She had agreed to stay. She foolishly had agreed to stay! Why?!

It was the one question that kept running through her mind, driving her crazy as her thoughts were in complete overdrive. She wanted to run, cry, scream, anything, but she just sat on the bed, staring at the wall while her brain was close to a meltdown. She wanted to be angry at Lucas, wanted to feel that he had forced her to answer yes but he hadn't. She still had a choice and if she wanted to leave, he would have let her go. Azura was certain of it, yet she wanted to be mad at him so bad.

It was the easiest emotion of all, to just be mad at someone else, blame them for how you feel. She’d done it several times, but eventually, she had realized it, and became angry at herself instead.

It had been her choice to leave Greenwood. She tried to tell herself it wasn't good to stay at the place that had given her so many memories, good and bad. It was a constant reminder of what had happened and after trying to blame every single person there she knew, she left after the blame fell on herself. That had been a year ago.

A year...and she was doing worse than before she left. Lucas had been right about that. The fact that he had so bluntly confronted her with it still pissed her off, but then again, he never was one for sugarcoating stuff as she remembered.

With a groan Azura fell back onto the bed, exhaustion already taking over even though she had gotten up just a few hours before. She needed silence in her head.

A loud bang woke her up, making her sit up straight with sweat coating her forehead. Her heart was racing once again and her mouth felt completely dry. Azura groaned softly as she checked the time on her phone. It was almost four in the afternoon. Slowly she got back on her feet and shuffled to the door and pressed her ear against it.

It was quiet.

Her hand lingered on the door handle for a moment before she opened it as silently as possible and peeked around the corner. She felt like a complete idiot behaving this way, but she really didn’t want to run into Lucas right now. Slowly she emerged from the bedroom and kept her eyes and ears open, ready to bolt the moment she saw or heard movement.

There was nothing.

"Lucas?" She called out to him before even thinking about it. She just concluded she did not want to see him and yet she calls out to him?!

There was no answer though. Azura breathed out a sigh of relief and slowly made her way downstairs. Now that she was ninety-nine percent sure she was alone, she might as well explore a little bit. After all, she had been stupid enough to agree to stay here, so that meant this would be 'home' for a while.

It was a quarter past four when she entered the kitchen and found the short note with a set of keys next to it. First thing it said was ‘Front door’ with a big arrow to the top key and underneath it said ‘Kitchen door’ with an arrow slightly smaller than the first pointing to the second key. Azura skimmed down to read the rest on the note.

Therapist!!!

Dr. Nicolai Jensen

555-016528

Call him! I'm at work till late. There's some food in the freezer.

Azura sighed and stared at the note for a while. It wasn't very personal, that much was clear. It was a relief to know he wouldn't be back till late though. The idea of having to see him right now made her stomach turn into one knotted mess.

She stared at the phone number and took a quick glance at the clock. It was agreed she could stay if she found professional help. Azura could still run... But where? Lucas's words had struck true. She had literally nowhere else to go, and Greenwood simply wasn't an option.

Maybe she could stay...at least for a while. She had enough time to make the call though. It didn’t have to be done right now.

Azura had curled herself up on the couch with a blanket and a cup of tea as she stared at the calming flames that played and flickered around in the fireplace. With every passing minute, the note she’d placed on the end table seemed to burn more and more as she had yet to pick up the phone.

According to the clock, it was a little past five now. Azura had a hard time believing it, since the last time she had checked it was only a quarter past four and she had not spent that long sitting on the couch, yet her phone appointed the same time as the clock on the wall. With a shrug, she concluded it wasn’t worth calling now as the office would probably be closed already.

When the front door opened, Azura jolted up. Her muscles tensed and she felt the strain in her shoulders as her pulse had picked up to an unnaturally fast pace again. As soon as Rose emerged with snow covering her coat and short hair, Azura relaxed a little but still remained on her guard.

"Hey there! Lucas told me what happened earlier today, Azura. Are you alright? He can be quite a dickhead at times with no tact at all. I kind of stole his keys at work to check on you. Thought maybe you could use some company and girl-on-girl talk."

She walked to the couch and jumped down on it. "Oh, and I wanted to know if you had already called Dr. Jensen."

It seemed as if Rose was completely oblivious to the state Azura was in as she barged in. Maybe she was just ignoring it, which would be another viable option of course. Azura rubbed her temples trying to comprehend what just happened and come up with an answer which actually made sense.

"Excuse me? So did you come here of your own free will, or did Lucas send you?" She was flabbergasted still, and her voice betrayed it.

"My own free will. Dr. Jensen once helped me tremendously. He’s an amazing man. What are you still standing there for! I brought some take-away dinner so sit and bring the phone!"

Azura cautiously walked towards the couch and sat down. How could this woman be so full of life and energy? She was so bubbly and happy, and acted as if she had known Azura her entire life.

"Well, Azura, call the number! And tell the receptionist I’m forwarding you. They can probably schedule your first appointment within a few days from now. And after that we’ll get to know each other more, eat something, then maybe watch a movie?" Rose smiled and took Azura's cellphone.

"Do I have a choice?" Azura protested a bit.

"No, sorry! Here I have the number...oh no wait! It's already ringing!" Rose had pushed the phone into Azura's hand, but just as fast, she’d pulled it back and put it against her own ear.

"Hey, Vicky! It's me, Rose. How are you? I'm doing great."

Azura watched with her mouth open as Rose started talking to the receptionist of Dr. Jensen. But she also felt some relief as now she would not have to call herself. Lucas sure had his work cut out for him with Rose as his girlfriend, she thought, they probably made a fun couple though.

Rose hung up and gave Azura her phone back, she seemed a bit calmer and bit more serious now.

"I know first hand how difficult it is to make that first step. So this is my gift to you. Friday at 11am you have your first appointment. Just know that Dr. Jensen is no ordinary Therapist. He's a so-called Vaim."

"A ‘Vaim’? What's that? Never heard of that before." Now that Rose had calmed down a bit, Azura felt herself relax a little more. Rose was a lot but she was also transparent, easy to read, and charming in her own way.

"A Vaim is a person with special abilities. He's like some kind of mind reader, but he can't read your thoughts, just your emotions. And thus he is able to pinpoint specific feelings you didn't even know you had. It's what makes him such an amazing therapist! But, he demands that you're brutally honest with him. If not, he can't really help you. He has to respect patient confidentiality of course, so your secrets are safe with him."

Rose must have seen Azura grow even paler than she already was when she started to explain about Vaims.

"Look, It's scary but you need it and it's the right thing to do." Rose held up the bag with food and looked at it sadly. "I think we need to re-heat this. Are you hungry?"

"No... Wait, yes... I am, but..." Azura found herself struggling with words as she was still trying to wrap her head around what was going on. She started playing with the ring on her finger again as the words finally seemed to come together in her brain.

"Thank you... for making the appointment but I don't even know what I will do yet. I mean, this is all so unexpected and to be honest...after this morning, I don't know if I can stay here. I'm just surprised you're so cool about this. I don't want things to be weird and Lucas...well, I'm just scared."

Scared. When it left her lips something clicked. No, she wasn't just scared. She was absolutely terrified. The realization of herself being actually honest to herself and someone else set in. For the first time, Azura looked up and faced Rose directly. The warm smile she got in return surprised her but not as much as the hug that followed.

"Stop worrying. You'll be fine. You're staying and that's that." The short woman let her go and kept up her warm smile. Azura adjusted a little and focused on the fire for a moment before turning back to Rose.

"You sure know how to give Lucas a hard time, I bet." Rose chuckled at Azura's comment and grabbed the bag of take-away dinner.

"Yep! You guessed that right! But now it's dinner time, I'll be right back." Rose practically skipped out of the living room to the kitchen.

*

It turned out Rose was actually good company to have around. She was quirky but in a good way. Azura had started to relax and let Rose do all the talking. It was easy and there had been no awkward silences throughout the evening. For a moment it felt like a huge weight had been lifted off her body and she could breathe properly, felt genuine hope. The movie was never turned on.

Rose had told her about how she and Lucas had met at work, at the climbing hall. How she tried to avoid him because to her, he seemed like a player. That all changed when his father got sick and eventually passed away six months ago. They had started talking and Rose came to know his real personality. He was closed off at first about his emotions and how he felt, but slowly he had opened up to her and they became friends, and from friends, they grew even closer until three months ago. 'Doomsday,' Rose had jokingly called it.

Azura had been shocked to hear Lucas's father had passed away six months ago. He was quite old when she had met him three years ago, but still, it was shocking. She never had the chance to actually talk to him because soon after meeting him on the stage they had been attacked and kept hostage. When Azura had woken up and recovered from her injuries a month later, everything had changed and Lucas and his father were long gone by then.

The clock showed ten-thirty in the evening when someone knocked on the door. Azura felt her muscles tighten again and the dark clouds fill her head once more. Her fists immediately clenched together so hard her own nails dug into her skin.

"That must be Lucas! I just realized he has no keys..." Rose smiled as she skipped over to the front door unaware of Azura tensing up. Azura twisted the ring around her finger on her right hand. Her palms getting sweaty, her eyes frantically searching for a way out. She felt saliva pool into her mouth and had to swallow a few times to get rid of it.

She was going straight into a panic attack and she knew it. The strange thing was her realizing it was an attack triggered by nothing, by Lucas, who was not a valid reason in her mind, yet his coming home had still set her off. She still could not face him after what had happened earlier that day.

With all her power Azura struggled to get off the couch. She twisted her ankle in the process and lost her balance falling on the coffee table.

"Shit shit shit shit!" She cursed under her breath trying to get up again. It was unnerving when she realized how bad her body was responding to her will. It was actually fighting her, immobilizing her. She silently cursed some more and got up again making her way to the staircase. All she wanted was to get out of the way and not have to face Lucas like this. She could hear Rose and him talking outside while she climbed and stumbled up the stairs on all fours.

As Azura closed her bedroom door behind her, Rose and Lucas entered the house. Both staring at the mess that was once on the coffee table but now sprawled out on the carpet underneath it.

"So... What did I miss again?" Lucas smirked as he turned to Rose.

"A very good movie! We just got a bit excited I guess!" She grinned back at him and started to clean the mess on the floor. Lucas let out a defeated sigh.

"Excited... Why don't I believe you?" He got on his knees and picked up a bowl with some leftover crisps. "Honestly, I'm starting to think this was all just a bad idea. We should have taken her to a hospital and let the authorities deal with her."

Rose got up and rolled her eyes.

"No."

"No? No what?” He stopped cleaning and raised an eyebrow.

"Just no. You're a dick, Lucas."

"Excu-"

"Let me finish! You probably thought she was just another damsel in distress you could easily save. One single night here, and she would be perfectly healthy and happy right? Well, that's not how real life works and you've got to deal with it!"

"Can I-"

"No, You can not! You opened your house to her, so now you have to face the consequences. She needs a good friend. She needs you and maybe even me. That's the only thing she needs. Plus she needs Dr. Jensen, but that's already taken care of."

"Just a good friend you say?"

"Yes. We can't save her. She needs to do that by herself. We can just support her when needed. So... It was a good thing you brought her here."

"Are you saying you were wrong earlier?" He nudged her playfully.

"Maybe, big boy..." She stuck out her tongue and smiled.

"I'll take what I can get."

He picked up the last glass off the ground and placed it back on the table. Rose grabbed him by his collar and yanked him down to her level.

"She's a nice girl and she deserves all the help we can get for her, especially after what she has done for you and your dad." She wrapped her arms around his neck and gave him a long kiss.