Rescue me.

Show me who I am...

As Kari had said, her father lived with her, but never once did the man ever enter her room. In fact, that made it almost too easy to avoid being walked through by him. Jack could easily see that he was everything that Kari had said as the days went by. The man obviously loved his daughter, but he didn't seem to understand her one bit; the two of them butted heads, it seemed, over the simplest of things. Everything from simply doing more studying instead of reading or relaxing to doing some of the house chores. Jack knew that Kari wasn't lazy, she did do the chores, but she didn't always do them right away when they needed to be done. In fact, what Kari considered important was nothing that her father thought was. The two were almost complete opposites, where she was a lot like Jack in enjoying life as much as she could and relaxing when she'd completed what she considered needed doing, her father was a taskmaster who jumped from one completed project to another without any thought of relaxing until he went to bed; the guy worked far too hard! He stretched himself too thin while Kari seemed to do the complete opposite, though the fact that she lacked friends seemed to help with that and while Jack was glad she never seemed to overstress over things like her father did - and almost constantly -, he also felt it wasn't right that she didn't have friends to help her out. She seemed, so lonely at times; when he'd just watch her she would sometimes forget he was there and just stare off into space. A sadness in her eyes, a longing, as if there was something her heart desperately wished for but just could never grab. Jack had asked her about it on a few occasions, but she'd just shrugged and said she didn't know what he was talking about. It just made him all the more curious. Was she deliberately not telling him or was she hiding this even from her own mind? After a long moment of watching her stare off at nothing again, sitting on the front porch as she stroked her cat, Luke; Jack couldn't take it anymore. He had to find out what was bugging her! He'd been here with her for two weeks and he'd already could tell that whatever this was it really affected her, deeper than anything he'd seen in anyone aside from himself. He'd looked in a mirror and had seen how dull his eyes were with the pain of missing Jamie; the fact he found her staring off too often worried him.

"Okay, what the heck Kari?" Kari blinked as the winter spirit's words interrupted her quiet musings.

"You've got that look in your eyes and you've been staring off for about an hour now. What's going on? Don't tell me you don't know." Kari was quiet and she shifted her gaze away from Jack when he'd floated over to meet her eyes. She knew alright, he could tell, so why wasn't she telling him?

"You know... you can tell me anything. Right? I'm here for you."

"That should be my line." A humorless laugh escaped her, surprising him. What was wrong?

"What's wrong?" He asked, getting straight to the point.

"Jack... I've never had a friend I can really rely on. I've met people, sure, but I don't really trust anyone face to face."

"Why not?" She sighed and Jack jolted when she met his gaze.

"Remember when I spoke of Robert?" Jack nodded.

"He wasn't the first to betray me. When I was a little girl... my mom remarried. She and my father had divorced when I was only two so I don't remember it. The man she married was her third husband. My second stepfather. He seemed like a nice man and all, he never hurt me or my half brother; but he had a terrible secret... he was a sick person. He also cheated on my mother, but that was only what broke the marriage apart. I didn't have the courage to tell anyone... or the care to, until just before I graduated high school. My stepfather came into my room one night, when I was staying with him and my mother, I was eight years old at the time when he pried from me a french kiss." Jack landed on the ground with a soft thump, he paled; he felt like he was going to be sick.

"I lost my innocence then, in a way. It was never anything more than a kiss of course, I was lucky there, but... I was never the same. My innocence to such matters was shattered that night. To him... I was nothing more than something for his pleasure... something that had never happened, but... It's always been with me. When I turned 16 what really had happened, what might have happened had things not gone differently... it made me afraid of him for a little while because I knew then that I would have lost my physical innocence to this man as soon as I came of the age of consent for this state. I got over it, but... there are some things that just stay with you. I've been strong enough to fight off Nightmares, but I can't fight off my own thoughts."

"What do you mean?" Jack was almost scared to ask. He felt angry at this man who had done this to a child even as he feared what it was she was talking about.

"Before I graduated high school... I'd tried to take my own life four times. It never worked of course... and the same man who betrayed me later would make me vow to myself that I would never take my own life after he heard about it." There was a bitterness in the brief laugh that followed that, if Jack had been human, would have made his blood run cold.

"What...? Why would you...?"

"Because I didn't think life was worth living. I didn't think I was worthy to live on this planet, that I was just a burden to those around me. See, I didn't have a happy childhood Jack. No friends, a family that didn't understand me... even one who seemed out to get me when I was younger and I'm still convinced she is to this day. I think she resents me, but I don't know why. I can only imagine it's because I am a reminder to my father of a mistake he once made years ago; but it doesn't matter."

"Are you nuts?! It does! It all matters!" Jack soared over to her, his hands resting on her shoulders as he shook her suddenly.

"Don't ever think you don't matter! Ever!" A soft smile touched her lips, but it didn't reach her eyes.

"That's easy to say, Jack, but it's a lot harder to believe. I'd think you'd understand that."

"Yeah, I do. Don't you think I tried doing that before I became a Guardian? I can't die, but you can! You should never waste what you have!"

"Well, they do say hindsight is twenty-twenty but honestly Jack... even with all I have... it's just not enough. It's never enough for anyone around me. My so-called friends would never notice if I just stopped logging on. What few I have, then of course there's my dad... He's tried so hard to make me be like him, but I'm just not... I can't be... I can't be the person he wants me to be. The person he's tried to force me to be. He almost never praised or encouraged me when I was younger... I almost never heard a "good job" or "well done" from anyone. Especially not my father who worked so hard to make ends meet that he didn't have much time for me... now that he does... it's too late. He tries to encourage me, but the words have no meaning to me anymore. They're hollow, kind of like how I feel every now and then." Jack winced, he felt that way; he'd felt hollowed out since he'd seen Jamie's casket lowered into the ground, but to feel that sort of pain because of how she was... he couldn't imagine it and the look she was giving him tugged painfully at his heart.

"I'm probably not the best thing for you right now Jack. I have always known there has been something wrong with me, that makes me feel this way but I don't know what it is. It's my curse, I guess you could say." Jack wrapped his arms around her, resting his forehead against hers. He felt her shiver from the cool touch, but it didn't stop him.

"You're not worthless, you're not a curse and how could someone like you be a burden on anyone? You're kind hearted, compassionate, understanding... you brought me here when you had no reason to. You've stood by me without smothering me with concern or anything like it. I can't imagine how I would be now if it wasn't for you. Don't EVER think that you don't matter. You matter to me." Her eyes widened a little and Jack placed a soft kiss on her forehead. He wasn't sure why he did that, why he'd said the last part, but he knew she needed to hear it. He'd known her a matter of weeks, but what he'd said was true. She did matter, she was his friend and he couldn't let his friend feel like this. A moment passed before she wound her arms around him to return the hug.

"Thanks Jack." It was soft, her words, but it made him smile. For the first time since she'd brought him to her home, he felt warm inside.

"What are friends for?"

"Are we friends?" She asked, pulling back, her arms dropping back to her sides and Jack moved back, knowing she didn't like being cold for long periods of time and he'd just make her colder by staying close.

"Of course!" When she smiled this time, her eyes lit up a little and he felt the warmth inside him grow. He hadn't made any snow since he'd arrived and he felt that, maybe... just maybe... he could make snow for her.