The alarm on Emily's phone started shrieking and she groped blindly for it, yawning. Beside her, a warm body rolled over, pulled the pillow over her head, groaning.

Emily shut off the alarm, rolled over to go back to sleep, then realized what the alarm was for. "Fuck!" she hissed. "Fuck, fuck, fuck!"

Beth pushed herself to sit up, looking none too pleased at the interruption to her sleep. "What the hell is going on?"

"My mother is going to be home any minute and I've got a naked girl in my bed!" she snapped. "And if she catches me hooking up with another girl, she'll send me to a fucking conversion camp!" She scrambled about the room, pulling on the clothes that had been flung about in the throes of passion the previous night.

Beth stared at her expectantly, as if waiting for a punchline.

"I'm not kidding!" She threw Beth's shirt at her. "You've got to go. Like right now."

"Em..."

"I'm sorry, Beth, and I'll make it up to you later, but my mother will eat you alive if she catches you here – trust me, you don't want that..." She pulled on a pleading face. "I just...don't want you to get hurt, okay?"

Then, as if to prove her point, she gave her a quick kiss.

Beth's hesitation only lasted a moment before her smile flickered to life. "Fine, I'll go out the window for you..." She winked. "But only because you asked nicely."

"You're the best. I'll call you, okay?"

"I'll hold you to that," Beth vowed.

She was out the window none too soon because in the next moment, Elizabeth was pounding on the door.

Emily had spent the day cleaning up from the party while her mother stared daggers at her. She couldn't exactly work up any feelings of guilt over it, though, memories of her night with Beth at the forefront of her mind.

At the same time, though, an uneasy feeling was sticking sideways in her throat and she couldn't quite trace the source of it. It felt like something bad had happened, a premonition, almost, that refused to leave her alone and left her tossing and turning in bed for hours after she should have been asleep.

It was well after midnight when the source of her uneasiness became apparent when her phone rang – it was Alex's ringtone and Alex was nothing if not conscientious of what a grump Emily was if she didn't get enough sleep...

"Hello?" Emily mumbled into the phone. When no one responded, she repeated, "Hello?"

"Emily?" Alex whispered, voice barely audible past her shaky breathing.

"Alex, are you okay?" Emily asked urgently, heart suddenly pounding in her chest like she'd just ran a mile.

"No..."

"Are you... What do you... I mean, what can I do?"

Another long silence. A trembling sigh. "I know we're broken up and I'm not supposed to call you, but I just really needed to hear your voice right now."

"Alex, what happened?" Emily urged.

"You'll hate me if I say," she murmured. "I don't want you to hate me, Emily – you... You mean too much to me."

"I could never hate you." When Alex didn't speak up, Emily offered, "Do you want me to come get you?"

"I, umm, yeah. Yeah, that'd be... Yeah," she rambled.

Together, they sat in silence in a deserted parking lot of a fast food restaurant, the only place around open twenty-four hours. The dim greasy glow of a lone streetlight shone down on the car, filling the space with an almost unsettling brightness.

Alex prodded her milkshake with her straw, staring intensely out the windshield, more from her mind wandering than actively trying to avoid Emily's gaze.

"You know you can tell me anything, right?" Emily murmured. She was trying hard not to stare, knowing it would only make her feel self-conscious. She was afraid she'd see something she didn't want to see...

"I know," Alex whispered, still not looking at her, still not speaking beyond those basic responses. She didn't know if she truly believed it, but she didn't say so. They could both hear it in her voice anyway.

Pursing her lips, Emily decided to venture a guess. "You saw James, didn't you?" It wasn't an accusation or, at least, it wasn't intended as one.

She sank her teeth into her bottom lip, hard enough to draw blood, to keep the scream that was clawing its way up her throat from bursting forth.

Emily didn't miss the way all the colour drained from her face. "Did something happen?" she asked, though she didn't need to know Alex as well as she did to know that something obviously had.

Alex said nothing.

Narrowing her eyes, Emily studied Alex, seeing through the faint sheen of make up on her neck covering up the dark purple of a bruise. "Did he... Did he choke you?" she asked, incredulous. The unease that had plagued her all day started churning like a tempestuous sea.

Alex burst into tears then, startling Emily. "It was just supposed to be a coffee – it wasn't a date, I swear! But he-he held me down and he..." She clapped a hand over her mouth, hyperventilating.

"Did he...?" she started to ask, terrified of the answer she already knew was forthcoming.

"Don't say it!" she begged. "Please..."

"Alex, you have to go to the police!" Emily insisted. "You can't let him get away with this!"

"I don't know if I can do that," she whispered, ashamed.

"You can," Emily said firmly. "And you will. Because Alex Miller is not so damn weak that she'd let some asshole hurt her and not pay the price."

Alex turned to glare at her. "You don't get it! He'll get away with it! He's handsome and wealthy and charming – the jury would buy his every word when he tells them I wanted it!"

"I'm not going to let that happen," Emily vowed.

She shook her head, scoffed. "How are you going to do that?"

"I don't know yet. But I know that I'm not going to let you do it alone."