Your Choice (Book Three)

Cold Fingertips

Emmeline breathes out and watches her breath dissipate through the air. When she was younger she would pretend to be a dragon when it became this cold but now she is grown up and sad sitting on her own doorstep. She tried, she really did. She tried to get him to see it her way but he wasn't listening, he had made up his mind. She has never experienced anything quite like it. The way her name changed from Em to Emmeline in just a short conversation, how his delicate face turned harsh and angry. She has never seen her best friend like that before and they have known each other since they were infants. She sighs and gently closes her eyes as the cold hits her fingertips making her fingers tingle. She should probably go inside, in the warm but she knows that they will frown.

They think that she had gone to visit her mum, they would never agree to let her go and see him after the cold shoulder he has been giving her. The way he shouted. "It was your choice!" She hears him roar again and again at the back of her mind. He is right. It was her choice but it was the right choice to make.

She tightens her arms around herself to try and conserve the last of her body heat, the warmth of the indoors only a few steps behind her. She doesn't want to face it. All she wants to do is run, run as far away as fast as she without any responsibility. Away from everyone. Away from everything. Away from the limelight. Going to the States isn't going to solve that, in fact it will probably make it worse but she is doing it for the two people, kind people, who brought her up. Her fathers.

She knows that she wouldn't be able to cope without them, she loves them too much. The option of living with her mum and brother is quite a valid one but she doesn't know them well enough. Not yet.

The front door is pulled open behind her and she feels the heat escaping as it hugs her quivering body. "Darling please come inside." Tom's gentle voice asks but he receives no response, she continues to just sit with her eyes shut on the doorstep. He sighs and peers back inside the house at Benedict who is standing helplessly in the hallway with a puzzled expression. "We know that you went to see Max. Elli phoned us." Just the sound of his name makes her want to cry because she loves him, she really does.

"I-I-I was just trying to do what is right." Her voice shakes as tears threaten to spill. Tom looks down at the ground sorrowfully before pulling the door shut and taking a seat next to his daughter. He puts his arm around her and gasps.

"Emmy you're freezing!" He exclaims, "We need to get you inside right now." But she doesn't budge, she just remains in her frozen posture like she has given up.

"I don't know what to do." She states and sinks into her father's figure, being welcomed by the warmth.

"It's your choice." He mumbles making her jump up from her seat.

"Stop saying that!" She yells, "Why is it my choice?! I am just a child!" Her breathing becomes shallow as she starts to pull at her hair. Immediately Tom is at her side embracing her, capturing in a bear hug. He feels responsible to putting her under too much pressure, he should have just said no to Benedict. No to America. No to all that.

"I'm sorry." He says softly and kisses her head when he hears the sound of footsteps coming up the drive. He looks up over her head and is surprised to see Max approaching with a bouquet of red roses. "Someone is here to see you." Emmeline pulls away and turns when Max is only metres away. Neither teenager says a word. They are too frightened. "I am going to leave you two to it." Tom announces and reopens the front door to meet Benedict with open arms.

Emmy and Max stand there in the cold only a couple of metres apart but to them it feels like a mile. "I am so sorry Em." He announces with a shifty look on his face, fumbling the bouquet between his fingers. "I shouldn't have said those horrible things; I am just so scared about losing you." He speaks truthfully as he takes a step forward; slowly but surely closing the distance between them.

"You're not going to lose me." She pipes as her hands continue to quake.

"I know that now." They are now less than a metre apart and Emmeline wants to embrace him, his body heat is taunting her. "It is just...we have always been there for each other. Ever since I was born. The thought of you not being there is just, unimaginable." He tries to scratch the back of his neck when he remembers the flowers in his hands so he holds them out to her. She takes them with her purple blue fingers and inspects their beauty. They truly are beautiful.

"Thank you." She says and looks up to him with tears in her eyes.

"Come here." He holds out his arms and she embraces him but he immediately gasps in shock at how cold she is. "You are freezing. We have to get you inside right now."

"No." She states, "You are warming me up." Emmy buries herself deeper into the hug to conserve any of the body heat that she has left.

"I love you Em." He kisses the top of her head.

"I love you too." She mumbles against his chest.

"Come on we have to get you inside; you will catch your death out here." She untangles herself from him and lets herself be led inside by his warm hand.

\~.~.~.~.~/

"We have to do something Ben." Tom mutters under the covers of their bed as Benedict takes off his slippers and slides in next to him. "This is tearing her apart." The older man frowns at the sadness in his husband's voice and hugs him tightly with a kiss on the forehead.

"Don't worry love." He soothes, "We will think of something, we always do." This is a true statement; Emmeline has always been a fragile child. Doctors and psychologists think it could be the trauma she suffered as a new born or perhaps the regular media intrusions on her life. They tried to stop the press having any access into her life but there was nothing else they could do, so instead they suggested being completely public which surprisingly stopped the press intrusion. Emmy has told them many times that she doesn't mind the paparazzi too much, they just frustrate her sometimes.

"What can we do?" Tom questions, "We are moving thousands of miles away from our home, she is desperate to be with us and not be left yet pulling her away from Max is just heart breaking." He takes a deep breath. "It is breaking him as well as her."

"I am sure that Elli and Nate can cope with-" He stops abruptly as an idea hatches in his mind making him grin.

"What is it?" Tom asks with his brow furrowed.

"Are we idiots?" Benedict starts to chuckle, "Don't worry TW, I have a plan."

A/n so hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii it has been a while hasn't it? XD 

I am so sorry about that ^.^ I have had mock exams and all sorts of other stuff going on but I am here now.

Now let's be serious for a second...are you being serious yet?...

This book only has another two parts left and that is the end of this Hiddlesbatch trilogy :( which is a really strange thing to think as it started August 2014 :o

Thank you for all you guys who have lasted to the end. *Achievement unlocked* I really do appreciate it.

Please give this chapter a vote if you think its worthy and a comment would be nice, I love to read them! <3

~Mae xXx