Hello everyone! This is a songfic to 'Save you' by 'Simple plan'. Disclaimer: I do not own the song, or the lyrics, or any part of it.

However, I do own the story plot and the characters. So please, don't steal. At the moment I'm writing my own original novel called 'Cold Water.' This is basically a one shot for it, a sum up of the plot and events through the eyes of one of the main characters.

Hope you enjoy and please review, they would be greatly appreciated.

Save you

Take a breath, I pull myself together

Just another step until I reach the door

You'll never know the way it tears me up inside to see you

I wish that I could tell you something to take it all away

Sometimes I wish I could save you

And there's so many things that I want you to know

I won't give up till it's over

If it takes you forever I want you to know

Ash Birchwood's life had never been particularly interesting to him, or even eventful. Sixteen years old, popular, girls swarming him in the hallways, the boys who pretended to be his friends but never really were, the teachers who constantly nagged him about his grades. He was happy, he supposed. He fooled himself into believing that this was what his life was, that he had everything he could ever want.

Until one day, when a girl who was far more broken than he could ever fix tumbled into his life.

Maybe it was coincidence he found her that day, unconscious under an oak tree in the pouring rain. He had taken her home with him, waited patiently by her bedside as she slept and noted the frown on her lips, her lifeless hair, the dark circles under her eyes, the skin that was far too pale.

And when she woke up, he was captivated.

Her eyes were a dull green flecked with brown. They were special, beautiful, but dead. Hollow, empty, she seemed to stare through him and he could see pain and fear in her eyes. In that moment, he knew he had gotten himself mixed up in something that he couldn't quite comprehend or fix, but a part of him wanted to save her anyway.

When I hear your voice it's drowning in whispers

It's just skin and bones, there's nothing left to take

And no matter what I do I can't make you feel better

If only I could find the answer to help me understand

Sometimes I wish I could save you

And there's so many things that I want you to know

I won't give up till it's over

If it takes you forever I want you to know

He talked to her. Her name was Hope Winters. She was different, he decided. She told him that first day that she'd run away from home. He never asked why. And somehow, maybe it was a twist of fate, but she ended up staying, just for the summer. And he was glad because he was tired of being alone, too.

There were times when he found her annoying, he realises now when he looks back. She was cynical, sharp, direct, a complete goody-goody. She also seemed to find him annoying, but that only made him more intrigued. She was different from the other girls because of that, and he liked her. And when she finally smiled for the first time since he'd met her, he thought she was beautiful as well.

Somewhere along the way, their rivalry became friendship, he realised. He wasn't quite sure when it happened, but he could tell those barriers she held up were slipping slowly but surely. She began to smile more, laugh more and joined in with him and his whipped-cream fights, his destruction of the kitchen, his trips into town. Many times however he still wondered, he wondered about the things she kept secret and the cause behind the pain that never seemed to quite leave her eyes.

If you fall, stumble down, I'll pick you up off the ground

If you loose faith in you, I'll give you strength to pull through

Tell me you won't give up cause I'll be waiting if you fall

You know, I'll be there for you.

If only I could find the answer to take it all away

Sometimes, he watched her. He watched as she stood outside and turned her face up to the rain and let it pour down her body, soaking her hair and clothes. He used to wonder if she was crying, or letting the sky do it for her. But he never asked. He only waited at the window, watching with sad eyes and offered her towel when she finally came back inside.

It was a part of the deal. He would not ask, and she would never tell.

And he realised, that even though he had already given her his heart, she was still alone.

He had grown to admire her, maybe even love her, when that night finally came and all her walls came crashing down into devastation. She told him everything that night, sobbing and crying and he just held her tight and stroked her hair, because it was all he could do. She told him about how her parents had died in the car crash that she had survived, how her three older sisters hurt her even more, how she was alone and she wished she wasn't.

He told her she wasn't alone anymore. He told her he loved her and she returned those three, precious words. But the summer was coming to a close and she had to return.

He thought he had lost her the day she got into that car and drove away with the sisters who never really cared for her. It hurt, because for the first time he had felt connected to someone. He admired her, loved her and he had even saved her, but none of it was enough.

And then a few minutes later he had heard knocking on the door. When he had opened it, she stood there with a small smile and her small, red backpack slung over one shoulder. 'So, think that spare room's still free?' she had asked. And he had felt happy, truly and properly happy.

He didn't have to say anything. He just swept her up and kissed her, before the world had faded into oblivion.

Sometimes I wish I could save you

And there's so many things that I want you to know

I won't give up till it's over

If it takes you forever I want you to know

I wish I could save you, I want you to know

I wish I could save you