Despite her racing thoughts JJ must have fallen asleep at some point because when Emily carefully opened the door to the guest bedroom at about 9 am the next morning, she saw JJ out cold next to her son who now started waking up slowly:

"Good morning Henry, did you sleep well?", Emily whispered, trying not to wake JJ, who clearly had a lot of sleep to catch up on.

Henry nodded sleepily in reply and mumbled:

"God morning aunt Emmy." He slowly sat up and eyed the sleeping form of his mother. He might have only been two and a half years old but he still recognised that something was out of the ordinary. Not only were they not at home but his mother usually got up before he did and she looked tired and the bruises on her face had turned a nasty shade of purple.

"Hey, why don't we get up and start making breakfast? What's your favourite?", Emily asked, trying to distract him from the obvious and went to pick him up. Once in the kitchen, Henry had decided that they were going to make pancakes because they were his mom's favourite.

While they were making the batter, Emily tried to keep Henry entertained, but the little boy remained pretty quiet. Emily was scared that he might ask question that she either didn't have the answers to or that she didn't feel at liberty to say.

"Why is mommy still asleep?", a quiet, innocent voice pierced through her thoughts.

"You know, your mom was really tired.", she tried to dodge the question. It was on JJ to decide what to tell Henry and when: she didn't want to intrude into their family business. A little later the pancakes were done and both of them started eating- Henry's cut up pieces had to be drowned in syrup first though. Emily wrecked her brain about something to say to fill the silence but then she suddenly heard a loud scream coming from the guest bedroom. Henry looked at Emily with a scared expression so she said:

"Mommy is just having a bad dream, why don't you eat up while I look after her.", and rushed out of her kitchen towards JJ. Her friend was sitting on the bed, a terrified look on her face:

"Where is Henry?", she kept asking frantically. She didn't seem to be aware of Emily's presence.

"Hey JJ, it's okay.", Emily said, slowly approaching her panicking best friend who startled but looked up.

"Where is he?"

"He's fine, you're both safe. He's in my kitchen eating pancakes.", JJ started to recognise her surroundings, slowly leaving the terrifying place her nightmare had lead her to. Seeing that Emily slowly sat down next to her, trying to stop her from hyperventilating.

"You're safe, try to take slow, deep breaths."

When JJ made an effort to do so and with the adrenaline fading, she was suddenly aware of her recent injuries again. Hyperventilating was not exactly fun while having broken ribs.

Being pretty certain to be able to read her best friend's body language correctly, Emily decided to carefully hug JJ without exasperating her injuries.

JJ immediately relaxed into the embrace. After a minute or so, Emily proposed:

"Why don't we join Henry in the kitchen. We made pancakes.", but as they were about to get up they heard to little feet tapping into the room. Henry was carrying his plate full of pancake and syrup (but mostly syrup) and said:

"Mommy, do you want to share?"

Both adults couldn't help but smile at the blond, tiny syrup-covered face in front of them.

"I'd like that", smiled JJ, "let's head back to the kitchen before we make another mess in here."

Emily couldn't help be extremely thankful and appreciative for Henry at this point. He had somehow managed to defuse the situation and to put a smile on JJ's face. Watching JJ get up and following Henry, she saw her pained expression. With everything else that had been going on, Emily had completely forgotten to remember to pick up the description for her pain medication.

So after finishing breakfast the trio headed out to the pharmacy and to the supermarket, Emily's fridge was in serious need of restocking. She had offered to JJ that she could make the run by herself but JJ hadn't felt like being away from Emily.

Her presence was somehow calming her, showing her that she was safe: she was like an anchor keeping her in the present rather than reliving the past or worrying about the future. Heading back home, Emily could see that JJ seemed very exhausted and in pain. Henry had nodded off in his car seat, after all it was about time for his afternoon nap after the late breakfast they've had.

Arriving at the apartment, JJ out of habit went to pick Henry, but let out a gasp of pain as the action heavily strained her injured ribs.

"Let me get him Jayje.", Emily said quickly but she thought that JJ's face showed frustration and annoyance. After Emily had carried up Henry and the groceries, she found JJ sitting in the kitchen, taking her pain medication, but she still looked angry. Emily approached her slowly: "Hey JJ, are you doing okay?"

"Yeah, I'm doing amazing, never felt better.", JJ snapped.

"I'm sorry", Emily responded defensively, "that was a stupid question."

"You think?", JJ said, an annoyed tone in her voice, "You don't know what I'm feeling. You have no idea.", she stood up too quickly and winced but kept going and went into the guest bedroom where her son was currently sleeping.

"Then explain it to me, please talk to me", Emily called out after her.

JJ had felt bad about snapping at Emily as soon as the words had left her mouth but it was like she couldn't stop it. She felt as if a tsunami-wave of emotions and memories was threatening to drown her and lashing out and fuelling anger was the only way to keep it at bay.

She knew that Emily was just trying to help her and that she didn't deserve to be treated by her this way. This only added to her shame and flood of negative emotions, she felt like she was loosing her grip on every part of her life, rootlessness.