Disclaimer: I own nothing. Everything belongs to the Seven Network.
Note: This was written for a challenge that needed an AU couple. Enjoy

Second Chance

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Memories of his laughter chimed like bells through my ears, as the tears streamed down my face. My cheeks were pink from laughter, from crying, from just living. But I still managed a smile… a smile that I knew he saw. That he caught with his own crystal blue eyes, and, overwhelmed with a love so strong, with envy so deep, with a hate so true, I realised that it wouldn't be long before I joined him. Because that's how it had come to be.

One could not live without the other.

That's just how it was.

My frail body shuddered under the stress, under the heartache, and I felt myself fall to the ground amid gasps, amid tears. But the smile remained. As memories of our time together washed over me, I realised that together we'd been more than content with our life, with the ups and downs, the good and bad. Together, we'd survived.

I'd never believed it possible, all those years ago, when I first caught sight of the lonely boy crying in the hallway. I'd hidden between the lockers, as my heart yearned to comfort this boy, alone against a world of evils, whose fitful tears I wanted to dry with my hands.

As I'd tried to become more comfortable, leaning back into the lockers, my feet made the ground beneath me lurch and groan, and I knew instantly that his eyes had fallen on my hiding space.

"Who's there?" He asked, his voice full of fear and terror. I breathed in and out slowly before coming out of my hideaway, my face burning red, looking towards the ground.

"Why are you here?" He yelled at me abruptly, his voice angry. My own eyes snapped to his as he glared down at me. "What did you see?" His angered voice cried out.

"No…noth…nothing." I mumbled, as fear overwhelmed my being. I cowered against a locker, salty tears forming in my eyes, and I wrapped my arms around my body, protecting myself from him.

His eyes flashed momentarily to mine and, sensing my fear, his body relaxed and he walked gently over to me.

"Um… okay… hey?" He asked, his unsure smile hinting at the grin that was hidden between the layers of pain and hurt, of anger and fear. He continued to approach me, apprehensive of my still scared appearance. I tried to relax a little, tried to pretend as if he didn't shake me to the core.

"Sorry." He said finally, when he stood about a metre away, his body slumping down against another locker. "I didn't mean to… I'm not always…" He stuttered through his words, and my eyes locked with his own. His hands twitched with frustration, and his eyes swept around the room as if he were afraid that someone would catch us… as if he were always afraid that someone would catch him.

I looked away from him; afraid of what else I would find if I looked any deeper. I'd never met anyone like him. So unsure, so vulnerable… so alone. No one was supposed to be alone.

"I'm just, sorry, okay?" He roared finally, hitting the locker and storming off down the hallway.

I watched his retreating form, and couldn't help but feel this sudden sense of loss, of need… of something I'd never felt before.

"Hey!" I yelled after him finally. He stopped, but didn't turn around. "It's okay." I said, smiling a little as he looked over his shoulder and flashed me a small, shy grin.

I'd leant against the cool locker, watching him as he faded away into the distance, wondering if I were ever to see him again. I'd held onto that grin, because I knew hidden beneath it was a smile waiting to come out… waiting to be given a reason… or a person, to be shown to.

It was his smile that had won me in the end. With those pearly whites he'd flashed me that grin, and my heart had leapt to the front of my chest, my knees had buckled, my whole body weakened by his simple presence.

One day I'd pretended to be hurt, just so I could feel his strong arms around me as he scooped me up and carried me to the nurse's office, where he'd waited patiently for my diagnosis. Sprained ankle - will need to keep off it for some days. He'd helped me home that day. Carried my bag, along with his own, and held his strong arm around my tiny waist as I'd hobbled home, too nervous to say a word.

But he'd been content with silence. He'd simply kept looking up and giving me smile after smile. Had his arm not been supporting me, I felt for sure that I'd have collapsed once more. He made me feel things I never imagined I could feel… hope… love… something I never believed myself capable of feeling. But as we walked on, I felt the pit of my stomach sink deeper and deeper… the feelings refusing to go away.

He'd let me down gently as we reached the back porch, and I'd smiled gratefully up at him, attempting to overcome the sudden bout of shyness that had taken control of my body. As soon as my eyes had locked with his, he'd leant down and gently connected his lips against my own, and I shuddered as the sweetest sensations ran all over my body. His hands had danced along my naked neck, pulling my head gently towards his as he deepened the heavenly kiss.

When he'd pulled away finally, my hands had flown to his neck and stopped him from moving. I stared intently into his eyes and was shocked by what I saw. Hidden behind the lust and ache he felt, there was something more… anger, contempt, and hatred. Hidden deep within his mind were the troubles that a 17-year-old boy should not have known. Stroking his face, I leant forward and kissed him once more, hoping that this small gesture of affection would be enough for the time being to frighten away the horrors of his past.

But they'd come back to haunt us. We were older then, wiser, more mature, and we'd been together for years, through the love and tears, we'd survived.

Because that's how we were.

But when it all happened, I wasn't sure if we were going to survive. His hands had reached for me when he'd arrived home from work. His lips feeling out my own as he'd pushed us back onto the couch amid giggles and laughter. This had all been ordinary, but in his eyes a storm was brewing. A storm of something uncontrollable. The monster within was howling for release.

"What's wrong?" I asked him sternly, pulling away from his grip and sitting backwards. "Nothing…" He'd replied, as if I were joking, and crawled towards me once more.

"Don't lie." I pushed against him, standing up from the lounge, moving a little away. "Tell me what's wrong."

"Nothings wrong." He said, his tone telling me otherwise. He pushed his hand through his hair and sighed loudly.

"Tell me, please, what's wrong?" I'd begged with him, trying to lock my eyes with his. But they'd remained downcast, until I finally gave up and turned away. But his hands were too quick for me, and before I knew it I was pinned down underneath him, his arms gripping my own so tightly I began to feel my skin bruise.

"You want to know what's wrong?" He snarled at me, his hands holding my arms tighter and tighter as I yelped in pain. "What is fucking right? That's the question you should be asking. Want to know what's wrong?" He screamed at me, as I nodded numbly, unable to formulate any kind of response. Pushing himself off me, he ripped open his shirt to reveal two burn holes on his side. I'd seem them before, but when I'd asked about them he'd brushed it off, and told me some story about accidentally burning himself when he was a child.

"Do you know what its like to be held down by your own father as he does this to you? Do you know what it's like to be told that you're the mistake of the family, the black sheep, the child that can never do anything right? Do you know what its like to scream out in pain as the searing continues, but to know deep down that they'll never come? Do you know what its like to hate your own flesh and blood?" He screamed at me before storming out, leaving me there, scared, alone, crying in a flood of tears.

He'd come to me later that night, and crawled into bed next to me as a child would, after angering their parents. He pressed gentle kisses into my back as he woke me from my fitful slumber, and wrapped his strong arms around my form, pulling me to him as he'd done so many times before.

He whispered to me that night. The tales and horrors of his childhood, with his angry father and terrified mother. He told me stories of how he would pretend to be somewhere else while the pain kept him awake at night. He told me of his dreams of leaving one day, leaving that life and finding someone to begin a new life with. And then he kissed my hair gently, and whispered that I was that someone that he'd dreamed of. I was the person he was starting afresh with.

I'd cried for him that night, for the lost years of youth that could never be replaced, and I'd promised him that I would never let him be afraid again. I'd promised him that together we would walk the road on the journey we were meant to take. Together we would make it. And that night, I bestowed upon him the same hope he had once given me, on a bright sunny day all those years ago, when I had been but a school girl with a crush.

We'd become so much more.

And so we built our own life, free from horrors, from night terrors, from scars and from pain. We'd raised a family, we'd found joy and happiness watching our tiny children grow, watching them learn from their mistakes. Helping them become strong in their own right. Helping them in ways we had never been helped.

Then, one rainy November night, our fairy tale was shattered to pieces. Our life broken.

He had died.

They stood fussing around me. My friends, my family, but all I really wanted was him. All I really wanted was the man I had grown to love, grown to hate, grown to need more than anything else in the world. All I wanted was our memories, and our dreams. And if I could keep them, I could be strong. Standing up, pushing them away from me, I walked to the front of the church, my eyes still blurry from the tears I had shed.

"We lived our lives together. We lived through the good and the bad, and we made each day work, because that was how we were. Some never believed it possible, for you to marry a high school sweet heart… but I did. And every second of every day there isn't a time when I won't think back on my years with you and love you even more. You always said I was the calm to your storm, from that very first moment we met, alone in a deserted hallway. You said that with one glance, one look in my eyes you knew that you'd never be the same again. What I never told you…" I said gently, "was that you were the storm to my calm." I added, the tears running down my gaunt face.

"I was still Martha Mackenzie when I met Kane Phillips…" I cried as the audience hushed, and the sweet sounds of I Hope You Dance filled the church. "And it only took was one day for him to sweep me off my feet. On one warm sunny day at the beginning of spring, when he dared to smile at me…"

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Time is a real and constant motion always rolling us along.
Tell me who wants to look back on their youth and wonder where those years have gone?