Disclaimer: I own nothing.
A/N: for the Verb challenge. Leaving characters unnamed at the moment; will get into who they are later on.
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Come across you lost and broken
You're coming to but you're slow in waking
You start to shake.
You still haven't spoken, what happened
"Say When", The Fray
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As he looked at her, he saw everything she tried so hard to hide from everyone. She struck him as being so lost and fragile and jaded - all the things he hoped she would never be. Everyone was different, but she was the only one whose changes disturbed him.
"What happened?" he asked, not expecting an answer. No matter how much he meant to her, certainly she wouldn't explain, at least not yet. Why would she, when odds were that at least part of it was his fault.
His words consoled her, made her accept that nothing was the same, that nothing would ever be the same. She remained speechless, silent, broken - but not alone, not anymore. He was there, and she was safe.