Everybody Loses (F,M,T)

“I’m glad you had fun.” Maeve said after Felicia finished explaining the events of the previous day. The shorter woman had an crêpe that felt oddly familiar she was eating at one of the chairs next to their bed. “Have you talked to him about how this means your relationship will have to change?”

Felicia shifted in her seat. She knew what Maeve meant, but decided to slow down having to answer. “Are you asking about our friendship, or his relationship to me as my patient?”

“You know which one I’m asking. There’s nothing wrong with friends dating, but I can’t say the same for dating a patient. Did you fire him as a patient yet?”

“No. I haven’t gotten around to it. He’s not going to understand that like we would. I didn’t want to have to try and explain it the same night as when he finally noticed me.”

“But you will have this conversation with him eventually? You will lose your license once we’re home if someone finds out that you’ve become romantically entangled with a patient.” Maeve was being stern, but still gentle

“Of course I will. But I don’t need to yet. The AMA makes an exception for treating a loved one if no other medical attention is available, and that’s a clearer exemption right now than to work with both sides of a couple like you are.” She'd thought about this more than it appeared the season's therapist realized

Maeve sighed. “You have a point. You need to discuss this with him before we leave, but the show requires compromises. Do you need help preparing for that conversation?”

“Eventually. That’s not how I want to hurt him, you know?” Seeing Maeve’s posture shift, she asked. “That’s going to be a thing now, isn’t it?”

“Can you tell me what you mean by that?” The season’s therapist asked.

“Is it still Maeve asking, or are you trying to psychoanalyze me?”

“Which do you think you need?”

“Just someone to listen without judging.”

Maeve nodded. “Then I can be here for you.”

“I want to **** him to admit I’m smarter and braver and better than he is, but I don’t want to upset him. He’s sweet and hot and dumb and I like him and he makes me so angry sometimes. I want to settle down with him and while I want everyone to know I’m smarter than him, I don’t want to hurt his feelings. He told me about how much loss his family’s gone through.”

Maeve digested the statement. Her feelings, or at least how she was expressing them, were certainly unorthodox. She wouldn’t have been comfortable dating someone talking about her how Felicia was talking about him, but from what she said Richard hadn’t minded it once the two of them had an honest conversation. She cared about him, and so as long as they could keep communicating like yesterday they should be alright. She was a little surprised that Richard had chosen to bring up his family, but Felicia had only brought up a few of the incidents. How much did he tell her about? “When he told you about his loss, how many incidents did he tell you about?”

The younger doctor looked at her, puzzled. “He told me all three. He started by telling me about his parents, and then the rest of his family. Between being in the car, the boating accident and his grandfather going missing on a camping trip, it makes sense that he’d have needed your help.”

“I’ve tried to help him recover his confidence.” Maeve nodded. So she doesn’t know about the others. Hopefully he’ll tell her eventually. It’s a good sign that he was comfortable bringing up his parents so quickly. "Again, I’m glad things went well. If you want to talk more later, I should have some time before I have to meet Aubrey and Richard this afternoon.”

That got Felicia’s attention. Putting down her fork as she finished eating, she asked: “Why are you meeting her?”

“She’ll be spending much of the afternoon with him. I thought it’d be good for them, and it helps me limit how much time I need to spend with him on my “date night.”

That wasn’t fair. Aubrey already got her day with him. “All right. Have fun then. Ava asked me to come over again today, so I plan on working on a new deck and relaxing before then.”

After Maeve left, Felicia tried to start looking through the cards Ava had loaned her. Her Nobody deck hadn’t been as fun lately without Richard around to race against. It’d been fine last Friday when she’d accidentally gotten drunk, but without him there to hammer at her defenses it was kind of boring to just paralyze the board. Hopefully she could find some quiet time to herself to find a new strategy that could win without freezing people out, like Ava had been suggesting.

***

That quiet time ended up getting interrupted by Helena banging on the front door. The auburn haired woman was red in the face and wearing what looked like a tennis uniform. She had a cloth visor that she had crumpled up in her hands. “I thought I could trust you!” She growled as she barged in.

“What are you talking about?” Like earlier with Maeve, she knew what Helena was talking about. But Hazel warned her this would happen, and if Dick’s big sister was going to come in and throw a tantrum, then she wouldn’t be given any shortcuts in explaining herself.

“The auditorium scoreboard sold you out. What the hell happened to “I’ll win with the polling and challenges”? I saw you jump after your date _twenty-five fucking points. _You don't get that from a poll, so what happened? ”

“You did. You and Hazel had a point about not being able to keep up with Luna and Aubrey.” That wasn’t true of course, it was Luna’s encouragement and Dick’s abs that had helped her decide. But If Helena was going to be a bitch, then Felicia was going to throw sand in her face.

It worked. Helena deflated like she’d been kicked in the ribs. “It’s my fault that you slept with him? Do you even like him, or was it all for the points?”

Hazel had told her to be careful. But Felicia wasn’t sure what the right strategy was here. Would she be upset more that they'd done things together, or would she be worse if Felicia tried to backpedal? “I haven’t slept with him yet.”

“You haven’t?” Helena looked at her doubtfully.

“All I’ve done is jack him off with my new boobs until we both came. They're surprisingly sensitive.”

Helena shuddered. “That's still disgusting. I didn’t need that image.”

“That’s what you get if you come in here making accusations.”

“But you never would’ve done…that if not for the show?"_ Is she one more victim? _As pissed as she was about Felicia's actions, she was just another pawn like any of the girls.

“I probably wouldn’t have taken the initiative like I did.”

Helena was plotting more than she was listening and didn’t notice how Felicia was splitting hairs. It’s all Genet’s fault again. "So if the show suddenly ended early, would you leave him alone?”

“That’d be up to him.” And he’d choose me, now that he knows. He’s not dumb enough to to forget what I told him. “Are you still trying to shut it down?”

“Yes, though I don’t have high hopes of success. I still need to try." If I succeed, this whole thing ends. Hazel and Richard and Aubrey can figure out their life together. “Can I ask you to continue our alliance a bit longer?”

Felicia nodded. Even with this fight, what she’d been able to learn from the challenges they’d taken notes on had been useful. The most common things it seems like she’d need to prepare for would be an oral skills contest or inflicting a transformation on someone else. She wasn’t going to let her teammate’s bitchy rampage or delusions of being able to take on Genet by herself stop her from learning anything new she could use to win. “Did you see something new on the seasons list, or was there something else you wanted help with?”

“Do you remember when Genet told us not to go to the mountain temple alone?”

“Of course.”

“Genet said that it was safe to go as long as we went in groups. From what Richard’s told me, that sounds like the kind of high risk, high reward thing that might show up in one of those fantasy games you guys play for those willing to push.”

That sounded sketchy. Helena had been a lot more direct when she’d suggested the challenge marathon. But on the other hand… “So you want the three of us to go up and explore together?”

Helena shook her head. “With my transformation, I’d be a liability. But you and Hazel should be able to handle anything waiting for you up there. I can be back at the dining hall, to let Genet know to intervene if anything goes wrong.”

Felicia’s bullshit meter was flaring. While the liability thing was true, she was too prepared to take herself out of the equation. There was definitely a larger plot here that Helena was trying to use in her escape plan, but learning about the temple would be helpful. Whatever Helena was trying to do, Hazel would be her best chance to escape the fallout. Fuck it. “We can have an early lunch tomorrow, then check it out around noon. I’ve got plans today.”

That’s fine. We have our own plans today. Hopefully if my plans fail, then the temple can provide you enough of an advantage that you’ll be able to stay away from him.”

“You keep saying shit like that. Why don’t you like me?”

Helena considered her words. “I like you quite a bit. I don’t know you as well as Luna or Aubrey, but I think with time we could have been even closer friends.”

“Then why aren’t I good enough for him?” Felicia shouted at her. Maeve’s lecture was frustrating, but there was truth to it. This? This was just a billionaire’s control issues trying to sabotage her.

“You remind me too much of myself for me to trust you with him." The billionaire in question said quietly. The anger that she’d come in with was still palpable, but it had hardened, sharpened, and aimed itself back towards Genet.

“But it’s not you that needs to trust me. Dick already does, he doesn’t need you acting like his mom!” As the last few words slipped out, she realized what she was saying. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to go that low.”

Helena just looked at her. Felicia couldn’t tell if it was anger or grief leaking through her gaze. “I know I’m not Maria. But I’m trying my best. I don’t know if you’re just using him for points or if you think you care about him, but please don’t speak to him like you just spoke to me.” As loudly as she came in, Helena retreated quietly.

Felicia stood in the entryway, where the two of them had been dueling. She’d won. But it didn’t feel good this time. She went back to the bedroom, where she’d been working on the potential new deck. Ava had been telling her for ages she needed some variety for when she was with less experienced players, and how well yesterday had gone had made her take the plunge on making a second deck. But after the fight with Helena and how that had ended, she’d lost interest in Puck and the fairy army deck she’d been working on. So she decided to sort most of the cards back into Ava’s box and go back to the drawing board.