Finding Emma

Staying Away

Friday comes along pretty quickly. Emma dreads the weekends because she has to be at home dealing with God knows what. On the weekends Emma does her best to stay out of the house and away from Mike. Even though Mike spends most of his time at the bar, his behavior is unpredictable no matter if he is sober or not. Emma and Cassie were walking home after school and Emma saw a sign advertising Martina McBride's "The Waking Up Laughing Tour" with Little Big Town. The show that night was at a venue in Nashville. Emma is a huge fan of Martina and Little Big Town. Emma is really good and being unnoticed. She heads home right away and asks Kelly if she could stay at a Cassie's house this weekend. Of course Kelly agrees, she will do anything to keep Emma away from Mike as much as possible even if Kelly is the one paying the price. Emma says thank you and runs upstairs and packs a backpack with all the necessities she needs for a weekend away from home. Emma says bye to Kelly and heads out the door, but not to Cassie's house.

 Emma knows her way around Nashville pretty well. It was about 4:00 and she heads to the venue Martina's tour is at. She walks around it a few times to find a way to get in without being noticed. She found a door around back and got around the security guard and walked right in. She was very cautious walking around inside the venue. As she was walking around she caught a glimpse of the stage and saw Little Big Town doing sound check. She was watching for a little bit then a security guard saw her. She took off running down the hallway. 

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The band was just finishing up their sound check. They headed back to their dressing room to hang out and chat before the show at 8:00. They each were talking about what their dinner plans were for the night. Kimberly and Rebecca were playing with the babies on the floor. Daisy was starting to get fussy. "Oh shoot, I left Daisy's nook out on the bus" Kimberly stated. "Where is it? I can run out and get it." Jimi offered. "It is in the back by the bunks. Thanks Jimi!" Kimberly replied. "No problem." Jimi said back. Jimi went out to the bus to fetch the nook. Jimi jogged back to the dressing room. As he was turning the corner Emma comes flying around the corner and collided into Jimi. Emma flew to the other side of the hallway and smacked her forehead on the corner of the wall and started gushing blood. "Oh my gosh, are you OK sweetie?" Jimi asked as he rushed over to Emma who was lying on the ground. "I am so sorry I shouldn't have been running I am so so sorry!" Emma apologized profusely. "Hey, it's alright it was no ones fault." replied Jimi sympathetically. The security guards caught up to Emma and apologized to Jimi about the disturbance. "We are so sorry Mr. Westbrook, we aren't sure how she got in here, but we will get her out of your hair right away." said one of the guards. "No, no it's fine you don't have to do that. I am going to help her get cleaned up. You guys don't have to worry about it." Said Jimi. "Alright then" Replied the guard and walked away.

Jimi helped Emma up. "My wife is pretty good at dealing with injuries since I am not the most careful person." Jimi told Emma and she giggled a bit. They started walking down the hall to the dressing room. "What is your name?" Jimi asked. "Emma" "That's a nice name. You know Martina McBride's daughter is named Emma?" Jimi asked. Emma giggled again "I did actually, I did a presentation in my music class earlier this year on her." Jimi chuckled. "So how did you manage to get around the security in this place anyways?" asked Jimi. "Well, I may have done this more than once." replied Emma. They both laughed. 

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They had finally reached the dressing room. "Jimi, what took you so long?" Asked Kimberly as soon as he walked in the door. "I was getting worried." Jimi gave Daisy her nook and introduced Emma to everyone. Emma was overwhelmed to say the least. She was a big fan of the band, but never did she think that she would ever meet them and this certainly wasn't the way she wanted to meet them, with a huge cut on her forehead and blood dripping down her face. Everyone just sat their silently and looked at poor Emma. "Jimi, what did you do?" Karen asked sternly. "I was running back here and Emma here was escaping security and we ran into each other and she hit her head on the corner of the wall and I was hoping you could fix her." said Jimi. " Rebecca got up and got some paper towels to help clean up the blood. "Figures, always needing Karen to fix your problems" said Schlap and everyone giggled. "Come over here sweetie." said Karen sweetly. Karen was doing her best to try to control the bleeding, but it just wouldn't stop. "Jimi, I think she needs stitches, she wont stop bleeding." Karen said to Jimi sounding worried. Emma herself was getting worried. She couldn't go to the hospital, then Kelly would know what she was really doing and then Mike would find out and who knows what would happen if he found out. She would need a lot more than stitches that's for sure. "Emma, we should probably call your parents." Karen said. "NO! They will get mad at me. Besides they don't have good health insurance so they wouldn't be able to afford it anyway" Emma lied, about the health insurance anyways. "Sweetie we have to take you to the hospital." Karen told her. "Just give me a band-aide, I'll be fine." cried Emma. Karen gave her some more paper towel to hold on her cut. Everyone else went back to the bus because the babies needed to eat so it was just the three of them left in the dressing room. Karen lead Jimi out into the hall. "Babe we need to get her to the hospital, her forehead wont stop bleeding." Karen stated. "I know, what should we do?" asked Jimi. "We should just take her and pay for it ourselves so her parents wont even have to find out because I have a feeling there is a lot more going on with her than just not having good insurance based on that reaction she gave me when I even mentioned going to the hospital." said Karen. "I agree, lets go talk to her." replied Jimi. 

Karen and Jimi walked back into the dressing room. "Emma we are going to take you to the hospital to get your forehead checked out." " NO! Please no, I can't go to the hospital, please don't!" cried Emma. "Emma, it's OK, we are going to cover everything. Your parents don't have to know." said Karen in a calming voice. "Foster parents." said Emma softly with her head down. Jimi and Karen looked at her sympathetically. There was a few moments of silence before Jimi said "Why don't we get that cut checked out." They still had quite a bit of time before the show so they went and told the others what was going on and took Emma to the hospital.