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Aaron stumbled out through the front door and started running. Luckily, he still had his shoes on. He’d probably still be running if he hadn’t. The sound of his shoes pounding on the sidewalk and his ragged, desperate breathing filled his ears as the shouting coming from that house grew quieter.
The house was run down, almost looked abandoned, and it held that bastard and his wife and two sons. Aaron was the son of a bastard and a saint, and he was still trying to figure out what that made him. He didn’t know which words to put to this yet, but it made him untrusting and it made him hide all the good in him, so his father couldn’t find it, but more than anything, it made him feel so much.
Right now, he felt fear. His heart was pounding, and his feet were pounding, and admittedly, he wasn’t in very good shape, but he’s fairly certain that anyone in his situation would also have a sore throat from the air zipping it’s way in and out.
At some point, his run slowed to a stop in front of a pale blue house that was maybe five doors down from a convenience store. He did his best to slow his breathing as he stared at the house from across the well kept lawn. Eventually, when it became clear that no amount of waiting was going to stop his breath from running in and out, he walked down the driveway.
His fingers twitched as he formed a fist and stared down the floor. This fist just barely missed the door as it swung open. It was Jessica Brooks. She was in the grade above him and going to nursing school. He now learned that her normal blonde waves were always straightened out from tight curls.
Her lips parted as if to say something, and seeing the bruises just barely creeping up above the neckline of his shirt, she was too taken aback to close them.
She paused for a second, lips pursing together and brows furrowing, and he could tell she wasn’t quite sure where to go from here. Everything about this interaction made something in his stomach twist.
His first instinct when he stumbled out his front door was to run into the woods, but knowing his father, he would have been found within the hour. He left no footprints or broken twigs when running across the sidewalk, and there was no one in the world he would trust with this aside from Haley.
To see her, he’d have to get through Jessie, but that didn’t mean he trusted her as she saw the secrets written all over him.
“Come in,” she said quickly.
Her hand unconsciously cupped his shoulder to usher him in, but it shrunk back as he flinched beneath her touch. She closed the door behind them, and stared up into his eyes which couldn’t manage to meet hers.
“I’ve heard bad things about you, Aaron, but I’ll help you as long as you’re good to Haley.”
“Deal,” he said just above a whisper with his heart still pounding in his chest and his breath still rasping in and out.
“Aaron!” Haley rushed down the short flight of stairs to meet them.
By the time she stood next to him, her excitement had turned to concern. She looked up at him with those hazel eyes he’s always been fascinated by. He hated to see the way they looked at him now.
“What happened?”
How the hell was he supposed to answer a question like that? How was he supposed to look her in the eyes as he avoided it?
“I… I don’t-“
“Just come upstairs,” Jessie interrupted, “whatever happened, we need to know if he should be in a hospital right now.”
She walked up, and Haley looked to Aaron before taking his hand and following. The two sat on Haley’s bed, and it almost felt kinda funny that it was only their fourth time ever doing that.
“I know this is going to be awkward, but I need to see your bruises, Aaron,” Jessie said simply as if this wasn’t anything but simple for Aaron.
“You-you can see them already,” he mumbled.
He couldn’t breathe.
Haley pulled him close, “Everything’s okay. I’ve seen your back before, remember? She just needs to see the bruises.”
“Why can’t you do it?”
“I don’t know any first aid, Aaron, I’m not going to be able to help you any, but she’s going to be a nurse.”
“She’s still in high school. What the hell is she going to do that I can’t?” Even as hot frustration popped and fizzed, something in him, one of the few parts of himself that was still working in his favor, kept his voice even and stifled the urge to raise it.
“Our uncle’s a doctor, and he’s been teaching me. Now, just let me help you.”
His eyes fell to the ground, and any words he could have thought of got caught in his throat. The adrenaline was starting to crash, and he was starting to feel how much everything hurt, and he was so, so tired.
Aaron breathed in, then out in a long shaky motion. He shrugged off Haley’s arm around him and pulled his sweater up over his head. Shaking hands placed it beside him, and he looked down at the carpet and listened to Haley and Jessie’s collective sentiment of “Oh Aaron…”
Reddish splotches covered a good bit of his left forearm and either end of his chest up to his collar bones, and though he straightened his posture to hide it from them, the splotches still covered a good portion of his upper back. He wanted to leave. Haley’s fingers tried to intertwine with his, but he couldn’t get his fingers to move, not even to lock around hers.
“I’m going to go get some ice. Don’t do anything crazy while I’m gone,” Jessie snickered.
“We wouldn’t, Jess. This is serious!” Haley called after Jessie had already closed the door behind her.
She placed a gentle hand on Aaron’s cheek and turned his face more towards hers. His eyes had always been fascinating to her as well.
She had never seen him when his dark eyes didn’t have dark circles to match, and the more she got to know him, the more it became clear that it wasn’t just natural. It was that Aaron hadn’t had a good night’s sleep for as long as he could remember.
He doesn’t quite look people in the eye. Aaron will stare at people’s faces or their ears or their hair, so they don’t realize it at first, but his eyes are always leaning somewhere else. When he’s uncomfortable, he’ll scarcely look at anyone at all. Even if his eyes are veered away from her, Haley can tell there’s something different about them right now.
Aaron keeps his emotions locked as far from the surface as he can get, but little does he know, Haley can read his eyes like a book. Right now, they’re telling her that Aaron feels like he’s going to cry and hates himself for it. Haley hates that he’s been made to feel this way.
Before she can think of anything to say, Jessie walks in with two bags of ice, and closes the door behind her.
“Aaron, hold this one on your arm, and Haley hold this one on his chest. Don’t hold it there for over 20 minutes, and take a while break before you put the ice back on.”
“How long is a while?” Aaron wondered.
“Like 45 minutes, an hour maybe? Something like that.”
“You don’t know, do you?” Haley smirked.
“Not for sure, but it’s an educated guess.”
“Yeah yeah, get out of here, you fake nurse.”
“Gladly, and remind me to not replace the ice for you when it gets warm. Now, I’ll let you guys do your thing.”
She left, and the two stared at each other for a moment before they did as they were told. He flinched at the cold, but soon relaxed into it. His defensive posture soon started to crumble, and she could now see the bruising across his back in addition to the spatter of faint circular scars she’d seen before.
They’d been collected over the years. She estimated that they were about the diameter of a cigarette.
He let out a low groan and dragged a hand through his hair then down his face. To say he was exhausted would be an understatement.
“I’m so sorry, Haley. I didn’t mean to drag you into this. I don’t need you to take care of me. I’m-I’m fine, really.”
“It’s okay. I’m not going anywhere, and you’re not either.”
He made no move to push his hair back as it hid his eyes from her sight. His shoulders curled inward, stopping her from holding the ice to his chest. She couldn’t help being a little hurt by his trying to block her out, but she also couldn’t help thinking that his back looked like it hurt like hell. She held the ice to it.
He froze for a moment, the ice on his back making him think a hundred things at once. He decided that there were few things he hated more than people taking care of him, but he supposed he could handle it if it's her. He didn’t know how he was supposed to exist when someone he loved that much did something like that.
He let the ice lay on his arm as he desperately tried to press away the tears pooling in the corners of his eyes. His elbows were on his knees, and his head was hugged between his shoulders which were even more tense than usual. He may just hate himself crying more than he hates being taken care of. He prayed for it all to stop.
With her touch that was never not gentle, she ran her fingers through his bangs, pushing them out of the way, “You’re allowed to cry, you know.”
Haley could read him like a book, and he loved her for it, but god, he wanted to curl in on himself until no one would ever consider that he was human. He looked up at her, and she saw entire oceans locked deep within him.
His gaze faltered to her shoulders, and he tried so hard, but he couldn’t stop himself anymore. Hot tears burned their way across his cheeks. He choked down a sob as he pressed his head into her shoulder.
“I know you hate this, but you have to let me in,” she murmured.
She ran her fingers through his hair and kept the melting ice pressed to his shoulder blades. He was shaking so badly.
“Everything’s going to be okay.”
He cried into her shirt and couldn’t get himself to stop. Eventually, she lifted what was now a bag of ice water from his back, and he had long since gone quiet and still.
“Are you awake?”
He nodded.
“Can you talk to me?”
“I… yes.”
“Are you okay with telling me what happened?”
He was so quiet that she wasn’t sure if it was a word or an exhale.
“Aaron?”
“I am.”
“Then how the hell did you get bruises like that?”
“My father.”
The two words hung in the air. He didn’t want to keep anything from Haley ever, but he couldn’t bring himself to describe it any further.
“God… I should’ve known. I don’t know why I didn’t just think, but I’m so sorry. That’s horrible.”
He hummed. Some people have connected the dots across his childhood, but he’s never gone to someone and just let those words slip. He doesn’t quite know what to do now. What are you supposed to do after letting something like that out in the open?
That was when the door burst open. In surprise, Aaron jolted up, and with so little interference from his injuries that it must have taken some practice, he whipped around and more or less jumped several inches away from Haley.
“What are you doing with my daughter?” Roy Brooks bellowed from the doorway.
“I wasn’t- w-we weren’t!” Haley stammered.
“I'm so sorry, sir.”
Aaron shoulders were tensed up to his jaw, and his hands twitched and hovered up, wanting to cover his ears in anticipation but knowing doing that never ended well for him. Roy wandered his way closer, getting a better look at Aaron.
“Well, if it isn’t the Hotchner boy? Did you know your father hassles me in my store no less than once every month?” His voice was more level now; he didn’t seem to hold his father’s actions against Aaron.
“No, b-but that sounds like him,” he muttered and found enough control over his arms to pull his sweater back on.
“Do you know what I’ve heard about you?”
“What?”
“What do you think, boy?”
“That I’m a horrible, violent person that’ll end up dead or in prison before I would ever graduate?”
Haley looked insulted that anyone would say something like that about him, and he loved her for that.
“That people used to think that about you, but you’ve really been turning over a new leaf.”
“And what do you think, sir?” Aaron felt so small and so quiet.
“I think that you don’t deserve to go home tonight. No one coming home to that bastard would, and I’ve got a couch downstairs that you’d probably fit right into.”
Aaron paused. He almost looked like he was going to cry again.
“Thank you… I don’t even- just thank you.”
“And you best stay on that couch tonight if you know what’s good for you.”
“I will.”
He used their phone and called his mom to let her know where he was and that he wouldn’t be home until morning. She more than understood, she even hoped he would have a nice time with Haley. This made him smile, even for a moment.
He had dinner there, and he listened to them talk and joke, and it felt so strange. Later that night, Haley and Aaron went up to her room and had to leave the door open. He left his sweater on while Haley pressed ice to his shoulder blades.
There was a knock on the door. It was gentle, only to get their attention.
“Kid, come help me get the couch set up.
Aaron sat up from the bed and followed him, but he felt his own feet stop in the doorway.
He turned to face her, “Good night, Haley. Love you.”
She was taken aback to say the least. Haley’s cheeks flushed, and she was completely and utterly enraptured by him.
“I love you too.”
He hung in the door a moment, watching her, before he turned and walked away.
At some time past midnight, Haley made her way downstairs as quietly as she could. She tiptoed her way to the living room but found herself standing over Aaron while he was curled up with his back to the couch, deeply asleep. Haley kissed the top of his head and went back upstairs.
The following morning, she looked up at dark eyes whose regular dark circles were all but gone.