"You ready?" Nathan asked me as we stood outside the police station.

"As ready as I'll ever be." I started walking into the building very slowly. Nathan put his hand on the small of my back to encourage me. When I got inside, I noticed Jake. I picked up my pace and walked over to him, giving him a hug. I really had missed my best friend. I had missed having any friends. It felt nice to be in his arms again.

"I didn't know you were coming in today."

"Yeah, I wasn't planning on it, but Nathan said that I needed to give a statement."

"Better sooner than later?" Jake said, mimicking what I would always tell him in high school.

I couldn't help but smile when I was around Jake. When I turned my head, I noticed for the first time that Nathan really did watch me when I wasn't paying attention. That just made my smile grow, until I remembered why I was there in the first place.

"Did Nathan say who you were going to talk to?" Jake asked me.

"Nope. We didn't really talk about it. I guess I'm just pushing it out of my mind for as long as I can."

"Isn't that how you got into this mess?"

Jake was my best friend, so, yeah, he could be blunt with me, but that doesn't mean that comment didn't piss me off. Trust me, if we hadn't been interrupted, I would have been in jail for battery.

"Hales, come here," Nathan ordered from his desk.

I started to laugh as I walked over to him, "You're kind of making me feel like a dog here."

"I'm sorry. I just didn't know how to get you away from your boy over there."

"Well, you pulled me away just in time, I was about to kick his ass."

"Now that is something I'd like to see," he laughed. I could tell he was imagining it in his head, which made me laugh along with him. "So, do you have any preference who you talk to?"

"What do you mean?" I asked as I sat down.

"Do you want to talk to a chick or a dude?"

"Is that the professional term?"

"Of course. I'm all about keeping it professional."

"It doesn't matter to me."

"I just want you to be comfortable. Do you want to talk to someone that you know?"

"Like you?"

"Or Jake."

"I guess. I mean, I'll have to tell y'all eventually, might as well get it over with now."

"You don't have to tell me anything that you don't want to."

"Nathan, you've seen me bloody and bruised. It's not like it'd be anything new to you."

"I guess not. I'll get Jake and we can go into a room."


As I told them my story, Jake was writing everything down as Nathan just listened. Leaning over and looking at his notes I told Jake, "You see. I always told you that your girly handwriting would pay off."

"Nathan writes with true chicken-scratch, even if I didn't have 'girly handwriting' as you so kindly call it, I would still have to write everything. But enough of that, Hales. We've got to stay on topic."

"Fine, fine, what else do you need to know?"

"Has there been any infidelity on either end?"

"Not that I know of."

"Okay. So I know the last time he hit you, we were there. When was the time before that?"

"When Nathan came."

"Oh yeah, sorry, I blanked on that. Before then?"

"Two nights before when I fell down the stairs."

"Hales…" Nathan tried to interrupt, but Jake wouldn't let him. I could tell that Nathan was disappointed that I had lied to him though.

"Did the beatings always occur that often?"

"No. Before that the last time was the night I saw you again."

"So you had two months of no physical fighting?"

"Yeah."

"And in that time, you were having sex?"

"No. Why is that important?"

"Then how did you get pregnant, Hales?"

"Because we had sex that night. Really, Jake, why is my sex life important?"

"It just is. It's something a judge could ask about. A point that Damien could make saying that you were happy in your marriage if you were wanting to bring a child into it. Did you willingly have sex with him that night?"

I just stared at the wall. I didn't really know what to say. I don't really think it's possible to be raped by your husband, is it? Isn't it a wife's job to make her husband happy? I didn't know. My relationship was so messed up I didn't know what normal was.

"Hales? Did you willingly have sex with him that night?"

"I don't know."

"What do you mean you don't know?"

"He's my husband, Jake."

"Why are you protecting him?" Nathan asked, angry.

"Calm down, Nate," Jake warned him. "It doesn't matter if he's your husband or not, if you said no, you said no."

"I said no," I whispered.

I could tell that Jake was about to bounce off the walls he was so angry. "When was the last time you willingly had sex with him?"

"Our anniversary."

"When was that?" How horrible is that? My best friend doesn't even know my anniversary.

"The night I fell down the stairs… He was really nice that night. We hadn't fought in two months. It was perfect… but then he hit me again. And I fell backwards down the stairs." I don't know why, but I felt like I needed to make excuses for myself. I mean, I thought things had gotten better, that's the only reason I did it. They needed to know that. "Are they going to hold that against me?"

"I don't know, Hales. It depends on what Damien's lawyer's tactics are."

"Lawyer…" Crap. I hadn't thought about lawyers. "I don't have a lawyer. I don't have any money to get a lawyer."

"If Damien has money, then you have money."

"No, I don't. He canceled all my credit cards and emptied my bank account. I have nothing."

"That's kind of an important detail. Why didn't you tell us that earlier?"

"Sorry, Jake, wasn't really thinking about that at the time," I spat back at him. The sarcasm he just hit me with was overwhelming. Was he getting mad at me? I seriously didn't need to deal with him acting like this right now. Rehashing my failed marriage is hard enough. I stood up, not wanting to be there any longer. "I'm done," I said before walking out of the room and out of the police station. I didn't know where I was going, but anywhere without thoughts of Damien was fine by me.


"Hales, wait up!"

"I'm not going to stop," I told him, turning only my head to look at him. "If you really want to talk, then you can walk with me."

Nathan continued running until he caught up with me, "You do realize that you're mad at Jake and not me, right?"

"Guilty by association," I told him, trying not to smile.

"So where are we going?"

"What do you mean?"

"Where are we walking to?"

"I don't know."

"Okay."

We continued walking in silence for a few more blocks before I stopped walking and turned to look at him, "Is there a reason you're still walking with me?"

"Is there a reason I shouldn't?"

"Don't you have to work?"

"I am. I'm enforcing your restraining order."

"That's it?" I ask him, a little disappointed.

"What do you think?"

"I don't know."

"Really?"

Okay, I guess he's right. I do know I'm more than just a case to him, but I guess Damien has just forced me to live a life of doubt. Or maybe he just didn't let me realize my self-worth. I started walking again, not answering his question.

"Did you decide where we're going?" he asked me.

"I'm just walking, Nathan. I have nowhere to go. No home, no friends, no money. I have nothing. So no, I haven't decided where I'm going."

"I think we should probably go inside somewhere."

"Well, I think you should go to work."

"Come on, Hales. We live in Tree Hill. It's not exactly crime capital of the world. It's not even the crime capital of the Carolina coast." He grabbed my arm to stop me, "Damien might be looking for you, okay? You really should stay home."

"I don't have a home."

"You know what I mean. Will you please let me take you home? We can finish your statement later."

"I don't want to talk about him anymore." Just bringing up the topic again, I started to cry. I felt like I was reliving it whenever I had to give specific examples. Relive the pain that the one person who was supposed to love me the most caused me. It's definitely not a pleasant thought.

"Okay, we won't," he told me as he hugged me. "But I really need to get you home so I can stop worrying about you."

"You worry about me?" I asked him as I looked up at him.

"You know I do."

I tucked my head to hide my smile, "Okay. We can go home." Home. I just called his house my home. It was more of a home than mine ever was.