SOS

Two

"So, have you ever been to Dublin, Elodie?" Michael asks, wandering over to wear Elodie and Peter are preparing the guitar cases for the first show tonight.

Glancing up from her work, Elodie gives him a soft smile shaking her head no before focusing her eyes back on the red body of one of Luke's guitars.

"Did you get to go out and see any of the city yesterday? Or were you too busy here?"

She nods again, her eyes looking excited.

"I took her out,'' Peter laughs, interjecting himself into the conversation. "I've been here with you guys before and I knew she wanted to travel. I wanted to see things too, so I made her go with me and I think she had a good time. I'm excited to show her the world."

"I'm glad you guys enjoyed your day off before this crazy tour starts. And Elodie, I'm grateful Peter brought you along for the tour, because he was right, you are great with guitars." Michael offers, taking the guitar Peter hands him and turning to wander away.

"I know you don't talk a lot, Elodie." Peter starts, glancing at her, "But you could talk to Luke and Michael about work stuff. You know that right?"

"I could." She says very softly, shrugging her shoulders, "But silence is safer."

"Yeah, you wouldn't really be Elodie if you started talking a lot, would you?"

"I can count on one hand the number of people I've talked to this year, actually I can count on two fingers. You and Rebecca." She chuckles lightly.

"Yeah, and it took mom six months, and me nearly a year to get you to talk to us." He says pointedly, earning himself a shrug from her.

"We could go back to that not talking thing if you're going to be like this about it." She chuckled softly before glancing around, suddenly remembering the amount of crew and team members in the area.

"They're not going to hurt you, El, none of them." Peter sighs, recognizing her body language as she closes off, "I promise. I wouldn't let anything happen to you, you know that right?" Peter asks.

"I know, thanks Pete." She mumbles, reaching out to squeeze his hand softly for a moment.

Turning from their small conversation, she takes the bright red guitar Luke needs for No Shame and heads towards the tall blonde man standing across the room. Tapping him on the shoulder, or more accurately bicep seeing as he is nearly a foot taller than her, smiling softly up at him as he turns, offering the guitar towards him.

"Thanks, El, are you excited to see the show tonight?" He asks, lifting the guitar strap over his head as he does, keeping his eyes on her kindly waiting until she nods.

"It'll be a new test for a little bit here. I mean you've killed it at rehearsals so I'm not worried about you, but it's the real deal now. Showtime!" He exaggerates his voice, causing Elodie to roll her eyes slightly at his antics and shrugs her shoulders indicating that she's not too worried, causing him to laugh.

"Do you know that you're quite a unique specimen, Elodie." He states, "You don't talk, and apparently you don't get nervous about working your first live concert ever, and you're the most guitarist oriented genius I've ever met. It works, it's unique, but it works." He chuckles, and if she's not mistaken his cheeks turn a slight shade of pink as he does. "Thanks again, Elodie, for the guitars, you really have done an amazing job with them. I'm glad you're here." Offering another shrug and small nod as a response, she turns, heading back towards where the cases are, to double check the rest of the guitars he'll need tonight. Only a couple steps away she pauses when Luke cries out slightly in pain.

"Wow, sorry man, I was just trying to get your attention." Michael comments, releasing his hold on Luke's forearm.

"It's fine, I just have a little bit of bruising."

Still watching, Elodie is shocked by the look that Michael gives Luke at that knowledge, watching as he twists his bandmate's arm until he can see the underside of his forearm. "Luke, it's fingerprints!" He hisses, ghosting his fingers over the marks there.

"It's nothing Michael." Luke yanks his arm away, "Stop jumping to conclusions."

"Then what is it? Because it sure as hell looks like fingerprints." Michael fires right back.

"It is fingerprints, Michael, but not from what you're thinking. I was leaving for six weeks, we had some fun and it got a little rough. It's okay, and I am okay." Luke gets defensive.

"I don't trust her, Luke, and I don't trust you to be honest about her and what she's doing to you. But if you want to go with that story I'll let you for now, but only because I know you're not going to see her for at least six weeks. Just know, I'm hoping that I can talk some sense into you about her in that time." Michael threatens slightly, staring down Luke for a moment to make sure his point is heard.

"So glad you trust me." Luke huffs, turning away only for his eye to go wide as he realizes Elodie is still standing there. Even more shocking is the moment he realizes the expression in her eyes does not match his...

He watches her carefully as she takes a tentative step towards him, gently grasping his lower wrist and turning his arm over the same way Michael had, though much more gently. Her delicate little fingers lining up with the fingerprint on his arm and gently retracting backward, hovering a fraction of an inch above the bruises, mimicking the exact way she couldn't know those bruises were formed. His throat tightening as he realizes the lie, though not believed by Michael but accepted, would not be accepted by her. When his eyes lift from their connected hands to meet hers he can see they are painted in a variety of emotions, more than he'd seen yet from the girl. The most gut wrenching part is the emotion he can pick up most in her eyes, a look of petrifying fear masked only slightly by sorrow and something that looks like pity as she gently releases his arm from her hold.

"It's not like that, El." Her head shakes sharply as he tries to lie to her, panic ghosting more distinctly across her eyes.

"It was an accident. It wasn't malice, it was just an accident." He finds himself defending his injury as he tries to calm himself down. Something he finds extremely difficult with her bright green eyes looking up at his, fully not believing him as she shakes her head softly.

"I promise, Elodie, it was just an accident." He offers, watching through her eyes as she contemplates his words for a moment before pursing her lips tightly and giving one short nod, exhaling sharply before turning back to where she had been going previously.

Luke stands in the same place, feeling torn open and exposed by someone who has never even spoken a word to him. His eyes continue to watch her go, her dark hair pulled into a ponytail that swishes behind her, wondering internally how a nearly total stranger could possibly have known by the light bruises exactly what had happened to his arm several days prior. Then, questioning deeper if the silence she keeps is filled with dark secrets and a past she isn't willing to unload on anyone else...

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~M =)