A/N: I have not forgotten! It just took me longer than normal to write this chapter. Enjoy, and please, please review! Thank you to Tumbles3 and DaisyAngel for pretty much reviewing every time, it's nice to know that there's at least 2 people out there who like this story!

Monday came much too soon, and Emily and Elle were preparing themselves to face the gossip and rumors of what had happened. They had decided to put off telling Kate and Penelope, waiting until Monday instead.

They both came to school extra early. Dr. Lewis had wanted to talk to her and Elle without the crowds of teenagers surrounding them. They went inside the school to find Tara standing in the lobby, with Gideon, Mr. Rossi, and a woman they didn't recognize. They looked at each other before looking back at Dr. Lewis and Gideon, the two they were most familiar with. Taking the hint, Tara stepped up.

"Oh, right, well, first of all, this is Carolyn, Mr. Rossi's wife. She teaches microbiology at the high school. Carolyn, this is Elle Greenaway and Emily Prentiss. Second, we wanted you to know that the students who caused this have been taken care of, but they will be at the school today to gather their belongings. I'm going to walk you to all of your classes, which should be easy since you guys have all of the same classes. They'll be gone tomorrow, and this will hopefully limit anyone trying to mess with you." Neither one of them wanted to be coddled, but they weren't about to argue with them. As if he read their minds, Gideon spoke.

"I understand neither of you want to be treated with gloves, but it's only for today. Tomorrow you'll go back to your normal schedules." They nodded, more on board with the knowledge that it was only for today.

After Tara and Emily had an exciting discussion in French about who knows what, the others began walking up to the high school and they made their way to Algebra.

"We'll all see you this afternoon," Carolyn reminded them. She was going to walk them from the middle school to high school since Tara didn't have enough time between classes. They seemed interesting and she was looking forward to talking to them later.

"I'll be right here afterwards, ok?" They expressed their thanks as Tara left to go to her classroom. They sat and talked to each other for about 10 minutes when Penelope and Kate walked into the classroom. Penelope was walking very fast while Kate was definitely more relaxed in her stride.

"Oh my god, did you guys hear that the Kelcher gang beat up two kids and got expelled- oh," Penelope began before she noticed the bruises, casts, cuts, and crutches her friends now wore. Her face turned to horror, while Kate's took on an expression of such anger the others didn't know she was capable of.

"Talk. Now. Both of you." She demanded, taking her seat in front of Elle and next to Penelope.

"Kate-" Emily began, only to be cut off.

"No. No. Absolutely not. Not today. I'm not going to take your 'I'm fine' and 'it's not that bad' excuses today. Either you tell me, or I'll just confront the Kelchers myself. Speak." She spat out, her fury obvious. It was extremely unnerving seeing Kate this mad. Sure, she had her protective modes, she was the 'mom friend' after all. But the amount of pure hatred in her voice… livid would be an understatement.

"Kate, what's wrong?" Elle asked.

"Quit trying to change the subject! What's wrong is that my two best friends just got beaten up! And I demand to know exactly what happened right now!"

"Ok ok!" Elle gave in. "Basically, JJ, Emily, and I were walking home-"

"JJ's your little sister right?" Garcia interrupted, pointing at Emily. She nodded.

"Anyways, Elle continued. "We were walking and this group of guys from the middle and high school were blocking our way. We knew what was probably going to ensue, so Em told JJ to run to the park and get Derek and Luke, Em's older brother and his friend. They let her go, thank God, but as soon as she left they pulled us into the alley and… well, you know. We got in a lot of our own blows too. It was 7 to 2, but we fought nonetheless. A few minutes later JJ came back with Derek and Luke. We got back to Em's house and her parents took us to the hospital, and now here we are. Em's got a hairline fracture of her ankle, and my wrist. That's it." Emily appreciated her use of 'older brother' and 'little sister,' since Kate and Pen still didn't know she was a foster kid.

"That's it?! That's it?!" Penelope shrieked. "They freaking broke bones!"

"We'll finish this at lunch," Kate told her as other kids started to file in. Penelope left to go to her Computer Aid class and Kate told them with her eyes that she wanted to punch some people. Strauss took her death grip of attention as she walked into the classroom, forcing everyone to look at the whiteboard at the front of the room.

As she promised, Dr. Lewis was there to cart them off to their next class. Emily walked in her tall shadow, seeing as she effectively cleared the throng of students for her to be able to crutch through with ease.

They sat next to each other as always in 5th period, their last class before Psychology. Elle got up to use the restroom about midway through. Walking down the hall to the bathroom, she slipped inside.

"Hey there Greenaway," a horrifyingly familiar voice said as they emerged from the stall. "Nice to see that you're back to normal." No no no, this can't be happening, she thought.

Jake Kelcher was standing in front of her, and she had no way out.

CMCMCM

Carolyn was wondering through the hallways of the middle school, searching for Emily and Elle's last class. She rounded the corner past the bathroom when she heard voices.

"Seriously Jake, please just leave me alone! What do you want?"

"You know exactly what I want Elle." She scoffed.

"Yeah right. I think I'd die before I kissed you. You've already been expelled, are you going for an arrest on your record too?"

"Either you do it, or I'll get Ian to go get your little friend that you like so much. He really likes her, you know. There's no telling what he'll do to her…"

"You've already put her in crutches, is that not enough?"

"No. Now, if you don't want me to hurt her, then you'll do it. Understand?"

"I'm not going to, Jake! Absolutely not!" She heard a growl from inside. Quickly, she burst in. Jake had Elle pinned against the wall and was trying to kiss her against her will. She had her navy cast in front of her face and her other hand was pushing him away. He didn't seem to notice. Carolyn stepped in and grabbed him, pulling him away.

"What part of 'no' don't you understand? You'll be spending the rest of the school day in the main office Mr. Kelcher, I suggest you head there now. I'm calling them so they'll be expecting you. Don't try anything," she told him. He listened, oddly, and started walking towards the office. She turned her attention to Elle.

"Are you ok?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. I just want this all to be over. Thank you," she replied.

"It's almost time to go to the high school, you ready?"

"Yeah, I've just got to get my stuff. Oh, and Mrs. Rossi? Could you please not tell anyone about this?"

"Of course. I'll be right outside the door until your class is over, then we'll walk up to the high school, ok?" Carolyn told her as she pulled out her phone to call the office. Elle walked past her to go back to the classroom. Emily gave her a look as she came back in.

"You ok?" She whispered. Elle considered her answer before saying, "I am now." Emily gave her another look clearly saying but you weren't before?

"You're telling me later." She said in an I'm serious about this one tone.

"Wanna go to the park together after school?" Elle offered. She thought about it for a minute. Last time they walked home alone they got beaten up, but the park was much closer anyways, and Derek and Luke would probably be there too.

"I guess so," she said with a smile. After class they packed up there things and met Mrs. Rossi in the hallway. They walked up to the high school talking about menial things, like schoolwork and friends.

"So Emily, my friend Tara says you're quite the linguist. You wouldn't happen to speak Italian?" She added, testing her to see if she understood.

"I do actually. I lived in Italy for 10 months when I was 8." Carolyn nodded, impressed. She had learned it from Dave a few years back.

"I really need to learn Italian. I thought French would be enough, but clearly you two have other plans." They all laughed. Carolyn walked them to the door of the Psychology classroom and wished them luck. The duo walked in, and turned a few heads in the partially filled classroom. They were prepared; crutches weren't exactly silent. The rumor mill was pumping full speed, so the whispers were strong too.

"Oh my god, I heard it was bad, but Jesus," Elle heard one girl murmur to her friend. Her and Emily simply looked forward and pretended they didn't hear. They took their seats across from Derek and Luke as normal.

"You good?" Derek asked.

"Peachy," Elle rolled her eyes. "I swear, if one more person asks me that, I'm going to punch them. We're walking, aren't we?"

"Well…" Emily smiled.

"Ok, I'm walking, and Hop-a-long here is… well, hopping," she corrected as she hit Emily on the arm. "We were thinking about going to the park after school, do you guys want to come?"

"Sounds good to me, we were going to go there after school anyways. I guess we'll grab Jayje and Spence and take them over; they love the playground equipment there." The last part was directed at Emily. She nodded, JJ and Spencer did love that playground.

Gideon came in and saw Elle and Emily sitting in their normal seats. Even though he'd already seen their injuries that morning, it was still horrifying to see. How did they somehow look worse? He directed his focus to the class, but he kept glancing over at the two. If those kids hadn't been expelled, he would have made their lives hell to make up for it.

He taught his class, but he still wished there was something more he could do.

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