It's a week and a day late, and sorry doesn't even begin to cut it, but here it is anyway. As always, thanks for sticking with me.

She put her brother to bed, she did her homework, she resisted the urge to slice her wrist open for five minutes before she was mentioned in another screenshot-bearing Instagram story and it just happened. Five times.

When that only helped a little, she found herself thinking how easy it would be to just cut the length of her arm and let herself bleed out.

She got to her feet sharply, hot frustration with herself propelling her as walked pulled open the door to the bathroom so she could clean herself up before she bled all over Joel and Moriah's house.

What was wrong with her?

What happened to being clean? What happened to not doing it here? What happened to not being suicidal?

Her baby brother was sleeping in the corner and she was thinking about offing herself. Pathetic. Disgusting. Just made her want to do it more.

She didn't bother to turn on the bathroom light, barely seeing through the tears which began to stream down her face anyway, blindly fumbling to turn on the faucet and begin to scrub at her bleeding wrist. She didn't care about being gentle or not increasing the pain... she just wanted it to stop bleeding.

She was sobbing and helpless to do anything about it, and she knew she needed to pull it together before...

The light flicked on.

She looked up sharply and felt terrible realization wash over her. She hadn't closed the door which led to the hall.

And Joel was there, looking at her with those sad eyes she was only seeing through blurry water, crossing to where she was standing, taking the razor she'd also been rinsing out of her hand and setting it aside before turning off the water as he murmured, "Let me do it right, yeah?"

"I'm sorry," she gasped, slumping against the counter, unable to stop crying, her eyes pressed closed so she didn't have to look at him. "I'm so sorry."

"Darling, it's alright." His own voice was choked with emotion. "It's going to be alright."

She felt him gathering her in a hug and tried to push away, more shame enveloping her. "I'll bleed on you."

He just pulled her that much tighter. "I don't care."

So she gave up and cried into him, clung to him like a little kid, let him guide her out into the hall and the couch in the living room without lifting her face from his shirt.

She wasn't sure how long it took the water to stop coming, but when it finally did, she didn't have the strength to raise her head, didn't have the will to look at him.

"I'm sorry." The two words came out barely audible.

One of his hands came up to gently comb her hair out of her face as he leaned back, looking down at her with so much sadness and love in his eyes that she could feel it without looking up at it.

"You don't need to apologize, Adira," he told her softly. "I'm not angry. I just wish I could fix it. All of it."

She finally pulled back, tucking her knees to her chest and keeping her eyes down and well away from his. "It's not your problem to fix."

"What happened today?" he asked. "Shouldn't be anyone's problem to fix. That should never happen to anyone, Love. I just hope you know that you're worth so much more than the way they're treating you."

She couldn't help but scoff a little. "Like what? Thirty instead of fifteen?"

The sigh that passed his lips made it sound like his heart was breaking into a million pieces. "No, Darling. Not like that."

He paused, hesitantly pulling something out of his pocket.

"I know what I'm about to tell you is going to sound... impossible to believe right now, Love," he said at last. "I hope it doesn't sound canned or like everything you hear at a women's church conference, because that's not... I mean it. From the bottom of my heart, I mean it."

Against her will, her eyes slid up to his.

He leaned forward a little, taking one of her hands in both of his. "Adira, you... no matter what you do or what anyone else does to you or says about you or how you feel... you are absolutely priceless. You are loved, you are valuable, you are worthy of respect and honor, and you are absolutely irreplaceable. This world would be lost without you, Darling. God has such an amazing plan for you, I... I can't wait to see it. And I know you don't think you're worth anything right now, but that is so far from true."

Adira squeezed her eyes shut as she started to cry all over again.

"This... he pressed something cold and metallic into her hand. "It's something we do as a band... called the Priceless movement. It's a... an Australian coin because..." he let out a half-hearted laugh. "Well, because we discovered it's illegal to punch holes in American coins. But it's just to remind you that you are worth more than all the money in the world, Darling. No matter what anyone says or how you feel or anything."

Adira opened her mouth, but nothing came out.

"And you don't have to believe it right now, Darling, I know you can't," he went on, the sadness at the knowledge heavy in his voice. "But I'd like you to take it and wear it anyway. Please. Just... so you never stop hearing me say it."

He released her hands, leaving the metallic thing there. Adira looked down to see a necklace there... as he'd described, made out of an Australian penny. She stared at it for a moment, her chest burning and her mind screaming that she should just give it back, tell him she knew her worth and she wasn't going to let him convince her it was anything more than the trash on the street.

But instead, she just whispered, "Thanks," and slowly tucked the piece of jewelry into her pocket.

"Thank you, Love, for taking it," he replied simply. "Now how about we get that arm cleaned up?"

"You don't have to..."

"Please?"

She exhaled heavily, but as usual, she couldn't say no to him, so she just nodded without looking at him. "I'll go get the stuff."

They sat in the kitchen in a routine that had become familiar for them... a fact that she loathed. Not as much as she loathed herself, but she didn't think it was possible to hate anything else that passionately.

After a moment, Joel spoke up again, his voice as gentle as his hands as he carefully cleaned the self-inflicted cuts. "You know none of this is your fault, don't you, Darling?"

She nodded while looking even further away. "Yeah, I know."

"Do you really?" he asked.

She bit her lip, her chest throbbing a little more intensely. "Yeah."

He hummed a little, clearly not fooled.

She managed the tinge of a smile. "What, are you gonna Good Will Hunting me?"

He chuckled a little sadly. "No. But that is a good movie."

"It's a very good movie."

"And Robin Williams has a point."

She just shrugged a little, and she could feel the deepened sadness in his gaze.

But he didn't push the matter further, and they were quiet for another long moment before she asked softly, "Do you think I need therapy?"

He considered her carefully as he began laying bandaids over the cuts. "Well, that depends on what you mean," he said finally. "I think everyone could probably benefit from therapy. Especially anyone who's been through what you have. But if you're asking if I think you're... unstable, or anything like that... no, Darling. I don't."

"Even if I want to die?"

The question came out without her meaning for it to. Joel set aside the box of bandaids, finished with them anyway, and gave her his full attention, absolute heartbreak radiating from his gaze.

"Even then," he said quietly, then corrected, "Especially then, I think what you really need is love, Adira."

She stared at the table, chewing on her lip until she tasted blood.

"You done with your homework?" he asked after a pause.

She nodded.

"So how about it? Good Will Hunting?"

Adira looked up at him, saw in his expression yet again the sentiment of, I just don't want you to be alone, the care and understanding in his eyes, and wondered for the hundredth time how she'd fallen into the lap of someone so inexplicably kind.

Not trusting herself to speak without beginning to cry all over again, she nodded a little.

Joel smiled. "I'll go get Moriah."

time-skip sponsored by MalefM, because the last part of this scene is just for her

They watched the movie in silence other than the odd comment here and there, but as it neared its finish and they reached the scene which had brought it up in the first place, Adira's head dropped, and tears began running down her face once more.

Joel watched her for a moment, feeling his heart break into a hundred pieces yet again, before reaching over and wrapping an arm around her shoulders, pulling her against him in silent comfort. And, not for the first time that evening, she buried her face in his shirt and cried.

Moriah, on his other side, squeezed his hand in encouragement, her eyes full of second-hand pain as she looked at the girl.

Adira's head came up in time to watch the very last part of the movie, as usual obviously regretful for the show of emotion, but he just held her a little tighter in an attempt to combat whatever lies were bouncing around in her head.

As the credits finally began to roll, Adira did slowly pull away and get to her feet. She didn't look at him as she whispered, "Thanks."

He followed her in standing, placing his hands on arms that were wrapped around herself as he asked, "Are you gonna be okay tonight?"

She nodded, eyes still fixed on the ground.

"Okay," he agreed softly, hesitating before asking, "Would you mind grabbing that razor for me, Love?"

He saw a fresh wave of shame wash over her face, but she nodded, hurriedly returning to the bathroom where he'd found her and coming back with the razor held out to him.

He took it, catching her shoulder before she could turn away again. "I'm gonna leave it in the kitchen," he told her steadily. "Because it's not that I don't trust you with it. I just want there to be a few doors between it and you. Yeah?"

Once again, she nodded, eyes tightly closed.

"Do you have anything else you could use to seriously hurt yourself?" he asked.

She hesitated, obviously thinking about the question, before shaking her head.

"Good," he affirmed. "Okay. And if you need either of us, you know all you have to do is call, text, yell... and we'll be there?"

Face tightening against crying again, she nodded.

"Alright." He felt his own eyes filling to see her still so afraid and ashamed. "Then goodnight. Hang in there, Darling."

"Goodnight," she choked out, then turned and fled like the devil was behind her.

Joel stared at her closed door for a long moment, still blinking back tears, before slowly walking over to the kitchen and depositing the razor there, as promised.

He returned to find his wife watching him with a sad smile on her face.

"What?" he asked, returning it as he sat down again and she snuggled into him.

"Hmm, nothing," she hummed. "I was just thinking how good of a dad you're gonna be someday."

Please let me know what you thought. Love you all.

- Line