Emma waited nervously in the hospital waiting room. She had done what she could for Gia and now just needed to wait to see her.

The hospital had called Gia's parents, who then, wanting to catch the one responsible for hurting their daughter, contacted the police. Emma had explained to Mr. and Mrs. Moran what Cliff had tried to do and what he had done before. It had come to a shock to Gia's parents. Gia had kept her secret hidden from everyone, especially them.

Cliff was already I custody. Serena, who sat with Emma, assured her that Cliff wouldn't be a free man for a while if Gia decided she would press chargers. Serena spoke with certainty, like she knew Gia wouldn't hesitate to speak up against her attacker for what he had done. Emma knew better. She had tried to convince Gia once to press chargers. Gia had been too scared.

But Emma hoped Gia would do it this time. She hoped Cliff would be locked away and never seen again. All it took was Gia's word.

"Look," Serena said to Emma, "I know…"

"You let her go with him" Emma turned her back to Serena. She hated her strongly. "When she ran away, you went after her."

"I did what I needed to do…"

"You let her fall out of a window! You let her go with that monster!" Emma screamed.

"I didn't know who he was."

"You're her babysitter, right?" Emma rolled her eyes. She crossed her arms over her chest, "You were supposed to keep an eye on her. You should have told Cliff to back off."

"I did what I could," Serena leaned in a little closer to Emma, "Look, I don't like how things turned out either. Ideally, I guess I would want that scumbag behind bars and for Gia to be eating ice-cream or whatever with you and your friends."

Serena put her hand on Emma's shoulders. The younger girl shrugged it off. Serena sighed.

"I know how much it hurts," she said, "You watch someone you care about deeply get hurt over and over again, and no matter what you do, no matter how much you try to help, you can't help them. You've done a great thing for Gia, and if I learned anything when I did get a word out of her it was that she really trusts you. I know you'll do what's right for your friend, even if it means you aren't the one helping her."

"What can you do?"

"The school hired me to get her to talk about her issues."

"Yeah, when they thought she was just punching people. You don't know…"

"I didn't, but I'm not giving up on her just because she's a little more complicated than we first assumed. Gia's been through a lot. She's going to have a long recovery. I want to help."

"What can you do? You're just a school counsellor. What do you know about what Gia…?"

"One of my boyfriends was a pretty big douchebag. Even while we were dating, he threatened my friends and my sister. He hurt them. I still went out with him. I still loved him because I thought he would change for me. I thought I could make him good. It took me a long time before I realized how wrong I was, and how dangerous a monster he was. The break-up was messy, and even long after we split, he continued to threaten me, my friends, my new boyfriend, and my son. Our son."

Emma turned to Gia, "Did he… to you too?"

"No," Serena shook her head, "We slept together out of love, and as you probably heard, all it takes is one time."

"But you… you can still kind of… relate?"

"I can help Gia," Serena nodded, "If she lets me, we can tackle this together. I'm not going to betray her, Emma, and I'm not going to hurt her. I came here because I want to help. I'm staying, because I want to help Gia. She's a good kid with a lot of potential. I know you know that. She just needs… more than her best friend."

Those words felt like a knife in Emma's heart. Growing up, hers and Gia's friendship had always been strong enough to break through anything. Recently, their friendship had even broken through a spell and saved the world. Emma had always been able to lean on Gia for everything, and vice-versa. To hear that, all of a sudden, she wasn't enough was one of the most painful things to ever happen to Emma.

Serena saw the look on Emma's face and hugged the younger girl, "She still needs you, Emma, but you have to step aside. You have to let me in. I'll be her babysitter, and I'm not going to disappoint you or her. You'll be her best friend."

"But she's not going to talk to you," Emma whispered, "She doesn't trust you."

"If you tell her to, she might. She trusts you so much, Emma, I think you can talk her into it."

"Tell her what to do? What, like Cliff did?"

"You'll be helping her. It's different."

"Emma," Mrs. Moran stood by the doors with her husband and a couple of police officers, "Can you stay with Gia while we take care of a few things?"

Emma nodded her head and got up. She didn't need to be asked twice. She then turned around and looked at Serena, "You promise you can help?"

"It's not going to be easy," Serena said, "but everything I do, I'm going to do to help. The best friend you know and love, you'll get her back."

Emma let out a deep breath and then walked down the halls to Gia's room. She gestured for Serena to follow her.

Gia was resting when they reached the room. Serena sat in a corner, out of the way, while Emma didn't hesitate to take the seat right next to the bed. She took Gia's hand and held it gently as she looked over the numerous scars and bruises Cliff had left for her this time. She had two black eyes, and the left side of her face was also covered in bruises. Cliff was right handed, so it made sense most of his punches landed there. It was the same as last time. There were also couple of scrapes and a gash on her forehead which was now covered by bandage. Along her arms, chest, legs, and back were more bruises, cuts, scrapes, and even scratch marks.

Emma knew those would heal. It was what the doctors couldn't see that really worried Emma. It was the scars they couldn't fix that had her scared she would lose her best friend for good. Cliff's first relationship with her had destroyed her from the inside out, and it took months before Emma saw signs of her best friend coming back to her. Two years later, the real Gia still only came out from time to time, and only when Gia was alone and safe with Emma. This led a lot of the girls around school to come up to Emma and ask, without hesitating, why Emma even bothered to put up with Gia at all if she was so cold and aloof all the time.

Cliff had also destroyed Gia's ability to make friends and to trust other people. She had been young when Cliff had asked her out – only fifteen – and when they dated, Gia gave him her whole heart. Then they played the usual game of hit-sorry-never again-hit. Emma had noticed, and had tried to call Gia out of it, hoping to save her best friend, but Gia believed Cliff's lies that the last time was the last time. She had given him her heart and thought he had done the same in return. But he never gave her anything. He took. He took everything she had until there was nothing left for him and then he ran. Gia woke up one morning, sore and badly beaten from the night before and naked in his bed. She expected Cliff to roll over and apologize again but he had disappeared. Heartbroken, she had run back to Emma, but she wasn't the same Gia.

"Emma?" it was Gia's parents. They were back and they wanted to sit with their daughter. Mrs. Moran put a hand on Emma's shoulder, "You should go home. Gia's going to be okay."

"Did she…?"

"We're pressing charges," Mr. Moran answered with a nod of his head, "Cliff's not coming back. You don't need to worry about him anymore."

Emma gulped. She got out of the seat to leave, but not before giving Gia's hand a little squeeze to let her best friend known she had been by her side. As she walked to the door, with Serena close behind, Mrs. Moran caught her arm.

"You're a good friend, Emma. Thank you for looking out for her."

Emma nodded her head and then left. Serena followed her outside the hospital. Emma turned to the older girl.

"You don't need to follow me around."

"Are you okay?"

"I'm going out to the woods," Emma said. Serena looked to her a little confused, so she explained, "It calms me when I ride."

"Ride?"

"BMX."

"Cool," Serena smiled and then handed Emma a paper with a phone number on it, "Whenever you or your friends need me."

"I thought you were Gia's babysitter."

"Doesn't mean I can't help anyone else."

Emma took the paper and put it in her pocket. Then she set off for home, where she would grab her bike and then ride out to the woods. Serena went the other way, back to her hotel room. Her in-school babysitting job had gotten a lot harder now that the kid she was supposed to keep an eye on would be spending the next couple of days in the hospital.

Of course, the school was bound to hear what had happened. A big scene had been made when Gia had been found and so surely a couple reporters were going to write about it in the papers or online. So Serena knew her work needed to start in school before Gia's return.