(Im)Perfection

Chapter 9

The ambulance drive had been longer then Emily had hoped. Almost an hour the twp of them had sat in the ambulance while Florence had been so far gone into her mind, that she didn't answer the Paramedic or Emily herself. It had been horrible.
The two paramedics carefully got the gurney out of the ambulance and pushed her inside while Emily walked next to them. Florence hadn't let go of her older sisters hands since she had been found.
"Agent Prentiss. We'll have to take your sister back now for an exam and to treat her injuries. I'll tell one of the nurses to get you once you can come back okay?" A young doctor talked to her. She looked up and nodded. "Okay. Flo baby. You gotta let me go now okay? I'll wait and once you're fixed up I'll come see you." Carefully the older girl pried her hand free. She watched as her sister immediately started to cry and reach for her but the nurses and doctor took her back. Emily knew they'd have to give her a sedative otherwise they wouldn't be able to treat her and her heart broke even more.
Florence felt pure panic as she watched Emily stand there in the distance. She wanted her sister. She needed her.
Only then she realized that her arms were thrashing around without her willing them to it. One of the people around her said something. She felt a prick and everything went dark.
Flo woke up to a rhythmic beeping right next to her she turned her head and opened her eyes to see a ECG Unit. The room was white and everything was flooded with light.
"Hey pretty girl." She heard a soft voice and turned her head towards Emily.  "Emmy?" She asked quietly and smiled at her big sister. "Hey Flo. How are you feeling?" Her older sister gently squeezed her hand. "Okay I guess." She whispered back. "How many pain meds am I on?" Emily chuckled and grinned "Enough. You think I can ask you a few question for our files? Or do you not feel up for it now. We can do it when you're out of the hospital."
Florence shrugged. "We can start and I'll tell you if I can't go on anymore?" The older one nodded agreeing. "Alright can you think back to right after I left?" "Yeah I went to the bathroom down the hall and brushed my teeth. Then I went back to my room and went to bed." "Did you hear or see anything?" "No I remember thinking that it was unusually quiet."  Emily squeezed her hand and nodded while writing down her answer.
"Okay do you remember anything afterwards?" "Not really I remember pain and then I woke up in the basement. One of them probably hit me in the head when I was asleep." Emily gave her sister a comforting smile. "Okay and then?" She asked quietly. "I remember it was cold and the air was so humid. I felt the chains and tried to remove them which really hurt. I had to press down on my ankle so hard, but nothing happened. Then Emilia came in." Florence took a deep breath. Emily let her take a deep breath. "She kicked me and told me about her brother before she left the room. I think I fell asleep the next time I woke up they
were both there." Emily squeezed her hand. "You're doing so great."
"He talked about why his sister killed himself. He said everyone bullied her because she wasn't a Virgin anymore. And how she was tainted forever and that made her kill herself. And he wanted the 'best' of the girls to feel the same. He tried to manipulate me and definitely manipulated the other girls to let him kill us. As an act of mercy." Emily felt terrified. He tried to manipulate her to let him kill her. To give up on live and when she thought about how he was about to stab her he had managed to do so. But before she could ask further there was a knock on the door. A very firm one. Definitely not a nurse or a doctor, Emily thought as she went to open the door. Her parents were standing there in their old money aesthetic glory. "Emily it's good to see you." Her mother said and hugged her. It wasn't the kind of hug she'd share with JJ or Spence and definitely not with Flo. This was a polite hug. One that just screams I'm doing this because of obligations. Her dad had just gave her a curt nod before moving to Florence.
Emily has to suppress a sigh. Their parents had always been cold and borderline emotionally abusive, but she had hoped they'd at least be nice to Florence now. She needed her Family to support her.
"Florence how are you? When can you go back to your studies?" Her mother asked. Flo just glanced at her hands. "I'm doing good given the circumstances, thank you mother. I hope to return to my studies as soon as possible." The Old woman nodded and touched her husbands arm.
"We talked to Charles and Alicia. They and of course Harold wish you their best." He said as his eyes trailed over his daughters form. "That's very nice would you tell them I'm very grateful for their well wishes." Emily noticed how perfect Florence was at playing the perfect high society daughter her parents wanted both of them to be. Of course the older one knew that the school was part of that, but still Florence used to be sich a wild child it was a huge change to see her act like this.
"Of course. I'll call a doctor to talk about your injuries." The father left the room and the mother took a seat at the end of the bed. Florence felt uncomfortable with her mother being in such close proximity to her but she couldn't do anything. Still her sister noticed.
"Hey Flo. Are you okay?" The younger one looked at her, but before she could answer their mother jumped in. "Emily how many times do I have to tell you. Her name is Florence. Not Flo and not any other nickname you make up. I want you to use her full God-given name. Understand?" Emily flinched back. Even now as an adult her mother's cold and angry tone scared her. It brought back a lot of the memories she tried to work through in therapy. "Yes ma'am."
The oldest brunette nodded satisfied as her husband came back in with a young man following him. "I found a doctor." He proclaimed and took a stand next to where his wife had taken a seat.
"Would you mind telling us about our daughters injuries?" The young doctor nodded and pulled the file from thd attachment on her bed. "So Miss Prentiss do you want me to talk to your parents outside?" He asked kindly and Florence was about to agree but Elizabeth Prentiss immediately shut that down. "Oh no. We'll discuss that here. We're all family after all." He nodded and started to read over the file.
"Miss Prentiss sustained light injuries to her head as the result of being hit in the head. She also has some minor cuts and bruises along her back and stomach." He stopped for a second to give everyone a second to breathe, but when he realized that nobody beside his patient and her older sister showed any kind of reactions he continued.
"She does have a large amount of vaginal trauma and cuts on her inner tighs. We already ran a rape kit and stitched up all the cuts that needed it." You could've heard a pin drop. Florence didn't even dare to breathe, let alone look at her family.
Emily's heart broke when she realized that she had been to late. She had hoped, prayed they'd be quick enough to save her sister the psychological trauma of being assaulted. She grabbed the younger ones hands and started to draw circles to keep both of them clam and grounded.
"What do you mean rape kit? She wasn't raped was she?" Their father asked. His voice wasn't worried or scared. Emily looked up confused. Wasn't he worried about his child? But his face just showed pure anger. Nothing but fury. For a second she thought it was directed towards the man who did this, but less then ten seconds later she realized that wasn't the case.
"You went around and got raped. You stupid girl. Do you know what this means for us?" He yelled at the youngest one and Emily felt schock set in. How could he?
"He's right do you know how embarrassing this is? We'll have to deal with this as soon as possible. You'll make us lose so much money. Do you realize that?" Her mother shook her head disappointed. Florence felt the tears stinging in her eyes, but tried as hard as she could not to cry.
"Elizabeth call Charles. We'll have to discuss to upgrade the terms maybe they'll still let their son marry her if we pay them back some money. We can't have both our daughters be failures in society." Emily felt rage set in not only because of the blatant disrespect  her parents had always held for her and her career choices but also for Flo. She was supposed to be married off to some rich guy without having any say? Why didn't she know about this.
Florence just felt the world shift. One second everything was too loud, too much and too bright and the next second everything went fizzy.
The sounds fizzled out, like she was listening to everything with headphones on her ears. The light faded out and she couldn't see anything.  The only thing she really felt were someone's hand in hers. She felt the rough skin and the finger tracing circles in her palm. The calloused fingers from holding a gun tracing along her fingers.
Emily noticed the shift in her sister but right now she couldn't help her. "How can you do this? She's a child who has been to something incredible traumatic and you act like its her fault?" She asked furious. "Emily you don't understand. Florence has signed a contract to be married once she's eighteen. Part of that contract states she has to be a virgin. Since that contract is no invalid she and we will Miss out on a lot of money and a great business relationship." Her father said as if that explanation would calm Emily down in any way or form.
"What do you mean she signed a contract? She isn't even legal yet. Any contract like that isn't even legal. So why the fuck would you make her sign something like that?" Emily got louder. "Cause it's her responsibility as our child. But we can forget that contract now. So we wasted almost ten years of education and money on this." Her mother said before looking at Florence. "I'm so disappointed in you and I'm sorry to say bit Charles won't accept a change of the contract." Her father sighed that mad and disappointed sigh Emily knew so well.
"Well Florence that means your own your own now. Come on Elizabth we'll head out now." He took his wifes arm and gently led her to the door.