Painkiller

15

"C'mon, Lena. We're here."

Luke shook his sister's shoulder, and she groggily opened her eyes. She yawned, rubbing at her eyes and stretching, and Luke's heart melted. Elena didn't deserve any of this.

    She slid out of the car after her brother, stumbling once her feet hit the floor, before following him and Michael inside the building. Luke wrapped an arm around her shoulders, pulling her close to him. He nodded towards the receptionist, while Michael shouted a hi - they knew where they were going and she knew who they were.

    Elena yawned again as Michael pushed open a door to reveal the studio room they were working in, along with Calum and Ashton inside. They laughed at the tired state of the girl, but stopped once they were at the end of Luke Hemmings' glare. That wasn't a pretty sight.

    The room was huge, split into two by glass running down the mirror. On one side was a recording room - filled with instruments and microphones - and on the other side, a huge panel filled with buttons and knobs with a desk chair sat behind it. In the middle of the room was a round table, with a couple of chairs surrounding it, and sofas lined the walls. The room was bright and lit well, it's white walls making it seem bigger.

    Luke guided Elena towards the sofa along the back wall, pushing her down onto it gently. Luke sits next to her, and she leant her head against his shoulder. He wrapped his arm around her, gently rubbing her arm.

    Michael had taken the rest of the boys to the other side of the room, hoping to give the siblings privacy.

"Sleep, Lena. I'll wake you up when we're finished - we'll be staying late tonight, anyway."

Elena yawned in response, burying herself into her brother's chest as he held her. Soon enough, her breathing evened out, and Luke gently moved her so that she was lying on the sofa and not on him. Her body immediately curled up into a ball, and Luke pulled off his jacket and placed it over her body.

"Luke?"

Luke turned around to look at his band mates. Calum has asked the question, and confusion was clearly written across his face, as was Ashton. Michael, although he had experienced Elena's panic attack, was still unsure of the situation - panic attacks made him tired, but never this tired.

"She had a panic attack in the car on the way here." Luke threw himself down into one of the desk chairs surrounding the round table as he answered the table, a sigh escaping his lips.

"But panic attacks never make me that tired, Luke."

Luke looked up at Michael. "Elena hasn't been sleeping. She keeps getting nightmares, I guess. She says she can see the crash. She ends up in my bed every night." The boys had now moved so that they were all sat at the table. Luke put his head in his hands. "I don't know how to help. I don't know how to fix it." The poor man sounded so helpless and so lost.

Ashton put a hand on his friend's - brother - shoulder, an attempt at reassuring him. "You'll work it out. And you've got all of us, and we wanna help, too."

Calum nodded, and Michael responded with a hell yeah! and a grin. Luke looked up, a weak smile on his face. "Thanks guys."

Ashton smiled back. A comfortable silence settled over the group, broken after a few moments.

"Now, lets make some sick beats!"