Austin’s POV

When Essie jumped in infront of me I got quite surprised. She stood there and held her arms out, as a protective gestured. She protected me. The asshole she just a few minutes ago hated. And she cried. She was so sad and it was almost like when her mother died.
"If you fucking touch him again I swear to God I will not stay calm" she said and her voice almost cracked. No it did crack. She cried a little bit harder just then. I slowly sat up as she asked Stella to leave. I watched Stella and I watched Essie, rubbing my throbbing chin. Somehow I felt scared that Stella would do something to Essie, but then she relaxed and just looked at us. She let out a sigh and then she began to move away, like she was leaving. But of course she didn’t. She put all her strength into one final hit and I heard a loud crack as the kettle hit Essie over her jaw. I gasped and tried to catch her but she literally flew over to the small table, hit her head and fell unconscious to the floor.
"ESSIE" I yelled and hurried over to her side. Never had I seen so much blood and there was no way of getting contact with her. When I turned to Stella she was gone and in through the bus door came Alan and Tino.
"Call for an ambulance, and get me some water and something to clean her face with" I said and lifted her up a little. They just stared at us, before they got back to reality and hurried away.

- - -

When I woke up my whole head ached. I wanted to just let out a loud scream but I didn’t. I just opened my eyes and saw a white ceiling and a lamp. When I slowly looked to my left i saw Cory and Austin. To my right I saw Caspian and Scott and by the door I saw everyone else. What had happened?
"She have a small crack in her jaw, we had to make some stitches and she might have a concussion, but other than that she’s fine" a doctor said.
"Why hasn’t she woken up?" Cory growled and glared at the doctor.
"But sir…" the doctor said but Cory and Austin stopped him.
"What kind of doctor are you? Why hasn’t she opened her eyes?" Cory asked.
"Yeah, why is she still unconscious?” Austin asked.
"She wide awake" the doctor said and gestured towards me. They all turned their heads and I smiled, and waved a little.
"GOD CHILD… why didn’t you say something?" Cory called out.
"I just woke up" I said and yawned a little. But I let out a squeal when my whole face and jaw hurt. All gasped and looked at me.
"Chill, it’s just my face that hurts" I mumbled.

I was back on the bus with painkillers, water and a big, cozy, duvet. I was lying in my bunker, almost crying because my head hurt and my jaw. Neer had I felt such pain before. I tried to get my mind of things with tv. But everything reminded me of the pain, of Stella, of Austin… of my mother. I just… I just felt everything at the same time. Everything I’ve kinda pushed away came to me right now. I felt fragile. I felt broken. I felt… everything.

- - -

Austin’s POV

I looked up and saw that Caspian and Elijah entered our bus. The others looked at them as well and we all got a bit surprised.
"Hey" Alan said and smiled.
"Hi" Elijah said and smiled back, but his smile looked sad.
"What is it?" I asked, and got a bit worried.
"We know you and Essie have a special relationship and all, and we kinda need your help" Caspian said.
"About what?" I asked, and realized something had happened.
"We don’t know what to do, so we thought you might be able to do something” they said. Cory popped his head out and looked at them.
"What about Essie?" he asked.
"It’s like… it’s like she’s having a panic attack" Elijah said, and it didn’t take me another second to not just jolt up and run out from the bus.

When I got tot their bus I gasped a little. She was sitting with her knees to her chest, eyes wide open and tears streaming down her face. She held her hands against her head so hard that you could see her fingers turning white and strands of hair ripping of her head. She was pale. She was broken. She looked scared and… I slowly walked over to her and sat down beside her.
"I’m here" I whispered and she jumped a little. She didn’t looked at me, but I just slowly felt how she moved just an inch closer to me. And a few minutes later I felt her head and body leaning against my arm.
"I’m here" I whispered again.