Everyone retired for the night. It was already pretty late, and they wouldn't have long before dawn, but any sleep at all would be better than nothing.

Storm and Logan actually did discuss the idea of sharing the same room--as well it might have come up.

But, in the end, they just didn't feel it was right.

"I think I don't want things to happen because we're grasping at them," Storm said. "We took our time about all of this, because it was worth it.... It would feel like we're quitting now if we changed that."

Logan agreed, perhaps with some misgivings, but he said, "Well, it's a matter of respect too. And it ain't right, in the Book, so...the last thing I want to do is throw out all that principle just because it looks bleak. That ain't any kind of faith."

"That is wise, Logan," Storm said. "And it is what I thought you would say. Goodnight." 

She kissed him.

"Goodnight," Logan said.

If he went and cried after that, it wasn't something she needed to know.

It wasn't over that...it was over everything going spectacularly wrong, but, of course, he didn't care to show that to anyone else.

Storm did the exact same thing, left to herself. Well, not entirely. She and Older Rogue were sharing now that the question had been settled.

The younger Rogue was just on a couch in one of the sitting rooms. She didn't seem inclined to socialize with them.

"It's sure weird seein' another me," Marie-Rogue said. "I'm glad we ain't combinin' or anythin' yet. But I'm afraid of it. I can't really talk to 'er--it's too weird."

"It's not natural," Storm said. "But it may happen to any of us. And you're taking it better than I think I would."

"I'm so used to other voices in my head, I guess seein' another me isn't quite the shock it would be to most people," Rogue said. "But...I can't stop thinkin' about Gambit too...and she told me she was asked 'bout 'im. She didn't know nothin' though. She don't know the Gambit in 'er world at all. Funny, huh?"

"I'm sure that is not significant," Storm said. "You are two different people. She clearly has never met Captain Marvel either."

"Funny, almost like that was good thing," Rogue said. "I came to the X-men when I did. I think she came way later.... Well...it's too much to think about, Sugar, so...I'mma just try to get some shut eye."

She lay down. Somehow she was asleep in a few minutes.

Storm didn't right off, but eventually she sank into an uneasy slumber.

* * *

Even in sleep, this future was not safe, however.

No one had slept much since arriving, just on the bus a little, and that had been more of a doze, but falling actually asleep, it was being vulnerable.

Shine and Wally both prayed beforehand, and they had significantly less trouble settling down--though Shine was still aching over what happened to the kids, and, to be honest, so was Wally, but the only thing to do was leave the matter in God's hands. And hope Cristy was right about them having time to save them.

But dreams still troubled them.

Shine dreamed about the whole situation, and that she was trying to find a way out of it. It took the shape of her wandering a dark kind of maze, almost, of hallways and inside doors...never finding the right one.

Until unexpectedly, out of a corner, a lion came and wordlessly started leading her one way.

It led her to one door, that gleamed like one of her portals.

Shine put her hand on the doorknob and heard voices on the other side. They sounded like the X-men team's voices...

Then the dream ended and she woke up. It was nearly dawn then.

"Shine?" Wally said sleepily. "Is something wrong? Did you hear something?"

He was ready to be up in a second. They were both so wired.

"No...it was a dream," Shine said, laying back down. "Maybe it meant something...just...not sure what."

"Can it wait till morning?" Wally said, still sleepy.

"Yeah, I think so," Shine said.

Wally put a hand on her shoulder comfortingly.

Shine moved closer to him and sighed.

At least she wasn't alone, she thought. She'd have fallen to pieces if she was.

But she knew Wally was upset also.

Marriage was often a double-edged sword. Someone was always there when you were upset, for better or worse...but you felt their pain too, all the more keenly for knowing they were there for you.

Sometimes all you could do was try to comfort each other.

Love and Pain go together...Shine mused, staring at the ceiling, not able to go back to sleep.

She'd read that for the first time in Hinds Feet on High Places.

It was true. C. S. Lewis also wrote: "Love at all and your heart will be wrung, possibly broken."

Shine had heard about love a long time ago, and determined she'd go down that path, no matter what. Because she'd lived in fear before that...and nothing, she decided, about love could really be worse than the deadness and coldness of a life living in fear and selfishness. That was hell.

The pain of love, by comparison, at least had a solace to it.... It made you feel alive.

But it was sharper because of that.

She was aching for the kids.... Even if they were okay in the end, it hurt her to think they'd have to go through this.

She ached for Kurt, who deserved better.

For Raven, who had come so far, and it would be so horrible if it ended now.

For everyone else who was fighting alongside them.

Even for Emma, who was trying so hard not to lose it and still be brave in the face of circumstances that would have knocked most people out a long time ago.

And for her husband, for being here and not being able to be his usual happy self about it...

But...in the end...this pain was there because all this was real.

And she signed up for it.

She could have felt sorry for herself.... It was tempting.

Tempting to complain to God for not stopping all this a long time ago.

But...even now, even after the trials of the day, Shine just couldn't bring herself to do that. God was her only hope at such a time...and she had to believe that He still had things in Hand. And she had seen it enough times by now. Defeat was never certain. It was never inevitable.

But even if this should be the end...could she have asked for a better life? Really...what would she change about it? 

Nothing.

She only regretted that the others had to suffer, not herself. Not much.

Still...

What was that old hymn?

"When peace like a river attendeth my way, when sorrows like sea billows roll, whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say, 'It is well. It is well with my soul.'"

After that thought, Shine finally fell back to sleep.

https://youtu.be/zY5o9mP22V0

["It Is Well With My Soul"-- Audrey Assad]

* * *

But the protection over the DJs' minds didn't extend to all of the team.

Most of them were all right; if they had nightmares, they were mild ones.

But understandably, Emma was much more vulnerable.

Maybe sleeping at all was a mistake for her, and she hadn't planned to at first, but she was so tired, it came on her without warning.

Then, like the enemy had just been waiting to notice an opening, she began to dream.

The dream made no sense at first...

She was paralyzed in it, like you are sometimes in dreams...but lying on some table...somewhere...totally frozen.

Dim, muted voices that said things she couldn't understand were speaking in the background.

That in itself wouldn't be that frightening, you would think, but there was just this aura that something was wrong...something...

And her chest hurt. A sharp stabbing pain in the center of it where her heart was.

The scene shifted, and she was walking along some dark hallway, underground it looked like, and then there was a cell, and she was stepping in, not by her own choice...and the door slammed shut behind her.

That sound was so loud, it didn't sound like a dream.

But the dream continued. It shifted again.

This time she was walking into a door so massive, it looked like the one into Temple in the center of the city. They'd seen a glimpse of it earlier.

She wasn't going there of her own free will. Someone was drawing her. Something sinister...

As a Telepath, Emma had more dream lucidity than the average person, and she realized at this stage that what she was seeing might be actually happening in some sense.

It appeared she was being attracted by the psionic pull in the air of this place. And that was what she was seeing.

If so, she might have nothing to fear.

But that didn't last...

She was propelled along and into an inner room. It was dark, and the way to it wasn't clear--it happened too fast.

Sitting, on a lone, dark throne, was Apocalypse, as she's seen him in her mind before.

Still not a clear image, even now. Just a shadowy figure, massive, and much larger than he apparently was in real life. She was the size of a small cat by comparison.

"There you are, little Telepath," the same voice as before speaking in her mind. "Foolish of you to go to sleep. Don't you know people are the most vulnerable when they are asleep. Now who will stop you from becoming one of us?"

"Leave me alone," Emma tried to scream at him, but her voice came out in the dream like a small whisper.

"It's no use trying to push back," the voice continued, undisturbed. "Your power is too weak. Even at full strength, could you stand against so many of us? You might as well give in now. What is clinging to your fragile control doing to you? At most you have one more day. Just surrender."

"Never..." Emma's voice was still choked and small, but she was a little more forceful.

"What's keeping you?" the voice spoke with more interest. "People do not usually defy me this long...but then, Telepaths are always a different breed... Perhaps you think your team is protecting you...but their reach is soon going to be too short."

Emma's voice came a little louder as she said, "Is this really happening right now? Or are you just attempting to use dreams to fantasize me into submission?"

"What is and isn't happening has become almost a moot point, White Queen," the voice replied blandly. "Soon it won't matter in the least which is which."

"Then why do you want me?" Emma said. "I'm useless to you."

"All mutants have a place in my kingdom, great or small," the voice said.

"As a slave," Emma said.

"You'll change your mind about that when we meet fact to face," Apocalypse, for him it must be, said. "It won't be long now. Not long at all. I could send soldiers to take you right now...but there's really no need. Let you all have your last night. What difference does it make? But in case you think you're really any better off on your pathetic team, how about you take a look at who's speaking to them right now?"

Emma turned, not of her own volition, but as one who's being rotated on a crank, and looked at the wall.

It flickered like a screen, in the dream, so she could see someone else...

She saw Jean.

"Jean?" she said strangely. "Jean? Can you hear me?--Is this real?"

"As real as our conversation is," Apocalypse said. "Consider yourself honored, I rarely speak to people directly, but I have taken an interest in you, White Queen. For which you'll soon be grateful. But Jean Grey is another interesting case. Certainly she's powerful, so powerful she even partially broke through the block I put, looking for her psionic link with another mutant."

"Scott..." Emma said softly.

"She seems to be having trouble finding him," Apocalypse said. "And she doesn't know I can see what she's doing, and she doesn't know you're here...not specifically anyway. The connection is not yet so fine tuned as clear as that. But perhaps you could contact her if you tried hard enough. Here in the dream realm, your weakness is not as apparent.... I'm not sure you'd like what you saw, however."

"Some trick, isn't it?" Emma said. "If I try, I either am going to die, or Jean is going to misunderstand what is happening."

"Perhaps, but I'm many things--I am not usually a liar," Apocalypse said. "I do not yet have full control over this realm.... All that will change shortly. You don't have the power to stop me, but to spy, perhaps. I don't care for that. So enjoy this instead."

So saying, he vanished from her sight, and the Temple itself also faded into black.

Jean yelled...and now she had this ring of fire around her...like the Phoenix.

Emma recoiled from it on instinct and tried to wake herself up.

But she was too deep into this now for that to work.

She knew instinctively that Apocalypse wouldn't have left her with Jean if not to cause some harm to one or both of them, but she didn't know if trying to warn Jean would make it better or worse.

She struggled to wake up again.

But it was no good--she was locked into this dreamscape now.

She began to hear Jean's thoughts.

"Scott..." she was calling. "Scott...where are you? I don't understand.... It's never been this hard to find you before.... Where...?"

Suddenly she turned and looked at Emma savagely.

"You!" she said.

Emma knew she was dead even before Jean did anything else.

She held up her hands... They felt as heavy as lead even in the dream.

"Jean, I had nothing to do with this--" she said. "Apocalypse, he brought me here."

"Liar!" Jean erupted, fire blazing up behind her. "This is your fault, isn't it?! Always you! Let me out of here, Emma! I want to wake up! Stop keeping me under."

"I'm not, Jean. I'm stranded here also." Emma tried to dodge the fire, not very successfully. "If you attack me here, you're playing into Apocalypse's hands... We should be helping each other. Where are you?"

"I don't know!" Jean yelled at her. "And you're lying! Where is Scott? What did you do to hide him from me?"

"Nothing!" Emma cried. "I did nothing! I can't even protect myself right now, you fool!"

But Jean was no more rational inside her mind than she was in person.

"Get out!" she screamed at Emma.

The scream turned into the screech of the Phoenix.

Perhaps that was just how Emma's mind associated Jean with it, since Jean wouldn't have had that power at all anymore--or any person who held the Phoenix was never quite the same, even once it was gone.

Whatever the case, Emma tried to block it, and suddenly she was falling instead. The floor had turned into a hole.

Jean didn't help her. She didn't even seem to notice what happened. Perhaps to her, Emma was just being expelled from the dream realm like an unwanted intruder.

"Scott!" she continued to call.

https://youtu.be/FO3yXqhTs0I

[Falling Inside The Black-- Skillet]

* * *

Scott didn't dream at all at first.

But gradually he started to feel like someone was calling him.

When he entered the dreamscape, it was not clear to him as to the telepaths, but he saw Jean, faintly, like through water.

"Jean?" he said, puzzled.

"Scott!" Jean cried, reaching out her hand. "Ah...I still can't get through to you completely...but you hear me, right? I've been trying and trying...to get through to someone...anyone."

"Jean...We didn't hear from you." Scott tried to move forward and found he hit some kind of barrier. "Where are you?"

"I can't show you..." Jean said, pressing at the barrier herself. "Not with this.... I don't know what's happening. This is the first time I've found anyone in my mind..."

"No one?" Scott said. "What about Emma?"

Jean suddenly looked at him a bit hostile. Even in the blurred focus, he could tell.

"What do you mean 'what about Emma?'" she said finally.

"She was trying to reach you." Scott didn't understand why she was angry. "All of you, she thought she got through to Xavier, but not you. We had given up.... Does this mean you're alive?"

"I'm alive," Jean said. "I'm here.... Xavier may be also, but I can't reach him. I tried to reach you...with our link. But...it didn't seem to be working."

"Oh..." Scott said. "About that..."

He never thought he'd have this conversation in a dream...but...

"What?" Jean said.

Then she frowned. "Wait..." She suddenly managed to lean forward.

"I don't sense it," she said. "Scott...what happened? Why isn't it here?"

"I...had it severed," Scott said.

"You what?!!" Jean's anger looked like fire on the other side of the barrier. Scott felt nothing, but it looked pretty bad even from where he was.

"I had to," he said, backing up, almost, in his mind. "Otherwise I couldn't have come to help."

"Oh, really?" Jean was livid. "That's why? I should have known. I should have known there was a reason I couldn't get through.... Scott, don't you see what you've done? Without that, I can't get through to your mind as easily.... I can't show you where I am...can't see where you are. Maybe if I could, I could break out of here.... I can't wake up."

"Jean, I'm sorry, but we're going to save you," Scott said. "It was the only way..."

"Sure," Jean said. "There wasn't any other way.... I think you just didn't want it anymore."

Now...Jean actually meant that to be passive aggressive.

But Scott took her at her word.

"Well...actually, no," he said.

"What?" Jean said.

"I was going to tell you this in person," Scott said. "But...well, you're here now, and...maybe I should explain.... I let the link get severed for two reasons. One was so I could come, but another was...so I could sleep...so I could stay sane. I'm sorry, Jean, but...it wasn't good for me. I see that now."

"I wasn't good for you?" Jean said.

"Not you...but...our connection...it was...it was unbalanced," Scott said. "I couldn't handle it. Something about it was just wrong. I'm sorry, but it was the only way to fix it. Don't be angry about it, please.... I didn't have a choice."

"I finally break through to you after trying for weeks," Jean said. "At least I think it's been weeks...and this is what you tell me? That you didn't want it after all? That you actually made this harder?"

"I had no idea you were trying," Scott said. "But it doesn't matter now. We're so close...if you can just hang on till tomorrow."

"Till tomorrow, huh?" Jean said. "And what next?... Next you'll be telling Emma Frost is a part of all this."

"She...she is," Scott said. "She's here...but, Jean, you have no idea what she's been through.... If you have any idea what's causing it...I mean...wherever you are, if you can sense it...you have to tell me."

"And why do I have to do that?" Jean said crisply. "Why not ask her? She was here a moment ago..."

"What?" Scott said. "She saw you?"

"Oh, yes," Jean said. "But I sent her away.... I didn't want her spying on me..."

"Jean, that could have been your chance to finally give us some answers. How could you do that?"

"Don't you talk to me that way! Why should I let someone in my head who tried to trick me? I'm surprised at you, Scott. You don't really trust that woman, do you?"

"Jean," Scott said, "Apocalypse, he's been trying to get inside her head.... Maybe he's in yours too."

"Apocalypse...who is that? That sounds made up."

"No, don't you remember? The Professor's message."

"To be honest, Scott, my memories are a little hazy right now," Jean said. "I don't know who you mean... I only recall that there is no reason I should trust Emma Frost...and you're making me wonder about you... I don't understand why you did this."

"I...thought I explained it pretty well." Scott finally began to get a little annoyed. "Jean, who knows how much time before this gets intercepted? We have to try to help each other."

"I don't think you're trying to help me at all," Jean said. "I can't sense anything from you... I think I only got into your mind because I was focused on that specifically... You weren't calling me, were you?"

"Why is that important?" Scott was exasperated. "What about the others? What about Emma? She's dying, Jean. Can't you try to help?"

Jean was silent for a moment.

"I didn't know she was dying," she said. "But are you sure? She might be lying again."

"I've been watching it, Jean!" Scott said. "I know what she did to you, but is it really worth this?"

Jean pursed her lips. "I can't save you...either of you. I can't even save myself.... I don't know how to help you, Scott."

Scott realized that was true.

"Yeah...yeah, you're right.... I'm sorry," he said. "I should have known you would have already if you could have."

Jean seemed to drift farther away. "I sense interference...not Frost, though...something else.... You're getting farther away, Scott..."

"Jean? No, fight it!" Scott said.

Suddenly Jean gasped, "Scott! Wake up! Quickly! Before it gets into your head also. Hurry, Scott! There's not much time!"

"Jean!" Scott tried to shoot blindly at whatever it was--but in a dream, his laser vision did nothing.

A dark hand seemed to come up from the floor and close around Jean's feet.

She tried to stop it with her fire.

"Jean!" Scott was alarmed.

A cold voice spoke. "Oh, don't worry, mutant... She's not going to die... She just needs to be put back to sleep... Not sure the same can be said of your other telepathic friend, however... Until tomorrow."

"What?" Scott said. "Come back here! Let both of them go."

The hand reached for him instead.

"Stop!" Jean's voice came more loudly, and fire seemed to consume the entire dreamscape--then it cut off sharply.

* * *

Scott woke up and fell out of the cot he'd been using, breathing hard.

His head was buzzing. He reached for his glasses and put them on.

The whole thing had been too real. He knew that Jean must actually have found him...and something had stopped her.

Then he realized that if Jean had found him, she'd probably found Emma too, and that last part was also true.

He scrambled up and dashed out of the room to the one Emma had been put in.

No time to call anyone else for help.

Thankfully the door was not locked.

Scott paused and looked around.

It took a second to see Emma. She wasn't in bed--she was standing by the window, which was human-sized and opened easily.

She had it open, in fact. Was she moving toward it?

"Emma!" Scott darted forward and grabbed her arm.

Emma stopped and turned to look at him, and her eyes weren't focused... She clearly wasn't seeing him.

Scott supposed that the psionic attack had gotten inside her head too.

He pulled her carefully back into the room and shook her. "Emma, come on, snap out of it. It's in your head! Please."

* * *

Emma was falling--

She was on the edge of a precipice, and at the bottom she just saw more darkness...

She felt if she plunged into that, she was going to fall into Apocalypse's grip.

But she couldn't stop! She had no control whatsoever over her movements.

She just wanted to wake up!

Then someone grabbed her and shook her.

The sensation finally broke through some of the psionic attack, as pain will do.

It still took a second for her to snap out of it completely, but she blinked, and finally she was back in the room, and she was by a window, and Scott was shaking her.

Emma gasped suddenly.

Scott stopped shaking her. "Are you awake?"

"I--"

Emma looked uneasily at the window.

"Was I going to jump out of that?" she said faintly.

"It looked like it..." Scott sounded pretty spooked.

"Oh...I see," Emma said, still faintly. "So...now they can just...do that..."

Her heart was pounding so fast she thought it was going to beat out of her chest.

"Just get down." Scott pulled her farther into the room.

Emma's legs gave out in earnest, and she sank to the floor.

Scott caught her part of the way down and sank down also.

"I wasn't trying to--" Emma began try to explain frantically. "I wasn't... It...it was... I was..."

"I know," Scott said. "I...saw something... It was like a dream, but...Jean was there, and so was Apocalypse... They mentioned you, though. I thought something must have happened."

"They did?" Emma said. Then she frowned. "Jean was there?"

"Yeah," Scott said. "She's wanted to reach me...but she couldn't."

"Oh..." Emma said. "I saw her also...but she pushed me out...and then...it was just...falling..."

"Jean pushed you out?" Scott said, with some ire.

"She thought it was a trick." Emma had no idea why she was defending Jean, but it seemed wrong to blame her. "It's not her fault... I wasn't sure if it was a trick either, but I get the sense it was her...though I didn't really sense her. But I don't think she knew about Apocalypse."

"No...but I think she does now," Scott said. "But...he said he was just putting her back to sleep. So...I guess she won't be contacting us again. She didn't know anything new."

He sounded disappointed.

Oddly enough, not as crushed as Emma would have expected. Perhaps he was just too shocked.

"That must have been disappointing for you," she said slowly. "I'm sorry."

"It's more frustrating." Scott didn't understand what she meant. "But...are you okay? Did he hurt you? In the dream."

"No, he just wanted to taunt me." Emma, now that she was thinking of it, started shaking violently. "It was a mistake falling asleep at all...I should have known that... It's all right now. He's gone..."

"You don't look all right," Scott said.

"I'm fine." Emma was the opposite of fine. "Go back to sleep. I'll..."

She glanced at her hands.

In the dim light, she almost thought they looked glassy...like she could see faint crack lines along them.

She blinked, and she didn't see anything... Now she was imagining things...

"I tried to tell Jean what happened," she said, vaguely. "But she didn't believe me... I can't blame her for that."

"I can," Scott said. "I can't believe she..." But then he trailed off.

"Did...did something go wrong?" Emma said oddly. "How long did you talk before...?"

"A few minutes. I mean...I think," Scott said. "I was trying to warn her, but she was just getting angry. Because of the link."

"Why would the link make her angry?" Emma was puzzled. "In fact, I can't think how she didn't get through sooner because of that. Why only now?"

"Because it wasn't there." Scott had actually clean forgotten that Emma didn't know about that.

"What?" Emma for a moment forgot her own fright.

"Oh...I never mentioned it, did I?" Scott realized. "Jean and my psionic link, it's gone."

"Gone? But...but you can't just get rid of that," Emma said. "Unless one of you died...or--" She stopped.

"Shine," Scott said.

"I might have known!" Emma said. "I might have known she'd get involved further! That woman--!"

"She helped, but it was my choice," Scott said. "It was for the best. She said I wouldn't be able to come on this mission if I kept it. Too dangerous... I think she was right. Seeing what's been happening to you here, if I had had that link in my head, I think I'd have gone under almost immediately. Apocalypse almost reached my mind... Jean stopped it, but, if we were connected...I don't think she could have."

"Oh my," Emma gasped. "Just like before... Do you think that's why he attacked you? Maybe he's afraid you'll pull Jean out of his control."

"Maybe," Scott said. "Or he just likes attacking people weaker than him. I don't really care what the reason is now." He sounded mad. "I'm just sick of it."

"Well, all of us are," Emma said.

She wished she'd stop shaking! 

"Do you want me to get Shine?" Scott asked. "Maybe she can help. You're still not okay."

"No, let her rest," Emma said. "She needs it... It's just the after effects..."

She shook her head. "It was so close this time..."

"Emma..." Scott said sadly. "I'm sorry."

"Sorry? Sorry for what?" Emma said.

"Back with the Phoenix. I should have listened," Scott said. "Maybe then you wouldn't have had to do what you did, and this wouldn't have happened to you."

"That's not your fault," Emma said. "I made a choice."

"But you shouldn't have had to."

"You of all people, Scott, ought to know sometimes we have to," Emma said. "Anyway...I'm not sorry I did it."

She shivered more. "Not that I'd ever repeat that experience...but my reasons for it haven't changed. Don't pity me... I can't stand pity. I can decide for myself what to do. I don't need you to tell me if it was okay or not. It was my mess. I had to fix it."

"I could have been easier on you about it."

"I could have explained. Both of us were stubborn about it. Perhaps we both should just leave it alone... It doesn't matter anymore."

"I guess not," Scott said. "Just wish I didn't regret so much about all this."

"Well, so do I," Emma said. "But wishing won't make it different than it was."

A pause.

"Jean must have been relieved, though," Emma said. "To finally get through."

"Yeah...for a moment," Scott said. "Then she was angry."

Pause.

"She should understand why," Emma said. "What choice did you have?"

"Jean doesn't see it that way," Scott said faintly.

Emma interpreted this as him being worried about it.

"Well, she'll come around," she said.

"Emma, do you really want to talk about Jean right now?" Scott asked. "After what just happened? I'm more concerned about you."

Emma was shocked to hear that.

Though under the circumstances, that was an entirely reasonable reaction. She had almost hurled herself out a window in a trance induced by psionic force.

But leave it to Emma to downplay that.

"I just don't want to talk about it," she said slowly.

"You could try not being tough just for once," Scott said in a quiet voice. "Maybe it'd be a relief... I wish I could stop this..."

Tears pricked Emma's eyes.

She struggled to hold them back.

She'd already cried earlier. She was not going to do it again!

No, she was! Dang it!

"Maybe you should leave," she said, trying to hold back.

"After that?" Scott wasn't about to leave Emma alone. "Not unless someone else comes in here."

"Don't wake up the others," Emma said. "I'm fine, I told you."

"And I don't buy it," Scott said. "I'm not stupid, Emma. You can lie to me about a lot of things, but this is a little too obviously a lie."

Was he...actually sassing her?

Ah, that was just cute.

Ah snap out of it! Emma told herself sharply.

Who knew Scott had it in him though? 

Finally that was enough to push her over the edge. She wasn't ready for that kind of attack.

"You're impossible!" she said, before bursting into tears. "Go away!"

But of course Scott didn't go away.

Crying made Emma shake more.

Scott, not sure what else to do, finally just pulled her closer to try to steady her and let her cry it out.

Emma didn't fight this. She didn't have the energy to do so. She just kept sobbing.

[😢]