Disclaimer: I do not own Josef, Mick or anyone else that you may recognize. Riley and all of the others that come out of my head are of course mine. No copy write infringement is intended

A/N: Ok, so I know that I have some major apologizing to do! I am sooooo very sorry that it has taken me this long to update! School is starting to slow down seeing as all I really have left are my exams. However as soon as I started to have any time to write I was hit with a very horribly timed case of writers block! Now that I am back, hopefully I will be able to update more often!! I am going to try really hard, but one thing that you can do to help push me along would be to leave me a review.

Chapter 13

It has been almost a week since I left the hospital. Mick and Beth had been absolutely wonderful. I have been at Mick's apartment this whole time and I constantly felt like I was in the way, but they both made me feel comfortable and safe. The first night had been horrible. I would dose in and out of sleep for most of the night. Any sound, no matter how small, would wake me and I would sit up in fear of being taken again. When I did sleep, I relived the beatings and the voice clips that I had been forced to take. Beth stayed with me the whole night, but it didn't help. I was completely terrified. However, as the week passed, the nights began to get better. The dreams haven't stopped but I am at least able to make it through most of the night asleep at this point.

Josef has been here every day. He comes over as soon as he gets up at night and stays at least long enough so see that I am able to get to sleep. I am so grateful for everything he has done. I don't know how I will ever be able to make it all up to him. He insists that I have nothing to make up for, but just the fact that he was there, looking for me, is something that I will have to repay him for. He insists that he should be making things up to me; he blames himself for Charlie taking me. I guess we are at an impasse for now. It will have to be worked out as time goes on. Conversation is still forced when I am with him, but it gets a little easier each time we are around each other. I hope that this will all work itself out as time goes on. I want nothing more than for my life to just go back to the way it was before I saw Josef feeding on that girl. But at the same time, even after having gone through so much, being around Josef and Mick, I feel completely at ease.

Beth and Mick had just left to work on a case. Mick had hired extra security to be here with me while they were both gone. I walked back into my room with a glass of water and curled up, ready to watch movies for the rest of the night. My phone rang beside me as I watched the previews. I picked it up, hit ignore, and went back to watching my movie. My parents had been calling me non stop since I had come home with Mick and Beth. They still blamed Josef and knew that Mick was a good friend of him. I hadn't spoken with either of my parents since yesterday morning when I had hung up on them after screaming at them for over an hour. We hadn't fought that bad in a long time. They refused to accept the fact that I wasn't mad at Josef or that I wasn't pressing charges against anyone for what had happened. My phone buzzed again letting me know that I had a voice mail.

I listened to the voice mail three times. I listened three times to my mother telling me that I needed to do something, that I needed to act. She just wouldn't let it go. I just wanted all of this to be over with and no one would let me move on. The tears started as the movie began. I hadn't even made it as far as the opening credits before I was curled up in a little ball, sobbing. I lay down on the bed and cried for what felt like hours.

Through the tears I heard the door open and someone walk into the room. I didn't even look up as someone sat down next to me and pulled me into their lap. After a few minutes of me continuing to sob into this stranger's chest, I realized that I knew the smell of this stranger's cologne. Josef. I started to cry even harder. It felt good to get all of the tears out, they had refused to come for the past week.

Josef wrapped his arms around me and held my head against his body. I slowly pulled my arms up and wrapped them around Josef's neck. I was surprised when I heard Josef begin to whisper calming nonsense speech to me. It had its desired effect and I could feel myself slowly calming down. My body was shutting down. Josef must have been able to tell that I was shutting down and ready to sleep because he lay me down on the bed and tucked me in. I smiled as I felt him tuck a lose piece of hair behind my ear. He stood there with his hand on my cheek. Eventually he pulled away and walked to the door. I looked over at him as he opened the door.

"Thank you Josef." I whispered to him before he shut the door. I knew that he had heard me and that was enough to allow myself to drift off to sleep.

I woke up the next morning as the sun shown through the curtains in my room. I sat up and took a deep breath. I sat there for what felt like an eternity. After last night, I didn't know what to expect from Josef, but I knew that somehow everything had to get better. Last night was a step forward and things would get easier, they had to. I walked over to the door and pulled on my sweat shirt as I walked out of the room.

I made my way into the kitchen and sat down next to Beth. She looked over at me and smiled while she pushed a cup of coffee towards me. I started to say something but Beth seemed to be faster this morning.

"Riley, Josef talked to us when we got back last night. He and Mick are in Mick's office right now. Are you okay?" I smiled. I should have known that Josef would have told them both all of what had happened.

"Yeah, I think I am. I really need to talk to Josef, before I do anything else today. Is it okay if I go up?"

"Yeah, I don't think they are doing anything that important."

"Thanks Beth. And I promise we will talk later. I just need to do this." I then walked down the hall and over to Mick's office. I knocked on the door and then let myself into the room. I smiled at both of the vampires that were standing in front of me. "Mick, I need to barrow Josef for a little while." Josef said good bye to Mick and we both walked back to my room. I walked over and sat down on my bed. Josef followed me over and stood before me. He reached down and took a hold of both of my hands.

"Riley, I think your time here with Mick and Beth is up. The two of them need to get back to their lives." I was shocked to say the least. Here, I was planning on thanking him for last night and he was kicking me out of someone else's house? I knew that my shock probably showed on my face, but I didn't care.

"I can't leave. I don't have anywhere to go, I can't go home to my apartment and I can't go and stay with my parents right now. Does Mick really want me to leave now? I mean, I've only been out of the hospital for a week. Where am I supposed to go?" I knew that I was babbling but I couldn't seem to shut myself up.

"Riley, calm down. I was thinking instead of you staying here that you could come home with me. I have plenty of extra rooms at my house and that way I wouldn't have to come over here to check on you all of the time." He looked down at me and smiled. I swear any frustration that I might have had towards him melted instantly. He just had that effect on me. I nodded, not trusting myself to form a coherent sentence. He pulled me up and kissed me lightly on the cheek and then left the room.

I stood there in complete shock.

A/N: Okay, so I know that was shorter than most of my chapters and I apologize for it, but I had to get something up to you now that I have managed to get rid of the writers block that has been plaguing me for the past three weeks! Be kind and review and I am going to try really hard to have another chapter up soon and it should be longer than this one!!