Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Pearl Harbor characters, I only own Charlotte Nomeck, Derrick Carlson and others.

Chapter One

I'll Be Here

May 28, 1929

"Where are you girl!" A slurred voiced yelled up the stairs. A young girl probably around 12 or 13 years old darted up the stairs as fast as she possibly could, the voices started to get louder and louder. The man who was chasing her was her own father. He was long dead drunk; he started drinking a year after her mom died. The girl's mother died three years ago of a untreated fever.

The girl ran to the window by her bed and started to jerk it open, it was hard and stiff and refused to open.

"You can't escape me!" He yelled, the girl could hear his footsteps beginning to get louder and louder as he came nearer and nearer to her door. She jerked her head back to door. Hannah ran over to her door and locked it shut. I Thank god I have a lock! She though still trying to jerk it open. But she knew the locked door could hold him. C'mon window open. She though now trying even harder then ever before to open the window.

The door finally gave way, letting her father into her room. She tugged at the window once more. Until the window finally opened.

She slid out the window and on to her house's roof, she wanted to fly far away leave here be anywhere but here. She ran across the roof to the other side of her house, above their planter.

"You can't hide from me Charlotte!" Her father slurred. She looked down her wheat-padded driveway and saw her two best friends in the whole world-her only friends, Rafe McCawley and Daniel 'Danny' Walker.

She felt an arm grab her ankle making her almost fall off the roof; Charlotte jerked her ankle free and almost rolled off the roof, but luckily grabbed hold of the water pipe that circled the whole house. She screamed holding on as tight as she could, she hated highs and was two stories up from the ground way terrifying to her.

Danny and Rafe rushed to help their best friend.

"Just jump, Charlie!" Rafe said. Charlie was her nickname. Charlotte's father came closer to her and he towered over her.

"You jump and I'll kill you, girl, you can bet on that." Her father threatened as he bent over to grab Charlie by the neck. He breathed in her face, letting the alcoholic smell slip into her.

Charlie felt her hands start to slip as she looked down once again; she squeezed her eyes close as she released the water pipe. Letting her fall into the flowerbed below.

Danny and Rafe helped her up.

"Are you 'right?" Danny asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine." She replied.

"Let's get gonna." They were planning on maybe skipping rocks by the creek or seeing a movie. They decided on the movies. It was Charlotte's 13th Birthday

-Later that Night-

"Night." Charlie said entering her house after the movie was over. She closed the door and proceeded farther into her home. Her whole house was dark and smelt of alcohol. But that was no surprise. She walked quietly up to her room; she closed the door behind her.

"I'd told I'd kill ya if you jumped." Her father's drunken voice echoed around her room, she slowly turned around to find to the horror of her father sitting on her bed. He stood up and started to approach her, she slowly backed up until she had her back against the door.

She was frightened he would often hit her when he was drunk and sometimes when he was mad, but it was always worse when he was dunk. He always blamed her for her mother's death.

"It's your fault Jess is gone your entire fault you filthy little tramp!" Her father yelled. Charlie reached for the door handle and successfully opened the door.

She started to run down the hall, but her father grabbed her arm and started to hit her and beat her until he passed out. Hours later. Here was no escape from this darkness in which she dwelled. No light, no way out. She was trapped in her own reality.

When the night was over she had several scars, her hair was all in a strut from struggling and her lip was slightly bleeding. She crawled her way over to her room around her father's numb body. She had her back against her bed, tears were streaming down her face as she let out a few whimpers.

She had to get out of this placed. That was the one thing that was premently instilled in her mind. She crawled out on her roof the only placed that where she could dream of a better place. Far from here.

She heard some roof tiles wiggle. She jerked her head up fearing to she her father, but luckily it was only her close friend, Danny Walker.

"Hey." She smiled; she made a little room for Danny. He lay down by her.

"Hey." He smiled back. He climbed up one of the ladders that made sure the grape vines wouldn't grow all around the house. "Happy birthday. So how old are you know ten or eleven?"

Charlie punched him softly in the arm. "No. Thirteen. So how about you when do you turn seven?"

"In a few months." He joked making them both laugh. Charlie still hadn't looked at Danny; she didn't want to reveal her busted lip or tears. Thinking about tears only made more fall, but she quickly wiped them away/ Danny noticed instantly.

"Are you 'kay?" Danny asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine." She replied whipping away a few tears and pulling her jacket over one of her bruises.

"Lemme see that." Danny demanded softly. She reluctantly let him lift up part of her sweatshirt to look at the bruise.

"That is a really bad bruise." Danny commented putting the sweatshirt down. "Your pa again?" Charlie always felt like she could get closer to Danny than to Rafe because they're more alike. They both have abusive fathers. Danny lived closer to Danny than to Rafe so some nights when Danny's pa is knocked out he visits her or Rafe.

She turned to face him revealing her bleeding lip. "Yep." She replied.

"You're not 'kay. Here let me help you." Danny insisted. "Is your pa downstairs?"

"Naw. He's the same way your pa is." She replied.

"Passed out?"

"Cold." They climbed back through Charlie's window, around her dead drunk father and into the bathroom. Danny started to dab the blood on and around her lip. She winced a little each time the rubbing alcohol made contact with her busted lip.

"Where's Rafe?" She asked once he was all done repairing the lip.

"He got grounded…again." Danny replied. They stopped dead in their ground. A loud groan irrupted from her father that they both though was out cold. Guess not.

"Hurry Danny, go!" She demanded. Danny ran out the door and swerved his away around Charlie's father's path and down the stairs waiting for Charlie.

But Charlie didn't get out that easy. When she tired to escape down the stairs her father grabbed her ankle and she fell to the ground. She was clawing at the ground and crying for help scared that he would only do worst. Danny ran upstairs to help his friend in need.

"No, Danny, I'm fine. Just go he's only gonna hurt you, too." She warned. Danny wouldn't listen he was too busy searching for a weapon to knock out Mr. Nomeck.

Mr. Nomeck finally has got Charlie in his arms and was withdrawing his belt. Danny emerged out of the kitchen and dashed up the stairs with a rolling pin tightly in his grip. He darted behind Mr. Nomeck and whacked him with all his strength in the back of his head. The hit wasn't strong enough to kill him.

Charlie was free from his grasp they both ran out the house and over to their neighbor Mr. Parker's barn. And lay behind a pile of hay in the upper part of the barn.

"Thank you." Charlie muttered.

"For what?" Danny asks looking over at her.

"Savin' me." She replied simply. "Did he hit you, too?"

"Naw. I'll fine." He replied. "What…did he hurt you!?"

"No, you saved me." She stated.

"Why does he beat you like that?" Danny asked. She has never told anyone about her mom.

"When I was ten my ma died of untreated fever and my pa always blamed me." She answers.

"I'm sorry about your mom." Danny commented.

"It's okay. I as three years ago," She said.

"Remember I'll always be here for you."

"Can you promise me somethin?"

"Yeah anything?"

"Promise that one day we'll runaway for Eron (Danny's dad) and my dad."

"Promise."