Arc listened, utterly silent as he processed Madison's plight. His heart broke for her. The sadness behind her eyes betrayed any attempt she made to mask the pain she lived with. Every time she changed her clothes, or bathed, or even looked down at her stomach, she was again reminded of what East Side took from her. It was no wonder that she was so jumpy around her stomach, and why she needed as much time as she did before she could truly feel comfortable being close to him. That time did not bother him at all but it did make more sense. He was quiet for the entire story, nodding as he listened intently, hanging onto every syllable. His eyes hardly ever left her's, even when she turned away to hold back the raw emotion that reared its ugly head. The only time they deviated was to look at the scar across her belly. Like a plague it seemed to roll through her, strangling her heart and locking it away so that all she would feel, seemingly, was sadness.<br/><br/>When her anguished words finally stopped and her voice went quiet, Arc simply sat with her for a long moment. His eyes fell downward, finding her hand, which prompted him to reach for it. He held her fingers in his palm, covering them with his other hand. Her digits were ice cold against his warm skin. He didn't hold them so much as cradle them, his touch so soft it was barely there. Arc slowly lifted his eyes, leaned forward, and pressed a kiss to her forehead, just as she did with him. Sometimes he didn't need someone to fix the thing that made him unhappy, but just to be there to allow him to process it emotionally. Words could always come later. He couldn't be completely silent, of course, but he could at least try to not say something that she might consider to be useless fluff.<br/><br/>"Madison," he said with a soft voice. He wasn't really sure what he should say, and did not want to waste words by just speaking them. There was a powerful desire for Arc's words to mean something when he said them. Pulling Madison toward him a little, he wrapped his arms around her and held her gently and protectively. He wanted her to feel safe there, to know that she had an anchor there to keep her from returning to that horrible life. No one would force her to go back to it, not if he had anything to say about it.<br/><br/>Finally he spoke again, leaning back only after she indicated that she was done being held. "It has been a long day. Let's just spend the rest of the evening... not remembering what happened today, or when you were 19. Let's pretend, just for a little while, that the world is not a terribly place, and we're just relaxing at home. We can eat, then we can get some sleep and sort things out in the morning. What do you think?" The only thing he could think of was to try to distract her mind long enough for her to rest. Sunrise would bring a new opportunity, so all he had to do was get them through the rest of the evening and they could try again.<br/><br/>After the day had come and gone, and the sun had made its daily trip through the sky, Arc began to get everything ready to sleep. It wasn't much, mostly just making sure that everything was locked down and sealed up so they would be safe sleeping through the night. Once the plane was secure, he went to the 'bathroom' area, rinsed his face, and went to grab his pills.<br/><br/>Not there.<br/><br/><i>'No big deal'</i>, he thought to himself, moving to the trunk to grab another bottle. That, too, was empty. Immediately anxiety began to set in inside him. "Madison," he called. "There was a box in this cabinet that had a bunch of pill bottles in it. Have you seen it laying around? The bottles were orange and the box was grey."