Summary: Ruthie suffers a tragedy the night that Simon and Rose were supposed to get married. To make matters worse, she might have a constant reminder of that tragedy for the rest of her life. Can Ruthie get through this, and will Martin stand by her side? Marthie

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters that were introduced on the show 7th Heaven. These characters are the property of Aaron Spelling and Brenda Hampton.

Chapter One: Haunted by Evanescence

The night was clear enough to see the stars, and the moon was shining bright enough that Ruthie could see all of the houses on her block in plain view. Simon and Rose's wedding reception had finally come to a close. Simon had gone inside the house to talk to Sandy, who had shown up unexpectedly, Rose had went home with Roberto, the guests had gone their separate ways, and the rest of Ruthie's family had gone inside the house to wind down for the night. Ruthie had tried to fall asleep, but after a half an hour of tossing and turning, she had decided to go out for a walk to help make her sleepy.

Ruthie was glad that Simon and Rose decided not to marry. They both had some more maturing to do before settling down. Plus, Rose was still in love with Roberto, and Simon didn't want to get married in the first place. Ruthie had thought that Sandy had not been able to come to the wedding and reception, but after Matt, Carlos, and Lucy had announced that they all were expecting twins, Sandy suddenly appeared at the backyard gate, walking in with Aaron on her hip. Now that Ruthie thought about it, Sandy had a look on her face that said she was in some kind of trouble.

Maybe she had finally realized that Aaron is Simon's son and not Martin's. Ruthie could see Aaron's resemblance to Simon from the day Aaron was born. That is the only reason Ruthie had kept allowing herself to feel such strong feelings toward Martin. The problem is that Martin is in college now, and Ruthie's parents would never let her date a guy who is in college and who supposedly has a kid.

Ruthie thought again of how she was soon going to be a proud aunt of not just Savannah and Charlie, but 6 more babies. That is 8 babies in the span of 3-4 years.

Ruthie's thoughts were interrupted as she heard footsteps behind her. Ruthie thought that maybe it was her father coming to look for her, since she had had to sneak out of the house in order to take a late night walk. However, as she turned around, Ruthie noticed the Scottish boy who helped get the permanent marker mustaches off of the twins. "Hi. I didn't know you were still around," Ruthie said. The boy smiled, and there was something unexpectedly creepy about his grin. "I was hoping you would come back out. I wanted to do this…" The boy kissed Ruthie and at first she was pleasantly surprised, but then he roughly threw her to the ground. They were about halfway around Ruthie's block, too far for Ruthie's screams to travel anywhere near her house.

The boy cursed at her, and tore Ruthie's tank top off of her. He started to squeeze her breasts to the point where the pain was numbing. Ruthie continued to scream, but it looked as if the houses around her were dark and deserted. Then, the boy unbuckled his pants with one hand while holding Ruthie's hands and arms above her head. He leaned down and bit at her neck, and after his pants loosened without the weight of his belt, he pulled them off of himself. He was exposed, without underwear, and soon he had taken Ruthie's pants and her lacy underwear off, too. Ruthie was so cold, and her throat was so hoarse from screaming, all she could do now was whisper the word "No."

Ruthie had been fighting the boy with all of the strength she could muster, but as he slid his penis inside of her, she felt her body go limp. Ruthie felt like the world around her seemed to be fading by the second as the boy kept torturing her with his aggressiveness. It felt like Ruthie had been on the ground for hours. Fortunately, before the boy could do much more damage to her, Ruthie blacked out.

6 weeks later

Ruthie looked down at the test in front of her. The box had said it would take 3 minutes or less for the results to show up. It had been 30 seconds so far, but it felt like forever to Ruthie. As she was waiting, Ruthie thought back to that night and how she was grateful to have had only passed out long enough for the Scottish boy to finish with her, get dressed, and as she was awaking, to threaten her and her family if she ever told anyone. If someone like her father or Captain Michaels had found her, she would not have had the option of keeping the tragic events of that night to herself to protect her family.

Her father had been sitting in the kitchen when she had tried to sneak in the back door. He had asked her why she had snuck out, and she told him she just wanted to go for a walk due to the fact that she couldn't sleep, which was the truth. He had then said that next time she needed to go out in the middle of the night she should go outside to the yard instead of walking around the block, and proceeded to ground her for a week. She didn't argue with him, she had just said ok and went up to bed.

It had been a good thing that Ruthie had put her clothes back on inside out, because it had kept the dirt and cum from her father's eyes. Once she made it to her bedroom, she had put her clothes in a plastic bag and hid them in her closet in a box she knew no one but her would ever rummage through. Ruthie didn't know what else to do with them, because she figured someone would notice them in the trash, and if she burned them someone would definitely notice the fire and smoke. Throwing them out at school was just as much of a risk, because she knew that some of the less fortunate students stay after school sometimes to go through the trash for thrown out clothes, makeup, etc.

Three and half weeks after that night, Ruthie started getting sick every morning and sometimes throughout the day, her boobs hurt, she was getting headaches constantly, and her sense of smell had heightened. She realized that she was 10 days late for her period, and got scared. It took her two and a half weeks to muster the courage and emotional strength she would need to take a test. Now that she was in the bathroom waiting for the results, all kinds of questions ran through her mind. What would she do if the test came out positive? What would she tell her parents? Would she even tell her parents? Would she give it up for adoption? Would she consider this an acceptable situation to choose abortion? Or would she keep the baby and try to make do? Would it be healthy to keep a baby that would be a constant reminder of that terrible night?

The timer Ruthie had bought went off, signaling it was the moment of truth. She took a long, deep breath, and looked down at the pregnancy test…