_- Courage-

Summary: After Shelby explains an important part of her life, Scott gets an idea to help her, again.

A/N: I'm working on the spacing thing, I apologize again.

Chapter Five- When There's a Will

" Scott?" Shelby tried to snap him out of a daze he had slipped into after hearing the question. He blinked rapidly several times, " sorry". " It's okay" she moved closer to him, " you were thinking about it, weren't you? Your past?". Scott nodded, " yeah, it's hard not too sometimes, no matter what I see, or hear, there's always a reminder, even if it had nothing to do with what happened". " The nightmares are the worse" Shelby commented. " Yeah, the only time I sleep, it's all nightmares. I thought I'd be okay with Juliette, like a chance to recover, but.well, you saw" he couldn't look at her. " Yep, that's Juliette, worthless whore" she muttered. Though Shelby did not know anything for certain about Scott's past, she somehow sensed his pain, in that same moment, " oh my god" she gasped, " Scott, I can't believe-I'm sorry". He managed a smile, " not as bad as you were, you were probably lucky enough to have someone believe you". " I'm here, aren't I?". Scott watched the sad expression slowly overcome her, " I tried telling my mom, I was like you, I didn't want anything to happen to my sister". " Does she live with your dad?". Shelby shook her head, she could feel the tears stinging her eyes, " she lives with my mom and Walt, and the scariest feeling is lying awake at night, trying to block out the horrible thoughts of what he's doing to her" by the time she finished, tears were streaming down her face. Scott leaned closer, wrapping his arms around her once again. " I don't think your mom would let that happen". " She let it happen to me". He tighten the embrace, feeling his shoulder becoming damp, not close to caring. Shelby slowly backed away, but stayed close, he kept an arm around her. " The last time I saw her was her fifth birthday party, she was wearing a pink party dress and this huge smile on her face. That was it, but my mom writes letters saying that she has fits almost every day because she hates how life is, can only make you wonder". Scott looked down at her, " I got an idea" the thought went from his mind to his mouth. " What?". " Peter has a car, we have a license". Shelby looked up, " Peter hides the keys, and he also has our licenses". He tried from another angel, " okay, Hank has a car and a license. We can leave in the middle of the night and be back before anyone notices. We can say Hank brought us.I don't know, somewhere" the plan kept flowing on. She sat up, " we'd get caught". " Not if we plan it right. Isn't Jess worth it?". " How do you know her name?". " Does it matter?". Shelby desperately wanted to go, she wanted Scott's plan and she wanted to make sure her sister was alright. There was an urge, something stopping her. Just then, Scott closed the space between them, softly placing his lips upon hers. Her reaction was shocked, but allowed their tongues to enter one another mouth, exploring. Scott had never kissed a girl he truly liked, not since before Elaine, not even Juliette. " Okay" she breathed as they broke apart. " That wasn't suppose to convince you". She nodded, " I know". Scott smiled, " I'll talk to Hank when we get back". Shelby still had her eyes closed when he said, " as for right now, you might want to get in the water".

The two were not caught and made it back to Horizon safely, wet, but safely. Shelby felt as though her heart was caught in her throat when seeing Sophie and Peter. Surprisingly, neither said anything aside from ' hi Shelby' when she thought she was done for. Once passing them, Shelby escaped behind the tool shed, not wanting to hide from anyone or anything. She nearly jumped out of her skin when Scott came from behind her. " Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you". " It's alright" she grinned, not being able to get that kiss out of her mind. " Hank said to meet him on the front porch at midnight exactly, he'll think of an excuse of why we left, if we need one". Shelby was determined, " if Jess is in trouble, I'm bringing her back with us". He nodded, " okay" he was not going to disagree with her, and it showed. They looked into each others eyes for a brief moment, then there was a small reminder of the afternoon on the rock, " I'll see you later".

Later at night, Shelby sat up in her bed while the other girls got ready to go to sleep. Maybe it was obvious, the fact that she was still in jeans and a sweater. She waited until Juliette was in the bathroom, but Daisy spoke first. " Your mom and dad seemed upset that you weren't here, or there should I say". She didn't bother with the step-dad correction, " I'm going to see my sister tonight". The idea of breaking a rule never came to surprise Daisy, " oh, um, how do you plan to get there?". " Hank. Scott talked to him and he'll take us, we'd be back by tomorrow morning, maybe before anyone notices". Daisy continued writing in her journal, " you are so in for it". " I want Jess to be okay". " Not that" Daisy turned to make sure the bathroom door was still closed, " it's just, you'll be with Scott, and Juliette is here". Shelby eyed her, jerking her neck. Speak of the devil, she emerged from the bathroom, both girls froze. " If you know what's good for you, you'll stay away from my boyfriend". She held up her hands, hinting that she was to surrender to her tone, " hey, when you get a boyfriend, no problem, I'll stay away". From across the room, Kat turned off the lights before there was any bloodshed. Shelby heard Daisy snickering in the bed next to hers.