July 20, 1998: Dione Castel
Who: Dione Castel
When: July 20, 1998
Where: Atlanta, GA hospital
What: Dione in the aftermath of the accident that changed her life.

As soon as the hospital room door shut, Dione began to cry in earnest. Outside, her doctor, Dr. Kimble, conferred with her parents.

"She's just having a hard time adjusting," he assured with them with a pleasant smile. "I'm sure once a few months pass, she'll be ready to accept what's happened. Until then, we should consider a bit of chemical therapy along with her rehab."

Of course, her parents simply held hands and nodded. There wasn't anything they could do. Dione was simply not accepting the truth, Dexter was dead, he'd died in the accident. They were going to bury him. Their son was dead and their daughter had apparently had a psychotic break.

Two days earlier, they had tried to tell her the truth. Tried desperately to make her understand, but she wouldn't budge.

"Dexter's not dead. He's right here. Can't you see him?" Over and over and over again, no matter what they said, no matter how they tried to describe to her what had killed him and blinded her. Nothing got through. She just kept repeating that he was right there, why couldn't they see him, or hear him. How could they be so blind that they couldn't see their own son as he sat in the room with them?

With the door shut, she laid there and cried. Dexter, lost as he was, crawled into the bed next to her and put his arms around her as best he could.

I love you, Deedee. He just wanted her to be happy, but he knew that if he left so she would stop seeing him, she would be all alone and he couldn't do that to her. They had never been alone before, each of them part of the other in such a way as to be one person. I promise I won't leave you, but you can't tell them you see me anymore or they'll never let you leave.

Dione didn't lie; Dexter knew that about her. He lied sometimes, but only when there was a really good reason. Now, to get his sister out of the hospital and away from the people who were just trying to give her drugs and make her crazy, he was advising her not to lie, but just to keep her mouth shut. They were already whispering about putting her on an anti-psychotic to help her get through these traumatic episodes. Dione being the tractable sort, she would take the medicine given to her and it would do something to her. He didn't want them to do something to her.

He just wanted her to stop crying.

Carefully, she nodded her head, though the crying didn't stop. She'd stop saying to her parents that he was there. She'd stop telling the doctors and nurses that he was there. She'd stop telling people that she could hear him clearly. It would all stop.

"I love you and you can't leave me," Her voice was low, quiet, overridden by the sound of her sobbing.

I'll never leave you. Ghostly fingers combed through her hair, hair that had to be cut in places because of the accident. I promise.

*italics*=french, Dexter doesn't use quotations when he speaks.