Disclaimer: I own none of the characters or features of Higher Ground, except the following: Emma Morgan, the Rivergliders, Alex, Andrew, James, Leonie, Kristen, Alexis, Fred, Belle, Billy, the stables, or any other horses in that stable. Don't SUE!
Author's Note: I'm sorry if I don't have Patti's story straight. I had to make some changes to it just so that it would work with the story. Besides, I don't know her whole story since I haven't seen the whole series... not even most of it.
That night, Shelby had a very hard time sleeping. It was her last night in her dorm: the double bed was being shipped from the store the next day. So, naturally, everyone thought that's why she was restless. Little did they know. She couldn't believe she had found a link to Patti. All the memories came rushing back to her. Scott had been there for her, but she couldn't tell him. He wouldn't understand. She had stood there crying in his arms for a long time. It got late, past lights out, when she finally stopped, thanked him for just being there, gave him a kiss good-night and went to her dorm, leaving him standing there, dumbfounded. He didn't understand what had happened. She couldn't believe the whole story. She finally found Patti's brother.
* Flashback *
"Look, Shelby, if I ever get out, off the street, the one place I'm going is home, and the one person I care about is Andrew."
"Andrew?" Shelby asked, confused.
"My brother. He's like my best friend apart from you," a tall, pretty girl replied. She had long brown hair and a very cute face like Shelby's.
"Oh! I didn't know you had a kid brother."
"Well, ya." Now she looked uncomfortable and worried. "Shelby? If ever I don't get off the streets, if I never do make it home, can you promise me something?"
"Yes, anything. What is it, Patti?" Shelby looked scared, but decided.
"Shel, will you make sure he's okay, if I'm not there to do so?" she now had tears streaming freely down the sides of her face.
"Yes, of course I will. What wouldn't I do for a friend like you, Patti?" Shelby said, tears running down her face as well. Patti lent forward and gave her a hug.
"Alright, girl, time to go to work," she replied, wiping off her tears and putting on her facade. She now looked strong and ready, not like the little girl she really was inside. Shelby did the same and they walked out of the motel room where they were staying and went to the streets to work.
* End Flashback *
Shelby sat up, all of a sudden. She didn't want to remember or dream any more. She had to talk to Andrew.
Carefully, she got out of bed, got dressed, put a coat on and walked out the door. She ran over to the boys' dorm and knocked on the window where Scott was asleep. He got up to the familiar sound and opened the window.
"Why? Miss Merrick, so nice to see you!" he said, trying to imitate Peter. "Shel, what time is it?" he said all of a sudden, realizing he had actually been sleeping.
"About one in the morning. Listen, Scott, I need to talk to Andrew. Can you wake him up?" Shelby asked sounding a little rushed.
"What do you want to talk to him for?" Scott asked seriously.
"It's about why I was crying earlier," she said, trying to avoid the true answer, or at least the whole answer.
"If that bastard made you cry, I swear, he's not going to wake up tomorrow morning," Scott said menacingly.
"No, Scott, I just have to talk to him. Please get him. I love you!" she knew that would do the trick. He smiled at her. Score, it worked, she thought. He went over to Andrew and woke him up pretty rudely. The job was done though.
"Dude, Shelb wants a talk with you," Scott said. "Oh, and you mess with her, you die," he added threateningly. Andrew gulped. Now what did I do? He asked himself. Good, he won't touch her now, Scott thought.
Andrew got up, got dressed, put his coat on and walked outside. Shelby wasn't outside Scott's window anymore. He looked around and saw her figure walking toward the lodge. He jogged to catch up to her. He saw her enter the lodge and he stopped outside. What would she want to talk to me about? He thought, stressing the words "she" and "me." He finally made up his mind to find out and entered the lodge. She was sitting on the couch, looking at the fire burn away the last bits of wood. She had her back to him. When he approached her, he could hear slight sobs. He sat down beside her. She wiped away her tears immediately.
"So? What was it you wanted to talk to me about?" he asked, getting the ball rolling.
"Patti," she said simply. He looked at her in amazement.
"How do you know my sister?" he asked. He couldn't believe he was having this conversation with her.
"She was my best friend," she said. She didn't know how much she ought to tell him.
"But, I never saw you. I don't even know about you. Patti never said anything about you," he stammered. Who is this girl? He asked himself.
"I guess you have to know my story." She looked at him and noticed a slight nod. That was all she needed, so she continued. "When I ran from home, I didn't know where to go. I spent some time sleeping under a bridge at night and begging during the day. Begging for money just wasn't enough. I couldn't pay for food and water. I met your sister on the street. She was a prostitute. She told me that the money was good and that if we joined up, we would be able to get good food, drink, and a bed at night. That was all I needed. During the workweek, we turned tricks, the weekend, we ate and slept. It was good for a street life. All the same, we knew we needed out. We couldn't stay like that forever. One night she told me that if ever anything were to happen to her that I should find you and take care of you. I agreed," she stopped here. Tears were falling down her cheeks. She looked over at Andrew. He was impassive, so she kept going. "We went out that night. I knew that she had a coke addiction, but I had no idea how bad it was. When I got back that night..." she got choked up here. She started bawling. Andrew took her in his arms and comforted her. "I got back and the motel room was a disaster. I looked for her everywhere. When I found her, she was on the floor, dead," Shelby gasped as she heard herself say this. This was the first time she had told her whole story to anyone. She sat up on her own and continued. "She had told me when we first met that if ever she were to die, she wanted to die incognito. So I made her so. I took all ID she had on her. All her money, all my money, and all our clothes and got out. I just left her there. It was the worst thing I ever did." She couldn't continue anymore.
"I get it. So, what did you do then?" Andrew asked. Shelby couldn't tell anything from his voice. It was stone cold and his face was completely impassive.
"I turned tricks the next night. The police had been looking for me for quite some time. They finally got me. I had been on the streets for a year by then and my mom was a little worried. When I got home, she got Roger to come and get me and I was brought here. That's my story."
"Why did you tell me this?" Andrew asked quietly. He still didn't understand.
"I told you because I want you to know I'm here for you. Your sister was the best person out there. She was great. She was always there for me and I want to keep my promise to her. So, I'll do anything for you. I'll try my best to be what Patti would have been; to do what she would have done."
"Thank you," he now had tears in his eyes. They hugged each other for a while.
"I've got to go to bed now. We've both got a big day tomorrow. Go to bed too. Tell Scott I love him... he's probably worried shitless," she said with a wink. She gave him another hug and left.
********************************************************************************
"James, listen, I can't help you if you don't let me," Peter was getting exasperated. It was Tuesday morning and James had just been pulled out of Math class. He was now sitting in front of Peter. He had a happy smile on. Peter knew he was like Jules, covered up his hurt by being overly happy and bubbly. However, at this last comment, his face turned, and he looked mad.
"What makes you think I need, or even want any help?" he said quietly, looking kind of fierce.
"You're not doing well in class. All your teachers are telling me that you don't pay attention, that you always seem distracted. I don't know what to do. Is there any problem?" Peter looked worried.
"I just don't like school."
"Why not?" Wow! I'm finally getting somewhere with the kid, Peter thought.
"Because I never did well at it. It's a known fact that when you don't succeed in something, you often don't like that thing. You need to see a bit of success, some results, to know you're going somewhere."
"I suppose. Why did you never do well at school? You seem like a very intelligent person to me."
"Well, thanks, but my parents and teachers never thought so. Didn't you read my records? The drugs... didn't you wonder about it?" he didn't understand why Peter couldn't figure this out for himself. He was getting bored.
"Of course I saw. What I don't understand is why! If you talk to anyone, absolutely anyone, at this school, they'll all tell you there's a reason for why they did drugs-if they did do drugs. There's always a trauma of some sort, or a push that gets them going down that path. You don't do drugs just cause. At least, not if you end up here."
"Well, maybe I did," he said testily. Peter was getting a little annoyed.
"Is there anything you'd like to talk about?" James shook his head. "Alright, you can go back to class. Try to pay attention from now on." As he left, Peter sat back in his chair and let out a long sigh. Why didn't the kids understand that it was for their benefit to talk. He took out James's file and read over it. Drugs... pretty normal for the kids at Horizon. Theft... same thing. Violence. Here he stopped reading and sat up. He looked at the word. Violence? James? That couldn't be! He was such a sweet natured kid. Their first group, he had been open and had a smile on and everything. How could this kid be violent? That was odd. Peter sat, looking at that word. Finally he moved on to read a bit more. Nothing else caught his attention.
******************************************************************************
"Has anyone seen James?" Leah asked as she took the role call for her History class. Everyone shook their heads. After he left for Peter's office during Math, no one had seen him for the rest of the day. He hadn't even appeared at lunch.
"Kristen, could you go look to see if you could find him? If in ten minutes, you can't find him, come back and I'll send Peter out to look for him." Kristen nodded. She pulled her coat on and headed outside. She started looking around to see if there was anyone with bright red hair on campus. She saw the Cliffhangers having a soccer game in the snow. That made her smile. She looked up in the stands and... BINGO! She ran over.
"Hey, James, what are you doing up here? You're supposed to be in class with us. You know, History?" she said as she reached the top of the stands where he was. He didn't even look at her.
"Yeah, whatever," he said dismissively.
"Not whatever. What's wrong? You're usually all happy," she questioned, a bit surprised at the change in countenance.
"I don't feel happy today." He really didn't want to talk.
"I see. Well, what's wrong?"
He just looked at her. She wouldn't understand. How could she? No one would! He thought this, but Kristen cut him off.
"Well, you can't hide forever. I have problems too, you know?" she said. He gave her a weak smile.
"Doesn't everyone?" he asked, looking back at the game. Scott had tackled Shelby down and was in the process of tickling her. He could hear faint cries of "get a room!"
"Ya, well, at least everyone here does," she said sadly. "It helps to talk. If you don't, it eats you up inside. You try so hard to hide it that all your energy goes into that and soon you have none left." She looked so sincere when she said this.
"You couldn't possibly understand," he whispered as he continued to watch the game which had finally gotten back on track.
"Wanna bet? Try me." He looked at her with a "you're kidding, right?" look. "Here, I tell you something about myself and you tell me something about you. Deal?" she looked a little excited.
"Sure, whatever."
"Alright, I'll start the ball rolling. I was a chronic runaway."
"How come?" he started getting curious. What would she be running away from?
"Ah ah, you have to say something first, then I'll tell you," she said in a teasing voice.
"Fine. I did some pretty hard stuff."
"Stuff?"
"Drugs," he added. "I thought that was understood."
"Hey! I never had contact with drugs. I may have had problems, but that was never one of them. Your turn."
"What? You didn't say another thing!"
"Yeah, I never did drugs," she replied with a smile.
"Fine. I stole to support my drug habit," he didn't look too proud of this.
"Okay. So did I. Well, not to support me in the drug business, but to support me for food and shelter when I ran. It got pretty bad at one time. What sort of drugs did you do?"
"Coke and heroine," he said, grimacing. "And everything in between."
"Ah," was all she said. She seemed deep in thought.
"So? What's your next thing?"
"Oh, um... let me see... my older siblings beat me up because I was adopted. That's why I ran, by the way."
"Ah, that sucks," he didn't know what to say. "I understand."
"Right. No one does. You don't know how it is to run from somewhere where you're supposed to feel safe," she said, her voice cracking and a tear running down her face. She looked away. She said it. She couldn't believe it. "You need a good one now, I told you my worst thing," she said, smacking on a tough smile.
"Okay. I used to be in a gang. A pretty tough one, too."
"Really? Is that why you did drugs?"
"Yeah," was his short reply.
"I see. Why did you join the gang?"
"To get out of my house," he said, pure hatred in his voice.
"What was going on a home that you felt you needed to run?" she couldn't believe that he had the same problem as her.
"My dad was always drunk. He..." he got chocked up, but didn't want to let her see. He continued boldly. "He beat my mum up. My bro too. I always got out just in time."
"Oh, I'm so sorry, James," she said, completely understanding him.
"I always felt guilty about leaving them behind. What was I supposed to do? He would've probably killed me! I was scared!" Tears were now running freely down his face.
"You could do more on the outside than on the inside. You could've called the cops."
"Don't you get it? I never did! Then I got arrested for possession and ended up here. They're still back there! With him!" he couldn't believe he was telling her this. She understood him though. It was coming out before he could stop himself.
"James! You have to tell Peter! This is abuse," she said standing up. She looked scared. He just nodded, but unconvincingly. She sat down again. Then she realized the time. "Oh shit! Peter's gonna be looking for us. Leah said that she was sending him if I didn't come back within ten minutes. Lets go!" she stood up, grabbed his hand and led him down. They got back just in time. Leah was about to send for Peter. They arrived out of breath, but smiling. They had each broken down and told their secrets and it felt good. That poison was gone. That thing eating them up was out. That weight that was on their shoulders, was now spread across those of their friend's. They had someone to help them through the dark tunnel to the light.
Author's Note: I'm sorry if I don't have Patti's story straight. I had to make some changes to it just so that it would work with the story. Besides, I don't know her whole story since I haven't seen the whole series... not even most of it.
That night, Shelby had a very hard time sleeping. It was her last night in her dorm: the double bed was being shipped from the store the next day. So, naturally, everyone thought that's why she was restless. Little did they know. She couldn't believe she had found a link to Patti. All the memories came rushing back to her. Scott had been there for her, but she couldn't tell him. He wouldn't understand. She had stood there crying in his arms for a long time. It got late, past lights out, when she finally stopped, thanked him for just being there, gave him a kiss good-night and went to her dorm, leaving him standing there, dumbfounded. He didn't understand what had happened. She couldn't believe the whole story. She finally found Patti's brother.
* Flashback *
"Look, Shelby, if I ever get out, off the street, the one place I'm going is home, and the one person I care about is Andrew."
"Andrew?" Shelby asked, confused.
"My brother. He's like my best friend apart from you," a tall, pretty girl replied. She had long brown hair and a very cute face like Shelby's.
"Oh! I didn't know you had a kid brother."
"Well, ya." Now she looked uncomfortable and worried. "Shelby? If ever I don't get off the streets, if I never do make it home, can you promise me something?"
"Yes, anything. What is it, Patti?" Shelby looked scared, but decided.
"Shel, will you make sure he's okay, if I'm not there to do so?" she now had tears streaming freely down the sides of her face.
"Yes, of course I will. What wouldn't I do for a friend like you, Patti?" Shelby said, tears running down her face as well. Patti lent forward and gave her a hug.
"Alright, girl, time to go to work," she replied, wiping off her tears and putting on her facade. She now looked strong and ready, not like the little girl she really was inside. Shelby did the same and they walked out of the motel room where they were staying and went to the streets to work.
* End Flashback *
Shelby sat up, all of a sudden. She didn't want to remember or dream any more. She had to talk to Andrew.
Carefully, she got out of bed, got dressed, put a coat on and walked out the door. She ran over to the boys' dorm and knocked on the window where Scott was asleep. He got up to the familiar sound and opened the window.
"Why? Miss Merrick, so nice to see you!" he said, trying to imitate Peter. "Shel, what time is it?" he said all of a sudden, realizing he had actually been sleeping.
"About one in the morning. Listen, Scott, I need to talk to Andrew. Can you wake him up?" Shelby asked sounding a little rushed.
"What do you want to talk to him for?" Scott asked seriously.
"It's about why I was crying earlier," she said, trying to avoid the true answer, or at least the whole answer.
"If that bastard made you cry, I swear, he's not going to wake up tomorrow morning," Scott said menacingly.
"No, Scott, I just have to talk to him. Please get him. I love you!" she knew that would do the trick. He smiled at her. Score, it worked, she thought. He went over to Andrew and woke him up pretty rudely. The job was done though.
"Dude, Shelb wants a talk with you," Scott said. "Oh, and you mess with her, you die," he added threateningly. Andrew gulped. Now what did I do? He asked himself. Good, he won't touch her now, Scott thought.
Andrew got up, got dressed, put his coat on and walked outside. Shelby wasn't outside Scott's window anymore. He looked around and saw her figure walking toward the lodge. He jogged to catch up to her. He saw her enter the lodge and he stopped outside. What would she want to talk to me about? He thought, stressing the words "she" and "me." He finally made up his mind to find out and entered the lodge. She was sitting on the couch, looking at the fire burn away the last bits of wood. She had her back to him. When he approached her, he could hear slight sobs. He sat down beside her. She wiped away her tears immediately.
"So? What was it you wanted to talk to me about?" he asked, getting the ball rolling.
"Patti," she said simply. He looked at her in amazement.
"How do you know my sister?" he asked. He couldn't believe he was having this conversation with her.
"She was my best friend," she said. She didn't know how much she ought to tell him.
"But, I never saw you. I don't even know about you. Patti never said anything about you," he stammered. Who is this girl? He asked himself.
"I guess you have to know my story." She looked at him and noticed a slight nod. That was all she needed, so she continued. "When I ran from home, I didn't know where to go. I spent some time sleeping under a bridge at night and begging during the day. Begging for money just wasn't enough. I couldn't pay for food and water. I met your sister on the street. She was a prostitute. She told me that the money was good and that if we joined up, we would be able to get good food, drink, and a bed at night. That was all I needed. During the workweek, we turned tricks, the weekend, we ate and slept. It was good for a street life. All the same, we knew we needed out. We couldn't stay like that forever. One night she told me that if ever anything were to happen to her that I should find you and take care of you. I agreed," she stopped here. Tears were falling down her cheeks. She looked over at Andrew. He was impassive, so she kept going. "We went out that night. I knew that she had a coke addiction, but I had no idea how bad it was. When I got back that night..." she got choked up here. She started bawling. Andrew took her in his arms and comforted her. "I got back and the motel room was a disaster. I looked for her everywhere. When I found her, she was on the floor, dead," Shelby gasped as she heard herself say this. This was the first time she had told her whole story to anyone. She sat up on her own and continued. "She had told me when we first met that if ever she were to die, she wanted to die incognito. So I made her so. I took all ID she had on her. All her money, all my money, and all our clothes and got out. I just left her there. It was the worst thing I ever did." She couldn't continue anymore.
"I get it. So, what did you do then?" Andrew asked. Shelby couldn't tell anything from his voice. It was stone cold and his face was completely impassive.
"I turned tricks the next night. The police had been looking for me for quite some time. They finally got me. I had been on the streets for a year by then and my mom was a little worried. When I got home, she got Roger to come and get me and I was brought here. That's my story."
"Why did you tell me this?" Andrew asked quietly. He still didn't understand.
"I told you because I want you to know I'm here for you. Your sister was the best person out there. She was great. She was always there for me and I want to keep my promise to her. So, I'll do anything for you. I'll try my best to be what Patti would have been; to do what she would have done."
"Thank you," he now had tears in his eyes. They hugged each other for a while.
"I've got to go to bed now. We've both got a big day tomorrow. Go to bed too. Tell Scott I love him... he's probably worried shitless," she said with a wink. She gave him another hug and left.
********************************************************************************
"James, listen, I can't help you if you don't let me," Peter was getting exasperated. It was Tuesday morning and James had just been pulled out of Math class. He was now sitting in front of Peter. He had a happy smile on. Peter knew he was like Jules, covered up his hurt by being overly happy and bubbly. However, at this last comment, his face turned, and he looked mad.
"What makes you think I need, or even want any help?" he said quietly, looking kind of fierce.
"You're not doing well in class. All your teachers are telling me that you don't pay attention, that you always seem distracted. I don't know what to do. Is there any problem?" Peter looked worried.
"I just don't like school."
"Why not?" Wow! I'm finally getting somewhere with the kid, Peter thought.
"Because I never did well at it. It's a known fact that when you don't succeed in something, you often don't like that thing. You need to see a bit of success, some results, to know you're going somewhere."
"I suppose. Why did you never do well at school? You seem like a very intelligent person to me."
"Well, thanks, but my parents and teachers never thought so. Didn't you read my records? The drugs... didn't you wonder about it?" he didn't understand why Peter couldn't figure this out for himself. He was getting bored.
"Of course I saw. What I don't understand is why! If you talk to anyone, absolutely anyone, at this school, they'll all tell you there's a reason for why they did drugs-if they did do drugs. There's always a trauma of some sort, or a push that gets them going down that path. You don't do drugs just cause. At least, not if you end up here."
"Well, maybe I did," he said testily. Peter was getting a little annoyed.
"Is there anything you'd like to talk about?" James shook his head. "Alright, you can go back to class. Try to pay attention from now on." As he left, Peter sat back in his chair and let out a long sigh. Why didn't the kids understand that it was for their benefit to talk. He took out James's file and read over it. Drugs... pretty normal for the kids at Horizon. Theft... same thing. Violence. Here he stopped reading and sat up. He looked at the word. Violence? James? That couldn't be! He was such a sweet natured kid. Their first group, he had been open and had a smile on and everything. How could this kid be violent? That was odd. Peter sat, looking at that word. Finally he moved on to read a bit more. Nothing else caught his attention.
******************************************************************************
"Has anyone seen James?" Leah asked as she took the role call for her History class. Everyone shook their heads. After he left for Peter's office during Math, no one had seen him for the rest of the day. He hadn't even appeared at lunch.
"Kristen, could you go look to see if you could find him? If in ten minutes, you can't find him, come back and I'll send Peter out to look for him." Kristen nodded. She pulled her coat on and headed outside. She started looking around to see if there was anyone with bright red hair on campus. She saw the Cliffhangers having a soccer game in the snow. That made her smile. She looked up in the stands and... BINGO! She ran over.
"Hey, James, what are you doing up here? You're supposed to be in class with us. You know, History?" she said as she reached the top of the stands where he was. He didn't even look at her.
"Yeah, whatever," he said dismissively.
"Not whatever. What's wrong? You're usually all happy," she questioned, a bit surprised at the change in countenance.
"I don't feel happy today." He really didn't want to talk.
"I see. Well, what's wrong?"
He just looked at her. She wouldn't understand. How could she? No one would! He thought this, but Kristen cut him off.
"Well, you can't hide forever. I have problems too, you know?" she said. He gave her a weak smile.
"Doesn't everyone?" he asked, looking back at the game. Scott had tackled Shelby down and was in the process of tickling her. He could hear faint cries of "get a room!"
"Ya, well, at least everyone here does," she said sadly. "It helps to talk. If you don't, it eats you up inside. You try so hard to hide it that all your energy goes into that and soon you have none left." She looked so sincere when she said this.
"You couldn't possibly understand," he whispered as he continued to watch the game which had finally gotten back on track.
"Wanna bet? Try me." He looked at her with a "you're kidding, right?" look. "Here, I tell you something about myself and you tell me something about you. Deal?" she looked a little excited.
"Sure, whatever."
"Alright, I'll start the ball rolling. I was a chronic runaway."
"How come?" he started getting curious. What would she be running away from?
"Ah ah, you have to say something first, then I'll tell you," she said in a teasing voice.
"Fine. I did some pretty hard stuff."
"Stuff?"
"Drugs," he added. "I thought that was understood."
"Hey! I never had contact with drugs. I may have had problems, but that was never one of them. Your turn."
"What? You didn't say another thing!"
"Yeah, I never did drugs," she replied with a smile.
"Fine. I stole to support my drug habit," he didn't look too proud of this.
"Okay. So did I. Well, not to support me in the drug business, but to support me for food and shelter when I ran. It got pretty bad at one time. What sort of drugs did you do?"
"Coke and heroine," he said, grimacing. "And everything in between."
"Ah," was all she said. She seemed deep in thought.
"So? What's your next thing?"
"Oh, um... let me see... my older siblings beat me up because I was adopted. That's why I ran, by the way."
"Ah, that sucks," he didn't know what to say. "I understand."
"Right. No one does. You don't know how it is to run from somewhere where you're supposed to feel safe," she said, her voice cracking and a tear running down her face. She looked away. She said it. She couldn't believe it. "You need a good one now, I told you my worst thing," she said, smacking on a tough smile.
"Okay. I used to be in a gang. A pretty tough one, too."
"Really? Is that why you did drugs?"
"Yeah," was his short reply.
"I see. Why did you join the gang?"
"To get out of my house," he said, pure hatred in his voice.
"What was going on a home that you felt you needed to run?" she couldn't believe that he had the same problem as her.
"My dad was always drunk. He..." he got chocked up, but didn't want to let her see. He continued boldly. "He beat my mum up. My bro too. I always got out just in time."
"Oh, I'm so sorry, James," she said, completely understanding him.
"I always felt guilty about leaving them behind. What was I supposed to do? He would've probably killed me! I was scared!" Tears were now running freely down his face.
"You could do more on the outside than on the inside. You could've called the cops."
"Don't you get it? I never did! Then I got arrested for possession and ended up here. They're still back there! With him!" he couldn't believe he was telling her this. She understood him though. It was coming out before he could stop himself.
"James! You have to tell Peter! This is abuse," she said standing up. She looked scared. He just nodded, but unconvincingly. She sat down again. Then she realized the time. "Oh shit! Peter's gonna be looking for us. Leah said that she was sending him if I didn't come back within ten minutes. Lets go!" she stood up, grabbed his hand and led him down. They got back just in time. Leah was about to send for Peter. They arrived out of breath, but smiling. They had each broken down and told their secrets and it felt good. That poison was gone. That thing eating them up was out. That weight that was on their shoulders, was now spread across those of their friend's. They had someone to help them through the dark tunnel to the light.