A/N: So, first off, I don't know much about hospitals or investigations, so forgive any inaccuracies. Also, Ms. Ciara is @CiaraNewcomb , so thanks for the new character! : )

Michael

I look down at Bri, feeling something change in her body. And I feel panic run through me. She's not breathing.

I put her down on the concrete, and see that my arms are shaking.

"Does someone know CPR?" Jeff, from behind me, calls out desperately. "Please! Anyone!"

Frantic murmuring runs through the line of die-hard fans in line for the concert tonight, and one woman pushes from the crowd.

"I do, I was a nurse for two years," she announces quickly, running over to kneel next to me.

She kneels over Bri, and I close my eyes in a silent prayer.

Please, Jesus, don't let her die.

I open my eyes again at a small sound from Bri. And I see, just faintly, that her chest is moving once more.

"Thank you so much!" I gasp out to the woman, who's sitting back slowly.

She opens her mouth to respond, but the ambulance pulls in as she does, and I quickly scoop Bri up and run over to the team, handing her over quickly.

"She's been shot," I tell one of the police officers that came from the accompanying cars, "and she told me she overdosed on pills before that."

"Got it, thanks," the man says quickly. "Do you know her name?"

"She told me it was Bri."

He pulls out a folder and produces a picture from it. "Is this her?"

I look, and feel a wave of sadness wash over me. Though she looks a lot healthier than when I saw her, her eyes still hold an unbelievable amount of pain, though she's trying to smile at the camera. They're the eyes of someone who's given up.

I pull my eyes away from the picture and look back at the cop. "That's her."

He nods pulling out his radio.

"Brianna Kelly has been located. Being dispatched to CNH in Ambulance 21." He turns around, catching the arm of one of the paramedics. "There's the gun wound, but we have it from two sources that she also attempted suicide with an overdose on some kind of pills."

"Got it," he says quickly, and runs to slide into the back of the ambulance before the doors close behind him.

The police officer turns back to me.

"Can I get your name?"

"Michael Tait."

"And can you write down your phone number for me? If she's been shot, we may need you as a witness."

I obediently write down my number, and he shakes my hand. "Thanks for your help. Do you have any questions?"

"Was it a family member who called?" I ask. Her family needs to know what's going on.

He shakes his head, checking his notepad. "He said he was a friend of hers, Toby Mckeehan, or Kevin Mckeehan if we needed his real name. We're trying to get a hold of her parents, but they're not answering our calls."

"Toby Mckeehan?" I repeat, and he nods.

"That's right."

Small world, I guess. I push away the shock and nod to the officer. "Alright. Thanks."

"Thank you for your help," he counters, nodding to me before turning away.

I nod slowly, my eyes turning to the ambulance that's peeling out of the parking lot.

Please, God, help her to be okay.

Slowly, I turn back to where the woman still kneels, offering her my hand up before shaking hers.

"I can't thank you enough," I tell her. "What's your name?"

"I'm Ms. Ciara," she replies, smiling slightly. "And it's the least I could do. I just hope she's okay."

I nod in agreement. "Me too." I hesitate before adding, "I'm going to go and see if I can make sure she is, but I'll be back for the show tonight, and I want you to be up on stage with us as a thank you." I turn to Jeff, who's still behind me. "Take her back to the lounge. And you guys can go ahead and do sound check without me."

"Sure thing, Michael," he replies. "But I don't want you to have to do that alone," he adds quietly. "You know, just in case..."

I nod sadly, and Duncan reaches up to place a hand on my shoulder.

"I'll go with him, you and Jody can stay here and do what needs done."

Jeff nods. "Speaking of Jody, he's still back getting Freddy calmed down. I'll go check on them."

I look to Ms. Ciara again, and shake her hand once more. "Again, thank you."

She inclines her head simply, then hands me a phone. "This fell out of her pocket."

I take it carefully. "Thanks. I'll make sure she gets it back."

"We'll be praying for her," she says, and I nod.

"I'll see you tonight."

I have Duncan drive, and quickly find Toby's name in my phone, pressing call and waiting as it rings.

"Hey, Michael." His voice sounds sad and weary when he answers.

"Hey, Toby," I reply, hesitating. "Um... Brianna Kelly... you're the Toby Mckeehan who called about her, right?"

"Yeah that's me," he says quickly. "How... how do you know her?"

"How much have you heard?" I ask.

"They just called and said she..." He swallows hard. "She'd been shot on top of the overdose, and was on her way to the hospital."

"Okay, well, she was running from whoever shot her, and she kind of found the venue where we're playing tonight. She..." I hesitate again, not wanting to freak him out more. "She stopped breathing once right before the ambulance got there, but a woman in the crowd knew CPR. Duncan and I are on our way to CNH to make sure she comes out of it okay."

He takes a deep breath. "Okay, I'm pulling in there now, so I guess I'll see you when you get here."

"Right. Hang in there, Tob," I add, and he swallows hard.

"Thanks. See you in a few."

I spot Toby immediately as we come into the ER waiting room, his head resting in his hands as he waits. He looks up as we come in, and rises to meet us, trying to force a strained smile.

I pull him into a quick hug before pulling back, keeping one hand on his shoulder.

"Hey, Toby. I wish it was for a different reason, but it's good to see you again."

He nods. "You too, Michael, and you, Duncan."

Duncan nods agreement. "Hard day, Mate?"

He sighs, sinking back into his seat, and we do the same. "Just worried about Bri."

There's tears behind his voice as he says it.

"How'd you meet her?" I ask, trying to get his mind off of her injury.

He smiles a little sadly. "A little over a month ago, I was at the studio late, and I'd parked my car a little away because... God told me to, I guess... so I was walking back to it, and I heard a girl crying, and looked over to see her huddled on the sidewalk." A few tears do make it to his eyes as he goes on. "I knelt down and asked her what was wrong, and she tried to tell me she was fine without looking at me, but when I kept pushing and she looked up, she recognized me, I guess, and her hand came up over her mouth, and..." He sighs. "Her arm was covered in blood from fresh cuts."

"Oh, man," I breathe. "Poor kid."

He nods in agreement. "Yeah. So, when I asked her why she did it, she ended up accidentally admitting that she'd also purposefully overdosed on pills, so I took her to the hospital, and I... I just couldn't let her go. God had already given me this deep love for her, and I didn't want to disappear from her life, so I visited her in recovery, and gave her my number. I just kept running into her... by accident once, then on purpose, and... life just sucks for her."

"Tough home life?" Duncan asks.

"Very." Toby sighs sadly. "She told me that first night that her best friend had raped her six months earlier, but had convinced almost everyone that it... had been both of them, you know? She said basically everyone hates her now, for something that she didn't even do." He's quiet for a moment before going on. "I'd been meeting her on her lunch break most days, since her school's not far from the studio, but she wasn't there today. I called her, and she admitted that she'd taken the pills again, but she hung up before I could get her to tell me where she was. And... I also found out that her parents have been abusing her."

I shake my head slowly. "I can't believe what some people have to live through."

He opens his mouth to respond, but before he can, a couple comes around the corner, their very presence angry, to match the furious looks on their faces. Weird. I've never seen someone look like that in an ER waiting room.

It's three in the afternoon by the time a nurse finally calls for those here for Brianna Kelly.

Toby, Duncan, and I all rise, and so does the furious-looking couple. Wait... are those her parents?

We all walk over, and the woman looks at us in obvious annoyance, opening her mouth to say something. But the nurse beats her to it, looking at them.

"Henry and Jessica Kelly?"

"That's right," the man replies.

She nods, turning to us. "Toby Mckeehan, and Michael Tait, I'm guessing? You two were involved with finding Brianna?"

Toby and I nod, and Duncan speaks up.

"I was with Michael, and came to support him and do what I can to help."

"Alright, good," she responds. "Well, first off, Brianna is alright."

I let out a long sigh of relief, but Toby seems like he's about to collapse in the same.

"God is good," I say quietly.

He smiles with tears in his eyes, whispering, "All the time."

"And all the time?" Duncan adds.

"God is good," Toby concludes.

Her parents roll their eyes in annoyance, seemingly unaffected by the news that their daughter is alright.

"We don't think there will be any permanent liver damage," the nurse continues. "And she lost a lot of blood with the gun wound, but will recover in a few days. It didn't hit anything vital."

Thank you, Jesus.

"She's still under the anesthesia now," she finishes, "but the police department would like to know as much as possible about the situations leading up to both the suicide attempt and Brianna getting shot. It'll be slightly unofficial this time, but if you'll come with me, they'd like to talk to anyone here."

We all obediently follow her, eventually finding a good-sized office. On one side of the desk, two police officers are sitting, and on the other, there's several empty seats.

We introduce ourselves and sit down, and one of the officers, Williams, young and handsome, with dark hair and blue eyes, begins.

"Alright, so, first off, we'd like to know as much as we can about Brianna's gun wound." He looks at me and Duncan. "I understand you two were there?"

"Sort of," I say carefully. "We were inside the concert hall where we're performing tonight when we heard a girl scream, then a little silence, before she screamed again, and we heard a gunshot. People started shouting outside, and we came out to find Brianna in the care of one of our security guards. She'd come running up the steps of the venue before she collapsed."

"She told us she'd overdosed on the pills and had been trying to hide in Hoover's Convenience Store when a friend, who we now know was Toby, called her and found out," Duncan continues for me. "She'd been leaving to jump off of an overpass instead when some men caught her and threatened to rape her. She screamed, they shot her, and then she came running to our venue like Michael said."

"I see," the older officer, Jenkins, replies, and looks at her parents. "Has anything like this ever happened before, that you know of?"

"No, not at all," her mother replies with a voice like silk.

I raise an eyebrow, but say nothing. Williams has the same expression on his face.

"Really? Because I've been looking into your family's files, and seven months ago, Brianna's youth pastor, Jason King, asked us to investigate the minor Lincoln Renthart, because Brianna claimed that he raped her. The investigation wasn't able to prove anything, so the case had to be dropped. But I'm not entirely sure that was right."

"I assure you, it was," Jessica says placatingly. "Lincoln and Brianna had sex and Brianna chose to blame it all on him. That's all the happened."

"Maybe," he replies, obviously unconvinced. He sighs though, moving on. "Now, about the suicide attempt, it's her second, and in a short amount of time. It was only a little over a month ago that she tried the first time, isn't that right?"

"Yes, sadly," Henry sighs. "We put her through standard recovery, but it hasn't yielded much fruit."

"Obviously," Williams replies dryly. "What have you done to try to keep your daughter safe?"

"We barred her window and put a lock on her door to keep her from running away, and we've kept in contact with her teachers and leaders to make sure she is where she's supposed to be when she's supposed to be," Jessica says like it's the answer to an essay question. "We've taken away her razors whenever she cuts, and made sure she can't get a hold of anything else to hurt herself with."

"Like the two Ibuprofen bottles in her backpack that she obviously used to overdose?" Jenkins asks dryly. "It seems your efforts have been real effective."

Neither of them answer, and Williams speaks up again after a long moment.

"I'm gonna cut right to the chase here. While treating her, Brianna's doctors have made some troubling discoveries. First, though this may not be surprising, her arms and stomach are covered in old self-harm cuts, and her left arm has a lot of different levels of fresh ones, including several that could date to as recent as this morning. Second," he adds before her parents can say anything, "Those aren't the only wounds on her body. There's a spot on her forehead that seems to be a recovering bruise, and the back of her head has the same, old and new. And her back is covered in cuts and bruises like she's been being hit by something... most likely a belt or something similar."

He lets the information sink in for a moment before going on.

"The wounds on her back, in particular, are not ones that can be blamed on any kind of self-mutilation. So, do any of you know anything about those wounds?"

There's a long moment of silence, and I wait for Toby to speak up about what he mentioned Bri admitting to him. He watches her parents for a few seconds, obviously hoping they'll admit it themselves, but they don't, and, finally, he sighs.

"I do."

Williams looks at him expectantly. "Go on."

Toby sighs again. "Two weeks ago, I noticed a bruise on Bri's forehead, but when I asked her about it, she said she'd just hit her head. But earlier today, when I was talking to her on the phone, she accidentally referred to not being safe at home anymore. I directly asked, and she admitted she'd been being abused at home."

Jessica's face contorts in fury. "She is not—" But Jenkins holds up a hand to stop her.

"You'll have your turn to speak, Ma'am," he says steadily, and Williams nods.

"First, Mr. Mckeehan, I'd like to hear your side of things. It seems you're Bri's confidant in a sense? And you are the one who brought her in for her last suicide attempt."

He nods. "I was walking back to my car after a late night of work when I found Bri crying on the sidewalk. I saw her arm, which she's freshly cut, and she ended up accidentally admitting that she'd overdosed on pills to try to kill herself. I took her to the hospital and she told me about being raped six months earlier, then later, I visited her in recovery twice, and exchanged phone numbers with her in case she needed anything."

He sighs before continuing.

"I could tell she was really hurting, and I didn't want to let myself disappear from her life, so made a point of showing up for her whenever I could. Over the last two weeks, I've walked over to her school to meet her on lunch as much as I can. I did that today, and when she wasn't there, I called her, and she admitted that she was hiding after overdosing again. That's also when I found out she was getting abused. I tried to get her to tell me where she was, but she hung up and didn't answer when I tried to call her back, so I called the police."

"Alright, thank you," Williams replies, and looks at her parents. "Alright, now I believe you have some explaining to do."

\,3N>