She watches him pick up a couple of pillows and a blanket but when he starts to leave, she starts to panic.

"Please don't leave me!"

Eric freezes, the muscles in his back pulled taut and he looks at her over his shoulder. He sees the fear on her face and his shoulders drop, placing the blanket and pillows back before crawling into bed. Eric stays a good distance away from her and a thought makes her whimper. He shuffles closer cautiously and he swallows once, twice, before looking into her eyes. "Are you sure?"

"Eric." Issy whines and he moves even closer until his body is flush against hers.

He curls around her carefully, tucking her into him. "It's okay, I've got you. I've got you. You're safe."

Subconsciously, Issy can feel hands holding her, pinning her down. Her breath caught in Issy's throat, the silent scream trapped as she kicked out, struggling to move the rest of her limbs. Her hands are pinned above her head and she kicks out again, hitting something solid. There was a grunt above her and so she tried again, only for her leg to be pinned down as well. Her eyes snapped open in fear, expecting to see Emmett's dark eyes above her. Instead Eric's grey eyes were staring down at her.

He seemed to wait with bated breath for her next move. As Issy's training kicks in, her eyes focus, and the scene of cavernous walls fades to cream walls. Issy looks around then, expecting to see Emmett's body lying beside them but instead she saw all the furniture of Eric's bedroom and her eyes focused on the darkening mark above his ribs.

"Let me go." She breathed and Eric did so immediately, moving to sit by her side.

"You were thrashing and yelling in your sleep." Eric said quietly. "You weren't responding to my voice or my touch, I didn't know what else to do."

Issy breathed deeply as she stretched out, her eyes darting around once again to double check Emmett's body isn't near her. "O-okay."

"Yeah?" He leans forward a bit, watching as her body tenses and relaxes.

"Yeah." Eric goes to press his lips to her forehead, but she moves her head away and his lips fall into her hair instead. "I feel disgusting." Issy whispers to the quiet room and it's a moment before Eric moves away.

"Do you want to take a shower?"

Tears well in her eyes at his crestfallen tone. "Yes please."

Eric climbs off of the bed with a sigh before walking out of the room. When she hears him moving about in the bathroom, Issy climbs out of bed. She finds her clothes on the wicker chair and rifles through the pile. Issy swallows when she shakily holds her bloodstained top. Large hands envelope her own and take the top out of her hands, throwing it into the wash basket at the other side of the room.

"Bathrooms ready." Eric steps away from her, his eyes on the floor. "You might want to leave washing your hair until the bump is healed unless you want me to do it?" Eric offers and there's a tiny bit of hope in his voice that stabs through her heart. Issy shakes her head meekly, her fingers fiddling with the hem of the top. "Oh…" He clears his throat. "That's okay, I can call Bree or Marlene over and they can do it later… There's some towels on the radiator and I put out some clean clothes for when you're done." His hands ghost over her arm as she steps around him. When she opens the door to the bathroom, Eric steps out of his room and his eyes meet hers. "I'll be around if you need anything."

Issy only nods as she steps into the bathroom and shuts the door. The room had warmed through from the shower already running and the heating blasting through the dark towels that covered it. Issy pads over to the mirror and gasps at the sight she sees. Her nose, while the structure looks the same, is bruised all along the ridge and sides. There's a little more bruising fading into her hairline next to her temple. Her wrists are bruised, even more so from last night but Issy knows Eric didn't mean to make it worse.

She pulls the top above her head and bites back the cry from the pain that pulsates along her back. Tears slip from her eyes and she whimpers, trying to stay quite but Eric must have had his senses improved because not long after, he knocks on the door. "Iss, you need any help?"

"I'm fine."

There's a soft thump, probably his head hitting the door. From that small gesture, Issy knows that Eric believes her as much as she believes it herself – which is quite literally non-existent… Issy waits for him to push the subject and barge in but Eric sighs. "Okay… Well, call if you need anything I guess."

Issy doesn't move until his footsteps recede from the door. The boxers slip to the floor without much trouble and Issy pads over to the shower stall, sadly eyeing the bath against the wall but she knows if she got into the bath, the she'd definitely need Eric's help to get back out again and Issy really didn't to place herself in such an awkward situation.

As she steps under the water, she hisses which is thankfully drowned out by the noise of the shower. The water was hot, gloriously so, that her skin quickly became numb to the bullets of water hitting her skin. Something brushes against her hip and Issy slaps the phantom touch away from her. Cries bubble in her throat as she slaps her arm, the ghostly feeling on Emmett's hands and body pressed against her. The noise claws its way up her throat, and she cries out. In the midst of her terror, Issy grabs the sponge from the shelf and squeezes a generous helping of his shower gel onto it, before furiously scrubbing at her body, trying to peel off Emmett's lingering touch. As she scrubs her body raw, she starts crying loud enough that Eric can probably hear her. When he skin burns under the water, she collapses and hugs he knees to her chest.

It could have been hours Issy sat under the stream of water until her sobs quietened down. he legs shook as she stood up, her skin tender as it brushed against something. Issy turned the shower off and stepped out, pulling the warmed towel around her body. The fluffy towel felt good even against her tender skin and she sat on the toilet, wrapping the towel around her tighter. Absently, she pats her body down before pulling on another pair of boxers that Eric left out. The large towel she used was thrown into the hamper under the sink and she used a smaller one to wrap her hair into a knot. Once the towel sat on her head comfortably and didn't rub against the bump, Issy pulled on the smaller tank before picking up the large knitted jumper as she leaves the bathroom.

She's hit with a wall of cold air as she pads into the hallway. "Eric?" Her voice seems loud in the quietness of the apartment.

"Yeah?" He calls from the living room and Issy makes her way over. Eric's sat on the sofa with a book in his hands and when he looks up, he frowns. "Do you need any help?" The small bit of hope returns in his voice and Issy's lips twitch up the tiniest bit.

"Can you help me dry my hair? I can't lift my arms higher than my shoulders at the minute."

Eric puts down the book and moves towards the edge of the sofa, spending his legs out. "Sure." Issy lays the jumper on the sofa arm before sitting in between his legs. He untwists the towel and her wet hair falls around her shoulders. "I'll try to be as gentle as possible, okay?" As he dries her hair, the sit in silence but for the first time in a few hours, it's a comfortable silence. When his hands thread through her hair, Issy feels her eyelids drooping and Eric chuckles behind her. "Just a few more moments, I need to rub some salves into your bruises after this." Issy pouts but Eric can't see that. When he finishes with her hair, he shifts her forward slightly and gets up. He puts the towel in the bathroom and comes pack with multiple jars. Eric starts with the bruises along her back which are easily accessed by the tank top. Then he shifts her to face him and applies a different cream to her nose. Her nose starts twitching due to the smell of it and Eric laughs quietly, making a small smile make its way onto her face. He moves to her wrists and frowns before applying another cream before finally his hand comes up to hold the back of her neck, angling her head towards him. His hands thread through her hair again and Issy closes her eyes, leaning her cheek into his hand as he gently applies the final cream.

Her eyes blink open when he stops and Issy looks up at him. Eric's eyes are darting across her face while his thumb draws circles into her skin. "Can you help me get that jumper on too?"

"Getting chilly?" When Issy nods, he picks up the jumper and slowly pulls it over her head, slotting her arms into the sleeves while making sure that her arms don't go higher than her shoulders. "I sent an email out that your squadron won't see you today because you need to rest."

Issy nods. Their plans today were only to go over the timetable for the next week. "And tomorrow?"

"We'll see." After a moment of hesitation and when he notices that Issy doesn't move away from him, Eric leans down and gently lifts her up onto his lap. "What I'd like is to keep you in this flat but that's not right by you."

"I need to do my job."

"But you also need to rest. Today you will rest but we'll see how you are in the morning to whether or not you'll go to work."

"Eric…" Issy sighs. She doesn't have the energy to start a fight.

"Red or Bulldozer can step up in your place. It's not like you can't watch the training from your tablet or, fuck, use mine since you haven't got yours."

Issy reaches up and holds his jaw, lightly dragging her nails the dust of stubble there. "I can't just sit and stew over that fact that for some reason Emmett –" A growl rumbles through Eric's chest. "– singled me out. I can't just hide and wait for everything to be healed so I can go on like nothing has happened. I can't." Issy shrugs.

Eric closes his eyes and breathes deeply. "That's not what I'm asking of you." He shakes his head. "I told you that you overlooked the fucker's strength and you didn't listen."

"I'm sorry!" Issy cried, sounding anything but sorry. "It took me by surprise, but I only thought Emmett would try to fight me, not rape me!"

Eric flinched harshly.

It was the first time either of them had said it out loud…

Rape...

Issy felt like she was going to be sick.

"You could have died." Eric says after a long moment of silence between them. His nails drag across her lower back lightly and Issy can feel his arms shaking. "He touched you! He nearly –" Eric closed his eyes again and leans forward.

Issy closed the distance between them and leaned her forehead against his lightly. "I'm okay, you got there in time before any serious damage could happen. He can't hurt me, and he'll never hurt anyone else ever again." Eric still doesn't open his eyes and Issy sighs. "Can we go to bed?"

"Are you getting cold again?"

"Yeah."

"Okay." Eric hooks his arms under her legs and carries her to his room. Issy clings to Eric and for once in in a long time, she feels like a child. Eric keeps her in his arms as he pushes the covers back and climbs in, carefully tucking Issy into his side. When Issy wiggles slightly, he shifts a little bit closer. "Give me a minute to hold my girl."

Its then that Issy thinks of how Eric's dealing with all this…

Eric heard her cries and came to her rescue, or maybe he didn't even know it was Issy and went into Leader-mode to protect his Faction from cowards – which makes it all worse. From the reports Issy's read, Emmett's usual move is to – you know – Issy can't bear to think of it, it still makes her feel sick… And then once Emmett's targets are unconscious or drugged, he keeps going. Some cases have ended in disappearances, girls becomes someone completely different, people actively becoming Factionless or, the worst case, jumping into Chasm… Eric spoke the true when he said she nearly died, it might not have been permanent in the way Issy thought he meant, but her character and will could have died, making her a completely different person.

Maybe she was different too…

Maybe that's what worried Eric as he clung to her gently…

Issy didn't want Eric to see her at her weakest point, something that had ever been a problem for them before… Eric wanted to help her, she knew that, but he also didn't want to push her.

The cycle of their problem.

Issy sighed, her head feeling heavy with all the thoughts clouding it. As she shifted, she felt Eric's even breath on her shoulder. He had fallen asleep and Issy smiled, reaching up to play with his hair. The frown on his face lifted and buried deeper into Issy. Issy held him as Eric held her but the smile on her face didn't outweigh the anxiety in her eyes.