A/N: Okay, here you go, it's taken me a couple of hours (it's quarter past 4 in the morning where i am, you guys are lucky I'm an insomniac) , but here's chapter three, i hope you like it. I wanted to get in a bit of Moliver fluff, but it wouldn't have worked, so sorry, but hopefully you'll get some soon. Thanks to everyone who's been reviewing, and to everyone who hasn't; please, please review, it makes my day :)
Chapter 3 - Reckless Abandonment
"Jackson Rod Stewart I am arresting you on suspicion of assault, you do not have to say anything, but anything you do say may be used against you in a court of law..."
Miley watched as her brother was led to the waiting police car, a hollow darkness taking over her as the world around moved too fast for her to understand. Jackson seemed icily calm, but she remembered his earlier fury and shivered; she had never seen him like that before. From her seat in front of Rico's she had overheard the police saying that they were taking Jake to the hospital before they formally charged him, it looked like there were a couple of broken bones.
Attempted Rape. That's what they were charging him with. Attempted rape, and assault for the suspected sprained ankle she had received when he pushed her. Hopefully it would result in Jake Ryan visiting a prison for a while.
"Ms Stewart?"
Turning around, Miley looked blankly at the bland, yet smiling face of a police officer. Officer 'call me Greg' Grainger had been the first on the scene, though in Miley's opinion, he didn't even look old enough to be out of the house on his own. He had raced back to the clearing to pull Jackson off of a possibly even more angry Jake, calling for back-up as he put the latter into a pair of handcuffs.
"Ms Stewart, I'm sorry to have to ask you this, but we're gonna need you to come down to the station with us, we'll need to take a statement."
Yeah, and the rest, she thought bitterly. She had watched enough cop shows to know what they were going to need from her, all kinds of samples of things she didn't even want to think about. What she said instead, in a voice Officer Grainger had to practically put his ear to her mouth to hear, was;
"What about my dad?"
"Oh," he smiled again in what he obviously believed was a comforting manner, "we already had someone call him, he's gonna meet us at the station. You don't need to worry, we're not gonna ask you anything until he gets there if that's what you want."
After a slight nod from Miley, he took a gentle hold of her arm and led to her to the car that already occupied her brother.
"Miley! Are you okay? I... I didn't mean to get so carried away, I...."
"It's okay" she interrupted quietly, "I'm alright now."
Jackson looked deeply upset, another emotion Miley had never really seen in him. "Jeez Miles, I can't believe he was gonna... What did the cops say?"
"They took Jake to the hospital. He's getting charged with assault and... attempted..." she stopped, unable to get the words out. Jackson nodded in understanding.
"What about dad? Have they called him?"
"He's meeting us at the police station."
"With uh... you know... representation?"
"Like a lawyer?" She raised an eyebrow, before glancing into the front seat to make sure she wasn't overheard, "I don't know. Don't worry though, we'll use Hannah money to get you the best. This is my fault after all."
"What?" Jackson appeared horrified, struggling against his handcuffs to try and hug his sister. "Miley, look at me. This is not your fault, do you hear me? None of this is your fault, you didn't deserve any of it, the cops'll tell you the same. Please Miles..."
Miley turned away, and her eyes remained fixed on the back of Officer Grainger's head for the rest of the journey.
"Miley..."
Robbie Ray trailed off as his seventeen year old daughter disappeared up the stairs. He didn't know what to do, how to make his baby girl feel better. He wanted to tear that Jake Ryan kid limb from limb for doing this to her, however little it would actually help. At the same time he wanted to kick himself for being so useless; it was times like these when a girl needed her momma to tell her everything would be okay. With Jackson bailed, there was only one more thing he needed to deal with today; he picked up the phone to call one of his friends who wrote for a tabloid. Danny had been instrumental in keeping the Hannah secret, and Robbie knew he could be trusted.
"Danny? It's Robbie, I need a favour... No, not the good kind. I want Jake Ryan destroyed, by any means necessary..."
"Miley!"
Miley sat up in shock at the sound of Lilly's voice; how could she explain why she hadn't gone to the movies with them?
"Miley! Are you awake? Open the door, I have big news..."
Lilly stopped talking the second her friend appeared behind her door. She had never seen Miley looking so... desolate. Her hair was a mess, which was rare enough in itself, but the look in her eyes... it was like she was, well, dead.
"Miles? Oh my god, what happened?"
"I... You better come through." Miley opened her door a little further, stepping aside to let her friend in. Looking seriously worried, Lilly sat down on the bed in silence to wait for an explanation.
"I... I don't know where to start..."
"Come on Miles, it's me, I'm your best friend, you know you can tell me anything. What happened?"
"Uh... Well... Did you hear about Jake?"
"How did you know? That was my big news, that he got carted off by the police last night... Oh my God." comprehension dawned on Lilly's delicate features for a split second before she recoiled in horror. "What did he do to you?" she whispered as tears came to her friends eyes.
"He uh... He asked me to meet him, to talk, so I said okay, it was only meant to take five minutes. So, we talked, and then he tried to kiss me, when I told him I wasn't interested he freaked out. He..." the tears were threatening to overcome her, but Miley refused to let anybody see her cry. "He attacked me Lilly."
"Is that why Jackson..."
"Got arrested? Yeah." She paused, trying to gauge Lilly's reaction. "He um, he came down by Rico's with dad's car to give me a ride to the movies and saw what was happening. He hit Jake with a chair, knocked him out cold. But I guess he didn't stop there, 'cos it's looking like Jackson might go to jail for assault."
"And Jake? I mean, they arrested him right? He is going to jail isn't he?"
"I hope so. They did all these tests, taking pictures and samples and stuff you know? I guess we'll just have to hope for the best."
"Hope for the best? Miley, look, I'm not trying to tell you how to feel or anything, but you seem a little... blasé about this whole thing. What's going on?"
"What? Nothing. I just... I'm trying not to dwell. Jake hurt me and he'll get what he deserves, my lawyers will make sure of that. Actually, I don't want to be rude or anything, but I'd kinda like to be on my own for a while if that's okay."
"Oh, of course, no problem" Lilly stood up, putting Miley's odd behaviour down to shock. "Make sure you call me though okay? I'll come running," she grinned, "even if it's the middle of the night."
"Thanks Lilly, honestly. I'll talk to you later okay?"
After her friend had left the room Miley wandered back to her bed, flopping down face first into the pillows. She hadn't quite sunken into despair, but judging from the way she felt now; it wouldn't be long before she did. It was like somebody had suddenly switched off the lights in her world, and she didn't know how to find her way without them.
As she lay there, for the first time since the attack Miley allowed the tears to fall, drenching the soft pillows that muffled the sound.
She wasn't sure how long she had been in this one position for, but guessing from the lack of seagulls at her window, it had been at least five hours.
Meaning she had cried herself to sleep again.
Oddly though, not for the reasons people would suspect. Miley had cried herself to sleep tonight because of an earlier conversation with Oliver, her 'best guy bud'.
Earlier that day:
Miley had awoken to the sound of someone gently knocking on her bedroom door. Taking a moment to take in her surroundings, she noticed that she was tightly curled up into a ball, the same way she used to sleep when she was five and afraid of monsters living under her bed.
"Miley? Bud? Are you awake? Oliver's here to see you, but I can tell him you're not up to having visitors if you want."
She had got up at that, thinking that maybe this was what she needed, her boyfriend. As far as she knew, no-one had told Oliver what had happened, and personally, Miley wanted to keep it that way. Jackson being arrested was bad enough, and she knew that Oliver would quickly follow suit if he believed Jake Ryan to have hurt so much as a hair on Miley's head. Besides, she had other uses for the boy.
"Hey Ollie!" She said brightly, a little too brightly if he was honest.
"Hi Miles" Oliver pulled her in for a kiss, and for some reason Miley flinched as his face got too close. "Hey, are you okay?"
"What? Of course I am. Come on in." To make up for the non-kiss before, Miley pecked him quickly on the lips before she steered him over to her bed. "Okay, so, I've been thinking..." she started, before Oliver interrupted her with a small smile.
"Did it hurt?" The look in his girlfriend's eye was making Oliver inexplicably nervous, and these nerves were proved to be justified in the next moment.
"I think it's time we took the next step"
"Uh, excuse me? I don't think I heard you right a second ago..."
"No, you heard right." She smiled seductively, moving towards Oliver so that when he backed up she had him pinned to the bed. As he tried his hardest to stop her, she began kissing his neck, slowly working her way down as she undid his shirt. Eventually, he was able to muster the self-control to lift her off.
"Miley, what are you doing? I mean, we've only been together for a month and you've been avoiding me for the last week of it. What's going on?"
She lifted her head from his chest, eyes clouded over. "Oliver, I want you to be my first okay? Don't you want the same thing?"
"Miles, how can you even ask me that? Of course I do."
"Good." She ducked down, and resumed planting butterfly kisses all down his stomach. Oliver, in perhaps one of the hardest things he had ever had to do, again lifted her off before she could get any further.
"Seriously Miley, stop this okay? If you keep pushing me like this I don't think I'll be able to hold myself back."
"What? Don't you want me Oliver? Can you honestly tell me you've never thought about it? How we would finally be together the way you always wanted?"
"Miley, it's been practically the only thing on my mind for about a year now, but I never wanted it to be like this. I never wanted you like this. I care about you Miley, and as much as I'm going to regret it later, I think sleeping together right now would be a bad idea. You obviously have something going on in your life that's making you act this way, I just wish you felt you could talk to me about it."
Miley crawled back off the bed, her eyes flashing in anger. "I think you should leave."
"What? No, I'm not going to leave, please, just tell me what's wrong..."
"I mean it Oliver, leave. I don't think we should see each other anymore."
"Come on Miles, you don't mean this. You're upset..."
"No, I'm not."
To his complete horror Miley appeared to be telling the truth, her eyes were dry, the only emotion in them seemingly irritation. He wished he could say the same for himself.
"You should go, we were a mistake from the beginning Oliver, you know it as well as I do."
Knowing that if he stayed there a minute longer he was likely to start crying, Oliver nodded silently and left, the sound of the closing door echoing in both of their ears.
