Helloww! Your reviews are amazing! Probably because you are all amazing people. I love you guys, keep reviewing so I can keep loving you! And I got one review saying that you hate this FanFic, I promise it will get better. And if you don't like it, don't read it. It's pretty simple. But I still love the rest of you. Enjoy!

Chapter Three

Loren had something to look forward to. There was another session tonight. Loren wouldn't have known if it wasn't for Eddie, who had practically begged her to come. It took some convincing though but that was only because Loren wasn't sure if Trent would let her go. Now she didn't care what Trent thought of her. If she went to the session she would see Eddie. Seeing Eddie meant feeling that weird feeling that she hadn't felt in a long time. Happiness? Peacefulness? She didn't know. She just knew that she liked the feeling.

"Lo." Mel said as she walked into the living room where Loren was sitting on the couch.

"Hi, Mel." Loren said with a forced little smile. "You know you shouldn't walk in without knocking." She added. She told her best friend the same thing over and over again but Mel never learned. Well, it was Loren's fault for not locking the door. Not locking the door over and over again it had been a habit, Loren hadn't locked the door the night Nora went missing, just to make it easier for her mother to walk back in. Loren had stared at the door for hours. Sometimes Loren still stared at it, hoping that her mother would come back and save her.

"I know I shouldn't." Mel replied as she sat down next to Loren.

"I'm going to that group again... Tonight." Loren said, Mel raised her eyebrows and nodded approvingly.

"Does it help?" Mel asked hopefully.

"I think it will." Loren answered, she sighed and pulled the bottom of her top.

"I just want the old you back." Mel said in a bit of a dreamy way.

Loren tensed up at those words. The old her. The cheerful, modest Loren Tate. The Loren Tate that loved her mother and friends very much. The little girl who had been strong for her mother. She was dead. Killed by Trent.

Loren was early for the session. Too early. She had been so desperate to get out of her house before Trent came home that she had lost track of time and left right after Mel had left.

What was she doing? Why did she even bother to go here? It was not like anybody could fix her.

"Why hi there, Loren." Stacy said as she came walking up to Loren.

"Hey." Loren replied softly. She had hoped to run into Eddie, the only man that had ever called her beautiful.

"Do you want to come in or wait out here for a moment?" Stacy asked. Something about Stacy's tone put Loren at ease. She figured that it was a quality you had to have if you were the leader of a loss support group. You would probably have to be able to put people at ease. Loren opened her mouth to answer, when she heard a voice behind her.

"Hey Loren!" Eddie's voice said from behind Loren. She twirled around and a smile appeared on her face, the smile that brought the amazing feeling. Well, it was her only smile so she didn't know what feeling another smile could bring. Except for the forced one Loren put on when she told people she was fine. The smile she put on when she lied.

"Hi Eddie." Loren replied, Eddie pulled her into a hug, it surprised Loren but not in a bad way. Loren already knew that Eddie would never hurt her. Yet, her body pressed against his made her flinch slightly because there was still a strong pain in her stomach.

Stacy said something Loren didn't understand before she walked into the room where the session was about to be held.

"Are you okay?" Eddie asked, he had noticed Loren's weird movement in their hug. Somebody would only move like that if they were in sudden pain.

"I- I-" Loren stammered. "Why do you ask?" she asked in an attempt to turn the heat to Eddie.

"Did I hurt you?" Eddie replied to her question with another question. Loren raised her eyebrows in slight disbelieve.

"No... Of course not. You'd never hurt me." Loren blurted out, she almost slapped herself in the face after saying it. It sounded weird. Just plain weird. Like something was wrong. Like she was telling the truth.

"I wouldn't." Eddie assured Loren, he leaned against the wall.

Loren was wearing a scarf which Eddie was now observing. Loren had said that she was sure that he'd never hurt her. She was right he would never hurt her, but was somebody else hurting Loren? Was somebody hurting the girl that he wanted to protect?

"What's that on your neck?" Eddie asked, he narrowed his eyes in an attempt to get a better look at Loren's neck. There was definitely something on there. Something that looked like a bruise.

Loren covered up her neck better with her scarf. If Eddie would know what her father was doing to her, he would never want to talk to her again. He wouldn't want to talk to her because she was weak. She was weak for letting Trent get away with what her was doing to her.

"It's nothing." Loren said under breath, Eddie almost didn't understand what she was saying.

"Well, if it's nothing, would you mind showing it to me?" Eddie asked as he moved a little bit closer to Loren.

Loren removed her scarf and instantly felt like she was naked in front of a crowd that was judging her. Instead of judging voices, Eddie gasped and appeared to have nothing to say.

"How... How did that happen?" Eddie gasped after a moment of silence. Loren shook her head before she looked up at Eddie.

"I fell." She said.

"On your throat?" Eddie replied sarcastically.

"I didn't come here to get interrogated." Loren stated, Eddie sighed.

"I'm sorry. Just know that you can tell me anything." He replied, Loren nodded before she hugged him again. A tear escaped from her eye.

Loren had heard more heartbreaking stories from the strangers who didn't feel like strangers anymore. But still, none of the stories as heartbreaking as Holly's that had somehow been haunting her. Loren figured that it would hunt anyone, it was a pretty horrible story.

"Loren, would you care to share something?" Stacy asked. Loren found herself wanting to tell these strangers everything but kept herself from doing so.

"I'm not sure what to tell you." Loren replied insecurely. Stacy smiled warmly, a gesture that made Loren feel comfortable and safe.

"Just anything. It doesn't even have to be about your mother." She explained. "How was your day?"

How was her day? The start had been horrible and there was a pain in her throat that got worse by the minute. But now... Now her day wasn't as bad as she had expected it to be. Mostly because of Eddie. No. Completely because of Eddie. He was the reason she could smile again.

"It- It was... Good." Loren managed to say. "No. It wasn't I shouldn't be lying to you. My best friend told me that she wanted the 'old me' back. I'm not even sure who that is anymore."

Stacy nodded understandingly. "Sometimes when we deal with loss, it can change you. If you just give yourself time to grieve and deal with losing your mother you might go back to your old self." She said. The words made sense to Loren, if her mother's death had truly been the cause of breaking Loren the words would have helped. But Nora wasn't the reason why old Loren was slipping away. Trent was. But somehow Loren felt a spark of her old self when she was with Eddie.

"Thank you." Loren said, she knew it wasn't something she was supposed to say, but just the fact that Stacy bothered to say words of comfort made Loren feel put at ease.

"Loren do you want a drink?" Eddie asked after the session was over and people were casually chatting all around her.

"Yeah, sure." Loren replied, Eddie poured some lemonade into a paper cup.

"I don't trust you with tea anymore." He stated with a chuckle.

"I might just throw lemonade over your shirt just to mess it up." Loren said. Did she just make a joke? It had been a long time since she joked around for the last time. She had forgotten the feeling it brought along.

"You could do that..." Eddie answered as he playfully narrowed his eyes as if he was weighing his options. Loren smiled again. She thought about smiling again and realized the couldn't count her smiles today. Loren crossed her arms over her chest and looked at Eddie with yet another smile. Until an expression of sudden horror took his face.

"Jesus, Loren!" Eddie almost yelled, Loren followed his gaze that was pointed directly to her belly. Somehow that crossing of her arms had pulled up her shirt enough to reveal Loren's bruised stomach. Loren looked at Eddie who grabbed her shoulders and guided her out of the room.

"I- I told you, I fell." Loren protested.

"No." Eddie answered. "I want you to tell me the truth."

The truth. He wanted to hear the truth. Loren was dying to tell him. She needed help, she needed Eddie. But why would he want to help her? Why would he even bother to help her? Nobody could help her. But Eddie was trying. Wasn't that a sign that he cared?