Argh, crap. Why wasn't he calling for her anymore? Why would he leave her like this? She painfully dug her fingers into the ground and dragged herself over to a tree, pulling herself up on the gnarled bark. She tried to put some weight on her injured leg, and grimaced at the spasm of pain that shot up her ankle. Reaching up, she grasped an old, dried-up limb of the tree and put her weight onto it, hearing a reassuring crack after a couple of seconds. She tugged on the branch until in snapped off, then propped herself up with it, taking the weight off of her injured ankle.
' M-Marshall?' She called out weakly, but received no reply. Gritting her teeth, She started to hobble towards where she had heard his voice, wincing at the stabs of pain from her ankle and her midsection. She'd be able to find him, or he would find her. Then this nightmare would be over.

Marshall-lee sat on the edge of his bed, contemplating his alarm clock. It was almost five am. He was running nocturnal at the moment, and considering he had gotten up at around 3 pm yesterday and had spent half the night running around looking for Fionna, he was considering turning in. But Cake should've called him to say that she had found Fionna by now. Actually, she should've called him several hours ago if Fionna had been with Gumbutt. So then Fi must still be missing. However, he didn't want to consider that option, because if it was true, then that might've actually been her scent he picked up in the woods. She could be in there right now, bleeding, alone and scared. And it would be his fault for not finding her earlier.
Gobdammit, he had to go back.

'Cake, it's Marshall. Have you found Fionna yet? 'Cause I'm still looking. Call me when you get this, my phone's on.' Marshall-lee slid the phone back into his pocket and streaked into the dark and scary woods. It was globbin' winter too. Longer night-time hours which was good, But it also meant that if Fionna really had been in here all night, then she could bloody well be dead.
' Fionna? Bunny, if you can hear me, please say something!' Marshall-lee sniffed at the wind and again found a faint trace of Fionna's smell. He followed it, more carefully this time, and quickly wound up at the deer carcass again. But instead of stopping, he dutifully ignored the strong smells emanating from the body and searched again for Fionna's scent. He soon discovered a trail that passed behind the deer, continuing on into the woods. Fionna was definitely in here. How could he have been so stupid? ' Fionna? Fionna!' He continued to call her name desperately, before passing by a tree and smelling the strongest concentration of her scent yet. He looked over the ground carefully and found a few small spots of her blood, in the dirt and on the trunk of the tree. But they weren't fresh, she hadn't been here for hours now. If she was really badly hurt, she can't have gone far though. He picked up the fresher trail and continued to chase her, calling out every so often.

' M-Marshall-lee?' Marshall pricked his ears up. That was her.
' Fionna? Where are you baby, call for me!'
' Marshall!' Her voice was faint, but he could make out which direction it was coming from. He dodged between the trees, heading directly for the pitiful sound.
' Keep calling baby, c'mon!'
' Marshall-lee! Please...' He squeezed between a gap in two closely planted trees and finally laid eyes on the human girl, curled up underneath the root of an imposing old willow on the bank of a river. He was by her side in an instant, gently sliding his arms underneath her knees and around her shoulders and pulling her out from the overhang. Fionna shivered violently, and Marshall saw that her backpack, which would've contained her yellow sweater, was noticeably absent. Now that just wrapped this whole disturbing image up with a nice tight bow. Fionna never went anywhere without her backpack.
Somebody had done this to her.

' Oh My G- Fionna, what the hell happened to you?' Fionna only curled up tighter, shaking her head. Her teeth were chattering so badly Marshall-lee doubted she would be understandable if she tried to talk. Prioritize, Marshall. First, you need to get her warm. Then you need to make her safe. How only came after that.
Fionna mewled in protest as Marshall-lee set her back down on the ground and stripped off his own hoodie and shirt. Damn, it was cold. If it was bad enough to bother him, then Fionna must be nearly hypothermic. He reached for her shirt and started to pull it up, But Fionna screamed and cringed away from him, attempting to scrabble backwards across the ground. Bewildered and worried by her reaction, Marshall-lee slowly coaxed her back over, crooning to her soothingly.
' Fionna, I need to warm you up. Skin-to-skin contact is the fastest way. Nothing's gonna hurt you, I need to get you warm.' Fionna glared at him suspiciously, and resolutely refused his numerous attempts to take off her clothing.
' C'mon, Fionna! If you get too cold, you'll die!' Marshall-lee grabbed her shirt, tugging on it roughly, and Fionna screamed again, twisting away from him and kicking out powerfully, a piece of her shirt tearing off into Marshall's hands. They both stared at it in shock. Marshall-lee looked up at Fionna and saw that she seemed just as surprised by the intensity of her reaction as he was.
' Okay, just... Look, just come here, I'll take you home.' Fionna glared at him distrustfully. The look in her eyes tore straight through the vampire, creating an aching pang that was physically unbearable. She didn't want him to pick her up and take her home. She just plain didn't want him to touch her. Marshall-lee winced at her expression as he pulled back on his shirt , not bothering with the buttons. What did he do?
Gently, careful not to jostle what looked like a badly sprained ankle, Marshall-lee picked Fionna up, draping his hoodie over the top of her and cradling her to his chest. Speed was most important now. If she wouldn't let him warm her up, then he needed to get her home and out of the remained rigid in his arms as he began to glide between the trees.
' Fionna seriously, relax. You'll just make yourself worse. It's only me.'
' It was only him, too.' Fionna replied, so faintly that Marshall barely made out what she had said. Only who? And what had this nameless bastard done to his Bunny?

They had almost exited the forest when Marshall-lee heard his phone ring in his back pocket. Globbin' finally, Cake!
' Fionna, sweetheart, can you get that, it's in the back pocket of my jeans. I need to tell Cake I've found you.' Fionna roused herself from the semi-trance she had put herself in and patted the back of Marshall-lee's jeans until she found the pocket with his phone, pulling it out and holding it up to his ear.
' Marshall-lee, I haven't found-'
' I have, Cake, she's with me now-' Fionna fumbled with the phone and Marshall-lee deftly caught it with the hand that was holding her shoulder. He clicked the phone onto speaker, and soothed Fionna, who was once again struggling, the tightness of his grip on her having crossed an undefined line that had never existed previously.
' Can I speak to her? Fionna honey, can you hear me?' Cake crackled frantically out of the receiver. Fionna blinked at the phone, then squeaked out a mumbled reply. Marshall-lee glanced at her worriedly.
' Cake, I think she's in shock. I don't know what happened to her, but I'm bringing her home right now. I'll see you soon.' Marshall-lee ended the call and whispered a constant stream of reassuring nothings to Fionna, trying to distract her from the obvious discomfort she had at being so close to him. The feeling of her recoiling from his grasp only worsened the betrayal that was pulsing within his chest, a constant dull ache that increased every time she cringed when he held her tighter. Why didn't this comfort her? She had been, cold, alone and probably scared out of her mind, wouldn't a pair of open arms be the best thing in the world?
What the hell had happened to make her like this?

As soon as Marshall-lee entered the treehouse, sliding in through a partially open window, Fionna struggled away from him, landing heavily on the floor. She breathed in quick, frightened pants, gazing up at the disoriented vampire with wide eyes. After a moment, she tried to stand up to get to her room, but immediately crumpled, letting out a soft cry of pain. Marshall-lee was back beside her in an instant, carefully avoiding contact. He didn't want to make either of them feel more unhappy than they already did.
' Fionna, where does it hurt?' Fionna squeezed her eyes shut and bit her lip, before gesturing with trembling fingers to her left ankle.
' I'm going to take off your sock so I can look at it. And can you please stay still, or you'll just hurt yourself even more.' Fionna gave a small squeak, in acquiescence or protest he wasn't sure. Regardless, he gently pulled Fionna's sock off and probed the swollen flesh around her ankle, Fionna wincing slightly no matter how immobile he held her leg.
' You've definitely messed up something, Bunny blue. Let me take you to your bedroom, then I promise I'll leave you alone, okay?' Fionna's eyebrows furrowed and she shook her head slightly.
' I- I don't want you to go.'

Marshall-lee raised an eyebrow at her as he picked her up again, feeling her tense as soon as their bodies connected.
' Well, then why do you freeze up every time I touch you? Seriously Fionna, it's just me. I've never hurt you- at least not badly- before, so why would I start now?' Fionna remained silent as Marshall-lee carried her into her room and placed her on the bed, drawing back as soon as he could. He didn't know why it bothered her so much, but he wasn't about to cause her pain for the sake of his ego. You could call him narcissistic, but not sadistic.
' I.. I don't know. I'm not mad at you, and I know you won't hurt me but it just... it just feels wrong and scary and I don't know why!' Fionna wrapped her arms around her knees, and Marshall-lee suddenly realized she was still in the soiled, freezing clothes he had found her in.
' Look, just forget it for now Fi, you need to get out of those clothes or you'll get sick.' Fionna hesitated then nodded, gesturing for Marshall-lee to go and open her wardrobe. The vampire tossed her a pair of her fluffy red pajamas and then gathered up some spare blankets that were lying on the floor of the wardrobe.
As Fionna changed behind him, Marshall considered the worrying implications of her words. It felt wrong and scary for him to touch her? Even platonically? That brought up scenarios that he had never thought possible in a place like this, much less that it would happen to someone he knew. I mean, there was a friggin' Kingdom made of candy. Shit like that would not- actually, could not happen. Bloody hell, he should really stop jumping to conclusions. They only made things worse.

' Okay, I- I'm dressed.' Marshall-lee promptly threw the blankets he was holding over Fionna, who adjusted them so that she could sit up on the bed, wrapped like a burrito. Marshall-lee floated indecisively next to the bed for a few moments, before gingerly sitting down the edge of the bed and pulling Fionna's blanket's tighter around her.
' Cake should be back soon.' Marshall-lee offered, before they lapsed into a tense silence that was so loaded it would only take the most meager spark to set it off. He picked up the pile of wet clothing she had left at the end of the bed and was about to throw it off into a corner but stopped as he caught a flash of something red on Fionna's skirt. There was blood spotted all over it. As he looked at the clothing more carefully, he realized that her underwear was noticeably absent. What the-
' Okay, Fuck this. Fionna, what happened to you? Why the fuck are you acting so weird? Baby, who was he, and what did he do to you?'

Marshall-lee unleashed the question he had been struggling with with such conviction that Fionna could do little more than blink at him for a few moments. She began to cry, hiccuping and pulling anxiously at the blankets that were wrapped around her.
' I... I don't know, I just- It was like I was under a spell or something, then I just- And he... He was on top of me and it hurt, it hurt all through my stomach.. And I tried to run away, and he just kept screaming " I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to.' Fionna was obviously upset with reliving what had happened to her, but Marshall-lee remained silent. She had to tell him, or there was no way he could fix it. Or get revenge on the asshole who had completely set their relationship back like, several weeks worth of being a nice guy, not to mention done something completely unspeakable to his girl. Fionna wasn't an easy girl to get through to, in more ways then one, but something had happened last night that had completely broken her trust.
' It h-hurt so much, and I could barely walk, b-but I was afraid he'd catch up so I ran but it just hurt like hell... And I thought I could hide in the f-forest but then I realized I didn't have my b-bag so I just kept running, then I tripped on s-something and hurt my ankle...' Fionna paused for a few moments, breathing in and out at a measured, forced pace as she tried to calm herself down. Marshall-lee itched to wipe away the tears that were streaming down her face but knew that this would probably do more harm then good.
' I.. I don't know how long... I was like that but then I heard you calling for me, so I broke off a branch and tried to find you, but I couldn't. You weren't calling anymore. Then I just got too cold and my leg and my tummy, I... I just gave up and crawled under the willow tree. Then you found me and brought me home. I should've said this ages ago, but thank you, Marshall-lee. Thank you for finding me.'