Chapter 9

Jack held onto Kate as she leveled her breathing. Her head rested against his shoulder. She had just confessed everything about Tom. Jack couldn't even fathom hitting Sarah. What evoked Tom to hit Kate was out of his grasp. He could vaguely remember swatting his children's backsides when they misbehaved and he could distinctly remember Lacey laughing right in his face after he spanked her. To top it off she had grabbed his face in her little hands and kissed his nose. Never would he literally beat his children as Tom had with Amelia. As he sat there holding onto Kate he suddenly became aware of her fragileness. He was worried that he might be hurting her by holding too tightly. When he tried to ease up a little bit she gripped his wrist.

"No, please, just hold me," she said faintly.

"Of course," Jack whispered in her hair. If that was the only way to help her well then that's what he would do.

When Jackson woke up in the morning he saw that he and Amelia were curled together in a mass of blankets. Her warm breath was blowing on his ear. He caught a brief scent of it, for morning breath it didn't smell that bad he mused. It was a mixture of strawberries and milk. He wasn't able to move unless he woke her up. She was on her side and his arm was trapped underneath her. Nearly ten minutes later her eyes fluttered open. She saw Jackson only inches from her face and it took her several minutes to realize how close they actually were. She moved her head back and then stumbled back so that she could put distance between them. Jackson saw the fear emerge in her eyes.

"Amelia, it's alright," he said. He placed his hand in front of him but didn't dare move. His arm was numb due to her sleeping on it. Her hair was tousled and her breathing was labored.

"Why…why was I that close to you?" she asked him. He could only gape at her; she was extremely too mature for her age.

"We uh…I'm not sure. We must have rolled around when we were sleeping. We each went to sleep on our own sleeping bags," he calmly explained to her. She wasn't accepting the explanation easily. She sat across the tent from him and looked at him. He felt as though she was looking into his soul. Becoming slightly freaked out he rubbed his arm and looked away from her. "I'm hungry; let's go see if our parents will make us something."

He didn't wait around to see if she was coming. He unzipped the tent door and stepped out. The grass was wet with dew and his bare feet began to freeze. He held the door open and slowly Amelia emerged from it. She was also in bare feet and ran across the yard to her back door. Jackson followed suit and when he stepped into the kitchen he saw Kate holding Amelia against her chest. She looked like a little baby in her mother's arm. That frightened Jackson, what had he done to terrify her and what would she tell Kate about him?

His mouth began watering as he smelled pancakes. He hadn't even noticed his dad standing at the counter. Jack carried a plate of pancakes over to the table for Jackson. A big grin grew on the kid's face as he poured syrup all over the fluffy cakes. Jack laughed and ruffled his son's hair.

Kate gently placed Amelia in a chair at the table and brought over a plate of pancakes for her. The little girl poured a generous amount of syrup on the cakes and dug right in. While they were eating Amelia never brought her gaze up to Jackson. Their parents were completely oblivious to what the kids were doing. They each held mugs of coffee and were laughing with each other over something Jackson wasn't listening to. Amelia finished her pancakes first and left the room. Jackson sat at the table finishing his cakes.

"You can go watch tv with her when your done Jackson," Kate told him sweetly. It was easy to like Kate Jackson told himself. Sure enough he finished his breakfast within a few minutes and left the room to find Amelia and watch tv, if she wasn't still terrified of him.

Kate wrapped her arms around Jack's waist and pressed a kiss to his clothed chest. Jack lowered his head and caught her bottom lip in between his teeth. Slowly their lips molded together as their hands and mouths became hungry. Jack's hand was entangled in Kate's hair when she came to her senses.

"Jack, we can't do this, the kids are in the other room," Kate breathed as she placed a hand on his chest to push herself away.

"Damn," he breathed as he placed his forehead against hers.

Later that day Lacey played on the swing set as Jackson rode around on his dirt bike. Jack was inside pacing around the house and talking on the phone to different people at the hospital. Jackson noticed that his dad was rubbing his hand over his head, a sign that he was frustrated. He stayed away from his dad while he hashed out his problems. Kate and Amelia had gone to the park so Jackson couldn't get Amelia by herself to see what was wrong. But then again that might not be good idea he thought.

Jack emerged from the house looking flustered.

"Bastards at work pissing you off?" Jackson asked his dad.

"Jackson," Jack tried to sound firm and angry but failed as he chuckled. He was too mad at his colleagues to be mad at his son.

"Yeah, the bastards are pissing me off," Jack told him.

"Daddy! What's a baskert?" Lacey yelled from her swing. Jackson was getting ready to correct her when his father sent him a fierce look.

"It's a bad person sweetheart. And I never want to hear to you say that word," he told his daughter as he naturally picked her up off the swing and replaced her with him by sitting down and placing her on his lap. They swung together as Jackson put his bike away and got out his soccer ball.

Kate pulled into her driveway and helped get Amelia out of the car. They were walking towards the front door when Kate caught a glimpse of Jack and Lacey on the swing together. She stood there staring at him for a minute before he looked up. He smiled and waved; she waved back as Amelia stood at the front door holding onto the knob and sighed loudly.

"Oh gawd I'm coming my Lord," she told her daughter.

"Well I want to go in," Amelia told her mother impatiently.

"And I want to wave at our neighbors," Kate retorted.

"You mean your boyfriend?" Amelia asked bitterly as she walked into the house. The little girl threw her bag onto the floor and began stomping into the kitchen.

"Wait a minute young lady, come back here," Kate said firmly. Amelia stopped but didn't turn around and stayed where she was.

"Come here," Kate growled. Amelia rolled her eyes before turning around to face her mother and approach her. 'What's the matter with you?"

"Nothing," Amelia said to the floor as she crossed her arms. Kate rolled her eyes heavenward, she was supposed to be doing this when her daughter a teenager, not six.

"There's something wrong," Kate pried.

"I don't want you to have a boyfriend!" Amelia screamed, her hands clenched into fists and her face turned red. She ran towards the stairs and climbed three before Kate's words stopped her.

"Why not?"

"Because he's gonna hit you and me! Daddy was your boyfriend and he hit us!" Amelia screamed and cried. She was shaking violently and couldn't breathe. Kate went over to her but she ran up the stairs, tripping over a stair on her way up, and slammed her bedroom door shut. Kate collapsed onto the bottom stair and threw her head into her hands. Sitting on the stair she could literally feel her heart break.