A/N: I got obsessed with this too late. This wouldn't leave me alone.
She ran, even though her legs trembled and threatened to collapse under her weight. She ran, even though each clumsy land of her feet sent aches jarring through her body. She continued to run, because the threat outweighed any amount of pain she was in. The fear of the threat outweighed anything else she could imagine.
Emily Lightman ran.
She had never particularly excelled in the sport, but tonight, in this moment, she was sure she surpassed any speed record she'd ever made.
Just run, stop thinking about it. Just run, just run. Almost home.
She played the mantra over and over again, until she could no longer hear the breathes being pulled out of her by each movement, until she could no longer feel the spasms of aches . The fear became muted as she spotted the familiar trees, the familiar colours of bricks. It was only when she was a couple of houses away that she allowed herself to slow down, to no longer deny her body the break and oxygen it was asking for. Emily turned her head, her eyes moving in sync with her body as she spun around. Every branch that moved in the night, every chirp or noise from an animal-any noise that was near her was a target, and she looked until she was sure that she was not being pursued, that no one was slinking in the shadows or behind trees and houses. The urge to sink to her knees almost overcame her, but she forced herself to keep moving. She didn't know for sure that she wasn't being watched, and to let her guard down while she was so close to being safe was a foolish thing to do. Besides, she still had the hard task of getting past the best lie detector in the world, and even though it wasn't a threat to her, it still evoked a strong fear.
Emily stopped at her door, and she turned around to do another wide sweep. There was nothing suspicious about the night-but like her father said, that's because there was the darkness to cover it up. You just had to expose it with the light. Emily turned back around and looped her jacket belt around her, tightening it to an almost painful position around her midsection. She reached up to her hat, pulling it down as much as she could and wishing she could just pull it entirely over her face.
Emily dropped her hands and all pretences, before taking a deep breath. She could do this. She was her father's daughter after all, not her mother's. She used this encouragement as an anchor for strength, and reached out with rigid muscles. Her hand fell and grasped onto the doorknob, and she pushed it open wide enough for her to slip inside.
Now-if she could just slip through her father's radar as easy as that.
TBC.