Set Me Free

"...she died a long time ago."

"Who fixes broken people? Is it only other broken people, ones who've already been ruined? And do we need to be fixed? It was the messiness and hurt in our pasts that drove us, and that same hurt connected us at a subdermal level, the kind of scars written so deeply in your cells that you can't even see them anymore, only recognize them in someone else."

Daniel's POV

She ran.

He watched her turn her back on him and leave him there to watch her leave him. This isn't how he expected their reunion to go.

Last night, seeing her there on the floor had scared the life out of him. More so than his father, more so than losing his mother. Seeing Elizabeth there, unconscious and at the mercy of anyone had almost stopped his heart.

This isn't how he imagined he would find her.

He imagined her to be happy, to have moved on, to maybe have met someone new. The thing he feared most about this trip was seeing Elizabeth with someone else to love. He never imagined he would find her like this.

As he had picked her up off the floor, he could smell the alcohol coming off her in waves. She was clearly drunk where she had passed out. He was surprised not to find anyone with her, usually Holly would have been there if her friend was in need. Last night, Elizabeth was truly alone.

He had laid there for hours last night, watching her as she slept. She stirred a couple of times throughout the night, letting out muffled cries before turning over and drifting back to sleep. Clearly what had happened was still haunting her nightmares.

He didn't expect her to be over it, it was something he believed you never truly got over, however he didn't expect her to be this caught up in it still.

He guessed that he must have been deluded to think that him leaving would have been her cure. To think that leaving town, and Elizabeth, behind would have magically made everything better was naïve of him. She was still going to be living through it, still trying to put herself back together once again.

I guess she wasn't there yet.

He prayed that last night was a one off, one night where she drank too much to let off some steam. For some reason, he didn't believe what he was telling himself.

He feared that this was an ongoing problem, one that he was determined to help her fix.

He starts walking in the direction she had ran, but is stopped by a hand on his arm.

Chloe holds him back. He was so caught up in Elizabeth, he didn't even realise she was standing there.

"Give her some space," she tells him, "it must have been a shock for her. I mean she not only woke up somewhere unfamiliar, but she also came face to face with you again. I imagine she'll need time to get her head around it."

He listens to her. Chloe was always the voice of reason, ready and waiting with sensible advice.

He could give her space, he could let her accept him being back, but after that, she was going to have to face him again.

Daniel barely slept that night.

Every time he closed his eyes, he saw Elizabeth laying there with that man standing over her. He always believed that she was so strong, that she could make it through anything. He never imagined that he would find her this way.

He didn't know how this had happened, how she had fallen to rock bottom, but he was going to help her climb back out. He didn't care how long it took him or how much work he needed to put into it. He just needed Elizabeth back, to be the girl he had fallen in love with.