Summary: 1.17 - A concept in game theory. A result; a consequence. We all have times when we think, "What if I'd chosen differently?" I watched Diana hesitate between doing something for someone else, as she's very much used to, or doing something for herself. One small decision can completely overturn an outcome.
Note: Aren't we all a little fascinated with Fate? If there is such a thing? And if it does exist, when does it occur? Does it have specific moments, or one alone? When writing stories, we're all playing Fate, right? But I wanted to play it into this episode's series of events. I wondered how different it would have been if in that moment of hesitaion, Diana had chosen to help Adam and Cassie. I had a specific song in mind when I started writing this and it proved to fit perfectly.
For all Jake & Diana shippers, lets all join hands. ;D
Disclaimer: This is the work of fan fiction. None of the places, characters, or other names associated with this fic are mine. The lyrics used from Seven Devils belong to Florence + The Machine.
Chapter One
Part I:
"And now all your love will be exorcised
And we will find you saying it's to be harmonized.
And it's an even sum."
"Who'd you piss off now?"
Faye was in a nasty mood, more than usual due to her new conquest: Lee.
Cassie and Adam stood before the three of them, Melissa on Diana's right side where she looked less than curious to find out what they'd been called for. Something serious, according to Cassie. Diana had done her share of convincing to get Faye to come along with her and Melissa. If she was honest with herself, she knew it was because being alone with Cassie and Adam sounded about as much fun as jumping off a cliff head first. But with the tone in Cassie's voice came a foreboding. A kind that left Diana without a hint of knowing whether or not to panic now, or later.
"It was before our time," Cassie began saying. "A witch put a curse on our families."
"What kind of curse?" Diana asked, hating the fact that she felt cold even though her skin was warm underneath her clothing.
Adam answered, finally choosing to speak. "Apparently to keep our families from coming together."
The foreboding was forgotten.
Diana had an idea to what that meant, but she didn't want to face it. She didn't want to know anything about anything. On the outside, she remained motionless, her breathing even stilled. But in her mind, she was kicking and screaming something fierce.
"Last night... W- We activated it," Cassie forced herself to say.
Cassie wouldn't meet her eyes, which was decent because Diana had no idea what her face was doing. It was a slap in the face by the person she'd thought of most as a best friend, and the supposed love of her life. Even though Adam looked slightly uncomfortable, there was no regret or apology in his eyes. Adam had moved on, and pretty fast at that. Her termoil of emotional thoughts were cut short at the sound of Faye. Diana looked over to see Faye's hand slap over her mouth. She was in shock, but was excited at the gossip that was being handed over, rather than her having to investigate and put her nose where it didn't belong.
"So, you two finally graduated from hand holding and smooching. Congrats." The small piece of juicy news that had made her giddy was gone from Faye in an instant as she grew annoyed. "What does that mean for any of us?"
"It affects the whole circle," Cassie explained, her sharp tone pointed right at Faye.
"How?" Melissa asked.
"My grandmother said that one of us might die."
Diana's heart dropped to her stomach.
Faye was less impressed. "No offense, but the last time I saw your grandma, she was a little-"
"Faye..." Diana quickly cut her off before she said anything mean about a woman who couldn't help her sickness. Besides that, it was a sensitive thing for Cassie. She had no one left afterall, except her slightly sketchy father who was back in town for who knew how long.
"This is no joke," Cassie reminded Faye.
Melissa quickly blurted, "I have been feeling kinda tired."
Diana instantly added, "I wasn't feeling that great this morning."
"Uh-uh," Faye argued. "No one is dying! It's just a story your great-greats told their kids so they wouldn't have sex. It's abstinence education at work."
With the word said allowed, Diana felt slightly queezy in hearing it. Sex. Cassie and Adam had slept together. There it was. Out in the open.
Faye on the other hand, was perfectly fine and determined to find out about Lee, if there was even anything to figure out. He was probably pulling a Jake on her, but Diana didn't have the heart to tell her that she should have pulled away from him a bit. Then again, the last time Diana saw him, he was all over Faye. It had seemed he was into her just as much as she was him.
Stopping before the doorway, Faye turned around to see no one was following. "Are you two coming?" She snapped.
Melissa fixed her jacket on her arm and gave an apologetic glance to Cassie. "She's dealing with psycho-ex drama..."
Diana hesitated between just leaving the two to figure it out on their own, hoping they'd find a way to fix whatever situation they landed all of them in, or to stay and make sure it was done. Faye raised her eyebrows expectantly, but when Diana sighed, Faye must have seen the surrender in her body language. And more than likely the reluctancy in her face.
Faye shook her head. "Fine. Have fun dealing with your sad and demented triangle. See you later."
The room suddenly felt very large, and her very small.
"Faye's right," Adam started saying, pulling Diana from her woeful thoughts. "No one's dying." He didn't look, nor sound convinced.
Cassie glanced at Diana, then to Adam. "I still haven't heard from Jake."
It took a few seconds for Diana to realize they were staring at her.
"What?" And then it clicked. "Oh, no. No, no, no way."
Cassie put on a pleading face, her blue eyes large and innocent looking. "I need to talk to my dad and-"
Diana thrusted a hand out to Adam. "Why don't you go? You at least know him better than I do!"
Adam looked a little disgusted and even more so, disappointed that Diana would have even suggested it.
"It's not my place to just be like, Hey Jake, how's the curse? How do we even know he's the one who's affected?" Diana argued.
"That's why we need to go and find out."
"And by we you mean me." It wasn't a question and Cassie didn't take it as one.
"You don't have to tell him anything. Just tell him that something's up, and he needs to come over to my house."
Diana scoffed, tossing her arms out until they hit back at her sides. She was between a rock and a hard place and she felt it wouldn't be for the last time that day. "Jake's not exactly the kind to just go with the flow. He's going to figure me out. I'm not good at lying."
"That's not true," Adam cut in. "You're excellent at lying..." Without meaning to, Adam had brought up memories between them, and Diana simply wouldn't face them. "He won't know anything. Do you know how long it took for me to tell you were lying?"
"Fine," Diana snapped, not wanting to hear anymore. Or rather, she couldn't take hearing anymore.
She couldn't be angry with them. At the end of the day, she cared for them both, even if it felt like they'd completely disregarded her feelings. She knew she had to be resonable. They weren't going out of their way to hurt her. Sure, they weren't being very gentle, but she didn't want to be coddled. And Adam knew that about her. Better to have it straight than to be lied to.
"Jake's room is-"
"I know where Jake's room is." Diana said, cutting Cassie off. She instantly stopped herself right there on the sidewalk after they'd arrived back at Cassie's. Adam was thankfully unlocking the front door with Cassie's keys, out of hearing distance.
"I'm sorry. I'm..." Her voice trailed, not knowing how to say she was hurt, angry, and confused by a boy she'd grown up loving. Things had changed. Before, she could say little things here and there, and Cassie would nod as she listened. Now, Diana felt if she said anything, it'd be digging them into an even deeper awkward hole.
"I know. And I'm sorry, too."
Diana grinned back at Cassie, feeling like she could eventually find the silver lining to the dark cloud that seemed to be hovering over her.
Part II:
"Seven devils all around you
Seven devils in my house
See they were there when I woke up this morning
I'll be dead before the day is done."
He wasn't sure what was waking him this time.
Earlier, it was the sudden fever and the rush of cold moisture that had spread over his skin. Following closely after was the severe aching in his body, accompanied by the massive headache. And before all of that still, there were the dreams...
Spiders being formed in the palm of his hands which he held open in front of his dream-version of Cassie. It were as if he was displaying all of his dark sins to her. The snakes in another dream, had him following them into the clutter of trees that cut out any and all light. They whispered to him behind the hollows of trees, like some twisted and screwed up Harry Potter scene.
This time it was a bit different.
He pushed himself up, swinging his legs around as he tried expanding his hearing range, trying to get a single word from the mixture of voices around him. Jake couldn't tell if they were in his head, or in the room with him.
He didn't know which would have been worse.
The hushed voices went into instant silence, like someone had flipped a switch, when his door opened. Out of anyone, he'd expected Cassie to have barged in; she'd done it before. But he did a double take, seeing an unfamiliar form enter his room and instantly made him turn sideways.
She made a series of noises that Jake chalked up to embarrassment.
"I'm...really sorry. I- I was knocking, and you didn't answer so I thought something happened..." Her eyes darted around the room, her body turning in different directions as if she didn't know what to do with herself.
Jake felt like shit, so he wasn't about to give one with Diana having a heart-attack over barging in on him in his underwear.
"What in the world are you doing here?" He bent down, resting his elbows on his thighs as he tried to settle the teeter-tottering of his room.
"I'm supposed to check on you."
"Check on me? What for?"
"Were you sleeping?"
"That's typically what one does when they're alone in their own bed." Which wasn't completely right considering he could come up with a few opposite things, but he wasn't about to say it to Diana Meade, half naked, alone in a bedroom. "I'm getting sick, or I'm already sick and it's getting worse. I feel like crap, been having weird dreams..." He was rambling and he wasn't sure why. His brain and mouth weren't connecting with eachother normally.
Her shoes thumped over the floor as she walked over to him, apparently forgetting her unease with him showing so much skin.
"What is that?"
Jake frowned, looking around himself until she grabbed his arm, turning it so he could see what she was talking about. At first, it looked like a drawing. A tree with only the branches drawn along his forearm, but it wasn't a drawing at all. In fact, it looked like his veins had risen just underneath the surface of his skin. That wouldn't have startled or worried him as much if they weren't so dark. Like a poison was seeping into his body.
He looked up at Diana, her fear apparent on her face, and in her eyes. He could see it clearly when they lifted to look into his own.
She dropped his arm, stepping back as if remembering how much she disliked him. How much of an unknown person to her he was.
"Cassie wanted you to come to her place."
But she'd sent Diana? Of all people?
"Why didn't she come here herself?"
"Because..." Diana shook her hair out of her face, stepping back a bit. She waved a hand at the door. "Just, come over as soon as possible. It's urgent."
"Apparently it is. You just said urgent."
"Jake, this isn't a joke. Something bad's going on, and-"
"What is it?" He wasn't about to beat around the bush. Whatever it was, he wanted it now. "What's bad?"
She sighed, trying to advert her eyes when he stood to get clothes. "I'll just meet you at Cassie's."
Jake watched Diana, keeping notes on the way she was acting along with what she was saying. Her face turned pink at the sound of him pulling up his zipper after he'd managed to get his jeans on. She wasn't even looking at him, and she was embarrassed. And it wasn't some girlish act she was putting on, either. Diana Meade had always seemed beyond her years, but it was still strange to see a teenage girl acting like...a lady.
"No, you won't," he told her, sounding as if he were sure she was going to listen, but he wasn't.
She sighed again, but didn't argue him on it. He was thankful since he felt sick enough, having off-course thoughts, hearing voices... He didn't feel like dealing with someone challenging him just to prove they could handle him. Or was he just too used to those types of people?
He pulled the shirt over his head and reached for his hoodie when he misstepped, hitting his shoulder into the wall. Agitated now, he yanked his hoodie on, feeling a hand that was much too delicate for his liking. He yanked his arm away, turning his eyes down on Diana, slightly appalled at her for trying to comfort him.
"I'm not someone you have to worry about mothering." He didn't mean it in the dry and harsh tone that it came out in, but with the way he was feeling, apologizing would have been a useless amount of time and breath.
Diana's mouth opened as if she were about to retort with something just as harsh, but her face softened after she breathed in.
"Fair enough," she replied simply.
Jake, already dazed and feeling worn down with having done nothing but get out of his bed, stared down at her in confusion. He had flat out been an asshole to her, and she hadn't taken it personally, nor had she let herself get angry with him.
"You're always like this, aren't you?" He hadn't meant to ask, but the filter in his mouth was proving by the minute to have taken a vacation.
"Like what, Jake?" She asked on a deep sigh.
He felt his nose scrunching as he pulled on his boots. "Good." With his second boot on, he glanced up at her from the edge of his bed he'd sat on. Her arms were folded over her chest, but otherwise, she seemed calm. "What are you trying to prove? And to who? Adam?" Something was egging him on, telling him with a smile that breaking down the brightness in Diana, searching for the dark, would add to some unknown accomplishment.
"Some people just try to be the better version of themselves, Jake. You should try it sometime."
Try to be a better version of himself? He couldn't even imagine where to start, let alone if he even had a better version of himself.
She turned and walked to the door, but he wasn't done with their arguing. It kept him distracted from the random pain that kept coming, and that was a good enough reason for him. The voices kept away, hearing his own voice and someone else's.
He wondered when he'd finally strike her nerve; what exactly would make her go off? Rage resided in everyone. Some just found tapped into it easier than others. Diana Meade was no different.
"And some people put up a front because they're the ones with the deepest secrets," he told her.
She turned to face him in the doorway, not backing away when he leaned down into her face.
His was voice condenscending. "What exactly is Little Miss Perfect hiding?"
For a moment, he thought she was finally going to get mean. Her eyes narrowed and her smile definetly wasn't on the kind side.
"Now I completely understand why you and Faye didn't work out. She's the female version of you."
Part III:
"And they take your souls
And what have we done?
Can it be undone?"
Jake stood back against the wall, his skin beginning to look dewy, the shadows under his eyes looking darker by the minute. He was losing the control he always had in his face, and his mind was beginning to follow suit. It was enough to make it clear he was the one being affected. Why, remained to be a constant question in the forefront of her mind.
"So, what am I here for?"
Adam had put distance between Jake and himself. Diana couldn't help but wonder if it was so he could see Jake's reaction coming at him. Jake was certainly a guy of few words. His actions spoke louder. Not to mention his very presence, which weighed on her shoulders like a heavy backpack.
"It's a curse," Adam repeated in the same way Diana had heard from Cassie, just an hour earlier.
Cassie went on to explain, "On our families. If a Blake and a Conant..." She paused, looking back at Adam, more than likely for help, but what she obviously didn't know was Adam wasn't strong in that respect. He had already mentally prepared himself for Jake reacting, not to explain himself to someone he basically loathed.
"If a Blake and a Conant, what?" Jake hurried along, waiting with a hard expression on his face. Probably more from some sort of physical and mental pain that none of them had any real idea about.
"Uh..." Cassie's expression showed her trying to think of a way to lay it out.
Diana couldn't help but turn her eyes on Jake. To gage his reaction and see if his was in the same relation to her own. At least he was getting a much softer version of the information.
Jake's frown fell, his eyebrows lifting from being pulled together in thought as he raised his chin.
He'd put it together on his own. And now he looked more fed up than anything.
"How am I dragged into this?" In afterthought, he actually looked to Diana. She was thankful for the more gentle look he gave towards her, but that didn't make anything better. If anything, he probably felt bad for her. Her only boyfriend for years, whom she'd been in love with, had dropped her as if she'd never existed. It was a small ounce of pity Jake felt, if anything. "And why's Diana in this?" He let the anger in his voice rise, turning his hard glare on Cassie and Adam then. "What do we have to do with what you two do in your free time?"
"The curse is someone in the circle could die," Adam admitted in a quick manner.
Jake's jaw set, his body tensing. He might have looked angry, but Diana figured it was fear. Anger just happened to be his easiest emotion to reach. To use in time's when he wasn't sure how to act, or what to show.
Cassie jumped in then. "Whatever it is, we will find a way to keep it from spreading."
"It took a curse to figure out being with Adam was a colossal mistake?"
Diana stared at him, in awe of how simple it was for him to speak his mind when it truly mattered. His bravery in ignoring, or simply not caring, how a person would feel or act towards you after you laid out the truth. It was a confidence someone was naturally born with, rather than learned to master on their own. A true knowing of oneself.
She wondered how empowering something like that would feel.
Cassie's dad called out, gaining everyone's attention. It was obvious they were all relieved.
"Hey... I think I found the way to fix this." As they walked over, John bent the Blake's Book of Shadows for Cassie and Adam to glance at. Diana stopped herself from fitting in where she didn't belong. Normally, she would have taken control of the situation; used to being the leader for her circle, but this wasn't her battle to fight. She was simply there to help.
"This is a recipe for an elixir that Amelia tracked down," he continued saying. "I think this'll break the curse."
"If she had an elixir, why didn't she use it?"
Diana knew Adam was talking about his own father and Amelia. John looked Adam straight in the eye, seemingly a bit thrown by his honesty.
"I don't know..."
"Who cares?" Jake shadowed in, picking another wall to lean against. It was becoming more and more apparent that he was doing it to lessen the use of his muscles. "Let's just do it."
"These are rare ingredients," John told them after taking the book back to look over. "But there's a dealer in town, Calvin Wilson. Owns an antiquites shop."
At the corner of Diana's eye, she could see Jake oddly pick himself back up from against the wall.
"We must have something at the abandoned house." There was more character in his voice than there had been since his first words. It made her pay closer attention to him, but she kept her mouth shut. "My brother grew a lot of weird plants," Jake said, his voice going softer.
John handed Cassie's book back, giving Jake a look Diana couldn't quite figure out.
"I think Calvin's our best option," he said in a daring way to Jake, his eyes still on him. As if he suspected something of him.
Diana did, too. Especially with the worried expression Jake had, turning his face away from all of them. It was strangely vunerable of him, and it didn't sit naturally with his character. She followed him out of the house with the rest of them close behind.
