***** A/N ------------ means time has passed ******

As she sat in her room, tears streaming down her face, she again considered the pills in the cabinet. It would be so easy, her mind assured her, it would stop every hurtful event. She sighed and sniffled. She cringed as the door to her room crashed open and splintered a bit, sending little bits of wooden needles to coat her hardwood floor. She looked fearfully to her drunken mother, as she sputtered out an incoherent command. The girl meekly asked her mother to repeat herself and was awarded with a vodka bottle being thrown in her direction. She ducked and it shattered against the wall.
"I s-said I'll be back later. Stupid b-b****." She muttered as she went back to the front room, to retrieve more alcohol no doubt.
"My name is Rosemary." The girl whispered after hearing the front door slam open and shut again, followed by her mother's shouts to her boozy friend to get her more vodka as she climbed in his car. Rose quickly cleaned the bottle and wood before running out of the house and fighting back tears.
"Hello Rose." A sweet voice said. Rose immediately froze and whirled to look to him. Her neighbor Alec waved to her. She forced a smile and waved back. Alec saw the blood drops on her hand from where she'd cut them on the broken glass.
"Rose you're hands are bleeding! Here let me help you." He told her as he approached her. Rose fought the urge to run and allowed herself to be taken into Alec's house. She breathed a small sigh of relief with her best friend- her only friend. He knew some of what the fifteen year old endured but not all of it.
"Rosie sweetie what happened?"
"Nothing, I was cleaning some glass." She mumbled quietly.
"Your hands reek of alcohol."
"It was a vodka bottle. It broke." Her cheeks flamed red as tears began to fall from her soft blue eyes.
"How did it break?" He asked her, taking her hands gently in his.
"Laura threw it at me."
"Damn it Rose! I keep telling you to stay here. Why won't you?" He raised his voice and she shrunk into herself.
"Rosie? Sweetie I'm sorry I didn't mean to yell. It just makes me mad that your parents treat you the way they do. It isn't fair; I mean you're so sweet, and kind, and you're like a genius. I just don't understand how anyone can be so terrible to their own flesh and blood. You know Cain would let you stay." He told her softly as he brushed her brown hair behind her ears.
"It's alright, besides they need me at home." No matter how much Alec asked Rose wouldn't tell him what that meant.

As they sat in silence Alec's older brother Cain walked in the door, returning home from his job as a child social worker. He stopped when he saw Rose. It wasn't that he didn't like her around his brother but that he worried what her parents would do to him.
"Hi Rosemary. Are you alright?" He motioned to the bandages on her hands. She nodded and looked to the floor.
"Cain can I talk to you?" Alec asked him, he shrugged and led his brother to the kitchen.
"Cain her mom's gone to far this time."
"What did she do?"
"She threw a vodka bottle at her! Please Cain, you've got to report them!" Cain sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose.
"Alec we've been over this. I have reported them, but a drunken mother isn't high on the priority list; there's kids that are six years old being used as sex slaves, ten year old girls being married off and impregnated, some kids as young as eleven and twelve being pimped out on the streets! That's what's happening in this country so I'm sorry but there's nothing I can do now." Cain vainly tried to explain. Alec stepped back and looked at Cain with disgust.
"What about what you told me when you became a social worker: 'Don't ever let a cry for help be silenced.' What about that Cain? You said you wanted to help every kid that walked into your life but I guess Rose just isn't in enough pain huh?"
"Alec that's not fair! Of course I want to help her but-"
"Then help her!" He screamed. He lowered his voice to a harsh whisper, "Fine. If you won't stand up for the girl that's crying in our living room then I will." He turned on Cain and started to leave.
"Alec." He turned slightly.
"What?" He asked between gritted teeth.
"Don't f*** it up." Alec smiled a bit; knowing what his brother meant. He nodded and went to Rose.

Rose returned home later that night, much to Alec's dismay. As she walked in the door she noticed her parents weren't home. She smiled a small grin and went to her room, locking it before looking over her new school schedule once more. She was terrified because she had gym the first semester and she worried people might see the various bruises on her body. If she wasn't so skittish or hurt, she would like to have more than one friend. Rose was a pretty girl; about five foot five, brown hair that shone in the sunlight and revealed natural blonde and red streaks. Warm blue eyes that were kind, inviting really. She looked out the window and saw her father's car pulling around the corner. Rose wasn't sure whether to be happy or depressed at that; her father wasn't nearly as bad as her mother but he had a habit of hitting his daughter when he was angry. He slammed the door open and Rose almost laughed. That poor door was seldom opened gently.
"Rosemary Alexandria Costa! Get your ass down here!" Rose jumped up and ran to the top of the stairs to meet her father. Robert was a successful man, mostly due to the fact that his father is a powerful figure in Detroit, Michigan.
"Yes?" She asked him. He threw his briefcase on the ground, never a good sign. He grabbed Rose by her arm and threw her to the floor. He sharply kicked her in the stomach.
"Your mother and I will not tolerate any disrespect from you, is that clear?" He threatened as he pulled her into a kneeling position by her hair.
"Y-yes." She squeaked. She didn't even know what had brought this on but she wasn't about to ask. He threw the girl to the floor, causing her knee to hit the corner of the coffee table in the middle of the room. She gripped it and cried out in pain.
"Yes what?" He threatened.
"Yes sir." She sobbed. Robert laughed harshly and slapped her across the face.
"Dumb little b****. Fix yourself up. Or don't I really don't give a s***." He muttered as he walked to the kitchen. Rose staggered up and stumbled down the hall to her room.
"God what did I ever do to deserve this?" She whispered. She laid on her bed and again contemplated the pills but instead grabbed the box-cutter she kept under her bed and made a couple slash marks on her wrists. She dragged herself to her bathroom and cleaned the blood that hadn't already set into her clothes before taking a shower, finally falling asleep two hours later, too exhausted even to cry anymore.
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As the alarm clock beeped Rose turned over, switching it off and getting up. She sighed heavily as the previous nights' events flashed through her mind. It was only six a.m. but she got ready to leave, just to walk around the town in the early-morning light. She dressed in a blue half-sleeve shirt that matched her eyes and two wristbands to hide the small cuts she'd put on her wrists. As she finished tying her hair into a ponytail she heard her mother vomiting in the bathroom. She almost found humor in it all; her mother had went to college and even graduated with a degree in business finance. Then she found alcohol. She wasn't even a shadow of what she had been, now she walked around all day in a drunken haze and often disappeared for days at a time. Her father worked for an insurance company that his father started and that was the only reason he still had the job. As long as she could remember, Rose went through a series of daycares until she was ten, when she would just stay home alone until one parent walked in, often late.

As she wandered the town, she breathed in the sweet scent of early morning air. She preferred to walk early in the morning because there was no one to bother her. She made her way to the old, decrepit playground and sat under the large oak tree. As she sat there she let her mind wander. If I left today, she thought, would anyone notice? And if so, would they look for me? I doubt it. Then again where would I go? My one uncle lives in Montana, my grandparents live in a retirement home, I don't have anyone but my parents. My parents, ha! Like they even give a s***! God I just want to leave, whether it be running away, getting my parents arrested and going to foster care, or dying. I don't care anymore. She stood, brushed the dirt off her black jeans and left the old park with its dying and twisted play set that resembled her heart.

As she walked back at around eight a.m. she saw Cain walking to his white sedan with an armload of files.
"Hi Rosemary, what are you doing out so early?" He asked cheerfully. As he reached for his car door, the files slipped and scattered everywhere.
"Oh, dammit!" He muttered, kneeling and retrieving the files.
"Here let me help. And I've just been walking around for a couple hours." She told him as she handed him a couple papers. As she did, one of the wristbands slipped and before she could hide it Cain grabbed her hand it pulled both bands away.
"Rosemary. I-I don't even know what to say." He stated simply. Rose stood up sharply, ripping her hand from his.
"Then don't say anything! Look just stay out of it!" She cried. She turned and started to leave but Cain stood up and put a hand on her shoulder.
"Rosemary please just hear me out okay?" Her shoulders drooped but she turned around and let him talk.
"Fine."
"Rosemary you know what I do; I help kids that are in bad situations. And I'd like to help you. But I need you to cooperate with me. You cannot protect them when it's only going to hurt you. You don't deserve that." His voice dropped to a comforting whisper; the voice he'd often use for abused children who were scared.
"I don't need you telling me there's a problem. I know there is and if there was anything I could do to get safely away from it I would. But like I said yesterday, they need me." She retorted weakly.
"Your parents? Rosemary they don't need you to protect them, they need to get help."
"I don't care about my parents! They're not who I mean." Cain looked at her with confusion lacing his features.
"Then who?" Rose shook her head and walked away.
"Nobody." She told him over her shoulder. He stared after her and realized Alec was right; he had to help this girl.

As Cain drove to his job thoughts of Rose's statement filled his head. He couldn't stop thinking about it; she'd said it wasn't her parents she was protecting but there's no one else in the house. Was there? He walked into the white building and swiped his I.D. card, continuing on to the stairs and up to the third floor, child services department.
"Hey Birch, what's troubling you?" His partner, Mike Cantela asked him.
"Hmm? Oh it's nothing really. Actually it is something, my neighbor." He started to explain.
"What? Rowdy neighbor keeping you up at night?" Mike joked. Cain shot him a glare that shut the blonde forty-something man up.
"No. She's a fifteen year old but I think- no I know- she needs help. I know that she isn't as hurt or as victimized as some of the other cases we take on but this girl, well she's my little brother's friend and it's killing him that I won't help her." He told his partner of three years.
"Damn. Well everybody's got a case that hits them too close to home and I guess this is yours." The two men made their way to their captains' office, Sheryl Tier. Cain and Mike explained Cain's thoughts. She thought for a moment before looking to Cain.
"So tell me then; what's going on with this girl?" Mike leaned on her desk as they prodded Cain for answers.
"Her mother's an unemployed alcoholic and her father works for some company his father started. Her mother mostly throws thing and ruins her confidence but occasionally slaps or burns her. Her father however, he beats her just shy of hospital-worthy. He berates her, calls her horrible names, and basically tortures her whenever he feels like." Cain finished.
"Cain that's bad but we've got bigger fish to fry." Sheryl told him.
"Yes that's true but does that mean she's any less deserving of help?" Cain pressed. Mike put a reassuring hand on Cain's shoulder.
"He's right you know; this girl needs help and it wouldn't really interfere with our work with her being Birch's neighbor." Mike defended. Tier sat back and contemplated it, still looking unconvinced. Cain sighed and slapped his hand on the desk.
"Look Captain, you know that if you could you'd save every kid that was hurt. Even considering that, we all know that we alone can't protect everyone. But please she's my neighbor and my little brother is her best friend! If I don't stand up for her, I'm afraid he'll do something really stupid and wind up hurt, in jail, or dead. If you really aren't going to give me the go-ahead on this you should know that you're command isn't going to stop me. I'm really only asking this as formality because I am going to report this and I am going to help this kid." He finished, panting a bit. Sheryl smiled and looked from Cain to Mike.
"You two are the newest under my command. You've always kept your head down and done your job without a peep. I was starting to wonder if I'd ever see some fire in you hearts. Go ahead and pursue this. Get the bastards hurting your brother's friend." Mike smiled and Cain let out a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding.
"Thank you Captain." Cain told her. Both Mike and Cain grabbed their coats and left in Cain's car, headed for Cain's house.

U sure somthings up? Alec sighed and raked a hand through his chestnut hair, he thought his friend Blake at the very least would understand.
U no Rosie! U no somthings up!! He texted back.
I really dont no her tho. Iv met her lik 5 times and shes ur friend. He heard Cain's car pulling up but figured he'd just forgotten something.
Still. Plz man just help me out. Blake responded he would just as Cain and Mike walked in the door. They stopped when they saw Alec, sitting upside-down on the couch.
"What's wrong little brother?' Cain asked him.
"What makes you think something's wrong?' Alec asked him, up-righting himself.
"Well ever since you were four when you're upset you lie in odd positions on our furniture. You started after your friend Richard's cousin did it."
"That was right before mom and dad died." Alec blurted. Cain looked at his feet and his brown eyes grew glassy.
"Cain I'm sorry." Alec started. He knew the car crash that killed his parents always weighed heavier on Cain than it did Alec because Alec was only eight when it happened, Cain was eighteen and had driven the car right before his parents left. Mike tried to console him but Cain only stood there.
"Cain really I'm sorry." Cain shook his head, whether to clear his thoughts or dismiss the apology Alec didn't know.
"It's alright. Anyway we're talking about your problems not mine. What's going on with you?"
"You know damn well what's going on!" Alec yelled as his memory of the previous nights' fight came rushing back.
"Whoa! I put my job on the line by yelling at my boss just to help your friend and you bite my head off?" Cain laughed as Alec stood, dumbstruck and befuddled.
Y-you're going to help her?" Mike laughed as he set an empty file on the desk in the front room before opening his laptop and clicking away.
"Of course I am. Because I know that despite my advice, you would indeed f*** it up." Alec glared before thanking his brother and going to leave.
"Where are you going?" Cain interrogated.
"Out." His brother answered.
"Alec I swear to God I'll S.W.A.T team your ass if you don't tell me." Mike stifled a laugh at the brothers.
"I'm going to Blake's because his dad is a cop. I was going to persuade him to look into Rose's dad." Alec explained after a loud scoff.
"What do you expect to find?" Cain asked, interested.
"I don't know; bad taxes, domestic violence, drunk driving, anything that shows he's unstable." He shrugged. "As for her mom, well I have no clue where to start on her." Alec finished. Cain looked thoughtfully to his brother.
"Have you ever considered being a cop?" Cain joked. Alec laughed as he closed the doors and began the short walk to his long-time friend Blake Mitchelson.

With each yell from her parents, the numbness in Rosemary grew. Not to her surprise Rose's mother had been sleeping with her alcoholic friend for booze and her father was none too happy to catch them when he walked in the door.
"You lying, cheating whore!" Her father yelled. Rose fought the childish urge to hide in her closet when she heard glass break against her door. Her mother slurred an unintelligible response and she soon heard her parents physically fighting. Any normal child would have called the police but she knew if she did her parents would make sure she regretted it. Besides she didn't want anyone there right now. After about ten minutes she heard sirens and quickly slipped out of the window, jumped to the large tree outside her window, slid down and walked to Alec's knowing full well they'd called them. She knocked on the door and Cain's social-worker partner, Michael answered the door.
"Hello?" He asked her, mouth full. She sighed and pushed past him.
"Cain!" She yelled simply. He hurried out the kitchen to see her standing with her arms crossed and a grim look on her face. A grim, and very angry look.
"Rosemary?! Are you okay?"
"I'm fine. Why did you call the cops?" She asked, voice frightfully even.
"I had to. The whole neighborhood could hear the fighting and I didn't know if you were hurt or not." Cain told her, leading her to the couch.
"Well thanks so much," she started with sarcasm dripping off her words, "now you've made everything worse. You realize they won't stay in jail? They're going to come back and I'm going to pay the price because you have a fucking hero complex!" She screamed while blinking back tears. Cain realized what he'd done and fell into a chair with a heavy groan.
"I'm so sorry Rosemary I honestly didn't mean to, I thought you were hurt and I was worried." Mike looked from Cain to Rosemary with confusion painting his features. Cain realized this was the first time he'd met the girl.
"Oh sorry Mike. Mike this is Rosemary Costa, Rosemary this is my partner Michael Reese." Cain introduced them.
"So you're the girl Cain's brother has a thing for." Rosemary blushed crimson and looked to her shoes.
"You have no right to base judgment or opinions on me. You also have no proof of your opinion, he is a good person, nothing more." She stated, blushing further as Alec walked in the door just in time to catch her response.
"Who's a good person?" Rose groaned and covered her face with her hands while Mike chuckled and Cain went to speak with the police.
"I saw the cops outside your house Rose, are you alright?" He asked sitting next to her.
"Yeah I'm fine. Until they get back anyway." She mumbled, dropping her hands to her lap and fiddling with a loose thread on her shirt.
"What does that mean?" Rose's shoulder's shook slightly.
"It means I need to disappear." She summed up. Alec laid his hand on Rose's back but she cringed and moved away.
"I'm not going to hurt you Rosie, come on you know me." She shook again and Alec noticed her eyes were clouded. No matter what Alec said she wouldn't look at him or respond. She continued to convulse and her skin paled as she broke out into a cold sweat. Alec started toward her and she leapt off the couch but soon fell to her knees, gasping for breath. As Mike and Alec rushed toward the girl her vision swam and she gripped her stomach and coughed before vomiting on the hardwood. Mike quickly rushed out to dial nine-one-one while Alec tried vainly to keep her calm.
"Rosie what the hell is going on?" He asked her frantically.
"Please don't h-hate me." She whispered. He took a half step back and studied her but he knew what had happened.
"Rosie. What did you take?" She laughed cruelly and managed a glare at him.
"I took the only escape I have." She answered. Alec gathered the writhing girl in his arms as tears streamed down his face.
"Rosie I could've helped you. I wanted to help you." He choked out. Rose looked at her neighbor, her best and only friend and smiled; a pure smile devoid of fear. She wiped a tear from his face and locked her eyes with his.
"I know. But you can't save everyone." She whispered. Rosemary closed her eyes and felt herself fade away.

Alec knew. He knew she was gone but he still pleaded with the EMT's to try. They used the defibrillator three times, all to no avail. She was pronounced dead at five thirty-three, on a day that was bright and sunny, birds singing and children playing. Her parents were arrested of neglect and abuse after Cain and Mike continued their investigation of the parents. As it turns out, Rose never meant her parents when she said, they needed her; she meant the twins Laura Costa was pregnant with before she miscarried. Her parents didn't show any remorse and the only regret they had was going to prison. They didn't want to be responsible for Rosemary's body so Cain volunteered to take care of everything. He had a friend of his preform an autopsy to see what exactly the girl had endured and what killed her. She had several incorrectly healed fractures, a badly healed cracked rib, a torn rotator cuff in her right shoulder and many other injuries. Basically she'd been tortured. She'd taken OxyContin, Advil, and Ritalin, almost twenty of each. She had wanted to die. In her pocket a note was found:
You probably want to know why. I could blame my parents, my own mental problems, hell I could blame God for putting me with them but the truth is: I couldn't take it. Everyone goes through bad things but not everyone is strong enough to deal with them so I won't blame anyone.
I will commend someone though, two someone's really: Alec and Cain Birch. They were, are, and always will be incredibly great people. I'm sorry Alec. Cain too. I caused so many problems. I'm honored and overjoyed I was your friend Alec. Thank you.
Please honor one wish I have: be happy, don't mourn my death because I'm happy now.
I guess that's it,
Rosemary Alexandria Costa

Cain arranged a funeral service and contacted anyone he knew that knew Rose which, admittedly, wasn't many. The service ended up being Mike, Cain, Alec, Blake, and Rosemary's uncle who came in from Montana. The note was read and the personal items she'd had with her; a bracelet Alec had given her and a pearl necklace from her grandparents, were given to Alec and he kept them in a glass container in his bedroom. And just like that, a young life was wiped off the planet.
---------------------

As Alec left the graduation center, he asked his brother to drop him off at the cemetery.
"You sure? You could always go later." Cain asked his brother. He looked to his lap and played with the corner of the diploma.
"No I want to go now. And yes I know you'd stay but you have work. Besides I feel like I owe it to her." He told him. Cain smiled and nodded. The drive to the cemetery was silent except for the occasional banter between the brothers. As they pulled up Cain asked again if Alec wanted him to stay.
"I'll be fine. Seriously I'll walk home, it's all of ten minutes." Cain agreed and drove off.

Alec looked to the overcast sky and smiled a bit. He walked into the deepest part of the cemetery, near a lake shrouded in fog, past the decrepit grave markers with long-gone flowers petals leaving behind thorny and dead stems until he reached it. Her grave. Alec knelt near the headstone.
"Hey there Rosie. I should apologize for not coming lately; Cain and I have been looking at colleges. In case you remembered and I know you would, I was accepted to Alma. It's about two hours from here so I'm going to live on campus. But I'll come back home as often as possible." He looked at the stone, engraved in it were the words: 'Rosemary: a candle in a hurricane, gone far too soon.' The saying had been Cain's and it fit so perfectly.
"God Rosie I can't believe it's been two years already. I'll never forget you or stop missing you. I wish like hell you'd let me in sooner but I know you're happy now. I don't know if the dead can really hear or watch over the living but if you can hear me I want you to know that you were and are my absolute best friend. I loved you so much. Wow I guess I got off-topic. Sorry about that." He chuckled a bit, as odd as it was, he swore he could feel his friend next to him, "Anyway, I got the principal to make a diploma for you and since today was graduation, I felt like I should give it to you. So you can now consider yourself a high school graduate, besides you were wicked smart anyway." He sighed as a tear rolled down his face and onto the grave.
"Sorry Rosie but I've got to go. I promise before I leave for college I'll visit you again and everytime I come back home, I'll swing by here. I'll see you later." He told her as he stood. A warm wind blew, as the sun shone weakly through the dark clouds and somehow, Alec knew Rosie was so much happier. She was hurt, smart, strong but forced down on Earth, but now she was free and no one could ever hurt the quiet girl again.

To those who didn't know Rose she was timid and quiet. To her teachers she was the perfect student. But to Cain and Alec she was a sweet, careful, and polite neighbor who grew to be a very close friend.


Decide for yourself:
Was Rose broken or beautifully scarred?