Quick Notes: Thank you all for your reviews/follows/favorites, I am extremely grateful and surprised by the response. I think I may have lost a few people with the shift in the POV, but rest assured things will clarify themselves in due time. Expect a very quick update for Chapter 4, and Chapter 5 following in the next few days. Thanks again for reading, you guys make my day.

Chapter 3: Panic

I woke with a start. The room around me was bright and loud, bustling with activity and overwhelming to my already overloaded senses. I took a deep, steadying breath and sat up slowly. My mom was still on the narrow cot with me, though my rude awakening had jolted her from rest as well. She looked at me with pity and caring, wordlessly letting me know she was still there – ready and waiting for me to break down again.

I swung my legs over the side of the small bed, shuddering as the thick blanket fell from my shoulders and my warm feet hit the cold tile floor. I felt the scratch of the paper gown against my skin and itched to rip it from my body before realizing I was in only my panties beneath the material. I stood slowly, the room spinning slightly for a moment before I grounded myself by staring intently at the dripping IV tube near the bed. I followed the line of the tube down and winced when I saw the needle piercing the skin on the back of my hand. I looked back to my mother, searching her face for answers and getting nothing. I opened my mouth to speak as Aria walked in the door.

"Oh God Em, you're awake! I can't tell you how great that is with everything else going on. How are you feeling? Do you need anything? Do you want to come out and see Hanna? We're sitting in the waiting room. We're not supposed to be back here to see you yet, they wanted to make sure you were calm and relaxed first, but I lied and said I had to pee 'cause I really needed to see with my own eyes that you were ok. You are ok, right?"

"Aria, calm down and stop talking. She just woke up and we have a lot to talk about." My mom cut into Aria's rant before it could go any further. Clearly there was a lot more going on than I was aware, and the thought of how bad things could be outside the walls of my room settled like a brick in the center of my chest. My heart began to pound, yet I couldn't catch my breath. My eyes darted around the room looking for an anchor, something to ground me and stop the panic from taking over. I needed Paige. She stopped my panic earlier with a simple glance. I needed to see her more than anything. I just had to catch my breath and defer my panic long enough to ask.

"Emily Fields. Look at me. I need you to focus on my voice, ok? I'm your mother and I need to take care of you, but I can't do that unless you listen to me." I followed the sound of her voice and was taken aback when I saw that she was standing directly in front of me, arms outstretched and hands on my shoulders. She was shaking me slightly, trying to coax me from my daze. I stared directly at her lips, focusing on their movement and trying to hear the words she said. I closed my eyes, breathing deeply as I extended my own arms to rest on the outside of my mom's elbows. I opened my eyes to see a slight smile on her lips. My focus shifted to the door as a young doctor rushed in with Aria in tow.

"How are you feeling, Miss Fields? Any better than before?"

"I don't know."

"You don't know? What do you remember from when we first brought you in?"

"Not much, really. I remember being in the car with Aria and Hanna, then waking up and my mom was washing my hands. Then I woke up again a few minutes ago."

"Well, it isn't unusual, so you shouldn't worry. Your body was, and likely still is, in shock from all that you've gone through tonight. The biggest issue we're having right now is keeping calm. You're body needs to rest, but your mind and the thoughts in it are causing pretty severe panic attacks. When you were brought in earlier we had to give you a mild sedative which calmed you enough to sleep for a few hours. Now all we need from you is to try and stay calm for a while until your body rests and begins to heal. Can you try and do that for me?"

"Of course, but why do I need to stay calm? What's going on that you're not telling me?" I looked away from the doctor to Aria and my mom. "Guys, what aren't you telling me? Is it Caleb? I saw them take him away in the ambulance, is he ok? You said Hanna was in the waiting room, right? Where's Spencer? I remember us driving her car here, but she wasn't with us. Is she ok? It can't be Paige, right? I mean, I saw her, she told me to go and comfort Hanna. Oh god what's happening…" My heart rate began to pick up at alarming speed and the beeping monitor near my head began to shriek. I heard the doctor speak once again through the building haze of panic.

"Miss Fields, this is exactly what I mean. You need to take a few deep breaths, close your eyes if necessary, and calm down. We can explain everything to you once you're calm again." I slumped back down on the edge of the bed and bent over resting my elbows on my knees and my head in my hands. I closed my eyes tightly and took three deep breaths. I opened my eyes very slowly, focusing again on the needle in the back of my hand. After a few minutes of deep breaths I looked back to the three people watching me intently, silently pleading for answers.

The doctor looked at my mother and nodded softly before leaving the room. Aria approached me warily, giving me a tentative hug and squeezing very slightly before releasing me and walking backwards out the door after the doctor. My mom sighed sadly and moved a short, uncomfortable looking chair to the edge of my bed, sitting heavily and reaching for my unhindered hand. I looked at her with fear and uncertainty, knowing she had nothing but bad news to deliver. I willed my heart rate to stay steady and my tears to stay hidden as she began to speak lowly.

"When they first brought you in, you were completely out of it. I was here waiting for you. Aria called me from the car and said you'd been acting strangely. Do you remember her calling me?" I shook my head sadly, in slight disbelief that I'd been so lost in my own thoughts. "Just as you parked, Aria realized you weren't responding to anything anybody said. I tried shaking you out of your daze and so did the nurses, but you didn't react at all, so they brought you in and ran some tests. You started to shake and cry out – nothing intelligible – so they gave you a very mild sedative to help you rest while I cleaned you up and got you out of those clothes."

I looked down again at the paper gown, wrinkling my nose as I once again felt the rough scratch of the material against my chest. My mom noticed the look and reached into the drawer of the small nightstand by the bed, pulling out a pair of light blue scrubs and handing them to me. She walked to the door of the room, closing it silently and keeping her back turned so I could change in private. I appreciated the gesture, though I knew she'd seen my body when she changed me from my blood stained clothes. Once I was finished changing and back in bed, she turned and resumed her position in the chair.

"Caleb came in a few minutes before you. They took him straight into surgery. He was shot in the side of his stomach, sort of between his ribs and hip bone they said, and lost a lot of blood. After the surgery, the doctors told us that the bullet didn't hit any major organs or break any bones, so that's really great. He'll be in a good deal of pain for a little while and will need some pretty extensive recovery time, but he's going to be ok."

"That's great mom! Why is everyone so worried, then?"

"Emily, we really need to talk about Paige."