Scarlett: I think you'll be pleased then. Enjoy :-)

Chapter Eleven

"Lily, can I come in?"

Connie knocked on the door of the on-call room and waited patiently for an answer. She could hear the faint sound of crying, but she received no response. She sighed and knocked again, quietly so that she wouldn't frighten Lily in any way.

As she stood outside the room, Iain walked over with his hands in the pockets of his paramedic uniform. He smiled weakly at Connie and cleared his throat, whilst gesturing to the closed door. Connie just shook her head and mouthed a small 'not now' at him. Iain sighed and ran a hand through his hair. He really wanted to speak to Lily.

If Lily was upset though, he didn't want to make things any worse. He just nodded at Connie and pulled a piece of paper out of his pocket, before passing it to the clinical lead. Connie gave him a puzzled look and glanced down at Lily's name scribbled on the front. Understanding, she gave him a nod and he walked back down the stairs to go to the ambulance bay.

"Lily, I'm alone," Connie called, when he was gone.

She tried the handle and after finding that the door was actually unlocked, slowly opened it. She walked inside and saw Lily sitting on the bed in complete darkness, mobile in hand, her knees held to her chest and her head resting against the wall. Small, silent tears rolled down both sides of her face.

She quickly hid the mobile under the duvet on the bed, as soon as she saw Connie though.

"Now, what are you doing in here?" Connie asked gently.

She wasn't expecting an answer though.

"Shall I turn the light on?" She asked, deciding to give Lily the choice.

She shook her head.

Connie didn't exactly want to sit in darkness, but she also didn't want to upset Lily again. She'd already done enough. She shut the door behind her and walked over to sit on the bed beside Lily, immediately putting an arm around her shoulder to try and comfort her. Lily flinched slightly, but she didn't attempt to push her away.

"I'm sorry," Connie then apologised.

Lily's eyes widened in shock and she turned to see if she'd heard Connie correctly.

"I'm sorry," Connie repeated. "I shouldn't have tried to force you to talk, that was wrong of me. I want to help you though, Lily, just in a different way. I could get you a session with a proper speech therapist, someone who's specialised. I can arrange regular meetings with you to check on your progress, I can..."

She stopped and noticed a single tear escape from Lily's right eye.

"Sorry," she said again. "I'm moving too fast. I miss hearing that voice though, I miss the old Lily Chao, and I'm not the only one who does. I'm sure you miss her as well, right?"

Lily faintly nodded and wiped her nose on the sleeve of her jacket.

"So, surely you want to try and talk again then," Connie said. She sighed and nudged Lily's arm with the piece of paper that Iain had given to her. "Iain came by earlier, and gave this to me. Seems like my little idea of writing things down isn't such a bad one after all."

Lily managed a small smile and carefully unfolded the note, hiding it so that Connie couldn't see what he'd written.

Hi Lily,

I hope you don't mind me writing to you, but it seemed to be the right way to go. Gem told me that she'd popped round, and I'm sorry if that made you uncomfortable, but I swear that I didn't know anything about it.

Anyway, she told me that she thought you might have been hurt. I don't know if that's true or not, but if it is then please try and let me in so I can help. I'll be here for you Lily, when you do eventually feel ready to talk. If something has happened though, then you need to tell someone. If talking is a real struggle, write it down just like you did for me.

Whatever helps.

Anyway, I love you and I hope that we can sort things between us.

Iain xx

"So?" Connie asked, gently nudging her arm. "What does it say?"

Lily just shook her head and held the note to her chest. Tears began to roll down her cheeks again and she gasped, as a small sob escaped her mouth.

"Please don't cry," Connie said, pulling her in for a hug. "I'll make some calls, but I'd like to get you signed up for speech therapy as soon as possible. You can still have some meetings with me, but there is only so much that I can do unfortunately. Speech therapy will be fine, they don't expect you to speak, because that is what they're there for. No need to be nervous."

Lily just nodded, leaning her head back against the wall.

"Come on out anyway," Connie said, standing up. "You know that you can't stay in here forever."

Lily just looked at her, making no sign of movement at all.

"You can stay in my office," Connie suggested, holding out her hand. "And I can go and find Iain for you, if you want me to that is."

Lily just stared at Connie's hand, and a small smile appeared on her face.

"Connie said that you wanted to see me."

Lily nodded and fiddled anxiously with the sleeves of her jacket, as she sat on the sofa in Connie's office. Iain placed a gentle hand on her shoulder and sat down beside her, before talking again.

"Did you read my note?" He asked.

Lily nodded, moving her head to make eye contact.

"You can trust me, you know?" He said. "I want to help you, I...I love you."

Lily reached up and wiped a small tear away from her eye. She wanted to tell him that she felt the same way, that she hated it when they argued.

"Let's just forget what happened, alright?" Iain said. "Let's put the argument aside for the moment, and...Communicate." He almost said talk, but then thought differently. "I'm going to ask you some questions, and I just want you to nod or shake your head. Be as honest as possible and if it gets too much and you start to feel uncomfortable, just squeeze my hand. Does that sound okay?"

Lily's smile told him that she was fine with it.

"Okay," Iain whispered and took hold of her hand. "So, do you want to talk?"

Lily nodded.

"Good, well done," Iain praised. "You just find it hard to?"

Another nod.

"Are there certain situations where you find that you can talk a bit more?" He asked.

A nod.

"Right," he sighed deeply. "Well. When Gem came round, she...She was worried and she thinks that...That someone might have hurt you."

He paused.

"Are you okay?" Iain asked, before continuing his questions.

A nod, and a forced smile.

"Just let me know," Iain comforted. "Did someone hurt you?"

More hesitation. Iain waited patiently, but eventually Lily gave a slow, scared nod. Iain gulped and his heart began beating fast. He felt sick, and his vision became blurry with tears. Suddenly, he was also struggling to find his voice.

"Do you know who it was?" He asked.

She shook her head.

"And did they beat you up?" He asked.

She shook her head again.

"Okay," he whispered. "I...I'm sorry, Chuckles, but...I'm going to have to ask. Did they hurt you...Sexually at all?"

Lily held a hand to her chest and a small tear rolled down her cheek and landed on Iain's knuckles. He looked down at their entwined fingers, and gulped back a lump that was forming in her throat.

A nod.

Total silence between them.

"Does anyone know?" He questioned.

She shook her head.

"Okay, did..." Iain went to speak, but felt Lily give his hand a hard squeeze. "Alright," he whispered. "I'll stop. You did well. Good girl." Lily began to cry harder, but kept hold of Iain's hand the entire time. "It's alright, I'm here," he soothed, and started to wipe away her tears. "I'm sorry that I didn't understand, but I am never ever going to leave you again. If we have to communicate via paper, then that's fine."

Lily managed to force a smile through her tears. He was so lovely, and suddenly she felt completely comfortable with him.

"I'm not going to kiss you, not until you're ready," Iain whispered. "I can't believe that you've been going through this by yourself, Lily, but someone needs to know. Someone other than me. You don't need to tell them, but at least write to them."

Lily opened her mouth, but she ended up just shaking her head when she couldn't say anything.

"What?" Iain asked, standing up and grabbing some paper and a pen from Connie's desk. "Here. What is it?"

Lily smiled thankfully and took the stationery from him. She removed the lid from the pen and wrote something down for Iain on the paper.

I love you too xx

This was probably my favourite chapter to write. I hope you enjoyed it and didn't feel like things happened too quickly. It just felt like the right moment for someone to find out.

Also, I haven't forgot about the messages. That will be mentioned again soon.

Sorry for the long wait in an update but I went to Cardiff for a couple of days. Crystal was on leave, BUT I met Michael Stevenson and got a photo with him so I was so happy and grateful for that! xx