When Cheshire was coming to, she was startled by the lack of sound. Had she really escaped or had she dreamed it? Her eyes fluttered open and she was blinded momentarily by the bright lights making her groan. At least she thought she groaned. She could feel it rumble in but she couldn't hear any sound. Had she torn her vocal cords? As she was asking herself even more questions, she felt two hands on her right arm and looked up to see Ezra standing over her.

Ezra's lips were moving and tears were streaming down his face but Chess couldn't hear him. She finally was able to take note of her surroundings and noticed all the hospital equipment attached to her by cords. She should be hearing the beeping. She should hear the nurses coming in the room. She should hear her bodyguard crying over her. Everything was silent.

Cheshire brought her right hand up to her ear and tapped on it. There was no dull thud, there was nothing. She tried to lift her left hand but hissed in pain at the movement. There was still no sound. Tears were forming in Cheshire's eyes as she looked around the room hoping that there would be some explanation but there wasn't.

Chess screamed as loud as she could hoping for it to force her ears to work. It didn't. Nurses and doctors came rushing in and Ezra was trying to calm her down. The doctors were talking to her and asking questions but Chess couldn't understand. Trying to figure out how to explain what was wrong made her hyperventilate. She had no idea what to do.

“I CAN'T HEAR!!!!” Chess finally screamed. Once the doctors and nurses heard that they immediately grabbed the mini whiteboard off the wall and began scribbling on it.

'Calm down,' was the first thing that they wrote and as Chess's breath started to return to normal they wrote again. 'We will figure out what is wrong. Are you in any other pain?'

Chess shook her head, tears running down her face. What was she supposed to do if they couldn't fix it? She was a musician, her hearing was her entire life. Chess cried and cried and cried, there wasn't anything that could possibly console her at that exact moment.

Ezra was doing everything he could to try though. Hearing the doctors talking about what could have caused the hearing loss, was not comforting to him. No matter what he wasn't going to let her know that though. He held her hand and ran his left hand lightly over her hair. She was broken, and Ezra wished he could fix it. He stayed with her until after the sedative that the doctors gave her kicked in.

He headed out to the lobby of the ward Chess was in to make a phone call. He had sent a text to Si Dae, who had simply sent a message back telling him to call when she woke up. Ezra was pretty worried about talking to Si Dae honestly. He didn't know what to expect at all but when the call went through and the pleasantries were exchanged, it was a little less worrisome than he thought it would be.

“How is she holding up?” Si Dae asked right off the bat. Ezra could hear the exhaustion in his voice and could tell that he was definitely having a very hard time with the entire situation.

“Well... It's looking worse than we thought,” Ezra rubbed a hand down his face but continued. “Cheshire... she's, uh, she's not able to hear right now. She's completely deaf. There's nothing wrong with her ears physically and there wasn't anything on her MRI or CT scan. They're going to have a psychologist come see her tomorrow. They seem to be leaning more towards the idea that maybe it's a side effect of the trauma.”

“Deaf? She really can't hear? At all?” Si Dae's shock almost broke Ezra's heart. He sounded more like a dad than a boss. “When do you think that she'll be able to come home?”

“To be perfectly honest, it looks like once the psychologist gives their opinion she should be able to go back to Seoul,” Ezra wasn't very happy about Cheshire going back before she made a full recovery.

“I know I might be asking too much of you but is there any chance that you would consider coming to work as Cheshire's personal bodyguard here?” Si Dae's offer came out of left field and almost knocked the wind out of Ezra.

“What? You want to hire me?” Ezra sputtered the words out trying to figure out how this even became a conversation.

“I've thought about this since you told me that Cheshire got taken. I know that it's not your fault, Chess can be the most stubborn person in the company when she wants to be, usually when it's something she can do to make other people's lives easier. You've gone above and beyond the duties of your job and I think that you genuinely care about Chess. I think that when she comes back she's going to need someone like that, especially now with the deafness. I don't need an answer right now but I want you to know that it's an option. Let me know what the psychologist says and what your answer is. I need to go now,” Si Dae hung up without waiting for Ezra's answer. Ezra definitely didn't need to think about it as long as Si Dae seemed to think he did. He knew already what he was going to do.

After the psychologist came to see Cheshire, Ezra told Si Dae about the diagnosis and his decision. The psychologist said that Chess's PTSD was the most likely cause of the deafness. They told Ezra that the most affective treatment would be for her to go back to Seoul and be surrounded by the people in her life that cared about her the most. Cheshire had become guarded and distant since she woke up and that was all trauma related. She had all the normal symptoms of being the average survivor and it was not something Ezra had wanted Chess to have to heal from. The psychologist had said that hopefully with the right treatment that the deafness would fix itself within a few weeks to a couple months at the most. Chess needed all the support she could get now.

Needless to say, Ezra was on the plane in the seat right next to her. They had decided to bring a few notebooks and that was how Chess was communicating with everyone. There had been a big fuss with the press when she had gone through airport security but Ezra had been a pit bull, even pushing one of the more determined reporters out of the way when he got into Chess's face. The press was apparently having a field day with the news that she had been abducted but no one knew that she was currently deaf. Thankfully, none of the press knew about the details of her abduction either. It would have been a death blow to her career if it got out that she had been . That was definitely one of the biggest drawbacks of being in the Korean entertainment industry.

'Stop over thinking this Chess. You did nothing wrong and everything will be fine in a few weeks,' Ezra quickly jotted down before poking Chess's shoulder to grab her attention. Ezra didn't fail to notice how she jumped a bit from his touch, and unfortunately it wasn't because he startled her.

'That's a lot easier said than done,' Chess wrote back.

'What are you so worried about?' Ezra knew that he was prying but he had been told that it wasn't a bad thing to do by the psychologist. The more Chess could talk about her fears and worries and what happened to her, the easier her recovery could be.

'Changkyun,' That was all that Chess wrote back. Ezra had asked her the same thing the night before and that had been her answer then too. According to her, Changkyun was all she cared about, he was all that worried her. Him and how he would react to what she went through.

'Changkyun will be okay. He's just going to be so worried about you,' Ezra was aware that most of what Chess was worried about with Changkyun was how the worry was going to affect his job. She didn't believe that she was a worthwhile distraction and it hurt Ezra that she though of herself like that.

'I don't want him to disappoint his fans. He's got a lot going on and now I'm just adding to the problem. It'd be better if we weren't together for this. It's asking for too much from him,' Chess wrote with tears starting to form in her eyes. She knew where the conversation was going and how Ezra felt about the subject but she couldn't help it. She didn't want to be a burden on anyone.

'Stop it. You're not a burden. You are a wonderful person that deserves the world. I haven't even known you but for a couple of days and I know that. Hell, do you think I'd be on this damn plane with you if you weren't an amazing person? You deserve to have someone worry about you. You deserve to have someone try everything to help you. You deserve to have someone want to pause their own life to help you. You are so much more than you give yourself credit for and I'm sure that Changkyun is going to feel the same way. If he didn't then I'm sure he wouldn't have been with you and I'm sure you wouldn't have fallen for him. So stop it and deal with it because we're going to be taking care of you and helping you,' Chess gave Ezra a light smile after she read everything, though it didn't reach her eyes and the tears were still pooling.

Cheshire didn't answer for the rest of the plane ride and Ezra didn't bother to prod her anymore. She'd talk about things when she was good and ready. There were a lot of things that Ezra had wanted to know about her though so when she fell asleep finally he started up his laptop and began his research. To his surprise it wasn't all that hard to find what he was looking for. He found all the articles that were talking about Cheshire's past and the murders of her family, it finally gave an explanation as to why she seemed to think of herself as so inconsequential.

The more he read into it the more he remembered hearing about it when it had first happened. He remembered all the press coverage of the massacre at the family's home and how the killer had been gunned down by her father. How she was the only one left alive. Then he came across some pictures of her family. He hadn't really looked into the case when he had first heard about it, simply brushing it off as something tragic that happened to people he didn't know. Now, it was different. Now, it was world changing to see who her family was. Staring back at him from his laptop screen was his best friend that he'd lost contact with after college. Chess's brother had been his best friend since they were in elementary school and he just now found out why they had really lost touch. He had died.

Ezra had known Chess since she was a baby. He had babysat her with her brother countless times when they were in high school. He had been dubbed the adopted son of the Beck family because of how much time he spent with them. He had even promised to treat Chess like his own sister. How had he never thought to check on this before? How had he not thought to see what had happened to his best friend?

Ezra closed his laptop and put his head in his hands. He was completely dumbfounded by what he had just discovered but it all made sense now. It made sense that he wanted to take care of Cheshire, and it made sense that she seemed so familiar to him. She may as well have been his own flesh and blood sister. Ezra turned his head to look over at Chess who was napping with her head leaned against the head rest. She really did turn out to be a great woman.

“I'll always protect you. I won't let Travis down, I promise,” Ezra whispered even though he knew Chess couldn't hear him.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A/N Okay guys my hands got away a bit from me with this chapter but I feel like it was a good thing honestly. What do you think? Were you expecting that from Ezra? I honestly wasn't.. at all.. In my original plan for this story, Ezra wasn't even a character and now he's actually become such a big part and I'm so surprised... I hope you all like it! As always Thank You for Reading! Kamsamnida!