"Emma! Em, it's okay. You're safe, you're okay." Sutton chanted as she rushed over to her bed and climbed into it, sitting near her younger sister. As much as the older twin wanted to pull her distressed sister into her arms and comfort her, she had a sinking feeling in her stomach that Emma would freak out and that was the absolute last thing she wanted.

Mads was still frozen in shock, standing in the doorway as if she were unable to move. Her best friend had a twin sister, one that had been through a horrible and traumatic experience and for the first time in quite some time, the beautiful brunette had no idea what to do or how to help.

Emma was still tossing and turning, obviously still stuck in her nightmare and unable to fight off the demons that haunted her sleep.

"P-please just leave me alone." Emma whimpered in her sleep; the twin began to shake and curled her sleeping form into a ball, as if trying to protect herself from the horrors she was reliving.

Sutton was getting more and more frightened that she hadn't been able to wake her younger twin sister from her haunted sleep. Thinking quickly, Sutton climbed off of the bed and raced into the living room, filled a glass of ice cold water, and ran back into her bedroom. Mads, who was still standing in the doorway, apparently frozen, seemed to snap out of whatever daze she'd been in.

"Sutton what are you-?" She began to ask but was cut off by her best friend dumping the water on her sister.

Emma bolted upright, her shaking turned into shivers. She opened her eyes and saw the concerned look in her twin sister's chocolate orbs and felt her tense muscles relax a little. She let out a shaky breath and pulled her knees up tightly into her chest.

"I was having a nightmare wasn't I?" Emma asked sadly.

Her sister said nothing, just searched into Emma's deep brown eyes for any indication of what she was feeling.

She ran her fingers through her dark chocolate locks, which were still damp from her shower and being splashed out of her nightmare. Sutton sat down on the bed next to her sister and tentatively placed her hand on top of her younger twin sister's. As much as she wanted to do more to comfort her shaken up sister, she still wasn't sure how well she would react.

Mads awkwardly cleared her throat and pushed off the doorway, cautiously approaching the sisters. She felt like she was intruding on a precious family moment and thought about just leaving but Sutton obviously wanted her here and she could only hope that her best friend's sister would feel the same way.

"Hi Emma, I'm Madeline, but you can call me Mads, everyone does." The tall brunette said kindly. She took several more steps towards the bed but kept her distance, unsure of how Emma would take her arrival.

Emma's eyes widened as she searched her sister's eyes for any kind of explanation.

"I called her." Sutton confessed quietly "She's my best friend Emma, she isn't going to hurt you or tell anyone. You can trust her, I promise."

Emma nodded uncertainly.

She ran another nervous hand through her hair and stood up, pulling her hand away from Suttons', she crossed the room and stood near Mads.

"Hi, I'm Emma but you already know that. It's nice to meet you." The smaller twin smiled brightly and reached out to shake the girl's hand.

Mads had an extremely difficult time not staring at the bruises that she now had an excellent view of. She tried to recover from the shock of seeing such a young and innocent girl in such a state and she couldn't help but wonder what kind of a person could be such a monster that they would hurt someone like this.

Sutton had been nervous for her sister's reaction to bringing a stranger into her life and trying to help her deal with what had happened. She would have understood if Emma was upset with her for revealing her secret, she could deal with an angry Emma. But this? Emma was acting as if nothing was wrong and she was just being introduced to a new friend, like she didn't have a care in the world.

Sutton wasn't a total idiot, the older twin knew that Emma would have walls around her heart and even higher guards up due to the tragedy that had just happened to her but she didn't expect Emma to ignore it and hide the way she was feeling so soon. As much as she wanted Mads and Emma to become friends and have her best friend be able to help her sister through this, she knew that for the time being, she was the only person her baby sister trusted and having Mads around right now might do more harm than good.

Sutton had to hand it to her sister, as she and her best friend made small talk about the weather difference between phoenix and Emma's old home; Emma looked perfectly comfortable to the untrained eye. Even thought Sutton had only just met her sister recently, she could already pick up on her tense body language and the way she kept her arms crossed, as if she was holding herself together. Tremors passed through Emma's body, indicating just how scared she really was and probably would be for a while.

"Mads it's kind of late, Alec is probably worried about you. You should get home." Sutton said, knowing there wasn't really a subtle way for her to ask Mads to leave. She felt guilty about telling her best friend to go home so soon after she got there but Emma was her priority right now.

Mad's eyebrows furrowed in confusing but after seeing the look Sutton was shooting her she nodded.

"Okay well it was nice to meet you Emma and I'm sure we'll be seeing a lot more of each other in the future. Bye Sutton, call me later." Mads dismissed herself and left the Mercer household.

Silence fell over the twins as Emma remained rooted to her spot where she'd been talking to Mads just moments ago.

"Do you want to talk about your nightmare?" Sutton asked gently. She got off of the bed and walked over to her sister.

"Why? So you can call Mads later and laugh about what a mess I am?" Emma replied bitterly.

Sutton was taken back "Emma do you really think that I called Mads over here to make fun of you?" She asked incredulously.

"Why else would you?" Emma asked sarcastically.

Sutton felt her heart break in her chest. Had no one ever cared about her little twin sister? Had no one ever loved her or shown her how amazing she was? Was she really that scarred, that the only people she'd ever opened up to had burned her, if she'd ever opened up to anyone at all?

"Oh Emma…." Sutton whispered. Not able to talk it any more, she pulled her twin into a hug. Emma tensed in her embrace but quickly relaxed and gently returned it, confused.

"Emma, I thought Mads could help you. She is a fantastic listener and she's helped me get through a lot of things. You're my sister Em; I would never ever do anything to hurt you." Sutton vowed, tightening her grip on her sister and still being cautious not to hurt her.

Emma was unable to stop the tears from pooling in her eyes or the trembling to start back up in her body.

"I-I'm sorry S-Sutton." Emma muttered out brokenly.

"Shh, Em you have nothing to apologize for." Sutton whispered soothingly. She led her sister over her lavish bed and pulled the slightly younger girl into her arms.

With Emma on her lap, Sutton was able to feel exactly how frail and weak the other girl was, and the trembling felt like it was going to break her apart. She rubbed her sister's back while she collected herself and tried to stop the tears from falling.

"I'm so happy you found me." Emma muttered when she finally composed herself.

Sutton smiled and ran her fingers through her sister's nearly identical hair.

"Me too Emma, me too."

Wow it's really been a long time since I updated. I'm sorry for the delay! Thank you all for staying with the story, you guys are absolutely amazing. I'm glad to see the twins getting along better on the show too. Please leave a review or message me anything you liked or would like to see more of. Seriously your feedback means the world to me. Thank you guys so much for reading.