Unsolicited Help || Marcelle, Mackenzie, Charlotte, Sophie

It had been a good day. Sophie had gone to her classes and stayed out of mostly everyone's way. Things were getting better with Mackenzie and for the first time in her life Sophie felt like she actually belonged somewhere. Except, when she got back to her hotel her father was there. She didn't know exactly what he had heard, but he was pissed and he beat the shit out of her. Whoever had decided to give a coldblooded sociopath a knife had been an idiot.

Once he got tired of this form of punishment he stormed off, claiming he would be sending for her to come home soon. Except she had no intention of going. She couldn't go back there, but she couldn't do anything about it on her own. The only person she knew who might be any help was her aunt, so she took an ibuprofen and pulled on a hoodie and headed over to Grace Steele's house without much of a thought to her injuries. "You're not Grace," Sophie frowned as Charley opened the door. With the hood hiding her face and the long sleeves she knew she wouldn't look too suspicious. No one had stopped her on the way to the house. "Is she here? I need to talk to her." She peeked around into the house but couldn't make out any people in the common room.

"Um... No, I'm not sure where she is right now," Charley responded, her gaze scanning Sophie a bit too closely, "Why, what's wrong?"

Sophie hesitated before saying "Nothing." and turning to walk away. Unfortunately before she could Charley grabbed her bruised wrist, causing Sophie to flinch, and lifted a hand to shift back Sophie's hood. "Personal space. Ever heard of it?" Sophie growled, but she knew it was too late. Charley had already seen the blood and her face twisted with that pitying concern that Sophie despised so much.

"What happened?" Charley asked softly as Sophie pulled the hood back over her head.

Sophie huffed and rolled her eyes, playing into a haughty act she had plenty of experience with. "I fell down a flight of stairs. There was a window involved." She said curtly. It was a good enough explanation for the forehead injury at least.

"I don't believe you." Charley said and dread filled Sophie's stomach. Stupid people with their stupid curiosity.

Soph shook her head, trying not to let it show how dizzy that motion made her. "It doesn't really matter what you believe, that's my answer to your question." she replied firmly, meeting Charlotte's gaze directly.

"We need to get you to a hospital," Charley said, but Sophie slowly shook her head. Going to a hospital was completely off the table. She didn't like them and if she did go it would cause more trouble than good. Surprisingly, Charlotte didn't press the matter. Instead she said "Come inside. We have first aid stuff in the bathroom and if that's enough I have more in my room."

Sophie hesitated. She knew she should go back to her hotel, but the world was spinning around her and her decision making skills weren't at their sharpest. "Fine." she breathed. "Fine, but I'm not accepting your charity or anything like that, it would just be better for me to be here when Grace gets back so I don't have to come again later and risk her not being here again."

She stepped inside and looked around, trying to remember the layout of the house. Charlotte gestured to the stairs and said "First door on the left" which was all the direction Sophie needed to make her way to the bathroom. She closed the door behind her and opened a couple of doors before finding the first aid supplies Charlotte had mentioned. She sat on the floor and held some gauze to her bleeding forehead.

The bleeding wasn't stopping and Sophie's breath was starting to come in faster waves. She should have gone back to her place before this confrontation. It wasn't worth trying to clean up this mess here where people would know just how bad her condition was. She didn't know why Charlotte hadn't asked any questions, but the Steele kids had grown up in a relatively safe environment. She didn't expect them to know the pitfalls of asking for help when the person causing the problem controlled everything.

Sophie breathed in deeply and flinched as pain shot through her stomach. She had forgotten about that one. Sighing, she lifted the edge of her sweatshirt, revealing a now red t-shirt beneath that was clinging to a particularly nasty looking wound. She winced at the scar she knew it would leave. At least she didn't have to deal with explaining this sort of thing to Blake anymore. She tested the edge of the t-shirt, but as she tried to pull it up she realized it would disturb the little healing the wound had already done. She grabbed the roll of gauze and wrapped it around her hand a few times, pressing it against the wound and holding it in place as she awkwardly wrapped another ribbon of gauze around the entirety of her waist to hold it in place.

Overcome with a wave of tiredness, Sophie leaned back against the wall and let her eyes drift shut for a moment. She would have to deal with her arms soon, but for now she wanted to rest for a moment. And just as soon as she opened her eyes she would see about getting Mackenzie to walk her home too.


Charlotte had wanted to cook for Marcel that night, so she had invited him over. None of the rest of her family was there, so it was supposed to just be him and her. Unfortunately, it was interrupted by a distressed cousin. Sophie's existence was still a bit strange to Charlotte. She had only seen her cousin a few times, but during those times she had never been able to get a firm read on the other girl. She clearly kept a lot to herself, but behind the bitchy front it didn't make anyone want to question it. But between the injuries and the insistence against going to the hospital Charley couldn't help but relate a little. This had to be due to some form of abuse and Charlotte herself had been through that in the past.

Charley headed back to the kitchen distractedly. "I guess Sophie's here now," Charlotte frowned, watching her blonde cousin head upstairs. "I think I need to go help her, she's pretty hurt..." she sighed, running a hand through her hair. She didn't feel a particular need to feel sympathy for her cousin, but she couldn't ignore that level of injury. She got the feeling she was going to regret offering any form of assistance, but it wasn't like she had much of a choice. "Maybe you should head home. This looks like it's going to be messy." At least Carter wasn't home. He didn't need to be seeing a mess like this.