April 1991...

Raven sat on her bed, feeling small and insignificant. Her dark hair was unbrushed, her clothing disheveled, and her two day old makeup had long ago smudged and run until she no longer resembled herself.
The curtains were drawn tight over the window, leaving the room dimly lit and chill. Today, it had been forty days since Izzy quit the band, and she hadn't eaten much since. It was all her fault, and she couldn't fix it, not that she hadn't tried.
The evidence of her efforts lay strewn about the room; scraps of paper, notebooks, even the sides of a tissue box. They were all covered in her untidy scrawl, because Raven Cassel had a secret. Raven Cassel was a time traveller, and to travel, she must fall through the words on her page. Unfortunately, she didn't control when or how that happened, and for some reason she wasn't able to change Izzy leaving.
Oh, how she had fucked her life up!
First she had gotten pregnant off a one night stand, which was shameful, she failed to save Steven from his disintegration into drugs, and now Izzy---
She hadn't meant to, but she had managed to convince him to quit the band even earlier then he would have. She felt like such an idiot.
There was all of those complications, and then there was more; the trauma of having lost her original family when she time-jumped at 16, her miscarriage of her son's twin, and, once again as a result of time travel, having missed her son's first words after the 1987-88 time skip accident.
Raven Cassel had alot to feel guilty about.
The door clicked open, and light streamed in. She glanced up, blinking dazedly in the sudden brightness after having been in the quiet darkness for so long. Vaguely, she recognised the fluff of hair that belonged to Slash standing in the doorway.
She sniffled, and put her head between her knees, arms wrapped around her legs.
"What?" She spoke hoarsely, and rocked herself a little.
"You need to eat something," Slash sounded deeply concerned, but Raven didn't care. She didn't care about anything anymore. Raven felt like she was suffocating on her own emotions; drowning. And nothing else mattered.
"It's not your fault." Slash spoke again. Raven knew it was, and she wanted him to leave her alone.
"yeah it is."
"It is not! Izzy needed to leave because of his own emotions, and from what I heard guilt was all that was keeping him here. You made him see that it's ok to feel like you don't belong, or that you're not coping. If anything, that's admirable." Slash said. "And you should take your own advice. It's okay if you're not okay!"
Raven raised her head to stare at him, and sniffled again.
"You really think so?" Hope flickered in her heart.
"Yes, I'm sure of it." He nodded, curls bouncing. "Now come and eat." He added.
"No." She shook her head, more hot tears streaming down her face.
"Please, Raven. For me?" Slash begged of her.
"O-okay." She stuttered, edging towards the side of the bed. Slash moved to give her a hand up, and shakily, she got to her feet. She didn't really have much energy, and she still felt kind of raw from crying so much, but she made the effort simply because Slash wanted her to so badly.
He helped her down the stairs, and into the kitchen where he helped her sit into one of the chairs around the wooden dining table. Her father smiled from across the table at her.
"You're up!" He said brightly.
"Yes." Raven relpied quietly. She still felt really down in the dumps, and even if the whole Izzy thing really wasn't her fault, there were still so many other things that undeniably were. Raven still hadn't come to terms with her faults and mistakes.
Slash placed a plate of crackers down before her.
"Something light on your stomach." Slash smiled gently behind his mass of hair. Raven gazed at the food in front of her, and slowly she reached forward, picked one up, brought it to her mouth, and bit into it. It made a crunchy noise as she began to chew. She managed to eat half the plate, and she began to feel better almost immediately afterwards. Slash then served her a cup of apple juice, which livened her up even more.
"Thankyou, Slash." She spoke solemnly.
"Do you feel better?" Her dad asked her, "you look better."
"Ehh- I feel okay." She shrugged, "how is... everyone?" She looked pointedly at Slash.
"Well Duff's on the alcohol a bit, but I think he's alright, and Axl's gotten even bossier just lately..." there was a short pause. "And Matt seems fine, and I'm well, too." Slash concluded.
"Found a new rhythm guitarist yet?" She muttered. Slash shot her a worried frown.
"Yeah, actually." He said tentatively, as though testing his luck.
"Oh yeah. What's his name?" She asked,
"Gilby Clarke." Slash replied, tone less worried after having seen that she wasn't about to fly off the handle. Raven nodded.
"Heard he's good." She said, and Slash looked a little surprised,
"You know about him?" He seemed very interested.
"Well... I've heard he's laid back, and a good player, and from what I've heard- he's a good pick for you guys." Then, she actually smiled for the first time in more then a month. Slash looked sort of shell shocked.
"Okay... well we'll have to give him a good go then, huh?" He smiled back.

So there you have it. Welcome to Oh, the Time it Takes, everyone. Hope you enjoyed reading it it as much as I loved writing it!!
More really soon!
This is about to get a whole lotta interesting, so stay tuned
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Xx kisses

P.s. The video in the banner is Izzy talking about leaving guns, but I couldn't actually find one from the time, so it'll have to do Xx