It was late afternoon when the police finally showed up, arriving in small quantities.
Emma and Chase were both finally resting. They'd helped those they could, with the medical personnel offering most of the assistance. A few people... hadn't made it, and though it was expected, it was enough to finally make Emma give up after hours of moving around, even though she'd kept well away from those.
The woman she had intended to help was one of them. When she got one of the people helping out to go look her over, she'd stood aside and watched as two of them made their best attempt. She left them still trying to move her, but she'd seen them looking for other survivors, and the woman hadn't joined the rescued group.
Finally, she decided, if the medics couldn’t do anything, there was no more she could do. Chase sat with her, not touching her this time, but having him close by was still a comfort.
She stirred when the cops got there, though. When a female officer walked close by, she struggled to get to her feet, forced her tired muscles to move, and stumbled a little but stayed upright. The officer saw her and came, probably to offer assistance, but Emma waved it off before the other woman could touch her.
"I'm sorry, ma'am, are you okay?"
"I'm fine," she waved dismissively. "I'm just a little exhausted. Do you have any idea what's going on?"
She looked around, looking uneasy. "I'm afraid not. I have about as much clue as you do. I was on the other side of town when I heard the crash, and I've been stopped a lot on the way to be asked what was happening, we all have. It's why it took us so long to get here."
Emma felt a shiver wrack her body, then Chase was there, an arm around her shoulders as he talked to the officer. Emma heard him tell the police woman his theory, and the other woman looked thoughtful.
"We shouldn’t discount a terrorist attack," she said slowly. "Knowing planes and cell phones wouldn’t be effected by a tower power-cut. We're not sure just how far the damage goes but it likely spreads over the general area." She chewed on her lower lip and glanced around at the other people in the vicinity. Then she was pulling something out of her pocket, a pen and notepad. "Give me your names, please, and where I can find you in case I have questions for you later."
Chase and Emma both gave their names and addresses and she noted them down. Then she tucked the pen and notepad away, giving them a thin smile.
"I advise you make your way home to your families. Dark will be coming in sooner than you think and it’s a long walk." She gave them a sharp nod and went off to offer help to someone else.
They started the walk back, moving slowly because they both felt drained. Chase walked Emma back to her house, even though his way was different from hers, and if he had to double back, he'd get home after the sun set. But when she tried to protest, he wouldn’t hear of it. They were mostly quiet on the way back, shocked by the events of the day.
Emma noticed that Chase was covered in dust and blood. She wondered if he'd even realized, if he cared. She wondered if he had gotten injured somehow—if any of the blood was his. She hadn't checked to see if he'd been hurt at all. Actually, she was pretty sure she hadn't taken a real close look at him before then so he could have been hurt the entire time and she wouldn’t—
Traumatized, Emma tried to focus on the road ahead instead. Chase didn’t seem to have difficulty walking anymore than she did, so she assumed he was fine. She wondered how bad she looked, only to shove the thought aside as well. There were no safe thoughts—even thinking of her job had her thinking what happened at the school, the kids—so she did her best to keep her mind blank, or fill it with nonsense, the safe variety.
When they got to her street, she stopped, and made him stop beside her.
"You need to turn back, now, and go home."
He firmed his jaw, looking reluctant. After a long stare, he shook his head slowly, and Emma wanted to hit him. They were both a mess, both needed to rest. They also could have used a shower and a change of clothes, and Emma planned on it once she got home.
"I'll be fine from here. We can both see my house, Chase. Just go home, I'm sure I'll make it on my own. You still have further to go."
"But—" he went to protest, only for her to cut him off.
"No," she said sharply. "Absolutely not. I'm fine, Chase. I want to go home and check on my sister and grandmother, and you look about as ready to pass out as I feel. Just go already."
He didn’t look happy, but she wasn’t relenting on this. It was a full ten minute drive from his place to hers, but for a walk, it would be farther, take longer. Finally, he sighed and conceded. He pulled her into a fierce hug, and it took her by surprise for a moment, then she was hugging him back just as fiercely. When he pulled away, he just gave her a blank look then walked away without saying another word.
She would have rather gone with him. She just stood and watched him until he was out of sight, a while longer than that, and wished she could just go after him, stay with him. She needed to look in on her family, but could they understand what she went through since that morning? She didn’t want to risk acting out of character and causing some distress without meaning to. But she had to see her family, or they would be distressed anyway.
Emma could have run after him. She was sorely tempted to. Instead, she sighed and turned around.
Arriving at her house, feeling the worst she ever had, she saw Janice was waiting out on the steps, waiting for a glimpse of her granddaughter. And even though she was still tired, still a bit traumatized with all that happened, she felt relief at the sight of her grandmother, and a small smile tugged on her lips.
Janice ran to Emma when she saw her, and she was surprised at how fast and easy the older woman moved. But then she caught the tears on her grandmother's face and realized she was crying, just seconds before she was pulled into a bone crushing hug.
"I was so worried for your safety, Emma. I shouldn’t have been anxious, you're usually back later than this, but I couldn’t help it..."
That surprised her. "You know about the accident?"
"No, but there was this horrible noise, the ground even shook for a bit. I wanted to call you but the phones aren’t working, the electricity is gone. I didn’t have a way to contact you and I just suddenly had this bad feeling—"
She broke off then, and she was sobbing. Emma wrapped her arms tight around her grandmother, giving and taking comfort. It felt so good to be home and with her family, but she didn’t want her grandmother worrying herself sick.
"I'm fine, Grandma," she insisted as she patted the older woman, made soothing strokes on her back with her palms, rocking a little from side to side.
It took a minute, and by then Emma was holding the both of them up, before the older woman regained herself enough to pull back, but still sniffling. They both went back in the house, where Merry was waiting smugly.
Emma loved her sister, but she saw her face and wanted to punch away that look. Like she was so proud of herself when Emma felt like she was dying inside. She knew she would go to sleep and she would have nightmares, that would likely last for weeks. Their grandmother had been standing outside on her own, crying. And Merry... she just looked so self-satisfied that it pissed Emma off.
She was going to ignore her and go back to trying to hold in her sanity. But then Merry made a comment that made her stop.
"You should have listened to me when I tried to tell you yesterday," she said in a sing song voice. "But nope, you just think I'm crazy, right? I 'predicted' the crash and you would have known about it sooner if you'd just—"
"Shut up." Her voice was low and growly, nothing like how she usually sounded. She set their grandmother down to sit then rounded on her sister, who just looked at her, confused.
"What? It’s the truth."
Emma just growled. "I don’t care. I don’t give a damn what you saw, or what you think you saw Merry, this is not okay!"
Her voice grew until she was shouting, her breathing heaving out of her chest in pants. Her sister continued to look confused, some of her good mood dimming.
"What did I—"
"You shouldn’t be so happy," she shouted back, and her voice cracked, but she rallied on. "Hundreds died in that accident. Chase... I almost died and would have if I hadn't seen it falling. I don’t need to hear about your stupid predictions, and don’t you dare fucking gloat to my face."
It was the angriest she could remember being. They both tended to get worked up, so shouting matches weren’t so surprising, just not common. But Emma sounded like she could murder her sister, she was so angry, and Merry heard it. She was gaping at Emma, who felt a little vindictive pleasure at the look on her older sister's face.
Merry began to reply, but Emma didn’t want to hear it this time. Whatever came out of her sister's mouth was going to annoy her, she knew it would only make her blow up at Merry. She sliced the air with her hand to get Merry to shut up and stomped her way upstairs.
She shut herself in her room and fell into her bed to cry.
