A few weeks of quiet go by. Remington struggles through two major panic attacks, one of which happening when he was in town on his own.

He had just been to therapy, and was proud of himself that day because hadn't had a nightmare. Him and Abigail had talked about the next step in his recovery, which involves opening up about what happened to others.

Afterwards, he had just been walking through town in a good and calm mood when someone had bumped into him and made him stumble in surprise. The boy didn't know how to handle it on his own. Every time this had happened in the past, Emerson or Sebastian had been there to help.

Remington had wrapped his arms around himself and kept his head down, trying to focus on taking deep breathing. "Excuse me, sir, are you okay?" Someone had asked, and the singer jumped, violently shaking his head. "Can I help you?" The voice was gentle, helpful, and Remington knew that he had to trust the person. He had nodded and whimpered, grabbing his head in his hands. "Do you need a doctor?"

The boy shook his head and struggled to pull his phone from his pocket. He managed to unlock it and then handed it to the stranger. "Call-Call Sebastian," he stuttered, "he knows-he knows I'm here."

The kind person wasted no time in opening contacts and finding Sebastian, calling the man and holding the phone to their ear. "Hey Remington, you okay?" The guitarist answered.

"Hello, sir, I'm with-um-Remington, just outside Next. He's asked me to call you." They had given the boy a questioning look after saying his name, making sure it was right, and Remington barely managed a nod, leaning back against the wall and trying to tune out the noise of everything around him.

At the unfamiliar voice, Sebastian stood up and grabbed his coat from the back of the chair. "Is he alright?"

The stranger was standing beside Remington, making sure no one got too close to him. "Well, not really. I think he's having a panic attack," he explained, and nodded their head at someone who was giving them a concerned look.

"I'll come and get him. Stay with him, yeah? I won't be long." The man was leaving the house now.

"Yeah, of course." After the call, the person had kept a hold of the mobile. "He's on his way. Do you want some water or something?" It's not like they don't know how to deal with a panic attack, it's just that Remington doesn't know them and seems scared and it's better to just wait for Sebastian to come to the rescue.

Remington shook his head, not really processing the question. "Sorry," he mumbled, feeling really guilty about interrupting the kind person's day.

They had shook their head. "No, you're alright," they said, and the phone started ringing in their hand. It was Sebastian. "Hello?"

"I'm having car troubles. Tell Remington Emerson is coming instead. He's on his way now." Sebastian had hung up straight after.

The stranger repeated this to Remington, though wasn't sure if he was listening or not.

A few more minutes passed and then a tall man in a hat and a stripy shirt turned up. "Thankyou so much," Emerson said quietly, "hey there, Rem, can you hear me?" Remington nodded. "Alright, deep breaths, let's get you home."

The younger had helped his brother into his car and Remington was calming down now that he was with Emerson.

After that day, he hasn't dared go into town on his own, even after taking about it with Abigail. She's pleased that he was able to accept help from a stranger.

Today, Remington isn't in the mood to go anywhere, since he had a nasty nightmare last night, and so sits on the sofa and scrolls Instagram for a while.

User 1: Alright guys, hear me out. Remington was verbally abused. How am I so sure? well-people who saw them before they cancelled tour have all said he seems different, and that he was shaking when they hugged him. And he hasn't spoken about Holly in literally months, part from when he replied to @username dm which asked 'how's Holly?' He replied with 'burning in hell, hopefully.' Why else would he say that unless she's abused him? A while ago he tweeted about somethings being kept just between him and his brothers. This is what it is!

User 2: @user1 oh my god you're so right!

User 3: STOP SPECULATING!!!

User 1: @user3 don't tell me this isn't what's going on. It's so obvious once you look at the signs.

The boy frowns. He finds it scary how much fans can work out from basically nothing. He decides that there's no point in trying to deny it, and instead finds a YouTube video about a man who survived abuse from his wife. Remington shares it on Twitter without any explanation, tearing up as he watches the video.

He finds it hard to watch, but is thankful that they didn't try to re-enact any of the scenes the man briefly describes. Just listening to is enough.

"I never saw it coming," the man in the video says, "when I first met her, she was the loveliest girl in the world," he goes on, and Remington can't help but to nod. "And the problem was that no one else saw it either."

Someone else understands, he thinks, someone else has been through it too.

Remington doesn't know whether he's relieved or upset by the end of the video, but just hearing that man saying things that Remington believed were his struggles only is such a huge relief.

Because he isn't alone.

He never has been