Title: Damaged

Summary: Everyone is damaged, she explained, but not everyone is broken. Ashley never thought that going back to Baltimore with Kyla would bring her face-to-face with the one person who made her feel like she wasn't broken.

Disclaimer: I don't own SoN. What I do own is a computer and the amazing ability to not do what I am supposed to with my time.

AN: Not so excited about the last chapter? Yeah, me neither. I want you all to know that this chapter did not want to be written. It was a struggle, for reals. There was a fight; punches were thrown as well as the good china, I may never be the same again. I know where I want to go with this and it gets better, but I have to set things up before I can get to the fun stuff. So, bear with me, please.

"Are you quite done making a spectacle of yourself, Miss Carlin?" an unnecessarily tall woman with frizzy auburn hair manhandled into a bun appeared in the doorway behind Aiden. She swept a low glare around the hall that caused the unwanted audience to shuffle back into their classes and everyone else to feel a little more like idiots.

"Oh, you know I'll never be done making a spectacle of myself, Miss Langley," Spencer grinned, hugging Kyla to herself once more and apparently immune to the look she was receiving.

"I see," she cast her gaze around the group of teens before her eyes settled on the blonde once more, "I take it I've lost you for the rest of the period."

The blonde looked down at smaller girl next to her goofily, "There's a very good chance of that, Ma'am."

Miss Langley pursed her lips and held out a hand, "Well, let see if you've earned it."

There was a bit of shuffling as Spencer bent to pick up the notepad she had discarded readily moments before and Ashley couldn't help herself as she followed the motion. Her eyes stayed focused on the blonde's form until Aiden appeared next to her and sharply nudged her in the side, "You're staring."

"Am not," she rasped back, just as the teacher flipped though several pages.

Kyla watched apprehensively as a silent conversation happened between her best friend and former art teacher over the top of the notepad. Finally Miss Langley flipped the book shut and handed it back to Spencer with a small smile, "Final projects are due next Wednesday and I am expecting great things from you, Spencer."

"I know, Ma'am, thank you," she replied, taking the notepad.

She waved it off and leveled her look at Kyla, "I'm sorry to see that you've not kept up with you art, Miss Woods, but it was nice to see you again."

"You too, Miss Langley," the young girl blushed at the small admonishment, "and maybe I'll try and start up again."

"See that you do," the woman nodded finally and without another word swept back into her classroom, shutting the door behind her.

The four teens in the hall were silent for about a second before Spencer turned to fully face Kyla, "I can't believe you're here." She opened her arms and her brunette best friend just sort of sunk into them, burying herself in the blonde's warmth, "I can't believe how much I missed you."

To the side, Ashley and Aiden watched a little awed at the look of absolute relief on Kyla's face as she circled Spencer's thin waist. "But you're okay, right?" she tilted back to watch the blonde through her eyelashes, "You sounded kind of weird on the phone the last couple of times we talked and -"

"Kyla," she interrupted, flicking her eyes to where the other two stood and back, "I'm good." She grasped the smaller girl by the shoulders and looked her straight in the eyes, "I'm better than good, okay? I swear."

The brunette bobbed her head once but raised her own hands to trace along the inside of Spencer's wrists, causing the girl to frown, "Okay. I just worry, you know?"

Spencer nodded and Ashley wondered if anyone else caught the sad shadow it cast, "I know." She took a deep breath and squeezed Kyla's shoulders once more, "We good?"

"Better than good," Kyla grinned.

"Good," she mimicked, tipping her head to touch her forehead to the shorter girl's, "Cause your friends are starting to get antsy."

There was some more lamenting on Kyla's part about what a terrible hostess she was, but eventually every one was introduced and Kyla happily announced that they were kidnapping Spencer for the rest of the day. It wasn't until they were once again piled in the Jeep, with Spencer in the back with Ashley, and on the road that the younger brunette actually thought about it, "You aren't going to get in trouble for skipping your last class are you?"

The blonde shrugged as she handed her friend a cd from the collection, "Maybe with one or two people, but no one that can cause any permanent damage."

The driver slipped the disc into the player, abruptly cutting off Justin Timberlake and causing a relieved sigh to echo from the three other occupants of the car. When the voice of Hayley Williams joined the instrumental Kyla frowned at Spencer through the rearview mirror, "I don't understand you like this and hate Kelly."

But the blonde was watching Ashley's closed eyes and contented smile when she responded, "I don't hate Kelly, baby girl, I went to her concert with you, didn't I?"

Ash's eyes snapped open and she flushed when she caught blue eyes staring at her. In the front Kyla snickered, "You only went because they were floor tickets and you think she's hot."

It was Spencer's turn to blush and Ashley felt an intrigued smile curve her lips upward. "Cute," she defended, "I said Kelly is cute, hot is more like Liz Phair."

"Liz Phair?" Aiden asked incredulously, turning in his seat to frown at the girl.

Spencer crossed her arms and sunk into her seat petulantly. The brunette next to her raised her eyebrows in a question and Kyla grinned in the mirror, "She's got this thing for chicks that play guitar."

There was a second of silence that had Spencer wondering how they would react to Kyla outing her but Aiden just shrugged and turned back in her seat, "That's respectable, I guess."

Ashley grinned mentally and, having found an opening, she flashed a flirtatious smile and informed the blonde, "I play guitar, you know."

The girls in the back seat settled into a light conversation about music and artists while Aiden watched how Kyla frowned and kept a cautious eye on the way they laughed together from the front seat. They were in the middle of arguing the greatest artists of the 80s (Ashley staunchly supporting Tom Petty while Spencer argued the merits of U2, Bruce Springsteen and The Police) when the blonde's phone rang.

C-A-L-L-I-N-G now, I'm calling you,
Calling you now

"Hey, Annie," Spencer frowned as she answered, giving Kyla the 'one minute' signal when she shot her a confused look. "I will not. What's going on?" She rolled her eyes once and mouthed something to the brunette driver that caused her to roll her eyes as well, "Yeah, I figured something like that would happen. Alright, thanks for the heads up." She chuckled somewhat humorlessly at the reply. "I'll call you later when things are settled. Are you going to be at the house later? Okay, see you then."

When she flipped the phone shut Kyla resisted the urge to turn in her seat, "Who's Annie?"

"Marissa," she replied absently, flicking her cell onto silent.

"Why Annie?" she asked, looking over her shoulder to insure that she could take the off ramp safely.

Spencer looked a bit sheepish, like she knew that whatever she said wasn't going to be received well, "She's small, looks good in red, and has a sugar daddy and no parents."

"Spencer!" Kyla's jaw dropped and even Aiden and Ashley looked at her a little weirdly.

"What?" the blonde looked indignant, "She called me Mary Lennox first." She received three blank looks in return and rolled her eyes heavenward, "Je-sus, read a frickin' book. She's the main character from The Secret Garden, you heathens."

Kyla frowned at that and without taking her eyes off the road reached back and asked, "What was she warning you about?"

"Hmm," Spencer slipped her phone into Kyla's outstretched hand, "Guess."

"Is she going to be a problem?" she handed Aiden the phone and pointed to the glove compartment. He glanced back at Spencer, who nodded once and with a shrug he placed the device in the glove box.

"Who knows," she shrugged and dug through Kyla's purse, which had been discarded earlier to the floor of the back seat, "It's like that Buckcherry song, she's a -"

"Crazy Bitch?" Kyla laughed and Spencer grinned in response. She finally pulled Kyla's phone from her purse, set it to silent and handed that to Aiden as well. "Sorry," she apologized to her two guests, "there are certain people in Spencer's life who are not fond of me and are likely to be very pissed off that she kind of dropped everything to hang out today."

"But it doesn't matter," the blonde leant forward and settled her hands on Kyla's shoulders, "Because I'm exactly where I want to be." She and her friend shared a smile through the mirror just as Kyla pulled into a half full parking lot.

They all exited the car and Kyla welcomed them to Inner Harbor, an apparent must for all first time visitors of Baltimore. She explained that it was kind of touristy, but still had a lot of cool stuff to do. They walked around for a while, checking out shops and the tourist attractions, getting ice cream from a vendor in a park, grabbing dinner near the water and generally acting like kids for a few hours. There was no rush or heavy topics of conversation and Ashley found herself just appreciating the calm way the two East Coast girls approached spending time together.

It also gave her plenty of time to observe her younger half-sister. Back in LA, Kyla had been overly cautious and a sensitive, like she was afraid to be too much around her newly found sibling. It was like a watered down version of who the younger girl really was and it annoyed Ashley because she wasn't fragile and didn't need to be treated as such. But here, on her coast, Kyla was in her element: loud, boisterous and infectiously happy. And Spencer was an added bonus, because, let's face it, the girl was hot. There was just something weird about the relationship between the two girls.

It wasn't hard for the eldest daughter of Raife Davies to see how close the two other girls were. It showed in almost every motion, look and word and Ashley was beginning to wonder just how close the two were. She also began to feel a small niggling of jealousy at the back of her consciousness, although if it was from the fact that Kyla had someone so devoted to her or the fact that it was this specific person that was so devoted, Ashley couldn't say.

Spencer was one of those people that seemed prepared to do anything to make the people around her happy, she was pretty well versed in mediating between Kyla and everyone else, making the whole experience as painless as possible, and she was unfailingly polite, as if every negative thing thrown at her just rolled off. The California girl was also delighted to find that the blonde was a natural flirt and took every opportunity presented to her (with all three of her companions), taking special interest in Ashley and drawing her into some of the most outrageous innuendo wars that had her feeling lighter than she had in a long time.

But then there was the way that she would sometimes catch the blonde just sort of watching her, with her head titled slightly to one side and an almost lost look on her face. There was just something about her eyes that made Ashley feel like she both belonged to the world around her and was, at the same time, just outside of it.

Close to sunset, Kyla and Spencer led the two visitors to the "Top of the World", which was the observation deck of the Baltimore World Trade Center. When Aiden and Spencer began talking about sports, Kyla huffed and drew Ashley to one side and began pointing out some on the sites that were visible from the deck.

"So what's going on between you two?" the blonde asked when she was sure they would be overheard by the brunettes.

"What?" Aiden asked, eyes widening at the girl's tone and abrupt topic change. "Nothing," he told her, glancing at the siblings and inching further from where they stood. Spencer gave him a look that said she didn't believe him and he shook his head resolutely, "I'm serious. We're just friends. I mean, at one time I thought there was something, but now I know. We're just friends." The blonde gave him an unconvinced look, but seemed prepared to let it drop when he rushed to add, "Besides Ash is gay."

Spencer chuckled then and the boy was beginning to wonder if all girls were this prone to mood swings or if was just the ones he knew. "That I could definitely tell," she patted him on the arm, "What I meant, and maybe I should have been clearer, was what's going on between you and Kyla."

"Oh!" he flushed and couldn't stop himself from looking at them once more. He sighed, "Answer's still the same I guess: nothing."

"Really?" she raised an eyebrow and followed his line of sight, "That's weird."

"Why?" he gushed excitedly, "Did she say something about me?" But then he jerked back suddenly, waving his hands in front of himself, "Wait, don't answer that." Spencer's jaw snapped shut and he offered an apologetic grin, "It doesn't matter, Ash would kill me for even thinking it."

"Okay," she shrugged, "Suit yourself." She was more than willing to change the subject once more because she had already gotten what she needed.

Across the way, Ashley used the lull in her and Kyla's conversation to ask about something that had been bothering her since the car ride there, "Why did you and Spencer leave your phones in the car?"

Kyla blinked, like she hadn't been expecting the action to be question, and then laughed a little, "It's kind of a habit now, actually. Like, a year ago Spencer had this girlfriend, Amy I think, that would flip out and call a hundred times if Spencer was out with just me, so we started leaving them in the car to avoid that whole mess. They lasted less than a month, but it was a good way to ensure that we would get some quality best friend time in, so we just, kind of, kept doing it."

Ashley nodded, but couldn't quite understand cutting herself off like that for any reason. There were few people that she would drop everything for to pick up a call from, but her phone was like a lifeline and a constant. But then, maybe there was no one in the world more important to Kyla and Spencer than each other so the phone was unnecessary. She wondered if Kyla's mom knew that they left their phones in the car and that she wouldn't be able to get a hold of them until they were on the way home.

And that thought lead to another, "But won't Spencer's parent freak when they can't get a hold of her. No one knew we were coming early."

The younger girl shot her a weird look, half confused, half pitying and entirely sad. She glanced over Ashley's shoulder where Aiden was waving his hands and Spencer was looking confused and she sighed, "Have you ever actually read The Secret Garden?"

Ashley blinked at the non-sequential question, "What?"

"The Secret Garden," Kyla repeated, "Spencer mentioned earlier that 'Ris had called her Mary Lennox, who was the main character."

"Okay. So?"

"So," Kyla rubbed at the back of her neck, an action she had apparently picked up from Aiden, "The thing about 'Ris is that she's very particular about the things she calls people, she likes to be specific and descriptive. It's why she reacted that way when Val called me DQ, Drama Queen," she explained at her sister's blank look.

"What does this have to do with leaving you phones in the car?" Ashley was beginning to her lost and it showed in her voice.

"It has to do with the fact that Spencer's parents aren't going to freak," she looked past Ashley once more and her entire face softened noticeably, "Mary Lennox is actually a really good description of Spencer for a lot of reasons, but most notably because, well," she sighed heavily once more, "because neither have parents."

Ashley felt like the world tilted once more to the left and she wavered a little in her stance, "You're saying that-"

"I'm saying that Spencer's an orphan, her parents died in a car wreck like ten years ago."

Don't kill me!