France was by far the best vacation ever.

The only thing I insisted we do was see the Mona Lisa. It was a nice painting and all but after about five minutes it became increasingly boring to just look at.

Rachel and Shawn were so nice, Isaac and I became very good friends with them. They taught us things in French and when it was time for us to leave they drove us to the airport and saw us off.

"Thank you again." I said to Isaac for about the millionth time as we took off.

"Your welcome again." He took our intertwined hands and kissed the back of mine.

I fell asleep and sooner than later he was waking me up saying we were landing.

Alex picked us up from the airport and had thousands of questions for us.

"Do you guys have fun? What did you do? Where did you stay? Did you actually plan this? How did you communicate? What did-"

"Alex calm down." I said once we were on the road.

"Alright well did you at least have fun?"

"Yes." We both said together.

Alex turned around to look at me while we were at a red light with a mischievous glint in his eye. "Are you still a virgin?"

"Alex!"

"What? Its a reasonable question!" My face was on fire and I saw Isaac face palm himself.

"A question that you don't have a right to ask!"

"Alright alright, but since it's already out there, are you?"

"Yes." I said through gritted teeth, he was doing this on purpose because he was grinning like a maniac.

"Well that's good."

"I can't stand you."

"Oh come on, you love me."

"Not in this moment."

"I'm hurt."

"Good."

"Well since you're being mean I'm going to talk to Isaac now." He did start talking to Isaac so I just sat back in my seat and tried to tune them out.

We pulled through the gate and as I was getting out of the car I was bombarded with people shorter than me.

"Abby!" Gracie jumped up to where I had to catch her in my arms or she would've fallen. "Did you have fun?"

"I did."

She came really close to me and whispered in my ear. "Does Isaac like you?" She said it in such awe that I couldn't help but laugh and look at Isaac as I answered her.

"I think he might." Isaac looked really confused as Gracie wiggled out of my arms and yelled cooties all the way into the house.

"Hey gorgeous." I heard from behind me.

"Hello Eli."

"I could take you places you only dream about baby."

"In your dreams." I walked away and saw Josey standing by Isaac.

"Hey there." I said while wrapping my arms around his neck.

"Hey, did you have a good time?"

"I did, he's pretty great." I said looking at Isaac.

"Well I'll leave you to him then." Josey winked at me as he walked away and I blushed.

"What did Gracie say?"

"Well we apparently have cooties."

"Oh, we do?"

"I guess so."

"Is cooties deadly?"

"What?"

"Is it deadly?"

"I don't know. Maybe."

"Well I'd catch a grenade for you baby."

"That was very cheesy." I said as he wrapped his arms around my waist.

"But it was amazing considering I made it up on the spot."

"You're such a goofball."

"I am." He pretended to flip his hair.

"Oh wow." I started walking away. "Never do that again."

"What you mean this?" He did it again as he was walking after me.

"Stoooppp." I drawled out as I started running around the side of the house. I heard Isaac running behind me and then his arms wrapped around me and lifted me into the air.

"Isaac!"

"Say I'm beautiful."

"You're beautiful!"

"You didn't sound very sincere." He cooed. I couldn't see where he was walking but it wasn't hard for me to guess.

"Isaac you're the most beautiful person I've ever seen on this earth." I said almost pleadingly.

"I think you're lying." He stopped walking. "I'll give you one more chance because this water looks really cold."

"Isaac you're so beautiful and I love you so much and you're my one and only and so incredibly beautiful!" I almost yelled the last part.

"Well as convincing as that was this is just too good to pass up."

"Isaac no!" He tossed me into the air but I grabbed his arm at the last minute so he tumbled into the freezing water with me.

"That was not very nice." He said to me.

"Neither was throwing me in the first place."

"Touché." He swam up next to me and kissed my nose. "You're very pretty when wet."

I looked at his dark hair that was glistening with water droplets and his perfectly chiseled face shining in the sunshine.

"So are you." He kissed me on the lips lightly and we were on the verge of making out in the pool when someone cleared their throat behind us.

Isaac and I broke apart to see Alex standing there holding my phone and two towels.

"You have a missed call." He deadpanned, then he put our stuff on the ground and walked away.

"I'm sorry about him." I told Issac

"It's completely fine." He helped me out of the pool and wrapped a towel around me. I bent down and picked up my phone, Danny had called me.

He didn't usually call me so it must be important. I called him back right away.

"Hello?" I said as someone picked up

"Abby?" Danny's voice answered

"Yeah, what's up?"

"We need to talk." He said as seriously as I had ever heard Danny.

"What's wrong?" Isaac turned around to look at me with a confused expression.

"He got out."

"Who did?"

"Todd."

"How he- he wasn't supposed to get out for years." I was really starting to freak out. Isaac wouldn't take his eyes off of me, I saw him mouth what's wrong but my focus was on Danny right now.

"He got let out on parol and for some reason no one told Ms. Nancy or Brittany." This is bad.

This is really, really bad.

"What happened?" My hands started visibly shaking and Isaac looked genuinely terrified while he looked between my hands and my face.

"Ms. Nancy was at work so Brittany was home alone and I guess he found out where they lived and broke in. Ms. Nancy found Brittany and called an ambulance, she's in the emergency room right now but no one is telling us anything. I figured you should know what was going on." He stopped talking and I'm pretty sure I stopped breathing. "Abby...?" He asked cautiously.

"How bad is it?" I asked so quietly I could barely hear myself.

"They said it's worse."

I dropped my phone on the ground as I felt my knees buckle and I sunk to the floor. I heard Danny calling my name frantically from the phone and Isaac was on the floor in front of me asking if I was okay but my mind was somewhere else.

I couldn't get those pictures out of my mind from last time.

And this was worse?

I made up my mind right then and there.

I held my finger up to Isaac to tell him to hold on and picked up my phone.

"Danny?" My voice was surprisingly steady due to how much I was freaking out.

"Abby?! Are you okay? I didn't mean to-" He was talking really fast.

"I'll call you back." I felt bad about not explaining myself but I had to get this going.

I hung up and looked at Isaac who was obviously both worried and confused.

"Where's Paul?"

"He's probably in his office, but Abby, what's going on?" I didn't answer him because I was already up and running into the house.

I ran into Chris on the way to Paul's office and fell flat on my butt.

"Abby what's-" I kept running down the hall and burst into Paul's office without even knocking.

"I need to be on the first flight to North Carolina." Paul's head shot up from looking at his computer screen.

"Woah, slow down. Take a seat and tell me what's going on."

"Something's happened and I need to go back." I said, still standing.

"Permanently?"

"No, just for awhile."

"What's happened?"

"My best friend is hurt and in the hospital and I need to be there. It's an emergency."

"Alright well let me see what flights are available." He typed on his computer for a couple minutes and then looked up at me. "There's a flight leaving tonight at six so go pack for at least a week. I'll call Alex and Chris and tell them to pack as well."

"They're coming with me?"

"Yes, I don't want you going alone."

"I'm going too." Isaac said from behind me.

"Alright that's fine, make sure you ask your parents though and tell them that I'll pay for everything."

"Thank you." I gave Paul a tight hug. "This means a lot."

"Of course my dear, be safe."

"I will." I left his office and Isaac gave me a kiss goodbye in the hallway.

"You're telling me what's going on when I get back."

"I promise." He left and I ran upstairs to pack. After a couple minutes there was a knock on the door and Alex came in.

"So we're going to North Carolina?"

"Yes." I said with my back to him, I was still a little cross with him for being snippy towards Isaac and I earlier.

"Care to tell me why?"

"No."

"I'm sorry about earlier okay? I just didn't expect to come around the corner to see you two, you know. I'm still not quite over you."

"Well I think we should keep trying to be friends, it seems to be working."

"I'm actually starting to like you more."

I sighed and turned around to face him. "Alex you do realize that I'm in love with Isaac right?"

"Of course I do, and I respect that, but it still doesn't change the fact that I'm in love with you."

"Alex."

"But it's fine, I understand." He walked out of my room with his head down and I felt my heart break. Alex deserved someone that would love him back, not someone like me who loves someone else.

I finished packing with my mind spinning, it was a quarter to five when we got into Kenny's car because he was driving us to the airport.

"You okay?" Chris nudged me and asked quietly.

"I don't know yet."

"Well we're here for you." He said, motioning to everyone else in the car.

"Thanks." I put my head on his shoulder and interlocked my hand with Isaac's.

~°~°~°~°~°~

We got to the plane just in time and as we were taking our seats I realized Alex and Chris' were quite a ways away from Isaac and I.

"So are you going to tell me what's wrong?"

"It's a long story."

"We have eleven hours."

"True." I took a deep breath and tried to begin in a good spot. "Brittany and I have been friends since we could even comprehend it, but, like me, her family is definitely far from perfect. Her dad, Todd, was a really nice guy at first, though overtime he developed a drinking problem that Ms. Nancy, Brittany's mom, didn't know about. One night he came home drunk and, well, they got into an argument. Todd ended up hitting Ms. Nancy but since she loved him so much, she let it go. She kicked him out of the house for a couple days and all was well.

"A couple months later though he came home drunk again and they had another argument. It pretty much ended with Ms. Nancy saying get out and come back when your sober.

"This obviously didn't settle very well with Todd and things got really heated. Brittany came home and saw her mom practically beaten to a pulp on the floor. She called the police and they took Ms. Nancy to the hospital, she ended up okay and made a full recovery. After a couple of weeks the police caught Todd and he was put in jail."

"So what happened now?"

"I guess he got let out and somehow found where Ms. Nancy and Brittany moved too. Brittany was home alone and-" My breath caught in my throat and Isaac put his arm around me.

"It'll be okay."

"You don't know that. Danny said it was worse. You didn't see Ms. Nancy in a hospital bed all bruised and red. You didn't see what happened. You didn't-" I was breathing really fast and I felt my heart rate picking up.

"Abby." Isaac held my wrists gently and put my hands close to his face. "I didn't mean to upset you, I can't imagine what you're going through, but not calming yourself and keeping a cool head isn't going to help Brittany, let alone anyone else. So calm down or nothing will get better."

I took a couple seconds to calm myself.

Come on Abby, you don't want to have a relapse. You were doing so good. Just breath...

"Thank you." I said to Isaac as we took off. "For everything."

"Anything for my girl." He kissed my temple as we snuggled in close to each other and I drifted off to sleep.

~°~°~°~°~°~

When we landed I was the first off the plane.

Isaac was the second considering I practically dragged him behind me.

We met up with Alex and Chris and all four of us walked together down to the pickup line.

"We have a problem." I said as we just stood there in the hot sun.

"We have no ride?" Chris answered

"Well that, and none of us can drive."

"Oh yeah, cause we're in America." Alex sighed and then turned to me. "Well, you know this country better than us." He handed me a piece of paper. "This is the hotel dad booked for us to stay at."

"What am I supposed to do?" I exclaimed

"I don't know."

"Wait here." I went back inside the airport and asked for a phone book. I called a taxi service that I've used before and trusted and asked them to pick us up as soon as possible. I made sure to save the number in my phone in case we needed a taxi again.

"All set." I said to the boys as I came back out.

"This place is crazy." Isaac said looking around.

"Well it is America." Alex snorted and I rolled my eyes, he did have a point though.

Once we got to the hotel we realized that there was two joined rooms. Isaac quickly claimed the one with only one bed in it and said that we'd make it work. Alex shot me a dirty look as he walked with Chris into the other bedroom.

"I'm going to the hospital, anyone coming with me?"

"Do they even know you're coming?"

"No, it's a surprise."

"We'll all go with you." Isaac said as he came out of the bathroom, shirtless might I add.

"Yeah just give us a couple of minutes." Chris added

Soon we were all back in a taxi and driving toward the hospital that I knew all too well.

"Where am I dropping you off?" The guy driving asked.

"By the emergency entrance."

"Is something wrong?"

"We're visiting."

"Oh, alright miss. Good luck." He added as we were getting out.

"Thank you." I paid and tipped him and then took a deep breath as we walked through the doors.

I went straight up to the lady at the front desk and said, "I'm looking for Brittany Rawley, I don't know if she's still in the emergency room but I know she was."

"She was moved to the children's ward."

"Is there a waiting room where her family and friends can wait?"

"Yes. Here, I'll give you the directions."

I took off down the hallway walking very fast when I finally came to the hallway before the waiting room. I stopped abruptly and Isaac about ran into me.

"You okay?"

"I have no clue."

"Well remember what I said."

"I know." I kissed his cheek and he interlocked our fingers and squeezed reassuringly.

I walked around the corner and someone gasped.

"What?" Danny turned around so fast and then he just stood there. "Abby...?"

"Danny!" I let go of Isaac and ran towards him. I jumped into his arms and he spun me around in circles laughing so loud I was sure we were going to get yelled at.

"What are you doing here?!"

"I came as soon as I could."

"You're crazy!"

"So what?" He started laughing again and then he finally looked behind me.

"Who's that?"

"Oh! This is-"

"Abby!" Ms. Nancy crushed me in a hug before I could get anything else out.

"Hi! How is she?"

"The doctor finally told us something a couple hours ago. She got out of surgery this morning and the doctor said she should make a full recovery."

"Really?!"

"Yes darling, the worst she has is a concussion and a few cracked ribs."

"When can we go see her?"

"Hopefully today."

I couldn't hold in how happy I was. I jumped into Danny's arms again and let a few happy tears fall from my eyes.

"It's okay." He rubbed my back soothingly. That's when I remembered that Isaac was standing right there.

"I'm okay." I wiped the tears from my eyes and then walked over to Isaac.

"Danny I'd like you to meet Isaac, Alex, and Chris."

"Nice to finally meet you guys in person." Danny held out his hand and they all shook it.

"It is, we've heard a lot about you." Isaac laughed nervously as I shot him a look.

"Isaac?! Abby this is your boyfriend?!" Ms. Nancy practically yelled.

"Yes." I blushed profusely as she gave him a very tight hug and then went on to Alex and Chris. "Oh, how's your father?"

"He's good." Chris laughed

"Excuse me, I'm looking for the family of Brittany Rawley?" A nurse said behind all of us.

"That's all of us." Ms. Nancy spoke up

"Well you are all able to visit her, but no more than two people at a time."

"Thank you." The nurse walked away and Ms. Nancy turned to Mrs. Gregory. "Maya, would you go in with me?"

"Of course Nancy." They walked down the hallway together and Danny turned to me.

"Would you go in with me?" I looked at Isaac and he shrugged at me.

"I'd like to meet her, but go with him."

"Thank you." I kissed his cheek and then walked with Danny. About half an hour later, Ms. Nancy and Mrs. Gregory came out of the room looking somber.

"It'll be tough." They hugged us both and then we walked in.

What I saw made immediate tears come to my eyes.