He waited by her bedside for her to wake, his eyes darkening with anger and a deep inner pain every time they lighted on a bruise or a scrape. There were too many of them to ignore if he wanted to.

God how he wished he could close his eyes and they would disappear, gone with the fragileness of winter’s first snow.

He lowered his head. How had this happened? How had a God he had believed in his whole life allowed this to happen to the woman who was his life? He remembered the vows he had taken in the bright sunshine. To love, honor, obey, and protect. He’d failed her in the worst way possible.

He ran a hand through his blonde hair, leaving the normally tame ends spiky and disturbed. He picked up her hand and held it in his, struck by the fragility of her that was so at odds with the strong person he knew her to be. She’d been through so much. David’s murder. Her memory loss. Her mother’s imprisonment and trial. And then the terrible realization that she had been responsible for her the death of her lover. God he hated using that word to describe that bastard. A man who would seduce a teenage girl to get back an old girlfriend was a monster. Plain and simple. He had deserved to die. But Laura had never deserved the guilt and pain his death had brought her.

Just like she didn’t deserve the pain she would have to endure now. He prayed that she had the strength to go through it. He hoped that if she didn’t have the strength on her own that she would let him help her through it. Let him heal her battered soul. Let him love her.

God how he loved her. More than he had thought possible. More than he had realized. These last few months, finishing law school and worrying about starting his law career had been difficult on both of them. The silence, once comfortable, had become strained, almost suffocating. They’d drifted a little apart, he caught up in his world of textbooks and case histories and she setting out to create a world for herself. For a little while he had almost forgotten how much he loved her.

He remembered now. And he would never forget again.

He picked up a tendril of her long blonde hair and gently touched its silkiness before gently letting it fall. He wanted to touch her, to feel the softness of her under his fingertips, but with so much bruising he wasn’t sure where to touch her or how to touch her in a way that didn’t hurt her.

Scott brushed off a lone tear that had fallen, determined not to give in to his own pain, this awful need in him to howl at the injustice of what had happened that night. She needed him. He would not fail her.

He would not fail them. He let his mind drift back to happier times. To a honeymoon spent in the sunshine, to days spent planning a life of happily ever after and nights spent learning to race the moon.

This small and sterile and haunted room seemed a lifetime removed from that time.

Her eyelids fluttered and Scott’s heart pounded as he tightened his hold on her hand and moved closer, his hazel eyes searching her blue ones for any sign of pain.

He flinches when he finds it, a dark emptiness that says more than words ever could.

“Laura? Babe?” He keeps his voice light, soothing, and gentle. “It’s Scott. You’re okay love. You’re safe. No one is ever going to hurt you again. I promise.”

A confused look filled her eyes. “Scott?”

“Yea. It’s me. I’m right here and I’m not leaving you. I’m not ever leaving you. Promise.”

Her eyelids close and Scott’s heart plummets when he sees a tear escaping the side. “I hurt.”

“I know. It’s okay.”

“Where?”

“You’re in the hospital. The police found you in the park and brought you here.”

A flash of recognition causes her to tremble. “The park. I ran. I was so afraid. So scared that he would follow.”

For the first time since he received the phone call, Scott lets himself feel his anger.

“Who Laura? Who hurt you?”

There was a pause as if Laura knew her next words would affect the rest of her life. She turns inward for a moment and sighs like a lost child. “Luke. Luke raped me. Luke Spencer raped me.”

The words hang in the air for a minute before Scott bites back his anger, reaches for his trembling wife, and gently offers what comfort he can. To Scott, feeling every ounce of his wife’s pain, his comfort is not enough. Not nearly enough. For Laura, feeling alone and frightened even within the safety of his arms, it is the beginning of the longest journey of her life.

Now

She waits by the fireplace for him to return, a long white envelope in her manicured fingertips. She watches the play of the flames and knows that with one second, one movement, one slip, she could throw it in the flames and pretend that she had never received it. Her hand shaking, the envelope hovers over the flames as she bites back temptation. She can’t do it. She removes the envelope from the fireplace. God help her. God help her family. God help her son. But she can’t do it. She can’t hide from the truth. She could burn this summons. But there would be another. And another.

She lowers the envelope to the tile by the fireplace. How often had she prayed that this day would never come?

Not enough apparently.

“Laura?” She hears her husband’s voice as he enters from the front door. She can feel his concern as he comes into the living room and sees her sitting by the fire in the dark. “Are you okay? Where are the kids?”

She doesn’t look away from the fire as she hears him drop his briefcase and come to stand beside her. Feels his breath on the back of her neck.

Her response is soft and he has to strain to here. “McKenzie is at Maxie’s for the night. Tanner is at practice.” A break in her voice. “I don’t know where Nick is.”

“Is that why you are upset? Is Nick in trouble?”

She shakes her head. How does she tell him what is about to happen? How can she look him in the eye and tell him that their life is about to shatter?

How can she not tell him?

She turns and finds herself staring into his eyes. The love that she sees in them makes her heart catch.

“Babe? What’s wrong?” He traces a tear falling from her eyes. “Love? You’re scaring me?” Scott can hear a heartbeat and he isn’t sure who it belongs to, him or her. “Are you okay?” He couldn’t live without her. He honestly couldn’t.

Silent and wordless, Laura hands Scott the registered letter.

Puzzled, Scott opens it up and his face goes pale as he reads what it says.

“He’s getting out Scott. He’s getting out and he wants our son.” Laura finally breaks as quiet sobs shudder through her.

“He won’t get our son.” Scott makes the vow to both of them. “I swear it. We’ll find a way to stop him.”

“I know. I know.” Laura fights for control even as her soul cries for her to breakdown. “But we have to tell him. We have to tell Nick the truth. We have to tell all of them the truth. How are we going to do it?”

“I don’t know Blue-eyes.” Scott whispers softly as he brushes her hair out of her face. “But we’ll do it like we do everything else, together.”

Laura nodded. “He’s going to hate us.”

“No he won’t. Nick knows we love him. He might be angry at first, but he’ll remember that .” Scott forces his voice to be more confident than he feels. “We’ll get through as a family.”

Laura can feel his strength through the cool linen of his suit. “You are my family Scott Baldwin. You and the children we share are everything to me.”

“I know.” He sets the letter aside and gathers his wife as close to him as he can. It isn’t enough. It’s never enough. “You’re my everything too. You have been since the moment I first looked into your eyes.”

He holds her in the circle of his arms as they both watch the fire gently die.