" Jessica sprung the trap. Lucius recoiled with an offended look on his face, a well-worn trick of his that he did in the presence of his mother so that she would spring to his defense. As usual the blonde woman in the red dress took the bait and rushed to the aid of her firstborn son.

"JESSICA WINCHESTER!" Elizabeth bellowed, a sign that the second-youngest Winchester sister was about to get in trouble if she persisted in insulting her favorite children.

"Ignore them, Di. Lucius and Melody are just jealous that they're not the center of attention today." Jessica counseled Diana. The youngest Winchester sister did as she was told and grabbed the box in front of her, then carefully opened the wrapping paper to find a plain brown box under it. She carefully unwrapped the string and slowly pried off the lid. Inside was a blonde-haired doll wearing a light blue dress, a white apron over it, a blue bow in her hair, and blue eyes that reminded her of Lucia's.

With great enthusiasm Diana pulled the doll out of its box and held it out in front of her to admire the wonderful gift.

"She's so beautiful, Jessica! Thank you!" Diana thanked her sister for the gift. Lucia, Gloria, Katrina, and Jessica looked happy for Diana while the others were either indifferent or audibly scoffed at her reaction to the doll.

"What are you gonna name her, Diana?" Jessica asked. The youngest Winchester did not have to think very hard about a name for her new doll.

"Lucy!" Diana exclaimed.

-The end of the flashback-

It was on that note that Diana ended the memory of receiving Lucy from Jessica. It was an open secret that the doll was named after Lucia, the sister who been the kindest to her over the years. Lucy had went missing when Diana turned twelve: she suspected that Melody had stolen the doll as yet another act of petty spite aimed at her younger sister or Elizabeth had done the deed herself because she felt Diana did not need a doll anymore. It did not matter that Diana saw Lucy as a valued possession and a memory of better days... if she had something she valued Melody or Elizabeth yearned to either destroy it or take it away just because they could.

Diana clenched her fists as her mind traveled to the time she was a teenage and her mother had struck her between the shoulder blades multiple times with a whip as a punishment for accidentally ruining her mother's favorite tablecloth when Melody tripped her and she grabbed it out of reflex, pulling it down to the floor before the food that was on it fell all over the tablecloth.

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Diana took a few moments to recall one of the most painful moments of her life before she moved on to the aftermath of Lucia coming to her rescue in dramatic fashion. After saving her from the basement and her mother Lucia had taken Diana to her room, where the older Winchester had treated the latter's wounds the best she could.

-Flashback-

"I'm sorry that this happened to you, Diana. I should have done something about Mother and Melody a lot sooner. I didn't think that Mother would go so far as to do this to you." Lucia apologized to Diana, who was face-down on Lucia's bed without her shirt but was still wearing her purple bra... the top garment was removed so that the wounds caused by the whip could be treated. The younger Winchester stared down at the royal blue bedsheets of her sister's bed as she felt the dried blood being washed off of her back with a damp washcloth. The warm water was comforting to her and so was her sister's gentle touch, which was a touch of compassion rather than one meant to cause harm.

"It's not your fault, Lucia." Diana replied as her sister went about her work.

"It is my fault, Diana. Mother's drinking has gotten way out of control and so has Melody's behavior. I thought that I could talk to them and convince them to stop abusing you and the others, but talking hasn't done any good. That's why I had to intervene more forcefully earlier." Lucia accepted the blame for the incident despite what Diana had said. The green-eyed blonde felt the damp washcloth move on her back and took a quiet breath before speaking.

"I don't understand. Why do they hate me so much? What have I ever done to them?" Diana asked Lucia with pain in her voice that was partially fueled by the pain she was feeling from her wounds. The other part was emotional pain from being mistreated for so long by the woman who had given birth to her and an older sister who was supposed to guide her, not abuse her.

"Mother wasn't always like this, Diana. She used to be somewhat kinder, but after you were born she suddenly turned callous. And Melody... Melody's been spoiled by Mother for so long that she doesn't know any other way to behave." Lucia replied. A sigh escaped Diana's lips.

"I suppose that Mother hates me so much because I wasn't the son she wanted. And Melody always claimed that Mother saw me as a mistake." Diana told her older sister.

"That's not true, Diana! You're not a mistake!" The older blonde interjected.

"Then why does Mother abuse me so much?" Diana cynically asked, allowing her sister a rare glimpse into her mind.

"I suspect it has to do with Mother's childhood because-" Lucia started an explanation before Lucia's room door suddenly opened. Lucia abruptly clammed up and Diana gasped in fear that their mother was going to storm in with the intent to punish them both.

"Hey Lucia, how's Di doing?" Jessica asked from the doorway. Both Winchesters relaxed as Jessica closed the door behind her because they knew that they were in the company of a friend.

"Diana will live, but her back's going to be permanently scarred from Mother's whip." Lucia reported as she took the damp washcloth away. Jessica peered down at her younger sister's back and frowned.

"Damn it, Lucia! Mother went way too far this time. And Melody's a real bitch. She KNEW that Mother was gonna do this to Diana and she thought it was funny!" Jessica remarked sourly. It sounded like the short blonde wanted to avenge Diana's mistreatment.

"I should have put a stop to Mother's atrocious behavior long ago, but I couldn't bring myself to raise my hand against her. Diana paid the price for my hesitation tonight. It shouldn't have taken her back being scarred before I acted." Lucia lamented as Diana continued to lay face-down and Jessica looked down at her scars in disgust for their mother and their sister.

-End of flashback-

After that memory Diana could not stand lying on the couch any longer, so she got up, put the Infinite Improbability Chronometer that had been placed on the nearby coffee table at some point in her right pocket, and put her stockings and shoes back on. She was going to take Juno up on her offer and visit the park. Maybe the latter was still there and waiting on Diana's visit.

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-The park level, the park, some time later-

Diana had grabbed her Infinite Improbability Chronometer and jammed it into her right skirt pocket, then left her room to go to the park and meet up with Juno. The blonde had expected her to have left the green space long ago to go back to her room or go somewhere else to do tasks necessary for the upkeep of the space station, but to Diana's surprise her hostess was standing in the park and facing the entrance. The pink-haired young woman's back was to the trees planted a short distance from the metallic station walls and an artificial wind made the grass gently move in a wave pattern going to the right... against that backdrop one could be forgiven for thinking Juno was a mage with control over nature.

Juno must have spotted Diana because she began to wave her right arm above her head and a small green blob hovered towards the newly arrival.

"HELLO!" Juno called out in welcome. The green blob got closer and closer until Diana could make out the metallic face of Emerald. When Emerald approached its right arm popped out of the opening on its right side.

"Hello, Diana!" Emerald greeted the blonde and waved at her with its right hand. Diana involuntarily tensed up when she heard that the little robot's voice still sounded like her worst enemy. It seemed like Melody was terrorizing her younger sister from beyond the grave years down the road and Diana did not know what it would take to send Melody back to the other side and keep her there.

"Hey Diana! I'm glad to see you!" Juno said to the blonde. Diana did not notice her approach because the former was too busy looking at Emerald, who in turn looked at Diana with beady, emotionless eyes. The blonde looked up and made eye contact with her hostess.

"Hello, Juno." Diana calmly greeted the station manager with no trace of the tension she had felt upon hearing Emerald's voice only a short time ago.

"Please go back to my room, Emerald. I want to talk to Diana alone." Juno bade the little green robot. It turned towards its owner and waved its little arm again.

"OK, Juno!" It said before retracting its arm into its body. It then turned around and floated towards the park exit without another word to either young woman. Once Emerald had left the park Juno spoke up.

"I have a question, Diana. One I've been thinking about for awhile. Why did you leave the space station so suddenly the last time you were here?" Juno asked Diana without mincing words. A hint of anger could be detected in the station manager's tone. The blonde appreciated the other young woman getting straight to the point and decided to do that herself.

"Because I had family issues to take care of." Diana answered just as frankly.

"My family life was not the best and hearing Emerald's voice reminded me of that. It reminded me of someone who was not very kind to me." Diana gave another frank statement explaining her abrupt departure, hoping that she would not have to talk about all of the abuse she had suffered. Juno could believe her or she could choose not to. That was up to the station manager to decide.

"You've never met Emerald before your first visit. Why would Emerald's voice remind you of your family?" Juno asked with an undercurrent of skepticism. It was growing more and more apparent that the other young woman was not believing Diana, but the blonde was not particularly surprised. Whether she meant to or not she had hurt Juno with the abrupt departure and she needed to accept that.

"Because I had an older sister who was not very nice to me." Diana replied with total honesty. Part of her did not know why she was telling a total stranger so much about her life, but she had come here to apologize to Juno and if she was going to get a chance to do that she needed to be honest with the other person.

"What do you mean by that?" Juno inquired with the same level of skepticism that was in the background ever since this conversation had started.

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"She physically and verbally abused me. For example, she used to tie me to a chair and threaten my childhood doll with decapitation using a pair of scissors. She also used to kick me down the stairs we had in our house. And she would lie and get me into trouble with our mother so that our mother would punish me." Diana gave Juno just a small sample of what Melody had done to her. To give a full list would take more time than she was willing to invest into the conversation, especially when it seemed like Juno was not believing anything she said. However, the pink-haired young woman raised an eyebrow at the mention of Diana's abusive mother.

"How did your mother punish you when your sister lied?" Juno asked, her skepticism weakening a little.

"She liked to slap me so hard that I did a 180-degree turn and fell to the ground. Another favorite punishment of hers was tying me up and filling a bathtub full of water, then holding my head under the water until I nearly drowned, then pulling my head out and shouting at me before pushing it back under. She did that three to four times a session." Diana listed but three of the ways her mother Elizabeth hurt her when she was a child. That admission seemed to cause Juno more than a little concern because her face showed it.

"Why did she do all of that to you?" The station manager asked. She took a few steps towards the blonde and paused to wait for the answer to her question.

"My mother had six daughters and one son before me. She wanted a second son, but I ended up being the seventh daughter. She did not like that and took her frustration out on me for many years afterward." Diana candidly replied.

"But why did your mother single you out for such punishment? Why didn't she treat her other daughters the same way?" Juno asked a slight variation of the question she had just asked, adding a query about why the other daughters were not punished as harshly as the youngest Winchester daughter.

"One answer I can give you is that the sister who abused me was my mother's favorite, so she was exempt from the treatment doled out to my other sisters. Another answer is that my mother was an alcoholic. When she was intoxicated she got very angry over the slightest inconveniences and she would go into a screaming fit. She would also lash out at people either physically or verbally, sometimes both at once." Diana gave a truthful answer gained from firsthand experience of suffering her mother's wrath more times than she cared to recalled.

"I'm sorry that your mother was so violent towards you." Juno apologized to Diana for the behavior of the latter's mother and sounded like she was apologizing indirectly for doubting the veracity of the blonde's story.

"You have nothing to apologize for, Juno. You did not hurt me. She did." Diana told the other young woman that none of the blame was hers. Juno wordlessly approached her guest and when she was within arm's reach extended her arms for a hug. The blonde resisted the urge to back away and was "rewarded" with a hug that caused her skin to crawl despite the friendly and comforting intent behind it. That discomfort did not go unnoticed by Juno, who quickly released the blonde.

"Are you OK, Diana?" Juno asked the blonde. Diana shook her head before giving another candid answer.

"What my older sister and mother did to me has caused me to not like being touched." Diana informed Juno why she had acted the way she did.

"After what you told me I can understand why you'd feel that way. I won't hug you again." Juno promised. Diana raised her right hand with the palm held out in a "Stop!" gesture.

"It is all right, Juno. I appreciate what you tried to do for me. You wanted to comfort me, which is something I am not used to." Diana assured her hostess that the mistake would not be held against her. Juno looked towards the door on the other side of the room, then looked at her guest.

"If it's all right with you, I'd like for us to go to my room. I'd like to continue talking there." Juno offered to take the conversation elsewhere.

"Certainly." Diana gave permission for them to change venues. Upon hearing that Juno smiled for the first time since the conversation started.

"Wonderful! Follow me, please!" Juno requested of the blonde.

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-Juno's Penthouse Suite, the bedroom, some time later-

Juno had guided Diana into her penthouse suite, which had been laid out exactly the same way Diana's had been down to the leather couch and the coffee table in the living room. However, one key difference she had noticed was that the wallpaper was a light pink. That became more apparent when Diana entered Juno's bedroom and spotted the bed, which had a light pink comforter and light pink sheets with pillows that were soft white for a little contrast. The bed skirt was also white.

"Let's talk in here, Diana. This is much more comfortable than the park." Juno suggested. She then walked over to the bed and stacked up three pillows, then climbed onto it and sat back on them. Diana thought she knew where this was going, but she was not certain just yet.

"Come on, Diana. I'd like you to sit on the bed with me and let me hold you." Juno requested of her guest. Diana's face did not change from its normal calm expression, but the blonde was not thrilled about what her hostess was suggesting. Perhaps sensing the blonde's reluctance, Juno spoke to her again.

"I know I just promised that I wouldn't hug you again, but after what you told me it sounds like you need someone to comfort you. If me holding you gets to be too much for you to handle let me know and I'll let you go. I also promise you that nothing romantic's going to come out of this." The pink-haired young woman explained her reasoning for the request and made assurances that the blonde would be set free any time she requested and that this was not a prelude to romance. Diana hesitated for a few minutes as she looked at Juno. The blonde was not looking forward to being touched, let alone held, but she felt like she owed Juno something for leaving her so suddenly.

"Very well then." Diana agreed to the request. She took off her shoes and thigh-high stockings, then set them neatly under the bed before getting onto the bed and letting Juno gently wrap her arms around the blonde's waist. She resisted the urge to tell the pink-haired young woman to let her go and ignored the unpleasant sensation of being held as she slowly leaned back until she felt Juno's warmth.

"How are you doing, Diana?" Juno gently asked the blonde. To the latter's surprise the sensation around her waist was starting to gradually dwindle from uncomfortable enough to make her want to jump up and away from her hostess to a milder sort of discomfort akin to tightening a belt too tightly.

"I am OK so far, Juno." Diana replied truthfully. She did not know why Juno was able to hug her in this room without incident while a hug in the park made Diana feel intense discomfort, but maybe that was because despite herself she had fond memories of Medeia gently holding her while sitting on a bed. That occasion made the blonde feel genuine warmth and comfort for the first time since Lucia had treated Diana's wounds after rescuing her from their mother that time many years ago.

"I'm sorry that your mother and older sister abused you so much, Diana." Juno apologized to the blonde again. Diana hesitated for a few moments not because of what had been said but because she was surprised that she had been held this long without wanting to remove Juno's arms from around her waist.

"It is all right, Juno. Unless you contributed to the abuse I suffered you have nothing to apologize for." Diana again absolved the pink-haired young woman of any blame for what had been done to her in the past. Juno continued to gently hold her guest in her arms.

"It's not all right, Diana. They were your family. They shouldn't have treated you with such cruelty!" Juno protested. The Guildless mage took a quiet breath before speaking.

"What happened to me in the past cannot be changed. I have come to terms with it." Diana replied by citing what she had told Medeia not too long ago.

"You shouldn't have had to come to terms with abuse, Diana. It should never have happened to begin with." The pink-haired young woman informed her in a calm voice that nevertheless indicated she was not going to back down from her stance on the matter. Seeing that she was not going to make Juno change her mind without having to expend a lot of effort, Diana did not speak immediately. Instead she took a quiet breath and sat in silence.

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"No, it should not have." Diana finally replied after a lengthy silence. Juno was right... it never should have happened for a variety of reasons, but neither young woman could change the past. All Diana could do was try to move on from her abuse and not let the past control her future.

"I know you told me why you were abused by your family, but I don't get why it happened to start with, if you know what I mean." Juno mused to her guest. Diana continued to sit calmly in place as the discomfort remained at a mild level that she could tolerate. Eventually she would have to get up, but for now she could bear being held by someone... the fact that she was being held by another young woman was of no consequence to the blonde. Had her mother still been alive to see what was going on Diana would have been in very deep trouble, but Elizabeth Winchester had been dead and buried for over four years now and she could not do anything to stop Diana from being comforted by someone of the same sex.

"Because I was an easy target. As a child I was not physically or mentally strong enough to resist what the abusive members of my family did to me." Diana gave a factual answer that was completely true but might not fully answer Juno's question of "why" the brunt of the abuse had been inflicted on her instead of another Winchester daughter.

"They abused you as a small child?" Juno asked.

"Yes. I was around seven or eight when it first started. I was too physically weak to stop my older sister or mother from grabbing me by the arm and carrying me off." Diana replied and elaborated how exactly she could not defend herself from her family. While there were other factors such as a difference in speed that prevented Diana from getting away from her abusers, the main problem was the difference in strength between a young child and a teenager or a young child and an adult woman. Once her arm was grabbed the youngest Winchester daughter could not break free no matter what she tried and was easily dragged off to be abused in the "comfort" of her tormentor's room.

"I know this sounds awful of me to ask, but how bad did the abuse get?" Juno asked a pointed question. Diana took a quiet breath the moment she heard the question. She should have known that it was going to be asked at some point during her stay, but she did not anticipate it being asked this soon. There was nothing that could be done about it now except to give an honest answer.

"I have a lot of mental scars that linger to this day. For example, I cannot stand to see a length of rope and I cannot stand the sight of a bathtub, especially one that has water in it." Diana gave two ways her ordeal had hurt her beyond the physical trauma. Being tied to a chair and having her favorite doll threatened or being tied up and having her head forced underwater had given Diana a deep-seated loathing for rope and bathtubs, but there was more she had not told Juno. The evidence of how far the abuse had gone could easily be seen on the blonde's back, but the blonde was going to keep that secret for a while longer.

"I know that I'm wearing this out, but they shouldn't have hurt you, Diana. They had no reason to." Juno said before gently hugging Diana from behind. The blonde's arms twitched and she just barely kept them from moving up to break the hold on her. Diana felt the gentle pressure of the hug linger for almost a minute, but she did not say or do anything to rebuke Juno because it had been a gesture of comfort, not abuse or control. The blonde mage quietly inhaled and exhaled just as quietly when Juno hugged her again and held the embrace... this time she kept her arms in check and they did not twitch.

Diana was not quite at the point she wanted to get up, but soon she would need a break from being held by the pink-haired young woman. It could wait a bit longer, though. Being held by Medeia while sitting on the latter's bed had made Diana feel more comfort than she had felt in the years since she had left Bellum and Juno was making the mage feel that comfort again.

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[Total Word Count: 6,410/10,000]

-Some time later, Diana's Penthouse, the bedroom-

Lying on top of the bedsheets because she could not be bothered to undo them, Diana was lying on the bed in a state somewhere between consciousness and sleep and facing the door to the bathroom. She had excused herself from Juno's presence not too long ago and was feeling somewhat better than she had when she had first appeared on the space station. Diana was uncertain as to whether or not her hostess had truly forgiven her for the abrupt departure that had marked the end of her previous visit or if the pink-haired young woman still held a grudge but was too nice to actually act on it, but it seemed that Juno had chosen to let bygones be bygones. In fact the young woman had actually comforted Diana by gently holding her while the latter talked a bit about her abusive family members.

While Diana was still not completely comfortable with being held by someone, she had been embraced in a comforting way that was consensual. In the past Amber and Angela had embraced Diana as a greeting on several different occasions, but the blonde had not consented to being touched, so being hugged always put her on edge despite the intent behind it. This time had been different. Juno had told Diana what was going to happen well in advance and had given the latter a way out of the embrace if her discomfort became too much to bear, two things that had went a long way towards making the blonde more comfortable with being held.

Another plus was that Juno did not make any romantic advances on her during their conversation. The other young woman's hands had stayed around Diana's waist for the entire conversation and did not wander at all. Juno had kept her promise of not taking things in an uncomfortable direction and that made Diana consider her someone who might be able to be trusted, a distinction that no one else except Aliarey Casidy and Mister Burke enjoyed. The blonde took a quiet breath and rolled over onto her other side to face the blank wall.

Spending time with Juno had been more pleasant than Diana thought it would have been. Once they got past the issue that had made their reunion awkward the meeting took a turn that the blonde could not have anticipated but had led to her feeling more comfort than she had since the meeting with Medeia. The encounter with the Warlord was an odd one that ended in a way the blonde could not have predicted... after the latter's physically and emotionally painful "reunion" with her older sister Melody the Warlord did not take advantage of the blonde's weakness to inflict more pain in retaliation for trying to pass herself off as "Jane Wesson" or make romantic advances. Medeia had sat on her bed and held Diana in her arms in a comforting manner, treating her with kindness and courtesy and speaking to her in a gentle voice.

Diana had expected Medeia to pressure her for information on her family or friends while she was too weak to even think straight, let alone defend herself. That had not happened. She had also expected Medeia to give up on getting information and focus on punishing her for changing her appearance and using an alias to try and obscure the connection between herself and Lucia. That did not happen either. Instead the Warlord had treated Diana humanely and went out of her way to comfort the blonde.

Diana never could have predicted that she would have been treated so kindly by a Warlord.

Medeia had also treated her better than her own mother, older brother Lucius, or older sister Melody ever had.

That was an unpleasant thought, but it was the unpleasant truth. The Warlord truly had acted much kinder to Diana than some of the latter's own family members. The blonde suspected that the kind treatment was not motivated solely by altruism, but after what she had went through at Melody's hands Diana was not picky about where she got comfort from.

With that thought in mind Diana rolled over and faced the bathroom door again. Maybe she could get to sleep some time soon. If not she would go to the couch in the living room and try to sleep on it.

[Post Word Count: 732]
[Total Word Count: 7,142/10,000]