Emma was in her temporary room silently crying to herself. The talk with the Morans had certainly helped, but there was still something bothering her. Her father was in jail, so why was she crying? She was finally safe, so why was she still hurting?
Emma heard footsteps coming up the stairs and immediately wiped her teary eyes. She couldn't let the Morans know she was still hurting after all they've done for her. Emma knew how much effort the Moran family put into helping her recover, she couldn't let them find out. That is, until Gia walked in.
"Nice try." said Gia as she entered the room. "What's up?"
"It's nothing."
"It's definitely something if you're in here crying. Come on Emma…" Gia groaned. "We've already been through this. I can come to you for anything and you can come to me."
"You've already done so much for me."
"And you've done much more for me. It's just what we do." Gia shrugged her shoulders and then looked to Emma. "It's about your nightmares right?"
"How did you know?"
"We're best friends. I can read you like a book. Plus, you never finished telling me about that nightmare you had."
Emma chuckled nervously and hid her face sheepishly. "I was kind of hoping you would forget about that."
Gia rolled her eyes. "Like I'm going to forget about something that important? Seriously Emma, tell me the truth."
"Fine." Emma admitted. "It was the nightmare again."
"Tell me the whole story from scratch." Gia crossed her arms and frowned slightly at her friend.
"I can't. Every time I think about, fear just overwhelms me. I don't like thinking about it."
"You know, fear isn't always bad. Fear can tell you what your weaknesses are. And once you recognize your weakness, you can grow and become stronger."
"Can you stop with your Yoda talk and just leave me alone for now?"
"You really think I'm going to leave you like this?" Gia teased, but then her face turned serious. "You can't always be alone. Millions of people love being alone, but no one can ever withstand that solitude forever."
"You sound like an 80 year old man."
"I don't care. If it's going to convince you to talk to me, then I'm all for it."
Emma took a deep breath and closed her eyes. "It starts off with me being trapped in the basement again. Somehow, my dad managed to capture you, Noah, Jake, and Troy. He forces me to watch you guys suffer through tremendous pain until you slowly die one by one. All of you were screaming at me to make it stop and to do something, but I couldn't. Then, you all slowly started to hate me and mocked me until your last breaths. The only thing I could do was watch. Once you all died, everything faded into a white room where it was just me and my mom." Emma paused and looked away as a tear started to run down her face.
"My mom was standing in the middle of the blank room criticizing me. I felt myself get smaller and smaller as she kept yelling at me. She kept telling me that I was a failure and that I would live up to be a piece of nothing. That I should just kill myself now because nothing good would ever happen to me. That even if I did die, no one would care anyways. I'm just a useless slut that no one would ever love. She was so angry at me because I couldn't do anything to save her. The last thing that she does is grab me and slap me on the cheek. I usually wake up after that"
By now, Emma's hand was already shaking and more tears started to drip down Emma's face.
When Gia heard the last part of the dream, she started to feel even worse for her friend. Not only did she have the image of her dad hurting her, but now she had the scarring image of her late beloved mother laying a hand on her too.
"You better not believe that one thing in that dream is true. Look where we all are now. We're all safe." Gia said sternly.
"I know, but it's the part where my mom comes in. What if that's how she really feels? What if she was disappointed in me? What if the last thing she felt was shame because I didn't save her?
"I'm proud of you Emma. You're mom would be proud to see how far you've come. " Gia gave Emma a soft smile. "You already know that deep down, your mother would never say something like that. The last thing she probably felt was concern for you. You were in that car crash too Emma. She was probably worried sick for you."
"How do you know?"
"Your mother was a great woman, just like you. She was too kind to say something as horrific as that. She still loves you Emma. She probably still does, no matter where she is." Now it was Gia's turn to look down sadly. "But, I'm sorry to say that I can't do anything else besides be here for you. I can't sympathize with you because I never had to go through what you did."
"I hope you never have to go through that." Emma murmured. "If I have you by my side, then I know that I'll be alright. You don't have to do anything else."
Emma got up from her bed and opened her arms out. Gia understood and gave her best friend a loving hug. "Thank you." Emma whispered into Gia's ear.
Gia broke the hug and shook her head. "You did all the heavy lifting."
"But you and the others were there for everything. Without you guys, I would've lost it a long time ago."
"So you're really okay now?"
"I'll be fine." Emma gave Gia a reassuring grin.
Gia gave her one last smile before exiting her room. She slowly started to walk to her own room, which was right across the hall, while thinking about what had happened. Emma was slowly getting better, but she could see the wounds Mr. Goodall left. Those wounds even created horrible scars that made her friend change so much. Now, the pink ranger wasn't as cheerful, optimistic, and open as she was once before. It seemed like she was just an empty shell of it now. Her other physical wounds were healing very well, but there was still a wound no doctor could ever heal. Emma would have bear the pain of the invisible scar that her father had left on her. It wasn't a physical scar that could easily be seen, but an emotional one. The good news is that scars can still fade away until it's forgotten. They may last forever, but it doesn't mean that it'll affect her forever. Gia would make sure of that.