Opening her eyes, Bella groaned, drawing the attention of the nurse adjusting the IV in her arm.

"There you are, Bella. I was beginning to wonder if you were going to wake up." She gently touched Bella's arm. "I'll just call Dr. Gerandy. He'll be happy to know that you're awake." The older lady walked out of the room.

Bella sat up and looked around, realizing that she was in a hospital room. She sank back against her pillows and groaned. She was certain that Charlie had already been called. In fact he was probably sitting just out in the waiting room now.

Dr. Gerandy walked into the room. "Hello, Bella. Nice to see you awake. How do you feel?"

"My head hurts."

"That's to be expected. From what your gym teacher tells me you hit your head rather hard on the bleachers. At least it wasn't bleeding." He took a deep breath. "What were you thinking of that had you so distracted?"

"Nothing."

"Okay. If you don't want to tell me, maybe you'll tell your dad. We had to call him when you were brought in here." He sighed. "Maybe you'd be willing to tell me where all the bruises came from?"

The terror in her eyes spoke volumes to the doctor. She was shaking her head as he held up his hands. "Okay. I get the picture."

"I will tell you this much. Charlie didn't do that to me. It wasn't anyone here in town in fact."

Just then, Charlie walked into the room, saving Bella from having to tell the doctor anything more. "Bella! When the school called to say that you were on your way here, I panicked. What happened?"

"I hit my head on the bleachers."

"Apparently, she was distracted by something and one of the balls hit her in the face. It knocked her backwards and she was knocked out when her head hit the bleachers." The doctor provided a little more information. "Charlie, do you know about the bruises?"

"I do. But we don't talk about them, doctor. It doesn't help to talk about them." Charlie leaned down and kissed Bella's forehead after looking her square in the eye to make sure that she knew what he was doing. "Bella, I'm going to step out in the hallway and talk to the doctor for a moment. I'll be right back in."

She nodded. "Okay, Dad."

Charlie left the room and Bella heaved a sigh of relief. She didn't want to tell anyone about the rape. She knew that eventually she'd have to tell someone who didn't know about it and she really wasn't looking forward to it.

Pulling into the driveway at the house, Bella walked into the house and sat down on the couch. "No plans with Jake today?"

"Nope. We hadn't said anything."

"Well, he left a message on the answering machine asking where you were." Charlie smiled at his daughter. "Maybe you should call him."

Suddenly, there was a knock at the door. Charlie opened it and stepped off to one side as Jake came barreling into the house. "Bella, where have you been?"

"Right here. Did I forget about something we decided to do?"

"I was just worried about you. You've been to the house or had me come here ever since it happened." Then Jake got a look at her face where the ball hit her. "What happened?"

"I guess I got hit in the face with a ball during gym class. I fell backwards and hit my head on the bleachers. It's no big deal, Jake. You know how accident prone I am."

"Bella, if you could see your face the way I do right now, you'd understand why I'm reacting this way."

"Jake, I love the fact that you want to protect me but you can't always step in front of errant balls for me." She wrapped her arms around the neck in front of her and squeezed.

"I promised you something and I don't ever want you to forget it. I don't care what you need. I'm here for you." He buried his face in her hair and squeezed gently in return.

"I know, Jake. Thanks." She sat for a moment just enjoying the embrace. "Well, since you're here now, why not stay for dinner and then take some home to Billy?"

Jake sat down next to Bella for a moment and looked as if he were deep in thought. Bella's eyebrows shot up and she looked at her dad. He was fighting back the chuckles. She giggled.

"I guess I could stay for dinner. What's on the table?"

"Lasagna. I made way more than we could eat last night. Leftovers. That's what's on the menu for tonight."

He heaved a sigh. "I guess. If that's all you have to offer." Bella smacked his shoulder and laughed hard.

Jake chuckled as he watched his best friend laugh. 'That's what I needed to see. And I'm sure Charlie's glad to see it too.'

Later that night, Bella and Charlie wished Jake a good night as he left with another plate of lasagna for Billy. Jake grudgingly admitted that Bella deserved to add a year to her age because she really could cook.

Bella giggled as Jake gave her that. She knew that had hurt his ego to say but she appreciated the fact that he swallowed his pride and said it anyway.

Slowly, she climbed the stairs, not really wanting to go to bed, fearing the nightmares that would come.

She could feel the headache that the doctor had warned her about lurking behind her eyes. Thankfully, he had prescribed some serious painkillers for the pain. She took one after her shower and crawled into her bed.

Sleep claimed her. Nightmares couldn't invade that night.