Here's a slightly longer chapter for you guys. Hope you like it!

If Irma wasn't so busy trying to keep her body under control she was certain that she would be dying of mortification right about now. Thankfully her stomach had stopped making it's sickening lurches, but the rest of her was taking its sweet time calming down. She kept her gaze unfocused, staring vaguely out into the middle distance as she took another deep breath in through her nose then blew it out as steady as possible past lips that trembled.

Her whole body was quivering, waves of shivers washing over her skin and leaving goosebumps in their wake. She kept her hands clasped together between her knees to hide her shaking fingers and tried to ignore the way her right leg bounced slightly, knocking gently against Brodie's thigh where it was pressed along hers. Even though the park bench was wide enough for at least four people he'd practically pressed himself to her side after helping her get to it.

Irma cast a quick sideways glance at the boy sitting next to her. She wasn't sure whether she wanted to thank Brodie for trying to help her, strangle him for upsetting her with his weird alien tech again, or just run away and avoid him for the rest of her life. Between the Space Hero pyjamas and umbrella wielding on the night she'd met him, the freak out she'd had at the playground a week ago, and now this right here? A meltdown which had ended with her puking her guts up? Mortification wasn't a strong enough word for what she was feeling right now. She hadn't wanted him to think that she was a freak - besides her parents he was the only person she'd really talked to since her abduction - but between her crazy behaviour and what he now knew about her…just thinking about it made her stomach give another twist.

Brodie's large, warm hand was pressed against the middle of her back, gently rubbing circles over her spine. She couldn't bring herself to look at him. Her eyes wouldn't stop leaking tears and she could feel how red and puffy they were. So she kept staring ahead and focussed on the music pounding through her headphones. It helped a little in that it drowned out the Kraang voices, but it also compounded the headache already throbbing in her temples. And now she knew how said voices had gotten into her head…a fresh sob made her throat spasm and she blinked miserably to clear yet another rush of tears that had sprung to her eyes.

A bottle of water appeared under her nose and she stared at its fuzzy outline for a moment before untangling her stiff fingers to take it. As she unscrewed the cap and took a mouthful the music in her ears began to dim and she realised Brodie was adjusting the volume on her iPod. She took another deep breath, reluctantly tuning back into the world as it swelled around her.

"Better?" His voice was low but clear over the music, Irma could feel his eyes fixed on the side of her face and she felt herself flushing an even deeper red.

She almost nodded, hesitated, then shook her head while shrugging at the same time. "Yes?"

"Do you want to tell me what happened?" His voice stayed low, his hand on her back never stopping its slow circles.

Between her hands the drink bottle crackled as her grip tightened and she squeezed her eyes shut, shaking her head again. "Yes."

He waited, giving her time to take a few more deep breaths while she gathered her courage. Taking another sip of water to loosen her throat she opened her eyes again, then carefully placed the bottle on the bench beside her so she could reach up to slip the headphones from her ears. Immediately the voices strengthened but this time she didn't try to block them out, instead she focussed on them as she began talking, almost as though she was addressing them instead of Brodie.

"I'm not one hundred percent sure, but I think it happened eighteen months ago, about a year before the invasion. I was walking home from the train, it was late, I'd been at the library studying and lost track of time."

...permeability properties ensure that essential molecules, such as glucose, amino acids and lipids readily enter the cell...

Irma grimaced at the memory, "I had a test coming up in science that I really wanted to ace for extra credit, it seemed so important at the time." She let out a watery laugh, shrugging one shoulder and sniffing back tears. "I was nearly home when out of nowhere some guy in a suit blocked my way, he took the textbook I was reading and at first I was just mad, you know? But then another guy appeared who looked like him, and I thought maybe they were twins or something. I didn't realise that I should've been scared, that I should've run, until they started talking. They sounded like robots. And they didn't just look the same, they were exactly the same."

"Kraang." Brodie said quietly.

Irma nodded, still not looking at him. "That's what the first one told me, it grabbed my arm and said the human known as Irma will from this point in time be known as the one who is a captive of the Kraang." She made a lacklustre attempt at mimicking the monotone voice then laughed again, this time running a hand under her nose then using the heel of her hand to wipe at her eyes. "They sounded dumb. But I was so scared."

Brodie made a soft sound of sympathy, reaching out to take her hand gently. She felt how cold her fingers were within his and gave a shudder before continuing, "There was a white van pulled up to the curb, they took my book and backpack and gave it to a girl inside. She…she was, m…me. She was me. She was dressed exactly like me, her voice…everything. She took my things and then she took my place and no one could tell it wasn't me because it was me. It was the other Irma."

Irma didn't realise she was crying again until Brodie used his grip on her hand to pull her towards him. She found herself pressed right up against his side, his heart thudding under her ear while his hand once again rubbed circles between her shoulder blades. She could feel the cloth beneath her cheek growing damp. "I don't really remember much after that, time got fuzzy and it felt like an eternity passed. There was a room where they did things to my head that made it feel like my brain was melting. There was a cell they left me in until I nearly died. Then one day they took me outside and I remember seeing a pink sky before everything went black."

Her voice was starting to break but she had to finish, she had to get it out. "When I woke up again I was being rescued along with everyone else. Somehow I was back in New York and I just kinda walked home. It was...not like nothing had happened, because what had happened to me was the same as what happened to everyone else. But I don't think it really was like what happened to everyone else either." She shook her head, hoping she was making sense. "For some reason the Kraang chose me to take first, ages before the invasion. They wanted something from me, but I still don't know what it was. And my parents have no idea what had happened to me, they think I was abducted a few days before they were, and that means the other Irma fooled them for a whole year. But I can't tell them the truth, it would kill them if they knew."

Irma's throat was starting to ache, a combination of the tears still lodged there and the fact she'd probably just said more to Brodie than she had to anyone in the last few months combined. She dropped her voice to a whisper, raising a hand and hovering it over her temple, "These voices, I don't know how much longer I can stand them."

"Not for much longer," Brodie said, moving his hand up to her opposite shoulder to give her a squeeze. "Just a few more days and I can stop them for you, so hold on ok?"

This time when Irma took a deep breath her lungs filled as though the steel band that had been constricting was suddenly gone. She felt lighter, freer somehow. She lifted her head from his shoulder and turned her head to look at him, meeting his gaze square on as a rush of feeling swept through her. Hope and gratitude and something more her tired, muddled up brain couldn't put a name to.

"Ok." This time the word matched the nod she gave, and when his mouth stretched into a wide smile the corners of her lips lifted in return.

Awww, can you practically see the love hearts in her eyes?

I'd love to hear what you thought!