“She hates that anyone see her like this,” she told me softly. “If you could go back and get a soda or something, we should be okay when you get back.”

I nodded, finally realizing that Alice wanted to be alone and that all my words of comfort weren’t working. In fact, they were probably making things a lot worse.

I wandered around the hallway for a little while, not really knowing where to go or what to do. Luckily I didn’t have to think about it long before Helena called, wanting to check up on Alice. She’d been busy the past couple days and hadn’t been able to make it in as much as she’d wanted to.

I didn’t exactly mean to pour my heart out to her, but that’s what ended up happening. I cried to her about walking in on Alice at a bad time, how crappy and tired I was still feeling, and just my general unease at not knowing how to make things better. She listened without interrupting as she’s always been so good at doing. Honestly, I always thought Helena would make a great psychologist, she has that empathetic thing down pat.

“Sweetheart, you need to relax,” she told me, the edge of her accent much more pronounced than it usually was anymore. “You can’t possibly handle all this on your own. I’ll look into getting you some help, all right?”

I nodded, and then realized she couldn’t see me. “Yeah,” I said quietly, thinking that it’d be a lot easier for me to accept her help than to try to handle everything on my own. Helena could get things set up much more quickly than I could ever hope to, with all her resources and professional contacts. I might be able to finagle some ongoing therapy with someone, but that was about the extent of my skills in the area.

“For now, just please try to take it easy. Shane tells me that you still haven’t been feeling very well.” I was going to protest and tell her that it was nothing, but I wouldn’t have gotten away with it the way everyone I knew kept tabs on me. “I’m so sorry I haven’t been around more. The Foundation is running me absolutely ragged.”