A/N: Here we go again! We are nearing the end of this story, and I'm pretty happy with it! It definitely could have been better in some parts, but for my first story I think I did decently. I've got the ending outlined, so I seriously doubt the end will go farther than 5 chapters. It's been fun! Please review, even if it's small, they make me happy :)
The rest of the week quickly came and went. Friday was upon them soon enough, and they were all incredibly excited.
"You guys ready?" Garcia asked her friends as they walked out of the building doors.
"This is the only thing I have going on all week, so yeah I'm ready," Emily said with a smile. The group of four made their way down to the park. They started to sit down when Emily saw a group of 17-20 year olds sitting on one of the structures laughing. And she knew one of them. She placed her crutches under her arms and began to make her way over to the boys.
"Em?" Kate asked in confusion as they all hastily stood up and followed her. She didn't turn around, her eyes still locked on the group.
"Emily? What's wrong?" Elle asked as she half run-walked to catch up with her. Tones of concern were laced through her words. Still, Emily didn't even indicate that she'd heard them. When she reached the group, the other three stopped behind her, but kept a bit of distance.
"Sam?" She asked, her voice slightly shaky. One of the boys with dark hair spun around when he heard her.
"Emily?" He said, moving to touch her shoulder, as if to confirm she was real. She backed up away from his hand.
"How are you?"
"How am I? How am I? You have the nerve to ask me that after you knew what you left me with in that house?" Penelope and Kate looked at each other, very confused.
"Who is this?" Penelope whispered to Kate.
"How should I know?" She whispered back. Elle was still focused on Emily.
"Emily, why do you have crutches?"
"Don't you dare change the subject. You left me in that house with younger 6 kids! You know what happens to the eldest in that household! Every night for 8 months after you left that monster of a 'father' would drag me down to the basement and beat me to a bloody, shaking pulp! 8 months, Sam! You were free! Would it really have been that difficult for you to call 911 and say, 'hey, there's a foster family at 1928 Sycamore Avenue that's abusing 7 foster children. Can you guys go pull them out, thanks.' Would that have been so difficult Sam?"
"Emily's a foster child?" Kate whispered to Penelope.
"Apparently. Elle, did you know about this?"
"Part of it," she murmured without turning around.
Sam stuttered, "Emily, I- I didn't-"
"You didn't what? You didn't think about it? You didn't remember? Do you know how lucky you are to not remember Sam? Because I do. There are things at Abby and Matthew and Gracie are never, never going to be able to forget. There are things they have seen that will be seared into their little brains forevermore. There are things that I won't ever be able to forget. Things that have changed who I am as a person. Things that could have been prevented if you had the decency to take 20 seconds out of your day to call CPS."
"Emily, it couldn't have been that bad-"
"Couldn't have been that bad? Are you kidding me? I'm not big like you Sam! Your body could handle it better! There was a time in that house that I only weighed 95 pounds! Do you know exactly how sickly that is? They didn't feed me for 9 days! My body literally consumed itself. Do you know what that feels like? Do you know how painful that is? Even outside of the starvation, your body could handle the beatings better! You don't get to say it wasn't that bad! He broke my fucking wrist, Sam! You see this?" She yanked her sleeve down on her left arm to expose a three inch scar from her elbow to her mid-forearm.
"This is from when he slashed my arm with his hunters knife after Abby spilled a bit of milk on the ground." Tears of anger streamed down her face.
"Emily, I'm so, so sorry. Please tell me the house you're in now is a good one."
"Yeah, my new home is incredible, as well as the others, but that's no thanks to you."
"Okay I don't mean to intrude, but who is she, and what is going on?" One of Sam's friends asked.
"Everyone, this is Emily Prentiss, one of my former foster siblings. We were in an abusive foster home for 2 months together before I turned 18 and left. Judging by the confusion on your friends' faces I assume they don't know the story?"
"Well it's not exactly something you bring up in passing conversation…" she muttered.
"Emily, I am sorry, ok?"
"Yeah, ok. Bye Sam."
"Emily-"
"Don't. Just don't." She turned on her crutches and went back to the lake. Penelope, Kate, and Elle followed closely behind.
"Hey."
"Hey," Emily replied, wiping her face with her sleeve.
"So…"
"I don't really wanna talk about it. Can we just go to the store and go watch movies?"
"Yeah, of course. Let's go."
They left to go to the store, and Emily tried to lock the afternoon's events away for later. Right now, she just wanted to have a good night with her friends.