Re: NM: Cat & Leena
She did start to make comparisons as she listened, but then she forced herself to stop. Cat's memory was shit after, but she at least could remember what happened to her. Her? She didn't have that, only flashes of bits and pieces, instincts with no reason why, but she understood too, what Cat was trying to tell her. Rough times were not solely hers, and Cat had survived them to be the woman standing with her today. There were adages about coming out stronger rom something that didn't kill you, but Leena mostly wanted to punch those adages and the people that made them in the throat. "Thank you," she said quietly. "For telling me." It wasn't easy to be honest, and it wasn't easy to tell the truth about things that hurt.
"Yet, you managed to make a friendship out of it," she pointed out as she listened. Maybe time was all she and Stephanie needed, but Leena wasn't sure of that. It was a cloudy future, and unlike the non-future she saw with befriending Eddie or the hopeful future she saw with Cat. "I don't think I could be friends with someone that interrogated me. I feel like Jason does that a lot, and I avoid talking to him if I can." There was a little bit of sadness there, only because she wanted to have a better relationship with her brothers, but she was also fairly sure that they didn't have one before either. Or at least, it seemed that way, and she felt as much disinclination as Jason seemed to about fixing it.
"I'm trying not to. Or trying to keep my conversations limited to topics I do feel comfortable discussing." And it seemed to be going okay so far, with the exception of Stephanie, but nothing new had happened since then. Her teeth caught on her bottom lip at hearing that name though. Helena. But she didn't automatically correct her. "I'll let you know if you need to claw anyone," she said with a glance down, but there was a curve to her lips. Cat defending her? It wasn't expected, but she still liked the thought of it as she led them over to the couches around the firepit. The fire wasn't going yet, but tonight it would be and maybe they'd get marshmallows to roast.
Sitting down, she left plenty of room on either side for Cat to join her. "I have therapy again in like a half hour, but we can stay out here until then." She paused, her lower lip finding its way between her teeth for her to chew on for half a minute. "My therapy team -- they eventually want to work on me using my real name. It still startles me to hear it sometimes."