But now that I'm broken
Now that you know it
Caught up in a moment
Can you see inside?

After searching through the entire house, Emmet finally found his phone on the floor next to his bed. He checked his phone for any new messages and, to his surprise, he saw that he had about five missed calls. Two from Keegan, one from George, one from Sharon, and one from a number he didn't recognize. Another call from Sharon started to come in just as he was about to call Colm back.

"I'm just mister popular today," Emmet said out loud as he answered the call.

"Hello?"

"Emmet? It's Sharon." Emmet could barely make out sniffles on the other line, and his heart rate sped up slightly. Maybe she was just sick.

"Hey Sharon! What's up? Is everything alright?"

"Actually, Emmet," more sniffling, "no. I have something I need to tell you. It's about George." His heart sank slightly, but he refused to let his mind wander.

"George? I saw that I missed a call from him. Are the girls okay?"

"Em," A pause, then, "George is….Emmet he's gone." His entire world seemed to stop and his whole body was burning up. It was like someone punched him in the gut at the same time that they lit him on fire. His own heart seemed to stop. He kind of wished it would.

"I," Emmet breathed out, "he what?"

"George had a heart attack late last night and when Carolyn tried to wake him up this morning, well, he just didn't."

"No. No no no no no no." Emmet whispered as he used his shaking hand to steady himself against his dresser.

"We're sorting it out with Carolyn now and trying to figure out what exactly to say to the fans and everyone, but we wanted to tell you personally." Emmet couldn't breathe. He was certain he hadn't been breathing for a good few minutes now. George is gone? How? They were together just a few days ago. This can't be real. Sharon's voice shook him out of his thoughts.

"Em, are you still there?"

"Yeah," he choked out, "I'm here."

"Emmet I'm so sorry I know this is difficult for you. It's difficult for all of us. No matter what I say, I'm not sure I could make you feel better about this situation. Just try to stick close to your family today. Just try to relax and take it easy. But you know the drill: no tweeting about this until we figure out how to go about this. Carolyn needs to get her family affairs straight before we mention anything to the fans, but after that you can do whatever you want."

"Yeah. Okay." Emmet had officially checked out. All at once, his energy had been sucked out of him.

"Emmet?"

"Yeah?"

"It's going to be alright."

"Okay," he replied, though he didn't believe it.

As soon as he hung up with Sharon, he called Colm. It was almost as if he had been waiting for Emmet's call because he picked up on the second ring.

"Emmet! Thank God." Colm drew in a deep breath before continuing on, "We've all been trying like crazy to get ahold of you. Are you okay? Did you hear?"

"Colm please tell me this is a joke. This is a big practical joke and George is gonna burst out of my closet or something."

"Em. It's not. He's gone," Colm's choked out in a hoarse voice between sniffles.

"Jesus Christ. I-I don't understand how-" Emmet was cut short by Colm's quick explanation.

"He had a-"

"I know how it happened," Emmet snapped back before Colm could finish explaining.

"I just thought- Okay, I'm sorry." The tears started flowing freely down Emmet's face as Colm droned on about something. He didn't know what it was, and quite frankly, he didn't care.

The sadness engulfed Emmet. If he had known it was the warmest hug he was going to have for a while he would have embraced it. Emmet couldn't find the strength to support himself anymore so he dropped to his knees, keeping his hand on the wall for support.

"Colm," Emmet choked out, "I gotta go. I'll call you back later."

"Okay, Em. It'll be alright. We'll get through this. We always do."

"Yeah." Emmet tried to keep himself steady by leaning against the door, but his legs gave out and he just couldn't stand up anymore. He collapsed to the floor and sat there for the next half an hour. His mom walked in to find him sitting on his knees, doubled over with his arms wrapped around himself.

"Emmet! Oh my Lord! What happened to you, Sweetheart?" His mom shouted as she rushed over to him.

"He's gone. George is gone, mum. George is gone! What am I gonna do? What am I gonna do?" He sobbed into her arms.

He jerked awake and tried to take in his surroundings.

'Where am I? This isn't my bed. This isn't right. This is…This is… Áine.' He thought to himself.

Her warm arms were still draped around him, but her blue eyes looked at him with concern.

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. I just had a nightmare I guess."

"Was it George?" Emmet's blood ran cold at her question. The world seemed to tilt and swirl.

"What?" He snapped at her. Emmet cringed at the intensity of his voice.

"I-I…You called his name a couple of times. I just thought maybe that's what the nightmare was. I'm sorry." Her voice trailed off at the apology.

"Oh."

"Do you want to talk about it?"

"No. I jus- no. I don't."

"Okay then we won't. Let's go back to bed then."

"I think I'm gonna go. I'm sorry," he said, trying to untangle himself from her warm sheets and her warm arms. Her eyes traveled down his bare torso, but she blushed and quickly diverted her eyes before he had the chance to catch her staring.

Emmet started fumbling around for his clothes, still shaken up at the dream he just had. A million thoughts were running through his head and for some reason, he could not quite calm his shaking hands. Suddenly, Áine spoke up, interrupting his thoughts.

"Emmet, you can't keep running from this. The things you're doing. They're not helping. They're hurting you."

"This is not something I want to discuss right now!"

"Well when, Emmet? You don't ever want to discuss anything! Emmet, you're broken and you keep running away from your feelings or drinking them away or trying to smoke them out or whatever you're doing and it's not healthy!" Áine no longer had the patience to feel bad about her tone with him. He rolled his eyes at her words, and she sighed loudly. He kept pulling on his clothes as his head and heart began to fight. Everything in him knew that she was right, but it wasn't like he could just up and quit everything he was doing.

"Em," her voice broke through his thoughts once more, "you need to talk about it. It doesn't have to be me, but it needs to be someone." Emmet wanted to talk to her. He wanted to talk to her so badly, but she just wouldn't understand. He almost didn't want her to understand. The dreams that were more like nightmares. The darkness. The numbness. Someone with so much life in her eyes could never understand how he felt. Even if he wanted her to, she couldn't.

"Áine, you just…you wouldn't understand," Emmet sighed as he sat back down on the bed and buried his face in his hands. Suddenly, he felt a warm hand on his back.

"Try me," she whispered as she kissed his bare shoulder. Emmet sighed and turned to her.

The floodgates finally opened.