AUTHOR'S NOTE: I'm noticing that my chapters are getting shorter and shorter. That last one with Nelson was tiny – it was even shorter than the prologue! It's a lot easier to write chapters for Jason and Kyle. Not only do I like them better, but there's twice as much plot going on with those two. Jason's chapters usually seem to turn out longest… oh well. Hope you guys don't mind.

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CHAPTER TEN - Jason

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Jason waved goodbye to the secretary at the desk on his way out the door from a too-long day of work. He hated the way everyone looked at him pityingly just because his family's dirty laundry had been aired in a rather humiliating way over the past several days. At least his boss was nice about leaving him alone; otherwise, he would have gone crazy. He let the door slam shut behind him as he walked down the slightly steaming early-summer sidewalk.

He wished Kyle didn't have to work that night – his evening shifts had been helpful when he'd been helping watch Missy, but now it was that much less time they got to see each other. It was also more awkward around Kyle's house without him there, especially after Jason had found out what Kyle's last conversation with his parents had entailed.

He doubted a single word of it was personal. Michael and Anna really did treat him well for all that he was their son's boyfriend, and they were definitely doing more than he had ever expected they would to help him. Still, it wasn't overly helpful to think about their fatalistic attitude towards his relationship with Kyle.

"Jason?"

He jerked to attention and whipped around. But when he saw the person looked at him hopefully, a grin split his face in two. "Hey, Corey," he greeted, shoving out a hand and clasping his friend's palm tight.

"I thought that was you! I just didn't want to grab some random stranger and be like 'hey buddy'."

Jason laughed, shaking his head. "Wha's up? I've been meaning to get a hold of you now that you're home for break, but things have been crazy lately."

"I heard, man. I'm so sorry to hear about what happened to your mom."

Jason brought his hand up and nodded absently, biting at his thumbnail. He should have known somebody would notice after his aunt had it put in the obituaries. "Yeah… things have been rough."

"Hey, are you in a hurry?" Corey asked him, "'cause if not, I bet I can get Cindy, Deb, and Lance to meet us somewhere to play catch-up. I know the girls would chew my friggin' head off if I didn't try to talk you into it."

He chuckled, able to imagine it. "I guess I'm not in any big hurry. Just got off work."

Corey smirked. "If I know you, that's Jason-speak for 'feed me'."

He slung an arm over Corey's shoulders, thrilled to have a chance to catch up with his best friend. "Something like that."

Not an hour later, Cindy, Debra, and Lance had met the two of them at a little café place that served decent food and wasn't all flowery and girly. Debra ran up to him and wrapped her arms so tight around him that he was afraid for a second that she might choke him to death. He nuzzled into her soft blonde hair and breathed in the scent of roses before letting her go – no need to get Lance's hackles up.

They all sat down and, once they'd ordered, Debra put her hand over his. "I'm so sorry about your mother."

He sighed. "I just… wasn't prepared for it, you know? Things have gotten so damn crazy."

"Like how?" Cindy asked in her ever-to-the-point way.

He frowned and moved to bite his nails before putting his hand back down so Debra wouldn't climb up his ass about it. "Well… you guys know my dad moved out, and Ma told me that she was working 'slowly but surely' on the divorce papers… there's no sign of them. To be honest," he confessed, "I never really should have expected there to be any. And her will was ancient. Like years and years old."

"Damn. Bet you and your old man are having it out if that's the case," Corey commented carefully.

"You don't even know the half of it. That bastard has Missy." He heard Corey hiss and he crossed his arms over his chest, trying to decide exactly what to say. Out of the four of them, only Corey knew exactly how bad things were at home. But talking about that with them would be a hell of a lot easier than some of the things he'd done. "My dad… well, you guys know we never got along."

"You were always staying at Corey's place," Cindy commented, "but neither of you ever said much about it. Did you two fight or something?"

"Fight?" Jason repeated. "I guess you could call it that. We were always shouting at each other. It was like he didn't miss a chance to cut me down and call me names. I kept staying at Corey's whenever my dad was drinking – which was just about always – because it was always worse then. But at least things stopped being… physical once I got big enough to fight the bastard back."

"Physical like you mean he would hit you?" Cindy demanded, looking horrified.

"… Sometimes."

Debra let out a sound that was somewhere between a shout and a sob. "Why didn't you ever tell me?!" she demanded, "I never had any idea that something like that was going on."

"I didn't want you to. I swore Corey to silence and would disappear for a few days if his parents started asking questions." Now he wished he hadn't, of course. He'd been too damn proud as a kid.

"But what's going to happen to Missy if she's with him?" Debra asked, looking like she was caught between cooing and saying 'you poor baby!' and biting his head off for keeping it a secret.

"I don't know. But I'm sure as hell not letting him take her without a fight. I've already talked to Coach," he added, glancing at Corey. "I'm going to file a child abuse case against my dad. It might help me get custody of Missy."

Corey breathed in sharply through his teeth. "Damn, with you around things are never boring, are they?"

"I was especially glad to run into you because I'm going to need more than just Coach's word. … How would your parents feel about helping me out?"

"Can't say. I imagine they'd do it, though. You were pretty much a permanent fixture at my place, so I'm sure they'll help you out."

Jason sighed, relieved. "That's good…. I'm really worried that this is going to blow up in my face."

Debra leaned over and gave him a gentle hug. "You'll be alright." He wrapped his arms around her in return; she still gave great hugs.

"So if you don't get along with your father, where are you going to live?" Lance asked quietly.

He blushed and picked at the bed of his thumbnail. They were absolutely going to take the hell out of him when he told them, especially the girls who treated his life like it was a soap opera. "Kyle's parents are letting me move in since my dad kicked me out."

"O~oh!" Cindy squealed, "so you're living with your boyfriend? Teehee, what do you two do when his parents aren't looking?"

"Could you keep it down!?" he demanded, "I don't think they heard you in Thailand!"

Debra was bent nearly in half, shaking with laughter. "Wow, Cindy, your bluntness never fails!"

"Well, I wanna know!" she huffed, crossing her arms over her chest and pouting at them.

Jason nudged Corey in the shoulder. "If she's that desperate for details about other people's sex-lives, she must not be getting something she wants from you."

Cindy opened her mouth to scream a response back to him, but Corey clamped his hand over her mouth, ears as red as a tomato.

Debra giggled and leaned back, resting against Lance's shoulder. Jason felt a tiny twinge of jealousy, but he figured he always would. It was odd seeing his first love with someone else, but both of them were happy. Lance was quiet, but he was a good guy for Deb.

"So," she asked finally, "you and Kyle are still doing alright?"

He nodded awkwardly. "Yeah… I don't know how I'd be getting through all of this without him. He's been a huge help." He stayed and talked with them for a long while, catching up and trading tales about classes, college drama, and gossip about their classmates that had gone to Tech with the four of them.

Both Debra and Cindy hugged him tight when it was time for them to leave, reminding him of just how small girls were. They both felt so fragile. When they moved back, Jason smelled like their flowery perfume and knew that he would have to explain fast or Kyle would be throwing a fit and banishing him to the backyard.

Lance shook his hand and slipped away with the girls, but Corey gripped him by the shoulder and leaned against him. "I'll talk to my parents and give you a call," he promised, "so don't keep disappearing into the woodwork on us."

"Promise." He waved sadly as he watched them go. He sighed and walked back to Kyle's. Michael and Anna both seemed like they wanted to get onto him for staying out so long without letting them know where he was, but he was an adult; he wasn't going to let them treat him like a kid.

He went upstairs and threw himself onto Kyle's bed, lost in thought. He definitely missed Debra, Corey, and Cindy. They had always been fantastic friends. It was hard to accept that his life only occasionally brushed against theirs as opposed to flowing right along with it. Still, at least he had that much.

Kyle came home not too long after and sat down next to him, leaning over to give him a soft kiss.

"Hey," he whispered lazily, grinning up at him.

Kyle didn't smile back. He jerked up and looked at him, scandalized, and Jason cut in quickly. "I met up with Corey and the girls earlier and they both hugged me until my head almost popped off, that's why I smell like perfume."

Kyle eyed him for a minute. "Alright, I'll buy it, but if I find out you're lying, you're in trouble."

Jason smirked. "Don't worry, I value certain sexual organs far too much to get caught cheating on you that easily." He stroked his side gently. "I talked to Corey about getting his parents to help me file against my dad."

"And?" Kyle stroked his fingers over his chest absently, and Jason would have purred if he could; it felt good.

"And he said he could get them to help me." He shrugged. "Well… I guess I'll call the cops and Missy's social worker in the morning." He reached up and threaded his fingers through Kyle's fine hair, pulling him down for a long, deep kiss.

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A few days later, he called in work and took the day off so that he could talk to everyone who was going to end up involved in the tangled legal web he was about to wrap around both his and his father's ankles.

He sat at a table with Coach Cameron, Corey's parents, Michael and Anna Meeks, and Miss Kelley. "So let me understand," the social worker said softly, "you want to officially file for custody of your sister and make a case against your father?"

Jason nodded his head shortly. "Yes, Ma'am. I know how this is going to seem, but both have to be filed and there's no point in sitting down with everyone multiple times."

"… Alright. Now you said you wanted to file a case against your father but you were very vague on the details…."

He nibbled at a thumbnail thoughtfully. "I want to file charges against him for physical and verbal child abuse, and… would it be possible to file domestic disturbance charges for something that happened a little over a year ago?"

"I think it will depend on what you mean by 'disturbance'."

"Hmm. He and my mom got into a huge argument because he was gathering up his things to move out. I don't know what exactly got said, but he started yelling at her and throwing things; a lot of stuff got broken. My mom had to call the cops to take him out of the house."

Corey's mother looked sick to her stomach. She had thrown her arms around him tight when he sat down to talk with them about what exactly he was doing… and what he was going to need their help with. She had sobbed all over him about how she knew she shouldn't have let him go back to that house.

"The police should have a record of that, but you were right to mention it to me; usually, in cases like this we only look for domestic violence, but you should be able to get this admitted because of the nature of the disturbance."

He sighed, relieved. It was a step.

"Now as for the physical abuse, I have to ask, was it against you or your sister?"

"Mostly me," he confessed. "I never saw him hit Ma and I assure you we wouldn't be having this conversation if I had ever seen him hit Missy." He would have killed his dad before letting him hurt his little sister.

"Accusations of child abuse are very serious and will have to be looked into deeply. To your knowledge, are there any hospital records that would indicate abuse, and in which hospital?"

Jason frowned and drummed his fingers against the table. "When I did go to the hospital, it was county. He would always tell me not to go to the school nurse or anything, but sometimes I did. I don't know if they really keep records, though."

"They do for four years past graduation," Coach Cameron told them all, "in case something happens in college or there's some other problem with the kid's medical records. They're all sealed, of course, but I think you can go in and request your own without much problem."

"That's actually pretty smart of the school to do," Kyle's father commented, seeming impressed.

Miss Kelley nodded, and Jason got the feeling that this wasn't the first time they would have to go through the school to get medical records. "Alright," she said, "now you've done well finding people to help you, but none of them ever actually saw the abuse take place?"

"No, ma'am. There are a few people who… would have seen, but since they're my dad's brother and sister-in-law…." He let his words trail off, knowing she would understand.

"Is there anyone else?"

He frowned but thought about it. Finally, he realized that there was, but it would be opening a can of worms that he really didn't want to get into. "The night that I came out… he took a couple of swings at me. He bruised up my chest and slammed me against the counter. Missy saw the whole thing."

The social worker seemed surprised at that and sat her pen down, looking straight at him. Jason didn't know why she all of a sudden seemed so shocked. "Even though he never hurt Melissa, she was aware of what was going on in the house?"

"Oh yeah. Whenever my father was shouting at Ma, Missy would always come into my room and curl up in my bed. I was the only one who would stand up to my dad, so I guess she felt safer in there."

"That's rather unusual. Normally, in households where the abuse is contained, the members of the house that weren't involved in the abuse were ignorant of it."

Jason pressed his lips together tightly. "I don't know why my dad did things the way he did."

"Well, because of the abuse charges your sister may have to go to a foster home until a decision is made."

His eyes went huge. "A foster home? Why can't Missy just come back with me?" he demanded.

"If she has to testify during the trial – and it looks like she's going to have to – then letting her live with either party would be seen as influencing her testimony."

"But couldn't she live with someone else?" he demanded, "like… my Aunt Claire? She's not going to be involved in the case, so why can't Melissa go live with her?"

"If she does, you realize that you're not going to be able to visit her."

His chest contracted like someone had hit him. They were actually going to tell him he couldn't see his sister?

"Also, I should point out that even if your father is found guilty of abuse, there's no guarantee that you'll win the custody case. If you're both found to be unfit parents, then she might be sent to live with another family member."

"I can take care of Missy," he argued, "I've been looking after her practically since the day she was born! Why would they not let me have her?"

"Because of your age and financial situation."

The meeting lasted for a few hours, and Jason started to develop a pounding headache as they had to go through the ins and outs of filing both of the cases, getting contact information for Coach Cameron and Corey's parents, and all of the other legal bullshit.

When it was finally over, Jason went outside and took a few long, deep breaths of fresh air. Corey's mom hugged him again, stroking his hair and for a minute she almost felt like his own mom. He had spent so much time letting them take care of him that she was like a second mother to him anyway.

"Jason, Corey told us not to bother offering you a place to stay, but are you sure you're okay?" she asked, stroking his cheek.

He nodded, managing a smile. "I'm great. I didn't get a chance to introduce you, but these are Michael and Anna Meeks. Um… well…." He shifted awkwardly, but then decided to come right out and say it. "I'm dating their son, Kyle."

Corey's mother blushed but was perfectly polite to Kyle's family, and Jason appreciated them even more for it. Coach Cameron introduced himself, too, and managed a tiny smile. "I met your boy once," he told the Meeks, "he was a nice kid."

Jason stepped back and watched the adults talk, glad that they were all getting along. He had one hell of a support net, but was it going to be enough to go to war with the demon from his childhood?