Even Angels Fall (C. Stewart) ✔️

-1-

It's been four months.

Four months of waking up in a cold sweat.

Four months of the nightmares, looking around every corner for the figure hidden in the shadows.

Summer came and went in a blur.  Chris and his mom had to get away from this town, at least for a little while.  So they went to visit his grandparents, big city life to escape small town troubles.  It worked for a bit.  While he healed, came to grips with what happened.

How it happened.

Why it happened.

Why him?

His knee still isn't 100% yet, even on vacation he had to keep up with physical therapy. Slow runs aren't so bad but he is still uneasy, not wanting to push it with full blown sprints. But it is more than just his knee though. His confidence, trust in others, that is pretty much shot.

Don't even mention girls.

He can't even look at girls now without being terrified.

Days spent in the sun have improved his complexion though, taking away the pallor that was there. Sunshine trying to infiltrate into his soul.  He is tan, healthy, alive.  Thankfully.

It could have been worse.

So much worse.

Nimble fingers skim across faded scars as he waits for Cam and Matt to show up at the house.  The Welcome Back from Vacation pizza night.

More like Welcome Back to the Land of the Living.  Those three months with Vanessa, no Chris can't think about that.  He shakes his head.  Those three months she was here he lost touch with sports, friends, family.  He lost touch with himself and reality.  All for a girl who was so terribly unstable.  Alluring but unstable.

Stop it Chris.  Stop thinking about her.  She's gone and she tried to kill you!

But really, no matter how sick and twisted they are, you never can really forget your first.

The memories will always be with him, much like the scars on his arm.  Faint, but if you know what you are looking for you can still see those raised marks.  The slightly lighter areas on his otherwise bronzed skin.

Cam's red Honda pulls up to the curb. Chris rises from his spot on the front steps, turning back to open up the door to the house. "Mom, Cam and Matt are here. Be back later, we're going for pizza!" Her head pops around the corner from the kitchen, eyebrow raised. "You have your phone??" He nods, fishing it out of his pocket to wave it at her. She sighs, running a hand thorough her short brown hair. "Fine. Just be home by seven.  And call me if there is any trouble." Once again he nods and then heads back outside, down the walk to his friend's car.

Matt turns around and smiles at him as he slides into the backseat of the Honda. "Sup dude. How was your time away??"  Chris sighs, giving a small smile to his friends as Cam pulls away from the curb.  "Decent.  Grandparents dragged me to every museum in the city.  Some of them were cooler than others.  Not really sure why there was a Museum of Medieval Music though.  But it was cool, nice to be away for a while."

Matt reaches forward to turn the car radio on low as Cam responds. "That's great. It was so boring here. Stupid summer job, no time to do anything or go anywhere. No chicks either. Honestly I was bored to death." Chris visibly pales at his words. Cam catches his reflection in rear view mirror as he pulls into the parking lot of the pizza parlor. "Whoops. My bad." Matt just face palms and shakes his head.

Chris sighs, fingers tracing over his scars again before he plasters a smile back on his face. "No worries. So pizza??"

The three friends get out of the car and head into the pizza parlor.

And that is when Chris realizes that this going back to normal thing, this moving on and getting past everything that has happened to him is a lot harder than it looks.

(A/N: Slow start. Hope this is okay. This idea is actually a lot harder than I first thought. I was inspired to try it out because of a Chris/Sebastian/Scott from CSI Miami crossover I read on ff.net. And I always wondered how Chris would move on after everything Vanessa put him through. ❤️ Shann)