Susan sighed sadly as she sat on the edge of the hospital bed where her daughter that had gone missing almost two years ago now lay fast asleep thanks to the pain medication the doctors had given her. After seeing the damage to the redhead after finding her asleep in her bed Susan brought her to the hospital to get checked out though Will kept begging her not to hurt her anymore which was breaking her heart. The only thing she could figure out was that Will must have been trapped on Meridian all this time and must have suffered greatly under severe torture.
Will had extensive bruising and several lacerations and welts across her back, arms and legs as if someone was beating her with a belt and it had dug into the skin causing numerous cuts. There was damage pointing to her recently being raped as well as they did a rape kit on her and took some samples for proof if the girl could tell them who but many of them felt it was pretty much useless because they couldn't exactly punish the Prince for it as they couldn't get to him or his goons after he found a way to tap the veil and use it's powers to nullify any technology including most weapons on Meridian.
Thankfully there was only a few portals still open though which made it near impossible for Phobos to conduct a full scale invasion of Earth and there was soldiers guarding those locations with heavy assault weapons making sure the Prince stayed confined to Meridian while Heatherfield and the surrounding cities became a temporary home to the refugees from there as well as Elyon and her adoptive family after Phobos nearly killed her by draining most of her powers. It was a miracle that she was even able to escape at all.
When Will went missing everyone had looked for her and it was during the time Elyon was still under the impression that Phobos was good and she had sworn that she had never seen Will at the castle which led many to believe that the redhead was dead. Support for that theory came when it became common knowledge among the parents of their children being these Guardians that was fighting against Phobos. Their powers had weakened considerably which Yan Lin said could have been caused by two things, the Heart being destroyed which weakened the link considerably as it was the conduit between Candracar and Earth and the lifeforce of Candracar. If the Heart was destroyed it would destroy Candracar unless it was able to draw power from the aurameres to give the fortress at the center of infinity the power to keep itself stable which would explain the girls limited powers as they would still have a slight connection.
The second and most unlikely reason would be that the girls were punished for some reason and they were stripped of their powers. This was unlikely because they had more power than should have been possible as anyone who became a guardian would always retain a slight portion of power as their bodies would have absorbed some power over time and would retain it. The more an ex-guardian would use it though the more of the powers they would use draining the energy still in their body. Since a guardian would usually be a guardian for years their body would be saturated with it and never have to really worry about running out before their time but the girls hadn't been guardians for very long and couldn't have built up a decent reservoir of power and by all means should have been drained by now but they were still secretly fighting the few of Phobos's minions that some how sneaked by the guard posts.
Either option didn't mater to Susan though as she was sure her daughter was alive somewhere. She refused to give up hope that Will was alive which usually just earned sad looks from everyone around her except for Dean. She often found herself spending time with the man as he seemed to be the only one besides herself that hasn't given up hope yet. He had often comforted her after her fights with Will and told her to give the redhead time to adjust because she was probably just scared of losing Susan like her dad.
Susan understood it and often cut Will some slack but it still didn't stop the two Vandom women from butting heads because they were both too stubborn for their own good. Dean often laughed at it though and said he loved both of them for it, Susan as a lover and Will as a daughter which he said he wanted to make official so many times but refused to until Will was able to come to terms with which always made Susan thankful as though she loved Dean very much her daughter was her life. While causing fights between the two if Susan believed Will was really hurt because of her seeing Dean she would stop it. Will was only upset because he was her teacher which wasn't fair to either Susan or Dean though Susan almost broke up with Dean still until Will told her not to. Will had said she wanted her mother to be happy and actually admitted to being scared and she was using him being a teacher as an excuse to attack him as a choice. She admitted she really didn't want Susan dating anyone because she was scared but after several long mother daughter talks Will had started to get over her fright of losing Susan only for the dark haired woman to lose her daughter.
Susan gently brushed a few strands of hair from the redhead's face and if she didn't see the damage or see Will wince every time she was touched or moved too much it would have looked like she was perfectly fine. There was more damage than what was recent, there was signs of her having had several bones broken in the past that never healed right but nothing that would really affect her physically now. The pain that she had went through having her arm broke then one of her legs and a couple of ribs that wasn't broken completely but had been fractured had to have some effect on the younger girl mentally.
"Mom?" Will asked hoarsely, slowly opening her eyes and looked up in confusion and fear at the dark haired woman who was looming over her.
"It's okay honey, your home now." Susan said smiling softly, "Phobos can't hurt you anymore."
"Phobos?" Will asked as her eyes went wide, "H-How did you know about him?"
"It was almost a year ago when, I think his name was Frost, he was attacking your friends in plain sight downtown. Thankfully Irma's dad was nearby and they didn't have to use their powers as he shot and killed Frost." Susan explained, "As much as I hate this expression, that was when the proverbial shit hit the fan. There was government agents swarming all over Heatherfield after examining his body and things sort of went from there."
"What are you talking about?" Will asked sitting up, pain obviously on her face but it seemed like she was used to it. "We fought Frost not more than a week ago before beating Phobos."
"Honey, you never defeated Phobos. You…You've been missing for almost two years." Susan said sadly reaching out toward Will who inched away in fright while whimpering in fear. "Will…Who did this to you, who hurt you?"
"Why are you doing this?" Will sobbed looking at Susan in hatred and fear, "You know who hurt me, you were there. You laughed when he hit me before dragging me to my room and…"
"Will, I'd never do that. You know you are the most important person in my life." Susan said near tears. How could Will even think she would hurt her baby girl?
"Yeah, just as important as all those guys you bring home and screw." Will grumbled before covering her mouth with both hands and looking at Susan in terror as all the color drained from her face.
"Will…The only man I ever dated was Dean…What are you talking about, I don't understand…Did Phobos play some kind of mind tricks on you?" Susan asked as she moved over to Will who was trying to escape but Susan gently but firmly pulled the girl into her lap.
"You're the one playing mind games." Will sobbed as Susan stroked her hair.
"Shh, baby, I'm not playing games with you." Susan cried as she gently rocked the redhead who was shaking but from the force of the sobs or in fright Susan couldn't tell.
"Susan." Dean gasped as he rushed into the room causing Will to start shaking even more. "Oh god, it's true, she's alive."
"Dean, I think maybe it would be a good idea if you go for now." Susan said giving the man a sad look, mouthing 'I'll explain later.'
With a nod Dean smiled sadly at the two trying to decide if he should say anything but decided against it when Susan shook her head obviously knowing what he was thanking. He quietly turned and walked out of the room giving the mother and daughter some much needed space.
"Will, honey, who hurt you? Who did you think I let hit you and…" Susan whispered softly, unable to say the last of it as she feared the answer though she knew better but in Will's mind it was real.
"Mister Collins." Will whimpered, calming down a little, "You know that, last night was the third damn time this week."
"God Will…I…I never did that…I couldn't do that to you." Susan cried clinging to Will. She couldn't believe it, Will believed that she could do something like that to her baby.
"You sure didn't have that problem last night." Will cried.
"If you two are ready you two can go home." The nurse from earlier said as she came in ignoring the crying women on the bed. "The doctor prescribed you some pain meds and antibiotics and wrote you an excuse from school for the rest of the week." The nurse put the small stack of papers on the foot of the bed, "Please don't take too long, we have other patients who need this room."
Susan glared up at the uncaring nurse causing her to squeak out and hurry from the room. The dark haired woman swore she'd come back later and have several words with her friend who was head of the E. R. about her staff.
"Come on sweetie, let's go home." Susan said getting out of the bed and picking up the papers on it before helping a still frightened redhead up. "We'll stop off at the pharmacy and get your prescriptions on the way home."
"What?" Will asked in shock looking up at the dark haired woman before her eyes grew from shock to hatred and disgust. "I can't believe I was starting to think maybe you really did give a damn!"
"Will, what's wrong?" Susan asked the redhead backing away.
"You want those damn pain pills for yourself again!" Will cried looking up at the woman, studying her eyes. "I don't understand it though, your eyes aren't bloodshot! They're always bloodshot! Your always drunk and high…This isn't happening, this is a dream…This isn't real."
Susan hurried over to the redhead who had sunk to her knees shaking, as tears streamed down her face. Susan knelt down next to the redhead who was hugging herself and pulled her into another embrace careful not to aggravate any of the injuries.
"Honey, I don't drink, I never drink anything but an occasional glass of wine of champagne. You know that." Susan whispered, stroking Will's hair. "I don't approve of drugs either…Will, this is real, not that hell Phobos put you through. I love you."
"Lets just get this over with." Will finally whimpered as she pulled away from Susan and climbed to her feet and started walking from the room as if she was walking to her own execution.
NOTES
Here's chappie two as promised and I'm almost done with chappie three. Thankies for your reviews, please let me know how you feel about this story as your reviews are the lifeblood of any story. Thankies.
