Disclaimers apply, I don't own early edition, but any OC i place in here is mine.

A/n: this story may seem a little dark, and will only be updated when I'm down enough to write it. Enjoy.

Chapter 1

The early morning started just like every morning. The sun rose in the sky and the smell of spring filled the air. A cat howling echoed through one city structure as it demanded its owner get up. In an apartment on the other side of said door, the alarm clock went off the morning news filling the room with sound. A man groaned tosing from side to side in his bed not wishing to awake. Yet, between the meowing of the cat outside, and the anoying sound of his radio, he got out of bed with a resigned sigh.

Upon opening the door, a buff colored cat sat looking up at the man its green eyes wide. The cat then waltzed into the loft as if it owned the place. Upon the floor where the cat once sat, rested a news paper for the sun times. Yet this paper wasn't just any paper, but a very unique paper. The man picked it up and poored himself some coffee and the cat some milk.

Just like any other morning, the young man scanned the headlines searching for something that may catch his eye. He gasped when an article seemed to jump right out at him. "Girl drowns diving off a bridge after breaking several bones along the way." he read before running out the door reading the first paragraph to himself her sad distant face stairing right back at him from the picture printed on the paper.

"Gary what is going on?" a woman asked the man as he raced out of the bar that he lived above.

"No time Merissa." he called back to the woman who just sighed as if understanding. His footsteps seemed to echo in his ears as he raced the clock to find that young woman before she fell. Weather or not her fall was intentinual, he did not know, all he knew was, that no matter what he had to do this. Just as his legs would have given from the strain of running he saw a side view of the girl that was printed in color in the picture. Most of the times, though pictures printed in the paper were in black and white, but this time, for some reason they were not.

With a final burst of speed he raced over to the rail as the girl started to fall head first into the waters below. He slung his arms around her waist and pulled back with all of his might causing them both to fall. Gary landed first on his back with the girl pinned above him. She struggled to get free as tears spilled from her clinched eyes before Gary even had a chance to react.

Helping the woman on her feet, he paused regarding her tear-stained face for a moment. "are you ok?" he asked.

She stumbled back and forth on the balls of her feet as if she would fall again before she attempted to sprint across the busy bridge. Gary only had seconds to send them both sprolling to the ground for the second time that otherwise, she would have been road kill. "are you crazy?" he asked this time shocked that she would put herself in such a predicament.

"Don't you see, I want to die.." she sobbed as she fought to get free once more, but this time Gary didn't let go.

"Why?" Gary questioned trying to keep the girl talking and awake until help arrived. After all for the oddest reason if he let go she'd just find another way to kill herself the moment he turned his back, and he just couldn't do that. After a few minutes the girl seemed to realize Gary wouldn't let go so she responded to his question.

"So I can be with my parents, I have no purpous for life, I've paid my dues." she broke out into a fit of sobs. By this time she had created a small crowed of on lookers that started to eye Gary suspiciously for reasons he couldn't quite understand.

"Go on home, the show is over..." Gary stated as she fainted in his arms. By this time medics had arrived to take the now limp girl from Gary. "There is something wrong with that girl, she tried to put herself in front of a truck." Gary warned before leaving the scene hoping to avoid a conversation with the cops. After all he couldn't explain how he came to be on that bridge, and how he knew why or how the girl would have fallen, all he knew, was that no headlines were about her for now at least.

As he retreated back to the bar to prepare for the day, thoughts of the save replayed in his mind. :What had she ment by go home to her parents: he had thought racking his brain for an answer to the question as well as many more that cluttered his sleep racked brain. He knew the paper had something to do with his lack of sleep, and according to what he had read just on the long walk home, when he wasnt able to get a cab.

After a long hot shower and a freash change of clothes, he went back downstairs to tell Merissa about the save. "So how did it go?" she asked upon hearing his footsteps entering the small office.

He could see this question coming a mile away, but still nothing could prepare him for what was to come. "It looks like I'll be seeing her a lot." he commented, but before he could finish the statement, Merissa broke in with a comment of her own.

"What do you mean by that, don't you think its to soon to be dating someone you just met?" she asked.

"I won't be dating her, but he seems very susidal, and that means she'll end up in the headlines because as far as I can tell she's all alone.

"Yeah, but many people are alone." Merissa stated.

"and, some can't handle it. This girl from how she was acting, doesn't appear to be one of them." Gary remarked rubbing the spot where she had kicked him. "Now if you excuse me I'm going to lie down before my next few saves." he said as he made his way back to his loft leaving a very confused Merissa behind. But, before rest could claim him, he found himself out the door once again.

Another save had popped up and now Gary found himself on his way. Lucky for him it wasn't that strange girl, but rather someone else. Sighing he made the rescue with time to spare, and made his way to the hospital t o see the young lady.

He didn't know why, but for some reason he found drawn to her. Just like the paper, something that just couldn't be explained. Gary tried to tell this to Merissa, but all she had to say was something about falling for a preaty face. He sighed as he repidataly discrived the young woman, but the answer came up the same, she had already been released.

He sighed checking the paper again for any leads, and again, in big bold was a headline and her picture. :How am I going to reach you: he thought as he reaced to save her for the third time that day, but this time not from a suside atempt, but something much worse. He only hopped he would make it on time before any more damage could be done.

Yet as he soon would find out, the woman was already in a lot of trouble. A man had already long since beprived her of her clothing an d had wipped her repeatedly. She cried out in pain as not only her bindings hurt like all kinds of hell, but the wounds that now covered a grater part of her back. She shuttered as she felt her hip knee and ankle dislocate mountainously. :not again: she thought as pain racked her body. If the man had tied her legs down she didn't relize pain masking every other fuctution of her body from the waist down. "I've waited a long time for this ...Kayla..." an all to fimular voice spoke.

"Juan..." she cried tears streaming down her face at an alarming rate. "Please stop this!" she sobbed as her tear-stained face glanced up at him.

Gary had gotten himself lost, but Kayla's screams echoed far enough to where gary could hear them eaisly enough. He growled as he cicked in the door. It was just as he had feared, There she lie nearly passed out in pain while this man mercerslly pounded into her with as much force as he could muster while using verious sharp objects to make her scream.

Gary tackled the guy on an off moment when he didn't have her wrapped around him like human rope. By this time she had long since passed out from the pain. "I don't know who in the hell you are! But, I suggest you get away from that poor girl. Don't you think she has had enough!" Gary shouted trying to keep the creep away from her.

"Don't worry buddy but you'll get your turn, she'll go around real nice. For the right price..." the man hissed sliring his words.

"Your a sick man," Gary retorted as he managed to reach the girl just in time. Finding her clothing had been spaired He quickly and sloply dressed her and carried her out of there before the cops could arrive.

He knew this would be stelling of sorts, but he needed to get her help and get it fast. He had fought with himself about taking to the hospital, but then what would they say? Not only would the cops be all over him like flies for rape, but so would the hospital. He spotted a cell phone attached to the waste band of the girl and swore to her he'd pay her back later. "Merissa." Garry said in a hushed whisper when the line at the bar was picked up.

"How did the save go?" she asked.

"I need you to meet me up in the loft and help me with something. "That girl I rescued is in bad shape, and I don't think she wants to come to and see me cleaning her up if you know what I mean." Garry explained in hushed tones walking back to the bar while trying to balance the half out of it young woman he rescued, and walk while on the phone.

"Should i go home and get a change of clothes for her?" Merissa asked.

"I think I'll be home before that, I'll just pull out a change of clothes for you to use for her." Gary said hanging up.

Merissa nodded to herself as she replaced the phone on its hook before searching the bar for her cane.

The cane unbolted soundlessly and she used it in a touch tap motion to locat the stairs to Gary's loft. From what Gary had said over the phone, the young woman had been rapped and he found himself in a tight spot. True the right thing would have been to leave her in a hospital, but yet he also felt she had the right to chose for herself. So Merissa awaited Gary's return to his loft.

She didn't have to wait long when the sound of footsteps approaching the door reached her ears. Slowly she opened the door for the person on the other side already having a good idea of who it might be.. "Garry you alright, do you need help?" Merissa asked.

"I'm fine, I'm going to put her in my bedroom." Gary told merissa who fallowed him. "She will need some change of clothes, and some wounds tended too." he explained.

"Why did you need my help then?" Merissa had to wonder.

"Considering when I found her, a man was in the middle of raping her." Gary explained as he layed out the details for his friend.

Merissa nodded in understanding as she shuttered at the thought of someone doing something like that. She had known it to be true, and happened to women every day, but even still those facts were most disturbing. Gary left with instructions to call him if anything happened to her, and to not touch her clothes. The police surly would want a look at that as proof if anything of her rapist.

Not long after Merissa found herself alone with the strange woman, her breathing became raid and her body shook. The shaking caused the bad to rattle and for small items on the bedside table to get shaken up just a little bit. Upon hearing the noise, Gary, who had still been in the bar downstairs, came racing up to his loft nearly tripping over the steps in his haist. What he saw made his face turn ghost white at the sight of it. "Quick Merissa call 911..." Gary instructed as he begun to preform the early stages of CPR if they turned out to be needed.