Volume - a Cody Carson Fanfiction

0.4

(The picture above is of Samson. And no, I don't me Lana. Click the right arrow, silly!)

A/N: This contains sensitive material that may upset certain people. Read with caution. By the way, from now on, anything that is in bold text is an author's note.

The officers were handcuffing the two of them. I stepped out of the bus and watched as Justin was put into the back of a cruiser with a bloody and seemingly broken nose, and Samson was put in a separate vehicle with with bruises forming and cuts bleeding all over him. Lynne was beside me the entire time with her arm wrapped around me watching on. I knew that all of us were going to be questioned, so I was already coming up with an excuse for my injuries as two police officers approached Lynne and I. They separated us for questioning - me in the bus and Lynne outside - and started drilling us with questions, one after another.

"So, Miss. Hills, do you know what happened here tonight?"

The male officer spoke in a firm tone with a professional demeanor. It wasn't going to be easy to talk my way out of this one, so I decided to be honest, "Yes, I do. What do you want to know?"

He cleared his throat, "Everything. From start to finish."

After I explained the entire situation while defending Justin, he asked me another question, "Thank you Miss. Hills. Now, do you want to tell me what happened to you? You look like you took a beating as well."

I sighed heavily. I had a decision to make. Tell the truth and have Sam be furious with me, or lie and he'll still beat the shit out of me? Hmmm, I wonder . . . ? I took a deep breath and started telling him everything, "Samson and I met four years ago. I was 18 and he was 19. Three year prior, I had been adopted into the Hills house after being in a drug and abuse filled home. After my brother moved out, Sam was the only one there for me since my adoptive parents were always working. We hit it off, and as soon as I graduated we moved in together. Everything was going great up until about a year ago. That's when he started drinking and getting into drugs. Everything just kept snowballing month after month, and he kept getting more violent. He even started . . . raping me. I was so afraid to be alone that I stayed with him, and it's led to things like this." I then motioned towards my face. The officer gave me a melancholy look and nodded his head, writing everything I was saying down on a small notepad.

After a few seconds of silence, he spoke once again, "Well Karla, we're here to help. You're not going to need to deal with Samson anymore. He's going to be locked up for a long time."

I felt a pang of both joy and grief in my chest at his final sentence. I both regretted and didn't regret what I had just done. My head was being bombarded with an overflowing of conflicting emotions. I felt tears start to form in my eyes, but quickly blinked them away. I only let certain people see me cry, not a total stranger. I felt the bus rock lightly as someone entered, and I saw a face I wasn't expecting. Cody. The officer was already leaving the room, so Cody cautiously sat down next to me. I passed him a light smile and asked, "What are you doing here?"

"I heard what happened, and I wanted to make sure you were alright," a gentle and sweet smile crept across his face, along with concerned eyes.

I nodded and swallowed, "Yeah. I'm alright. Thanks for asking." I stood up and walked over to the fridge. When I opened the stainless steel door, I asked, "Do you want anything? We have water, beer, juice . . . Pretty much everything." I looked back at him for a response, but he seemed spaced out. He was looking my direction, but he wasn't at the same time. He was seemingly lost in his own world. I cleared my throat and repeated my question, "Cody, do you want anything to drink?"

He snapped back to reality and gave me a response with a flustered look on his face, "Yes. Water, please."

I turned and smiled at his manners. He seemed like an actual nice guy. I grabbed two waters out of the fridge and sat back down next to Cody. I handed him the small bottle and he took a large drink out of it. I giggled as he finished half of the bottle and asked, "Thirsty?" And, of course, sarcasm was trickling off of my words.

He stopped and gave me a quick nod, "Yeah. We just got done with our set."

I raised an eyebrow, "You're in a band?" He made a 'that was hella rude' face at me and I continued, "I didn't mean it like that. It's just that I hadn't met you before."

He chuckled and replied, "It's fine. I'm just messing with you. I'm the lead singer of Set It Off. We've been at Warped once before."

I then had a realization, "Oh yeah! I saw you guys about a year ago in Detroit. You guys are pretty good."

Smiling, he closed his water bottle as he spoke, "Thanks. Wait," going by the look on his face, I knew what he was going to ask, "how can you tell? Aren't you deaf?"

I sighed, "Yes, I'm deaf. But I could feel the ground vibrating. That's how I listen to music. It's a completely different experience than actually hearing it."

I took a drink as he asked, "Have you ever been able to hear?"

His face was completely masked with curiosity. He was focused on what I was saying, lightly scrunching his eyebrows together. I nodded, "Yeah. I lost my hearing when I was nine. I was in a car crash and fractured my skull, which fucked up the three bones in both of my ears that you need to hear. I've been reading lips and learning sign language ever since." He sat back and stared at me with a smile. I sat there for a few seconds before asking, "What?"

He shook his head, "Nothing," he sat back up, "Do you want to get a cup of coffee? I mean, both of us have the entire day off and all," he was so incredibly nervous, "You don't have to if you don't want to. I was just-"

I cut him off, "Cody, I would love to."