Title: Nothing Gold Can Stay

Author Name: TrueLoveFan

Rating: PG-13

Warnings for: Jalex hint, but it's a minor one.

Plus most you have been waiting for a small obvious Jalex hint, right?

Notes:

- The title "Nothing Gold Can Stay" comes from the poem by Robert Frost.

Disclaimer:

All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of TrueLoveFan. TrueLoveFan is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.

--

"This pillow is awfully hard, yet comfy." Alex thought as she snuggled closer to her pillow in a vain attempt to remain sleeping.

"Alex. Wake up. We've got school." Justin's soft whisper filtered through Alex's sleep-filled mind. She raised her right arm and swipe at the side of the bed where he should be standing. He chuckled.

"Wrong way, genius." He whispered in her left ear. She cracked an eye open to look at him, expecting to see him standing on the left side of her bed looking down at her with a grin. Instead what she was met with an eyeful of the fabric of a brown shirt. She raised her eyes up a little and blinked when her eyes met his. Soon as how close they were registered she gave a little yelp and almost rolled off the bed. Justin reached out, wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her safely back into the middle of the bed.

"Justin? What are you-"

"I'm guessing we fell asleep while talking." He answered her unasked question. She nodded. It seemed a reasonable enough explanation to her. The last thing she could remember was talking to Justin about what he thought his parents' sudden reappearance meant. "We best get up and get going before we have to put with a tirade from mom." He stated, standing up on the left side of his bed, and stopped, staring at a spot on the wall. Alex, who was almost to his door, noticed a lack of movement from Justin and turned back around to face his direction. She walked back over to him.

"Don't think on it now, Justin. You don't want to be late for school, do you?" She question with a small smile. She knew that would get him moving. He'd never been late to school in his life; Alex, on the other hand…Her words did their job; shocking the tall boy into action. Alex left the room with Justin rampaging around trying to make sure he had everything in order.


Alex slipped into school just as the bell was about to ring. She hurried over to her locker and popped it open. Harper, who had been on her way to class, saw Alex and ran up to her. Alex sighed; she so didn't want to deal with Harper's hyper-ness this morning.

"Hey Alex! What's up? Why are you late? Where's Justin?" Alex resisted the urge to cover her ears. Harper was her best friend, but sometimes Alex wished she could magic her mouth shut. That wasn't exactly fair to Harper. Today just wasn't a good day…for anyone in her household.

"Hey Harper! I got a late start this morning is all. Justin…Justin is staying home today."

"What? Why? Is he sick?"

"No, no, nothing like that. Someone's coming to visit him today at like 1:00 and mom & dad didn't see the point in sending and pulling him out. It makes parental sense." Alex informed Harper as they reached their homeroom door. Harper nodded and together the girls entered into their doom.


"Can you believe Lisa is dating Mark? I mean just last week she was with David. How cruel do you have to be to date one brother to get to another? Then there is Jordan and Michael. She's not even that pretty." Alex let Harper rumble as they walked toward the sub shop from school. Alex nodded in all the right places, but she wasn't really listening to her. She had a feeling Harper knew this but didn't care.

Alex bit the inside of her cheek. She had this bad feeling in her stomach. It was the coldness from last night, which had been extinguished by talking to Justin. It was more intense, way more intense, like ice was covering all of her insides slowly and thoroughly. She wrapped arms around her midsection hoping to stop the spread of the ice. As they rounded the corner, Alex's eyes caught sight of a bright white moving truck. Alex dropped her book bag on the ground, not caring in the least what happened to it, and ran as fast as she could to her family's sub shop.

"Alex! Wait! Would you slow down?" Harper yelled as she grasped Alex's backpack and ran behind her. She had no idea what was going on. She spotted the truck about the same time as Alex, but she didn't know what it meant.

Alex heard Harper but paid her no heed. She had to stop whatever was happening. Chance were good this had something to do with Justin, Lauren, and Fred. Finally, her speed paid off. She was through the door in a matter of seconds after dropping her bag to the ground. She burst through the door stopping a beat away from one of the movers carrying three boxes. She quickly moved around the burly man without an apology or explanation. As she swerved around this man, she slammed hard into someone else. She would have stumbled back and fallen on her butt if not for someone grabbing onto her shoulders and holding her up.

"Where are you going at such a high speed, young lady?" Alex looked up and saw Fred's face looming above her. Without a word to him she broke his grip and ran further into the restaurant. Luckily for everyone, Theresa had the presence of mind to close the sub shop today. Theresa and Jerry sat at the counter watching as stuff was carried out of the building. Theresa's head was on Jerry's right shoulder, tears glimmering in her eyes. Jerry was just staring numbly at all the movement. Max was seated at the counter two stools away from his mother quietly eating a sandwich, probably made of some weird stuff Alex would never eat together. Just as Alex was about to approach what was left of her shattered family, a woman in a white tank top and overalls came down the steps carrying a box out to the truck. A box with action figures…in their original packaging…in mint condition. Alex felt her heart drop to her feet.

Anger filled Alex. First, these people, these strangers, barrage into their lives and turn it upside down. Now, they thought they could just take Justin away? No. No. If no one else was going to say something she sure as hell would. They'd done enough damage here. No! Alex stormed over to Fred, who was now sitting next to his wife at table five.

"How dare you come here, disrupt our lives, and take Justin away from us! Who the hell do you think you are?"Fred's mouth dropped open in utter shock and Lauren sat silently whilst glaring at her as if daring her to say more. "You can't just…" Alex started to rant, but a hand clamped on her forearm stopping her.

"Alex. A word. Now!" Justin whispered angrily in her ear and dragged her into the kitchen. From there he pulled her into the lair and released her arm. She groused and rubbed the spot where his hand had been. He paced the length of the rug and back again.

"What did you think you were doing?" He was clearly angry and Alex didn't know why. For her prospective she'd done nothing wrong. Okay, so maybe it hadn't been the brightest idea to yell at Justin's parents in front of everyone. But it was justifiable! She stepped in front of Justin in order to get his attention. He stopped a few inches away from her; clearly waiting for an explanation.

"They can just take you away, Justin!" Alex told him, fire blazing in her eyes. "They can't. There's got to be laws against it or something. You belong here with me…I mean us, you belong with us. That's why the council came to mom and dad. This where you are supposed to be." Alex explained. She stopped and looked into his eyes trying her best to gauge his thoughts. Alex discovered nothing. He was hiding himself from her.

"That's it!" She exclaimed triumphantly a few seconds later. "Law! We'll hire a lawyer! A good one! Then they'll make it so you can stay here." Grinning like a fool, Alex flopped down on the couch. Thrilled with herself for thinking up such a great plan.

"And everyone says I'm dumb!" She thought cheerfully as she propped her feet, crossed at her ankles, up on the table in front of the couch. With a sigh Justin sat down next to her.

"I asked to go with them." When he'd made up his mind earlier on the topic, he'd been dreading telling Alex more than the rest of his foster family. Theresa had cried almost to the point of hysteria; Jerry had gone to the fridge, grabbed the giant bowl of pudding, and began gulping in down in full spoonfuls; and Max had cried at little, at an acceptable guy level, and given him a brief, but meaningful just the same, hug. That had been extremely hard, but he'd known Alex's reaction would be the hardest.

"You what?!" She exclaimed, surprised, angry, and sad all at once. Just the two words cut through him and he flinched. Yep, her reaction was defiantly the hardest. Taking a deep breath to prepare himself, he turned toward her.

"I asked to move in with them. They're my family now, Alex. I can't just ignore this and pretend everything is as it was."

"You don't have to-" Alex started to speak, but Justin placed his hand over her mouth to stop her.

"Nothing will ever be the same and I have to roll with that. I have to get to know them, don't you understand? I need to know my family. I can't live this lie anymore." Tears were spilled from Alex's eyes during Justin's little speech. Some of them even landed on his hand. As he finished he moved his hand to allow her the freedom of speech again, but she said nothing she simply sat there looking at him while silent tears rolled her face. He wanted to comfort her, hug her or something, to make it better, but he knew that the only thing that would help her feel better was if he stayed. That was something he couldn't do. A part of him, a bigger part then he'd admit, wanted to stay just so Alex would smile at him again; but another part knew that he was doing right thing. This needed to be done. For him. For Alex. For everyone. After several tense, quiet minutes, Justin had to say something, anything, silence while in a room with Alex was just too creepy.

"Fred and Lauren tell me I have three siblings. Jacob and Anna, who are 13, and Marie, who is 6." Justin told her in attempt to lighten the mood. Thinking if maybe they got off the topic of what he was losing and onto the topic of what he was gaining then maybe that would cheer Alex up.

Alex blinked at his words. Was that supposed to make her happy or something? Knowing that she was going to be replaced in his heart, was that supposed to cheer her up? Her sadness reached critical levels and spilled out of her in the form of more tears and angry words.

"Great! Lose one sister and gain two! That's great, Justin! Glad to know you'll have replacements for me and Max so quickly!' She spat her words at him in a quick and squeaky fashion before bursting out of the lair, past her anxious and sad family and his indifferent-to-her feelings parents, up the stairs, and to her room. Where she promptly slammed the door and locked it with magic. She went over to her stereo, twisted the volume knob to the highest levels and blasted it when she heard Justin's footsteps on the stairs.

"Alex! That's not what-"He started to say as he pounded on the door, but the music kicked in and he slumped down to the floor with his back against her vibrating-due-to-the-loud-music door. "That's not what I meant. No one will ever replace you." He whispered as he laid his head on his knees in, what could only be described as, anguish.

"Justin?" Max voice startled him from his thoughts a few minutes later. Justin looked up from his position against Alex's door. "Your parents say it's time to go." Max informed gently. "They don't want to have to pay the babysitter overtime." Max voice held an incredulous to it. Justin didn't want to leave with Alex as mad as she was at him, but he didn't want to start out on the wrong foot with his parents either.

"Can you get me a post-it note and pen, Max-A-Million?" Justin asked and Max nodded, grinning at the use of his favorite nickname, and scurried off to find the requested items. He returned less than a half a minute later with a light purple post-it note and a blue pen. Justin thanked Max, quickly wrote down a note, and stuck it to Alex's door. Then with one sad, detected, look back at her door, Justin left.

Alex,

No one will ever, EVER replace you.

Love,

Justin

PS. Please, give me a call.

--

A/N: If you ever read any of my other stories on this account while they wereworks-in-progress you know I sometimes take a while to update. I am trying to be better with this fic because I adore it so, but don't be alarmed if it there's some time between chapters. I get bad cases of writer's block.

That having been said, I am going to try and get you guys at least a chapter per week.

Hint: I would really love to have 5 reveiws before I update.