Disclaimer: I don't own Degrassi or I wouldn't be using fan fiction now would I? Have fun reading it! Please R&R!

Chapter 2: The Best of Friends

An hour later and Saxon and Anna were still sitting on the couch, lost in their thoughts when the doorbell rang. Anna jumped up and went to answer it, looking at the clock next to the door, 8:30, it was getting late for visitors.

She moved a step closer to the door and went on her tippee toes to look through the peep hole. Marco and Jimmy stood outside waiting for her to let them in; Anna quickly undid the dead-bolt on the door and opened it.

"Hey Anna," Marco said as the door opened in front of him, revealing the younger of the twins, "We saw that police car driving away from the school with you and Grace in it and we got worried. We tried to call you but no one was home."

Anna smiled but it was only a half hearted smile and her two friends picked up on that, "Can we come in?" Jimmy asked.

"Sure," Anna said quietly, "Grace is asleep but feel free to hang here, do your parents know you're here?"

"Yeah," Marco answered, "We called them and told them that we were visiting you after band practice."

Anna nodded as she led them back to where the seats were in Saxon's living room, Saxon was still sitting on the couch looking out of the window.

"Saxon," Anna said in a voice loud enough to bring him back from his thoughts, "This is Marco and Jimmy," She pointed to each of her friends as she introduced them, "Guys this is Saxon, my big brother."

Saxon stood shaking hands with both boys, it wasn't the formal hand shake of an adult, instead he took one of their hands in his and hugged them with his other arm. Jimmy didn't mind this at all, he returned the gesture as if Saxon was one of his best friends, Marco didn't seem to mind but Saxon felt him tense slightly as he pulled the boy in and hugged him.

"So you're Marco and Jimmy," He said in a conversational tone as he released Marco, "Anna and Grace have told me heaps about you but I never knew who they were talking about. I haven't been here every time that you've come over."

Jimmy grinned, "I hope they didn't say anything bad."

"Only a little," Saxon replied grinning like a teen himself.

Anna smiled but her smile faded quickly, "Anyone want Milo?" She asked, hoping to take her mind off what was happening.

"Sure," Said Jimmy.

Looking at Anna Saxon nodded and ruffled her hair a little.

Anna turned to face Marco, "You?"

"I'll help you," He replied smiling a little, he could tell that something big was up but he wasn't going to pressure Anna into telling him about it.

Anna bustled around the kitchen in silence for a bit, getting the Milo tin out of the cupboard and busying herself with making everyone's drinks. Marco got the mugs out of their cupboard and filled the hot water pot.

While it was boiling, Anna found that she had nothing to do until it was finished heating the water, she stopped and leaned against the bench unable to keep her emotions under control anymore. She rubbed at her eyes furiously, not wanting to cry in front of Marco, she didn't want to cry full stop but the tears wouldn't be stopped.

Marco soon noticed Anna's tears and moved to comfort her, she didn't pull away as he put his arms around her, instead she leaned against him, just as her twin had done in the gym.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Marco asked as Anna's tears began to subside and she pulled back.

Anna thought about this, Grace had said that if she felt the need to then she could tell their friends as long as they swore not to tell anyone, well right now she did need to tell someone, she nodded.

"Then let's finish these drinks and get them to Saxon and Jimmy and then we'll go out on the balcony and you can tell me," Marco said evenly.

Anna nodded and finished making the Milo's, taking them out to her brother and Jimmy before she joined Marco on Saxon's balcony, accepting her mug of hot Milo as she stepped out into the cool night air.

"Now," Marco said, "What's the trouble?"

Anna didn't answer for a moment, "Marco, swear that you won't tell anyone about this," she said, turning to face him.

Marco nodded, "I won't tell anyone if you don't want me to."

Anna nodded her thanks, took a deep breath and began speaking, "Marco, this isn't an easy thing to say, not for me and especially not for Grace but, shit Marco, I can't find any other way to tell you." Tears began to roll down Anna's cheeks again, "Marco, Grace was raped."

Marco was silent, then, "Shit, when?"

"The guys kidnapped her last Friday, so a week ago was when it started, they raped her every night, sometimes during the day as well and when she didn't do what they told her to then they beat her. That's why she wouldn't let you touch her back."

"Why would anyone do that to Grace?" Marco wondered aloud, "She never did anything that would have asked for that."

"The police said that they were just picking random people and targeting them," Anna replied, "I don't see why they couldn't have picked someone else."

In truth she really could, Grace was young and strong and beautiful, she also had a feisty nature, the police had explained that most rapists wanted someone who would object and fight them. Grace had fought them, she'd lost and they'd raped her over and over.

"It was only one guy wasn't it?" Marco asked after a long silence.

Anna shook her head, "Grace had to tell the police everything, there were at least twelve of them Marco, twelve guys against Grace."

Marco swore again and then asked hesitantly, "Did they use protection?"

Anna looked over at him, fear filling her eyes suddenly as if he'd just shed light on something, "Grace said that their head man wouldn't let any of the guys near her without it but that he…that he never bothered with it himself. Oh shit."

She ran inside, leaving her empty mug and Marco outside, she returned a few minutes later with her twin's diary, "Crap," she said quietly, sinking into one of the chairs on the balcony.

"What?" Marco asked, slightly fearful of the answer.

"Marco," Anna began, "You know how in the week before that time of month you can… can get impregnated?"

Marco nodded, fearing the next sentence even more.

"Last week was that week before for Grace," Anna said in a voice that shook.

"Shit," Marco said again, "So you mean that they could have… you know?"

Anna nodded, not looking at him and then she got up and stood beside him, "What am I going to say to Saxon? He'll flip if he finds out that Grace might be pregnant. If she is then she definitely won't have it aborted, it's against every moral that she's ever had. This is such a mess."

"I'll help you," Marco said quietly, laying a hand on Anna's shoulder, "You two have already done so much, knowing that I'm gay and accepting that, not telling anyone about that either."

Anna could only nod, she turned back to the apartment, "Well, let's get this over with, Jimmy already knows what's up, I heard Saxon telling him." She took a deep breath and stepped into the living room, closely followed by Marco, "Saxon, Marco just brought something to my attention," She said in a level voice, "Grace could be pregnant, it's close enough to… that time of month and Grace told the police officer who was questioning her that the leader hadn't used any…any protection."

Saxon sat for a moment in silence and then began to curse in Egyptian, he stood up and began pacing back and forth, still cursing, then he turned to Anna and began yelling things at her.

Marco and Jimmy couldn't understand a word that Saxon was saying but they knew from Anna's reaction that it was insulting and hurtful. Anna surprised them by straightening and pulling herself up to her full height, she wasn't much shorter than Saxon but he stopped his yelling.

"Saxon, it is not my fault that this happened, I didn't do anything to cause it and neither did you, like I said keep a positive attitude and make life easy on Gracie," Anna said calmly, "That's all that we can do."

Saxon shook his head angrily for a while but then lifted his head and looked at his sister, "I'm sorry, but…it's just that…"

Anna shushed him, "I know, Grace is too young and this shouldn't be happening to her, but it is and we can't stop it so we just have to help her. There have been people younger than Gracie in this situation, they've gotten through it, she can too."

"What can I do?" Asked a sleepy voice from the doorway, Grace stood there in her patterned boxers and singlet, bandages showing over the top of it, "Shit," she said when she saw Marco and Jimmy there, "You told them?"

Anna nodded and went over to give her twin a hug, "Do you want something to eat or drink?"

"No," Grace said shaking her head a little, "I'm not hungry. What can I do to?"

Anna looked around at Saxon biting her lip in worry, "You tell her."

Saxon sighed and approaching Grace, took her by the hand and led her over to the couch where he'd been sitting just a few minutes ago, Jimmy moved over to let both of them sit down.

"Grace, you know what they… what they did to you this past week?" Saxon asked hesitantly, he waited for Grace to slowly nod before continuing, "I don't know if you realised but that was the time just before your period, I'm not saying that anything will come of it but… well you could be pregnant."

This last bit came out in a rush and Grace simply blinked for a moment and then frowned, beginning to think things over, eventually a long string of curses found their way out of her mouth and then Saxon was hugging her again.

When she managed to pull free of her brother's fierce embrace, Grace stood and stretched as much as she could before pain shot through her tired body, "I'm tired, I'm going to go back to bed and I'll think things over in the morning," She stated. "Goodnight Anna, night Saxon, Jimmy, Marco, thanks for coming, you really didn't have to."

"That's okay," Marco said, hugging her carefully so as not to hurt her, before she had been like a delicate flower to him and he'd always worried about crushing her petals but now more than ever he wanted to be careful with her.

Jimmy gave her the same treatment, hugging her slightly more awkwardly than Marco had. She hugged both of them back and then disappeared into her room.

Saxon looked at the VCR clock and frowned, 9:50, "It's getting late, you two had better be going home, your parents will be getting worried. Do yu want me to give you a lift?"

Marco also looked at the clock and then at Jimmy, they'd be coming over again tomorrow, he knew it and he could tell that Anna half expected them to, he nodded and Jimmy followed suit. Seeing as Saxon's apartment was so close to Craig's Jimmy hadn't driven, he hadn't bothered to drive to Craig's either so his car was still at his house.

"Alright then," Saxon said giving Anna a one armed hug, "I'll be back as soon as I've dropped Marco and Jimmy off, and I want to get something from the drug store on the way back."

Anna knew what that meant and she hugged him back quite fiercely before she went over and hugged Marco and Jimmy each in turn.

"Thanks for coming over guys," She said quietly, "You are so the best friends a girl could have."

Both of them smiled and left, following Saxon down to the underground car park where Saxon had left his Land Rover. He pulled out of the garage and drove off towards Jimmy's house, that being the closest house, he stopped at the curb and let Jimmy out watching until Jimmy was safely inside his house before he drove on. Marco looked out of the window of the car for a while and then decided to say something.

"Did it scare you to know what happened to her?" He asked quietly.

Saxon took his eyes off the road for a moment and looked at the small Italian boy in the seat beside him, "Yeah, it scared the shit outta me," He replied as he returned his eyes to the road ahead of him, "At first I thought that Anna was just playing some stupid prank because she was bored but then I heard how scared her voice was. You try having a little sibling calling you up while your trying to train horses and telling you that her twin's been raped, first there's shock and then you're just shitting yourself with worry."

Marco nodded, "When she came to school like that I wondered what was wrong but I never would have guessed that somebody raped her, things like that just don't happen to good people like her, at least they shouldn't"

Saxon nodded but his eyes were sad, "She's had enough trouble already, first our house in Egypt burns down and kills our parents our James, then she gets shipped over here and taken away from everyone and everything she ever knew, now this. It shouldn't happen to her, I agree."

Marco looked over at Saxon; suddenly Grace's big brother seemed much older and more worn down, "She never told me about any of that. I mean, I knew that her parents were dead but I never knew how they died or that she had a brother other than you."

Saxon nodded, "She didn't even know that I existed until just before she came to Degrassi at the start of grade 8. She's been trying to make up for lost time ever since, come to think of it, so have I, I really missed her."

"How old were you?" Marco asked carefully, not wanting to pry into this guy's life, he was nice and Marco knew that if he was anything like his younger sister's then he couldn't be a bad guy.

There was silence for a moment and Marco hoped he hadn't gone too far but then Saxon spoke up, "They were six, I was eleven and James was thirteen. He and I used to share a bedroom so the fire woke us both up, James was worried about Anna and Grace so we went to their rooms first, they only got a bit burned on the way out but James had one of the ceiling beams block his and Grace's path. We got outside and James ran right back in to get Mum and Dad, he never came out alive, the firemen found three bodies inside and brought them out but they didn't look anything like James or Mum or Dad. After that we got shipped over here and then we got split up, Grace went to our Step-Mum and Anna went to some person who adopted her and then I went somewhere else. No one ever told them about what happened and I think that they blocked out any memories of Egypt until High School when they got told by Anna's foster Mum and then they looked me up in the phone book and moved in with me. That's my sad story."

Marco laughed quietly at the way Saxon had said this but stopped laughing, "Have Anna and Grace told you that I'm gay?"

"No," Saxon said calmly, continuing to drive towards Marco's house.

"It doesn't bother you?" Marco asked him.

"No, not really," Saxon replied, "One of the best jockey's at the stable where I train horses is gay, he's still a really nice person and he's taught Grace a lot already about being a jockey. I have no problem with people being gay."

Marco looked at Saxon again and realised that he really was just like his sisters, he took everything as it came and kept going as best he could. He found himself wishing that he was more like Saxon, then maybe he wouldn't hide who he really was.

His thoughts were interrupted by Saxon speaking, "This is your stop Marco, and thanks for coming around. Anna needed to talk about this to someone who wasn't me, you can come by any time."

Marco smiled his shy smile, "It was nothing, I was worried about Grace that's all, I was happy to help."

With that he shut the car door and walked up to his front door, opening it to let himself in Marco turned back to the road and waved at Saxon before he shut the door behind him.

Saxon smiled as he drove away from Marco's house, he knew that he may have just shown the teenager an important thing: that not all people were homophobic and quite a few people actually accepted the gay community.

Thinking to himself as he entered the drug store, Grace and Anna had a lot of people who cared about them, it was a good thing. They wouldn't lack in support when they needed it but the question was, would all of their friends stick by them when they found out what had happened to Grace?

As he thought, Saxon bought what he needed and headed home to his sisters.