A year later and Emily Dawson is fourteen and is a junior in high school. She had her second brush with death - accidentally – after being careless with the cutting and doing it on her wrist instead of her hip. Abby is unhappy with her that it happened in her studio on her watch, but has forgiven her because it wasn't Emily's intention to have it happen like that. She's gotten countless lectures about how stupid she was, which she can appreciate because it was stupid; however, no one understood that the lecture wasn't required more than twice, let alone more than ten times. She's heard the selfish lecture more than enough as well from everyone, her sister about losing her too, same for her brother and the firehouse simply said they couldn't live without her- which again, she appreciated, but it was hard to hear, and it isn't always smart to make the depressed teenager cry.
She has battled with the thought that she has killed her parents because if not for her, and need to dance and compete, her parents would not have been on the interstate, in that car, at that time, on that day. Because of this, depression had settled over her and it was a war she is now almost fully emerging from and getting her life back from. She is happy now and feels better about her outlook on life and the way things should be for her.
She is old enough to be in the senior company at the ALDC and has been talented enough for two years. She wears shorts in class as long as she's wearing dancer's mesh to blend the scars a little better- which is a major step up from before. She'll wear shorts and capris in the outside world as long as she's wearing leggings or she's taken the time to apply makeup to blend the scars. The tank tops have become a relative normal for her, but on the days that she's extra self-conscious, the little scars from the glass that peppered her back, and the big scar from the piece of windshield, become too prominent for her to handle.
In therapy now, and in rehab before, she continues to talk about her battle with anorexia and bulimia nervosa for four months. Her anorexia is not the result of feeling fat or overweight, it is simply the loss of motivation to eat and take care. Her Bulimia wasn't binge-type; it was only purge-type because she ate so little that what she did eat was hard to keep down and made her feel bloated. The kids at school have let up on teasing her, but it makes her feel bad that they've just picked out new targets. Her sisters are less worried about her than they were, but there is still a constant watch and scrutiny about what, when, and how she eats. She is closely monitored on that front.
Basil has sulked since that day in the studio. She does the job she was picked out to do, but she seems to be suffering a depression over the fact that she didn't see it or realize it. Gaby feels just as bad, as well as Antonio, Shay, and everyone else. Her bond with Basil has strengthened though, she tells her everything, keeps journals now, her mood is improving and she has weekly visits with her parents at their grave. Her sister doesn't know about that or the journal entries she writes and leaves them when she visits. She doesn't know how to tell her brother or sister about that.
Her sister is dating her Uncle Casey and her brother is working with Voight, the man who had put them all in danger at one point or another. She's proud of her sister for going after the bar and blazing her own path in that sense, but it leaves her alone a lot and that was one of the things everyone was worried about. She spends a lot of time with Seth and Haley and Lexxi, who all take care of her, but she would rather be with the adults who can actually take care of her most of the time. She doesn't like being at the bar and her sister has trouble understanding why, on quiet nights, she can't just sit behind the bar and hang out; the man who crashed the car was drunk. This was one of the things, despite their travels through Emily's tough times, that has drawn Emily internally away from her sister.
Lexxi goes with Emily to group sometimes. She talks about her previous foster homes and the way they treated her. It was a place to talk about anything, but she's there mostly because of the depression in those homes and her eating disorders she dealt with considering the way foster kids are treated. Seth and Haley's father has finally decided to adopt her too, and she's thrilled about that, even though she's going to be eighteen in less than six months. Gaby thinks Lexxi's just a brilliant friend that goes to group with a young girl- only Shay knows the real reason about her foster dads.
Antonio works a lot. She wants to stay with him, but she doesn't want to stay there without Antonio. She has nothing against her aunt Laura, or her cousins, or anything. But she wants her brother- the others are the extra happiness that comes with him. She knows his partner, Jules, she likes her a lot and has known her for a long time. She doesn't know the rest of his team really, she's met them all, Voight, Lindsay, Olinsky. She doesn't know them, not like she knows the firehouse. She wants to know them, expand her friendships and her family. No one else has posed the idea that maybe she could be friends with them- that they could a family extension for her and for everyone else. But it'll just be something that progresses naturally.
She wants to stay with Antonio, like she stays with Gaby. Maybe Ava won't mind too much if they share a room for one week every two weeks. Or, she could stay in the guest-room; she likes the guest room, it's homey. But Antonio is nervous that she won't like the environment and that she'll be disappointed when he really isn't there as much as she expects him to be. She toys with the idea of staying with him at the precinct for a little while after school to get in her brother/sister time with him. This will also give her the ability to meet everyone in the unit. If they get a call or have to go somewhere, she can hang out until they return, have the fire truck come get her or her sisters; or she could just stay with anyone not going.
She's decided that if Antonio still doesn't initiate anything within the next few weeks, she won't give him a choice. On one random day after school, she will feel the need to spend some time with her brother, and she will miss the bus and go straight to the precinct. She will meet him and his unit and she will get to know him. If he has outside work to do, she will go to the firehouse and leave him be, and repeat on a random day the next week.
But as far as everything goes, some of her relationships have strengthened, some have withered, and some have simply stayed the same. She didn't want things to ever have changed. But they did and she likes to think that maybe they're all a little bit better for it.
So… I felt like this chapter was choppy and maybe a little rushed.
I am ending the story here but I will eventually put a link or something to the new story that will chronicle season two and will do so a little more closely.
I want to get a few chapters written just so that if I ever blank or don't get a chance to write, I have a fall back, and I will always try to write a new chapter after one goes up so the stock is always replenished.
I will have a schedule for when those come out. They will likely be longer chapters, and they will come out every two weeks or every three weeks on Wednesdays or Thursdays.
Be on the lookout for that and I do so hope you will read it.
I asked you all about this but now I feel very skeptical about the shooting and the way it and its aftermath pans out but you may or may not be getting more updates about it as the next story continues.
So, I will not set this story as set-in-stone complete until I have managed to link you the new story, which is when, at the same time, this story will be deemed complete.