Far from Home.

Early Authors Note: I might've fucked it up a bit, but to make it clear, Emily is NOT pregnant. Brian was talking about wanting to get her pregnant again because of the sexual side effects. Lucy is missing... And I think that's all the confusion. Onward! To the story!

Two days after Lucy went missing, Brian and Emily were able to file a missing person's report. The searches had been ongoing for almost a week, and Emily was beyond hysterical. She, still, didn't dare walk to the bedroom. She avoided everything and anything that reminded her of Lucy.

Brian had taken a leave from work, dedicating all of his time to finding his daughter.

And as much as Emily wanted to find Lucy, she couldn't bring herself to go out on the search with Brian, the volunteers, and officers. Just knowing that her daughter wasn't at home where she belonged singed her heart greatly. She wasn't strong enough to go out and act like everything was okay.

A quieted sob left Emily's lips as she sat up on the couch, waking from her sleep. Even though she had probably only gotten two or three hours of sleep, she was able to force herself to function with basic actions. Cooking, cleaning. That's all she ever did, now. She cooked dinner for Brian, stuffing it in the microwave for whenever he returned home. Breakfast and lunch hadn't been cooked since Lucy's disappearance.

Emily cleaned all day long. From as soon as she woke up to whenever she felt too tired to function. Her and Brian hardly saw each other anymore.

He was gone before she woke up, and she was asleep before he got home. Much to her surprise, Brian was able to go to the bedroom and sleep peacefully - His snores always seemed to echo throughout the house and cause her to stir in her sleep.

Today was much of the same, it was almost like this had been a longtime routine. Emily folded the blanket, laying it over the back of the couch, and stretched. Her eyes caught the clock.

11:52.

She'd woken up late, today, which was strange. The clock had read something around four or five when Emily had finally managed to fall asleep.

"I got like... Seven hours of sleep. Fucking miracle." She muttered, making her way to the kitchen.

Emily had decided that today would be dedicated to cleaning up the kitchen. She emptied the cabinets of the dishes, the pantries of the food, and the drawers of the utensils and spice packets.

The paint was beginning to peel, and a frown formed on her face. Emily grabbed her car keys and phone, deciding that buying paint at the local hardware store would keep her busy for endless hours. She got into her car and drove to the store, hoping that this wouldn't turn into a regret.



You're an idiot, Emily. The biggest dumb ass on the planet.

She scolded herself as nearly the entire hardware turned to stare at her. Emily hadn't bothered with her hair or makeup, she probably looked like a wreck that had just came from hell.

But she wasn't here to be reminded of her current situation.

As a matter of fact, she was here for paint. White paint to repaint the cabinets, some paint brushes, and anything else that looked mildly important to painting.

Emily tucked her hair behind her ear and kept her eyes on the paint shelf, grabbing two cans of white. The stares of the local patrons burned into her back - Whispers weren't yet heard. Or maybe she was too focused on getting out of there to pay attention to them.

It was when Emily was crouched, looking at the multiple paint brushes, that she had let her guard down. The confusion of picking a brush must've shown through her hard facade, because someone walked over to her.

"Need any help?"

Seeing as though the first words out of their mouth hadn't been about Lucy, Emily nodded. "Yes, I do. I'm looking to repaint my cabinets and I don't know which brush I should use."

The man nodded and leaned down, his eyes scanning the brushes. After just a few seconds, he picked two out, handing them to Emily. "Here you go. One small enough for the corners, the other a bit larger for painting it overall."

"Thank you."

The two walked to the counter and the man rung her up. She paid with cash, seeing as though if she used her credit card then she'd be there longer.

"Oh, ma'am?" He called just before she went through the doors.

Emily cursed in her head, thinking she'd left her keys or phone on the counter. She turned around on her heel and walked back to the counter. "Yes?"

"Do you really think you should be fixing up your home instead of looking for your daughter?"

The normal Emily would've probably jumped over the counter and let her fists fly. The normal Emily would've cursed him to the very depths of Hades home. The normal Emily would've tried to bash him over the head with the bucket of paint.

The normal Emily would've kept an eye on her daughter instead of giving into her carnal pleasures

The normal Emily would've never let her daughter leave her sight.

The normal Emily would still have her daughter.

"Well?" Someone else questioned her.

Silently, Emily bowed her head and walked out of the store. She threw everything in the backseat of her car and tailed it back home, fighting the tears of guilt that threatened to detour her driving.

Sooner than she expected, Emily was in the driveway of her home. She turned off the car and grabbed the bags from the back, scurrying inside. With a sigh, she decided that she needed to overcome at least one more thing.

Emily set down the bags in the kitchen, before slowly making her way down the hall. Her feet came to a screeching halt infront of Lucy's room. The door was open, everything was exactly as Emily had left it when she was cleaning her room.

"Lucy, where are you?" She quietly whispered, leaning in the doorway. The tears running down her face were all too familiar, and she - Like the past few days - Hadn't bothered to fight them in the security of her home,"I miss you so much, and so does daddy. He's out looking for you, you know."

On a tiny whim of courage, Emily stepped into her daughter's room, sitting on the messy bed,"So, if you see him, go straight to him, okay? We want nothing more than for you to come back home safe and sound, because we miss you, and we aren't a family without you. You complete us - Especially your daddy."

She laughed softly, remembering the night she was able to bring Lucy home for the first time. "I remember, when you came home with us and fell asleep in our bed, that your daddy cried. He cried so hard, I thought he was going to end up choking on his own tears, the poor guy. Anyways, I asked him why he was crying and he looked up at me with the biggest, most beautiful smile I had ever seen on his face. And do you know what he said?"

Emily ran her fingers over the colorful zig zags of Lucy's pillowcase,"He said he finally found what he'd been missing. He said he felt perfectly at peace with us. He said you were the most perfect, innocent thing in his life, and that he was going to treasure you until he passed on, then he'd protect you with everything he could while he sat in Heaven, watching you. You're his little gem, baby, and you need to come back home to us."

A sniffle sounded through the room and it startled Emily, until she realized it was her own bodily sound. She pressed a kiss to Lucy's pillow and stood up, closing the door softly.

She made her way to the kitchen and sighed, opening up the paint. The smell hit her like a truck - It was strong. Emily blinked a few times before she perched herself on the counter, slowly swirling the paintbrush around in the white liquid. A few tears fell off the tip of her nose into the batter, and Emily cursed herself outloud.

Just barely an hour into repainting her cabinets, Emily's body took on a feeling of weakness. Her head felt pounds lighter. She quickly hopped off the counter, making the paint topple and spill onto the floor.

"Oh no," She felt to her knee's, trying to force the paint back into the can with her hands,"No, no, no. Brian's going to be so upset. He's going to leave me for fucking up. No, no, no, no, no."

Her words mushed themselves together with her newly formed tears. Emily couldn't bare the thought of Brian leaving her. He - Even though they hadn't spoken a single word to each other - Kept her together. Just knowing that he existed and that he loved her enough to stay with her... It was the one thing that kept a cap on Emily's sanity.

Sure, she might've lost her head more times than she could ever count, but she was always able to find it with Brian's help.

But one day, he was bound to get tired of her fucking up. She wasn't perfect, which is exactly what Brian deserved. He was bound to realize that he could only take so much of her fuck ups and mistakes before it was time to move on and find the one that could truly complete him and give him the perfect life he often dreamed about outloud.

"N-No," Emily whispered, seeing that her efforts were done in vain. The paint was seeping through her fingers and onto her thighs, touching the small rug under her. Her head finally became too light for her to handle - The fumes of the paint had hit her long enough. Emily braced herself with her hands as she felt the weight of the world come crashing down onto her, almost.

She passed out in the puddle of paint. In the middle of the kitchen. Tear stains on her cheeks. Worried thoughts in her head. And her heart in two.

Under the circumstances, Emily was in a bad way. But, the one positive thing, was that she had passed out beyond dreaming. She had no thoughts, no dreams, no nightmares, no dwindles in anything. She didn't think about her cruel situation, the possible outcomes, or even the possibility of Brian leaving her.

She only thought about the blackness of her inner mind.

Peace.

Quiet.

Tranquility.