This is a continuation/sequel to my first fic, The New Teacher. I suggest reading that one first, if only to get a better idea of the characters.

Teenage Jim and his teacher - no, friend - Sebastian Moran. There's more to come, but I'm not sure when it will be ready. Again, thanks to my brilliant Jim, littleclaudy.

Jim was already in Sebastian's classroom when he came into school at seven thirty. "Jesus!" Sebastian exclaimed, surprised to see him there. "What are you doing in here?" Jim and Sebastian had been spending more and more time together since that first conversation. Jim often sacrificed his free periods to sit and talk with him, but he had never broken into his locked classroom and waited for him. Sebastian wasn't altogether surprised at this behaviour; Jim had done stranger things.

The boy stood up and beamed at Sebastian, (he had now taken to calling him by his first name when they were alone together), glad to see him, even though it was only yesterday that they had last spoken. However, it wasn't just his fondness for his teacher and friend that had brought him here so early. Things at home were getting...difficult. Actually, they were getting rather unbearable. But Jim, still fiercely protective of his private life, if not so much about his emotions, didn't want Sebastian to know that. "Morning, Seb, have a good evening?"

"Nothing particularly exciting, but yeah, it was pleasant enough. And you?" he asked, setting his things down and organising them before giving Jim his full attention.

Jim gave him a look and rolled his eyes, although it was not in the same annoyed fashion as he used to. Now it was more of a 'what are you like?' sort of gesture, which was almost always followed by a smile. "I'm seventeen years old, Seb. Not really much for me to do. Unless you count homework, which I completed to an excellent standard as you will see later."

"Lovely. I'm so proud of you, Jimmy," he said, as a parent to a small child. "Now, back to my original question, why are you in here?"

Jim grinned and laughed a bit, partly amused by Seb's comment, and partly wanting to avoid his second question. "Felt like it," he said vaguely, "Home is boring at the moment."

"How long have you been here?" he asked. He knew better than to ask Jim why his home life was boring. Any question regarding his family or his childhood and Jim would completely shut down.

"Since five," Jim informed him as though this was perfectly normal and reasonable behaviour.

"Why?" Sebastian asked in disbelief. What teenager gets up early to go to school three hours before he has to be there?

Jim shrugged yet again, not liking the expression on Sebastian's face. It was a mixture of concern and confusion. "I was sloping around the town," he explained, "And then I got bored of that. So I decided to come here."

"You decided to break into my classroom and wait for me, even though you knew I wouldn't be here for another two and a half hours?" he asked skeptically. "And you expect me to believe nothing's wrong with this?"

"Don't ask me questions," ordered Jim, looking fiercely at Sebastian, "It just makes things awkward. I can't be bothered with awkward today. Awkward is boring."

Sebastian sighed. Jim was in one of his 'moods'. It was always much harder to talk to him on days like this. "Jim..." he began, "You know I'm just trying to help you. I wish that for once you'd just tell me what's wrong!"

Jim decided it was time to use his distraction technique. With Sebastian, he never aimed to wound him anymore, just to shock or surprise him out of his original line of questioning. "Did I ever tell you I'm gay?" he asked conversationally.

Sebastian stopped. His eyes narrowed slightly, but out of confusion, not anger. He had never even thought about Jim being gay. Or anything, for that matter. He was just...Jim. "No, you didn't," he said quietly. His mind flashed back to the day he had come out. It had been to his mother, the one person he thought he could trust. But things didn't go as planned. There were still scars on his back from his father's belt buckle. "Jim...Christ, of all people, you know I'm okay with it. And I won't tell anyone," he said, doing his best to say all the things he wished his mother had said to him. He hadn't forgotten about his previous question, but right now, this seemed more important. Sebastian was well aware of Jim's tactics, and wouldn't let anything deter him.

"Good old, Sebby," joked Jim, laughing off the kindness and the sentiment, although inside he was unbelievably thrilled by this reaction. Of course he knew Seb would be fine with it, but it still meant a lot. He hadn't ever told anyone before and this would be the time he always remembered. The moment that stuck with him for the rest of his life. His 'coming out' speech, or comment as the case may be. "See, now when you see a hot man, you can ask my opinion, can't you? We can have nice queer conversations about penises and muscles and disco music and paint the walls with rainbows..." He was really going for it now, playing the clown, but he had to. It was inbuilt now. There was no way he could allow himself to be honest enough to simply smile and thank Sebastian, or even give him a hug.

"I can assure you, none of that is ever going to happen," he said with a straight face. But seconds later he smiled. He couldn't help it. He was still desperately concerned about what was going on in the Moriarty household (now more than ever), but he didn't want to darken the mood so abruptly.

"Shame," mused Jim, pretending to be disappointed, "I could have been your gay best friend. Everyone wants one of those, don't they?"

"Maybe Carl Powers will take you up on that," joked Sebastian.

"Ah, yes," grinned Jim, for once not frowning at the name, "Your crush. I don't know, you might get jealous if I took away all of his attention."

Sebastian laughed. He had forgotten about that conversation. "Oh, yeah. On second thought, you'd better not. I want him all to myself."

Jim giggled, feeling a hell of a lot happier than he had a couple of hours ago. Somehow Sebastian had the ability to do that to him. He could come to Sebastian in one of his dark moods and leave feeling lighter and almost content. Almost. Jim hadn't ever reached that mark in his life yet, but he honestly believed that with Seb's help he was getting there.

"So? You still haven't answered my question," said Sebastian, feeling that this was a good time to bring it up again. "Why did you come here?"

"I came here because my father died in his sleep yesterday evening," Jim informed Sebastian, throwing caution to the winds in one of his sudden manic moods. He laughed as soon as he had said it, eyes glinting.

Sebastian just gaped at Jim. He had determined that Jim didn't have a very good relationship with his father, but still, this wasn't something people typically laugh about. "Oh. Are...are you alright?"

Jim nodded enthusiastically, perhaps a little too enthusiastically. "Me? I'm on top of the world. Happy, happy, happy."

This comment only made Sebastian more wary. "Jim..." he sighed, "First of all, you're never 'happy'. Secondly, this isn't exactly a time to be." He put his hand on Jim's shoulder and looked him dead in the eyes. "Are you alright?"

"I already told you," said Jim, half crossly, half playfully, "I'm perfectly fine. I'm brilliant, in fact." He glanced at the comforting hand on his shoulder and out of nowhere felt his eyes begin to water. "Except...except I haven't called the police about it yet to come and get him, and now there is no way we will...I will pay the rent. So the house will have to go." He laughed even though his eyes were streaming, "Happy, happy, happy..."

"Oh, my god," Sebastian said. He instinctively pulled Jim into a hug. "Jim, it's going to be okay," he reassured him, even though he had no way of knowing that. "What about your mother? Does she know?"

Jim stiffened instantly, not use to any kind of physical contact whatsoever. He narrowed his eyes in rage that Sebastian had dared to hug him like he was some child, and was about to give him an almighty shove that would send him flying to teach him a lesson, when his body gave out against his will and he ended up clinging limply to Sebastian. Before he knew it, his arms were around his teacher and he had pressed his face into his shirt, afraid of showing his face like this. "My mother is in Ireland," he revealed in a small voice, slightly muffled against Sebastian's chest, "And I don't know where or who with or how to find her. And I don't want to. So no, she doesn't know, and she wouldn't care."

Sebastian was so glad Jim hadn't rejected the hug. All he wanted was to comfort the boy. He held him tighter, almost holding him up. For a while, he didn't say anything, he just enjoyed feeling needed. "We're going to have to call the police, Jim," he said gently. "And sooner rather than later. If you want, I can take the day off so I can be with you for...all of this."

"If you call the police they'll start going through the house and invading it and they'll ask questions. Boring questions." Boring, in Jim-speak, of course meant unbearable or just plain terrible. He didn't know what was going to happen to him now and he was scared. More scared than he'd ever been in his life, even more than the time Carl Powers had threatened to break his skull and let him drown in his own blood and almost gone through with it. He didn't respond to Sebastian's unbelievably kind offer, not wanting to be a burden to him.

"I know they will, Jim. But what else can we do? If he died in his sleep, they won't ask that many questions. Come on. I'm going to go tell the head teacher that neither of us will be in today, and then we'll call the police." He explained things simply, like Jim was a child. He knew that was a bad idea, but he really didn't know how else to react. And after all, Jim was only seventeen. He, technically, still was a child.

Jim sniffed and clawed desperately at Sebastian's shirt, shaking his head madly. "They'll think I killed him!" he exclaimed, eyes now red and still producing more and more salty tears.

Sebastian wrapped his arms around Jim again, holding him close. "But you didn't, so there's nothing they can do. They can't hurt you, Jim. I won't let them," he added.

"No! You don't understand!" he shouted, suddenly breaking into angry sobs that shook his whole body.

Sebastian backed away. He had learned that it was best to give Jim space when he was angry. "What don't I understand? Jim, come on, please, talk to me. I want to help you," he begged. It killed him to see Jim like this. He was always so strong, and now...this.

"Maybe I did kill him, alright?" Jim started laughing hysterically and then collapsed in a heap on the floor, his legs giving way under him. He was dazed for a moment and then went back to laughing. And then the crying was back. "I didn't mean to," he said, in a crazed voice, not looking up at Sebastian, "And I didn't know I did. Maybe I didn't...I don't know. But I might have."

All Sebastian could do was stare, open mouthed. He knew that Jim didn't get along with his father, but this? This was unbelievable. Sebastian shook his head, and as he did so, he caught sight of the clock. It was almost eight. School would be starting soon. He had to get Jim out of here. "Come on," he said, giving Jim his hand in an attempt to get him off the floor. "We need to go."

Jim simply continued to giggle and ignored the hand that was offered to him. "Are you going to arrest me, Sebby?" he asked, "Are you going to take me down to the station and lock me up? Are you going to throw away the key?"

"No, of course not," said Sebastian. "I don't know what we're going to do. But school's about to start, and we can't have everyone coming in here and seeing you on the floor, laughing like a lunatic. Please, Jim, come on!" he said more urgently. He grabbed the boy's arms and pulled him up.

Jim did not like being manhandled one bit, and tried to slap Sebastian away, but it didn't work. The man had been in the military, he could certainly withstand a few childish slaps. After a while, he let himself get swept along by Sebastian, his mind elsewhere. It was foolish of him to be afraid of Sebastian's touch. It wasn't like the man was going to hurt him.

"Walk," Sebastian ordered. He couldn't be seen dragging a boy out to his car. People would talk. "We're going to my car," he said as they moved through the hallway.

Jim did not answer, but obeyed anyway. It was nice not having to think for once. All he had to do was listen and follow instructions. The two got to Sebastian's car without anyone asking questions. That was something, at least. For a brief second, Sebastian remembered the head teacher, and the fact that he should probably tell him that he wasn't going to be in today. But that could wait. Right now, the only thing that mattered to Sebastian was Jim. The boy clearly needed help, and not the kind of help he could give him. He pushed this thought away also. A problem for another time. They both got in the car, and Sebastian started driving. It didn't matter where they were going, really. "Jim," he said after a while. "I need to know. How did your father die?"

"I don't know," Jim told Sebastian truthfully, "Last I saw him, he was still very much alive." He settled into his seat and tried to stop himself from feeling too sick. His nausea had been rising ever since he'd told Seb what had happened, and he didn't want to vomit in Seb's car. "We had a fight..." Jim said vaguely, clutching the seat with his nails, knuckles white.

"Okay," he said. "Can you remember anything else?" he prompted.

"I remember everything," he responded simply, eyes wide and haunted.

"Well then did you kill him, or not?" asked Sebastian, nearly losing his patience. He exhaled shakily. It wasn't fair of him to yell. "I'm sorry. I just need to know whether I'm aiding a criminal or not."

"I. Don't. Know!" shouted Jim, thumping his seat with his fists. "He started trying stuff...I didn't like it...I pushed him..." He said this all very quickly so he didn't have to think about it too much, "I'm not that strong really...didn't work..." Jim stopped talking and clutched his stomach. "Open the window!" he ordered suddenly. Sebastian did as he was ordered. Jim leaned out and was violently sick. He coughed a bit, spat the taste out and then settled back into his seat again, pale and shaking. "So we had a fight and I didn't see what I did to him...I was just trying to get away..." With that, it seemed the story was finished since Jim doubled over and fell completely silent.