Everything hurt. I was completely sore and broken all over, and I didn't know which way was up and which was down.

My vision was blurred, tinged vignette on the edges and I could hardly conjure up a single image that led up to the events that landed me in a rock hard hospital bed with a banged up face and sore ribs.

Lydia's face flashed in my mind and I wallowed in her likeness, the stark blue of her eyes falling into place just as the warmth of her hand fit directly into mine.

The hallucination felt so real, so raw and flesh and bone. There were saddened rings of red surrounding those emotive blue eyes and I wanted to desperately to wipe away that tear from her cheek but for some reason my limbs were heavy with lead, strapping me down even further than I already was.

And then it came back to me.

Drayton Merrick, my long time football rival, had shown up to the stadium with Marnie, looking for a fight. There was paranoia and anguish in his eyes, and I climbed into the recessed corners of my mind to try and remember the reason for his unbalanced state, the fact that he hadn't been drafted onto a single team because of how all in he was with the Patriots, not giving any other team a second glance, so when they chose me, his career aspirations were pretty much in the trash along with his attitude and temperament.

We argued, drawing a scene. There was something off about the entire situation, though, almost like he wasn't really wanting to fight at all but something kept urging him on, commanding him to continue hailing his verbal assaults my way.

I finally had had enough and told him to piss off, at which point he jumped back into his Jeep with Marnie in the front seat and decided to take off, or so I thought.

He clipped me with the front end of the vehicle, throwing my entire body to the ground causing me to roll on the hard asphalt, scratching up my face in the process.

I remembered the impact knocking the breath out of me, a sharp pain exploding in my abdomen from the force of the hit and soon his tires were squealing away.

I could have sworn that I noticed a strange set of shoes walking towards me, all black wing tips and black slacks, but the owner never made it to my coughing and wheezing form on the ground.

One moment, the ominous person was walking deliberately and quickly towards me, but the wail of a police siren stopped them in their tracks. The person swiftly turned on their heel and brusquely walked away as if to keep from being noticed by the police.

Lydia's soft hand was warm in mine, the callouses on my hands from the rough years of playing football a perfect distinction from hers supple and smooth.

"I promise you that I'll never let him hurt you ever again. I'm going to help them catch him, and then we'll both be safe."

No, no! I wanted to yell, to call out to her, to make her realize that the perpetrator wasn't who she had immediately assumed.

Her abuser from years ago was not the man who had tried to kill me with his car, but a sniveling, whining punk who hadn't gotten his way so he decided to take it out on the one person who, in his eyes, had 'taken everything away' from him.

It was useless, though. The drugs that were hooked up to me through the IV needle were dripping slowly into my veins keeping me in a half sedated state that kept me from telling her the truth, to keep her from doing something reckless and dangerous.

She had done enough senseless vigilantism, and I was going to have to sit back and watch as she carelessly put her in the line of danger yet again, this time in the name of revenge for what she had thought Christian had done to me, but she couldn't have been farther from the truth.

A knock came at the door and she turned her tear stained, angelic face towards the new visitor.

I only caught a glimpse of dark hair and a bit of stubble crawling along the jaw line of the person before the darkness overtook me yet again and I was stuck in a state of half panic and half catatonic paralysis, desperate to wake up soon before Lydia did something that got her killed.

Because if she died on behalf of getting justice in my name, then I just might as well have died right there along with her.

I squinted my eyes at the man who had knocked on Emmett's hospital room door. Only emergency contacts and family members were allowed back in the ICU, so that led me to the quickest conclusion I could, considering the slight resemblance the man shared with the love of my life.

"You're his uncle."

"Quick with the wit, I like that. Jesse Scott. And you're the girl, then?"

"What the hell do you think you're doing here, especially after all the damage you've caused yourself? Calling me to terrorize me, then leaking that information to the press for money not even hours after trying to extort it out of Emmett with blackmail? You're no uncle of his, if anything you're just some bum off of the street who just happened to have the same last name as him. You don't even deserve to be within a hundred feet of him."

I was seething, the red in my emotions blotting out all of the other colors in the room until all that I could see was the rage that I held towards the person who really did this to Emmett, but his 'uncle' was the nearest target that I could rationally unload some of this blinding hate onto, so I let it all out.

"Look, I just wanted to come and say I was sorry. I was hurting for money and I did what I had to do. I saw that he got so famous when the rest of us were out there suffering."

"So you thought that gave you the right to try to destroy that career that he made? Because you were 'hurting'? I've been 'hurting' in very different ways since I was fourteen years old, and did you see me out there trying to destroy innocent people's lives? Hell no. Because you are a selfish person and only think about yourself. I don't ever want to see your face again, and I don't want you to contact Emmett or me or anyone in my family ever again. Are we clear?"

The dark circles underneath his dark blue eyes crinkled as his eyes narrowed towards me.

"We're clear. Just wanted to make sure he was well taken care of...I guess that gave me my answer. I'll leave y'all alone for good."

"Good."

I turned back towards Emmett's sleeping body, willing his eyes to flutter open like they had for a few moments before his uncle had ruined the moment.

I had told him that I was going to help the police catch Christian, which I was going to do. I'd spoken to the lead detective on the case on the drive to the hospital and came to the conclusion that it was Christian who had hurt Emmett and I was going to be the 'bait' for the plan to catch him once and for all.

I'd unblock his profile from my social medias and would message him directly, trying to draw him out and into the open.

I brushed back a fallen lock of hair off of Emmett's forehead and smothered a sob as my mom's name flashed on my cell phone.

I told her about everything that happened and she waited and listened while I cried it all out to her. Having her to finally be in my corner was something that I couldn't thank Emmett enough for, because if he hadn't pushed for us to reconnect then I would have been all alone in this.

My parents and Lucas were going to come up to show their support, and the memories of this hospital ward were reminiscent of my time spent here, and of how Emmett had been there for me the first moment I landed in the hospital bed he was currently occupying, and I vowed to do no less than he had for me, even more if I could.

Because he deserved it, his love wrapping around me like a warm blanket in my darkest times and letting the light shine in when all I wanted to do was wallow in the darkness.

No, I'd forever be indebted to Emmett, so the least I could do was avenge him and help the police catch Emmett for good.

And if the police couldn't help me, then I'd just have to go out and do it myself, the deadly weapon that I had acquired for extreme situations the perfect tool for a job that required an extreme solution.

I wouldn't have the people around me dying just because of some psychotic man who was after me because I had taken this case, the first girl that had taken a stand against him.

I would make sure Christian couldn't hurt another person I loved if it was the last thing I ever did.