Disclaimer: I don't own the Night World

A/N: Chapter title based off of Mary J. Blide's song: "I'm Goin' Down". Hope you enjoy!

Down

Emerald hated waking up now because whenever she did it was always like this wall of pain would just slam into her, or on top of her. It was like all of a sudden the weight of the sky just came down on her, threatening to crush her, pressing on her chest, making it nearly impossible for her to breathe. Ironically enough, the darkness that came with her sleep, that also brought nightmares, was now her saving grace. She'd had no nightmares while she'd slept last night, but she could endure the nightmares if, like last night, the pain was gone too.

She was about to try and go back to sleep when she heard hushed voices in the other room. Emerald sat up and threw her legs over the side of the bed before squeezing her eyes shut tight, breath spitting through her teeth as she adjusted to the stabbing, ripping, burning throughout her whole body. Taking a deep breath and pushing her hair out of her face she slowly stood up and made her way to the closed door leading into the hallway.

Opening the door, the voice became louder and she could tell who they were and what they were talking about.

"It's almost noon," Carter spoke quietly. Emerald peeked back into her room at one of the windows; was it really that late? The angle of pale sunlight coming through the window told that, yes, it was really almost noon. "Do you think she'll be waking up anytime soon?"

Emerald slowly started to make her way down the hall, thanking her stealth. That was one of her qualities that made her the Vigilante, being so quite that the vampire didn't know she was coming or even there until it was too late.

"I don't know, Carter." Sky replied just as quiet.

"Should we be worried?" she asked.

"Everyone is different and everyone handles trauma differently."

"What'd Storm say?"

Emerald paused a moment and held her breath a whole new wave of pain hitting her full force just at the sound of his name.

There was a small pause. "He's coming over in a minute."

Emerald froze, her knees buckling. Storm was coming over? What? Why? Was he just trying to torture her more by rubbing it in her face? It was obvious he wasn't as torn up about this break-up as Emerald.

Great. Now he was also going to see just how much she'd crumbled over this thing. What would he think then? That he was glad he broke up with such a weakling, probably. She couldn't even handle a break-up.

In the living room Sky and Carter didn't fail to notice the thump in the hallway and both stood up and rushed over there. Seeing Emerald they exchanged a look knowing she'd heard them. How much, they weren't sure, but she'd heard enough.

"Emerald," Sky said gently, kneeling in front of her putting a hand on her shoulder.

She lifted her head, her eyes shattered like a broken mirror, the sadness in her eyes palpable, making Sky flinch.

She opened her mouth trying to form words, to form his name on her lips, but she couldn't. If she couldn't simply hear his name, how was she going to say it?

"… coming?" she mumbled, her first word incoherent. She looked up at her two friends pleadingly. "H-he's… he's c-coming?"

Carter was at her side, helping her stand up in an instant. "We're sorry, we didn't know what was going on and we thought maybe… he'd… help." she explained lamely as she led Emerald into the living room. "How are you feeling?" she asked sitting down next to her, taking one of her hands.

Emerald just shook her head, unable to answer. Carter squeezed her hand gently and looked up at Sky helplessly. He shook his head not sure what to do or say either. But before anyone could speak anyway, there was a soft knock on the door. Emerald shut her eyes, and cringed. Carter put her arm comfortingly around Emerald as Sky went to get the door.

"I need to make this quick. I've got to get back to work." Storm said as soon as Sky opened the door, stepping inside the suite. "What'd you need?"

Sky closed the door and looked at him weirdly.

"What? What's wrong?" Storm asked. Sky continued to just look not quite sure how to react. Emerald seemed so broken yet here Storm was all acting natural and like nothing happened. "If you don't have anything to say, I should get going, then." Storm started to head out but Sky stopped him, putting a hand on his shoulder.

"Dude, wait." he said. Storm slowly closed the door. "What happened between you and Emerald?"

Storm's eyebrows furrowed and he shook his head slightly. "She didn't tell you?"

"No," Sky said slowly still confused and shocked that Storm was acting unaffected by whatever happened. His voice lowered. "She's really torn up. What happened?"

Storm looked down the hallway, though he could not see Emerald from where he was standing. His jaw tightened and Sky finally saw something that he'd expect to see from Storm based on Emerald's reaction to what happened.

"I… broke up with her yesterday." Storm finally said, looking down for a moment before meeting Sky's surprised, disbelieving gaze.

"You… what?" Sky asked. "What happened to wanting her in your life forever?"

Storm looked away then. "Things change—"

"Not that fast." Sky interrupted. "I hope you realize how jerk-off-y that move was. Who proposes and then breaks-up with the person they proposed to?"

Carter appeared all of a sudden the embers in her eyes blazing. "Will you quiet down? She's just in the other room." she shouted in a whisper looking at both of them, before turning her eyes on Storm. "She can hear you."

"Listen," Storm snapped glaring down at Carter. "I didn't come here to be interrogated." His glare then turned to Sky. "If that's all you wanted to know then I have to be going now." He pushed past Sky, then, and quickly slipped out of the suite, not failing to slam the door as he did so.

Sky and Carter looked at each other for a moment before going back into the living room, slowly, looking warily at Emerald's back which was hunched over. She held her head in her hands, hair falling over her shoulders, acting like a veil, shutting everyone out.

Carter hesitantly sat down next to Emerald. She reached out her hand, stopped when Emerald flinched, but continued forward to comfortingly rubbing her back.

"I'm s—" Carter started but broke off when Emerald lifted her head from her hands, pushing her hair out of her face and taking a deep breath.

"I… I just want to sleep." she mumbled, standing up and quickly making her way back to her bedroom, eyes flooding with the tears that never came yesterday. But she didn't want them now, they were unwelcome. She felt so weak showing Carter and Sky just how much this was affecting her while Storm just beep-bopped along on his merry way like nothing had happened.

Carter, being Emerald's friend for long enough, noticed this though, the tears, the pain in her eyes and wasn't going to let Emerald be alone in this. She didn't care if Emerald cried or showed her soft side. Everyone had a soft side and that didn't make you weak. Everyone cried and that didn't make you weak, either. In Carter's opinion not showing that you really are upset is a sign of weakness.

She got up and followed Emerald just managing to grab Emerald's arm before she disappeared into her room, probably, forever. Emerald froze, but didn't turn to look at Carter, struggling to keep the tears at bay.

Carter's hand tightened on her dark-haired friend's wrist.

"Emerald," she whispered. "I'm here for you." She wasn't sure if it was the tone of her voice, or the words she had said, but as quick as lightning, Emerald turned and captured Carter into an embrace before she started sobbing finally just giving in to that need to cry as much as her heart desired while Carter hugged her tightly, rubbing her back soothingly.

It was nice, to have such a loyal friend like Carter. She never wavered and Emerald admired her greatly for that. Even after she was kidnapped by one of Emerald's enemies. Even after she found out what Emerald did. Even after endangering Carter's life at least three times before.

They used to have two other friends—Mackenzie and Danny—but they officially disowned Emerald because they were kidnapped with Carter and Emerald thought for sure she'd side with them, but Emerald should've known better. Carter was a sweetheart, who cared about her friends, and was the type to give second chances. And after living in a world for four years now where you could never fully trust someone and any bonds that were made were as fragile as a soap bubble, it was hard to believe that Carter had stuck with Emerald so long.

Now, however, Emerald was grateful. It's not like she didn't have a mother or father figure in her life. She did: Her foster parents Alan and Alecia. And she'd had a great life with them until she'd turned fourteen. Her father had kidnapped her then and nothing was ever the same after that year with him. Emerald distanced herself not just to protect them but because she wasn't the same anymore. Now that she was twenty in her foster parents' eyes, Alecia and Alan backed off and let her have her space. She updated them once in a while, but her interaction with them was minimal compared to three years ago.

Neither Emerald nor Carter knew how long they stood there like that, but when Emerald's tears had stopped running, Carter led her into her room where Emerald promptly got onto the bed and fell asleep. Carter exited quietly, closing the door behind her and sighing heavily. She'd never seen Emerald so torn up like that before, let alone cry. In the entire time she'd known Emerald, Carter has never seen her friend cry. The situation just made Carter worry more because of the fact that Emerald was just so unresponsive. Carter had seen her angry and cool and cold and depressed, but never so unresponsive. This was really taking its toll on her and Carter wasn't sure if Emerald would be able to get over this.

"You okay?" Sky asked quietly, pulling Carter into his embrace.

Carter glanced at Emerald's closed door. "I'm more worried about her."

Sky sighed and also looked at the door. "Yeah, I know the feeling." Then he looked down at her. "I love you, Carter. I want you to know that."

Carter looked up at him and smiled, the flecks in her eyes glowing like a low fire on Christmas Eve. "I know. I love you, too." she replied before stretching up on her toes to press her lips to Sky's.

Carter slammed her fist up against the bedroom door, waking Emerald from her slumber. She let out a gasp at the overwhelming pain, her hand automatically flying up to her chest. Gritting her teeth, her hands balling into fists, Emerald slid off the bed and went to open the door.

"What?" she snapped.

"You really need to get out. Sky and I are going for a bite to eat. Come with us." Carter asked.

"I don't need to eat." Emerald deadpanned.

"Yeah, but you've gone out with us before. Besides, it'd be good for you to get out of this suite for a little bit. You can't keep yourself locked up here forever!"

"I'm not going to out. I can't. I don't want to."

"You can't spend the rest of your life in your bedroom sleeping, Emerald!" Carter yelled.

"Oh yeah? Watch me." With that Emerald slammed the door and went back to the bed, pulling the covers over her before grabbing a pillow and hugging it tightly to her, murmuring a chant that helped her get to sleep. Carter didn't follow her inside.

Emerald finally sunk into sleep but it only seemed like a few minutes before she woke again, her muscles cramping all over, her head pounding, yellow lights flashing behind her eyes, gasping for air. She reached for the nightstand, pulling herself out of the bed, but that was all she could do. She hit the floor with a loud thump, her muscles giving out. Then she smelled it, fresh blood, every pulse like a force, hitting her every time the heart beat.

Her eyes flooded with silver and her canines elongated to a feline point, throbbing painfully. But when she looked for her prey, it was Carter's eyes she met, stricken and wide. She was frozen to the spot, seeing Emerald. It was like a horror movie. It wasn't like Carter hadn't seen vampires before but seeing her friend, curled in that corner, breathing heavily, face contorted into a mask of a monster hidden slightly behind a veil of black hair, silver eyes, pointed canines, it was terrifying to Carter. The scene reminded Carter of the girl from The Ring.

Sky was there, suddenly, though, pushing her out of the room swiftly with quiet, commanding words. And as soon as Carter is out of the room, Sky shuts the door and turns back to Emerald, who's still sitting in the corner, restraining herself from attacking Sky, fighting her primeval instincts to attack, to nourish her starving body of the rich oxygen-infused blood.

Jaw set, Sky carefully, slowly, cautiously walked over to Emerald, while rolling up left sleeve of his button up. Kneeling down, he offers his wrist to Emerald, who's hands shoot up and grab his wrist before bringing her mouth to his wrist, her teeth easily puncturing one of the many vein.

Moments pass and Sky puts a firm hand on Emerald's shoulder, when he feels that she's taken enough to sustain herself. She pulls away and drops his wrist, before turning away from him to wipe her lips, feeling guilty and ashamed.

Sky wasn't making it any easier either. As soon as Emerald let go, he stood, rolling his sleeve down and buttoning it, making sure that Carter would not see the wound. His mouth was a thin line and his zircon-blue eyes were as hard as the stone itself as they stared down at Emerald.

Moving hair out of her face with one of her hands, Emerald stands up, not meeting Sky's eyes.

"As if I don't already feel miserable enough." she muttered, brushing past him, but Sky was going to have none of it. His sympathy only went so far when it involved the safety of Carter.

He grabbed her upper forearm roughly as she passes him and pulls her closer to him, his grip on her arm so tight it most nearly cuts off her circulation.

"Listen, Emerald," Sky growls lowly. "You need to stop this, right now. You are a danger to yourself and your friends. I know that you're hurt and I don't agree at all with what Storm did, but you can't live like this. There's going to come a time that you'll lose control and kill someone and as your friend I can't let you do that to yourself.

"Pull yourself together." Sky finishes, but his hand doesn't let go of Emerald's arm. "Do you understand?" he asks his grip tightening ever so slightly on her arm, Emerald's free hand coming up to pull at Sky's hand.

"Yes." she hisses her eyes flashing silver for a moment, pulling free from Sky's grip.

Without another word, Sky lets out a breath and composes himself before exiting the bedroom, leaving the door open. Emerald follows, stopping in the doorway. Sky has Carter in his embrace, his voice soft as he asks if she's okay. She nods and answers him, that, yes, she is okay but her eyes flutter right before answering, a sign of lying.

Emerald's eyes tighten. She's done it now. Pushed away her only friends because she was too busy drowning in her own miseries. She takes a step forward, ready to apologize, make amends, try to rescue her friendship but Sky turns toward her, stopping her cold.

"We're off. Do think about what I told you." he says.

Emerald nods and they leave, Sky ushering Carter through the door first. For a moment, Emerald's stuck standing in the doorway to her bedroom, but that click on the door hits Emerald like it was something with mass. She couldn't let them walk out like that. They were all she had left.

Emerald lunges forward and opens the door, making sure it doesn't close fully so she can get back in, in too much of a hurry to grab her keycard. They haven't made it very far, but they'd made it far enough to scare Emerald into thinking that they had left for good. But as she turns a corner to the hallway that leads down to the elevators, there they are.

"Wait." she calls, grabbing Carter's wrist gently. Carter stops and turns; eyes wide with fear and Emerald winces. She did that. "I-I'm sorry," she says, the next words coming quickly and in a rush afraid they'll leave and not let her finish. "But please," she begs, eyes filling with tears, voice small and vulnerable. "I-I've already lost so m-much. I-I can't lose you, too."

Carter stares at Emerald, an emotion in her eyes that Emerald can't decipher, and for a moment Emerald thought for sure that she'd just lost everything. But then Carter pulled her into a hug and Emerald relaxed, happy to know that Carter was giving her yet another chance that she didn't believe she deserved, yet grateful that she had it. Carter was just an amazing friend, an amazing person.

Okay, kind of filler…. Hope you enjoyed!

thank-you-for-everything

~ See you at the Millennium!