"Sweetie? Get the doctor, John, she's waking up. Hey babe, you wonderful daughter of mine."

"Muh?"

"It's okay, you don't have to talk. I remember my first time. Had a migraine for weeks after, got snappy at everything. Specially Pietro. He was always so noisy. I tried to kill him, but then his powers manifested and he escaped death. Shame."

"Mmrgh."

"I just don't know why you didn't tell me you were hallucinating. I mean, I would've been so excited. That's how you tell, you know. I almost got used to seeing a flaming drag-queen brother riding on a flying cow everywhere I turned before I finally started making crazies happen. Not like how he is now is much of an improvement. At least the cow was interesting."

"Wanda, cool it. She can't even speak right now, much less understand what the hell you're talking about."

"Shut up, John."

"Only if you do first. Let her get her bearings before you dump all that on her."

"..Alla wha?"

"I can't believe you have both of our powers! This is so exciting!"

Exciting. Sure.

Nauseated is how I feel right now.

"So when can I see her?"

"She's with her parents right now, sir, I'm sorry. Only two visitors at a time--she's been through a lot."

"But this is important. I've been waiting for half an hour, and I really need to talk to her."

"I'm sure your girlfriend will be okay if you wait just a little bit longer, alright?"

The nurse walked away in an annoyed huff and Warren sagged into his seat, looking up only when red chucks were staring him in the face.

"Stronghold." He grunted.

"So how is she?" Will asked, the whole gang in tow.

"Awake."

"Have you spoken to her? Is she alright?" Janice asked, the rest of them twittering like annoying birds. And since when was the redhead allowed? The telepath bitch didn't care about Emily at all.

He looked at the telepath and the dreamweaver holding hands and rolled his eyes. Of course.

"They haven't let you talk to her yet." Will stated, not asking.

"She knows now." Rachel added, and Warren glared.

"Stay out of my head."

"She's hurting." Rachel kept on going, her mouth remarkably tiny compared to how much it blabbed, "You worry so much over how not to follow in your father's footsteps, you've managed to hurt her more than the Barron ever could."

"Rachel," Betsy said quietly, a hand on her arm, "Now's not the time."

"Now's the perfect time. He thinks that he was the only one angsting that whole time, and that he was protecting her. How fucked is that?"

"Wait. I missed something here." Zach said, holding up his hands to try and slow it all down.

"It's not our problem." Betsy hissed.

"Yeah," Will agreed, "The only people it concerns is Warren and Emily, so we should just let them talk it out. Just the two of them."

"Does this have anything to do with the Barron?" Layla asked, concerned, "Is she in danger?"

"No, the Barron's gone." Warren sighed. These people were exhausting. Sometimes he wondered why he even bothered talking to people.

"Did you even ever care about her? Or is staying with her something you thought would make you better than the Barron who couldn't even make a life with the mother of his child." The accusation in her voice made his blood boil. How dare she imply that he just went out with her out of guilt for his father's fucked up life.

"You don't know anything about me." Warren snapped. "Don't presume that a spectator like yourself would know anything about how my mind works." There was a small tickle in the back of his mind and he lashed out at it, holding back a vicious grin as she visibly winced and staggered back into Betsy, "And if I catch you in my head again, I'll roast you alive."

The nurse advantage of the silence that followed to approach them.

"Her parents have gone home for the night." She said, giving them a studying look, "I suppose you can go in a group and get it over with, but no tiring her out."

A group. So that everyone can see her chew him out? Not likely.

"I'll just see her last." He decides out loud.

"Too good for the rest of the group?" Quinn sneers, quiet until now. Janice was also suspiciously tight lipped.

"We have a lot to talk about." Warren grunted, "I wouldn't want to bore you."

So Warren sat. And thought.

Another half hour of thinking and they were out, laughing and talking as if everything in the world was fine, and Will gave Warren an encouraging pat on the shoulder.

"I'll wait up for you." He says, as if his presence would actually help in the grand scheme of things.

Warren gave him a weak smile.

It kind of did.

"Emily." He walks into the room cautiously, and winces at the sight of her. She looks so frail on the hospital bed.

She frowns at him, a flash in her eyes showing how much she was enjoying how uncomfortable he felt.

"You're okay?"

"Yeah, fine." She snaps, "I can see straight now, thank you."

"Emily, I'm-"

"Don't. Don't bother apologizing." She turns her head way to stare off at the medicine cabinet.

"But I should." He shifts his weight around and glances quickly around the room nervously before his gaze makes it's way back to her. She's so small.

"And what are you going to say? Sorry 'bout all those times you burst out crying because you thought you'd burned your parents alive when it was really the fault of my insane father. I just kept it from you to, what was the reason again? It just didn't come up?"

Her eyes flashed again and this time there was a hint of a sadistic grin as she dug the knife deeper into his metaphorical wounds. And he deserved it, along with every bit of pain that she decided to throw at him.

"It wasn't like that-" He was quickly cut off and the frustration of it all caused the temperature in the room to rise.

"Then what was it like!?" She snaps, "What the hell could it be like that you couldn't tell me? Did the-"

"You'd hate me!" He froze, his fists unfolding nervously as he stared at him with wide, disbelieving eyes.

"I'd hate you?" Her voice was quiet and rough, "I'd hate you?" A wave of red hot rage washed over her, making her hair stand on edge and her toes tingle until any hint of a smile, sadistic or not, had turned into snarls of anger, "What kind of fucked up logic is that!?"

"How the hell should I know!?" He yelled. Patches of red donned his cheeks and he frowned deeply at her, wrinkling in between his brows as he clenched his fists sporadically. "God, I feel as stupid as Stronghold."

"No, you're worse! Because most of the time you're masquerading as this level-headed—and now you're—you make me so—Aagh!" She threw her hands into the air before pointing at the door, "Get out! I'd be fucking grateful! You retarded son of a bitch! Just... You're right! I hate you! Get out!"

"No. I can't, not until you-"

"I said get out!" I closed my eyes and put my hands over my ears, chanting over and over getoutgetoutgetout until I felt the scuffle of those padded nurse shoes that only seemed to make the walking sound louder. I opened my eyes slowly, blinking, taking in the hospital room and the nurses and whatever they were putting in my IV right now. Privately I sighed and lamented over how the hospital scene set the mood for how crappy my life was right now. Out of my control.

And as everything grew black and fuzzy, lights in my eyes from the brightness of the room, I scowled.

I bared my heart for him so many times. What the hell did he ever give me?

Warren clenched his fists, feeling his arms smoke as he stalked out of the hospital doors. Hopefully some poor sap with weak lungs wouldn't die of smoke inhalation. But what did he care about some stranger? He couldn't be trusted to take care of a pet rock without it either dying or suffering severe emotional damage.

The only relationship he thought was going really well, no, great (nothing like him and Frost, where opposites really didn't compliment each other at all,) he screwed over in a completely different way than with Frost. He lied to her, and kept a secret that caused her so much fucking pain because he was too pansy to put himself out on a limb every once in awhile.

Cause hell, Stronghold managed to have those heart-bearing speeches all the time, but Warren never considered it necessary for someone as level-headed as he was. He was too smart. Or too much of a secret coward.

And yes, it would have been uncomfortable and awkward, and he probably would've subconsciously stolen some lines from Stronghold, but she was one of those types who joked about everything and never opened themselves up to anyone, which made them kind of the same in a cheesy, antisocial way. And that made her comfortable enough to cry in front of him so many times he couldn't even talk to Will about how uncomfortable it made him feel and God he was a dick and she had every right to hate him. Just like she said she did, along with the phrase, 'Get out!' which she had repeated over and over, looking so broken and hysterical while he had just stood there like the utter dick that he was until the nurses threw him out on his sorry ass.

"So I'm guessing an apology didn't work?"

Warren glared at Will. And punched him in the face.

Having him there really did help.

TBC

Author's Note: So I know I've been taking a super long time to update and everything. It's a mixture of school, hospital stuff (not fun), and me having more of a social life than I did before. But this story'll be done in a few chapters, hopefully soon, and then I'm thinking about doing another story about Emily. Either centering on a new freshman with Emily as an upperclassmen, or with all of them grown up and out of high school. Fun fun.