the only exception

The drive home was mostly silent besides the occasional sniffle from Phoebe and the tick-tick-tick of the turn signal. Hayley was doing her best to stop her leg from shaky, bouncing up and down with energy, making it hard to drive.

She was so fucking angry.

The silence was only giving her more time to sit in that anger, letting it boil up inside her to the point where she wants nothing more than to get a baseball bat and beat the living shit out of the person who did this to Phoebe. She doesn't say that though, tries her hardest to not even let her anger show because she's sure the last thing this kid needs is someone else being angry around her.

When they pull up to the house, Hayley parks in the garage, and only lets herself take a single deep breath before getting out of the car and rounding it to open the door for Phoebe. She watches her slowly get out of the car, watches her body twice as she winces with every little movement, and Hayley has to count in her head to try and ball that anger back up inside her. Tries to save it for later.

"Do you want me to get you dry clothes? I can wash those for you." Hayley suggests quietly as they make their way in the house, not missing the way Phoebe jumps from the light touch on her arm. Hayley pulls her hand away, and tries to pretend she didn't notice.

Phoebe just nods in response, standing awkwardly in the kitchen as Hayley runs to grab some clothes. She knows whatever she gets is gonna be too big on the tiny girl, so she settles on sweatpants with a string and a t-shirt, grabbing a hoodie at the last minute.

She's unsure whether the shaking is from Phoebe being cold, or scared, or hurt, but she thinks it might be all three.

"There's a bathroom down that hall to the left, can I get you something to drink? Tea? Water? Lemonade?" Hayley asks before the teen just shakes her head and goes down the hall to change.

Hayley paces the room nervously as she waits for the girl to return. She knows they need to call the police, and is sure there's a CPS number she should call or something, but she didn't wanna go against Phoebe's wishes.

Despite Phoebe turning it down, Hayley pours two glasses of water anyway and sets them on the coffee table next to a few asprin before taking a seat on the couch, her leg bouncing wildly as she waited. When about five minutes had passed, which felt like 5 hours to Hayley, she decided to check on the girl.

When she got to the door, she was unsure how to approach it, not wanting to spook her again. Seeing as Phoebe was jumping at every random noise, but eventually decided on quietly walking back towards the living room, only to walk back, making sure her footsteps could be heard by the girl, trying to give her some sort of warning.

She followed it by a hesitant knock on the door, "Phoebe, you okay?"

Hayley heard sniffles on the other side and closed her eyes, taking a deep breath. She felt like she'd do anything to take away the girls pain, wishes she could wrap her up in bubble wrap and send her to some semblance of heaven on earth where nothing bad could ever touch her again. Stranger or not, Hayley cared about her, even if she couldn't fully rationalize it, fully understand it.

"Phoebe?" Hayley tried again, this time getting a response.

"It hurts," Phoebe whimpered, hating how pitiful she sounded.

"I know, I'm sorry." Hayley sighed sadly, leaning her head against the doorframe, staring at the wood.

There's another moment of silence before Phoebe speaks again, her voice quieter, "I can't do it."

"Do what, honey?" Hayley asks, assuming she means having to contact the police.

The door unlocks and swings open, causing Hayley to lift her head from the frame, looking at the girl.