I'm really glad you guys like my story, and that you don't let all the evilness scare you away... (But don't worry, it'll be better soon... as in, what the heck, you know what I mean :P I think)

And here you go... a new chapter.. ENJOY!!


Chapter 22 - The End Of The Summer

"So, excited about school starting next week?" Abby shrugged her shoulders, not letting go of Luka's hand. He didn't sound too ecstatic about it himself, but who could blame him.

"I guess." To be honest she wasn't really sure. Somehow she was really, really exited. Not only did she kind of like school, but going back would also mean less beatings, less time for her to be with Richard and more with Luka. But at that the same time she feared it. She'd have to be stuck with a bunch of people who hated her, the possibility of people discovering her secrets were much bigger, and it would be much harder to ignore Luka when she needed to.

She'd been pretty good at avoiding Luka this past month since he came home. The fact that he still didn't know where she lived, and that she didn't have a cell phone, made it pretty impossible for him to contact her, and luckily he had been pretty busy with work as well.

"Maybe we'll be lucky and get all our classes together." She rolled her eyes but couldn't help smiling. "Oh yeah, that's right. I forgot about little miss math genius over there having trigonometry." She punched his shoulder, trying to look mad, but not succeeding.

"And for your information, it's trigonometry and calculus. I'm waiting with drivers ed till next year." Luka stopped and looked surprised at her. He knew she liked math, but he'd never expected her to pretty much finish off math before junior year.

"I didn't know that. I guess it's pretty cool though." Feeling shy she looked down, placing some loose hair behind her ear. "So that leaves what? 4 possible classes together?"

"I guess but," She looked up at him, biting her lip. "Can we not talk about school? Please."

"Yeah, sure." He nodded, somehow scared of how she acted. She'd been so distant ever since he came home. Even though she still seemed like she liked being around him, and they had a lot of fun, it was like she was scared of him, scared of opening up. It was like she had to retain herself from breaking down any second, like she was made out of ice and would break into a million little pieces if he touched her or came too close.

"So, have you saved any lives at work lately?" He let out a little chuckle, causing Abby to smile.

"Oh yeah. All the time. They're talking about making me chief of surgery." She started laughing, amazed of how bad he was at being sarcastic. "Naah, not really. Except the kids in the paediatric department really likes me, and I ran down to the ER with blood from the blood bank the other day when they were busy with some gun shot victims." Abby crossed her arms across her chest and looked at him with a fake, proud smile.

"My hero." She grabbed his hand and started walking again. "Anyways, I have to work the next couple of days. Want to meet up sometime during the weekend?" Luka nodded and put a piece of hair, that the wind had messed up, back behind Abby's ear.

"Sure. Saturday, noon, our normal spot?" She nodded and slowed down as they reached Luka's house.

"You know Abby, you can come in. it's not like you haven't seen it or haven't met my family before." Letting go of his hand, she shrugged as she looked down.

"I know." She bit her lip, hating all those awkward moments that were getting more and more common. "I just think I really need to get home." It wasn't that she didn't want to join him, she kind of did, but his mom scared her. She was really nice and Abby really liked her, but the fact that she was a psychiatrist, trained to recognize people like herself, scared her like hell. "Just say hi from me."

"Okay, if you insist." Abby nodded as she looked back up at him, giving him a weak smile. He put his hand on her shoulder and gave her a small kiss before pulling away.

"Well, I'll see you Saturday." She nodded as he started walking down the path towards the house. She let out a sigh of relief when she was sure he was gone. She was always scared that he was going to ask her some kind of question she couldn't get out of or accidentally notice one of her bruises or scars.


Abby and Luka walked out of the school building with their new schedules.

"That sucks! We only have two classes together next year." Abby just shrugged her shoulders as she tried shielding her eyes from the bright, baking sun. She wasn't sure whether it was a good or bad thing, but to be honest she had bigger things to worry about.

"Well two's better than none I guess." Luka stopped walking abruptly and spun Abby around by grabbing her shoulder. It hurt her like hell, but she fought as hard as she could not to show it.

Luka was looking at her with a very bad, fake, shocked face. "What is that supposed to mean? Here I thought you were as crazy about me as I am about you!" She tried, she really tried, but she couldn't help but smile.

"You're such a dork, Luka." She playfully pushed him away from her and started walking down the stairs, soon followed by Luka. "But just to clear everything up, I am crazy about you!" Looking over her shoulder she sent him a teasing look, before hurrying the rest of the way down the stairs. However, she barely got halfway across the grass lawn before she felt his arms around her stomach, lifting her up and twirling her around. It might hurt, but she chose to ignore that, enjoying having a little fun for the first time in ages. When he finally let go of her, she didn't even get to catch her breath before he turned her and started kissing her. At first she was kind of surprised, but she was quickly the one who made it deeper.

This made Luka really happy. Not only because he liked it, but because it proved that Abby did still want to be with him. Feeling the need to breathe, he slowly pulled back.

"We're in public." Abby just rolled her eyes, resting her hands on his shoulders.

"Oh please! Like that has ever bothered you before." She gave him a seducing smile, and getting her hint, he started kissing her again.

After a while Abby pulled back and looked down, her cheeks blushing. "This is really nice, but ehm..." Biting her lip she looked up at Luka, who was waiting for her to continue. "I kind of have to go." He let out a breath, putting a strand of hair behind her ear.

"Why doesn't that surprise me?" Abby's head snapped up. Taking a step away from him, she gave him a disappointed, half offended look, kind of like he had just slapped her. "I'm sorry, Abby, I didn't mean it like that. It's just, I wish you didn't always have to leave, that you didn't keep so many secrets from me. It's like we haven't spent any time together this whole summer." Softening up she looked back down.

"I know. Trust me, it's not that I wanna leave," She looked back up again, or well, as good as she could with the sun getting in her eyes. "But I have to." Luka sighed and nodded, grabbing her hand.

"Okay. But at least walk me to the 'L'?" Giving him a small smile she nodded.

"Sure, why not."


Getting up from the table, Abby put her plate into the sink, quickly cleaning it under the running water. She put it back into the cabinet and threw her backpack over her shoulder, turning around to leave the kitchen.

"Where do you think you're going?" Biting her lip she took a deep breath through her nose.

"I'm going to school." Even though she wasn't talking very loud, her voice still sounded powerful and determined.

"To school?" She started fiddling with the bottom of her shirt, carefully nodding. "That doesn't start till next week, does it?" Abby closed her eyes. He hated when he was wrong, and well, he was wrong about this.

"It starts the 20th. That's today." When she opened her eyes he was starring at her with his arms crossed in front of his chest, signalling that he didn't know whether or not to believe her. "Look, I'm telling you the truth, I promise. Eric doesn't start till next week, but we start today." Still starring at her with that cold stare he was so famous for, he nodded. One nod, but it was still nodding.

"Okay. I choose to believe you this time, after all, you know better than to lie to me, don't you?" She bit her lip and nodded, just wanting to get out of there. "Good. Now go! We wouldn't want you to be late." She slightly nodded as she started walking towards the door, but stopped when he tightly grabbed her upper arm. "Now don't do anything stupid!" He was whispering, or well, hissing, into her ear and the feeling of his breath against her skin gave her goose bumps.

"I won't." A few seconds went by before Richard let go of her. When he didn't say anything she figured she was allowed to leave. So taking the chance she started walking out of the apartment, happy that he let her.