(Author's Note- I hope you enjoyed that chapter. Here's the next one! E.B.F.R.)

Chapter #2 – Friends and Bullies

It was the middle of the day when after a cup of coffee and a brief morning jog, Emily rested on a bench right next to the local playground. She had dark brown hair, dark brown eyes, and was about 5'7". Emily loved to be here. She loved just observing the happy children. The light in the children's eyes reminded her of the courage of her patients back at the hospital. Emily was the favorite doctor on call when she worked. No one could get a child to smile as bright and big as she could. Emily was a natural with children.

Today, the local school children took their daily field trip to this particular playground. Emily's been by PC Elementary before. There playground wasn't much, if anything. They had nothing like this park's playground. Many slides and swings adorned the grass, as children ran around and played.

One young girl caught Em's attention. She sat by herself on a swing. Although there were dozen's of children playing, none of them had any interest in swinging. Emily felt her heart strings tug. The little girl sat there with her head down, in what looked liked an old and worn dress. She wore a dirty white shirt under a red and white checkered dress and had light brown hair. Em wondered what her eyes looked like.

The little girl sat there, ever so slowly swinging. Emily felt sorry and wanted to reach out to the girl but didn't know how.

With her focus on the little girl, Emily failed to detect another presence behind her. When the new presence put his hand over her eyes, Em jumped.

"Guess who?"

"I'm not sure…Someone who's going to get their butt kicked if he doesn't run soon?" Emily said with humor in her voice.

"Me? Never. Not when I have this for you." Said the stranger as he presented her with a grape popsicle.

"Okay, you're forgiven." Emily said as she turned around and smiled at her best friend.

"I thought I would be." Lucky Spencer replied. Lucky Spencer was only a year older than Emily. Lucky had sapphire blue eyes and dark blonde hair. He was about 6 feet tall and was his father's son. Emily and Lucky knew each other since before they were teenagers. He helped Emily through her mother's death and she helped him after he returned from the "dead," after being kidnapped by Helena Cassadine.

Lucky lived in the same apartment complex as Emily, only a floor above her. Emily briefly looked at the cold confection in her hand. Her eyes went back to the young girl at the swing and contemplated giving it to the girl, but knew nothing good would come of that had the teacher spotted her. Emily shook her head.

"What's on your mind Em?" Lucky asked.

"See that little girl on the swing over there?" Em said, as Lucky found who she was looking at, and quickly gave the girl with her head still down a glance, and looked back at Em. "What about her Em?"

"I want to meet her, to reach out to her. But I know if I do that I may cause more trouble than I or any of us need. I mean look at her Lucky. She's all alone, with no one paying any attention to her or even wanting to play with her. And she's so tiny. She has to be what? Six or seven years old? She looks malnourished." Emily said, as her doctor instincts kicked in.

"Yeah, she looks pretty lonely, and pretty thin but it's hard to tell with her head down like that. But Em, kids are by themselves all the time. I'm sure she has friends, maybe hers are just all absent today." Lucky reasoned softly, something also telling him to reach out to the girl.

Suddenly 2 boys came over and started to pick on the girl. The girl did nothing to retaliate or defend herself. Just as Emily herself was about to intervene, one of the bullying boys' loud snicker finally caught the attention of the teacher. "Jack, John! What are you doing? Leave her alone." The teacher ordered as she went over to the swings.

The girl finally looked up. Emily softly gasped at how stunningly blue the little girl's eyes were. They were right up there with Lucky's blue eyes, maybe even more so. She was also stunned at the hollow look that was held within them.

"But she started it!!" Said one of the boys.

The young girl said nothing, but shook her head. "Well Jack, I saw you two teasing and bullying her, and she did nothing in return. I don't think I can say that she started it."

"But she did start it! Honest! She even pushed me down before." The other young boy replied.

"Did you push John?" The teacher asked the girl. The girl again shook her head. "Are you telling the truth?" The teacher asked again, just to be sure. The girl nodded her head in response, but then went back to looking at the ground.

"Well boys, I'm sorry but I have no reason not to believe her." The teacher said. "All 3 of your parents will be receiving a phone call from me. And boys, no more bullying your classmates."

The teacher failed to notice the young girl's head bolt up at her words.

The teacher had taken the boys away from the girl, and her intentions were good. She had planned on letting the boys' parents know of their behavior, and let the little girl's parents know that she was being bullied.

"Lucky…" Emily breathed, "I don't think I've ever seen that much fear in a child before…" She whispered.

Lucky put his hand on her shoulder, as he too observed the little girl. They had seen her go under the slide and sit on one of the ladder steps. She had her knees to her chest, and began to cry. She tried not to show it, and for that Emily knew she was strong. Emily just wasn't sure that whatever strength she had, whatever reason she was scared to get a phone call home, she wasn't sure how much strength the child had left.

(Author's Note- Please Review! Thanks!! E.B.F.R.)