Welcome to Gaia! ::

Raquel raised her eyebrows bit in surprise but smiled pleasantly as she looked up at the singing birds and green trees. It really was nothing like veratia. The birds here were beautiful and not disease ridden, and the trees were real and healthy. it was all lovely.

"They asked for us to kind of house sit while they're gone...that and they knew we wanted to stay on Druis for a little while to sight see, and that the hotel was putting Damian through a lot of pain..." She glanced over her shoulder at the house where her love sat, frowning slightly.

"He uh-.....got hurt... protecting me once..." She looked down at her drink, swallowing slightly, the guilt showing through. "But he's been healing nicely, its just his poor knee thats having a bit of trouble..." She shrugged and forced a smile looking up at Teagan again, as she sipped her lemonade.

Raquel was taken aback slightly, though didn't let it show. She merely had a puzzled look on her face before smiling softly. "I know what you're thinking..." she shook her head slightly pulling up a chair on the patio. "But...I'm going to be honest with you..." She looked up at Teagan, a neutral expression on her face. "...I never cared about money.... Ask Natty... it was about survival. About living to see the next day. So naturally, most people in our position would do anything just about to have some money, let alone so much... most women slept with men like Damian, to acquire such funds... thats how veratia is.." She shrugged casually as she sipped he drink again.

It was hard to explain hr and Damian to someone else. Looking at it from a 3rd persons standpoint, they looked rather shallow and unstable. It looked like Raquel was just using him to live in the lap of luxury. And Damian using her to redeem himself somehow.

But they didn't know all the two had been through together. No one did... She had to keep that in mind.

"I will admit, Damian and I started off with a ....strictly business relationship..." She blushed and looked rather ashamed as she picked at the arm of the chair. "Though I was surprised he didn't sleep with me. He just wanted my company....and slowly but surely... we found we were in love." She shrugged as if it were all so simple, oh but how it wasn't. "We had what the other needed to feel alive again. To feel worth something more than the shallow shells we were before... its as if... we weren't alive until we met.... you know?" She looked up, giving Teagan this mysterious but lovely smile, as if she liked how she worded that. It was a good way to describe how she felt about him.

Raquel's eyebrows raised in interest. She had been heading to ask about her and Nat, but it seemed she was beat to the punch. The thought of Nat coming back for Teagan, though not for her, hurt for a moment, but only a second. She and Nat had a mutual understanding of the situation and everything was over. She had Damian and now it was clear that Nat had Teagan. As it should be, she told herself with a nod.

She said nothign for a moment, then jsut smiled, looking down. "I was wondering where he was going so out of breath and muddy...." She shook her head. finally though, she looked up, studying Teagan's features intently.

"...You must be something...." She noted distantly. "...I mean...Nat... just doesn't stick around. The boys antsy..." She nodded with a smile as she thought about their childhood. "He was always on the run, always changing, always craving change. When things got to normal, or started looking like a long term commitment, he'd hightail it out of there...." She sighed, though looked up meeting Teagans eyes. "And I don't just mean with me. He's always just been very flaky on things... not that he meant to... I honestly think he was just terrified of what commitment meant to his family. Commitment was working the same hard labor for little pay in the grime of the city day in and day out, with the same woman you had grown detached from but stay with her just because that's how its done..." She furrowed her brow, thinking back.

"So... for him to make the effort... turn around and come back.... He knows its a commitment of some sort.... but he must see soemthing utterly wonderful thats worth it all." She gave Teagan this sincere, soft smile, her eyes radiating happiness for this woman in front of her.

"Thank you." She said, after a short silence. "For giving him that... the boy's gotta see what it's really like to be in love... he's never tasted the real thing... I mean.... I know he loves you. I dont know if you've discussed that or not, but he's told me about you briefly... I could just tell he adored you..." She smiled, almost motherly as she gave a steady look to Teagan.

Raquel's smile faded then disappeared entirely. She looked down all of a sudden, fiddling with her hands around her glass. She was surprised first of all, that Nat would consider coming clean. "Wow...you must be something'." She forced a smile, glancing up at her, but furrowed her brow. "...I'd um-... be careful.... don't destroy them just yet...keep them...handy." She stared down at the ground.

"Natty's....really dependent on those things... He seems to get along pretty clear headedly, even after he's just lit up...well ok maybe a little after.... But thats because he has to so much... He cant go very long without some... So he's learned to live around the haze in his head..." She frowned slightly.

"...When-....When he starts...changing..." she seemed to have trouble wording it correctly. "Don't hold anything he say's or does against him." She looked back up at Teagan, getting direct eye contact to nail this in. "What he's like then isn't Nat. Things he'd never do... if he was in his right mind..." She swallowed a little, suddenly feeling some bad memories flooding back as she looked away.

That shook somehting in Raquel. She could feel the motion suring thorugh Teagan's body, and knew she wanted to help Nat however she oculd.
"...I promised myself I'd never say this, for Nat's sake... but I can see you're wmorethan willing to take this all the way.... You can't do it alone..." She added, knowing she couldn't.

Raquel frowned down at her lap, thinking a moment. "...Natty...gets a little violent." She looked up at Teagan, her eyes cloudy and darkw ith bad memories. "He tried to quit many times, every time ending badly." She swallowed a little. "Um....once... he almost struck ..." Her voice was little shaky, as she pointed to her cheekbone. "I've been beat before...believe me..." She confided slightly, setting her drink down so she oculd hold her arms. "But...just not from Nat... never from Nat...."

"I had never seen him so violent... When I begged him to stop..." She seemed to have a catch in her throat as she held back old tears. "He grabbed a bottle, smashing it in half...He came towards me slowly but with a bloodthirsty gleam in his eye. He demanded his stash, so I gave it to him, terrified for my life. he dropped the bottle and collapsed shakily before fumbling around to light up. Once he did he returned to normal, not really remembering what he did..." She swallowed a little, wiping at her eyes to keep the tears at bay. "He knew he had done something though. It was as if someone took over him... it wasn't my Natty.....but I never told him what happened. I just said he scared me a little..but it was ok..." She looked back up at Teagan, her eyes so full of sadness.

"I think...I think if you can just...just get Nat to hold onto himself...to not let go of his conscious self... and let the shaking and tremors pass...he'd break it a little...and it'd get easier...." She looked down, a single tear escaping. "But I was too afraid to try....alone anyways..." She looked up at Teagan again, dead in the eye.

"Please dont repeat this to Damian... he already hates Nat as it is..." she added, wiping her face and trying to pull back her composition again.

Raquel smiled at her new found friend, nodding determinedly. "Thank you... and you're right. We will get him clean... Damian and I will be here for a bit longer kind of on vacation. So I should be here as he's going through the worst of it... So I'm here if you need me." She reached out and touched Teagan's knee in a sort of act of friendship, smiling brightly to her.

Raquel merely smiled wider, looking down. "Oh I know... I can tell..." She looked up and gave her a sweet, understanding smile. "You two will be alright.... its just a matter of getting through these big parts now..." She sighed a little, reaching to get another sip of her drink.