Today has been a good day.

The first in a long time. Since finding Val and finally believing I was out of his realm of direct control.
Today we emerged from the hedge into the real after a long and dangerous journey. I remember only parts of it, but what I remember is already awful enough.
I'm going to do my best to write down what I can  remember. I think it will help me make sense of things, especially if I start to recall the things that happened in the gaps in my memory.
When we popped through the hedge I was with Val, and as soon as we were awake Daniel was there. He said we'd been gone for a year and a day. A YEAR AND A DAY. He'd been working with Jericho to find us. We went to my old apartment to change and shower. Daniel told me about the fetch that replaced me and how he'd scared her away by haunting the place. He knew immediately that it wasn't me.
But apparently she threw parties in the apartment. She had people over and now she's moved somewhere else and is writing books and pretending to be me with a whole slew of idiot new friends.
We talked and went to Jericho's, where we met up with Jake, Petrov, and Leo. Jericho says he knows some wards to protect us from the fae, which I watched him cast on the house I now sit in to scribble this down. As soon as I can I will be buying new smart phone (have to see what's best now- it's been months), tablet, computer and fucking peripherals. Though I find I savor the feeling of a pen in my hand as it scratches over paper more than I recall.
Jake found the back door into our little hedge house and we took Jericho and Daniel there to create a new motley. As I suspected might be the case, Daniel seemed to be fully corporeal once we were in the other realm.
Both he and Jericho found places in the house to call their own. I went with Daniel to check out his rooms and I managed to tell him about how I realized I'd come to feel about him.
It was a strange reversal to explain to him that this time I was the one cut off and pining all on my own for years.
Then I showed him how to change the house using his will, and we made a room connecting our portions of the house that no one else can access.
It sounds sweet and romantic when I describe it but it was actually really awkward, just in a sweet romantic way.
It scares me, to be honest. It scares me a lot letting someone in this close after all the terrible shit he put me through. But if I let that keep me from the good things in life, then he really has taken everything from me.
I won't say 'he wins' because I don't think there's such a thing as winning for him, or for someone in his position, I guess?
I told Daniel more about my time in his realm than anyone else. Almost everything, actually, even the parts that were hard to talk about. At least as far as I can remember.
Daniel can also eat and drink in the Hedge, and I learned he likes scotch and his steak rare.
Look at me. I'm barely even a girlfriend and I'm already memorizing shit about him like some kind of fan girl.
It's ridiculous.