The next time Rox is conscious enough to be aware of her surroundings she finds that she is yet again, not alone.

There's a hand holding hers, and a head resting on the bed beside her arm.

But once more. It isn't Ethan.

The tears start falling before she can even process who the mop of jet black hair belongs to.

"Ethan." She whispers his name even though she knows he isn't there.

"Roxane!" The head lifts itself up off the bed and she instantly recognizes the face. Emo. Her Emo. And another round of tears start to fall.

"Emo?" She can still barely get her voice above a whisper. She wants to lift her head and her arms. To wrap the older woman in a hug. But her body feels like it's in a vice.

"Oh Honey." Instead the older woman leans down, pressing their faces cheek to cheek. She's stroking a gentle hand through her hair as she holds her close in the only way she can.

"Where's Ethan?" She knows that Emo understands her need. She knows that she respects it.

She's told her about him. Everything about him. About the flirting and the fighting. About the incident in the forest, the hug after the hostage situation. She's told her about how his hands always seem to need to touch her when they're together. How his eyes always find her, even in the chaos of Center Stage, even in the crowded bar they frequent after work. She's told her about the late night conversations, about the way they push and pull at each other. Emo knows everything there is to know about her relationship with Ethan.

Especially the lack thereof.

"Your Dr. Campbell's with him now." Her voice is so soft and gentle and she can see the slight hesitation in her eyes.

"Is he okay?" She was hit by a car not to long ago and yet her main worry ever since she had woken up had been him. She imagined that was probably what happened when you loved someone.

"I don't know." The simplicity of her aunt's statement makes her heart race in her chest. She just needs him to be okay. But more than anything, she needs him here with her.

"I'm scared Emo." She barely gets the words out before she feels herself starting to panic. Her chest is getting tighter and she can feel her breaths getting strangled. Her eyes are watering and she can tell her hands are shaking against the bed sheets.

"Don't be sweetheart." Emo's voice does little to comfort her. She needs to hear Ethan's voice. She needs to hear him say those words to her. "We're going to take care of you."

"Ethan." She sobs out his name and she feels like a small child. One who's lost a stuffed animal and can't get over the horror.

She remembers a time when she cried for days for that exact reason. She had been five and she had lost her favorite teddy bear while traveling. She didn't sleep for almost a week. She remembers how her mother convinced her father to go out and buy her a teddy bear that looked exactly the same. They gave it to her and told her that they found her beloved "Teddy" stuffed under some boxes in the car. She was five, but she wasn't stupid. She knew it was a different bear.

Somehow, she felt like she was going to get tricked again.

"I need Ethan." She hated how dependent she was on the man. Especially a man who wasn't even hers to depend on.

"I know Honey." She could see the torment in Emo's eyes. The way she felt her pain. The way she understood just why she needed him.

He was her lifeline. He was her safe place.

"I..." She tried to croak out something, anything, but her voice started to fail her as her breaths started rushing together. Her head started to spin and her vision was blurring behind her tear filled eyes.

"Rox!" Emo's voice wasn't soft and gentle anymore. No, now it was loud and panicked. She was scared. Probably just as scared as she was.

She heard voices join hers then. People shouting and ordering medicine and something about losing her. It all mixed together in her head as she felt her eyes close under the pressure.

The last thing she remembers before everything faded to black was Emo's sad voice whispering into her ear.

"He needs you too Rox." She tried to respond. To open her eyes and show her that she understood. But she couldn't move, she could barely breathe.

And then there was nothing but silence. Nothing but darkness. And she slipped away once more.

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