A/N: Hey guys, figured I would start a sequel to Taken, since people seemed to like it. Not entirely sure where this is going yet, the plot bunnies are running wild but thought that Emily, Naomi and Katie wouldn't just get over something traumatic, so this fic is about the repercussions on their relationships. Let me know what you think, or if you have any plot ideas you'd like to see. Really would appreciate it!

DARKNESS VISIBLE

By HeligenaGirl

"I don't know, seems like it's a bit last season."

"Everyone thinks red hair is sexy, it's classic, never goes out of fashion" murmured Naomi, letting her finger twine through a lock of Ems' hair. It felt soft, out of place above the hard dirt floor littered with twigs and angular stones.

Out of place but it still shone in the faint orange glow from their hastily built fire.

"Cleopatra had red hair."

Naomi nodded. "I'd do her."

Emily closed her eyes, "Emily Dickinson?"

Naomi nodded again. "I'd do her, but I'd make sure she didn't have any cutting implements in the room."

Emily buried her face deeper into the blue tartan rug they were using as a pillow to hide her grin, "So you'd do Mick Hucknall if he turned up now?"

Naomi tried to cover her own smile as she rested on her elbows. "I'd totally kick you out and get it on with the Hucknall. All those sexy red curls, that voice..."

She inched closer to Emily's ear buried under her messy cascade of hair and started humming, "I wanna fall from the stars...straight into his arms..."

Emily giggled and finally turned to face the blonde, taking in her perfect features in the low light "You know you lie like a cheap Russian whore."

"Yes I do." Naomi paused and lowered her eyes. "I wouldn't kick you out for anyone really."

She knew without looking that Emily had a contented smile on her face. It was all she could do not to kick her legs out and have a little celebration but she figured that might undermine the reputation of stoicism she'd built.

The grey clouds winked at her, as if it knew.

Turning to lie on her back; the thin branches of the trees above spread out across the afternoon sky like veins. Pulsating with energy it seemed sometimes, as if they were trying to draw whatever power they could from the two girls below.

Just then she felt the redhead beside her shift and enjoyed the little bit of friction on her thigh. Weird how such small sensations, of someone sitting up, brushing the debris off their sweater sent flickers of desire through her.

"Hey Em, you got the beers by you?"

She waited for an answer but nothing came.

"Ems?"

Silence smoked back at her.

A little put out, Naomi lifted her head and looked over at her girl.

From the looks of it, she didn't even seem to remember that the blonde was lying next to her.

Emily was staring intently into the fire, a slight wariness flickering on her sweet face. Naomi watched, a small spark of anxiety beginning to build in her chest as the twin reached out a hand almost unconsciously it seemed, towards the blazing pile of leaves and paper. A few inches away it stopped, the heat obviously flaring on the skin.

Then Emily reached out further, her fingertips within centimetres of one of the flames.

She moved closer.

"Don't."

It was more of a question than a statement really. Naomi hadn't realised until that moment how sick she had gotten of just watching, just observing the world spinning around her with all its petty humiliations and victories. It was the same awful feeling she'd had staring into the window of the clubhouse all those weeks ago, watching Emily's motionless body lie coldly on the floor.

She cut the tendrils of thought off.

"It doesn't feel the same. I thought it would." Emily stared back at her for the first time, a little blankly. "I mean fire is fire right?"

"There's a difference between an irresponsible campfire and a psycho's raging inferno." Naomi tried to sound as nonchalant as she could.

"He didn't start it, it was an accident."

The fuck it was.

Naomi tried not to think back to that night, the colours of it. The strange flash of burning headlights on black gravel, glass shattering and a burst of painful heat on her face... her jaw muscles were clenching despite her best efforts.

Her tongue seemed to be glued to the floor of her mouth.

So she took Emily's hand in hers, clasped it warmly to reassure her in the only way she could think. She didn't notice for a few seconds, the strange rough patch on the palm, at least until she felt Emily squeeze back and they were palm to palm. Turning the small hand over, her chest froze as she saw a small burn mark etched into the flesh, it looked as if it could have been done with a cigarette or a cheap lighter. A fresh burn.

"Ems?"

Emily looked down at her open palm and lowered her face. "That's not...I didn't mean to..."

"Ems."

The red-head held her eyes sadly. "I kept trying to remember what it felt like in that room. All the stupid things going through my head and I just couldn't." She shrugged self-consciously and drew her eyes away. "You shouldn't forget something like that, it's not right...you should remember it for the rest of your life, so you know what to do if it happens again. Otherwise what's the point?"

Naomi was at a loss for what to say but she ran her fingers over the burn mark gently, willing it to heal as quickly as it had been made.

"They can't hurt you unless you let them, that's what they say isn't it?" Emily blinked, brushing away something from her right eye. "I keep thinking, what if you hadn't come. What if you and Katie hadn't seen my bag in his car, what if he hadn't had that keyring so you knew where to go? I'd be a name on a small plaque in the Humanities Department. Not much of a story."

Naomi couldn't take the pain in Emily's voice anymore; it was echoing too loudly in the small clearing and seemed to double in size the longer they left it. All she wanted to do was stop her talking but she also knew that Emily needed to say what was on her mind.

It felt as if there was a tear running through her ribs.

"None of this matters, Em." Reaching out, she held the smaller girl's shoulders, careful not to brush the still healing bruises. "We found you... and Danny..." She hated the sound of his name on her tongue and tried not to spit it out, "He's not coming back."

"Did you see the picture of his Mum on the News? She looked like she was sagging into herself...like the only reason she had to be alive was just snatched away. She could barely stand up."

The younger twin stared at the floor, the five minute lead story from the news broadcast burned into her mind. Clear, unforgettable in direct contrast to that night. The unfairness of it seemed like a joke.

She bit her lip, "A promising young footballer, who whilst intoxicated, was led into a series of petty criminal acts, was interred today, his team-mates draping the coffin in his favourite club shirt."

"Don't do this to yourself Ems." Naomi heard herself say, heard her own desperation in amongst it.

But Emily couldn't stop herself, "I can't make sense of it. He did all these horrible things to us but I can't quite picture them in my head. I can't tell if they really happened or if someone told me they happened so I think that they did." She swallowed, "And everyone around town thinks he was a great talent, 'taken before his time.'" She clasped her forehead then, as the headache that had been hovering around her eye intensified. "Which one is real?"

I'm real, thought Naomi, not sure if that was selfish or not. We're real.

We're leftovers but we're real.

The lost expression on the red-head's face, here; in the place where they had first been together made her skin seem to ache all over.

Naomi placed her hand gently on top of Emily's and leant in, kissing her softly on the lips. "That's real." Tilting Emily's confused face towards her, she kissed her nose. "And that's real."

Their eyes met, both shining with firelight. "I just want things to make sense again."

"They will, you just have to give it time."

"Do we have time?" asked Emily nervously.

Everything Naomi could think of to say sounded cheap and cliché when she started to reply. All the time in the world. Time is relative. So she nodded and hugging Emily briefly, she pulled her girlfriend down onto the rug they had been lying on. She felt the hard ground press into her spine beneath her t-shirt and hoped that Emily would get the point of what she was trying to say. Putting her right arm out, she pulled the red-head in until she was snuggling into her neck and Naomi could feel the familiar sensation of warm breath beating out a rhythm on her neck. Unending. An everyday rhythm.

It was almost like nothing had happened but she knew that wasn't true.

"Take time to deliberate; but when the time for action arrives, stop thinking and go in." Naomi mumbled, staring upwards giving Emily a little space while she quieted all the thoughts in her mind.

"Napoleon..." said Naomi in explanation.

"Have you been reading the dictionary of quotes again?" Emily felt calm enough to brush the wave of blonde hair back behind Naomi's ear with a little spark in her brown eyes and Naomi almost stopped breathing with relief when she heard it.

"Maybe. " she said mysteriously, her muscles relaxing a little. "Maybe I'm just well informed."

Emily smiled against her neck. But somehow Naomi had a sinking feeling that this wasn't nearly the end of the matter.

A/N: Review and your heart be true...