Life After High School - Ten Years Later.

By Risty and Silver.

Disclaimer: We don't own them, only our characters.

Summary: Just read the damn thing.

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(Emma's POV)

Everyone in our place was shocked to the core by what had happened at the school. We should have expected it of course, after all if the Black Dogs were capable of trying to take our children then they were capable of anything, but to murder two innocent young children. We knew that it was a warning and we all knew that if Galia had been there, she too probably would have been killed. The poor girl was completely devastated and Benny wasn't much better. He blamed himself for his brother's wrongdoings, just as Damon used to blame himself for Jon's. And no amount of persuading could convince him that it wasn't his fault.

The investigation was proceeding well however. Lucas now had a list of hideouts for members of the Black Dogs and there were a good four or five of them, all being watched. However, there had been no signs of my father, Jaime's father or Randy and Gimli for quite a while. They were obviously laying low. We knew that my father was the leader of the group, with Jaime's father by his side and the other two reasonably high in power, although we still had no idea what they wanted with us. There had to be something, else why come back after all this time? Damon and Benny were talking about having a meeting with Jaime and Frodo but they wanted a little more information first. Five of our men were dead now and Damon feared that another attack would soon be made on the children so we did not let them out of our sight. It was a difficult time for all of us, and it was about to get worse…

About a week after we had heard the dreadful news about the school attack, I was in the kitchen one evening, washing the dishes. The children were all in bed, Crystal included, Benny was in the bar and Lucas was down in the hideout. I could hear Damon coming along the corridor towards the kitchen.

"Emma" he said quietly, leaning on the doorframe. "I need my jacket."

"It's in here, darling" I told him, picking it up from the chair. As I did, a small plastic bag of white powder fell out of the pocket. I picked it up and gasped. It didn't take a miracle to work out what it was. Drugs. Illegal drugs. I dropped the packet on the table and glared at my husband. He looked from me to the packet and then back to me again. He looked as guilty as hell.

"How could you?" I screamed at him. "Anything else I could accept, but not this! What sort of idiot are you?"

"You drove me to it!" he yelled back. "Do you think this is easy for me, living here with you like this. Hell, I need something to help me cope!"

"That is the attitude that Jon had," I said at once. "And we both know what happened to him in the end. He got so dependant on the stuff that he could not cope without it."

"That is not going to happen to me" he insisted. "I'm stronger than he was. And besides, I don't see that what I chose to do is any of your business. I don't like you cutting yourself, but you do it anyway!"

"How dare you!" I flew at him and slapped him hard around the face. He grabbed my arms and pushed me away. I slipped and my head collided with the sharp corner of the kitchen cabinet. The pain was unlike everything I had ever experienced before and I could feel the blood trickling down my head. Damon just stood there for a moment, and then turned and walked away. I managed to stand up, although my vision was a bit blurred, wet a cloth in the sink and put it to my head. It felt like quite a deep cut and there was plenty of blood coming from it.

"Mum, what happened?" A voice asked from the doorway. I turned round and saw Kane and Ria standing there, their faces pale. "You are hurt. Did dad…?"

"Don't you worry about it, kid" Benny came up behind them and he also paled when he saw the state I was in. "Just go back to bed, both of you."

They hesitated for a moment and then disappeared down the hall. I heard Kane telling Ria not to say anything and I felt proud of him. My son, my eldest son. He knew exactly what would happen should this get out.

"Let me deal with your head" Benny said quietly. He guided me to a chair and gently bathed and bandaged the cut on my head. Then he asked what had happened and held me while I cried. We were lucky to have him, I knew that. He was part of our family and he always would be. When I had finished crying, he helped me to my feet and told me that I could have his room for the night. I was grateful for that, I had no intention of leaving Damon or anything like that, and I wasn't even sure if he would be up that night, but I certainly didn't want to see him until we had both calmed down.