Authors Note: This is very, very slightly A/U. Mainly because I'm forgetting what's happened since May and we are going to pretend it starts in mid-June. Here are the main differences:

1: Parker and Liberty are not dating. Liberty is their cousin, nothing more. Parker is kind of informally dating Ashley.

2: Jack and Janet & Holden and Carly are not together, never were.

3: The age thing, if read Soap Opera Central, you'll know this was brought up recently. It is an issue. So for this story, the town is so small that the middle school and high schools are combined. JJ is 13 (will turn 14 in ... August for this fic) and Parker is 15.

Warning: This will have a non-graphic rape scene. And this is NOT a slash fic, I just wanted to make sure nobody got that idea.

I promise I will not abandon this fic. As long as I have readers, I will write until it's done.

Prologue:

(Parker's point of view)

"Some people think it's weird that me and JJ are so close. I don't understand that, we're brothers. I don't care that he was adopted, dad adopted me and I love him just like my real dad too. It doesn't matter. I mean, I haven't "grown up" with him or anything, we were around seven and eight when we met but that still doesn't change anything. Yeah, we fight sometimes but who doesn't fight with the people they live with every now and then? It never get's that bad ... ok, it hasn't since last year.

When we've been through as much together as we have, how can we not be this close? It does tend to cause most of our fights, but most of the time even if JJ doesn't know, what we're fighting about is me trying to protect him. I understand why JJ is so quick to forgive, even if it makes me mad sometimes. He just can't lose anybody else. I used to run off when things got bad, not anymore. Me leaving upset JJ a lot, cause of his thing about losing people. I'm not gonna hurt him just to make myself feel better.

JJ tries to act so strong all the time, it doesn't matter what's going on he always has this "everything's gonna be fine" attitude that's the total opposite of mine. Well, he does during the day. Since we share a room I'm the one that wakes him up from the nightmares. I don't mind, he's had a lot to give him nightmares. I think I'm the only one that knows he still has those, it's kind of an unspoken agreement not to talk about them.

I hate it when things hurt him and Sage, especially when it's my fault. I tend to hurt him more though. If I was just with him that day he never would have been kidnapped and if I had come up with a smarter way to save mom, he never would been teased so horribly at school. I don't tell anyone I feel like that, they'll just say it isn't really my fault, but it is. He's my little brother, it's my job to protect him. I love my parents but they - especially mom - aren't always the best at doing that for us. I can protect them, and I can protect myself. I have to."

Chapter One:

"I know, I know. If we don't call mom from the house by twelve-thirty we're grounded until we're thrity." Parker said as he and his brother left the house and headed for Liberty's car. It had taken much begging and pleading but all three of them had gotten their parents to let them go to a party that night. Finally with the reasoning that it was a Saturday, Summertime and they would be together along with the previously stated agreement, they were allowed to go. The reason that it took so much bartering was that their father was working the night-shift that night and their mother was out of town.

Sage was going to be staying with their other cousins, Faith, Natalie and Ethan for the night for they didn't have to worry about her. JJ wasn't really looking forward to the party. Originally Faith was going to go with them, but she had decided she didn't want to go just a couple of days ago. Without Faith to hang out with JJ knew he would be left alone. All his friends were at camp or on vacation, this would be Liberty's friends ... and Parker's girlfriend, but even so, JJ wasn't going to back out of a party.

Parker looked around the room, his brother had actually found someone to talk to for the moment. However, Parker was bored to tears. He turned around to his equally bored looking girlfriend. Parker gave himself a mental lecture for using that term, this was only their second date and he barely even knew the girl. JJ was the one that said she was his girlfriend. Finally Parker thought about the fact that he didn't know Ashley that well, there was no way they were going to to get any talking done here. He looked at her again. "Hey, you wanna go outside for a while? Maybe we can talk." he said loud enough for her to hear over the music. "Sure." she replied as she followed him out the door.

JJ was really begining to feel nervous. His conversation with that girl had lasted all of five minutes before she walked off and now Parker was no where to be found. He wandered around the house for a while. "Who let's this many teenagers in their house for a party?" he wondered as even more people came in the door. Finally he spotted Liberty and he walked over to her. "Do you know where Parker went?" he asked her. "What?" Libert said over the music, looking confused. "Where's Parker?" JJ yelled back. "Oh. He went outside with Ashley." she replied, turning back to her friends.

"That idiot!" JJ thought to himself, not really meaning it. "He'll totally lose track of time and we'll both be grounded for the rest of our lives. I've gotta find him." he thought as he headed out the door. JJ began walking around outside, hoping his brother hadn't gone far. Before long he found himself hopelessly lost. "Oh, great." he thought "Now we're definitly grounded for life!". He tried to make his way back, but it wasn't working to well. He finally found a road and decided that if he picked a direction along it to follow, surely he'd at least find somewhere with a phone soon.

After a while of this he saw a car coming from what he thought was the direction of the party, the car slowed down so he stopped, hoping it was someone that would tell him how to get back. However when a large mad stepped out of the car and silently came towards him, JJ realized the mistake he'd made. "Not again!" he thought as he ran as fast as he could from the man who was now following him. He wasn't fast enough, he knew it but he kept running. Then he went down.

A blow to the head, JJ fought off a million flashbacks of his father and his kidnappers as he tried to think of a way out of this. There was no way. This man was big, he was hurting him, and he was going to kill him. He fought and screamed as the fists landed. "Not again, not again! Please! Not again!" he thought. He tried verbal begging "Please Mr., don't hurt me. Just let me go, I won't tell anybody what happened, just please don't kill me!". Nothing was working and the blows came harder and faster until he was on the ground and couldn't get back up.

Kicked. One, two, three times in the stomach, then the man was on him, pinning him to the ground. He flipped him over. JJ screamed even louder then before "Help! Please, somebody, help!". Nobody came. Then the man pulled his pants off and he knew what was coming. He didn't want to spend the last moments of his life this way. "Parker!" he screamed with a sob as the new pain came.

Parker was walking with Ashley. He didn't know what time it was, he'd forgotten all about that. They had been talking for quite a while, at least an hour and Parker was enjoying the calmness of this. Then he heard something that shook him to the core. Sobbing, then a scream. His stomach dropped, he knew that voice. "JJ!" He screamed as he ran towards the sound. As he ran he saw a man stand and run off in the other direction. "Parker, help!" came a hysterical cry, he ran faster then he'd ever known possible.

As his brother came into sight he saw that he had one hand on his pants as though he had just pulled them up. That curious thought vanished as he got closer and noticed how badly his little brother had been beaten. "Call 911!" he screamed to the girl he knew was following him. As he finally got to his brother he heard her call back "No signal!" in a frantic voice. Parker yanked out his own cell phone in a single second, "No!" he thought. He turned to Ashley "Go back to the house! Call from there! Hurry!" he screamed with the small calming thought that this was her friends house so she knew how to get back.

He looked down at his sobbing brother, still on his stomach in the grass. "She's gonna get help, she's gonna get help." he franticly repeated. The he saw something that made his heart skip a beat and made him feel like he was about to throw up. A blood stain was forming on his brothers pants. "No! No, no, no, no, no." he thought "Not JJ! That guy couldn't have ..." he felt another sinking feeling in his heart. "He did. That guy raped JJ!".