Damien

***

"Damien's practically a puzzle I was lucky enough to try and solve, and he's unfinished it seems. He's stronger than he believes but arrogant and cocky, a fault that many others have. He's also brave, and takes care of his family and those he cares about before himself. Within this month and a half, I had the fortunate opportunity to get close to him and his family. The problem with it was, is I found myself breaking from my walls and letting him see the true me. I figured out I-"

"Fern Donnelly?"

No! What was she going to say?!

I could only stand and watch her run, out the door and away from me. The entire class was silent, except for maybe the sound of my pounding heart. It seemed that the sound of my heard could almost be heard by everyone in the room, because every single one of them stared at me.

I bolted from the room, running out the doors with someone right behind me. I saw a faded SUV peel out of the parking lot when I figured out it was Charles running with me, his eyes wide and his face almost as pale as Ferns was.

"What's going on?" I pleaded, my brain barely functioning.

Charles was just shouting curse words and running his hands through his hair, before finally turning and looking straight at me. "We have to find her, now."

I nodded numbly as I fished my keys out of my pocket, sprinting to my car with Charles behind me. Charles practically ripped my keys from my hand and flew into the drivers seat, almost ignoring me completely when he started the car. He tore out of the parking lot as fast as he could, swerving through cars and driving the familiar route to my little plants house.

I say familiar because I drive by almost all the time, hoping and praying to a god I don't believe in to simply catch a glimpse of her.

I rarely do.

As he pulled up to her home we see the SUV not in the place it's usually parked, the grass well overgrown and the pain chipped. I loathed her house, and it took all it had within me to not rip her from her own home every time I drove by. I growled as we started to leave, taking the ramp to get onto the freeway.

We were stopped quickly when the traffic went to a standstill, the sounds of sirens blaring over the soft radio Charles had been playing. His eyes widened from where he sat, considering the fact he had a much better line of sight towards the accident.

"What's going on?" Charles pretty much ripped his seatbelt off and scrambled out of the car, my body moving and reacting in a slower fashion. Once I was out and on the concrete and actually saw what the accident was, I ran like my life depended on it.

The same faded SUV I saw the love of my life leave the school in was upside down, glass everywhere and many dents in the sides and the back. Metal was caved in, and even worse, splatters of blood was all over the road. I swear my heart dropped when I saw all the ambulances, Charles somehow keeping his composure enough to talk to the police around us.

I watched an ambulance tear out of the freeway and down a ramp, my eyes watching it leave as I waited on Charles. My mind kept racing with a million questions that I didn't have any answers too, and I didn't think I would be able to properly do anything until I had the answers.

"St. Elizabeth's Hospital, I'll text both Joey and Jake when we get there. Get to the car!" I numbly moved, feeling as if my world was crumbling.

Was she dead? Alive? In a coma? Lost a limb?

Somehow we managed to beat the ambulance to the hospital, because as soon as we stepped foot into the emergency room two gurneys got rushed through the door. One held a middle aged man I didn't know, while the other held my angel.

She looked beaten and bloody, her eyes half hooded in a pain induced daze. Her shoulders and arms had glass protruding from her ivory skin, and I couldn't tell what was her blood and what was the others.

"I need blood and open an operating room! Now!" One of the doctors was shouting as the double doors opened, her body disappearing from my view faster than I would've liked.

I tried running to her, but it seems Charles had other plans. He ripped me off the ground no matter how much I squirmed and pushed at him, tears forming in my eyes so fast it actually surprised me.

"Fern! Let me go Charles, Fern!" I shouted as hundreds of doctors ran through the emergency room, other gurneys with people laying in them rushing through the lobby.

All I could do was slide down onto the linoleum floor, grasping at my chest with Charles behind me. It seemed my heart was in that operating room with Fern, either breaking or repairing itself.

-

It'd been two hours of waiting, two hours of complete agony. I sat on the floor against the wall in the hallway, waiting for the doctor to come and speak to us. Joey and Jake sat in the chairs in front of me while Charles attempted to sit, but would constantly get up and begin to pace around.

"Charles, calm down. I know she's like your sister, she's like all of our sisters, but all we can do is wait." Jake spoke up, eyeing Charles as he began to pace around again.

He was seriously going to make me dizzy if he kept pacing like that.

"Fern Donnelly?" We short up off the ground when the doctor walked out of a room, his shirt stained with flecks of blood.

God I hope that isn't Ferns blood.

He was a middle aged man with a balding head, and a pair of thick glasses on the bridge of his nose. He had wrinkles around his worn face, but his eyes sparkled with amusement and mischief. The doctor sighed as he took off his glasses and placed them in his coat pocket, running his cheeks as he looked as us all.

"Look, the wreck was bad. Her mother didn't make it through and was pronounced dead at the sight, and Fern got hit hard. Now I have to ask this, and I hate to ask this since none of you all are technically her family, but was Fern abused?"

My mouth gaped open as Jake and Joey shouted, their hands waving around like the true Italians they were. My eyes snapped up to Charles as he spoke, my heart pretty much dropping to shatter to the floor.

"Yes, she's abused."

It was so silent you could hear the breathing machine down the hallway, the doctor sighing as he nodded his head.

"I could tell, she had burn wounds on her forearm and abdomen, as well as several healing lacerations and bruises. The crash itself did a number on her, but it miraculously it wasn't life threatening. Just broken ribs and bruised kidneys. She should be up and about in a few days, but she'll be sore for a long time. She's asleep right now, but be quiet when she does wake up. She might have PTSD or depression, on her chart is says she had already been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and manic depressive, so like I said, be careful. Also, if she asks, the brown contact she had been wearing got thrown away."

He nodded at us before walking away, but I didn't think I could focus. All I could feel was betrayal, why the hell hadn't Charles gotten her out of that hellhole? Even worse, why'd she tell him and not me? I turned to Charles and did the only thing I could think of;

I punched him.

He staggered against the wall with the force of the punch, his hand rubbing his jaw as he looked at my seething body. "Okay, I guess I deserved that."

"You guess?! Why the fuck didn't you tell any of us!" Jake shouts, running his hands through his hair.

"She would have left if I did! I don't know, she was just so scared, I don't know why I didn't but she kept begging me not to and I just-" I rolled my eyes as I walked past him, pushing open the door to the private room I paid for her.

I shut my eyes almost as soon as I walked in, taking deep breaths to try and control myself. She looked so beautiful, but so broken. She only wore a sleeveless hospital gown, showing off all her scars and tattoos and –

Wait. Tattoos?

I walked closer and trailed my index finger along the roses and delicate flowers, vines and leaves wrapping around her skin on both of her arms. What else has she been hiding from me?

The door opens as the guys all walk in, their eyes widening as they look at her state. Frankly, she looks dead. Her skins pale and she has bruises covering almost her entire body. Her forearms are in that gross healing stage between almost healed and still burnt, small cuts all over her arms and her face has two cuts along one cheek, and a huge bruise on the other.

I sighed as I shut my eyes, pulling her hands up to my lips. I kissed the palm of each one, peppering kisses along each knuckle until I ran out of room. I stood and kissed her forehead, brushing her hair out of her beautiful face.

"I'm going to go order flowers, stay with her."