AN: Thanks to all the few people who reviewed...where did everyone go? Is this story not to your liking? Or are some people having trouble with FFnet? I know at least one person is. I hope you enjoy this chapter, the darkness is still not even fully started yet...I hope you like.

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She was slowly losing control. Her mind was turning to mush and her body felt alive; the mixture of alcohol and MDMA in her system was sending her mind into oblivion. She had been dancing for hours, letting her body move to the music that was surrounding her. JJ, Freddie and Effy had left long ago and Cook was nowhere to be seen. She didn't care that she was alone, she felt at ease with herself. Katie was only a distant thought on her mind, which suited her. She let a man dance beside her, sliding his hands over her hips as they swayed to the music together. She felt powerful, knowing that he knew little about her sexuality. After a while Emily took a rest and seated herself where the group had been sat until they'd all left.

"Alright hot lesbian number one," a sleazy voice muttered and an arm reached around her shoulders.

Emily looked into Cook's eyes and rolled her own, "You got one thing straight; lesbian."

He laughed, she didn't care what or who he was laughing at. She didn't even care that his hand was resting closer to her right breast than she would normally have liked. It felt good to be in a drugged up stupor, where her worries were non-existent and the hands of Cook weren't a big deal.

"There you are, I thought you'd left," a voice muttered.

It was familiar, all too familiar. Emily felt her heart beating faster and she wondered if it was the drugs, or Naomi's presence that were effecting it. She stared into her girlfriend's deep blue eyes, sharing a look of confusion with Naomi.

"Oh, hi," Naomi greeted her, biting her lip in the way she usually did. It made Emily's body react.

"I, I need to," she stuttered, standing up and staring into Naomi's eyes again.

"Don't go," Naomi muttered, taking her hand, stopping her in her tracks.

"I was going to suggest we go talk," Emily informed her, letting her fingers clasp Naomi's tighter.

The blonde nodded, a smile sliding across her face. Emily tried to remember why they weren't talking, but her mind wouldn't work well enough. She turned to Cook who was grinning at them.

"See you later,"

"Aww, you not gonna let me come watch?" he chuckled, holding his hands up in defeat as the two girls glared at him.

The wall outside the back of the club felt cold against Emily's back. She didn't want to lean against it. She didn't really want to talk, but Naomi had started apologising, muttering away about something that Emily didn't really pay attention to. She licked her lips and stepped in front of Naomi, she smiled at her girlfriend and silenced her with a kiss.

"But I need to apologise," Naomi muttered, pulling away.

"Apology accepted," Emily grinned, kissing her again.

Their bodies were so close that Emily could smell Naomi's skin; the body spray she used, the natural scent that covered her from head to toe. It set her body on fire and Emily pushed herself against Naomi, running her hands up and down the curves of her body. Naomi tried to divert her attention to talking, but quickly got into the swing of actions. They were kissing passionately, they were fumbling about in the darkened street, not caring about anything but each other.

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She was ready. It surprised her how quickly her mind had got used to the idea of cancer. At first she'd been angry, frustrated and mostly sad. But then she thought about her life. She wasn't even eighteen. She'd lived a small fraction of her days, she'd spent a lot of those days being angry at Emily or jealous of the people in their life. She was sick of being the girl that nobody took seriously. She didn't want to be the bitch, or the one people feel sorry for. She wanted to feel powerful and strong. She wanted to live. She was about to enter the biggest fight of her life, she didn't want to be the girl who couldn't handle it. Cancer was scary, it was petrifying, but it was something she felt ready to beat. She thought about the kids in school playgrounds, too scared of the older bullies because they were bigger and stronger than them. If only they felt stronger, maybe they could at least get a good punch in first, even if they were defeated in the end.

"Is that Simone? It's Katie Fitch," Katie asked when a voice answered her call.

"Oh Katie, I heard about,"

She didn't want to hear sympathies from people she barely knew, "I just want my hair cutting, tomorrow morning," Katie interrupted, stopping the hairdresser in her tracks.

"I can probably make a house call, if you'd prefer?" the woman informed her, sympathy in her voice.

Katie tried to push away an urge to be bitchy, "No, I want to come to the salon,"

"How is ten am?"

"Perfect," Katie replied, a smile creeping across her face.

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Two hands held tightly to each other. It wasn't a perfect reunion, but Naomi was glad they'd set the ball in motion. She couldn't help smile.

"Can we go to yours?" Emily suggested.

"Oh," Naomi responded, her thoughts processing quickly. She didn't know what to say, whether to tell Emily the truth or not.

"My mum doesn't want any house guests 'til the work is done," she lied, the more stories she made up, the easier it became.

"But I'm not just a houseguest," Emily sighed, resting a hand on Naomi's shoulder.

"I'm sorry," she admitted, though she knew Emily would never know just how much.

"We need to sit down and talk, properly," Emily told her, letting her saddened eyes show through.

"We will, how about we go sit by the river?" Naomi suggested, "Or we could wait until neither of us has had a drink,"

Emily brought their hands up between them, letting the connection grow between them, "I think waiting is a good idea, but not too long, okay?"

"Okay," Naomi smiled, letting her hand slide around Emily's shoulders so that they could walk together, barely inches apart.

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It was late; she knew the morning was mostly over, but the lack of sleep the night before and the start of the weekend meant it didn't matter. Emily rolled over in her bed and looked to Katie's empty one. She'd almost got used to the empty bed, so much so that it took Emily a moment to realise that Katie should have been there. She climbed out of bed and made her way downstairs where she was accosted by her worried looking mother.

"Where is your sister?" she gasped, her face pale with worry.

Emily rolled her eyes, wondering what Katie would think of Jenna's protectiveness, "She probably went for a walk,"

"A walk?" Jenna asked, "She has cancer, not a cold, she could catch an infection and end up really sick,"

"That's not until she starts chemo that we need to worry about that," Emily reminded her mother.

"How can you be so blasé about it?"

"You can't keep Katie on a lead mum," Emily snapped, "She's nearly eighteen,"

"She has cancer," Jenna interrupted.

"And she's old enough to understand that, she's not stupid, well sometimes she is, but she's not going to do anything to make herself worse,"

"How would you know? Do you have a crystal ball? Can you see your sister safe and well?"

"No, but I know Katie, she will be back."

As if it was planned, the front door opened and Katie walked in. Emily looked at her sister, her mouth open in shock. Jenna gasped as they both stared at Katie and her new hairstyle.

"What in Gods name have you done to yourself young lady?" Jenna asked, touching Katie's shortened locks.

"I got a haircut," Katie muttered, confused by her families reactions.

Emily could feel her thoughts process quickly. Katie had always loved long hair. When Emily had opted for a bob when they turned ten, Katie had turned up her nose in disgust. It was difficult to understand how Katie could go out and have her hair chopped off to barely four inches long.

"A haircut?" Jenna gasped, "You're practically bald."

Katie laughed, like their mother had told the best joke ever, "I'm not bald yet, but it won't be long," she replied.

"Don't you dare joke about such a thing," Jenna snapped, staring at Katie.

"It's my hair, I'll joke about whatever I want," Katie muttered, "You like it, don't you Ems?"

It was an argument that Emily had been happy sitting on the sidelines for, but when Katie included her in the discussion, she found it very difficult to take her sister's side. She liked Katie's hair, it suited her in a strange, unfamiliar way. But she wasn't willing to let Katie know that.

"Mum's right, how could you get your hair cut so short? Are you insane?"

"I am going to be losing all of my hair soon, I'd rather have most of it off when that happens,"

"That doesn't make any sense," Emily snapped.

"Exactly, you loved your hair," Jenna replied.

"So?" Katie sighed, "I don't want to take a shower one day and have inches and inches of hair fall down the plug hole, I want to be ready for this change in my life."

"But your beautiful hair," Jenna muttered, unable to give up the discussion.

"It's gone, you can either like it, or take your opinions someplace else."

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AN: Thank you for reading and I hope some of you will return to reviewing or reading, or both...or hopefully it's just FFnet not working for some of you? Though that would suck royally.