From The Edge

[princess.sparkle]

Story Title: From The Edge

Type of story: oneshot -

Main Characters: Aden, Melody

BTTB rating: T

Genre: Drama, Angst,

Does story include spoilers: Yes UK spoilers

Summary: Aden 7 years on, promoting his book about what happened to him and giving a tv interview.

"My name is Aden Jeffries and I was abused by my grandfather as a child. There it is, the secret I spent my life trying to hide from the world, in black and white. I was an abused kid and that is something I never thought I'd have the courage to reveal to anyone, let alone lay bare for the world to read. But somewhere along the line I found that courage, it found me, and today I tell you my story. No lies or altercations, just the truth."

"Mr Jeffries, we're on in five." Aden nodded at the pretty brunette as she rushed out the door as quickly as she had rushed in.

"You don't have to do this you know." Melody smiled, she knew what his reply would be even before he opened his mouth to speak it. "Writing the book took enough stregnth, you don't have to talk about it on national television."

"I kinda do." Smirked Aden. "Relax, ok? I'll be fine." He assured her as he squeezed her arm.

"I know." Melody looked at the man standing in front of her, she couldn't believe how far they'd come in these seven years. When she first encountered him, at school, he was a jerk. A complete and utter jerk. They'd come a long way since then, even made their way through a mental institution! "I just - I'm proud of you."

Aden smiled, when he'd first known Melody he thought she was a freak. The other kids would go to parties and stay out late, she'd go home straight after school. She was a loner, the other kids were wary of her, of her and her mother and she didn't have many friends. In the narrow minds of her class mates Melody Jones was different, thus she was a freak. That was until he knew better, until he knew that she was so much more, that her being different meant that she was special. "Yeah, well, I wouldn't be here without you."

"Yes, you would. You are so much stronger than you think." She sighed, despite how far he'd come, despite everything he'd come through to get here, he still refused to see his own stregnth. Melody wrapped her arms around his neck and hugged him tight, "Good luck." She whispered.

*********

"So Mr Jeffries this is your first novel, is that right?" The interviewer smoothed down her black skirt and tilted her head to the right. She was a pretty lady of about 30, and her blonde hair bounced as she moved her head.

"Yeah. yeah that's right." Aden leaned forward on the couch, he couldn't beleive he was here. Here on national television, telling the worldabout his childhood abuse, about trying to kill his father, about being locked up in a mental institution. Breath, in and out. In and out. I can do this.

"So tell us a bit more about it." The lady spoke kindly and smiled at Aden, inviting him to reveal all.

"It's er, it's my story actually. See, I was abused by my grandfather, when I was a kid. That's what this book's about." He'd said it, the whole world would know now. There was no hiding from it, no denying it, no finding solace in other people's ignorance. "I spent years trying to hide from, you know? Then I realised that I didn't need to, that it wasn't my burden to bear."

"It must have been hard for you, writing about about it?" The interviewer looked sympathetically at Aden.

Aden took a deep breath as he prepared to go on, he had nothing to be ashamed about, he reminded himself. "Yeah it was, probably the hardest thing I've had to do. But I'd been to the deepest, darkest places, and writing this book helped me. It helped me process what had happened, it helped me move forward. Plus I had a lot of great people around to help."

"You say you went to the darkest places, you explore that in the book don't you?"

Aden nodded solemly, it happened seven years ago now but recalling it made it feel as if it was happening again, in this very moment. Even after everything he'd come through, he was still ashamed of what he did, what he tried to do. "I tried to kill my dad. I was in a dark place, but it's no excuse. I just, that night, all I wanted was that past gone. To be free of it and not part of it anymore. I just, I just wanted it not be be a part of me. Looking back, I'm deeply ashamed, I truly wish I could take it back."

"But we understand you and your father are on better terms now?"

"Yeah, yeah we've managed to move past all those issues and forgive eachother. We're begining to find our way again." Mr Jeffries had been sent to prison for an accident which killed Axel Hay. He'd pleaded guilt and gotten 12 years, Aden had gone to see him in prison soon after the sentencing and all he'd seen was a lost and broken man. Despite what he'd done, what he'd allowed to be done, seeing him there, it broke Aden's heart. They'd spent these past years building up a relationship and he was due to be assessed for release soon, depending on good behaviour.

"You also mention a girl named Belle in your book. Tell me, just how big a part of your life was she?"

Aden sighed as he thought of Belle. She was different to anyone he had known, she was beautiful and bold and courageous. She was passionate and kind. She'd loved him, truly loved him. She'd known about him and his grandfather but she didn't look at him with pity or disgust, just love. Until that night, when he'd ruined any chance they had together. Afterwards when she looked at him he saw it in her eyes, she pitied him, who he was, who he'd become. She was frightened by him, by what he did, what he was capable of. And he knew he'd lost her for good. "She, she's an incredibly special person, she always wil be. But we're not together anymore." Aden sighed, he saw her smile, he heard her laugh, could even feel the touch of her skin. But that time had passed, she was in Africa now, doing a stint as a journalist at a local newspaper. They remained on good terms, but just as friends, nothing more.

"You also mention a, Melody?"

"Yeah, she - she's my closest friend. I wouldn't be here today without her help and support. She's amazing."

"You say in the book that you were in a psychiatric hospital together?"

"That's right. Yeah, we were both going through things and we were just there for each other, you know? I found a stregnth in her, and she's been there ever since. This book- she helped me write it, read through it, helped edit it. She helped me find the courage to write it."

Melody watched the interview from behind the scenes, behind the cameras, she watched a small screen with Adens image on it and smiled as he spoke about there relationship. She remembered their meeting on a beach on night, six or seven years ago. She'd realised that she'd lost Geoff for good, to Nicole and Aden, Aden was sat with a bottle in his hand still processing everything that had happened to him over the past months. Trying to kill his father, the end of his relationship with Belle, his father going to jail, being in a psychiatric ward, finding out that the one person who could have stopped the most terrible thing happening simply chose not to.

"What are you doing?" Melody asked as she sat down on the sand next to Aden, both staring at the ocean crash angrily at the shore.

"Saving the world, what's it look like?" Aden snapped half heartedly. "Bible boy left you for daddy's little princess?"

"Me and Geoff are over." Melody replied somewhat calmly. She'd loved him so much, but by the time she'd come back his heart was already in Nicole's hands. "You know drinking isn't going to help. It's not going to make it all better."

"And you'd know would you?"

Melody shook her head, "Ironic don't you think? You hate your father for drinking, for causing that accident, yet here you are..."

Aden's face contorted in fury, as he threw the bottle down on the sand, "I am nothing like my father ok!?! I'm nothing like him! I didn't try to kill him 'cause of the drinking or the accident alright? He - "

Melody leaned back from Aden as she saw the angry and distress in in face, "What? What did he do that was so terrible?" She whispered.

Aden looked down and he could felt his face hot, he could feel the tears come, his face wet with them. "He let him, he did nothing." He spat out as Melody came closer and he proceded to tell her everything.

"Axel, that's why you...?"

Aden nodded, "I just - I heard what he did to you and...When my grandfather, I felt so helpless you know? I had no control, he could just do whatever he wanted and I couldn't...I should have tried harder I know but...I was just a kid..."

"It wasn't your fault - any of it."

Aden looked at her, deep down he knew she was right, but a part of him still niggled away at him. What if he'd fought harder, what if he'd resisted more, said something? "He could have stopped it. The one person who should have cared, who should have protected me...he didn't...he did nothing."

Melody put her arm around Aden, he was cold and his body weakly fell into her arms as he began to cry. In that moment she didn't see the school troublemaker or jerk, she saw a boy, a boy desperately in need of love and care. A boy who truly beleived he was alone in the world and had noone who even cared. A kindred spirit.

"One last question Mr Jeffries, tell us why did you write this book?"

"I wrote it because, for so long I was ashamed - ashamed of what had happened to me, ashamed that I'd let it happen, ashamed that it was a part of me and who I was. But I realised that it wasn't my fault - any of it. I had nothing to be ashamed of. And this, telling my story helped me accept that. Now I know that noone should ever have to go through that, that feeling of having no control, of being totally helpless. What happened to me will always be with me, but I guess I wanted to use it to show other people that they can take control of their lives, that they don't have to be defined by their past. I just, I wanted to tell my story."

Extracts from book

"That night, will live with me forever, in many ways it was the night that saved me, it was after that night that I truly dealt with what had happened, that I allowed everything I had bottled up inside to be released. In other ways it was the night that I lost something so, so precious. Belle. Before Belle I had never felt that love, that uncondidtional love from another human being that allows you complete and utter freedom. That allows you to know that the whole world could be against you, but as long as that one person loves you, you'll find a way. You know I could have been in a room with a million people but as soon as Belle walked in, noone else would even matter. I lost her that night, my first love."

"We've built out relationship up again. It'll never be a 'normal' father-son relationship, but then, what's normal? The anger I felt towards him, the utter desolation I felt when I found out he knew, he'd been through the same thing, I've let that go now and I'm a better person for it. What happened to me happened to him too, I've finally realised that. It defined him for such a large part of his life, it defined me to, but I've broken free and I will not let it define me any longer."

"I can't begin to explain the stregnth I get from the people closest to me, Roman Harris and Melody Jones are the two people whose love and support got me here today, writing this book, and for that I am truly grateful. We find love and friendship in the strangest of places, I never would have imagined that Melody and I would become the closest of friends. But our interior isolation, our broken hearts and lonliness, it united us. We found friendship and love in the places we could have least imagined and I wouldn't change it for the world."

"So that's my story. It's not meant to be some sort of manual or self help book, just my story. Plain and simple. The person I am today I won't apologise for, what happened to me will stay with me forever, it is apart of who I am, but it will not define me. I am Aden Jeffries, writer, friend, son.

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