"What the hell happened here, Matt!" Shep demanded as Julian lifted Clydie off the ground and settled her into his arms. "Why the fuck is Brody Hyatt out here beating up Clydie!"

Julian let out a gruff growl. "Matt, I need to get her out of here! Grab her things and I'll get her home!"

Matt moved to obey, turning and hurrying up the sidewalk, with Shep and Jax falling into step beside him. Julian, left alone with Clydie, let out a harsh sound and started forward through the darkness, moving her across the street and away from the overly loud movie soundtrack still blaring through the night.

He didn't speak as he strode along and neither did Clydie. She just laid her head on his shoulder and tried to ride out the pulsating ache in her middle that was still catching her breath. Had she been able to speak, however, she would have been asking Julian Donovan just why he'd been following her, because she had no doubt that he had been. And not only that, he'd been someplace close enough to have seen what Brody Hyatt was doing to her.

It wasn't long before the sound of footsteps hurrying up from behind them sounded out and Clydie lifted her head to see Matt, Shep, and Jax all rushing to catch up. Matt, his arms laden with chairs and blankets, came up beside Julian.

"Clydie, are you alright?" he asked worriedly.

She nodded, not quite willing to test her voice yet.

"Will somebody tell me what in hell is going on here?" Shep demanded. "Why is Brody Hyatt going after Clydie? And who the fuck is this guy!" No one offered and explanation and Shep let out an irritated grumble. "Somebody needs to tell me what the fuck this is all about!"

"If Clydie wanted you to know, she'd tell you!" Julian growled.

"Then she needs to tell me—"

"Shep!" Matt barked. "Not now!"

The command plunged them into silence and they walked on through the shadowy and still streets for a while longer before Clydie decided that she had recovered enough to walk on her own.

"Put me down," she croaked out as she began to push against Julian.

He came to a halt and carefully sat her onto her feet, keeping his arms around her until she fully straightened up. That movement caused pain to scatter through her, bending her forward a bit, but after a few long breaths, she got herself upright and kept herself that way. Once her legs were steady beneath her, she stepped away from Julian, turned around, and continued forward.

She could feel Julian's sudden tension, but she ignored it and moved closer to Matt, who quickened his pace without her having to say a word to him. The few blocks back to the Two Points Pub were made in stone cold silence, with Shep and Jax breaking away just before they reached the pub. Julian, however, followed right beside them as they made their way to the back lot and Matt's truck.

As Matt tossed the chairs and blankets into the bed, Clydie moved around to the passenger side, but Julian got there first, pulling the door open for her. She climbed in and then stalled, a part of her wanting to thank Julian for helping her because if he hadn't been there...there was no telling what might have happened to her.

But, a bigger part of her was put off by the fact that the man had outright followed her and that...was no okay.

Her unease outweighed her gratitude and she snatched hold of the handle, pulling the door away from Julian and slamming it closed. He didn't try to stop her. He just stepped back and stood there, watching her through the window as Matt slid behind the wheel and started the engine, pulling them out of the parking lot without stopping to discuss it.

They remained silent as Matt navigated through the streets, heading them back toward her house. Her thoughts were not silent, though. They were bouncing around her head like out of control missiles and not a single one of those thoughts led to anything good.

"Julian followed you tonight," Matt suddenly said as they turned onto the street heading home.

"I know," she said in return, keeping her gaze out the window and watching the shadows fly by.

"So...what does that mean?" asked Matt grimly.

She shrugged. "I have no idea."

"Should you...I don't know, tell your parents? I mean, that's not a normal thing for a guy to do, right?"

No. It was not a normal thing for a guy to do. "I don't want to bother my parents with this. Please, don't say anything to them."

Matt was quiet for a space. "I won't say anything." She could practically hear the yet that he left implied. "Just watch your back, Clydie. This whole situation is just..." He let his words trail off, but she got the gist.

Indeed, this whole situation was just...

"So, did Shep say anything to you?" Matt breathed the words on a sigh.

"Not...exactly," she replied, repeating the brief conversation she'd had with Shep Benton.

When she'd finished relating the story, Matt huffed out another breath and gave his head a shake. "Shit. That's not shady or anything."

"It doesn't mean much, though. Its not a crime to be a creep," she stated.

"So, at least he seems to have no trouble talking to you. Do you think you could get him to keep talking?" wondered Matt.

"I don't know. Maybe. I mean, if I ever run into him again, I can try," she said.

"Its not hard to run into Shep. He's out getting into something nearly every night. All he does is drink and hang out," was Matt's reply.

Matt was suggesting they hunt the man down and try again. And she was all for it, if for no other reason than Shep Benton was a judgmental, self-righteous ass.  But, on the off chance that he did hurt Jessica Hyatt or Tessa Wright... then he deserved to be found out and punished.

"Can I take a day or two to get past tonight?" she posed.

"Clydie, you can take all the time you want. You never have to speak to Shep again, if you don't want to."

"I know," she told him. But, she wanted to speak to Shep again. There was just something about the things he'd said to her...she needed to see what else she could get out of him.

Matt suddenly reached out and took hold of her hand, giving it a squeeze. "I'm so sorry about tonight, Clydie. I swear, I was keeping an eye on you. I watched you get your soda and then I turned around to say something to Jax and when I looked back...you were gone. I only looked away for just a second!"

"Matt, it wasn't your fault. So, just don't think about it," she assured, knowing he couldn't have stopped the situation because it had only taken Brody Hyatt a split second to snatch her up and sweep her away from the park.

"How can I not think about it? Brody hit you, Clydie. He's a grown man and he actually hit you!" Matt needlessly pointed out.

"But, it wasn't your fault," she reaffirmed. "And I'm not making excuses for him, but he wants to know what happened to his sister and he thinks I can give him the answers."

"He can't get answers by beating up girls!" Matt pushed out through his teeth. "I swear, if Julian hadn't been meaning to kill Brody, I would have let him kick the shit out of the asshole! He needs to be taught a lesson!"

She couldn't disagree, but by then, Matt was pulling in through the front gate of her house and they gave up the conversation. Her parents' SUV wasn't in the driveway, letting her know they were still on their date, which was both a relief and a slight worry.

Matt stopped by the front door and put the truck in park, leaving the engine running. This time, when she stepped out of the truck, he exited from his side, as well, walking her up to the front door and standing by as she let herself in.

"Will you be okay until your parents get home?" he asked seriously.

"I'll be fine," she replied, trying to offer up a confident smile. "Are you working here tomorrow?"

"Yeah. Your mom wants us here six days a week for a while."

"So, I'll see you in the morning," she said and then added, "I'm sorry about how tonight turned out. I never would have asked you to come with me if I'd known things would wind up like that."

"Don't be sorry. I'll hang out with you any time you want," he assured. "Only next time, you're not leaving my sight."

"Deal," she said, meaning it.

She didn't particularly want a repeat of having a grown man slamming a fist into her ribs...

Matt abruptly stepped up to her and bent down, dropping a quick kiss onto her forehead. "Lock the door behind me and don't open it for anybody. Okay? Especially not for Julian."

She nodded, feeling her stomach squeeze with a measure of unease.

Matt gave her a tight smile and then turned and hurried back toward his truck. She quickly closed and locked the door and hurried up to her room, closing her own door and quickly turning on the radio just to break up the smothering silence filling up the house. Just as she dropped down onto the bed, heaving out a deep sigh, her cell went off.

Pulling it from her messenger bag, which was somehow still on her person, she saw that it was a text from Julian. It said simply, Can we talk? Seeing those words had her heart rate increasing by several beats and she quickly turned her phone off and laid it aside. She didn't reply to that text because after the night she'd just had, there was absolutely nothing she wanted to say to Julian Donovan.

*  *  *  *  *  *

It was the same dream. She was lost in that same darkness, feeling as if those same hands were wrapped around her throat, choking the breath out of her. Only this dream...was worse...because that voice was right in her ear...

Hush. 

 Hush.

It was being whispered over and over...softly...soothingly...and all the while she could feel what...he...was doing to her body. She could feel him invading her, moving inside her, and it was repulsive, turning her stomach and making her want to scream out.  Only she couldn't. She couldn't draw in a breath, let alone get any sort of sound out.

She knew it was a dream, knew it wasn't really happening to her...that it had happened to someone else, but the way he was moving on top of her, the way his hands felt on her throat, filled her with such terror, it was hard to remember it wasn't real. 

 All she wanted was to get away, to run or...wake up. She just wanted to wake up and have it all gone!

Hush. 

 Hush.

That voice kept whispering in her ear, that breathy voice that filled her with such a cold dread, she was sure she could feel the blood in her veins turning turning cold. 

 That voice...  That voice...

Suddenly, she could feel her mind trying to fight its way out of the darkness, trying to bring her into wakefulness, but she was being held there. He...wouldn't let her wake up, wouldn't let her go. He...wasn't done using her. 

 But, no. There was something else. A flash of blonde hair, a glimpse of a pale hand...the girl was holding her there. Or helping to hold her there. And as soon as that realization struck her, she knew the girl wasn't going to let her go until she was able to understand...to see or somehow figure out...who he was.

But, she couldn't. There was too much darkness, the burning in her lungs was too great...and the longer he was inside her, the more her confused body began to react in a way that she absolutely knew it shouldn't, but she couldn't stop it. He...was using her, strangling the life out of her, and yet her body was betraying her...perhaps out of terror or simply in an effort to deal with that terror.... But, the longer he moved inside her, the stronger and stronger the waves of heat and pleasure coursing through her became.

She didn't want to let it happen. She didn't want to allow...him...to do that to her. Not...him. It just wasn't right.

"Clydie!"

That deep voice brought her eyes flying open, but even before her lungs could draw in a breath of air, her gaze focused on the colorless, hollow eyed image looming right in her face. The mouth was open in a wide scream and the hands were grasping at her and there was such a look of crazed...desperation...etched onto those features that her own body revolted. She sucked in a breath and pushed it back out in a sharp shriek and almost before she realized what she was doing, she was off the bed and across the room, her back pressed up against the wall beside the window. But, the colorless image followed her, surging across the space and coming at her full speed, mouth gaping and hands grasping, so fast that all she could do was close her eyes and brace to feel the impact of that body colliding with hers.

"Clydie!" a deep voice called to her again and, recognizing it as her father's, her eyes flew open just in time to see her bedroom door burst open and Frank rushing in.

It took her addled mind a few seconds to realize that the frenzied image of Tess Wright was no where in sight.

"Clydie, what in the world is going on! Why did you put all those boxes in front of your door?" Frank demanded, hurrying across the room toward her.

Clydie couldn't even respond to her father. Her lungs were busy trying to draw in enough breath to keep her functioning and her body was still throbbing in that low-lying place...and her mind was just trying to catch up with the rest of her.

"Clydie!" her dad gasped, grabbing hold of her shoulders and giving her a little shake. "It's okay! Just try to breathe! Can you do that? Just try to breathe!"

She nodded, thinking that was what she was trying to do, even though it didn't seem to be helping her so much.

"Slow down, okay? Slow down and take long, deep breaths," Frank instructed, using the voice he always used when he was trying to keep her, and himself, calm. "You're hyperventilating, so you need to slow everything down."

Slow down. Right. She needed to slow down and get some wind into her lungs before she fainted. So, she tried to do that, tried to turn those fast, halting breaths into long and useful ones. After a few of those, things began to relax inside her and her stalled mind suddenly awakened itself and she...was wrapped in her dad's arms and sobbing against his shoulder.

"Its alright, Pumpkin. Everything'll be alright," Frank told her, though judging by the tone of his voice, it was evident that he did not truly believe his own words.

Neither did she. Things were not going to be alright. Now now...and probably not ever.

"Tell me what happened. Did you...were you..."

"I-I was...having a dream. A nightmare," she croaked out against his shirt, suddenly wishing she had awakened to find that she was anyone else....just anyone else. 

 God, how tired she was of being her.

"That must have been one nasty nightmare. You were hyperventilating so hard your lips were blue," Frank stated, patting her back in a very dad kind of way.

She merely nodded, deciding not to tell him that this incident was not an isolated one.

"Clydie, why did you pile all those boxes in front of your door? How did you even do it?" questioned Frank, stepping back and looking down at her with confused eyes.

She shot a quick glance past her father and toward the open door, seeing the boxes scattered about outside in the hallway and instantly, she was swept with a heavy wave of defeat that all but slumped her shoulders. She simply had no idea what was happening to her, but again, she truly wished she'd awakened as a different person...living a different life.

Frank pulled in a long breath and seemed to gather himself. "Pumpkin, I need you to get dressed and come down to the kitchen. Sheriff Benton is here to talk to you."

Hearing that caused her heart to splash down into her stomach. Shit. What was going on now! She was barely even out of bed and already her day had gone to hell!

"Just pull yourself together and hurry down. We're waiting for you," Frank told her, offering her a smile as he turned and headed for the door, only to stop mid-stride as he rounded her bed. There was a brief second of silence and then he turned back to face her. "Clydie? Did you find the bag with your medications?"

Clydie's heart, which was still swimming around in her stomach, leap up in the other direction as her gaze flashed over to the nightstand. Sitting there were three more medicine bottles, their caps removed.

Oh shit.

"I-I...didn't find it," she said weakly, realizing how lame that sounded.

Frank's brows lowered. "Did you get these from your mom?"

Oh shit.

She opened her mouth to utter the denial, but the useless words stuck in her throat.

Frank moved toward the nightstand and Clydie felt her body lurch into motion, getting her back across the room and to the foot of the bed as her dad picked up the bottles. And, as before, the lids were scattered out over the floor.

"Clydie...did you take all of these together?" Frank questioned, a note of panic in his voice.

"No. No, I-I...didn't take any of them," she replied in an unreliable tone, knowing full well that her father wouldn't believe her because why would open pill bottles be sitting next to her bed if she hadn't taken any of them?

Frank cleared his throat, continuing to stare down at the bottles in his hands. "We...we'll talk about this later. Right now, we have to deal with Sheriff Benton."

That said, he spied the bottle caps in the floor and quickly picked them up before striding from the room, leaving Clydie to stand there, feeling numb and sick to her stomach. Oh shit. Her dad thought she was...what? Trying to keep herself medicated? Perhaps trying to use her medications to...end her misery?

Shit. 

 She was now most likely staring down a long stint in the nearest secure hospital. Once her mother found out about the pills, she'd be on the phone within minutes. And the next few months of her life would basically be lost...

With a miserable half-sob bubbling up the back of her throat, she forced herself to move over to the closet, where she started getting dressed. She had to pull herself together.  Fast.  Because at the moment, there was something even more troubling than screaming dead girls trying to barricade her into her room and pill bottles that appeared out of thin air and the likelihood that she was going to be put away for a while... And that was the law enforcement official waiting in the kitchen, probably wanting to demand answers that she simply couldn't give him...