And here begins Chapter 10... because I feel like I should have an introduction lol

How long he stood on that roof he never knew.

"Carlos?" He heard Mal's voice cut through the heaviness. He did not move.

"Carlos, don't freak out. It's just me. I'm pulling you away from the edge, ok?"

Carlos struggled for a few seconds before blindly letting Mal lead him down.

They sat on his mattress and he curled into her. She did not move to touch him, causing Carlos to feel a rush of gratitude toward her.

They sat, saying nothing.

"Chores," Carlos whispered.

"I'll do them. But first I'm taking you back to the hideout."

Carlos was too exhausted to protest.

"Can you stand?"

He tried, but fell over. He curled up defensively, not wanting to move.

"Carlos, get up. I'll help you if it's ok."

He numbly nodded and took Mal's hand, who pulled him up easily.

"Come on. We need to leave before your mother gets back."

At the hideout, the sight that met their eyes was not a good one. Jay was lying on his stomach on a couch cushion on the floor. Evie was sitting, cross legged, next to him, using a needle and thread to stitch up his back.

Mal hissed angrily at the sight of Jay's back. Carlos collapsed into a chair.

"I am going to murder that fucking shit," Mal spat.

Evie didn't even glance up. "Language, M." She smirked. "Besides, does that even grammatically make sense?"

"I can use swear words wherever the hell I fucking want."

"That's enough, M. Swearing isn't very attractive."

"Besides," Jay interjected, "you're not the one getting a needle poked repeatedly into your already sore back."

Evie glanced up at Carlos. "You look pretty pale, Carlos. What's up?"

Carlos couldn't speak. He sat there, wallowing in his misery, wanting nothing more than to die.

"I found him on the roof. I think he was thinking about killing himself again. Judging by how he's been acting, I'd say Cruella did something pretty bad to him." Mal would be his voice, he knew. She went on, "I have to go do some chores. You good, E?"

"Yeah, go ahead. I'll finish getting Jay patched up and then we'll work on Carlos."

"Carlos?" Jay's voice soothed him slightly. "Hey. What's up?"

Carlos shook his head.

"Please talk for me? You're safe here. She's not going to find you here."

He wanted to talk. But he couldn't find the words. Instead he absentmindedly rolled up his sleeve and traced over the word that had been carved there.

Worthless.

Worthless.

Worthless.

Worthless.

He lost track of how many times he had traced over the word. It beat a rhythm in his head.

Worthless.

Suddenly a calloused hand covered his. "Hey." Jay was done being stitched up but he hadn't even bothered to put his shirt back on yet. He looked extremely concerned. "What's up?"

"You... ok?" Carlos managed to whisper.

"I'm fine. But what about you?"

Carlos looked away. "What do you think."

"What did she do?" Jay whispered.

"She... she," Carlos shook his head despairingly. "She kissed me again. Twice. And," he swallowed, hard, "touched... me."

Evie was at Jay's side in a second. "Don't make any sharp moves or you're going to tear out the stitches and I'll have to redo them," she warned, putting a hand on his shoulder.

Jay took a deep breath and let it out slowly.

Evie rubbed a hand on his shoulder, encouragingly. Then she looked to Carlos. "Is there anything we can do?"

"Don't leave me." He tried to fight the growing panic that was clawing up his throat.

"We're not going to leave you," Jay told him reassuringly. He turned to Evie. "Do we have any food in this place?"

Evie whirled out of the room and was back in a minute with food. She set it in front of Jay and Carlos slid to the floor to join him. Jay ate ravenously and Carlos ate a bit of food.

Jay looked up from stuffing food into his face. "Aren't you going to eat?" he asked Evie.

"No, I'm not hungry," Evie sighed, looking at the food longingly.

"Eat," Jay commanded, shoving a not-so-moldy piece of fruit at her.

She nibbled on it and then gagged. "I'm sorry... I can't eat."

"Eat it." Jay was stubborn.

"I can't," Evie cried looking upset. "Why don't you understand?!"

"Hey," Jay pulled Evie to him. "Can you try a little bit more? Please?"

"Maybe bread?" Evie suggested weakly.

Carlos quickly gave her the piece of bread he had been eating and took the fruit to eat instead.

Just as Evie had managed to choke down the piece of bread, Mal stormed into the room looking furious.

Please leave a review and let me know what you think! Reviews are amazing and make me happy :)

-FlatFox

P.S. My story "Jane: The Kiss" is based off Chapter 9 of All's Fair. If you're interested, please go check it out!