Sam was sitting behind Phoebe in the bus and just wished that she could sit besides her and talk to her. She felt pity for this little girl and could not imagine how she must feel at this moment. But of course she knew that Phoebe would not let her come with her at all and would bitch at her.

She knew that Phoebe was really good at this, so she just listened to Phoebe's crying. She knew that Phoebe must be in a lot of pain due to all her bruises. God, how she wished she would have come a bit earlier to really help her and defend her against those big bullies.

It was weird; she really had started not liking Phoebe but now all she could see was a little girl trying to protect herself from the world out there and unfortunately failing. Sam knew that she would probably get to know more about Phoebe the next hours and she really wanted to know who Macy was and why they were driving so long in the bus and especially to where.

Some hours later Phoebe walked or more hobbled out of the bus and carefully Sam followed her. They were in a region Sam had never been before, it looked like a slum and dirt was everywhere.

Phoebe was looking around all the time and wore a baseball cap. It was like she was trying to hide herself and looking for any danger.

Finally they went to a corner that did not look quite safe and then into a small apartment building where Phoebe carefully knocked on the door. She did not knock two times like one would do normally but seven times and then two times again after a little pause. An older woman opened the door. She was not very thin and her face showed many wrinkles. But those wrinkles did not only seem to come from her age but also from worrying a lot.

Her hair was back in a bun and when she looked down at Phoebe's wet face, she took off her baseball cap and smiled, "If this isn't my famous pumpkin.", the woman hugged Phoebe and pulled her inside immediately.

Phoebe flinched in pain "Owwww…".

"Who did beat the shit out of you this time kiddo? You really have to start shutting up.", Phoebe rolled her eyes and hobbled into the room.

Sam could not just walk after her but waited outside to think of a plan. Unfortunately she did not know what she should do, so she just sat down on the floor. Should she call Brooke and Julian? She could not just knock on the door and say "Surprise", right?

xxxxxxxx

Inside Phoebe greeted everyone.

"Hey Phoebs.", a teenager gave her a high five. There were some other women or more like girls from every age range in one of the rooms talking and laughing. The room looked comfy but you could tell that the people living there were not the richest.

"So you're back. How come lil cousin?", a sixteen year old boy went through Phoebe's hair and smiled. Oh, how she had missed his smile, "You want a shot? Or still too prude to drink?"

"Ben. Leave her alone." Phoebe rolled her eyes and did not take it. She knew that he would not have given the shot to her; he had always been a little overprotective.

"Still too prude you idiot."

He was kind of a big brother to her and she had missed him a lot in the last time.

Phoebe hobbled to the couch and sat down with a painful face. Nothing had really changed she thought and looked around the small apartment. There were still the same pictures of her and them on the wall, with her dad, her uncle, her aunt, Ben and Rebecca and some other family members.

The same smell was in the air and they all looked almost like she had not been gone at all. Suddenly they heard a knock and Macy looked at a girl in the other room who could not be older than sixteen and told her to come to the door. The girl nodded and went to the door like she was used to this scenario happening all the time.

Phoebe remembered the times when she was little and tried to understand why those girls always went away with those men. At first she had been jealous because she must not go with any man and she had imagined that these men would maybe take them to an amusement park or buy them cool clothes or anything special but when she got older she understood the whole business.

Two big men, dressed in black and with sunglasses, were standing at the door and smiling at all the girls.

"Holy shit?", one of the men went inside and took off his sunglass.

He just stared at her for a while. Phoebe was not sure whether he was happy or mad at her and she looked a bit in fear up at him and ducked her head.

"Puta madre.", he whispered and squeezed her cheeks and looked at Macy, "Is this…Is this our little pumpkin?", he asked Macy who slapped him softly on the head.

"Now don't scare the kid again and take her into your arms.", Macy answered and gave the other man a beer.

"No one could scare my pumpkin, right?", he pinched her nose and Phoebe smiled happily at him but with a sadness that always appeared in her little eyes.

"Right.", she answered proudly and he took her up into his arms with all his big muscles and kissed her cheek over and over again.

"My pumpkin.", he danced through the room with her and showed Phoebe to everyone, "Look at this Ben, isn't she even prettier than before.", Phoebe rolled her eyes and protested.

"Owwww…", she cried and he let go of her immediately and looked down at her.

"Who hurt you baby?"

"Nah. Some stupid kids at school.", Phoebe tried to be brave and to fake a smile.

"Still got good grades?", he squeezed her cheek and Phoebe rolled her eyes again.

"I think I stop going to school.", she sat down in a chair again.

"No, you won't. You are the brainy in our family and the only one who will go to college. I forbid you to end it now. Still the best in class?"

Phoebe hated it when her uncle questioned her about everything, "Yeah. Maybe."

"What do you mean with maybe? I want you to try real hard pumpkin. Do you understand me? Still skipping classes?"

Phoebe could tell that this theme was very important to him but she was very annoyed of his questions, "Yeah, yeah. I am a freshman and will graduate in like two and a half years with fourteen."

Her uncle looked proud at her aunt,"Macy. She will graduate with fourteen.", he said proudly and Macy laughed at his passion.

"Yeah. I heard that Jim."

Suddenly the other man was standing in the room as well and smiled down at Phoebe. Phoebe had always hated those looks and she had gotten many of them in the past., "What's with her? Can I have her?"

Ben and Phoebe's uncle immediately went in front of Phoebe and said, "No".

"Why?"

"Cause she's Bill Ferguson's daughter and my niece."

The other man immediately took a step backwards and whispered, "Oh."

Phoebe rolled her eyes and went to Macy while the other girl went with the man outside.

Her uncle went after her immediately and sat down on the couch with her.

"So, you'll graduate with fourteen. That's young. That's young. Are those big kids nice to you?", he took Phoebe on his lap and she gladly laid her head back.

"Well, uncle Jim. Like you said. No one can get me down.", she laughed but tried not to remember how Zoey had hit the shit out of her.

"So you study a lot right, to keep your grades up?", sometimes her uncle really annoyed her. He was asking all those questions all the time. Although he was a really big man, tattoos on his arms and many muscles, Phoebe felt safe in his arms right now.

"Nah. Not really. It's not that hard. I don't really have to study.", Phoebe revealed without being proud of herself or thinking of it as anything special. Sometimes she hated being intelligent and she just wished to be like everybody else. To be true, she hated being three years younger than her classmates and she hated to get the teachers' attention because of it. It was like having a sign on her face telling everyone to look at her.

"That's my niece. That's my niece. So you could skip even more classes?", Jim asked proudly and Phoebe nodded and rolled her eyes. "Probably but I won't."

"Why?"

"Oh uncle Jim. Stop asking me all those questions. I don't want to graduate with thirteen. It's embarrassing."

"Embarrassing? I don't want such words coming out of your mouth pumpkin. You do not embarrass your family. You finish school and then you do great. You are born to do great."

Phoebe burst out into laughing and squeezed her uncle's cheek, "Yeah. Yeah. No pressure here, right?", she looked back at him and he started to tickle her but she flinched in pain.

"Oh, those kids really did hit ya? I thought you were living at a safe place now…mountain hill?", Jim asked concerned and looked down at his niece.

"Mountain hill?", she burst out into laughing, "Not any more…but…", her aunt interrupted her.

"Phoebe. Come with me. I want to look at your bruises.", Macy took Phoebe's hand and pulled her off of her husband's lap. But before Phoebe could protest Jim took her other hand.

"Did anyone see you?"

Phoebe shook her head and then looked at her aunt, "Oh c'mon aunt Macy. I don't want that cream on my back again. That hurt every time." But Macy was a woman who did not let a little girl talk back at her and pulled Phoebe into the next room and pulled up her shirt.

"Owwww…", Phoebe complained and Macy just laughed and kept her attention to the bruises.

"You don't cry when someone is kicking the shit out of you but you do when you get cream on your back? Same old Phoebe."

Phoebe protested, "Well, this cream huuuuurts.", Phoebe tried to get away but Macy held her strong by her arm without mercy. Suddenly Macy took Phoebe's face in her hands and looked sadly at her niece.

"You cannot stay with us pumpkin.", she whispered and Phoebe nodded sadly.

"I know…but…", Phoebe whispered back.

"You are still Bill Ferguson's girl and I want you at a safe place. I want you to grow up normally and with opportunities in life."

Phoebe hated to be called "Bill Ferguson's girl" but then nodded, "But…um…maybe I could just enter the business as well? The other girls make money with it. You know…I could…"

Macy did not intend to hit her so hard but slapped Phoebe right across the face, so that Pheobe fell on the bed and held her cheek in shock. It was not the first time that her aunt had hit her but Phoebe had not seen that coming.

"Over my dead body. You deserve better. Don't you dare have those thoughts. Do you understand me Phoebe?"

Phoebe looked up at her aunt and nodded with tears in her eyes while holding her cheek.

"I promised my brother that no one would touch you. Ever. I will keep that promise. I failed once. But I won't fail with you."

Phoebe looked up at her aunt and hugged her tight, "But I really wanna stay with you. I miss you. I really, really do…"

xxxxxx

Finally both of them went outside again and her cousin Ben jumped on the sofa and pulled Phoebe along with him,"So tell me. How is my favorite cousin?", he smoked a cigarette and looked down at her. Phoebe hated it when he was smoking into her face.

"Well, apart of my bruises all over my body I am fine. Just figuring out where to live next."

"Yeah. Would love to have you with us but…well you know."

"Your dad surely had too many enemies.", Jim sat down on the couch as well and laid his gun on the table. Phoebe was used seeing guns and took it into her hand for a moment.

"You really have to start growing. Rebecca would be two heads taller than you now.", Phoebe laughed. Yes, Rebecca had been the taller one. Always.

Suddenly they heard a loud knock and one of her uncle's men came into the living room and had his hands around a girl's throat.

"This chick was spying on us.", he threw her hard on the floor. Sam looked feared from one to another and did not understand anything that happened.

"You can go.", uncle Jim said to him and the man nodded and went outside. Jim looked down at Sam and then spoke in a harsh tone.

"Stand up bitch.". Phoebe rolled her eyes when she saw Sam. She knew that her uncle was capable of hitting the shit out of people, even girls, and hobbled towards them.

What was wrong with this girl? Couldn't she just leave her alone? Of course she did not like Sam but she would not get her hurt.

"Who are you?", Sam was shivering and did not understand the situation she was in, "Talk.", when Jim was about to hit Sam, Phoebe went in between immediately and stopped his arm, which ended in getting slapped herself.

"Owwwwww….", Phoebe held her cheek in pain and rubbed it, unfortunately her uncle had not used his whole strength, "This is Sam. She lives with my sister in Tree Hill.", she looked up at her big uncle who immediately went from an evil look to a nice one and gave Sam a hand to stand up again.

"Oh. Sorry kiddo. Did not mean to scare you like this.", Sam nodded and stood a bit unsure in front of everyone while Phoebe sat down on the couch again and looked furiously at her with a red cheek. She could not understand that she had not realized that Sam had followed her. That had never happened in her life.

"Sit down kiddo.", Macy said and gave her a beer.

Phoebe rolled her eyes but took a beer as well this time. She could not believe that Sam was sitting in her uncle's apartment right now.

"Sorry again. I did not know you're a friend of our pumpkin.", Jim apologized and Sam showed a soft smile.

"She's not a friend.", Phoebe said back immediately and all of them looked confused at her.

"I thought she is living with you and your new sister and this Julian guy?"

"She is. But not with me. I don't live there any more."

Jim immediately stood up in fury, "Do they treat you bad?"

"No, the don't."

"Then why did you run away?"

"Because I don't like her.", Phoebe pointed at Sam but knew that this was not the only reason. Of course she had run away because of Sam but there were many other reasons that made her escape Tree Hill.

Sam looked from one to another and did not know what to say. Phoebe then took the gun from the table and pointed it at Sam playfully, "Boom. Maybe I should shoot you?", she joked but immediately her uncle went forward and grabbed her arm roughly and pulled her to him.

"It was just a joke. It was just a joke!", Phoebe defended herself and threw her arms in front of her face but her uncle took her over his lap merciless and hit her very hard on the bottom in front of everyone.

"Stoooooop.", Phoebe screamed and tried to get free but her uncle had a strong grip and she could just bite her lip with every hit to avoid crying. He did not hold back his strength and it hurt like hell. Moreover it was embarrassing to be hit like that in front of everyone.

Sam was shocked by it and did not move at all while the big man hit Phoebe that hard and she knew that this must be hurting, especially with all those other bruises on her small body.

Finally he let go of her and Phoebe stood up in front of him with crossed arms. She looked him mad into the eyes, "It didn't hurt.", and sat down besides her aunt again.

"You don't joke with that. You know that best Phoebe.", Jim screamed at his niece. He hated it when Phoebe made such jokes.

"I…would not have shot her. Jeeez.", Phoebe complained and tried to suppress her tears but it was not easy because her bottom hit like hell and she just hid her face behind her aunt a little.

"I know, but you know best what can happen when you play with guns."

Phoebe rolled her eyes and looked at Sam again, "Why are you even here bitch?", she asked her while her hands were crossed in front of her chest and her eyes were wet.

Sam was shocked. She had never imagined that Phoebe had lived in such an environment and she did not know whether she could answer. She did not feel really safe.

On the one hand they were caring. On the other hand hitting was obviously normal to them and if they hit their own niece, what would they do to strangers?