Hey few readers I have left. I know I'm despicable. I am very sorry! This fic is not and never will be abandoned. I am just very busy. I will try and update when I can.

Mystery: I realise, I didn't give you a proper response to your review last chapter. I don't mind you pinching some of my ideas as long as you tell me the name of your story, where your posting it and your ff account name if you have one. Partly because I would like to read your fic and partly because I don't want to be accused of copying you as your fic will probably be finished before mine – hell, maybe it's finished already.

Cracks

They silently walked across the playground and then out the tall school gate made up of iron bars with the school logo on. Declan glanced at Ronan, beginning to feel slightly awkward, he wasn't comfortable with silence when he didn't know the person the well. He'd thought him and Ronan were starting to become friends earlier. Ronan had happily talked to him instead of cuttingly answering his questions while attempting to end the conversation as quickly as possible. But now Ronan was staring at the floor with a brooding expression. Declan watched as Ronan carefully limped over every tiny gap between the concreate slabs that lined the pavement, making sure his feet didn't touch the cracks. Declan couldn't help but laugh.

"Are you playing the 'don't step on the cracks' game?" he asked, not quite able to believe that Ronan Byrne of all people was playing a game so childish.

Ronan gave a distracted 'hm?' as his head snapped up.

Declan repeated the question with an amused smirk on his face.

"No! Course not. I'm not a kid." Ronan exclaimed, his cheeks beginning to redden.

"Whoa…It's no big deal," said Declan slightly taken aback by Ronan's reaction. "I was only messing about." Declan paused and then not being able to resist added "But you were, weren't you?"

Ronan looked down at his hands. "Your right, sorry, me and me mam used to play it, when I was a wee lad and I guess I've never broken the habit."

"Ah, tha's sweet. Did you two get on better then?" Declan asked only realising afterwards how nosey it sounded.

Ronan didn't seem to mind as much as Declan thought he would. He smiled reminiscently, "Yeah, I guess so. When she wasn't…" He paused, a dark look crossing his face then began again. "She'd take me down to the park after school sometimes. On the way there, I remember she'd hold my hand and tell me: You can't step on the cracks, Ro. If you do the monsters will come and eat us then they'll steal all our luck and we need all the luck we can get, don't we? Come on step over them with me, she'd say. One time, me and me mam made it all the way from me school to the park without standing on a single crack, we were sure we'd have excellent luck after that…" Ronan trailed off his smile fading and the brooding expression returning to his face.

"That's sweet," said Declan worriedly looking at Ronan's expression he looked…sad like his mum did when he asked about the time she spent with his dad or his dad when he asked about his grandmother, like he was remembering someone he'd never see again.

Ronan gave a humourless chuckle.

"What?" Declan asked, concerned and slightly scared by the desperate expression on Ronan's face.

"We thought we'd be lucky." Ronan said hysterically and laughed the same humourless empty laugh again, leaning on someone's garden wall for support.

Declan was scared, was Ronan having some kind of mental breakdown? What was going on? What the hell was wrong with Ronan Byrne? His mind raced and came up with a thousand crazy theory's which he instantly dismissed. No teenager got on perfectly with their parents or got on with them as well as they had as a child. Ronan did seem to have been through a lot, but he was probably just talking about money problems or something. There was a recession on. Declan glanced at Ronan again who's laughs were slowing becoming sobs as he sank to the ground. Defiantly just money problems, a little voice sarcastically whispered. Declan sat down next to Ronan not sure what to do. He put his arm round him - that was what you were meant to do right? Ronan's body went ridged at the contact and Declan was about to look pull his arm away when Ronan looked up from his hands and saw Declan slowly his body relaxed and he cautiously leaned in to Declan's side.

"You alright?" Declan asked after a few minutes, immediately feeling stupid as he looked at Ronan quietly sobbing in to his shoulder.

Ronan didn't answer.

"What's wrong?" Declan asked, genuinely concerned. It just wasn't right; Ronan had always come across as one of those people who never cried. What had happened to him that was so bad? Every day Declan spent with Ronan posed more and more questions.

Who was Ronan Byrne?

Ronan pulled away from Declan, stood up and roughly wiped his eyes with his sleeve. "Nothing," He said as he began frantically blinking in an attempt to hide the fact he'd been crying. Declan didn't really get the point of the exercise. He obviously knew Ronan had been crying and there was no one else around.

Declan raised an eyebrow at Ronan's answer and gave him a look.

"It's just…" Ronan hesitated and for a second he looked pleading, like he desperately wanted Declan to be able to just know what was wrong without Ronan having to say it. But as quick as it appeared the look was gone. Ronan's mouth went in to an expressionless line, all the emotion in his eyes drained out leaving a slightly threatening edge behind and his eyebrows parted and became just as expressionless as his mouth. Ronan Byrne's mask had returned. "My Mam isn't very well at the moment and I got a bit upset, stupid really."

He's lying. Declan immediately thought then blurted out "But you said your Mam had gone away with Darra to celebrate their anniversary."

"Well she was feeling better." Ronan said quickly.

"Then why were you crying?" Declan asked, suspiciously.

"Leave it, Declan," Ronan snapped. Declan decided to leave it for the day. He supposed he was being nosey. He had only known Ronan for about a week; he could hardly expect Ronan to tell him everything. He'd probably do the same thing in Ronan's position, Declan thought. But in the back of his mind he knew he didn't believe it.

"I'm sorry," Ronan said a few moments later, "I just don't want to talk about it."

"That's ok, It's none of my business," Declan said.

Ronan's house wasn't what Declan expected. Honestly, from what he knew about Ronan so far Declan had expected a small shabby building – possibly owned by the council. He expected the front garden to be a barren place, perhaps tarmacked over with dead potted plants as the only decoration. He couldn't have been more wrong.

Ronan lived in a middle sized pretty house, hidden behind a tall hedge. A path made of stepping stones worked their way across a well-kept front lawn to a pretty porch with a cobblestone floor. A small drive made of gravel lead to a garage with a pristine white door.

In his battered leather jacket and faded school trousers Ronan stood out like a sore thumb. Ronan crossed the front lawn, in no mood to hop across the stepping stones as – Declan had no doubt – even Ronan, had done when he was younger.

"Nice house," said Declan. Although his disbelief must had shown as Ronan commented;

"Not what you expected?" in a rather sullen tone.

"Em…well…course it was…it's just so nice." Said Declan internally cringing that made him sound like a right prissy.

"I guess, the gardeners do most of it," said Ronan, slipping the key in to the lock and going inside without looking at Declan. Declan quickly followed, feeling uncomfortable.

Ronan was frozen a few feet in to the building, Darra stood in front of him. A small smile appeared on his face when he saw Declan but for some reason it made Declan's skin crawl.

"Is he helping you set up?" Darra asked Ronan in a falsely amused tone. He thought Ronan was having a party? Ronan? Declan tried not to laugh. He couldn't imagine Ronan at a party. The image of jumping up and down to the music after being persuaded to dance was just so hilarious Declan couldn't help but grin.

"You think this is funny? Do you?" Darra, asked sternly, his face surprisingly lacking any emotion. It made the man even scarier in Declan's opinion.

"No, sir," Said Declan surprised at how timid he sounded. Declan glanced at Ronan for help. He would never forget what he saw next. Ronan stood rooted to the spot, sweat beads on his brow, his hands shaking as he stared at the ground his eyes wide with terror.

Declan suddenly had a flash back to a Personal, Social, education lesson he'd had at the end of last term. There had been two visitors to the class and everyone was curious about what they were going to talk about. Were they a recovering drug addict there to tell them the story of their addiction? The one on the left would be the addict Declan remembered thinking as he assessed the nervous looking man in a smart shit and trousers with a tattoo on his neak who's eyes darted around the classroom as if looking for a means of escape. He was staring at his fidgeting hands hands, Declan remembered. A bit like…Ronan always did. But surely not, he was reading too much in to it, letting his imagination get away from him. He remembered the kind-looking slightly chubby woman who wore and smart suit standing up to begin her talk.

"Hello, Ladies and Gentlemen…" The woman had begun – Declan remembered making a joke about how Jack was no gentlemen. "I'm Rachel Mortan and I am here to talk to you all about one of the most horrific crimes a human being can commit." The thing was Rachel Mortan's companion – who they later found out was called Evan Michaels – wasn't a drug addict or an alcoholic or a petty thief. He wasn't a police man coming to tell that the rumour prison was easy were false and prison is not a place they'd want to end up in. Evan Michaels was a victim – although Declan was sure he'd hate to be called that.

Evan Michaels was a victim of child abuse.

Declan remembered the silence that had fallen over the class as Rachel Mortan –from NSPCC declared what one of the worst crimes a human being could commit was – child abuse. She'd told them how child abuse wasn't just physical. There were four different types of child abuse Physical, emotional, Neglect and sexual.

Physical abuse is when a parent deliberately hurt their child and left a bruise, cut, burn, broke a bone or any other physical injury. He hadn't seen anything like that on Ronan he unintentionally thought to himself. But when have you seen Ronan without his leather jacket on or wearing shorts? Whispered a voice in the back of his mind. That's irrelevant though, he thought, it's autumn and maybe Ronan is one of those people who get cold easily. What about his leg? Ronan had told him he'd had a disagreement with a customer. But could he have been lying? Declan looked at Darra, was he really capable of hurting his stepson? He certainly didn't look like a very pleasant bloke as he angrily asked Ronan if he thought he was stupid every time Ronan tried to tell him the truth.

Emotional abuse is the severe and persistent ill treatment of a child. Declan couldn't help but remember reading the leaflet they'd got afterwards about signs of abuse. One of them stuck out.

'A fearful, distant or unaffectionate relationship'

Ronan didn't look fearful, Declan thought, he looked terrified. Because he's been caught… Declan then suddenly thought, doing what? It was him breaking the rules of his grounding, all Ronan was doing was having someone over without permission. If Declan was in his place things would have ended quickly with Declan saying something like "Sorry Mam, I forgot to ask you, can Ronan come over." His Mam probably would have sighed and asked him to give her more notice next time. He wouldn't have been scared but maybe Darra was strict? He certainly gave off that impression. Under signs of abuse on the leaflet had been 'Behaviour Problems':

'Self-insulating behaviour (making people dislike you)'

Ronan didn't have many friends…well any friends apart from Declan and Ronan hadn't been exactly friendly to Declan at first…besides the whole getting him out of trouble thing -he still didn't know why Ronan had done that. But was it really self-insulating behaviour?

Declan remembered the first time he'd walked to school with Ronan what seemed like months ago – even though it had been less than a week. He remembered how effortlessly Ronan had cut off all his attempts to start conversations. Did he do that with everyone who tried to start conversations with him? That was Self-insulating behaviour, surely.

Neglect and sexual abuse were the only two left. Looking at Ronan's clothes compared to the pretty firmly middle class house he lived in Declan knew neglect was a possibility. Although maybe it was his favourite leather jacket? And his favourite pair of school trousers? Yeah right.

Evan Michaels speech was the most troubling. "Hey guys, em…this is the first time I've done this…so…just bear with me. I…er…well…when I was a kid my mam and da'…well they didn't get on very well… and sometimes my da'…he'd take it out on me. He'd come in to my room at night after my mam had gone to sleep and he'd just… start hitting me and telling me everything had been fine before I came long. He'd say that him and mam fought because of me and that if I wasn't so ungrateful, if I'd just help them sometimes and get off my lazy ass they wouldn't be fighting. He gradually got more and more angry and got more and more control over me, I thought he would stop. I thought it would end but…" The pace of Evan's voice gradually got faster and faster until he was barely breathing and had to stop to take a deep breath. Some of the girls were taken sobbing out the room. I remember having this horrible tightening in my gut and feeling like I should be crying but I didn't. I sat there and I listened. "…it doesn't work like that. It only got worse. It got to the point when every time I saw him I ran through a mental list of things in my head I could have done to upset him, terrified I'd get punished. Every time he got angry, I'd freeze, I'd begin to sweat and I'd stare at the floor terrified of what he'd do."

Declan looked at Ronan again who stood there, frozen, beginning to sweat, staring at the floor, terrified of what Darra would do.

Hopefully the next update won't take too long; I will do my best I have a lot of free time coming up. I really hope you like this chapter I'm personally quite pleased with it. I got all my information about abuse off the NSPCC website, sorry if any of any of its wrong. Ittalics are Declan's deepest thoughts that he doesn't really want to think. The bold is Declan's flashbacks.