*TWO*MONTHS*LATER*

Jake looked around his new room over the shop. It was about the same size as his room at home, but it looked completely different. For one thing, it was bare. No posters adorned the walls, no clutter surrounded him. There were not even book shelves. There was a desk, but there was nothing on it, everything was in a drawer. His closet door was closed, hiding his clothes. What didn't go in the closet was locked tightly away in his dresser. He sat down on the bed which had been made up for him. The new black comforter was soft on his skin, but he barely noticed. His eyes focused on the walls, which he had asked Gramps to paint a dark gray.

He didn't want to be back here. He didn't want to be the Am Drag again. He had spent a good portion of his life being groomed to be the protector of the city, but no one asked him if he wanted to be. He just wanted to give it all up, be a normal boy. He didn't want to have to go through hell, keep getting injured, lying to his Dad, getting yelled at because his grades were low. It just wasn't the life he wanted for himself. He had wanted to escape.

He fully reclined on the bed, sinking his head between the pillows. All he wanted to do was sleep. Sleep forever and ever. It had been that way for the past five months. His sensitive ears picked up sounds around the house. He heard Gramps downstairs talking, probably on the phone with Mom. It couldn't be Fu, because Fu was outside of his door. Jake hadn't said a word since being dropped off at Golden Garden Rehabilitation Center and Fu had decided it was his own personal mission to get Jake to speak again.

Finally the dog knocked. "Kid, I'm coming in. You better be decent."

Jake didn't move.

"Look, uh, I know this isn't going to be easy for you. It's not easy on any of us, but especially not for you," Fu fumbled along. "But, uh, I'm here for you, okay? Whatever you need."

Jake contemplated the ceiling. It was white. He should have asked Gramps if the ceiling could be gray too.

"Also, Spud and Trixie are here. Your mother told them you were arriving home today, and they wanted to see you."

Jake reacted to this. He turned his head to look at Fu.

"Can I send them up? Or do you want them to go home? Say you'll see them at school next week."

Jake shook his head.

"Do you want to see them?" Fu asked.

Jake nodded.

"Okay," Fu rubbed his paws together, barely hiding his delight at this development. "Two friends, coming on up."

"How could we not have noticed?" Trixie demanded of Spud. They were in the downstairs of Gramps' shop where they had spent many hours as young teenagers. When they weren't skateboarding or causing general chaos, they were here, looking at magical things.

"Well," Spud began in his slow way of speaking, "we didn't notice he was a dragon."

"Of course not! No one expects their best friend to be a dragon, but drugs are a possibility with any kid. We should have been more vigilant. Especially when he started pulling away, getting quiet. Do you remember one of our last science classes?"

"Oh, yeah." Spud nodded, trying to figure out what she was talking about.

"Do you mind filling me in?" Gramps asked. He had been perched on a stool, listening silently to them talk. The situation with Jake was breaking his old heart.

"Our science teacher, Mr. Green, he always plays music in class, right? And one day he's playing this really upbeat hip-hop type mix, totally up our alley, but Jake starts freakin'. He had this meltdown about violins and then ran away. He didn't come to another science class."

"Oh, dear." Gramps was deeply worried, mostly how drugs would alter a dragon. They wouldn't react in a way that they would with a human.

"Trixie? Spud?" Fu appeared.

Trixie held her breath. She wanted to see Jakey right now.

"He's in his room."

Trixie grabbed Spud's hand, racing toward the stairs. They had never been in the upstairs portion of Gramps shop, but it was incredibly small. It took a few moments to find Jake, laying on his bed, in the most depressing bedroom Trixie had ever seen.

"Jakey," she breathed. He didn't even turn to look at her, didn't even register her presence.

Trixie glanced at Spud. There was something in Spud's eyes, a defeated look that hurt her almost as much as Jake was.

"Jake," Trixie said a little louder. When he didn't respond again, she just kept talking, hoping to draw him out with just her voice, "Spud and I just want you to know that we're here for you."

"We know you've probably heard that from, like, everyone else," Spud broke in, "but it's different with us, man."

"Yeah. No matter what's going on with you, you can come to us. Because after finding out you were a dragon, nothing else is gonna surprise us." Trixie added, but wondered if she should have brought up the dragon thing. What if that had been what brought on his drug habit?

"Because we're friends for life," Spud said.

Jake didn't move.

"Friends for life," Trixie repeated, folding her hand into a fist. They always fist-bumped after that line. It was just one of the traditions that had developed between them over the years.

She sat on the side of the bed, making sure that he could see her fist. Spud did the same. Jake's eyes rolled, first to her, then to Spud. What happened next gave Trixie hope that they hadn't lost Jake. His hands, which had been resting on his stomach, curled into two fists. He didn't seem to have enough energy to lift his hands, so Trixie and Spud brought their hands to his. Trixie, feeling accomplished, flopped down next to Jake, near the wall. Spud took the outside edge of the bed, with Jake in the middle. Then, they just lay there, protecting each other in their togetherness, pretending that the outside world wasn't there.

"Ew. That is not real food." Trixie curled her nose at what the cafeteria had to offer and it was only the first day.

Jake picked up a simple muffin (he wasn't really into the eating thing these days) before finding a table. Spud, with a tray of fries that looked completely undercooked, was hot on his heels. They sat together, waiting for Trixie to find something edible. As Jake chewed, he thought about Spud. He spent a lot of time thinking lately, contemplating things. He was lucky to have Spud, he knew. Not many friends would stick by him with what Jake's life was like. Spud, though strange at times, was smart. He had the ability to make people see things they wouldn't normally notice. He'd had that ability since they had met, all those years ago.

Trixie arrived, spouting off about how children were not criminals and that they deserved to be treated better. They especially deserved better food than what they were being served. He was also lucky to have Trixie. She was doing all she could to make him feel like Jake, to make him feel like a person. He couldn't be more thankful. Trixie had made it clear that she was there for him, but she was not treating him any differently than she had before. Except he had noticed her watching him more, being more attentive about what he was doing, who he was talking to. She was like his personal watchdog.

Jake tuned out his friends, eyes roaming the cafeteria while he played with his muffin. Nothing caught his interest. He didn't have much curiosity for others lately; his interest didn't pique for anything. That's why, when he felt that want of needing to know more, he barely recognized it. But there it was. And it happened, like it always does with a boy, because of a girl.

He had never seen her before. This was true, but he wanted to know her. He wanted to use his voice to talk to her, though he had forgotten how to talk. He wanted to use his hands to touch her, though he barely moved at all. He wanted to be carefree and laugh and be happy and make her smile and kiss her, though he didn't know how to do any of those things anymore. But this girl, this tall girl with long golden hair and huge blue eyes and a pink lip gloss smile, wanted to make him learn it all again. She made him want to feel again.

"Yo, what are you lookin' at?" Trixie had caught onto Jake spacing. In the past week that he'd been home, she knew that he often went off into his own world, forgetting the one he was physically in, but the look on his face now wasn't like that. He wasn't leaving this earth; he was spaced out on something. Trixie spun around and saw the golden haired beauty. "You lookin' at that girl, Jake?"

"Man, she is smoking hot!" Spud exclaimed. "Why do I not know this beauty?"

"Because she just moved here." Trixie shrugged. "She's in my global studies class."

Jake had tuned all of his attention onto Trixie, while keeping a slight tab on where the girl was.

"Her name is Rose." Trixie watched as Jake's lips parted, as though to say the name, but couldn't finish the effort. "She just moved here this year with her Uncle."

Spud and Trixie shared a look as Jake looked at Rose. This, at least, was a change.

"Just do it. Do it. Do it." Haley urged herself. She was on her bike, circling the block that contained Gramps' store. It was almost supper time, and she was supposed to be having dinner with Gramps, Fu, and Jake, but so far, she couldn't make herself go in and see her brother. Finally, she summoned her courage, and went in.

It was the first time she had seen Jake since that last day when he had made her pizza. He was sitting at a tiny wooden table. There was a sheet of what looked like math in front of him, but he wasn't paying any attention to it. He was doodling in the corners, though.

"Hi, Jake!" She said, forcing the enthusiasm that usually came so easily. Jake didn't move, just kept running his pencil over the paper. "Where's Gramps?"

Jake shrugged.

Haley walked slowly toward the table, pulling out a chair. She climbed up on it and studied his drawing. A dragon.

"Have you changed since ...?" She trailed off, unsure of how to finish the question.

Jake shook his head, understanding. No, he hadn't been a dragon for just over two months now. He didn't think he could do it, even if he tried.

"Do you miss it?"

He couldn't bring himself to answer this one. Instead, he got lost in his thoughts again. Did he miss being a dragon? Yes. Despite what he wanted from his life, to be free from dragon responsibilities, being a dragon was a part of him. Without it, he was not a whole. When he had been doing drugs, he hadn't been whole either. So why had he done it? This question had often been posed to him in the Rehabilitation center. What had driven him to try drugs? The most common answer that came to mind was to escape. But there were much easier ways to escape than crystal meth. So what else was it?

"Well, do you?" Haley repeated.

Her voice brought him back to reality. He focused on her, blinking rapidly. He shrugged.

"It's okay if you do." Haley bit her lip before plowing on. She had always been smart; wise beyond her years, and today she really showed it. "Because we miss you too. We miss human Jake and dragon Jake. I miss my big brother. And I know you're going through a lot right now, and I really don't understand it at all, but try to come back to me, okay?"

Jake didn't respond for the longest time. He studied every line of her face, which was really similar to his own seeing as how they both took after their mother. Her slanted eyes, dark hair, her small nose and her shaped lips. She stared back.

"Please, Jake, come back to me."

He took a deep breath and said, "okay." The one word hurt his long dormant vocal cords, but it also brought peace into another part of him.

"J-Jake!" Haley stuttered. "You spoke!"

Jake nodded, sealing his lips again. He didn't know why he had talked to her but he had.

"Yay!" Haley cheered with a child's enthusiasm. "Does this mean you're getting better? I can't wait to tell Mom and Dad … And Gramps! They're all gonna be so excited!"

"Don't." Jake's voice was harsh from not being used, but it felt completely natural to talk to Haley. Whenever he tried to talk to anyone else, it didn't feel right.

"What? Don't tell? Jake, you haven't said anything in forever." Haley paused. "At least, that's what they told me."

"Don't want to."

"You're talking to me," her brow creased.

"Only you." Jake insisted.

"Okay," Haley agreed reluctantly. But she did agree. Her big brother was coming back to her, just like he should be.

At that moment, Gramps and Fu came bustling into the home, arms full of groceries. "Ah, Haley," Gramps greeted, "have you been here long?"

"Nope. I was just looking at Jake's drawing." She faced Jake. "You should draw more."

Jake dropped the pencil. He wasn't in the mood for drawing anymore.

This chapter was edited by Noble6. I don't own American Dragon Jake Long.

~TLL~