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She woke at four in the morning. He was still asleep. She sat up on her elbows and stared down at him sadly. Three months. Nearly three months she had missed watching him sleep. She was grateful that she had only remembered his face when he showed up at the hospital.

But her love never went away.

She didn't resent him.

She resented herself.

Closing her eyes to keep the tears at bay, she curled back into his arms and fell asleep.

///

They were almost to Fort Haven, Indiana. It was mid-afternoon, and they only had nine hours to go. He wasn't stopping at another hotel. He was tired of driving.

"Vermont." Emma pointed at a minivan driving by. "I think that's all fifty." She cuddled into her blanket and closed her eyes. Will nodded and smiled at her. She was much more at ease. She was much more like Emma.

He gripped the steering wheel. He was anxious. He kept think about the conversation he'd had with her doctor in Colorado. "She's very fragile Mr. Schuester." The man had warned him, "If there isn't a hospital for her, please try to find her a therapist. She can't suddenly stop treatment. She'll get sick again."

"Are you hungry?" He asked, pulling off of the interstate. He might not have needed a hotel, but bathroom breaks couldn't wait. Emma shook her head quickly.

"Can I just have soup when we get home?" She pleaded.

"Of course." Will didn't care that she hadn't eaten a whole meal in the past two days. She had just referenced Lima as home. He couldn't be happier.

///

"I have to talk to you…about something…" He began hesitantly. She had been content with listening to him sing along to the radio as she watched the sunset. She watched him rub the steering wheel. He was agitated. "Emma…Tomorrow afternoon…I have to take you to a therapist." He whispered. Ashamed.

She didn't say anything for a few minutes. Finally in a small voice she replied. "Okay." She choked the word out.

"I don't want to Em…but this way you can go back to McKinley in the fall."

Her eyes shot up to look at him. "I can go back?" She was shocked. She left the school without notice. Which led to Will leaving. She had assumed that she'd been exiled from returning, after abandoning her post twice in two years.

"Please! Figgins has a crush on you!" He tried to joke. "You could give the students alcohol and he'd praise you for it!"

She continued to stare at him. "Oh Will…I want to go back…" She bit her lip and sniffled. "The idea of having to stay at home or find another job… hurts…"

Will smiled softly and nodded. Silence enveloped them once more. He turned the music up and glanced over at her. "I'll stay with you the whole time…" She looked at him, confused. "In therapy." He clarified.

She nodded and leaned against the window. "Thank you."

Then she fell asleep.

///

He carried in their luggage—a suitcase for each of them. He carried in all the accumulated trash. He carried in the blankets and pillows. He carried in Emma. She was exhausted, emotionally.

"Hmmm…we're here?" She moaned into his neck.

"We're here." He resisted kissing her on top of her beautiful head. It was too soon. "My mom came over and made sure everything was in order…dusted…" He laid her gently on the bed and adjusted the covers over her. Then he watched her sleep.

///

"Emma. Tell me about Will." His name was Dr. Everest. He had a mustache like Clark Gable's. It was unnerving. But he was kind.

"He's my boyfriend…" She looked at him. Unsure. Will's proud beaming face erased her doubt. "He tolerates me."

"It's not a case of tolerance!" Will said quickly. "I love you!" Dr. Everest held up his hand. The younger man clamped his jaw shut.

"Emma, is your disorder the reason you ran away?"

"It was a part of it, yes."

"What was the other part?"

"There were many parts."

"Care to give an example?"

"I'd rather not." She looked at Will as though she were terrified to sell him down the river. She would not make him the bad guy. She refused.

"It's okay honey, talk to him." He encouraged her. Taking her cold hand into his. Emma shook her head and closed her eyes.

"No. You're a good man. It's none of his business." She growled glaring Everest. "We'll talk about something else."

"Okay Emma." The doctor crossed his legs, played with his mustache. "Tell me about your childhood, about what caused your disorder?" Will glared at the man.

"It's not a disorder doctor. It's a fear." He snarled.

"My apologies." The older man wrote something on his notepad before continuing, "What caused your…fears…Emma?"

Emma bit her lip and sighed. She hated this. He was coddling her. Making her feel stupid, useless. She would have sooner preferred to be back in Colorado, where they strapped her arms down at the smallest sign of aggression. They never made her relive her past, her ridiculous, horrid past. Her mind reverted to that day at the farm.

It was her eighth birthday. The little girl sat on her father's shoulders as they walked through the large barn housing hundreds of black and white cows. She ate some homemade yogurt out of a small Dixie cup.

Her mother, Holly, had dressed her in a pair of dark denim overhauls with a puffy-sleeved white shirt underneath. The doting woman even French braided little pigtails into her long red hair. She looked like a regular little farm girl. She was even wearing large rain boots to alleviate staining some of her nice school shoes with mud or manure.

Dennis, her father, didn't let her feet touch the ground though. She had always been a petite child. In his eyes though, she was fragile. So at six foot, 10 inches tall, he was quite the spectacle always carrying around the tiny girl.

"Emmy," The large man called up to her as they headed outside. "What color cows do you want on your farm?" He had always encouraged her dream.

"I like the Holsteins." She gestured the patched cows as they passed them. "But I might like to try a few of the Jerseys, and maybe some Brown Swiss's. They're best for making cheese." She continued to rattle on about different breeds of cows and their traits. Holly, in the meantime, was wrangling up the other, rambunctious, children.

The Pillsbury's had five kids. Four boys: Alexander was sixteen, the twins, Toby and Freddie were thirteen, Vincent was twelve, and Emma. The boys were all out of control and loud, making simple family outings quite the ordeal.

"Okay folks, this here's our runoff lagoon," Farmer Glasgow announced, leaning against a post separating them from the contaminated area. "Because we are sharing it with the farm next door, it is not your average holding pond. It contains leftover parts of chickens, pigs, and even some steer from the slaughterhouse."

Emma's big brown eyes clenched shut. She didn't want to see the nasty area. She relaxed when Dennis patted her knee. "Don't worry Pumpkin. Your farm will be nowhere NEAR a slaughterhouse." He assured her. The girl smiled and rested her chin on top of his head as she continued to listen to the farmer.

It was a few minutes later when Holly let out a startled gasp. "Oh Denny!" She exclaimed grabbing her husband's arm. "Is that Alex?" She pointed at a tall figure sneaking into the slaughterhouse across the field.

Emma heard her father let out a curse, before he grabbed her arm and pulled her gently off of his shoulders. "Emmy, stay here, we'll be right back." He ordered, before running off with Holly on his heals. "Watch your sister boys!"

Toby and Freddie rolled their eyes and glared at the small girl. "Please, the Golden Child is better off watching us. She is PERFECT after all." Toby snorted chewing on his Dixie cup.

"Yeah." Vince snarled tugging Emma's pigtail as she focused on the farmer. "She's an angel!"

"Stop Vincent! I want to listen!" The girl whined walking away from them, towards the front of the crowd. She smiled as she listened to the old man describe the process of buying and trading cows.

Finally, the crowd started to move towards the pasture. And as much as Emma wanted to follow them, she was much more concerned about waiting for her parents to return. She positioned herself on the fence, her back deliberately turned towards the runoff lagoon.

"What are you doing carrot top?" Freddie demanded as he started to wander towards the pasture as well. "Your missing the tour you just HAD to waste our Saturday on!"

"Mommy and Daddy will be back in a minute." Emma murmured playing with the shiny buckles on her overhauls. "We should wait."

"Don't be stupid," Vince tried to pull her down. "It's only a few feet away! They'll see us!" Emma yanked her hand away and shook her head.

"I'm not moving. Dad said for me to stay here!"

"Emma! Stop being a little bitch!" Toby rolled his eyes and tried to drag her down as well. The girl's large eyes widened even more and her jaw dropped.

"You cursed!" She gasped. Though her parents let out the occasional swear words, it was a HUGE no-no for the kids to cuss.

"Oh give me a break! Mom and Dad aren't here, stop the goody tissues shit!" The twin muttered dropping her arm.

"I'm telling!" Emma announced. Normally she didn't pay attention to her brothers' antics. But today they had been so mean to her, despite the fact that it was her birthday. They deserved to get in trouble.

She turned when she heard her father's voice. When she saw her parents and Alex trudging back from the slaughterhouse, she instantly forgot about her altercation with Toby and smiled. She stood up on the top of the gate and waved at them. Dennis waved back, and began to gesture for her to get down, when she felt a hard shove from behind.

The last thing she heard, before plummeting into the lagoon, was her mother's scream.

///

"I had blood and milk and…poop…all over me…down my shirt…in my ears…I swallowed some! They had to pump my stomach and give me shots…" Emma whimpered. Her hand was tightly clasped in Will's.

Dr. Everest looked slightly repulsed, but he continued. "Were you angry Emma?" He asked sullenly.

Emma didn't answer, she just cried into her clenched fist. Will, not being able to handle her pain. Her discomfort—stood up. "We're done fore today." He declared, walking her out of the office.