#refusetheflames

The two rode back to the institute in a car similar to the one on their prior trip to the college in New York. As they got closer to the school they resided at, Warren turned to Emma and made a semi casual comment asking about the ‘trick’ she pulled before the hotel. He signaled the driver to pull over in a spot a bit before the school, and turned back to look at Emma again. “Well, we can’t have you seen sneaking back in, can we?” 

“Certainly not,” Emma agreed. She performed a quick psi-scan of the school, determining who was where and the best path to avoid anyone with telepathic immunity. She doubted anyone paid much attention to the security cameras unless their was an incident, otherwise she would have been caught at least once in the past, as would Sharon. “I’ll cloak us,” she said, filling her arms with remnants from her dorm and approaching the door.

Warren nodded to her simultaneously with speaking, “Good.”. He knew that was really all the acknowledgement she needed for cloaking them at the moment. As he followed up close behind her, carrying the rest of her things, he tried to fight back a small feeling of worry that they might yet be caught. The two kept walking, with Emma’s guidance to avoid any who might uncover them, and finally after not long, reached Emma’s room. “Well, we made it..” he said softly. Blowing out a breath of relief.

“Did you doubt me?” Emma asked lightly. She placed the boxes and bag on her bed and took a look around the room. The furniture was standard dorm decor, along with the provided sheets and comforter. Under her pillow was a hardcover book, hidden inside of which was the Mother’s Day card made by Sharon. There were few visible personal touches besides the espresso machine sitting atop the dresser and a handful of drawings of Sharon’s taped to the wall. It wasn’t that she didn’t care to decorate, she just didn’t have the money or ability to go out and shop.

Her backpack sat on the bedside stand, a faux-leather bag stamped with the words “PARENTAL ADVISORY: EXPLICIT CONTENT”. It had been a gag gift from Rebecca, one of the other dancers at the Hellfire Club after she learned that no one at ESU knew where she worked or what she did for a living. She never used it on campus, preferring to keep a low profile, but used it to bring her things back and forth from the club to her dorm. It just happened to be the bag she was carrying the day she was arrested.

One of the images on the wall hung lower than the others, seeming slightly out of place. It was a drawing of a purple cat and the words “C is for Catseye.” Emma was proud enough to tape it on the wall, something her own parents never did for her, although it secretly served another purpose: underneath the drawing was another, scribbled directly onto the wall the first day Sharon discovered crayons.

Emma began unloading the boxes, placing the photo of her graduation day on the nightstand, and the photo of Cordelia in the drawer. She put photo in the shattered frame of herself and Astrid in the closet and chuckled quietly. “My own skeleton in the closet, huh?” she commented. She put the clothes on hangers, although they’d need to be washed to remove the wrinkles, and folded others, placing them in her drawers. Matilda and Sleeping Beauty also went in the bedside stand, and she felt the warmth of excitement at the idea of getting to read them to Sharon.

“I didn’t doubt you. Chance, was my concern.” Warren answered back. He watched as she started to set up and put away her now reclaimed possessions in the room, and he looked around carefully at everything. He quickly took in the various drawings which Sharon had drawn, and it hit him how much, and what she really felt for the young girl. He wasn’t sure whether to mention them, or her. Whether that might just cause some hurt for her, as he knew Sharon was still stuck in observation at the moment. As he looked around further, his eyes caught on the backpack sitting by the bed. Warren’s eyebrows raised as he glanced over at Emma, “parental advisory, huh? Mind explaining that one” he said with a laugh.

Hearing her quip about the photo of her and her former roommate, a serious look came over his face. “Seriously, Emma??”. A face which only lasted for a few moments before he seemed to almost grin before losing it again. “That was awful. Good, but awful.” he said, finally chuckling quietly. “You should be proud, you know..” he said more seriously, and in obvious reference to the girl who’s drawings adorned her wall.

Emma rolled her eyes. Of course he noticed the bag. “One of my co-workers thought it was just hilarious that no one from school knew about my then-current profession and decided to give me that as a ‘back to school’ gift. Anne and Rebecca were there before me, so naturally when I auditioned at eighteen, I was the baby and they could never let me forget it.” Her voice was wistful, though. She missed them, missed having people to talk to who didn’t judge her for the decisions she had to make.

Emma chuckled along with him. “I know, it was awful. But it was a little funny, you’ve got to give me that.” Her smile faded. “I am very proud of her. I wish she wasn’t suffering for my error in judgment. I managed to keep her out of Observation for so long, and now… she can barely read at a first grade level, do you really think she’s getting any education? She hasn’t even figured out how to tie her shoes and can barely button her clothes. How can they expect her to improve on her own down there? She never had a chance.” Emma, despite the way she tried to hide her emotions, was clearly devastated. Her form seemed to flicker, one moment flesh, the next a shimmering diamond surface threatened to take over. “I ruined it for her.”

“From their perspective, it could have been a little..” he suggested. Mostly just an attempt to tease her further over it. As she started the talk about Sharon, Warren noticed that at some point, Emma started seemingly flickering back and forth between herself and that diamond form she had been stuck in not long ago. and he felt a sinking feeling in his stomach. Not just because of her transformation soon at hand, but also because the tone in her voice, and the emotion she felt about the situation. which was causing this transformation to a form that wouldn’t feel them. “Hey.. it’s all going to be okay, right? You haven’t ruined things for her..” he said, trying to reassure her. “They can’t keep her long. I think. It rightfully was a misunderstanding.” he let these words sink in before speaking again, “we can argue that.”

“Do you think they care? Her entire life, no one has cared for her. When she got here, no one cared for her. Finally, finally she was making progress and even made a friend, and that’s been taken from her. Do you know what she said when I visited her? She tried to convince me she wasn’t scared because it was almost like the sewers. She was alone, and underground, and couldn’t leave, and that was supposed to make it less scary.” Emma couldn’t hold back her tears from the agonizing guilt she felt. She tried furiously to stay out of her diamond form, because if she’d gotten control of that sooner, Sharon wouldn’t have been put in Observation. The only way she could succeed was to do the opposite of what her diamond form wanted by throwing herself wholeheartedly into her emotions. She sat down on the bed, grabbed a pillow, and sobbed into it.

“Emma..it’s not your fault.” he said slowly. Seeing how upset she was, it was clear to him that she did carry a lot of guilt over the whole thing, and he remembered back to what she had told the girl about consequences. Warren walked over to the bed and sat down on it beside her. Not disturbing her, but just sitting there. He wasn’t sure how she would take it, but he knew that sometimes… sometimes, having someone actually close by, helped. “I know you feel responsible for this, and for what you told her. but you can’t blame yourself. I’m sure they will let her go soon.. they have to.. and she will need you when she is back.”

Warren’s words helped, but could not relieve her of the guilt. Not just Sharon, but everyone she had failed before her. Emma nodded and leaned on Warren’s shoulder, allowing herself to cry until she felt under control again.

###

Emma knocked eagerly on Warren’s door. It was the next day, and the last several hours were filled with the sounds of his new furniture being installed. The crew had left, and Emma could hardly wait to see how the pieces she chose looked. “Let me see!”

Warren heard the knock and quickly moved to open it. Seeing Emma, he smiled at her words as he turned and moved aside to let her in. “Well, what do you think?!"  The pieces of furniture were all dark wood. The bed, being a queen size in order to work well with his wings was covered with a grey colored comforter that left the currently red sheets and pillows visible, all fitting well with the newly charcoal grey painted wall. It had two built in drawers at the foot, sat resting on the wall they looked on at from the doorway. To the left of the bed as they looked sat an end tablet that held a lamp as well as a framed photo. Across, on the opposite wall was the dresser. Matching color to the other pieces, and having six drawers, the dresser also had a few items scattered across the top of it. At the moment only a few books and an article he had printed out for something, but that tended to change. The dresser, much like the other furniture still had a faint hint of that 'new and polished wood' smell.

“It looks great!” Emma exclaimed. “It’s only natural, since I did the shopping,” she added with a playfully smug grin. She took a deep breath, enjoying the smell of the fresh paint and wood polish, and walked through the room, examining the picture frame and books as she passed them. Unfortunately there was nothing quite as embarrassing as her Harry Potter collection. “Damn, no blackmail. Oh well.”