My heart seemed to jump into my throat when Darby busted through the door, waving the handgun around.

"What happened? What the hell did you do?" She cried. I was surprised by what came out of her mouth next, "Tristan please don't let them take me! Just say I came here to help bust you out! Please Trist I can't go to prison!"

The police sirens grew louder by the second so I had to speak up to say, "You helped him kidnap me and you were going to let him kill me. As far as I'm concerned you allowed him to rape me as well, so fuck you."

I watched panic and disgust flash through her eyes, but her sympathy for me didn't last as the sirens finally approached. She brought the gun up in her shaking hands and right when the door was kicked in Darby pulled the trigger and I felt like my side was on fire. After that all I could hear was the sound of gunfire ringing in my ears as another shot was fired, but this time I wasn't hit. I sank to my knees as pain took over my body as I watched the chaos unfold around me. The cops had kicked down the door and poured into the shack. With raised guns they fought Darby to the floor before placing cuffs on her wrists. Max was a much easier catch since he was leaning up against, clutching his bloody side,

Once two of the officers drug them both out they returned to where I was, helping me to my feet and out to the ambulance. The rest of it was a blur and it seemed like days before they told me they were going to take me back home, well not exactly to my apartment, but to the hospital in the area. Once there it was another several hours of questioning and cleaning out my wounds.

Finally I was put in a private room and I began to surprisingly drift off. Not even ten minutes later someone shouting woke me up, but as I took a second to listen closer I swore I recognized the voice.

"Where is she?" The voice demanded.

"Sir I need you to calm down." A female voice responds outside of my door.

"I just need to know where Tristan Ashby is." He pleads and then it hits me.

"Austin?" I called out shakily.

Swiftly the door swung open and the face I've been dying to see since I went through my hellish torture bursts in. The nurse outside the door shrugged, seeming to give up on telling Austin what to do and went back where ever she had come from. He runs over to the bed, cupping my face in his hands with tears in his eyes.

"Hey." I murmured as I reached up to brush some of his brown hair from his eyes.

He gently stroked my jaw as he pressed his forehead to mine and whispered, "I love you so much."

My chest tightened as I nodded and murmured, "I love you too."

He pulled me towards him, quickly pressing his lips to mine and we stayed that way for a long time. I never thought I would feel so safe in Austin's arms, I don't want to be anywhere else ever again.

"You're okay." He whispered after he let me go.

I knew I was about to kill the moment when I said, "Well as okay as I can be."

He raised an eyebrow, "What do you mean?"

"I got shot."

"What? Where?" He asked frantically.

I pulled down the quilt to my stomach and pulled up the gown to expose my bandaging a bit, "The bullet only grazed my ribs, so it should heal pretty fast."

"He shot you?"

"Darby did."

Shock took over his face for a moment before he asked his next question in almost a whisper, "What did he do to you?"

I felt a knot grow in my throat and tears well up in my eyes as my mind flashed back to the feeling of that monster invading me the way he did. I could only manage a stutter, "H-he ra-"

Before I could finish my statement Alan and our parents rushed into the room, but from the look in Austin's eyes he knew exactly what I was about to tell him. After that I was bombarded by hugs, kisses, and kind words from almost everyone I knew. When Kasey came in the room she got so emotional and loud that a nurse had to tell her to calm down or she would be asked to leave, she wasn't too happy about that. Every time my eyes met Austin's I noticed that they seemed to hold a look of wariness and guilt, which I didn't understand at all.

But I knew from right then this would a long healing process in more ways than one.

****

Several months later with Max and Darby locked away in prison I figured I would feel safer, but I was wrong. I still had nightmares night after night and the therapy everyone insisted that I go to barely helped, so I fell into my old habits of simply hiding my pain. That just made my nightmares more frequent unfortunately and since I had joined the guys for tour keeping it a secret was pretty difficult. It's tricky when it comes to keeping someone from hearing my sobbing when I wake up from these memories in the form of nightmares.

Yet again I'm awake in the middle of the night in terror, trembling in the dark of my bunk. I nearly screamed when my curtain was opened, but I stopped myself when I saw that it was Austin looking in at me. I quickly wiped the tears from my face, attempting to give him a smile that quickly faded.

"Another nightmare?" He asked softly.

"Y-you knew?" I stuttered.

He nodded, "I was just waiting for you to tell me, but I can't take this anymore. I hate listening to you crying all the time."

"I'm sorry."

He gently stroked my cheek, "It's not your fault sweetheart. Scoot over a little."

I did as he asked and he climbed into my bunk, wrapping his arms around me after he was settled in. He began softly humming a nice tune, after awhile I fell asleep and for once in a long time there weren't any bad dreams.

Notes