Axle stayed there, cold and broken. He was holding Carly in his arms running his fingers through her silky soft hair. She didn't let go and she refused to let go of him. It was hard to tell if she did it because she liked him or if she did it because she didn't want him to go after the knife and kill himself. It was confusing. All Carly wanted to do now was protect Axle from anything that would cause him any kind of harm, and that included protecting him from himself.

She found a good friend in Axle and she didn't want to lose him. If she lost him, not only would this family lose Axle, she'd also lose her reason for staying there, she'd have to leave and live with the guilt knowing that she could have stopped him, luckily she did. It was safe to say that Axle almost killing himself was close to traumatic for her.

The two stood there in silence for a few moments until a certain voice spoke in absolute horror, "Axle?!" He recognised that voice all too well.

The gamer looked up and saw only one person. It was his mother, Melanie Ryder. He saw the horror in her eyes which he had caused. Clearly Carly wasn't even involved since she looked at the mess and at Axle himself. She looked around his room and noticed the bloodied knife outside his room as well. She almost dropped down in despair. A few tears escaped her eyes and Axle didn't even have the courage to look at his mother. Who would after choosing to live after attempting suicide?

It was sad to say the least. He had a saddened Carly and a close to broken mother. All he needed was Laura crying too along with his father beating the crap out of him for trying to kill himself. Crazy right?

"Why?" Melanie asked as she tried to convince herself that this wasn't true. "Why is that that when I leave you home alone you're always trying to kill yourself Axle?" She couldn't even look at her son, it was hurting her too much. She just looked down to the floor watching the tear drops hit the ground. This was painful and it clearly wasn't the first time she's caught him doing something like this.

"I thought the counseling was successful." She said in disbelief. "I lied in order to get out." Axle said with his voice still weak. "You what?" Melanie was in shock. Her son lied in order to get out of counseling so he could continue his cutting. Not only was she in shock, she was upset with her son for lying to her as well about him being better.

"It was gonna last my whole life so I decided to lie in order to leave. You know how much I hate that stuff." Axle bluntly told his mother. It was true, he found counseling as stupid and a massive waste of his time.

"Axle, you tried to kill yourself before?" Carly spoke drawing Melanie's attention to her. She looked to see the shocked girl who had been hugging her son non-stop.

"Who are you?" She asked the girl. "Hello, I am Carly. It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance." Carly said introducing herself after she got up to face Melanie.

"Are you a friend of Axle's?" Melanie asked her. The girl just nodded before saying, "Yes I am. I hope I am not intruding." After Carly's response, Melanie just shook her head. "No, you aren't. Are you the one who stopped Axle?" Melanie asked since the knife was outside of Axle's room and she was clinging on to him for dear life.

"Yes I am, Mrs Ryder." Carly nodded as she gave her answer. It sounded straightforward with a tinge of fear. "I'm very grateful to you. Thank you Carly." Melanie said before getting up and wiping her tears away.

"Now then, I'm going to make some tea, would you like some Carly?" She asked. "Yes please." Carly said in a polite manner hoping that Melanie wouldn't kick her out.

"Wow, you have such great manners. How is it that you're a friend of my son?" Carly looked at her with an uneasy stare. She needed to think fast or else it would be over for her. She looked back at Axle before saying, "Axle helped me up when I fell once and we hit it off ever since."

Well that wasn't entirely a lie. It was the truth, just not the true detailed version of it. As long as Melanie believed it, it didn't matter if that was the truth or not.

"Well I'm glad that Axle here has a friend. How old are you any way?" This left Carly stunned. It also dawned on Axle that Carly had never told him her age. She herself didn't know but after remembering some things, like Axle's age, she had lied by saying, "Seventeen." Axle was surprised though he didn't show it. She felt terrible for lying but she couldn't say that she didn't know.

One thing that the two knew though was that the backstory of being a friend of Laura's from college was now considered to be null and void since any new story would would make Melanie suspicious of her.

Axle told Carly about the medical cabinet in the bathroom and he led her there. In there she took an unused cloth and wet it before she cleaned up the wounds on Axle's arm. The girl then took some disinfectant and proceeded to use it on the self inflicted wounds and it burnt like hell for the gamer. Fitting punishment in Carly's eyes since he had to burn exactly where he cut himself. She then wrapped his arm up in bandages to prevent any further bleeding.

The two got up after Carly treated Axle's wounds and walked over to the living room as they knew that this would be something bad. The they sat on one couch while Melanie sat on a couch opposite of them after bringing in some tea.

"So... talk." Melanie said. She clearly wanted to know where Carly was from since as far as she knew, Axle had absolutely zero friends. This obviously raised high amounts of suspicion in the woman so she wasn't leaving them alone without any truthful answers. The two looked at each other before Axle sighed.

"I found Carly knocked out in the back yard a week ago and Laura and I kept her here since she had nowhere else to go. She has no home so I let her take refuge in my room." Axle said as there was no hiding anything from his mother, especially now that she's seen Carly.

"So, can she stay?" He asked before holding Carly's hand. This made Carly look at Axle with much surprise. From her time living with the boy she would never have expected him to act this way. "Axle, how much does Carly mean to you?" Melanie asked her son.

"She means everything to me. She's actually the only person who I cared about and the only person other than family that gives a rats ass about me." He said. "I'll convince your father when he gets back tonight and I'll tolerate that foul language for now, but anyway..." She told Axle before looking at Carly, "Welcome to the family Carly." She hugged Carly. It was her way of saying thanks for keeping Axle alive and being the only person who wanted to be his friend.

The two both smiled before Axle headed off to his room to clean it up and Carly followed suit. Axle wasn't expecting his mother to be so understanding about the situation and Carly was just glad that she wasn't told to leave the house.