Just You and Me

You were pulled from the wreckage,

of your silent reverie,

In the arms of the Angels,

May you find some comfort here.*

"Bet you of all people aren't happy to be back here." The voice of the person I last expected to hear spoke to me in the hospital.

"Of course not, for obvious reasons." I said quietly, nodding at Sarah. She'd collapsed from loosing too much blood, scaring the living daylights out of me during the ambulance ride over here. Now, after things had settled down with her condition stabilized, I couldn't help but wonder if a few days earlier I'd looked the way she did now: her eyes closed, lashes fluttering every few seconds as she unconsciously blinked, her cheeks swollen in pain, her cuts bandaged, and her bruises iced. Only she looked about ten times worse than I remembered feeling.

"How's Ike doing?" Taylor asked, looking intently at his brother. Since the moment we'd gotten here, Isaac had refused to leave Sarah's side. Even now, he sat near her bed, fingers intertwined with hers. It made me wonder if Zac had done the same with me.

Wish I knew what had happened more in my case.. but not exactly time to start thinking of yourself. I scolded myself.

"In about as much shock as I am right now." I replied, turning away from him and taking a few steps from the doorway we were standing in. I couldn't stand to watch my best friend in her room helplessly. Now I understood completely how scared she must've felt looking from a distance at me. Closing my eyes, I leaned my shoulder against the wall.

"What happened?" He was afraid to ask, turning to my back.

"Mark happened." I felt my stomach muscles tighten as I spat his name in a quiet whisper from my lips.

"To be more specific, with a kitchen knife and his bare hands, the fucking bastard." I bit my lip, recognizing the too-familiar feeling of tears pricking my eyes. With all the crying I'd done recently, it was a miracle that I wasn't dehydrated.

"The doctor said she's going to be fine though, right? Ike told me on the phone that she just needs a little rest." Taylor softly explained, coming up behind me and resting his hand on my back for comfort. Caught up in emotion, I turned around and wrapped my arms around his waist, burying my face in his chest. It didn't take very long for the tears to start flowing.

"The p-past year," I painfully explained a few minutes later, my voice muffled in his shirt.

"I've been t-talking to girls about rape and abuse. People I didn't even k-know.. B-but I never knew it happened to my b-be-b-" I lost control of my voice as my shoulders shook violently.

"Hey, it's ok.." Taylor said softly, wrapping his arms warmly around me.

"It happened right in front of my eyes. I was too caught up in my own life to see what was happening to her. I.. never even saw it." I choked, tightening my embrace with him.

"Hey, this is not any of your fault."

"I didn't see it..." I whispered, ignoring him and clutching the material of his shirt between my fingers, realizing the horrible truth:

"I'm so selfish."

"You are not." He said firmly. "Sarah's lucky to have such a sweet and caring friend, Maggie. Especially as her best."

Opening my mouth to speak again, I found it dry and absent of words. Only soft gasps escaped as I fought to breathe. I closed my eyes, squeezing out more tears as one of his hands reached up and stroked my hair gently. Turning my head, I was both surprised and comforted at the fast-paced thumping of his heart in my ear as he slid his other arm around my waist. It took me a split second to realize my heart was also beating quite rapidly, only about a mile a minute.

I closed my eyes again, waves of comfort washing over me as I felt the warmth of Taylor's body against mine. Given the circumstances, I felt extremely safe and secure in his arms, almost like I belonged there, until it hit me who was holding me. Actually, I didn't come to my senses until opening my eyes and saw Zac walking down the hallway towards us.

"Hey, sorry it took me so long to find a parking spot-" he started to say, when stopping in his tracks at the sight of me in Taylor's arms. Embarrassed, we immediately separated as if he'd turned a hose on us. I stumbled a few steps toward Zac, uneasy about the look in his eyes. He didn't need to state his thoughts, I could read them clearly by his expression:

What the hell are you doing?

"Zac, I-" I could already feel the guilt started welling up inside me.

"It's ok Maggie." He smiled and opened his arms out to me. Feeling relieved more than anything, I hugged him gently and he spun us around playfully. Looking back at Taylor over Zac's shoulder, I was further embarrassed to see the dark spot my tears had left on his shirt; I didn't dare bring myself to look into his eyes.

When I had finally built up enough nerve, I blinked in surprise at the intent with which his blue eyes stared back at me. It reminded me of the kittens at the pet shop, who gazed so innocently at me after setting them down I just had to pick them up again. I fought every urge within me to return to his arms.

Then the look on his face changed as his eyes shifted lower. At first, I was shocked, not to mention a little embarrassed, thinking he was staring at my chest. Glancing down, I caught sight of the silver heart sparkling despite the dull lighting in the hallway. I had forgotten I hadn't been able to take it off since Zac gave it to me earlier this morning. I breathed deeply, as if the necklace weighed a thousands pounds. I glanced up at Taylor's face again, even more confused at his half-smile, as if he was somewhat happy yet tortured at the same time.

Guilt struck my heart again as I then saw feelings of abandonment, loss, and sorrow build in those eyes. Just as quickly, he smiled, covering his emotions up with a mask of politeness, and looked away. The entire incident passed in mere seconds, but I had a feeling it would be engrained into my head for much longer. Sighing, I buried my head in Zac's shoulder as a thick, uncomfortable silence surrounded the three of us. I occasionally filled it with soft sniffles, remnants of my tears earlier. Fortunately, our discomfort didn't last very long, for Isaac abruptly burst into the scene.

"Maggie, do me a favor." He said in a commanding tone. I nodded silently in response, a little alarmed at the seriousness he spoke with, not to mention the dark anger that filled his eyes.

"Sure, what?" I found my voice, although it wobbled a little.

"Watch over Sarah," he said softly, pointing behind him with his thumb. He glanced painfully back at her, briefly, before turning back to me.

"Sure," I curiously watched his movements down to the tiny detail. His mouth was clenched into a tiny grimace; the light that normally surrounded his face was gone. His brow was clenched down over his eyes, as tightly as the fists he made with his hands. I was alarmed at the sight of Isaac furious.

Which he has every reason to feel, my heart went out to him.

"Where are you going, Ike?" Taylor spoke up, although he could easily guess what was on his brother's mind. We all could.

"Nowhere." He refused to provide an answer, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Bullshit. I'm going with you."

"No you're not Taylor."

"I'm not arguing with you. Besides, you're in no mood for driving." He pointed out the obvious.

"Don't you dare tell me what I'm feeling right now!" Isaac yelled, dropping his arms. The three of us stared at him, speechless as his voice echoed down the hallway. He then dropped his eyes to the floor, feeling a little sheepish at his outburst. Although I could imagine how much pain he was going through, I couldn't offer any words of comfort, not even to myself.

"Look, I know what I'm doing." He shoved his hands in his pockets and started walking away.

"Then prove it to me." Taylor jogged after his brother. This time Isaac didn't object, only continued to silently walk away. After they left, I glanced at Zac and smiled tightly.

"Rough night." He absently stated, reaching to put his arm around my shoulders. I frowned and pushed him away gently.

"Not right now." I apologized.

"Zac, I.. need some space right now, after all this." I left him standing in the hallway as I walked into Sarah's room and took the place Isaac had at her side. After a few minutes of silence, I glanced up and saw that he was gone. I closed my eyes briefly and sighed, trying to push my problems aside for the more important moment. I felt terrible for thinking it, but:

So much for getting things resolved right away, kept running through my mind. Glancing at my best friend's face, all my personal issues quickly disappeared.

"Looks like it's just you and me, kiddo." I smiled at Sarah and smoothed her hair across her forehead. Glancing at my watch, I sighed at how late it was getting. I had a feeling I wouldn't be getting any sleep tonight either.

"It's ok.. I'm not going anywhere this time, I promise. Tonight, it's just you and me." I repeated.

"You're insane." Tay remarked in the car. He glanced at Ike before pulling into the front drive of Sarah's apartment building.

"I know what I'm doing." Ike replied in a low voice. "I've sat aside and done nothing for way too long. Nobody deserves to be treated like that." He continued to stare out the window as he had for the entire ride over here, taking in every passing thing and remembering none of it. Their destination, the dark brick building where'd we'd found Sarah earlier, loomed over them. Ike glanced up to the fifth floor, searching for the apartment he knew she shared with Mark. His eyes narrowed when he found its window dimly illuminated.

He's home. Having seconds doubts, Ike had been silently praying he hadn't come back yet.

"Are you sure you don't want me to come up there?" Taylor broke the silence, catching his brother's window watching.

"Fifteen minutes." Ike repeated calmly, shifting his gaze to Taylor's face. "If I'm not back then, you can come up. But not before."

"Can I ask why are you doing this?" Taylor didn't understand his brother's recent irrational behavior. It was completely unlike Isaac in his eyes.

It's usually me that gives into anger so easily. It certainly wasn't a side of his brother he liked seeing. He hoped his negative feelings would pass after this night, and they wouldn't lead him to do something incredibly stupid, let alone dangerous.

"Yeah, you can ask. But that doesn't mean I have to answer it." Isaac opened the door, stood up, and slammed it shut. After watching him march around the car and up the front sidewalk, another question leapt into Taylor's mind. He jumped out of the car and caught up with Ike in the front lobby.

"Is.. is it worth it?" he asked.

"For Sarah, yes." Isaac stopped for a moment and looked at him. For a brief moment, looking into his eyes, Taylor saw all the pain of his brother's sitting back and letting the most horrific thing a man can do to a woman continue to happen. He'd witnessed it first hand a few months ago, but failed to stop it from happening again. How someone he loved had to be protected from the one who was supposed to love and cherish her. Taylor saw his need to interrupt this time, not only for Sarah's sake, but his own. For those reasons, he didn't take a step further.

"Good luck. I'll see you down here in a few minutes." Taylor forced a smile despite the situation.

"Thanks. If only you understood what it feels like to be second place." He disappeared through the door to the stairwell.

"I may understand more than you think." Taylor replied with a sigh.

Taking a deep breath, Ike raised his hand and banged loudly on the door of Mark's apartment. After no attempt from Mark to answer the door, he tried the doorknob and found it twisting easily in his grasp. Frustrated, he pushed open the door roughly and was shocked at the scene in front of him. The apartment floor, other than more evidence of alcohol and white stick remnants Ike guessed weren't cigarette filters, was littered with another form of trash. Mark lay strew across the living room rug, gazing at the blaring television with his eyes glazed over. He slowly turned his head toward the figure standing over him, before exploding with rage, throwing the empty bottle in his hand toward the door. It felt two inches short of Ike's feet, shattering into tiny pieces.

"What the fuc- you!!" Mark vowed he'd never forget Isaac after their first, and only, meeting.

"Did you come hee-ere so I can k-kick you-err aass again?" Once again, his words were slurred with intoxication. All of Ike's rage from the hospital was increased ten-fold: this was absolutely disgusting. Mark wore sloppy, oversized clothing, looked like he hadn't shaved in weeks, and Ike was praying the horrible smell in the apartment was something other than Mark not showering.

"Listen here, Mark." He tried to remain calm, although his fists were clenched together tightly again. Feelings that had been oppressed for too long began bubbling up inside him like boiling water left unattended on a stove. Taking a deep breath, he crossed the living room in three steps, kicking aside shards of glass and strewn ashtrays before standing right over Mark.

As Mark struggled to stand up, Ike took his chance: he swung back his leg and kicked him swiftly in the ribs. Mark's hands immediately flew to his sides, causing him to loose balance and fall back down on the floor. As he glared back up at Isaac while trying to get up again, he was stopped in mid-air again as Isaac, moving quicker than he ever could have imagined, swung his fist around and hit Mark right below his right eye. The impact threw him against the front of the worn-out couch, where he hit his head against the metal frame and knocked himself out cold.

Frozen to the spot, Ike stared at the scene before him: Mark laying at a haphazard angle on the floor in front of him, breathing slightly through his mouth. His hand tingling from hitting him, Ike lifted it to his view and examined his fingers to make sure none were broken. Blinking, he still couldn't believe it had all passed in seconds.

If that's all it takes, I should've done it months ago. Glancing back at Mark, he couldn't help but laugh a little.

He stepped over Mark's legs and went into the master bedroom. Seeing two small suitcases laying open on the bed made his heart soared.

She was leaving.. he thought, recognizing a few items of clothes sitting in the suitcases. More were strewn around the room, along with spots of blood. He packed some more of Sarah's clothing and what seemed to be a scarce amount of her personal belongings.

Although blushing at the sight of her underwear drawer, he was surprised at what lie at the bottom. Laying against the faded wood of the dresser drawer was a picture of Sarah and Isaac together. They were standing in the middle of a river, in each other's arms. It was almost an exact duplicate of the one he'd had over his desk and been accidentally broken. His fingers closed around it and slid the picture into his coat pocket. He knew exactly what to do with it: set it next to her hospital bed. He wanted it to be the first thing she would see when waking up every morning, to let her see how he had been there for her before and of his unspoken promise to always be there.

"You're so pathetic." Ike said his good-bye to Mark, who was still laying on the floor. Ike silently shut the door behind him.

"E-Emily." Sarah whispered as she squinted at me.

"No, it's Maggie." I replied happily, even though I wondered who Emily was.

"What happened?" She winced in pain as she tried to sit up in her bed.

"You passed out in the ambulance on the way over here."

"I'm in the hospital?" She stared at me, questions in her eyes. I nodded in response, taking her hands in mine.

"Yup. We brought you over here as soon as we found you. Sarah.." I swallowed, fearing what I would receive as an answer but knowing the question needed to be asked:

"Did Mark do this to you?"

She didn't answer me, instantly shifting her gaze to the floor and moving her body away from me. I held onto her hands and pulled her back to facing me. I stared deeply into her eyes, desperately trying to make her see the pain that was welling up inside of me because of what had happened to her.

"Sarah, I love you like the sister I never had, or even knew I wanted." I said with a smile before pleading,"Please, I need you to be honest with me."

".. I love you too.. Mags." She lifted her face, revealing her tears to me.

"Oh, I'm so embarrassed about this.." She closed her eyes. I reached over to the table next to her bed and grabbed a Kleenex. Turning back to my best friend, I softly pressed it against her cheeks, catching her falling tears. We sat in silence for a few minutes before I spoke up again.

"There's no need to feel embarrassed. I just want to know.. Please." I repeated.

"I don't know how it all started." She confessed, taking the Kleenex from my hand and absently twisting it in her fingers.

"Mark lost his job, started drinking.. and I think he started doing drugs last week, but I'm not completely sure." She said in a voice barely above a whisper.

"At first all he did was yell. About his boss, about how I was never home to be with him, sometimes even at the stuff on the nightly news. But he started drinking more.. hard liquor too, not just beer. I don't know where he got it all from, but then he started demanding I give him money. H-he," she gasped, loosing her voice.

"Hey, it's ok. I know it's anything but easy for you to talk about it." I leaned over and rubbed her back gently.

"Remember? You're the pig-headed one of us." I grinned.

"You are so--" she stopped, smiling.

"M-mark still wasn't working, and all my money didn't last very long. I had to sell most of our things, including my engagement ring." She looked down at her lap, fingering her empty finger.

"Shit.." I said, sitting back and taking it all in. "I had no idea all this was happening. I know how much that ring meant to you, sweetie."

"Actually, I'm sort of glad it's gone." She looked up at me, an amused smile playing on her lips.

"Why?" I asked, slightly confused.

"Because now there isn't anything between us anymore. The promise of his love and commitment left me with that ring. I didn't want to admit it, but finally I realized it. I .. was in the process of packing when Mark came home tonight." Her eyes darkened as the night came back to her. I leaned forward again and smiled encouragingly; I'd gone through the same pain having to explain the dance club incident with Justin to my parents and the police. One of the hardest things I've been forced to do, I'll say that much.

"He.. stormed in, dropping things loudly around the living room. He smelled terribly, I remember as he threw me up against the wall and hit me several times. I wrapped my arms around my stomach, praying that he would just hurt instead of Emily..."

"Emily?" I asked, smiling. I could guess now who she was.

"I finally picked a name. Emily Louise." Sarah smiled proudly from ear to ear.

"Louise!?" I squeaked. "As in-"

"Your car," she laughed lightly. "Yes. I remembered how it always made me smile thinking of that terrible heap of junk."

"And I liked the sound of it." She added.

"It's a beautiful name." I assured her, before remembering an alarming thought.

She needs to know.. I grabbed Sarah's arm.

"Sarah, they had to run a few tests on Emily when you came in here."

"Why?" She asked immediately, her protective motherly nature kicking into high gear.

"Just standard stuff, I'm sure." I replied quickly, noticing her now sitting rigidly up in bed. "To make sure she's fine.. Can you finish telling me what happened?"

"Yeah.." Sarah replied. "I can't remember how many times he hit me. It was right before he cut me though.." She held up her bandaged arm to my inspection. Adding to his pain, Ike had found the kitchen knife abandoned on the floor of the bedroom, its blade smeared with dark red evidence.

"I have a small confession.." She admitted, running her fingers over the rough gauze that covered her cuts. "I wasn't having a complete lack of coordination for a few weeks. Umm.. my 'accidents' were Mark too."

"I was afraid of that." I replied. "I'm so sorry."

"I just didn't want you to get mad at him." I looked at her, frowning. That makes absolutely no sense.

"What do you mean, 'mad'?" I asked.

"For a long time, I kept thinking he'd snap out of it. Then there was a mess with him and Isaac, and..oh, it just all went downhill after that. But the Mark I loved disappeared with his job. I remember pretending to be unconscious, lying as still as I could tonight. Finally, he just left. Then I crawled over to the bedside table and found the phone." My heart tugged in my chest as she looked at me sadly. She finally had to open her eyes to see the terrible state of her life.

"I'm really sorry." Feeling helpless, I couldn't think of anything else to say.

"Umm.. this is a little off the subject, but I called your parents and they stopped by about an hour ago. They went to get some sleep, but they'll be back in tomorrow morning."

And Ike will be back later tonight.. Hopefully, I added in my head. I could guess what he'd gone off to do and could only hope that he wouldn't end up in the hospital bed next to hers.

"Ok.. Who was the 'we' that brought me here then, if not my parents?"

"Me and Ike."

"I see.." A slow smile spread across her face at the mentioning of his name.

"Am I detecting a slight interest in the eldest Hanson brother again?" I couldn't help but tease. Anything to keep her smiling.

"More than slight," she admitted, her cheeks flushing a bright pink. Before I could ask her for further details, we were interrupted by the door opening. Both of us were happy to see Isaac, me also relieved. He didn't have any signs of a fight on him, so I guessed that Mark hadn't gone back home yet.

"You're awake," he said happily to Sarah.

"Hey.." she replied shyly. Feeling the third wheel, I stood up.

"I'm sure you guys want a little privacy and I'm going to give your parents a call, let them know you're awake, Sarah." I stood up and stretched my back after hours of sitting in the same hard-back chair. After having nearly every vertebrate crack loudly with stiffness, I sighed and walked out, winking at Sarah before shutting the door behind me. Turning around, I stopped on the spot at the sight of someone else standing out in the hallway.

"Taylor."

"I'm so glad you're ok." Isaac said softly to Sarah. He surprised her in sitting down on the bed next to her instead of a nearby chair. Not wanting to waste another second, he pulled her hands into his and smiled nervously.

"I heard you came to help me." She smiled and averted her eyes from his face, feeling horribly shy and embarrassed about the whole situation.

"Sarah, I brought your stuff with me. I don't want you going back there." He said, fearing she would turn stubbornly against him again.

"You should go home.. or live with Maggie, anywhere but that apartment. This time I'm not going to just keep quiet about it. I can't... I just can't do it anymore."

"It's ok." She held up her hands to his lips, silencing his nervous babble. "I'm not going back there."

He returned her smile and cautiously reached his hand to her face, tenderly stroking her cheek with his fingertips. Her smile widened and she closed her eyes, reveling in the soft feeling of his touch.

He's so gentle.. was all she could think, for her thoughts were swimming. Opening her eyes, she noticed something.

"Ike.. what happened to your hand?" She held it in her, noticing his knuckles were slightly swollen.

"I can explain that-" Ike started to say when the door opened quickly. A man dressed in a neat, white lab coat entered the room, nervously tapping the clipboard in his hands with a pen.

"Sarah Jacobs?" He asked, clearing his throat. She nodded silently in response, looking at him curiously.

"We have the tests of your baby completed." He glanced down at the papers on the clipboard.

"What's wrong?" Sarah asked, sensing his hesitation. She reached for Isaac's other hand for support as a sickening feeling filled her stomach as she waited for the doctor's reply:

"I'm terribly sorry, Miss; I don't know how else to say this, so I'll just get right down to the point."

"What?" she whispered, trembling slightly.

"You suffered a miscarriage."

(*Opening musical credits go to Sarah McLauchlan)