I'm sorry that you seem to be confused, he belongs to me, that boy is mine

Nick’s first instinct when going to find Mary was to check the Kitchen. After all, that’s where Mary liked to spend most of her time.

But he didn’t do that.

“Where’s Holly?” Nick asked, turning to Gina. He figured that if anyone would know where Mary was, it would be her best friend.

Gina looked surprised. “Holly?”

“Yeah, she wasn’t in the Master’s Suite when Rose and I woke up this morning, so she must have slept in someone else’s room,” Nick explained. “Did she come down to breakfast?”

“Yeah, I think so,” Gina nodded. “She was there when I got there. But she didn’t go off with Mary… I think she just kind of wandered off on her own. Oh, wait, no! She went with Sylvia!”

Now that was something. Nick stopped in place, turning on his heel and heading back to the Banquet Hall. He got there just in time to see Sylvia walking off in the other direction.

“Sylvia!” He called out to the blonde.

Sylvia perked up immediately, replacing the sad expression on her face with a with a smile as she turned back to Nick. “Yes, Daddy?” She asked, batting her eyelashes innocently.

Nick’s expression immediately soured when he heard that. But again, he would have time to fix that later, right now he had more important issues to worry about.

“Did Holly go off with you this morning?” He asked. “I didn’t see her in the Master’s Suite.”

“Oh, yeah, she did,” Sylvia nodded. “We just went for a little walk around the hotel. She actually took me to the bookstore!”

That sounded like Holly. Nick sighed in relief. “Okay, good,” he said, relaxing a little.

“Why do you ask?” Sylvia wondered. “Aren’t you looking for Mary?”

“I thought Holly would know something about where Mary is,” Nick explained. “But it’s okay if she doesn’t. I was also concerned about if she was okay.”

“Aww…” Sylvia couldn’t help but grin like a big dummy. “That’s so sweet of you, Daddy! Holly’s going to be so happy to hear that you were thinking about her!”

Nick’s face heated up.

“Well, anyway, we need to go find Mary,” Nick said, moving to leave for the second time that morning. “I’m just glad Holly is okay.”

“You should check the Chapel,” Sylvia suggested. “Mary goes there a lot whenever she’s in distress. At least, she used to.”

Sylvia smirked.

“Nowadays, she’s been doing the kind of stuff that may have turned her away from her beliefs, if you catch my drift.”

Nick rolled his eyes. Leave it to Sylvia to talk about stuff like that. But he wasn’t interested in getting in a debate about sin; that had always been his least favorite part about having a connection with Mary. Right now, he just wanted to make sure she was doing okay, and the best way to do that was to go check on her and make sure.

The Chapel was a good suggestion, though.

“Thanks, Sylvia,” Nick said. “You really saved us some time. Are you sure you don’t want to come with us? Mary could use all the support she can get!”

“It would be a good way to show that you’re a good girl, too,” Gina jumped in, flashing a smile.

Sylvia’s eyes shot between the two of them, and she bit her lip. She’d rejected the offer before, but now that they’d framed it like that…

“…Okay, sure!” She relented, hiding her **** with a smile. “If it’ll help out Mary, then you’re right. It’s probably the right thing to do!”

Mary had been nicer to Sylvia than she’d needed to be. Sylvia could at least attempt to return the favor however she could.

The three of them joined back together, and followed Sylvia’s directions towards the Chapel.

Unfortunately for Sylvia’s moral conscience, there was nothing at the Chapel worth getting excited over- Mary was nowhere to be seen.

“Well, so much for that idea,” Gina said, lingering in the doorway.

Nick and Sylvia both stared at her.

“You know you can come inside, right?” Sylvia pointed out. “You’ve already been here before, it’s not like you’re going to burst into flames just because you entered.”

“I know that,” Gina said, her face heating up. “But I can’t help it. It’s not like I’m exactly thrilled to be in a church.”

Gina’s parents weren’t super religious- like, definitely not as devout as Mary’s family. But they still went to church on Sundays, and her mom still considered Gina’s lifestyle sinful and wrong.

Gina couldn’t really blame her for thinking that way. That was the general idea, after all. But still, fuck her.

She frowned, looking down at the floor. Thinking about her family made her feel all twisted and miserable. She pictured her parents’ faces, all harsh and judgmental and pained. She’d spent years cutting them out of her life, and yet whenever she thought about them, it still hurt.

“Actually guys, I think… maybe I should go,” Gina said quietly.

“Go?” Sylvia asked, confused. “But we haven’t even found Mary yet.”

“Gina, is everything okay?” Nick asked, approaching her. He could tell when something was off about her.

“Yeah, uh…” Gina tried to find a good excuse for her current emotional state, but she was drawing a blank.

Catching onto what she was thinking, Nick stepped in. “You know, Gina, lying to me isn’t something a good girl would do,” he pointed out, causing her to pale.

“Okay, well… that’s certainly true…” Gina stammered, swallowing.

Sylvia smirked in amusement. “That’s the way to do it, Daddy!” She teased, elbowing him in the side. “I think you’ve got her!”

“H-hey!” Gina exclaimed, her face heating up. “it’s not like that, I just… it’s my parents, okay?!”

Nick and Sylvia both reacted with stunned, slightly-pained expressions, only for very different reasons.

Nick was well-aware of the complicated relationship that existed between Gina and her family. And while the punk girl didn’t like to talk about it, and he never made her, it was obvious that it was a sore point for her.

At the same time, Sylvia was bothered in a more general sense. Whenever the topic of parents came up, Sylvia’s thoughts immediately slipped to her creator and mother, Dakota.

Which gave her a unique bit of insight into how Gina might be feeling right now.

Before she even realized it, her lips were moving.

“Are you thinking about your mom?” She asked, approaching the other woman.

Gina studied her in curious amazement. “Yeah… my mom,” she said quietly. “She used to sing in our church choir, back home… or maybe she still does, I don’t know… it’s been so long since I’ve seen them…”

“Oh, Gina…” Nick rushed over to her and hugged her. She could have hugged him back and earned a Victory Point that way, but she didn’t.

She didn’t feel like getting a point for hugging him was worth it, frankly.

“…I know a little something about that,” Sylvia said quietly. “About disappointing your mother… not living up to her expectations…”

Gina smiled ruefully, trying to hide the pain in her heart. “Yeah,” she echoed, nodding thoughtfully. “I guess you of all people would, huh?”

Sylvia nodded.

The two looked at each other while Nick held Gina, neither girl sure what to say in this situation.

Finally, it was Sylvia who broke the stalemate.

“As the host, I had a certain level of insight into your life, Gina,” Sylvia informed the other girl. “A mild bit of omnipresence, if you would.”

“Omni-what?” Gina stared at her blankly.

“Basically, it means that I had a surface-level awareness of all the women in Daddy’s life,” she clarified. “Think of it like psychic knowledge. That’s why, I knew about your family, too, and what they mean to you.”

“Oh, uh, that’s…” Gina turned pale, realizing what Sylvia was driving at. “Look, it’s not a big deal or anything, okay?”

Sylvia shook her head. It was absolutely a big deal.

“Your parents really miss you, Gina, I know that much,” she said, and Gina nearly recoiled in shock.

“No, no way,” she said, shaking her head. “They totally can’t even stand me!”

A sad expression crossed Sylvia’s face as she thought about her own creator. What she wouldn’t give to be in Gina’s position right now.

“Gina, she could be right,” Nick said gently. “I don’t think Sylvia would lie about something like this.”

He was pleasantly surprised by what Sylvia was doing right now. He didn’t expect this level of sympathy coming from her. Hopefully, it was a good sign of things to come.

“I’m not lying,” Sylvia assured her, shaking her head. “But I think you know it won’t be easy.”

She reached out a hand to Gina, wondering if the other woman would take it.

“If you want to go back home, you’ve gotta make some changes, Gina,” Sylvia pointed out, serving as the delivery vessel for the message that Gina’s parents had always wanted to convey to her. “But I think you know that, right?”

“…Yeah,” Gina sniffled, realizing that she was on the verge of tears. Then her face turned stony. “But who needs ‘em? If they don’t love me for who I am, then they aren’t family to me.”

It was a hard and painful decision for her to make. But it was the only one she could. She didn’t want her parents pushing into her life with their judgmental attitudes. They would never approve of her become some boy’s sex ****, even if she did love him. They would have wanted her to be like that soft, doormat of a girl she’d transformed into through the mirror. They wouldn’t have wanted her to be who she really was.

Gina’s parents were a part of her past. A past that was better left buried. No matter how much she desperately wanted to see them again, she knew they would never understand her lifestyle and her choices.

It would be a miserable situation for all parties involved, and not a position she wanted to put herself in if she had the choice.

“Gina, it’s alright,” Nick said gently. He kept holding her so that she would be able to tell that somebody loved her and cared about her even if her family didn’t. “Even if your folks are a little strict and judgmental, you don’t have to see them again if you don’t want to.”

“Exactly!” Sylvia said, nodding eagerly. “You can just stay here for the rest of your life and live in Daddy’s harem! It’ll be perfect!”

Gina laughed. That sure did sound like a perfect lifestyle, except…

“Sorry, but I’d rather be back on earth,” Gina said. Her eyes flashed and she cast a playful grin over to Nick. “With that being said, I’m not opposed in the slightest to being in ‘Daddy’s’ harem when we get back…”

“Oh god, don’t you start,” Nick sighed, burying his face in his hand. The last thing he needed was for Gina to be getting in on the “Daddy” train too.

…At least when she said it, it was with full sexual connotation; with Sylvia, it sounded just a bit too incestuous to not make him uncomfortable, something that Sylvia quickly picked up on, judging by her sour expression.

“Oh, okay,” she sniffed, turning up her nose. “So she gets to call you ‘Daddy’ huh?”

“Sylvia, just let it go,” Nick said. “We have stuff to work on anyway. There’s going to be a lot of stuff to talk about with Mary, after all.”

He didn’t want this whole discussion to occupy their time for the day. They needed to get a move on, since the redhead wasn’t here.

“Yeah, Mary…” Sylvia said thoughtfully, stroking her chin. “Where could that girl have gotten off to…? …No way!”

“What?” Nick asked, wondering what Sylvia was thinking.

The blonde shrugged. “Well, it’s just a guess, but it’s possible that she’s in the Kitchen, maybe? I mean, she spends a lot of her time there, so…”

Nick’s eye twitched.

He cared about Sylvia, he really did. Maybe not love, but he certainly had some degree of concern for her wellbeing at least.

But she could be a very, very frustrating person.

Couldn’t she have just said that to begin with, when he was already considering heading to the kitchen? Instead of sending him on a wild goose chase?

Deciding not to dwell on things any further, Nick and the girls headed back the way they came, towards the Kitchen where Mary always held her cooking classes.

Needless to say, he found her there.

“Nick!” Mary’s eyes widened in surprise when she saw him walk in. She wasn’t alone, either.

“Mon amour!” Rose’s face lit up with glee and she sprung up from her stool, rushing over to Nick and planting a kiss on both of his cheeks, then a big wet one right on his lips, acting like she hadn’t seen him for weeks even though they’d just spent a whole day together.

While Nick was reeling with surprise, she glanced slyly over her shoulder at Mary and flared her eyes. Mary balled her hands into fists but suppressed her jealousy.

“Rose, what… huh!?” Nick was caught completely off-guard. “What are you doing with Mary?”

“Now, that’s just rude!” Rose huffed, letting him go and taking a step back, crossing her arms over her chest. “Am I not allowed to be spend time with my fellow wife?”

“What’s this now?” Gina did a double-take, glancing at Nick. Her jaw dropped in shock. “Wait, you got married again?!”

“So I have another mommy now?!” Sylvia cheekily squealed, her gleeful expression twisted with amusement at Nick’s predicament.

“No, no, what?!” He looked at Rose frantically. “Rose, we didn’t, we…” He raised his head to look weakly at Mary, who was trying her hardest to hide the sour expression on her face.

“…Mary, I swear, we didn’t get married,” he promised. Rose could have kept the con going, and point out how much fun they’d had dancing with her in a wedding dress in the cathedral, but she’d already played that hand with Mary anyway.

As for Mary, she let out a long, tired sigh, and rubbed her temples. “…I know. Rose is just teasing me, that’s all. Don’t worry about it.”

“…Oh.” Nick had thought that Rose was primarily teasing him. But it turned out that Mary was the target of her trolling this time?

…

That really shouldn’t be making him jealous, and yet here he was.

“Aww, isn’t that adorable?” Sylvia sneered. “Daddy’s first wife and his new wife are fighting! This is what Harem Hotel is all about!”

She wiped a fake tear from her eye.

“…Sylvia, remember the talk we had earlier about empathy?” Nick asked, leering at her. “This isn’t how it’s supposed to work.”

Sylvia just shrugged.

“Nick, what are you doing here?” Mary asked curiously, walking over to him.

“I was looking for you, actually,” Nick said, turning to her.

Mary brightened immediately when she heard that. “R-really? Me?”

“Aww, she’s turning into a tomato!” Rose tittered. The pleasant shine slid off of Mary’s face and she glared venomously at the blonde.

Nick ignored Rose’s taunting though. As much as he cared about her, she hadn’t had nightmares last night. Mary needed him more right now.

“I heard about what happened,” he said. “Last night. You had a bad dream, isn’t that right?”

Mary sighed, and her face fell. “It’s… a little more complicated than that,” she said quietly, glancing at Gina before looking back at him. “Nick, how much do you know about what happened yesterday, while you were gone?”

Nick glanced at Rose for a moment and saw the wince on her face. Clearly she knew more than he did. Dawn must have told her, he realized.

“…Pretend like I’m completely in the dark,” Nick asked his wife, and Mary sighed in resignation and nodded.

After Mary finished her explanation, Nick was at a loss for words.

“I knew that things had gone bad, but I didn’t know they’d gone that bad,” he said, shaking his head. He stepped forward and pulled Mary into a hug. “I’m so sorry you went through that, Mary. That shouldn’t have happened.”

“It’s okay,” Mary sniffled, drying her tears on his shirt. “Now that you’re here, everything’s so much better.”

Feeling her husband’s arms around her did wonders to soothe her nerves and perk her up. She felt like she was finally safe.

“Is there anything you need from me?” Nick asked. “What kind of bad dream did you have, anyway? Is it something I can help with?”

Mary pulled away from him like he was on fire. Her eyes were as wide as soccer balls and her blush eclipsed the freckles on her cheeks. “That’s… no, no, I’m good!” She said, shaking her head frantically. “Everything’s okay here! Everything…”

She wasn’t really lying. She was fine. She felt fine!

She didn’t need to tell him about her dream.

“Mary, you’re not lying, are you?” Rose asked coyly.

“No!” She hissed, glaring at the blonde. “I’m not! He just… doesn’t need to know about everything. That’s not the same thing as lying!”

“Marriage is a partnership, you know?” Rose continued to taunt her. “I know that I wouldn’t keep any secrets from my husband. Right, Nick?”

She gave him a saucy wink, but Nick returned a dead-eyed stare her way. As much as he loved Rose, he had no illusions that she would be completely honest with him.

Where would be the fun in that?

Mary, on the other hand, accepted Rose’s words on face value. Maybe it was because she didn’t want to lose her position as Nick’s favorite wife even to the fake Rose she’d conjured in her head, or maybe because deep down she really DID want to share everything with her husband. But whatever the reason, she was determined to share her dream with Nick, and by extension, everyone else in the room.

“The dream I had… it was about you, me, and Rose,” Mary said, unable to look him in the eye. She felt like she’d reverted back to the shy little girl she’d been at the beginning of this show. “You and Rose were… and I was… and then…”

The words felt so heavy coming from her mouth. But Rose’s smirking face goaded her, and she managed to explain the whole thing. Every last humiliating, self-flagellating word of it.

By the time she was done, she wanted to curl up into a ball and die of shame.