A/N: Hey ya'll! Sorry I haven't been updating as much lately, school has been crazy, but I swear I won't leave this story unresolved (and it still has a loooonnnnnggggg ways to go!) Here is the next installment, and I hope you like it! Read, review, critique, and enjoy!

The lights of the hospital room were painfully bright as Charlotte sat on a table for the second time in two weeks, letting the doctor finish checking her out, barely aware of what was even going on. Since the moment she heard Darlene's body fall to the ground as the life was sucked out of it, Charlotte had been in a dreamlike state, almost as if she was having an out of body experience while still in her own skin. Quinn stood just inside of the door, watching with a protective eye as the doctor shined a light in Charlotte's eye, before finally pulling back. She happily slapped her hands down on both thighs, shooting Charlotte a blindingly white smile, like a cheerleader whose team is losing. Quinn uncrossed her arms and stood straight as Charlotte waited for the doctor to speak.

"Well, my dear, you've had quite a day. I'm going to grab you some pills, to help you sleep, but other than that, you are perfectly fine, and all set to go." A blonde head tilted up to look carefully at Quinn, who remained silent. "Your friend here can take you home-"

"I want to see my mom." Charlotte surprised everyone, herself included, as she spoke for the first time since she had been rescued. Quinn had had to answer all of the doctor's questions.

The doctor looked nervously at determined hazel eyes. She scrutinized her patient before shaking her head slowly.

"I'm really not sure that your mother is going to be ready for-"

"She'll want to see me too, I know it. I need to see her. I need-" Charlotte's voice quavered with pent up fear. Marcus and Olivia had managed to block Mellie from Charlotte's view as Quinn pulled her outside to await the ambulance, and she was imagining far worse scenes than what she hoped was true. She just needed to see her mom, touch her, reassure herself that this was real, it was over, they were okay. "I just want my mom."

Charlotte didn't realize she had lowered her eyelids and dropped her voice to a barely audible whisper until she looked up at the doctor through a cage of lashes, eyes tearing up against her will. The doctor timidly glanced back at Quinn, who gave her a curt nod, before sighing and standing up.

"Let me find out where she is." A sweet scent from the blonde's perfume lingered in the cold room as the door swished closed. Quinn took two strides across the room, until she was standing just beside Charlotte, who brought her knees up to the table and wrapped her arms around them, letting out a few shuddery breaths. Quinn snaked out an olive hand and awkwardly patted Charlotte's shoulder, remembering that she had watched Mellie do the exact same thing, and hoped it was comforting.

"Thank you for finding us." Charlotte kept her gaze steadily on the floor, but she felt Quinn's hand pause in its motion, before continuing.

"Just doing my job." There was silence for a few seconds as Quinn watched a brunette head tilt to lay on top of shaking knees, still facing away from Quinn.

"How-" Charlotte cleared her throat of mucus when it came out raspy and garbled, then continued, her voice not much stronger than before. "How did she look? When you found her."

Quinn debated on what to say. She had no idea how fragile Charlotte might be, though she assumed the answer was pretty damn fragile. And she had already ascertained that the mother-daughter relationship between Mellie and Charlotte was extremely complicated. She almost wanted to lie, but also knew that it probably wouldn't do much good, seeing as Charlotte was determined to see Mellie as soon as possible.

"Like it might take her some time before she recovers from this." Charlotte didn't get a chance to answer, although she wasn't sure if she even could have, before the doctor was breezing back into the room, the sweet smell strengthened once more. A perfectly manicured hand swept toward the door.

"I'll show you to her."

Mellie sat on the very edge of the exam table, both hands in her lap and ankles crossed as she and Marcus waited for a doctor to come and bandage up her back. After the initial examination, the nurse had explained that none of the cuts were deep enough to need stitches, and likely wouldn't scar. Marcus had been told that he "got to her just in time," as the nurse shook her head and thought of the monsters who did this with disgust. It could have been much worse. She had left a gown for Mellie to change into, and said the doctor would be with them in a moment. She paused as Mellie eyed the tiny, thin gown, before sucking in a breath, and asking the question she dreaded every time a battered woman came into the hospital.

"Would you like a rape kit, as well?" Marcus stared hard at a spot on the floor as both he and the nurse waited tensely for Mellie's answer. His hands unconsciously rolled into tight fists on the arms of his chair. By some heavenly miracle, he watched as Mellie shook her head.

"No. They didn't… they didn't get the chance." The nurse nodded with relief before exiting the room.

Mellie found herself looking at the papery gown in her hands, before moving to take her shirt off completely. The motion stretched the skin of her back taut, and she grimaced in pain. Marcus watched her face screw up, and rose immediately, laying soft hands on Mellie's shoulders, before gingerly picking up one hand and pushing it slowly through one arm of the shirt. Mellie stood as Marcus folded the shirt up on the chair, and unbuttoned her jeans, trying to push the down without bending over, ignoring the screaming pain in her back. Again, soft hands pushed her away as he picked up first her right foot, and then her left, folding the jeans nicely and laying the on top of Mellie's shirt. They both stood there awkwardly for a moment, aware that Mellie's bra needed to come off, and she couldn't unclasp it herself. But Mellie wanted to save Marcus from having to see the damage again, and Marcus wasn't sure he could stomach the sight of his love's blood once more. After a few seconds of shuffling quiet, Marcus straightened his back, and wiped his sweaty palms on his pants.

"Turn around, babe." Mellie worried her bottom lip for a moment, before slowly turning her back to him. She felt, more than heard, his intake of breath and the quickening of his heart as he suppressed a sob. He needed to be strong, for her. Knuckles brushed across the back of her neck as he moved her hair to get to the bra clasp, and he carefully popped it open, as she allowed the straps to slide down her porcelain arms. He made quick work of putting the hospital gown on her and tying the back in a loose knot, before rotating her around by her hips, and lifting her back onto the table. Then, he put the cups of the bra inside of one another, and placed them at the bottom of the pile of clothes. He quickly moved towards her again, wanting the comforting contact in order to reassure himself that he had her, and she was safe. She didn't look up at him as she tightly wound her hands together in her lap, but he just stood next to her, stroking a hand up, down, and around her face, weaving it into her hair, as her eyes closed from emotion, and laying the other hand on top of her two smaller ones. They were silent for a few moments as they drank in the feeling, before a sharp knock on the door startled them both. The doctor slowly opened the door, his wrinkle-free face and perfectly jet black hair giving away his youth as he peeked in the room.

"All set in here?" Mellie nodded before the doctor stepped into the room, a basket of supplies in here. "Good. I'm Dr. Elliot, it's nice to meet you." He stuck a hand out first to Mellie, and then Marcus, before setting the basket down next to Mellie, and walking around behind her. He didn't touch her yet, noticing the wary shiver in her back as she lost sight of him. Her hands unclasped themselves and wrapped now around Marcus's, who kissed the top of her head. The doctor was kind enough to speak softly to Mellie, trying to reassure her.
"Okay, I'm going to try to make this as painless as possible, would you like me to walk you through what I'm doing?" Mellie nodded warily, staring straight ahead as practiced hands swiftly untied Marcus's knot, exposing her torn back once more. He picked up a bottle of antiseptic and a large cotton pad, holding them out for his patient to see. "First, I'm going to disinfect and clean the wounds. This may sting a little, but that means it's working."

Mellie heard the liquid slosh as Dr. Elliot tipped the bottle over the cotton pad, tensing her back in preparation. She hissed as she felt the cotton pad hit her back, at first grimacing from the pain of any contact with the wounds at all, and then sucked in a gasp as the places the doctor was swiping began to feel as if they were on fire. Her back instantly straightened, trying to escape the cotton pad, but those damn hands just followed her. Marcus ran a comforting hand up and down her arm, but it didn't help as much as he thought. After what seemed like an eternity, the evil pad finally found it's home in the trash can.

"Okay, that's over. I'm sorry, I know that must have hurt. Now, I'm just going to place some gauze over the affected areas, and you'll be good to go. I'm going to recommend that you go see a doctor in about a week, to make sure everything is healing up as it should, provided nothing seems off to you beforehand." Mellie nodded silently before he bandaged up her back, and grabbed his supplies. He stopped in front of her, waiting until she met his gaze. "I hope the bastards that did this to you got what they deserved." And with that, he left.

Mellie fell sideways into Marcus, letting out the sobs she had been holding in for the last four hours. His shirt began to soak with her tears, but he let her continue, as hands tightly balled themselves up in his shirt, and he comforted her anywhere he could reach that wasn't her back. As he felt her sobs begin to soften and stop, he knelt in front of her, cupping her cheeks in his big hands as he looked into beautiful, red-rimmed blue eyes, holding all of her trust for him in them as she bared her soul. He stroked his thumbs across her round cheeks, brushing away a few stray tears, before he spoke.

"I promise you, Mellie, that I will never let anything happen to you again. And I will be with you every step of the way, and help you get past this however I can." Mellie found it within herself to smile softly at him, all her love passing from her lips to his as she bent her head forward slightly to make contact.

"The thing that scared me most," She whispered against his lips, "was that they would hurt my child. And right after that, I was terrified I'd never get to see you again, to feel you again." He pressed his lips forward to meet hers once more.

"You will never have to worry about that. You're stuck with me." The small laugh she let out at that was the most magical sound in the world, and he opened his eyes to stare directly into hers, connecting in a way deeper than either of them had ever thought possible with one look. "Now," he stood up, and she whined a little as his hands slipped from hers. "Let's get you dressed and find Charlotte, so we can go home."

Mellie nodded. Her daughter had been at the back of her mind the entire time, but she also knew that Liv had told Quinn not to leave Charlotte's side, so she wasn't at all worried for her baby's safety. But now that Marcus had mentioned her, all Mellie wanted to do was hold her and comfort her, reassure her. Because, knowing her daughter, she would be traumatized. This would have traumatized any child, but Charlotte more than anyone, after all she had been through recently.

Marcus retraced his earlier actions, backward this time, as he assisted Mellie in getting dressed, thankful that the white gauze hid her injuries from his sight. As Mellie was pushing the button of her jeans through the hole, there was another knock on the door, this one much softer than Dr. Elliot's before a blonde head poked around the doorframe.

"Ms. Grant?" The blonde questioned. Mellie just nodded, and watched as the head turned, saying over its shoulder, "She's in here." Two seconds later, the blonde head was replaced with Charlotte's curvy figure as she pushed the door opened wider, rushing into the room and stopping just before she grabbed her mother in a hug, noting the careful way Mellie was holding herself, and being afraid of hurting her. But Mellie didn't care, ignore the pain as she stepped forward to hold her daughter, stroking her curls and pressing her lips to the top of Charlotte's head.

"Hey, baby."

"Mama, I'm so sorry." Charlotte got out before the sobs overtook her. Mellie bit her lip to hold back her own tears from flowing.

"It's okay, sweetie. I'm okay. We're okay. It's over." Charlotte nodded her head into Mellie's chest, completely spent and unable to voice what she felt anymore, before Mellie pulled back. "Let's just go home, go to sleep, alright?"