A Piece of My Past

A/N: This is set during season seven, when Clare is thirteen.

Summary: Clare confides in her best friend Jake, about Darcy's suicide attempt.

Clare Edwards sniffled and swiped at her reddened eyes and tear streaked cheeks, as he ran across her backyard, climbing clumsily over the small fence, to her neighbor's house. Her tiny feet carried her to the big tree with the treehouse, in the yard. She knew that her best friend, Jacob Martin had to be home from school and she needed to talk to him. Maybe he could help her make sense of everything. Climbing up the ladder, she climbed into the treehouse, spotting Jake in the corner, headphones covering his ears as he flipped through an old Superman comic. His homework lay forgotten, beside of him.

Jake look up, blue eyes widening as he yanked the headphones from his head. "Claredy-Cat?" He voiced tentatively, crawling torwards her to rest a comforting hand on her shoulder. He'd never seen his best friend so upset before, and they'd known eachother since they were three years old.

She began to sob loudly as she threw her skinny, little arms around his neck, head burrowing into his shoulder.

His arms wrapped around her waist as he furrowed his brow, in confusion. "What's wrong?" He asked gently, as he rubbed her back, softly. "Does this have something to do with why you weren't in school, today?"

Clare pulled away, hands resting on his shoulders as she met his gaze with watery blue eyes. "Darcy hurt herself yesterday. It's why I was called out of Mrs. Petersons' class so early." She said, hicupping as she tried to calm herself down. She leaned back against the ridged wall of the treehouse and squeezed her eyes shut, arms wrapping around her bent legs as she rested her chin on her knees.

Jake swallowed hard, praying that his best friend didn't mean what he thought that she meant. "Well, she's okay, isn't she?"

She choked on her sob and shook her head, face and nose red. "No. She has to stay for a few days. They want to make sure that she doesn't do it again. She won't even say why she did it in the first place Jake! I knew that something was wrong, though! Ever since we came back from that church retreat, that she skipped out on, she's been acting different."

"You're thirteen, Clare. You couldn't have known that she'd try to..." He trailed off and shook his head, wrapping his arms around her again. "It's not your fault. You're a good sister. You always have been."

"Not good enough." Clare mumbled softly under her breath, not meaning for Jake to hear her.

"You listen to me, Claredy-Cat!" He said firmly, gazing down at her. "What Darcy did isn't your fault. When she's ready to tell you why she did it, she will."

Clare gave him the first, real smile, since the night before. "You always know what to say, Jakey." She said, giggling when she saw his scowl at her nickname for him. She let out a squeal as he moved his hand down to tickle her sides with his slender fingers until she began to laugh.

Jake smirked and laughed along with her. He stood up abruptly, backing away from Clare when she made a move torwards him.

"Jake! Why did you do that? You know I hate being tickled!" She whined, glaring up at him.

"Hmm...I must've forgotten." He said innocently, shrugging his shoulders as he smiled down at her.

"I am going to make you pay Jacob Martin!" She told him firmly, eyes bright and a determined smile etched upon her lips.

Jake grinned as he began to climb out of the treehouse. "Well, you'll have to catch me first, won't ya?" He asked of her.

The End