"I don't know man, I just found her like that."
That was the first thing Emily heard when she opened her eyes. She was still completely disorientated, her head was pounding as if it'd been beaten against a brick wall and she could feel her heartbeat in the side of her face. She could feel that her skin was swollen as she found it hard opening her eye to its full capacity. She didn't need to examine herself in a mirror to know she'd sustained some brutal injuries.
She felt dazed not only from regaining consciousness but also because she didn't recognise her surroundings. The room she was in was pitch black, the only source of light was a slither that filtered in under the door and the early morning rays of sun that peeked into room now and then from behind the thick curtains. She noticed that she was laying in a bed. A double bed. The sheets were soft and fresh like they'd just been washed. It wasn't her bed she was in because the mattress felt different. It was lighter, so much so that she almost felt like she was slowing sinking into it. The panic in her ignited like a flame, she felt so vulnerable and scared, coming back into reality to not remember how she'd been taken out of it and to not have a clue where she'd ended up. She quickly sat bolt upright in the bed, trying to get a different view of the room from another angle when she heard the faint voice from behind the door that woke her.
"Oh, I think she's awake. I heard the sheets move." Emily listened carefully, trying to pin point the persons voice. "No! Speak to her later, give her minute to full wake up man. She's probably scared shirtless right now." She strained her ears trying so hard to recognise the tone, but all she could her was her pulse in her head. "Look, don't worry. I'm here and I'm handling it. I'll call when she's back to normal, okay? Right, I'll call you in a minute Squirt."
The door slowly crept open, the light pouring into the room and directly into Emily's face. She felt the full scrutiny of the person who'd just entered. Them getting a full and well lit view of her bruised and swollen face. Her eyes were glassy with tears and her bottom lip was trembling. She looked like a child who was about to burst into tears, and that's exactly how she felt.
"Oh honey." The voice spoke in a soft and gentile voice. Emily watched as the person stepped into the room and took slow, almost delicate steps towards her. She watched as the shadow of the figure sat down beside her on the mattress and leant forward, flicking on a bedside table lamp she didn't know was there. The lamp wiped the darkness away, revealing her location, and she couldn't help but gasp in disbelief, confusion and relief as she knew exactly where she was. She'd been in that bed one time before. She knew the person say next to her also. She couldn't stay strong any longer after discovering where she was, her emotions were just too fragile and her facade crumbled. The tears flowed freely and her sobs were out of her control and it was then that Shannon shuffled forward on the bed and held her against him in his strong arms.
"You're okay. You're okay. You're safe."
* * * * * * * * * * *
He sat patiently with his arm around her shoulders, propped up next to her on the pillows of Jared's bed and let her cry for what felt like hours. He didn't push it, over smother her or pressure her into telling him what actually happened to her, he just sat there by her side waiting for the sobs to subside.
As she cried Shannon took in Emily's features. He'd never really looked at her before, like really looked at her face. Her skin was creamy and looked soft to the touch, her eyes were brown like autumn leaves and her hair was lush and extravagant. Even as she cried he couldn't help but understand why his brother was so attached to this girl, he would be too if he'd spotted her first. He also could tell that behind it all, Emily was as vulnerable as they come and he wondered if that was another reason Jared was so fond of this girl.
"Sorry." Emily sniffed quietly, wiping her nose with the back of her hand. Shannon squeezed her slightly, making her aware he was there for her.
"Hey, it's fine. Don't apologise." Shannon moved his hand in between her shoulder blades and began to gently stroke her back.
"Well, thank you then, I guess." Emily's voice was all nasally and muffled from crying for so long. Shannon couldn't help feel so immensely sorry for her. Shannon gave her a warming smile that Emily returned with a watery one. "Why am I here Shannon?"
Shannon took a deep breath as Emily swivelled around to face him properly, her composure back and intact and she was ready to talk.
"Because I brought you here." He gave her a pointed look, a little confused by her broad question.
"How did you find me?" She rephrased and Shannon took a deep breath.
"Well. I just stopped by your apartment to pick up them memory cards. Remember I had to get them to give to Emma so we could put your pictures of VyRt up on our Facebook? Anyway, I stopped by at around 7 to get them. I tried to call you to let you know I was on my way but your phone just rang and rang. So when I eventually got to your apartment..." Shannon trailed off as he glanced down at his lap. Emily had been listening intently as he replenished the 4 hours of her life she'd lost.
"Yeah?" Emily asked, urging him to continue.
"When I got to your apartment, the front door was wide open. As I walked down the hall I could see you laying on the floor inside and I hadn't even gotten to your door. When I went inside I found you unconscious." Shannon paused to read her face. He wanted to gage whether to continue, if she could handle it. Her eyes didn't waver and he licked his lips before he decided to continue. "At first I was going to call an ambulance because your head had been bleeding after you fell. But then I thought that that would be worse so instead I brought you here to look after you." Shannon bored into Emily's face, waiting for her so say something. He had told her all he knew and he hoped that that would be enough.
"Why didn't you take me to the hospital?" Emily's eyebrows knitted together as she asked. Shannon swallowed, not wanting to tell her the real reason he decided to avoid authority when it came to Emily. He wasn't supposed to know about her. He was sworn to secrecy by his little brother, told not to tell anyone that he knew about Emily's dark past and illegal habits but Shannon had a feeling that Emily might have caught on slightly to the fact he knew about her old addictions, so he tried his best to make her think otherwise.
"I thought you'd be more comfortable here."
Emily sighed as her shoulders slumped. She was physically and mentally exhausted. Her mind reeled as it tried to process what had happened to her. She remembered who caused her injuries. She remembered who'd been knocking on her door at 5 in the morning and she remembered who had her by the throat. Just thinking about it sent shivers down her spin.
"Emily..." Shannon's timid voice brought her out of her head and brought her attention onto his concerned face. "What happened?" She was the one now to glance down at her lap. She didn't want to tell him, she didn't think it any of his business. She wanted Jared. She wanted him to hold her and kiss her face and hair and tell her that everything was going to be fine now because he was going to take care of her. However, even with how much she wanted his comfort then, she was still scared shitless of him finding out what actually happened, knowing she'd be overwhelmed with shame and embarrassment.
"It was nothing." Emily's voice came as a whisper. She hoped Shannon would accept her answer.
"Emily." Shannon's voice was stern causing her to drag her gaze up to his face. "I know we don't really know each other that well, but like it or not you're part of this family. Through work and through Jared. Please tell me so I can help."
"You make it sound like we're married or something." Shannon chuckled at Emily's statement.
"No, but he cares about you." Shannon watched her eyes soften. "He really, truly cares about you."
"I know." Emily's voice was small and airy and Shannon could see the adoration the girl beside him had for his brother. "And I care about him. But what happened to me has nothing to do with him or you." Shannon knitted his brows, a little offended at her statement. "I'm not trying to be rude, honestly I'm not but it involved people that you guys don't know, and that you'll never know. I don't want Jared to know what happened, it'll just cause more trouble than it's worth. He doesn't need to know Shannon."
"I promise not to tell him." Emily rolled her eyes slightly and gave him a look to say 'yeah right'.
"Come on Shannon, I know you'd tell him. I can't tell you without it going back to him. It doesn't matter anyway, it happened and that's that. Jared is still filming, he will be for a few more weeks. He doesn't need to find out." Emily pleaded further and further urging Shannon to keep last night from Jared. She was terrified of him knowing that she was beaten up by Benny. She was terrified that he would find out and end up coming to the conclusion that she was no good, like she had told him she was. She was terrified that if he knew what had happened to her, he'd leave her. She was keeping this a secret from him for as long as she could.
Shannon listened to Emily fret about Jared knowing and he couldn't stop the lump from rising in his throat. Not only had Shannon told Jared that he'd found her unconscious and her apartment door wide open but he found her with multiple deep purple bruises over her arms and a gash in her head. And she was telling him now she doesn't want Jared to know. Shannon felt like he'd well and truly put his foot in it and all he could muster was a nod of his head as he grasped Emily's shaky hand in his. A weak and guilty smile took his face as he squeezed her fingers comfortingly.
"Okay fine. I understand if you wanna just forget about it. We'll leave it in the past okay?" Emily nodded and gave Shannon a thankful smile. "You should get some sleep." Shannon suggested and Emily laughed.
"I've been unconscious for 4 hours Shannon the last thing I need is sleep." Emily let go of his hand and stretched her arms above her head. "What I need is a cigarette." She announced causing Shannon to chuckle this time.
* * * * * * * * * * *
Sat biting his nails with festering nerves, Shannon didn't know what to do. The morning had fully arrived, the house was bright as the morning sun painted the surfaces inside and the team slowly filtered through the house. One by one; Jamie, Stephanie, Chloe, they all showed up ready to work were as Shannon felt like he'd been working a full 12 hours. His body was exhausted from the nights events. His thoughts went to Emily and how he'd left her sitting on the balcony of Jared's room with a cigarette in between her fingers, bathed in the orange light that peeked over the Hollywood Hills. Nobody knew she was there apart from him, he wanted to keep it that way. His phone bleeped suddenly bringing him out of his daze. A single sentence sent from Jared had him sighing with worry.
"Dude I can't take this anymore. What the fuck is going on?!"
Shannon rubbed a hand over his face, knowing that he would inevitably have to talk to Jared and tell him that he never managed to find out why he found Emily in the state she was in. Jared had badgered and badgered his brother to find out what happened to Emily, see if she was all right since he was miles away from where he wanted to be. By her side. And Shannon hadn't found out a thing. Suddenly his phone was ringing beside him and it seemed as though his brother couldn't wait to find out.
"Hey Squirt." Shannon's tired voice answered.
"Is she okay?" Jared's voice was manic, the complete opposite to Shannon's.
"Yeah. Yeah she's fine dude."
"What's she been doing? You made sure she rested right?"
"Yeah man, she's been awake for a few hours. I told her to rest but she wanted a cigarette instead." He hears Jared's faint breath of relief that she sounded relatively back to normal.
"So what happened?!" Jared pleaded and Shannon blinked hard, trying to come up with an explanation as to why he didn't know anything. He couldn't tell his little brother that she refused to tell him who hurt her because she didn't want him to know. He didn't want to cause that problem.
"I don't know Squirt. She didn't tell me." Shannon held his breathe.
"What the fuck do you mean she didn't tell you?!"
"She didn't tell-"
"Shannon!" Jared cried, the aggravation and worry adamant in his voice. "Why didn't you get it out of her?! How am I supposed to stay here when all I can think about is what happened to her?"
"Jared-"
"I can't get the image out of my head. I need to be there. I can't believe this has happened, how can I stay here when she's all by herself covered in fucking bruises and shit. I can't believe this is happening, I just.."
Shannon sat so still listening to his little brother rant on and on and he felt his heart go out to him. He could hear the panic and despair in his voice and Shannon almost felt guilty that he was in L.A with Emily and he wasn't. Jared's voice trailed off over the phone and Shannon held his breath.
"I've got to go Shan. I'll see you soon okay."
"Wait, what? See you soon? You're filming for another 3 weeks at least." Shannon's eyes widened at what he heard Jared say.
"Yeah, I know. I'll see you soon."
And with that, the phone went dead. And Shannon was lost for words. He didn't know what had just happened, he didn't speak to Jared as much as he wanted to due to his brother's rambling, not giving him to chance to try and defuse his worry. Shannon was the one to be panicked now, not knowing what was about to explode between them. He wished he'd just gotten it out of Emily, it would of put Jared mind a rest and it may of even helped Emily accept and move past it by speaking about it. He knew for sure though, that getting the truth out of her would of saved a whole lot of drama that Shannon had a feeling was about to erupt around them all.