A/N: Welcome to Side B! ...Where everything's made up and the points don't matter! (P.S. I'll love you if you got that reference.) Anyway, this kinda fits in between chapters 38 and 39 I guess. (So go read chapter 38 first if you haven't already done so!) Just a little something that revolves around Jesse and Haley.

Jesse cringed as he slid off the bed and onto his feet. Haley had been at his side as much as she could over the past two days, refusing to leave unless she absolutely had to. He slipped the hospital gown off, tossed it onto the bed, leaving him in only his boxers. As he grabbed his jeans from the plastic bag and slowly moved to put them on, Haley could see all the bruises for the first time since he had been admitted to the hospital. His chest was littered with purple splotches covering his ribs. Even the back of his shoulders were bruised.

Jesse grabbed his shirt now and tried to work it over his head. Haley frowned at his hisses of pain just from the minimal movement.

"You know you're coming with me, right? Back to my house."

"Yeah... I gathered that." Jesse sat back down on the edge of the bed and sighed. "Your parents aren't gonna freak with, ya know..." He pointed at his face as he turned his head to look at her. His left eye was still swollen shut but it had gone down some. The stitches remained in place.

"If they're home, they can say whatever they want. I don't care." Haley sat down beside him, trailed her hand over his. She stared down at the floor. "I'm sorry about everything... I just—"

Haley stopped midsentence when she felt Jesse squeeze her hand. She glanced over at him, saw that he was smiling back at her. And it was then that she realized why she had fallen for him in the first place. Not out of sympathy or because she simply found him attractive. It was his strong will. His child-like mentality that made him seem so young at heart. No matter what was thrown at him, he was always in uplifted spirits when she was there with him. Because he had meant what he said to her. He loved her.

Haley released Jesse's hand after squeezing back and repositioned herself behind him. She folded up one of her legs behind his back while the other dangled off the side of the bed next to him. She carefully grasped his shoulders and gave a gentle but firm squeeze, trying her best to massage his aching shoulders.

Jesse slightly groaned and hung his head. "That kinda hurts... But it feels good."

Haley chuckled lightly. "Well, I'm glad it feels good. Let me know if it hurts too much and I'll stop."

Jesse nodded but didn't say anymore as Haley's hands rubbed into his shoulders. She applied a little more pressure every once in a while, causing him to press his back into her hands. They were waiting for the discharge papers and nurse to come wheel him out of this place via wheelchair. Otherwise she would have already made an attempt to smuggle him out.

"I didn't mean to scare you or anything. About what I said. And all of this. But uh, I wanna get my own place, ya know... So I'm not living off my cousin." Jesse continued, "Some place small and like, decently affordable."

"Have a place in mind?" Haley was now mindlessly kneading away at his bruised shoulders. She must have hit a tender spot because he suddenly jerked forward. "...Sorry," she whispered.

"Its fine," Jesse assured her. "There's this uh, condo thing. I guess."

"'Condo thing'?" Haley repeated his words with a smirk. "What's this 'condo thing' like?"

"I don't know. I just saw an ad in the paper. Was thinking about checking it out a few days ago."

"Oh? Maybe you should check it out. Of course, you could always call and let them know you're interested. You don't need to go rushing into anything." Haley smiled. "And if you wanted, I could come with you?"

"Yeah. Yeah, that sounds good to me."

There was a sudden knock at the door, startling them both. A nurse stood in the doorway with a wheelchair and a warm smile. "Ready to get out of here?"

Haley moved off the bed and caught a quick eye roll from Jesse. It was protocol for anyone checking out of the hospital to be wheeled out, courtesy of a nurse. She grabbed Jesse's things while he reluctantly maneuvered over to the wheelchair and sat back down.

"I'll go get my car and meet you out front?" Haley looked over at Jesse. He vaguely nodded and she cautiously bent down and kissed him on the lips.

Jesse had fiddled around with his pack of cigarettes as soon as they left the hospital but ultimately threw them down by his feet. He had admitted to Haley early on when they first really met one another that out of common courtesy, he didn't like to smoke in someone else's car because of the smell it left behind. She could tell he wanted to smoke, even told him he could, but he didn't. She could only assume it was because his bruised ribs.

They were both pretty silent as Haley drove back to her house. The radio was playing softly for some background noise. It was when they were almost at her house that she glanced over at him and noticed he had fallen asleep.

Haley smiled to herself. Must have been the pain meds.

A few silent minutes later and Haley had parked her car in the driveway. She shut off the engine and gingerly placed a hand on Jesse's arm. "Hey, sleepyhead. We're here."

Jesse stirred, confused for a moment as he recalled where he was. "Shit... Sorry. I don't know why I'm so tired." He went to rub his eyes and stopped just short of rubbing at his bad eye, sighing.

"You're fine." Haley exited from her car and ducked down to look back in at Jesse while he fumbled with the seatbelt. "Looks like my parents are gone, too."

"Yeah, well…" Jesse stepped out of the car and shut the door. "As much as I love the invitation, I don't think that's such a great idea right now."

Haley about smacked her head on the top of her car from laughing. "Not what I was getting at, but glad to see you didn't get hit in the head too hard."

Jesse's face flushed as he rubbed the back of his neck. "That's debatable…" he muttered.

Haley led the way inside her parents' gray-sided ranch home through the garage, which led into the small laundry room and into the kitchen and dining room. She headed around the corner and down the hall to the last bedroom. Jesse had gone straight for her bed as she shut the door and turned to face him. She couldn't help but smile at the image before her—Jesse lying on her bed with half his face buried into her pillow.

"There is seriously no better place to be than right here," Jesse mumbled into the pillow.

"If it were up to me, I'd make you move in." Haley climbed onto the twin sized bed beside him and lay down. She was glad that everything was so easily forgiven about what happened between them. And she had to admit, it felt a lot nicer having Jesse around again. "So… you really don't know what happened?"

It was silent for a moment before Jesse realized what she had meant. "No. The more I think about it… I don't think it had anything to do with Krazy-8 and his cousin. I mean, I haven't heard from or seen them in like, forever. Besides, they know what they're doing. They don't need me."

"Well, have you pissed anyone off lately?"

"Ha, funny…" Jesse muttered. "Try just about everyone I know."

Haley propped herself up on her elbow and looked down at him, brow furrowed. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means exactly what I said. About everyone I know is pissed at me over something. Daryl won't say anything because he's too much of a sap but I'm pretty sure he's kinda getting sick of seeing my face every day. Not to mention I feel like I'm intruding every time Beth comes over. I usually try and disappear for a while," Jesse explained. "Then there was… us."

"I know Beth. She doesn't care about any of that. And I'm sure Daryl would have said something to you if you were getting on his nerves." Haley settled back down on the bed and threw an arm around him. "We're okay now. It was just a dumb mistake."

"Yeah, but then there's Merle. And Combo, Skinny Pete, Badger…"

"I thought they were your friends? With the exception of Merle."

"They are. Or were…" Jesse shook his head. "I don't know. It's complicated. I'm all clean and sober, and it's like, they don't even care."

"Then don't hang out with them. You don't need to be around that." Haley didn't want to criticize Jesse on his friends and tell him who and who not to hang out with, but the last thing she wanted was for him to fall back into his old ways.

"It's not that easy, yo. That'd be like you not hanging out with Beth."

"…But Beth isn't a bad influence on me."

Jesse sighed, exasperated. "They're not a bad influence. It's not like they're pressuring me into going back. They just don't get it."

Haley immediately bit her tongue and figured it best to drop the topic. She didn't want to get him all worked up over it nor was she really in the mood to set everything on fire by arguing. He was loyal. He was standing by his friends. That's it. That's how she had to look at it.

"What's going on with Merle then? That's Daryl's brother, right?" She recalled the name but it had been a while.

"Right. He's… just an asshole. I was the only one he knew he could get crystal from."

There was something in Jesse's tone that didn't settle with Haley. She wasn't sure what it was, but she was almost certain she felt him tense slightly at the mentioning of Merle—even though he had been the one to bring him up in the first place.

Haley found herself propped up on her elbow again. "Did he… Did he do this?"

Jesse placed a hand over the right side of his face. He wasn't providing her with a yes but he wasn't exactly providing her with a no either.

"So—so you knew all along? Were you trying to hide it?"

"What difference does it make?" Jesse removed his hand and looked back at Haley. "What's done is done, alright?"

"What difference does it make?" Haley climbed over Jesse and got off the bed. She walked to the other side of her room to retrieve her cell phone from the top of her dresser where she had set it down when they first walked in. "The difference is that you can call the cops on him. That's assault. Aggravated battery or something. He could have killed you for all we know—and for what?"

As soon as Haley flipped her phone open, Jesse had all but fallen off the bed trying to get up. He cursed under his breath and once he got his footing, he wrapped his arms around his chest. "Please don't call the cops on him. Just—" Jesse cringed. "Please don't call the cops. And please don't tell Daryl or Beth. Just keep this between us. Please."

Haley lowered her phone, her eyes locked onto Jesse. She swore he almost looked like he was about ready to cry. He looked absolutely miserable. And yet here he was, begging her not to call the cops on Merle Dixon for beating the shit out of him for no good reason other than not getting drugs?

"Jesse…" Haley set her phone down. She started to recognize it then. He wasn't just physically hurting, he was scared. "You can't just sweep this under the rug."

"Yeah, actually, I can." Jesse seemed to ease a bit seeing that she put her phone down. "Look, when something goes down over drugs, you don't go to the police. It's just, like, common sense. And seeing that he didn't kill me before, he sure as hell would find a way to if you called the cops on him."

Haley tried to formulate a plan that would ensure Jesse's safety from Merle, or anyone else for that matter, all while trying to make Merle pay for what he did. It wasn't like she could attack Merle herself. And the only way Jesse was truly safe was if he was never alone.

"Please," Jesse begged.

"I'm not calling the police," Haley informed him. He immediately sighed in relief. "But what if you just figured out a way to keep him happy or whatever? This Krazy-8 guy… couldn't he kinda take your place?"

"It's possible I guess. But I told Daryl I wouldn't sell to his brother."

"Technically, you're not?" Haley tried.

Jesse shuffled his feet back to her bed. "I don't see how this could end well."

"He attacked you because he wants you back in the business, right? The only way you win is if you hook him up with someone else. Then he'd have no reason to come after you."

"Sure, whatever…" Jesse eased himself back onto her bed. "I'll try calling Emilio tomorrow."

Haley forced a smile, hoping to have solved the problem. She was blindsided by the sudden turn of events and finding out that Jesse had known all along who attacked him. She kind of felt bad for bringing it up and pushing it.

"Once this is all settled, how about you call on that condo?" Haley maneuvered her way back onto the bed and over Jesse. She ran a hand under his shirt and rested it on his stomach. "You get your own place and you start to feel a bit better, well…" She trailed her hand down and latched a finger onto a belt loop.

Jesse groaned and buried his face under his hands. "You are such a damn tease."

Let me know what you think. And if you have any requests, send 'em my way! (No character is off limits.)