A/N: Another fic I got the idea for while on vacation in Cali. I heard the song Not Strong Enough by Apocalyptica ft. Brent Smith and it must have been around the same time I read the season 3 synopsis because I got this idea really strongly, like I could see it as a music video in my head and everything. I recommend everyone go listen to it before or during or after you read this. The title is a lyric from that song. I really wanted to write something so I sat down today and wrote this. I started it at 2:00 PM and less than six hours later it's complete and I'm uploading it. So yay. :) Enjoy!

It was finally The Day.

Saturday, August 30, 2014. The end of Rebel's Boot Camp. It was strange to think that Jax Novoa had been there for ten weeks because, while it had seemingly dragged on at the time, it now seemed like it had flown by. It had been pretty much the same thing every day, very monotonous, and the only source of escape Jax had was this witch he'd met, Mia Vélez.

Since they were both magical beings with the same personality, they'd become fast friends: every night, they'd sneak out and engage in whatever reckless activities they could think of. They always got back before someone caught them, omitting once in mid-July. A guard had checked their bunks early and noticed they were missing. That was the only time in two and half months they had to use the memory wiping spell. Considering Jax was Jax and Mia was basically the long-loosely-curled-blonde-haired American female version of Jax, it was something they prided themselves on.

Now it was sometime Jax didn't know on Saturday, August 30, 2014 and he was on an airplane back to Miami, Florida and he'd brought a souvenir along. If the mischievous blonde counted as a souvenir. Mia sat in the seat next to him, sleeping soundly. She was going to be staying with Jax for a few weeks because she didn't like her parents and Jax lived by himself and the flight attendants hadn't refused her, of course, because she had a ticket that had been purchased months ago.

At least that's what she made sure the print said when she conjured up the ticket.

Jax stared out his window and tried not to think. He tried to focus on the clouds, but unfortunately they had a magnificent natural beauty to them, exactly like the person he was trying not to think about.

Stop it. It's done. You're going to tell her it's done.

He shut his eyes and let himself doze off. The next time he opened them was because Mia was shaking his arm, telling him it was time to get up. They were at the Miami airport.

The cute Australian took a deep breath and grabbed his carry-on suitcase. He and Mia each only had one and neither had checked any bags; they'd used a spell to shrink everything for their convenience.

Jax followed Mia up the exit ramp. When they got to the top, she stepped aside and let him take the lead. But Jax had been half asleep the mere two other times he'd been here himself, so they were pretty much blindly maneuvering their way through the airport.

"So," Mia began in her raspy, Katherine Pierce-like voice as the two stepped onto a down escalator. "Tell me again what you're gonna do."

Jax groaned. "Mia, we've been over this a billion times."

She smiled, flashing her perfectly white teeth. "Yes, and not one of those billions of times were you convincing." When he rolled his eyes, she said, "If I don't believe you, why do you think she will? I've known you a few weeks; she's known you a year."

"Fine. After I unpack, I'm going to find Emma. I'm going to tell her I did a lot of thinking this summer and I've decided it'd be best for both of us to see other people."

"Twenty bucks says you chicken out."

"Twenty bucks says you're staying at my house and I can kick you out any minute I want, so I'd show a little respect if I was you."

She scoffed. "What's this 'respect' you speak of?"

Jax shook his head. The last time he'd been close with someone so much like himself was when he was dating E, except E was worse than Jax ever wanted to be. He shook his head again, harder this time, trying to erase the clone from his mind. E was part of Emma, and Emma was someone Jax was no longer going to be involved with.

From the moment E was defeated until the day before Jax left for boot camp, neither he nor Emma had known where they stood. Sometimes they hung out at The Seven, except they didn't know if they were hanging out or if they were on dates. Sometimes Emma hung out with Daniel Miller at The Seven, but Jax was pretty sure they were there on dates. It was a conflicting love triangle that took a lot of effort, and if the past ten weeks had taught Jax anything, it was that putting a lot of effort into someone who didn't like to do anything fun and rarely ever wanted to use her magic was not something he was willing to do anymore.

His brain understood that good and well. The problem was his heart did not.

It was finally The Day.

Saturday, August 30, 2014. The day Jax returned from Rebel's Boot Camp. The day Emma Alonso had been dreading since two weeks ago when she'd made The Decision.

His plane was landing at 6:00 PM which meant he should be home by 6:30 PM.

It was now 6:11 PM and Emma was a bucket of nerves.

Her hands shakily tried to clasp the necklace Daniel had given her around her neck. She could see them shaking in her full body length mirror. Finally she got so frustrated she cast a spell to clasp the necklace for her. Everything else she'd done to get ready, she'd done the old-fashioned way: she'd zipped up her white strapless dress with the hemline that flared out just above the knee (think Ariana Grande's dresses from her bow era), shrugged on her soft pink jacket, stepped into her soft pink flats, and straightened her hair all without using magic. Normally doing things that way made her feel good, but today, taking the time to do them made her even jittery…er.

Suddenly a girl whistled from her window. Emma jumped and turned around to find her best friend Andi Cruz climbing into her room.

"Well don't we look stunning!" she greeted, inspecting Emma's outfit.

The witch tried to smile, but it just wasn't happening. The corners of her mouth refused to cooperate with her brain. "Thanks," she said, looking away in the hopes Andi wouldn't notice.

It didn't work.

"Are you sure about this, Em?" she asked.

"Positive."

"Why do I get the feeling that you're lying? Oh wait, I know: because you are."

Emma sighed with exhaustion. "Andi—"

"Jax isn't going to believe you and Daniel's going to be able to tell you're upset." She gave her best friend a serious look. "Are you sure you want to do this tonight? Sure you don't want to give yourself a couple of days to maybe, I don't know, hang out with Jax now that he's back to make sure you're positive—"

"You're making it sound like you want me to be with Jax." Emma raised an accusatory/questioning eyebrow. "You know, Mr. Evil Lying Cheating Wizard?" Emma didn't think of Jax in that way, but last she'd checked, Andi did.

The tomboy twirled the red streak in her hair—she'd swapped colors this summer—deep in thought. She took a moment to think before she spoke, something she usually didn't do. But this was important and she needed to get the wording right. "I want you to be with someone who makes you happy," she said at last.

"And Daniel makes me happy."

"Then why are you so nervous to tell Jax you don't want to see him anymore?"

Emma opened her mouth and desperately searched for the right answer. But the "right" answer (the honest one) was the wrong one, and she was not going to say it out loud. This was the decision she'd made; she wasn't backing down now.

Over the past ten weeks, she'd spent a lot of time going on dates with Daniel and just hanging out with him, too—they worked at the same place and lived across the street from each other, after all. It was during this time away from Jax that Emma had realized she wanted to be with someone she felt at ease around.

And she felt very at ease around Daniel. He didn't pressure her to use magic all the time (though he had become chill with her being a witch), he didn't live by the Drake Parker phrase, "If it feels good, do it," and he liked her glittery, scrapbook-girl personality. Nothing was official yet but Emma had a feeling that was going to change tonight. Daniel had asked her out to Barton G. (a super fancy restaurant; not his garage) for dinner, and she could only imagine it was because he was going to pop the question.

But before that happened, she wanted to take care of the Jax thing. When he'd left for boot camp, the fate of "them" had been up in the air. Now, Emma knew the fate of "them" was nonexistent. And she wanted to do the right thing, the admirable thing, by letting him know that before she got back together with Daniel.

Just calm down, she told herself. After you do this, all your nerves will go away, you and Daniel will be a couple again, and everything will be perfect.

"I know what I'm doing," she said at last.

For a split second, doubt was written all over Andi's face. But then she forced a smile and said, "I trust you. So, uh, let's run through this one more time, shall we?" She perched herself on the foot of Emma's bed and looked up at her. "Tell me what you're gonna do."

"I'm going to go to Jax's house and tell him we need to talk. I'm going to say I think it'd be best for both of us if we saw other people, and then I'm going to catch a bus to the restaurant and meet up with Daniel for our date."

Andi slowly nodded. "Good, good. Now tell me again, but this time try not to look like you're gonna puke."

Emma gave her The Look, the one she reserved for expressing her irritation.

"What? I don't like you that way and I'm not convinced you mean it. So imagine trying to convince the guy who's in lo—"

"Don't say it!" Emma cut her off quickly. "He… He's Jax. I'm sure he was never… that. He just liked me."

"Likes."

"We don't know that. He could have stopped liking me or met someone over summer or—"

"And again: not convinced."

Emma took a deep, cleansing breath then slowly let it out, trying to exhale her nerves. It worked for a split second. She grabbed her clutch and checked her phone just to be sure she had all the details right—Daniel's text said Barton G. at 7:00 PM, just as she thought—and couldn't help but notice the current time.

She turned to Andi and said, "Look, I should get going. Daniel's reservation is for seven but he said it'd be good to get there a little early and it's 6:15 now and it's a bit of walk from my house to Jax's so by the time I get there—"

Andi stood and held up her hands. "Say no more. I have an entire night's worth of Zombie Apocalypse 3 to play, anyway." She started for the window but then stopped, turned back, and gave her best friend a hug. Emma was surprised by the gesture; Andi was not the touchy-feely type. Like, ever.

"Good luck."

"Thanks," Emma said in barely a whisper.

And then Andi was gone and Emma was alone with her nerves.

She rolled her shoulders back, gave her reflection the best smile she could muster, and marched out the door.

Emma arrived at Jax's house at 6:33 PM. Which would have been okay if she hadn't then wasted five minutes standing on his porch step, staring at his door. But that's exactly what she did and was still doing because she couldn't move because she felt like she was going to pass out. The air was hot and humid and there was loud hard rock music blaring from inside the house and it just wasn't a good combination on her already upset stomach.

"Come on, Emma," she chanted to herself. "Just knock on the door, go in there, and tell him. Once you do that, everything will be fine."

Right?

She checked her phone. It was now 6:39 PM. The bus ride would be fifteen minutes at least. Not only was she not going to be early, she was going to be late if she didn't get her butt inside right now. Barton G. was so expensive and Daniel had spent a good chunk of his paycheck on this night and she absolutely could not be so disrespectful as to show up late.

So, taking yet another deep breath, she knocked on the door and waited. A full minute went by and Jax didn't come to the door. She knocked harder and waited, only to achieve the same result. "Jax!" she yelled, but she could barely hear herself over the music, so she was positive he couldn't.

6:41 PM.

Emma hated what she was about to do, but she was left with no choice. She cast a spell to unlock the door and let herself inside. It was an invasion of privacy to enter Jax's house without his permission, but she needed to talk to him right away, even if she was dreading this conversation. It was the only way to calm her nerves; ending things between them would make her feel better.

Except that wasn't the truth and her heart knew it, no matter how much her brain tried to convince it otherwise.

"Jax?" Emma called as she walked up the stairs. His bedroom was on the second floor at the left end of the hallway. When Emma reached the top of the staircase, she realized the music was blaring from the right end of the hallway. Maybe Jax's sisters lived in that room? She'd never met or even seen a picture of them, but from what Jax had told her, she hadn't expected them to be into hard rock music.

She shook the thought away as she shakily walked toward Jax's room. The door was open and Emma could see a few T-shirts floating around in the air, folding themselves then putting themselves away in Jax's dresser. That meant he was definitely in there.

Emma was going to throw up.

No, you're fine, she lied to herself. She made herself take those last few steps separating her from the door frame. Switching her clutch and phone to her left hand, she stuck her right hand through the door frame and knocked on the wall. Then she peeked her head inside and—

—had the breath stolen out of her lungs.

Jax was standing in front of his closet, which meant he'd been facing the opposite direction, but he'd turned toward the door when he heard her knock. And when the two of them met eyes, the entire universe stopped. Emma's hand lost its grip on her clutch and phone and they fell to the floor. Jax's mind lost its focus on his levitating spell and his luggage fell to the floor. Their minds were on the same wavelength, saying things like this:

Did he seriously get even cuter over the summer?

I didn't think it was possible for her to get any more beautiful. How wrong I was.

His hair looks so good.

Her tan is really nice.

I missed him so much.

I missed her so much.

I want him.

I want her.

And then, at the same time, the universe started back up for both of them. Without saying a word, Emma ran across the room and jumped into Jax's outstretched arms. Their lips met as they held each other and the rest of the world disappeared. It was Jax and Emma and Emma and Jax and no one else in existence. Jax's hands on her waist and Emma's hands on his neck had never felt more right. This moment belonged to them—the "them" that had just been beautifully re-awoken; the "them" that was very much alive—and they didn't intend on letting it pass anytime soon.

There was no way either of them could have noticed Mia had turned off her music and was now standing in Jax's doorway, watching them. There was no way either of them could have noticed her steal Emma's clutch and phone and check Daniel's text with the location and time of the date. And there was no way either of them could have noticed her smirk then transport herself to said restaurant.

Once she was outside of Barton G., Mia glanced around to make sure no one was looking before casting a spell in her head to change her clothes. Her ripped black tank top, red acid-wash skinny jeans, and black ankle boots became a little black dress and heels. She zapped Emma's purple clutch into a red one, zapped her hair into a messy bun with a few loose curls framing her face, and sauntered into the restaurant.

"Name?" the maître d' asked when Mia stopped in front of his podium.

"Emma Alonso," she said sweetly, placing the phone in the clutch then zipping it closed. "I have a reservation for seven o'clock with my boyfriend, Daniel Miller."

"Ah." He nodded then started walking toward the booths. "Right this way. He's seated in the back."

Mia followed the man and smirked to herself. This was going to be so much fun. Jax had told her all about this Daniel Miller guy, how he was a total goody two shoes loser and wasn't fond of magic. Oh, was she going to have a field day messing with him.

"Your table, madam," the maître d' said, stopping in front of a booth. A guy with short brown hair who must have been Daniel was facing the other way. He was so busy checking his phone he didn't realize there were two people standing right next to him.

"Thank you," she said with a nod. Once the man was gone, Mia bit her lip and walked over to the other side of the booth. Her butt was two inches from the seat when she and Daniel met eyes.

Mia's breath caught in her throat. This Daniel Miller guy was really cute. Usually she was attracted to guys who were hot, but this guy was cute: his blue eyes were dreamy and he was wearing a fancy black tux and nothing about him gave Mia the impression he was a loser.

Jax Novoa, you are such a liar.

"Uh, who are you?" he asked, his brow furrowing with confusion.

For the first time in her life, a teenage boy was making Mia uncomfortable. She suddenly felt like she needed to apologize for not being who he was expecting, only that would be stupid. She wasn't sorry in the slightest for not being the person he was expecting; she just didn't want him to be mad at her.

Since when do I care what anyone thinks of me? Especially this human; I came here to mess with him! But that face…

Change of plans, she decided. She composed herself enough to sit the rest of the way down then said, "I'm Emma's friend, Mia."

"Mia?"

Immediately, her face heat up with a blush. She really liked the way her name sounded on his lips. She nodded, tucking a curl behind her ear.

Daniel seemed to blush himself as he watched her do this. Ohmigosh, she thought, he is too adorable. "Um, Emma never mentioned you..."

"We just met the other day," Mia said, waving a hand dismissively.

"Oh." Daniel cleared his throat then said a bit awkwardly, "Um, not to be rude, Mia, but what are you doing here? Tonight's supposed to be a sort of special night for Emma and me."

She widened her blue eyes just a bit then said, "Oh. Well, this is awkward."

"What?" he asked in a tone that told her his suspicions were rising.

"Emma asked me to come here because she didn't want to tell you herself…"

"Tell me what?"

Mia could barely contain her grin. "She's back together with Jax."

Daniel's jaw dropped. "Sh… No. No, she's not. There's no way. This entire summer, we—"

"Look, I'm sorry to be the one to break it to you, Daniel, but they're definitely back together." She leaned forward, lowered her voice, and said, "They were busy in his bedroom when I left to come here."

The brunette boy's expression told Mia he was a combination of heartbreak and rage. It physically pained her to see him like that. She'd purposely used the word "busy" to make him imagine more than kissing; she'd wanted him to get so mad at Emma he'd embrace having dinner with her instead. But she hadn't meant to hurt him.

She reached her thin arm across the table and took Daniel's hand in hers. "Hey. Don't be sad." She smiled. "You have me."

Daniel gazed into her eyes for a very long time before his mood finally shifted enough for him to speak. He said, "Well, since you're here, go ahead and order whatever you'd like. For real; I already planned on spending a lot tonight, so don't hold back."

She chuckled softly. "You'd do that for a stranger?"

He smiled just a little as his eyes traveled over her face, her hair, her dress. She's really pretty… He squeezed her hand, leaned forward, and said, "You won't be a stranger if we spend the next two hours getting to know each other."

On Monday 8/25/14, I spent pretty much all day making a Jemma video then I uploaded it to YouTube. The next day, Tuesday 8/26/14, I tweeted it to Rahart and Paola, asking if there was any chance they'd watch it. AND THEY BOTH DID! Rahart even replied saying, "wow great edit I like it!" I was so happy I was shaking, guys, like oh my gosh. Jackie Frazey also favorited my tweet to Rahart and Paola! Oh my goodness it was amazing and I'm so thankful for all of that! If you'd like to watch the video I'm talking about, the link is in my profile. :)

Review? :)