Sandbox Love Never Dies

Heal

(I listened to this song primarily while writing this chapter! y'all don't have to listen to it if you don't want, I just wanted to include it lmao)

Warning: This chapter mentions physical & emotional abuse/ trauma + implied r/pe so if you are under 16, then I recommend not reading this chapter but if you think you can handle it, by all means, help yourself but don't say I didn't warn you.

I should probably add this since I didn't in the beginning, but for the sake of this fan fiction, Zoe and Madison are both 18 as opposed to being 17 like they are on the show.

When she woke up the next morning, she was laying in bed all alone. She panicked slightly but then realized that Madison was probably just at classes, like she knew she should be, but her stomach was clenching fiercely and she barely felt like moving an inch so classes would just have to be something she attended tomorrow and she hoped that Cordelia would understand why she didn't attend. She heard the doorknob turn and she raised her head just in time to see the blonde walk through the doorway and shut the door behind her. She walked over to her and placed one hand on her cool forehead.

"Doesn't feel like you have a fever but let me go raid the medicine cabinet just to be sure." She said before turning to leave but she caught her wrist in her hand, preventing her from leaving.

"Lay with me." Zoe muttered quietly as she shifted and turned onto her side, waiting for the bed beside her to dip but to her disappointment, it didn't. She turned over to face the older girl but she was disappointed once more to see that she had disappeared, presumably to go find medicine for her, which really was a complete relief as she felt like shit and wanted to hide in the confines of the bedroom all day and night long. When Madison returned to the room, she shut the door behind her and padded over to the bed, holding a glass of water and a few colored tablets in the other and she held them out to her, waiting patiently for her to swallow them so she could place the empty cup on the nightstand and sit on the edge of the bed.

"It's too bad that you're sick Zo, I was really hoping that we could go catch a movie or something tonight. Maybe there's a herbal tea or something that you can drink to help cope with your illness better because being in this house is driving me crazy and you're the only person that I can actually tolerate being around at the moment." She looked sad, but there was also something else affecting her, and so Zoe sat up and grabbed her hand, giving it a tight squeeze.

"You can talk to me about anything, you know that right?" Madison looked up at her with those big green eyes and a flash of hesitancy flickered across her pupils but she nodded once, bringing their joined hands to her mouth and pressing a kiss to the soft skin on the back of her hand, which smelled faintly of lavender and vanilla.

"Hey, look at me. Madison, I'm here for you always okay? I'm not leaving you ever again you understand me? I'm here." Zoe brushed Madison's hair away from her face and she wrapped her arms around the blonde's frail shoulders and pulled her to her chest, pressing a kiss to the crown of her head as she felt her body slightly heave as her tears stained the material of Zoe's shirt but she could care less, all she cared about was the girl who was holding onto her as if she would float away if she let her go. She comforted her and stroked her hair until her crying quieted and she slowed pulled herself out of the brunette's embrace, instantly finding her hand and turning towards her with puffy and red eyes.

"Um this is really hard for me to talk about but after you left, my parents, more specifically my father, started staying at home more often and it became nearly unbearable for me to be there. It was my dad who pushed me into pursuing becoming an actress and it was him who paid those boys to..." Madison trailed off, her hands starting to violently shake and Zoe reached forward to grip her small hands in her own, trying to show her that she was there for her, and it seemed to work.

"Anyways, my father was a greedy asshole and he allowed those boys, my costars and any other boy he saw fit, to beat me if I didn't follow his orders. The worst thing is my mom knew, and she did nothing to stop it because she was so afraid of my dad. After a while, I became numb to it all and that's when the sleeping around and drug addiction started. I did anything possible to feel anything, whether it was to fuck around with females and males alike or snort cocaine up my nose until I was so high I forgot who I was but nothing worked. In fact, it made things worse. I was numb and addicted to cocaine, which is nothing I planned, I just tried to feel anything no matter what the emotion was. But the truth was that I was completely and utterly alone, and that in return made me become an empty vessel, a shell of who I was when I still had you. That was a dark time period in my life, and I wanted to blame you so badly for it, but I just couldn't bring myself to do that. Until I started to feel things, more specifically anger, and I found it easy to blame it all on you, so that's what I did. I'm so sorry for that Zoe, I am so fucking sorry." Tears welled up in her eyes for the third time and she swiped at them, cursing herself for smearing her mascara even more. Madison Montgomery was not one to cry, especially three times in the span of 15 minutes, but the doe eyed brunette looking at her with sad eyes made her vulnerable, and made her safe. She never trusted anyone as much as she trusted Zoe when she was younger, and somehow through all the time they had spent apart, that trust had remained intact and had only grown from the moment they had reunited with one another.

"It's okay baby, you don't have to apologize for that. I understand why you chose to blame me for what happened, and I'm so incredibly sorry I wasn't there for you like I promised to be. Madison, I love you." The words hung between them and the air started to become thick before she closed the sliver of space between them and captured the blondes lips in a kiss. She pushed her fingers through the strands of her hair and twisted slightly, holding her face firmly with her free hand. She was scared, she really was, but she was trying so hard to help the older witch face her fears, and so she thought it was only fair to face her own fears as well. Zoe had always been bad at love, whether it was a boy or a girl who was her significant other, it ended the same way every time. She was scared to have sex with said boy or girl, and they would get impatient or tired and would either dump her or cheat on her which was an automatic breakup anyways. She was still a virgin because of her fear of love, and she was determined to change that. She loved the girl sitting in front of her, heart and soul, and she was determined to prove that in any way possible, even if it meant facing her fear of falling in love.

A/N: another poorly written ending to a good ass chapter SKSKKS but finally chapter 6 of SLNV is here! I appreciate your patience and I hope this is enough for y'all until we get to the steamy but also really cute stuff which is for sure happening in chapter 7 bc i'm pretty sure I'm ending this fic after 8 chapters. Votes and comments are appreciated and are huge motivators to help me get off my lazy ass to write for y'all so yeah,, that's basically it lmao thanks for all of the support and i love you guys very much!