She wasn't entirely sure where she was heading at first, until her mom's house came into view and she walked in. The television was playing loudly from the living room, so Aria headed towards the sound and found Danny on the sofa with a beer in his hand.

"Aria," he said, frowning as he looked at her and standing up, "What's wrong?"

"Don't touch me," Aria stated as Danny reached out, "What have you got Heath involved with?"

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Do you think I'm stupid?" Aria snapped, "The one afternoon that you spend with Heath and he comes home hurt, then he gets stabbed... tell me what you've got him caught up in?"

"It's just business," Danny answered, "Nobody was supposed to get hurt, especially not Heath..."

"You just can't help yourself, can you?" came Brax's voice from behind Aria, causing her to jump slightly and turn to look at him, "Go get in the car, Ari... I'll be there in a minute."

Without a word, Aria made her way outside and climbed into the passenger seat. It wasn't long before Brax joined her, starting the engine and taking her home. Unsure of what to say, she retreated to her room as soon as they walked through the door and tried to focus on some of the homework she had. After an hour of staring at the empty page in front of her, she threw the pen down in frustration and looked up as Brax knocked on the door.

"Hey," she mumbled quietly.

"How're you doing, kiddo?" Brax asked as he took a seat on the edge of the bed, earning a shrug from Aria and nodding in understanding, "Sid said that things would have been a lot worse for Heath if you hadn't of put pressure on the wound and got help as quickly as you did..."

"I did one thing right at least."

"Ari, mom was out of line for everything that she said at the hospital and I put her straight," Brax told her, "We both know that none of this was your fault, this was all on Danny and his inability to leave things alone."

"Will Heath be okay?" Aria asked, glancing at her hands and fighting back the tears that threatened to fall as the harsh reality of the situation hit her.

"I can't answer that, Aria, but Heath's strong, and I know that he will fight," Brax answered, pulling her into his arms and kissing her head.

X-x-X

Aria avoided the hospital over the next week, not wanting to see Heath's lifeless body or cause any more trouble with Cheryl. She had almost finished helping with a delivery, when Brax called her from the bar and she peered out to see what he wanted.

"I've got two more boxes to sort out."

"Don't worry about that, I'll get one of the others to finish it up," Brax stated as he cleared away the paperwork he'd been looking over, "Kyle just text, Heath's awake... do you want to come to the hospital with me to see him?"

"Yeah."

It was half an hour before they arrived at the hospital and Aria climbed out, hesitantly following Brax to Heath's room. Bianca was there when they entered and Cheryl was just leaving to get some coffee, sending Aria a glare as she barged past her.

"We can't stay long, Sid's orders, but we just wanted to stop by and make sure that you're doing okay," Brax said.

"Still a little sore, but Sid says I'm going to be fine," Heath informed them, glancing over at Aria and smiling, "Bianca tells me that I have you to thank for that... my hero, huh?"

With a shrug in response, Aria swallowed past the lump that had formed in her throat and tried to push away the memories of that day. Sometimes, when her nightmares got bad, she could still feel his blood on her hands and no amount of scrubbing would get it off.

They had only been there for fifteen minutes, when Sid walked in and Brax decided that they should let Heath rest. Aria headed down to the beach once they got home, sitting down on the sand and staring out over the water as she allowed her mind to wander.

Author's Notes: Hey Guys! It's been ages since I've been on here, but suddenly got the inspiration to write and update something!