Distract and Sedate | Hemlock Grove |

Chapter 17 | Poke |

Emma is discharged early the next morning. Her mom, without hesitation, drives her straight to the hotel. She hadn't been here in months, and wonders when Roman was last here. It's completely plausible that he had to come to Philadelphia and just didn't tell her. She wonders if he did, did Miranda come with him?

The hotel room looks barely used. A weekender bag sits on the desk and the bed is made. She takes a seat on the edge of it and bounces a leg. "Are you leaving today?"

"Probably tomorrow," Kay says as she sets down the paper bags from the hospital pharmacy. "We'll need some time to get our ducks in a row."

"Do I need to get a doctor excuse from the hospital? I'm sure my professors know by now."

"No, of course not. I've got all the paperwork sent over to the school," Kay says. "We have to get up and go see your advisor at 10:00 tomorrow."

"Why?" Emma questions.

"He's going to talk to the dean about your records, or something, and make sure the transition is smooth."

"He doesn't really have to do that," she says. She's eager for her mom to go back home so things can get back to normal. "I can handle it. I'm only missing a couple days."

"Emma," her mom says seriously. "You can't actually think you're going back to class like this."

"Like what?"

"How are you going to do your classwork? You can't write or type, you haven't even gotten a CT scan yet. No neurologist would let you go back to class now."

"I'm not coming home," she says with a nervous laugh. Her face drops when the severity of the situation hits. "I'm not coming home, Mom."

"This isn't up for debate, Emily," she says sternly as tensions rise. "You have no way of completing this semester. You can't even write for God's sake."

"You don't get to make that decision! I'm not a child!" Emma's voice raises.

"You are a child!" Kay exclaims. "You are my child, and I'll be damned if I let you stay here! Do you know what it's like to get a call at 4 in the morning that your kid's in the ER? No, you don't! But I spent all of last year waiting on that call-"

"Mom-"

"Do you think I can't put two and two together? Maybe the police can't, but I can. Where are your bruises? They keep saying you slipped. You should have a back covered in bruises, but you don't. You were a drunk girl wandering around on campus in the middle of the night. It's pretty obvious to me what happened. And until that school does a real investigation to find out who did this, you are not going back."

"You don't know what you're talking about," Emma growls. The muscles in her chest clench and her mouth twitches. Her natural reflex was to put up a fight. But she's tired, and she's dizzy, and her arm aches. Perhaps Roman had been right, maybe she was too eager to pick fights. Even when she knew she was wrong.

"When you figure out a better solution you let me know, okay?"

....

Roman paces his hotel room with a glass in hand. He's not sure why he came here in the first place. He'd received Kay Parker's phone call in the middle of the night. She'd only called him a handful of times before- are you coming for Emma's birthday dinner? Have you heard from my daughter? Tell her to call me.

None in the middle of the night.

He had intended to reach over and ignore the call- fuck Pryce and whatever he's - but he stops. He stops what he's doing and answers it. On the other end, he can hear the clear and collected voice explaining what had happened. Or, at least, what she knew so far. It's a calm speech that only someone who has worked in an emergency atmosphere could have. The panic is underneath, but that's not what is important now.