It has been a few days. Avery is in her room reading when T.K. walks in. As he does, he sees Avery is crying and has her hand over her mouth. Concerned, he sits on the edge of her bed.

'Hey, what's wrong?' He asks. Avery looks up from her book and removed her hand from her mouth.

'They killed her off.' Avery sobs.

'Jesus, Ave.' T.K. laughs as he rubs his forehead. 'You can't do that to me.' Avery puts her bookmark in her book, closes it and places it beside her before wiping her tears away.

'Sorry,' she laughs, 'but the pain is real.' She adds. 'You're gonna have to get used to me crying over books and fictional characters.'

'I will keep that in mind.' T.K. nods laughing. 'Anyways, to the reason I came up here, I'm about to head to the gym with Carlos, do you want to come?'

'Sure.' Avery nods. 'Give me half hour to get changed and ready.'

'Sure.' T.K. smiles. 'We're going to be meeting Carlos there anyway.'

.

It's been an hour and a half. Carlos, T.K. and Avery are at the gym. Avery is on the treadmill whilst Carlos and T.K. are lifting weights opposite her. They both stop for a break.

'How's Avery doing?' Carlos asks his boyfriend.

'She doing good.' T.K. nods. 'I think she's finally settled in and things are so much better between her and dad.'

'That's good.' Carlos smiles.

'Except, she hasn't really spoken about her mom,' T.K. adds, 'and I get it. Her mom stopped her from seeing us and lied about it. I'd be the same way if my mom did that.'

'She's doing therapy right?' Carlos queries.

'Yeah.' T.K. replies. 'A psychiatrist has made a formal diagnosis of PTSD. Her therapist has said that she's doing well but she's worried that Avery is repressing her true feelings. If it gets bad, like super bad, her psychiatrist and therapist are concerned that with her previous history of psychosis and the PTSD she'll have a psychotic break and try to kill herself again.' They look at Avery who is still running. 'How long has she been running?'

'Forty-five minutes.' Carlos responds looking at his watch. 'She hasn't stopped.'

'She's going to tire herself out.' T.K. sighs. He stands up and walks over to where Avery is. 'Hey, why don't you take a break?' He suggests.

'I'm fine.' Avery shakes her head, not slowing down.

'Ave, you've been running for forty-five minutes.' T.K. tells her. 'You need to take a break.'

'I'm fine.' Avery reiterates, shaking her head.

'Avery,' T.K. states more seriously, 'take a break.' Avery huffs, slows down and stops. She steps off the treadmill and T.K. walks round to her. He picks her water bottle up from the floor and hands it to her. 'Take a drink.' Avery takes the bottle and takes a sip. 'You were running at the same pace for nearly an hour, you can really hurt yourself doing that.' Carlos joins them.

'I've done it plenty of times before.' Avery shrugs. 'I'm not going to hurt myself.'

'You can't be running that much without taking breaks or at least slowing down for a bit.' Carlos says. 'Trust me, I know. You will end up pulling a muscle or doing some serious damage sooner or later.'

'Let's take a little break.' T.K. tells her.

'Okay.' Avery nods. The three of them walk over to one of the benches and sit down.

'What's on your mind?' T.K. asks her.

'Nothing.' Avery shakes her head.

'Ave, I know when something is bothering you.' T.K. states. 'You know you can talk to me about anything.'

'Not about this.' Avery says quietly, looking down. 'I know how you'll react and it probably won't end well. For anyone.' She looks up and sees Matthew Taylor walks into the gym. Carlos and T.K. see her facial expression change to fear.

'Ave?' T.K. prompts, but her focus doesn't change. T.K. and Carlos look in the direction that Avery is looking in. When Carlos recognises Matthew, he looks back at Avery.

'Avery, why don't you go and get some fresh air, I'll deal with this.' Carlos suggests. Avery nods and stands up.

'What's going on?' T.K. asks confused.

'I'll explain outside.' Avery says quietly. T.K. nods as he stands up and they both walk through the gym and out onto the patio. 'His name is Matthew.' Avery starts once she's sure that she's alone. 'He used to be my best friend.' She adds. 'He was supportive when I came out to him but then about six months ago, we were having a movie night the next thing I knew he was-' she stops and takes a breath, 'he was on top of me trying to - I tried to fight him off. I was screaming, kicking, punching but he's stronger than me like way stronger. He forced me to touch him and he - if his older sister, Ally, hadn't have walked in it would have gone further. She was the one who pulled him off me and called the police.'

'Ave-' T.K. sighs sympathetically.

'Don't-' Avery shakes her head, 'It's taken a lot to work through that trauma on top of everything else.'

'Was he responsible for your other attack?' T.K. asks, anger clearly building inside of him.

'No.' Avery replies. 'They were completely unrelated.'

'Have you told dad about what he did to you?' T.K. queries. Tears start falling from her eyes.

'How-' Avery's voice cracks, 'how am I supposed to tell him that his baby girl was sexually assaulted? He's already coddling me because of the suicide attempt and what happened in L.A., I don't think I can handle any more.' T.K. places his hand on her shoulder to comfort her.

'It's okay, we'll tell him when you're ready,' T.K. reassures her, 'and you know that you can always talk to me, or Carlos, about it.' Avery steps forwards and wraps her arms around him. 'It's okay.' He whispers as he also wraps his arms around her. They are interrupted by Carlos joining them, T.K. and Avery part as Avery wipes the tears from her eyes.

'Matthew has been arrested.' Carlos informs them. 'He's going to be sent back to L.A. where he'll finish the rest of his three-year sentence and an additional two years for breaching the restraining order and causing emotional trauma.'

'Thank you.' Avery smiles slightly. 'I'm going to head home. You two stay here, finish your workouts.'

'Are you sure?' T.K. asks.

'I could use some time alone.' Avery nods. 'I'll text you when I get home.'

.

An hour later, Avery is walking back into the house. Since Owen has meetings at HQ for the majority of the day, she has the house to herself. She quickly texts T.K. that she's home before going for a shower. Once she's freshened up and has gotten changed into some comfy clothes, she selects a book from her bookshelf, takes her throw blanket from her bed and walks downstairs to the front room; she sits cross-legged on the armchair and places the blanket over her lap. She gets her phone out and taps out a message to Megan.

To: Megan

Hey Megan, just wondering if you wanted to meet up for a coffee or maybe a bite to eat sometime? It would be nice to talk again x

She sets her phone on the arm rest and opens her book and starts to read. After a few minutes, she gets a reply from Megan. She closes her book and looks at her phone.

To: Avery

Tell T.K. I'm sorry...

Avery's eyes go wide.

'No, no, no, no, no. She quickly says as she stands up. She calls Megan and when there's no reply, she calls again and again again. 'C'mon Megan, pick up your fucking phone.' She begs as she paces around the front room. 'Screw it.' She whispers. She hangs up from calling Megan and instantly calls T.K. After a few rings, he answers. 'T.K. something's wrong with Megan.' She tells him before he can say anything.

'Ave, slow down. Say that again.' T.K. tells his younger sister.

'I just text Megan asking if she wanted to meet up sometime and she replied telling me to tell you that she's sorry.' Avery explains. 'T.K., I know this behaviour. I've had this behaviour. She's going to try and kill herself.'

'We'll go check on her.' T.K. says quickly. 'I'll call you back when I know something.' He hangs up and Avery returns to the armchair, anxiously waiting for T.K.'s call.

.

A few hours later, T.K. and Owen walk throw the front door. As soon as Avery hears the door open, she jumps up from the armchair and rushes out to them.

'How is she?' Avery asks, worried.

'You were right.' T.K. simply nods. 'She OD'd. She's being kept in for 72 hours.'

'But she's okay?' Avery questions. 'Physically?'

'Physically, yeah.' T.K. responds.

'Do you want to talk about it?' Owen asks his daughter. 'With your history-'

'No.' Avery cuts him off. 'It's probably best that I don't think about it much. Not right now anyway.'

'She'll be okay.' T.K. reassures her.

'I'm gonna go up to my room.' Avery states. She collects her things from the front room and walks up to her room. She sits at her desk, pulls open her drawer and takes out a few newspaper clippings from when the local newspaper covered her attack and suicide attempt. She grips onto them as tears stream down her eyes, trying to get rid of the intrusive thoughts swimming through her head. She scrunches them into a ball and chucks them into the bin. Without even thinking, she takes a craft blade from the drawer with her left hand and slowly presses it to the skin of her right wrist, pressing hard until it draws blood before dragging the blade, slicing through the skin.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I know! It's been like two months but I was struggling with how to start this chapter but here it is!

Megan that's mentioned belongs to my amazing soul sista DharmaWinter! Go check out her book "Addicted" to read about Megan's story!

Let me know what you think!

Much love