Before I get to the story, (yeah I know, 'oh great, another paragraph separating me from the story') I'd really like to thank the reviewers that have given me such great reviews. You guys are a great support and really keep me motivated to write this story. It also keeps Jordan posting the chapters up in a promptly manner. :-)

(Haha, yes. Even if you don't like Allyn, still review, for me. -Jordan)

Ok, I shall hold you no longer. Enjoy Chapter 13!

Troy walked into Emily's hospital room. It was full of beeping machines and flashing lights. Emily's fragile body lay on the hospital bed. Her eyes were closed and she had a peaceful look on her face. Troy shuffled closer to Emily's bed. He gently sat on the edge of her bed, looking around and taking it all in.

He had never stayed in a hospital. Sure, he had been for various injuries from basketball or stupid stunts him and Chad would pull, but he'd never actually had to stay in a room. And he definitely had never been hooked up to so many machines.

He felt choked up looking at Emily's pale face. It looked lifeless. She had almost a dead-like quality to her. Tears stung Troy's eyes just thinking about it. He hated the fact that the only reminder that his sister was alive was the faint beeping of her heart monitor. He hated the fact that she looked so fragile and weak. He hated the fact that he didn't notice sooner. He just hated the fact that she in the hospital at all.

Troy stared at the beige walls in front of him. 'Emily is going to hate this room.' He thought. Emily liked color. Troy thought back to when Emily had begged their mother to let her paint her room stripes of bright blues, oranges, pinks, greens and yellows.

"Come on, Mom. It's so cute!" Emily pleaded with her mother.

Laura Bolton looked at her daughter. In front of her were thousands of paint samples. Leave it to Emily to choose the brightest of them.

"It's tacky!" Laura replied.

"No, it's not! It's modern!" Emily's stubborn tone remarked.

"You'll never to get to sleep in a room like that!"

"Watch me." Emily turned and walked down the paint aisle.

Laura sighed and turned to her son, Troy. "Can't you do anything?"

"Don't look at me, Mom. If you can't control Emily, what makes you think I can?" Troy replied.

Troy laughed to himself thinking about the memory.

"What's so funny?" A weak voice called out. It was almost at a whisper.

"Em," Troy hugged his sister, "Thank God you're okay."

"Well, as close to okay as I can get right now." She sat herself up a bit.

Troy just looked at his sister. Now that she was awake, her face didn't look as lifeless, but it was still pale and fragile. They sat in silence for a while, the faint beeping and whirring of the machines playing in the background.

"You okay?" Emily asked.

"Should you really be asking me that?" Troy cocked his eyebrow.

"Touché." She replied gently smiling.

"How can you be so carefree?"

"I've spent the past two weeks worrying my butt off. At the moment, I'm not worried. So I'm taking advantage of it."

Troy took a moment to process this. How could she not be worried? She was in a hospital! She collapsed! 'And it's my fault.' Troy thoughts spoke to him.

"Stop blaming yourself, Troy." Emily spoke gently.

"I'm not blaming myself." He lied.

"I've known you my whole life, Troy. I know that face." She gave him a look of concern.

Emily knew. She knew what Troy was thinking. He gave up pretending and decided to let out all of his thoughts he had bottled up inside.

"I just keep thinking: 'What if I had noticed sooner?' 'What if I hadn't spent so much time at basketball?' I mean, Em, I'm your brother. I should have seen these kinds of things. I should have thought of it when you told me about the nightmares. I should have told Mom and Dad. I should have done SOMETHING!" He had begun to pace the room.

Emily waited patiently until he finished before she started. "Troy, you couldn't have possibly known. I barely knew! No one thought I could get this bad, including me. It's my fault I'm in this hospital bed. No one else's. I'm the one that didn't eat. I'm the one that didn't talk to anyone. Please stop blaming yourself. It doesn't help anyone." Emily spoke eloquently and with confidence.

Troy didn't know how to respond. She had never talked to him that way before. He never heard her speak like that at all. Her words stung slightly. She had revealed the truth. Troy didn't want to see this as his sister's fault. He didn't want to see her as she did something wrong.

"Ok, Em." He sighed. He gave his sister a hug before he left the room.

Troy closed the door behind him and Emily let out a small sigh. She was alone, again. Little did she know a whole crew was outside debating who got to see her next.

(GOD JORDAN put a line here already!)

"No, Sadie should go next."

"GO!" Gabriella, Sadie and Natalie screamed at him in unison.

He blinked and shook his head as he began to walk towards Emily's hospital room. 'Girls.' He rolled his eyes at the thought. He stopped in front of the door and turned around. The girls were all staring at him and giving him pleading looks to go inside.

Chad looked back at the door, sighed, and entered.

Entering the hospital room and seeing Emily in her bed, connected to all kinds of machines, made everything seem – surreal.

"Hey, Emster." Chad said softly.

Emily just blinked.

The End!

Hope you enjoyed the chapter! Review! (Yes, reviewing is quite awesome! –Jordan)

Ok, ok. I'm joking. Don't have a cow! What does that mean anyway? 'Don't have a cow!'

Hmmm…what was I doing? Oh yes! The chapter! Continuing on now! (Hmm, does this remind anyone of something?!?! Maybe something that a certain author has already done?? Allyn, you copycat! Haha, just kidding, I love you, even though you totally stole my idea! -Jordan)

Gabriella, Sadie and Natalie all put their ears to the door. The conversation was muffled, but they could make out the argument.

"Why are you so mad at me?"

"Oh don't act like you don't know!" Emily retorted.

"I'M NOT ACTING, EM!" Chad's voice was full of frustration.

"Just go." Emily's soft voice sounded.

"Em," Chad started.

"GO!" Emily's teary voice cried out.

The girls backed away from the door as Chad stepped out. He took one look at them with hurt in his eyes.

"I told you it wasn't a good idea," Chad walked into the waiting room and out of the hospital.

The girls exchanged looks. "Gabriella, you go," Nat offered.

Gabriella nodded and slowly entered the room.

"Hey, Emily." She spoke softly.

Emily sniffed in her bed. Her knees were drawn up to her chest and her forehead was propped on her kneecaps. Emily let out a new round of sobs after hearing Gabriella's voice.

"Oh, Emily," Gabriella quickly walked over to her bed and sat beside her. She put her arm around Emily. "Want to talk about it?" She asked.

Emily shook with sobs for a moment. She picked up her head and rested her chin on her knees. Then, she made a pathetic attempt to wipe away her tears. "He's nothing but a stupid jock!" Emily cried.

"I know what you mean," Gabriella sighed and leaned her head on Emily's, "I know what you mean."

After Gabriella finished calming Emily down, the rest of the gang took their turns visiting her. Zeke gave her some cookies during his visit. Jason bought her a soda and talked about the recent CSI: Miami that aired. Sadie chatted with her about the cute new guy that sits in front of her in Algebra 2 and Natalie told Emily about when she got to the hospital, she ran up to the doctors yelling French at them because she was so worried. Each and every one of them made her feel better in their own way.

After the gang left, Troy was allowed to come back in and stay with her. This time, Troy didn't enter alone.

"Daddy!" Emily sat up with a huge smile on her face.

"Em," their father's face was relieved as he held his daughter in his arms, "How you feeling?"

"I'm fine, Dad." She answered in a monotone voice. She had been asked that at least seven times.

"Of course you are." Jack Bolton smiled. There was a knock on the door. Troy and Jack turned around to face the stately doctor that Troy had talked to before, standing there with Emily's file in his hands. Jack and Troy followed the doctor into the hallway.

"We have her diagnosis." The doctor said simply. The two Boltons stood in silence for a moment waiting for the doctor to continue.

"Ok, and?" Troy asked.

"Oh, yes. Well, Emily has Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, also known as PTSD. We think it was caused by the murder that happened. Answer this. Did she feel threatened or greatly upset by this?" The doctor looked at Jack questioning look.

"Yeah, she was. She thought," Troy gulped, "she was supposed to be killed. Like he was coming to get her."

"That fits in with the disorder. Most who suffer from this feel like they won't live for long, for no apparent reason. Has she had any nightmares or vivid flashbacks of this incident?"

"Yeah, she had horrible nightmares. They kept her from sleeping." Troy ran his hands through his hair.

"Did she avoid reminders of this event afterwards? News reports and such?" The doctor asked again.

"Um, yeah, I'm pretty sure she did." Jack chimed in.

"Mmhmm. Well, you mentioned the difficulty sleeping. How about outbursts of anger or agitation? Difficulty concentrating? Or fearing for her safety?"

"Yeah, all of it. That's what she's been telling us!"

"Yes, well that's the symptoms of PTSD." He scribbled some notes on the file.

"How do you treat it?" Jack asked the doctor.

"We'll start her out with some simple anti-depressants and we'll schedule her a therapy session. After that, we'll see how she turns out and go from there. Okay?"

"Sounds good." Jack shook the doctor's hand.

"Um, when can she go home?" Troy questioned.

"Hmm, I guess whenever she's ready." With that, the doctor walked away.

"Oh, Emily." Troy called out in a sing-song voice.

"Go away," Emily groaned.

"Emily." He called again in the same voice.

Emily's response was another groan.

"Time to get up," His sing-song voice floated through the room.

Emily put her head under her pillow to muffle the sound of his voice. Troy started to tickle Emily and the two laughed until their stomachs hurt.

"Okay, okay. I'm up! Please stop!" Emily managed through her bursts of laughter. Troy let go of her. The old Emily was back. The twinkle in her eye was fully restored. Her laughter back to it's old light-hearted tune. Her smile was back to its old lust.

It relieved Troy greatly that she was back to normal. Everything was back to normal. Well, almost.

'I wish Gabriella would talk to me.' His thoughts turned sad.

"Troy? What's wrong?" Emily looked concerned.

"Oh, nothing," he lied.

"You're thinking about her aren't you?" Emily asked softly.

"Yeah, but hey. Enough of that. Let's shoot some hoops!"

"Fine. Race you down the stairs!"

"Ok. But I count. Ready? Set?" Troy gently shoved Emily down on her bed before yelling "GO!" and racing down the stairs.

"THAT'S CHEATING!" Emily screeched as she slid down the stair banister.

"Emily! However could you accuse me of such a thing?" Troy said in mock hurt, "I'm a Bolton. We Boltons never cheat!" A sly grin plastered across his face.

"Oh shut up, Bolton, and throw the stupid ball." Emily teased back.

"Now, class, we are moving onto Chapter 7." Emily's Biology teacher announced.

"How is that possible? I don't even remember Chapter 6!" someone whispered in the back.

Emily laughed to herself and started doodling on her paper. Suddenly a folded piece of paper landed on her desk. She unfolded it and read:

So, remind me. Why won't you talk to Chad?

-- Sadie

Emily sighed and wrote back:

There's nothing to talk about. He cheated on me. End of story.

But we don't know for sure if he did cheat. He could have just been, well, I don't know.

Exactly! What other explanation would he have been talking to Taylor McKessie?

Homework?

Nice try, Sadie

He just looks so miserable!

Then why did I see him talking to Taylor again in the lunch room yesterday?

...Homework?

No, now stop that!

Can't you just talk to him?

NO!

Aww, come on, Em. He still loves you, I know it!

Does the word 'no' mean anything to you?

Not exactly...

Shouldn't you be paying attention to the lesson?

Shouldn't you?

I hate you.

Ooh, bell's about to ring! Bye!

Emily rolled her eyes as she read over the note again. Then, the bell rang. Emily tossed the note randomly into her messenger bag along with her Bio book. She walked calmly into the hall amongst the chaos.

"SIS!" Troy yelled down the hall.

"BRO!" Emily yelled back. Troy ran towards her.

"I just had a thought! Why don't you talk to Gabriella? You can get her to forgive me right?"

"I don't know, Troy…"

"Come on! Please? I'm desperate!" Troy gave her his pleading look.

"Fine," Emily sighed.

"Good, she's waiting in the library for you right now. Good luck! Bye!" Troy ran his words closely together and sped for the other end of the hall.

Emily stood there with a confused look on her face. Finally, she shrugged and headed for the library.

"Gabriella?" She called softly.

"Emily!" Gabriella looked up from the book she was reading. Her face lit up when she saw her. "Come, have a seat," she patted the chair beside her.

"When are you going to learn that my friends call me Ems?" She laughed while taking the seat beside Gabriella.

"Ok. Hello, Ems," she laughed, "To what do I owe this great pleasure?"

"It's about Troy."

"I should get really get going." Gabriella started packing her stuff up.

"Come on, Gabriella. Talk to me."

Gabriella just looked at her apprehensively.

"It's not fair that I pour out my life history to you and you don't give me a single thing." Emily teased.

"Why should I forgive him? Everyone tells me to forgive him, except for the Decathlon team." She said, half-thinking out loud.

"Because he didn't do anything?" Emily offered.

"Are you kidding me? He told the basketball team that I didn't matter." Gabriella's eyes teared up thinking about it.

"WHAT?!?" Emily screeched.

Cliffhangers. Fun! Fun:-)

Also, all my information on PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder) I got from WebMD.

They have a lot of useful information if you guys ever need to look up something medical for a story!

Thanks for my reviewers! I seriously love you guys to death!

Review! Jordan doesn't know this, but I baked some cookies last night :-) (HOW DARE YOU, ALLYN?!?! Ah, it's okay, I made some cookies myself. But I finished them all, heehee. –Jordan)

(P.S. Allyn and I are pretty pissed at this guy who lead our friend on, so we might not be updating until tomorrow. Who knows? –Jordan)

(P.P.S. Yes, Natalie is based off of yours truly. Natalie yelling in French at a doctor is what I would do. Well, after I learn French, they don't offer it at my middle school for high school credit. –Jordan)