Adopted By Brendon Urie

Chapter 4

I woke up scared. When I fell asleep I was in the bathroom, but I was now in my bunk. I quickly calmed myself down without drawing any attention. One of them must have moved me. I checked the time. It was one in the afternoon. I got up and went to the front of the bus. Nobody was there. I went to the back of the bus and started to get worried. They weren't there. I had no idea what state their show tonight was in. They didn't even leave a note. I walked off of the bus.

"Brendon! Dallon! Zack! Kenny! Dan! Where are you!?" I screamed. I started crying. "Charlie. Calm down. It's okay." Zack assured me, embracing me in a hug. "You all left me." I cried. "It's okay. The boys just left to do soundcheck. Do you want to go backstage to watch?" He asked. I nodded and followed him. "Hey Zack! Who's this?" A voice asked. It took me a minute to realize that it was Patrick Stump. Also standing there was Pete Wentz, Andy Hurley, Joe Troham, Tyler Joseph, and Josh Dun. "This is Charlie. The Panic boys and I took her under our wing after that incident yesterday." I blushed and waved. "Quiet one." Pete said. "She just got worried and came to hang out." Zack told them. "You could hang with us until Panic is done." Tyler offered. I nodded in agreement. "Take care of her, boys. She's had a rough twenty four hours." Zack told them before leaving.

I went to tug at my sleeve, but realized that I had on short sleeves. My arms were exposed. Everyone could see my cuts. I didn't want everyone to know. They were all judging me. I ran. "Hey, Charlie. What's wrong?" Patrick asked, running after me. I couldn't find the exit. I needed air. I couldn't breathe. I kept running. I ended up running into someone and stumbled backward, but I didn't fall. "Hey, kiddo. What's up?" Brendon asked. I didn't answer. "Zack told me what happened earlier." He said. That was the last thing I needed to think about. He noticed that I was having trouble breathing.

"Let's go sit and talk." Brendon suggested. I didn't have a choice, though, so I went with him to a new room and sat down with him. I was shaking. I couldn't control myself. My breathing got really unsteady. "Hey, it's okay. Look at me. Focus on me." He said, kneeling in front of me. I did as he told me to and I looked at him. "Now breathe. Follow my breathing if you need to." Brendon told me. I took a couple of deep breaths with him. "Now what happened?" He asked. I point to my arm. "I wasn't wearing long sleeves so I had nothing to fidget with and there were so many people in that room judging me for my mistakes." I said really fast. "Hey. So fun fact. I personally know everyone in that room and I know that none of them are at all judgemental. We are all trying to deal with our own shit so it's a safe space when you're around any of us." He assured me. I cried some more. "What do you need right now?" He asked. "A hug." I told him. He sat on the couch and held me to his chest and started stroking my hair. "It's gonna be okay. We're gonna get through this." He said which made me cry even harder. He started singing to me. I couldn't make out all of the words, but from what I heard I could tell he was singing 'Fix You.' I fell asleep soon after that.

Brendon's POV

This girl fell asleep clinging to my chest as I sang to her. She was so scared. I wanted to help her, but until I found out what was going on in that head I was powerless. We needed to figure out what happened to her in her past that would cause all of this. Sarah agreed to adopting her and she was at home working on it.

I picked Charlie up and went to the bus. Zack came with me so that he could stay with her if she woke up. I set her in her bunk and walked back into the venue. I went to where the rest of the guys were. "How is she?" Patrick asked me. "She calmed down enough to talk and then fell asleep. Since there's one more show. I'm not really sure if she'll be able to handle staying with us or if I should send her home to Sarah now." I sighed. "I think you should have a talk with her to let her know you plan on adopting her first. Then after you do that you should let her decide." Andy told me. "Thanks dude." I said.

We were sitting there talking for a good two hours before Zack texted me. He knew that it was almost time for the show to start so it must've been important. He told me to get Panic and come to the bus ASAP. "Kenny, Dallon, Dan. Zack needs us right now." I tell them, starting to walk to the bus. They followed. There were tons of fans still lined up outside, but thankfully none of them saw us. We got to the bus and Charlie was freaking out. Screaming like someone had just stabbed her. Zack was trying to calm her down by asking her to breathe. I assumed that she had just woken up from a nightmare because she was still in her bunk. I went over to her. "He, kiddo. It's Brendon. You're okay. It's okay. You're safe." I assured her. "Try the five senses exercise. What's five things you can see?" Kenny tried helping her. To our surprise she listed off the five things. She and Kenny went down the list together. It helped her calm down enough to talk.