Hi! Sorry for the irregularity in posting this story. It's just been crazy busy but here is Chapter 7! Please don't forget to leave a review after you read it- I really appreciate it! Enjoy :)

TW


Mark stood for a minute, watching Addison who had been staring at the same line of the same chart for several minutes, not blinking or moving. Sure, he and Derek teased Addison (less so since he broke up with her), but she was still one of his oldest friends and he knew she wasn't ok. Something was wrong.

'Addison? You ok?' he asked, striding over to where she was seemingly frozen to the spot.

She didn't reply, didn't even seem to notice him.

'Addie?'

Mark took another tentative step forwards, reaching out a hand to place reassuringly on her shoulder but Addison clocked it in her peripheral vision and slapped his hand out the air, finally looking up at him.

'Sorry, Addie, I didn't mean to scare you. Is everything ok?'

No, it wasn't ok. After a couple of hours of sleep broken by horrible dreams of a pair of cold eyes bearing down on her. Addison had finally admitted defeat and left for work in a sleepless daze, unable to concentrate fully on anything. She kept zoning out, like Mark had just found.

'Yeah,' she lied, mumbling absentmindedly as she actually took in the numbers on the chart she was reading. 'Crap.'

'What's wrong?' Mark's gaze followed hers, not seeing whatever it was she saw. He hadn't bought her lie for a second: he saw the faraway look in her eyes and heard the defeated tone of her voice. But if she wouldn't let him help her, there was only one person who she might.

'Ms Adams needs surgery,' she whispered quietly, excusing herself.

Addison left in the direction of Holly's room, not stopping to say anything else to Mark or attempt to offer some last words of reassurance that she was fine. She didn't believe it herself, so why should he?

'Hi.' Addison stepped into Holly's room, again shutting the door softly behind her. 'Holly needs surgery, there's some internal bleeding that I'd like to go in and fix. It's a very simple procedure and it shouldn't be a problem, ok? And after the surgery, we're going to call the police so they can come and talk to you. Is that ok, Holly?'

The younger woman looked as though she'd just woken up. Her eyes were puffy and she seemed disorientated, slightly apprehensive of everything that was going on. She nodded her consent and Addison stepped outside with her, dodging the hard gaze of Peter as she led his girlfriend to the OR.

'The surgery went well,' Addison assured him as soon as she came out of the OR, 'and you can go see Holly in a minute. I'll just make the call to the police- apparently there's something going on so it could be a bit of a wait, I'm afraid.' She reached to rub his arm comfortingly, but caught herself halfway there and tried to pass it off as an awkward stretch.

'Ok, thanks,' Peter smiled, but it didn't reach his eyes.

He's just worried about her. Stop overreacting. You're being paranoid.

She couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong, no matter how hard she tried.

Addison stepped away quietly, running a hand through her hair as she took it out of its ponytail and let it swing past her shoulders, picking up an old childhood habit of playing with it when she got nervous. The habit had become so constant, that Bizzy had threatened to cut it all off on multiple occasions, a promise that had soon broken the habit.

'Can you call the police over here for me, please? It's for Holly Adams,' she asked, turning her head behind her as she struggled to shake the feeling someone was watching her.

It was Peter.

Feeling the room start to suffocate her, Addison ran into the stairway, pushing the door open with all her body weight and slamming it shut behind her. She paced the small length of the corridor, her breathing becoming shallower and more frantic with every step. She couldn't do this. She couldn't. She needed to give the case to someone else, anyone else. The wound on her head throbbed as she pressed her shaking hands to her temples, fighting for control.

'Addison?'

She jumped, the sound of her hyperventilating having shut out any hint that she wasn't alone. Forcing herself to take a deep breath, Addison looked up into a pair of dark, cold eyes.

She froze.

'Is everything ok?' Peter asked, placing a hand casually on the wall and leaning to block the doorway. Subtle, but it sent a clear message. You're not going anywhere.

Addison was speechless and felt herself starting to go into shock. Soon enough, her fight or flight response would take over and she'd get herself out of here. Hopefully.

'Addison, is something wrong?'

He shouldn't have known her name. It was just another way to get into her head, another way for him to show her that he had all the control. She could have laughed at that- of course he was in control.

He drew closer to her, smiling as he realised that he'd backed Addison into the corner. She was trapped.

Addison realised this too and she felt behind her, only feeling the cold wall and whimpering slightly as she saw what was about to happen.

'Addison, don't you remember me?'

She didn't say anything, too frozen to do anything other than pray this wasn't happening.

'We had such a good time, though.' His fingers trailed across her arm, his soft touch cutting into her skin like a sharp knife. They followed their way up into her hair, grabbing a handful of it as he pressed his body closer to hers. His other hand grabbed both of her wrists and forced them above her head.

She was completely trapped.

'I was thinking. It's such a shame you don't remember the last time we had fun. Don't you agree? It's not normally how I like to do things, but then again, I don't think there's anything "normal" about you, is there?'

'Get off me, please. Let me go.'

He pressed his lips roughly against her neck and Addison resisted the urge to be sick. She struggled, tried to free her hands from his grip, but he was strong and she hadn't eaten for two days.

'No! Please,' she screamed, wishing someone would hear her.

Her legs flew out, trying to kick his out from underneath him but he just adjusted his stance and moved his hand slowly down her back, stopping at her thigh and stroking sickeningly.

'Please. Please, don't.'

She sobbed quietly, resigning herself to what was about to happen. Again.

BANG.

The door slammed against the wall as it was pushed open forcefully and suddenly Addsion felt the crushing weight of Peter's body pulled off of her. She took a huge breath, sliding down the wall and curling up in a ball on the floor, squeezing her eyes shut and letting the tears roll down her cheeks silently.