Another month passed and Gwen was still missing. Everyone thought she was dead. Bailey had nothing but the will to keep looking and nightmares that kept her awake. Seth and Officer Wilson stopped searching, or rather were forced to when Sheriff Lambert found out. He claimed it wasn't safe, but personally Bailey thought he felt even more useless when his Deputy was doing what he should've been doing.

When she felt her feet dragging and needed a boost she would come to the Atherton's house and just sit in Gwen's room. Ever since that incident over a month ago the Atherton's wouldn't let her in, so she had to go when Damien was home. He seemed to be the only one willing to talk to her, but the last time she'd visited she'd had a conversation with Damien, one that kept replaying over and over again.

She hadn't answered him, and ignored everything else he'd said, but she knew it wasn't fair. So when she'd gone into Gwen's room that last time, Bailey made sure to nab Gwen's journal so she wouldn't have to go back.

As she'd left that day Damien told her that they couldn't take it anymore. Bailey remembered the defeated look on his face with perfect clarity. She grew up a little in that moment when she realized that Damien wasn't as perfect as she'd thought.

She spat it at Damien with such a fierce belief in it that she almost wanted to call her father. Almost.

Sitting in Officer Davis's squad car, in the back this time, carting her off to school like a criminal, she let the words she'd said to Damien replay in her mind. She'd been too harsh. They'd lost a family member they'd known for seventeen years. Bailey simply lost the best friend she'd ever had. She should apologize for not being more sympathetic, but she couldn't bring herself to do it because she wouldn't mean it. Maybe she should be more understanding, but they'd given up and that was the bottom line.

"Officer Davis, I don't feel well. I think I'm starting my period," Bailey informed him, hoping that would be enough of a fib to get him to take her home.

He flinched and settled a disgusted glare on her through the review mirror. "That's gross and such an outright lie that I almost feel I should bring you to class handcuffed. It's the principal of the matter."

She rolled her eyes and clutched the strap of her book bag to her shoulder. Bailey should've known he wouldn't fall for it at this point... it seemed to only work on Officer Wilson now. Parking the police car in front of the school, Davis leapt out and opened her door.

"You aren't really going to take me to class are you?" Bailey asked startled, watching while he clutched her forearm and pulled her forward.

"Gale's paying us money to escort you to and from school."

Bailey snorted and jerked her arm out of his grip so she could adjust her uniform. "You mean she's dipping into the cheating scumbags' lotto wins? Wins that should actually be mine, but the way. I told him to get that ticket."

Davis sighed. "Don't be so hard on your old man. It's been almost a year hasn't it? I hear he's a nice guy. He made a mistake. No one's perfect you know, especially parents. When's the last time you talked to him, Bailey?"

"Is that your business, Officer Davis?"

He gave a short laugh. "Don't make me handcuff you girl. Oh look, it's Seth and Damien," he stated, while trying to contain his enthusiasm, "they'll make sure they get your mean ass to class." He grabbed at her arm again and yanked her over towards the boys standing next to the front entrance of the school. She yelped as he practically tossed her into them.

"Oomph," she grunted as she knocked into Damien's chest. "Hey, you jerk!" she cried out, pushing off Damien's chest to balance herself.

Davis turned towards her and gave a snarky smirk. "Haven't you ever heard it isn't a good idea to insult local law enforcement?"

"Law enforcement my foot!" she growled.

His expression softened. "Try and have a good day kiddo."

She just didn't have the strength to scowl at him anymore after that. Licking her bottom lip she turned away and side stepped Damien to open the door. She didn't have time to get very far before someone else was yanking her arm, turning her towards them.

"What am I a rag doll? Maybe you can tell me, Damien, why people have the need to yank at my arm!"

Damien didn't bother to answer her. "Bailey, stop going to the police station."

It wasn't what she'd expected.

"Wes say's if you keep obstructing justice he'll have to arrest you again. I heard you could get sent to Juvie. In fact, he's ordered your mother to keep you with her at all times, or don't you remember? Now they're escorting you to school?"

Seth gave a hesitant chuckle and tugged at the buckle on his book bag strap. "It's hard to imagine sweet, shy Bailey as a juvenile delinquent."

Seth had been handling the situation the best in Bailey's opinion. Never outright telling her she was wrong. He encouraged her and one time had come up to her to tell Bailey how much he admired her. If Grayson hadn't been walking up to her that time she'd almost thought that Seth had been about to ask her out. Bad timing, but sweet all the same.

She didn't have the heart to tell him that sweet, shy Bailey was gone and never coming back. Of course, that didn't mean she wanted to be hauled off to a juvenile detention facility either.

Bailey frowned, recalling that she'd been arrested for trespassing just half a month ago, and obstruction shortly after. Sheriff Lambert had spoken with the judge on her behalf and the sentence got reduced down to probation in which her mother was with her at all times, at least when she wasn't in school. School time was when she'd been able to get away.

She nodded, schooling any expressions from her face. "Thank you for your time."

Bailey's disappointment in him was something she went out of her way to make clear. It had been since the day she'd spoken to him about not giving up on family. He'd been treating her differently ever since. Bailey couldn't really describe it. It was like he knew he'd done something wrong and he was trying to fix it. He's a lot grabbier too, something the old Bailey would've liked.

"Bailey, don't do that," Damien whispered, his green eyes flashing with regret. "You're so different now. This is the real you. I know that. You were never that timid little mouse that started school here a year ago. You weren't even that friendly, if somewhat shy, girl Gwen helped you into being. You were always a fighter and I-I didn't see it before."

He stopped talking, his eyes searching Bailey's. His fingers tightened around her bicep and pulled her closer to him, pulling her out of the way of the oncoming traffic into school.

"A fighter, yeah," Damien said with a nod, "Much more of a fighter than Gwen and maybe that's why you guys floated to each other on that first day. I mean, you said it was soul mates, but in my opinion, you can only have one of those." He paused again, his eyes searching hers like he was looking for something.

What he was looking for she didn't know, but her patience were wearing thin.

"You know I saw it. Like a moth to a flame you two were. Only, and I don't think I realized this until lately, were the flame, not Gwen. I-I always thought it was Gwen, but she knew even then that it was you. Gwen knew. You know she..." he gave a sad laugh, "she was so taken with you on that first day that I questioned her heterosexuality? She said she didn't know what it was, but she felt that she needed you. That you were going to somehow save her from something."

Up until that point he'd just been rambling to her, but Bailey latched on to that last sentence. Maybe she could reform him with this. "This is it then Damien. is what I save her from, but I need you—" she paused and blinked.

"I-I do. I need you," she said, but quickly rolled her eyes and let out a snort to cover up her moment of weakness. "I mean I need your help because I feel like I'm drowning and I know that this is what I save Gwen from, but nobody believes me. Nobody wants to help. So help me. Help me save Gwen."

Damien shook his head and gave a helpless shrug. His cheeks were pink from either the cold outside or something Bailey didn't want to consider. "No, you already saved her."

"W-what do you mean?"

Damien took in a deep, quivering breath. "Let's go inside and I'll tell you."

He never let go of her arm as he ushered her through the front door of the school. They didn't go far, a few lockers down away from the group of kids blocking the front door. Bailey felt her heart thump as she noticed the way Damien leaned towards her before he started talking again.

"No one knows this but me, my parents, and Gwen's doctor." His breath whispered against her earlobe and she shuddered from the moist heat. She unconsciously tilted her head towards his lips to hear him better. "Before you moved to Haven, Gwen tried to kill herself."

"I'm sorry. What did you say?" Bailey shook her head, trying to clear the words from her mind.

"You know she and Oliver had a thing right?" Damien paused and glanced around to be sure no one was listening. Adjusting his bag on his shoulder, he continued.

Bailey nodded.

"Well, it was more than a 'thing'. Whatever it was, it got real intense real fast and something happened. They broke up. She never talked about it. I still don't know what happened and she hid it well. If I didn't live with her I never would've known there was something. A few months after the break-up I found her in the bathroom. Blood was all over the floor... I barely got to her in time. Then you came with your grape juice and clumsiness and the transformation was instant. She latched onto you and just like that she was the new better Gwen. I'd gotten my sister back and then some. I didn't feel the need to question it. So you see, you already saved her."

Bailey wouldn't let the tears that were threatening to fall slip out. She especially wouldn't tell him that it was exactly how she'd felt when she'd seen Gwen. Gwen had saved Bailey just as much as Bailey had saved Gwen that day.

"You're too strong," he mumbled after another minute passed. It was such a switch in topic Bailey felt like she had whiplash.

"Excuse me?"

Damien leaned away, his fingers finally unlatching from her upper arm and sliding down. "You're expectations are too high and when those you love can't meet them yours fall flat. I that I disappointed you. It's making me physically ill and that was only a few weeks ago. I can't possibly imagine what you're father's going through."

"You know what?" Bailey snapped, letting the anger explode. She knew it wouldn't be long before that was thrown in her face. "Why is everyone so quick to make me try and forgive him?"

Damien's mouth dropped open and his shoulders lifted in an exaggerated shrug. "Why are you so quick to condemn him? Wasn't it you yelling at me that you don't give up on family? Are you a hypocrite?"

Bailey shook her head, her eyes widening as she focused her gaze on him. She was going to use her feelings for him to make a point.

"I was in love with you, Damien," she started.

He blinked at her words, looking startled. "Um, aren't you with Grayson though?"

She nodded. "I did it to make you jealous, you can ask Grayson, it was his idea."

"Oh, well..." He paused and ran a hand through his black hair. "I just don't feel that way about you, Bailey," he said looking sheepish and apologetic.

"Have you ever cheated on someone, Damien?"

"Whoa, stop changing the subject so much. No, I haven't."

"But you think it's okay to forgive someone that cheated on his wife? To forgive him when his actions uprooted his children's lives?"

He growled and pushed her back in place when she tried to walk away. "Whoa, no, hey... I didn't say that."

"I'm glad I realized the type of person you are." Bailey sneered, and tried to step around him again.

He blocked her path. "That's what I'm talking about. Right there!" he shouted over the bell.

Bailey looked up startled as the echoed ringing filled her ears. They were still in the hallway, talking like no one had been listening, but now people were hustling around them, pushing, shoving to get past them to class.

"We should get to class. I can't afford to miss anymore."

"No, forget class. We are going to finish this conversation," he said, his face flushed red with anger.

"Enough!" Bailey cried out. "I get it, my standards are too high. I expect too much out of the people I used to love. I'm only black and white. There's no gray with me. I get it."

His shoulders slouched forward. "What can I do?" he asked helplessly, pushing himself forward, stopping her once again with a hand pulling her back towards him.

"Trade places with Gwen," Bailey snapped and jerked her arm away, but when he went to grab for her again she pushed him. She pushed him so hard, in fact, that he lost his footing and his head bounced off the metal lock of the locker behind him.

He clutched the back of his head as he slid down the tan, now dented, locker. Looking up at her she could see the wetness glistening in his eyes. Trying to ignore the sharp pain of regret and worry, she hardened her gaze and looked down at him like he was nothing.

"Bailey, I'm bleeding." He pulled his hand away from his head and blinked at it with surprise. She watched the color drain from his face.

Bailey forgot how much he disliked blood.

"Don't be such a girl, Damien. It's just a little blood."

"I'm not feeling so hot," he mumbled.

Bailey's eyes widened and she shook her head. "Oh no you're not! You are not going to faint! Damien-"

When he blacked out, Bailey felt that hardening sheet of ice that had been encasing her heart, shatter.

"Bailey, this has got to stop!" was the first thing her mother said to her when she came to pick her up at the hospital. "He has a concussion, Bailey. How could you do this? After what they've been through already..."

"didn't do it. The locker did and he fainted because of the blood," she mumbled, feeling the guilt drowning her as she bit her lip and leaned her head against the cold window.

Cold windows always seemed to ground her in situations like this, but it didn't take away what Bailey wanted now. She wanted to see Damien. She hadn't meant to be so cruel, she really hadn't. She was just so angry... about everything. She could see that she was losing herself. That she was becoming this cruel person who didn't care about anyone but finding Gwen.

"I'm at my wits end, Bailey. The school therapist couldn't get through to you, arresting you couldn't either, and apparently escorting you to school didn't even come close," Gale paused in her rant and darted a glance over to her daughter. "Amanda's coming home."

Bailey cleared her throat before she spoke. "Amanda? There isn't a vacation coming up is there? Can she afford to take off from school?"

"Not really, but she is. Her baby sister is becoming a juvenile delinquent, failing out of school completely and nothing has helped. You spend most of your time with Mattie and running around town, knocking on people's doors. It's stupid and it's dangerous and if we can't get through to you, I know Amanda will."

Bailey stopped listening the minute her mother confirmed Amanda was coming. Leaning into the door as her mother drove out of the hospital parking lot, she folded her fist against her mouth, contemplating her next move. Bailey could calm down with Amanda coming, make it like she was finally giving in so they would get off her back.

Amanda could help her.

Amanda could find Gwen.

Amanda could do anything.

"Do you need anything?" Gale's voice sliced through Bailey's thoughts.

She glanced up, shaking her head clear. "What?"

"I have to run into the grocery store for some milk. Would you like something? Better yet, get out and come in there with me. You can pick out a card for the Atherton's after giving Damien a concussion."

"Maybe I'll get him a fruit basket too," Bailey replied sarcastically.

The sarcasm was lost on Gale, who nodded vehemently. "That's a good idea."

It was in the grocery store, right in front of the orange display that it happened. The tiny images flashing in her mind she'd been able to deal with because it didn't happen often. The nightmares happened at night and a few sleeping pills would knock those out, no problem. Her nightmares were no longer something that happened at night. The tiny images morphed into a lengthy movie of a nightmare and she couldn't stop it. It kept going, and going. She was having a vision. A vision of Sam, in dirty torn white shorts and a wife beater, running out of the woods, running for her life towards Bailey, barreling towards her. The image of the bloody, dirt-covered girl coming towards her was so vivid that it knocked her on her ass, right into the display of oranges.

Gale watched in horror as a stray orange rolled into her daughter's convulsing side.