The Chronicles of Quintella and Alice

Preparation For The Hearing

Notes: Karen and Drew finally go to court for Aidden as Karen shows up with her new appearance after not seeing Dorinda for a while.

TRIGGER WARNING: Mentions of murder, sexual assault and panic attack near the end.

Over the last few months, Karen had been healing nicely at home and of course being put on bed rests was hard for since she was starting to see Aidden again. So, it did take an emotional toll on Karen and she felt as if she was a terrible mother for getting the surgery done because that took even more time away from her and Aidden and she knew that he wasn't going to stay a baby for long. So, Karen just hoped that time will slow down so, she could just spend some time with him.

So, once her bed rests days were over she went straight back to therapy so, her alters couldn't come out. She was also managing them nicely as well and when she came back into therapy, Dr.Womack could tell that Karen's self-esteem had gotten better since the bandages were taken off of her and the physical aspect of it had healed.

She noticed a difference in Karen where she didn't think as poorly about herself like she did before when she had her burns. It was as if the surgery had done wonders for Karen. She was more happier now even though she still had to fight against her depression and anxiety though she could say herself that she felt like she knew how to handle those intrusive thoughts that she had and for that Dr.Womack was proud of her.

This surgery damn near helped, Karen to look like her old self. But even though the surgery had did wonders for her Karen still wasn't completely satisfied yet she still wanted somethings to be changed like how she looked before and so, she had talked to Dr.Womack about plastic surgery and of course, Dr.Womack had asked her why she had wanted it and Karen was hesitant to tell her at first but then she did. Because even though the doctors did a great job with the appearance she still felt like she looked crooked and she thought of herself as a tad bit deformed.

"Karen you're not deformed you are a burn survivor and if anybody says otherwise it's them who needs the help." Dr.Womack told her. But Karen just looked down nervously rubbing her hand.

"Karen what is it that's bothering you?" Dr.Womack asked her. "Because the surgery did amazing if we're being honest here." She told her trying to get Karen to open up about what was going on through her head. "I know." She said. "But I-I just wanted to look better." She told her. "For who?" Dr.Womack asked her. "For you because that's the best and only reason why you should get it done. Don't get plastic surgery just because you think it'll impress other people. If they don't treat you right now they're not gonna treat you right after the surgery." Dr.Womack told her and Karen just looked down in defeat.

"I know that but how else can I shut my sister up from talking about me if I still look like I'm deformed ?!" Karen told her putting more emphasize on deformed. "Karen what did I just say?" Dr.Womack asked her and now she knew that Dr.Womack was about to lecture Karen and make her do affirmations on loving herself.

"That I'm not deformed." Karen told her looking away from her. "Karen look at me." Dr.Womack told her and they had been working on eye contact since, Karen had got off of bed rests and she had gotten better with it even though sometimes her eyes might roam somewhere else because she was just used to not looking anyone in the eyes at that point. But Karen had wanted to be strong enough for the court hearing against her sister and be able to look her dead in her face and tell her that she still won not wanting Dorinda to think that she had gotten the best of her.

"And that's right you're not you're just as beautiful as anyone else." She told her and Karen nodded her head silently still not fully believing it. Although she did believe that she was at least pretty now. Not only that Karen wanted to prepare herself for facing the men that sexually assaulted her, broke into her former home, and murdered her son and she knew she needed to at least feel some type of confidence when seeing them again or else it wasn't going to end well for her.