A/N Hey everybody! :) I'm currently obsessed with this song (it makes me cry every time I listen to it...don't ask), and thought that it'd go pretty well with a Cade fic. This was originally gonna be a one-shot, but it ended up being waaaay too long. So now it's a multi-chapter. Hope you enjoy, and please review! xoxo

Come stop your crying. It will be alright. Just take my hand. Hold it tight. I will protect you from all around you. I will be here. Don't you cry.

Fifteen-year-old Jade West was awoken suddenly from her nap by a faint knock on the front door. She groaned, dragging herself out of bed, clearly in no hurry to answer whoever was bothering her while she was trying to get some rest. She trudged down the double staircase, headed towards the front of her house, as the light tapping on the door persisted. "I'm coming," she said loudly, irritated. She finally reached the door, and proceeded to jerk it open angrily. "What!?" she asked with a huff, but her once-angered facial expression changed to a look of confusion at the sight of Cat Valentine, her best friend, standing on the front porch with tears streaming down her face.

The usually-tan girl looked a lot paler than what seemed to be normal for her, and her mascara and eyeliner were rubbed all over the place, causing her cheeks to be a mess of make-up and tears. Jade didn't know what was wrong, but she began to feel pity (something that didn't come often for her) on the small girl, and quickly pulled her inside the house. "What the hell is the matter with you?" she questioned, not in a mean way, but in a genuinely curious and somewhat nosy way.

Cat continued to sob, shaking her head and looking at the ground. Jade sighed. "Well you're not leaving this house until you tell me what happened," Jade said softly but sternly. The petite girl nodded in understanding, wrapping her arms around herself as her tears kept falling.

Jade let out yet another sigh at her overly sensitive friend, but decided that she should help her. She grabbed Cat's hand and lightly dragged her into the bathroom. "Your face is a mess," the gothic girl said bluntly. She picked up a dark washcloth from the small stack of towels on the shelf next to the sink, running it under warm water for a few seconds before gently placing it on Cat's cheek and beginning to rub her soft skin in small circles. She eventually moved the fabric to her forehead, then across her eyelids, down her nose, and all around her mouth and chin, brushing away the uneven make-up.

Cat stayed still while her friend washed her (something she was rarely capable of doing), and her tears began to slow down. Once Jade was finished with her job, she took a step back to look at the red head. "You look much prettier without it anyways," she said matter-of-factly.

Cat tried to smile, but couldn't really seem to remember how. So she daintily stretched out one of her arms and gently took hold of Jade's hand, before bringing it to her lips and pressing a soft kiss to it. Jade would've been a little taken aback if she hadn't been used to Cat's usual characteristic of being a touchy-feely person, and she even gave the girl a slight smile, glad to see that Cat wasn't totally different from her normal self.

Jade plopped down on the tile floor, motioning for Cat to come sit down beside her. The brown-eyed beauty slowly crouched down and arranged herself so that she was sitting Indian style without saying a word. Jade tilted her head a little, observing the petite girl staring back at her. She obviously wasn't going to say anything if she didn't need to, so Jade decided to speak first. "Please tell me what's wrong, Cat," the brunette pleaded softly. Jade hated begging; but it seemed to be the only way that she could get Cat to respond.

Cat sighed, looking at the floor. She traced the cream-colored squares with her small, perfectly polished finger before lifting her head up to look at Jade. Her voice cracked a little as she spoke for the first time that night. "Daddy was yelling at me again. He said I was a bad girl."

Jade rolled her eyes a little. "Cat, we've had this conversation a million times. You need to stop listening to what your da-"

The smaller girl interrupted her by lifting up her shirt, revealing a large bruise extending all across her tummy, then looked down at the floor again in shame.

Jade's jaw dropped. She had always known that Cat and her dad didn't exactly get along, and that her father often called her untrue, hurtful names. Which was wrong, yes. But nothing like this. "Cat, I…" she trailed off, not being able to find the right words. She genuinely frowned as she saw a few of her friend's teardrops hit the floor, making small little puddles on the tile.

The amount of hurt that Jade was feeling for Cat at that moment was shocking even to her, and she just couldn't help but pull the weeping girl into her lap, stroking her hair and gently rocking her to and fro, trying as hard as she could to get her to stop crying.

But the sobbing didn't cease, and in between whimpers of pure sadness and fear, Cat was able to spit out, "Why would he do this to me?" Jade sighed, squinting her eyes shut in an attempt to keep herself from crying.

"I don't know, baby girl," she whispered against her friend's vibrant hair. Jade was somewhat surprised that she hadn't sprinted out the door by now to go find Cat's father and kill him, considering that she usually resulted to violence to handle things. But she was sure that Cat had had more than enough of that for one day.

The two teenagers stayed there on the bathroom floor for at least another half hour, Cat bawling her eyes out and Jade trying with all of her might to get her to stop. It wasn't until she placed a soft kiss on Cat's forehead that her crying stopped…even if it was just for a moment.

Jade could've sworn that she heard Cat gasp a little when her lips touched her skin, which confused her immensely. But it was certainly preferable to seeing her best friend cry, so she did it again. And again. And before she knew it, Cat's tears had gone away almost completely.

A/N So how was it? :) I think what I'll do is go through one line of the song for each chapter, minus the first two choruses. I'll save that for last. Reviews are greatly appreciated! :) #CadeFTW xoxo