She felt the tears coming on again but she took a few deep breaths and held them back. She needed to get somewhere quiet. The crowd had already started to disperse a bit but there were still a lot of people.

She turned her attention back to the map and identified a small tree house a little ways into the tangle. Not right on the edge in case other people were thinking along the same lines. And then she began to walk. One step at a time, one foot in front of the other.

After a short walk she'd reached the tangle and so she began to climb. She wasn't actually that big on climbing things as a kid let alone in her thus-far short adulthood so she had to focus as she went. That need for focus actually helped, it pulled her out of her head and her racing thoughts and back into her body. A body she was happy with for the first time, since... it had to be when she was a kid that she last felt so comfortable in her own skin.

When she reached her destination it was blessedly empty. There was even some cushioning on the floor, only as much as a gymnastics mat but it made it a comfortable place to sit. There was a quiet burble coming from a stream below, and the whisper of a small breeze blowing through the trees. It exemplified a lot of what she'd enjoyed about this place in the short time she'd spent here. Sanctuary was crafted with a lot of attention to detail and that detail focused on making it a nice place to spend time. A low stress environment for pushing your limits and trying new things.

And the truth was that all of that none of that had changed. If someone had offered her the chance to stay here long term before the speech she might have taken it. That was the worst part of all of this. Daisy had taken something she loved something she wanted, something she was afraid of giving up, and forced it on her. And that very force cast a bit of a sour tinge over what would otherwise be one of the best experiences in her life.

She didn't want that sour tinge to be tied up in everything good. She wanted to be able to enjoy all of this without the complications. Without worrying Clinton and her Mom. Without the risk of dying. Without feeling like she might be letting everyone around her down if she didn't risk her life chasing the nebulous prize of escaping. Without having to put effort into getting back to a way of living she wasn't very happy with. 

She let that though percolate for a little longer. She didn't actually need to risk dying. She didn't need to be the one who put everything into trying to get out. She could help in other ways. That didn't really address Mom and Clinton worrying about her. But at least for the moment she couldn't do anything about that either. All she could do was live as best she could and try to enjoy the time she had.

It wasn't as easy as that, taking the positive side of things. And she knew already that not everyone would appreciate a positive attitude in these circumstances. Still, it was worth a try. She'd learned to treasure the good things in her life. To not focus too much on the things that made her unhappy in her old circumstances. Because dwelling on the negative was no way to live. She'd just have to reapply those old lessons here."

In the spirit of that, she decided to sing a little. Her voice had always been one of the things she liked about herself. She'd managed to avoid the deepening that some other trans girls had had to contend with and it served as a way to remind herself that she was a girl.

"The sun will come out. Tomorrow. Bet your bottom dollar that tomorrow, there'll be sun..."