Here are all your responses :) Thanks for waiting!
Kaecdc- Hahah I know right? Didn't see that coming!
Guest #1- I hope this sort of relieves your cliffhanger BUT WAIT! I ended this chapter on a cliffhanger too :P
Chey1235- Yup. You got it right. Your name is Cheyanne? That beautiful! I almost wrote a story with a girl who's name was Cheyenne ;) I saw the promo for the new episode and literally went crazy with happiness. I basically started having seizures on the ground and my siblings actually thought I was going crazy. I raped the repeat button. No lie. :P Brewer; Jack Brewer. X3
Guest #2- I did do Jilton in this chapter, so I hope I helped you with that. :D I unconsciously channeled a little bit of the Jilton cuteness, even though it's appearance is so brief its sad. :( Ah well. I had Jilton in the last chapter too.
Ilovesport1999- Hahah yeah you knew it! It was a little obvious with the letter that Kim wrote, but y'know…it was meant to be sort of surprising. I mean I failed last time I tried the 'surprise!' factor, remember? When I told you guys to guess who the person was that messed my Jackie up. New Jersey is freaking amazing! Lucky… :)
Amy loves you- That's my reviewer! *wink* Lemon? OMW am I the only one who thinks of Lemon Breeland?...anyone? Oh. I guess I'm the only one who watched Heart of Dixie. *sighs* Oh, well. Lemon for, like, fanfiction lemons? :P
JasmineLief- Your reviewer truly made my week. I was kind of going through an internal rough time-am going through it, forget that-and it really uplifted my spirit. I literally went around my house telling anyone who's listen about my drippy talented fingers and even though they laughed and shook their heads I kept saying it. It's the only one with them being older that you actually like? Yeah, I agree that there aren't a lot of superbly good 'older' Jack and Kim fanfics, but I have found some good ones…none of them really exceeded the 17/18 age limit, though. It makes me sad and happy when I find not-exactly-proffesional-grade fanfictions on this website, sad because people actually think its good and give it a ridiculous amount of praise and happy because so many people are reaching out of their comfort zone to go and put their writing out into the world. I never want to bash my fellow fanfiction writers (PLEASE GUYS I LOVE Y'ALL TO PIECES YOU ARE TOO SWEET FOR WORDS) but yeah. Not everyone was born to be a writer. :) Good luck to all those hopefuls, though! Writing only gets better with time.
xMidnightHowls- I do believe that this chapter answers your review. ;)
amandaxoxo- Oh goody! I tried really hard to make them lifelike and fit into the story! It's really hard sometimes, with OC characters.
nclhrds1717- *points to user* This person is my legit fanfic baby. I would ABSOLUTELY adore it if she PM'ed me and helped me figure out how to use her as my beta fish... ;) Girl I understand, grades are everything (but coming from a procrastinator this is probably useless advice lol) Did you win your tournament? I sort of ladled on the OMG-ness in this one though…WHATS WRONG WITH YOU, LIL? GET IT TOGETHER, WOMAN! I tried for dialogue in this chapter too, so hope I did okay!
Shiloh
My brother had clearly been busy in my…absence.
Jack had grown, that was clear. In the twelve years since I'd last physically seen him, he'd kept up his martial arts training, his once scrawny shoulders now densely muscled and powerful, wrapped around Kim like a protective iron cage. He'd beefed up immensely, if I was being honest, muscles I hadn't known existed strengthening his now an inch taller than me frame, still retaining the slim waist and panther like strength that he'd had when he was eleven. Jack's brown hair, the exact same shade of mine, was still long the way he liked it, but his current hairstyle was more attune to the man I hadn't gotten the chance to meet yet. Huge hands, now at least as big as my head, cradled my best friend like a precious flower, dark eyes, stripped of all innocence, fueled with such hate and suffering at the sight of me that I felt like a criminal.
I guess I was.
My little brother by a year hadn't known the reason why I left him. All he knew was that one day, Mom, Dad and I had gone for a short vacation without him, to 'go pick up his birthday present'. Mom and Dad came back, but I never did, leaving him to celebrate his birthday alone for the first time in eleven years. I hadn't half known why I had to leave Jack and Ryan either, if I was going to be fair. All I knew was what Mom and Dad had told me.
Okay, sweetie. Mommy and Daddy are going to leave you here with Aunt Laine, okay? Some bad people that don't like Mommy and Daddy want to take you to a bad place because you're a girl, so staying with Auntie here is gonna keep you safe. Do you understand, Lilo?
I understand, Mommy. Is Jack coming with me?
No, honey. Jack's not coming. He's going to stay with us, but you can see him when the bad men are gone.
Can I visit him?
No. I'm sorry Lilo, but this is the best thing for you right now-you'll see, living with Aunt Laine is going to be a lot of fun.
Some kind of fun that was. 'Aunt' Laine barely paid any attention to me. Uncle Logan was really the one who raised me after that. He went above and beyond the call of an adoptive parent, and he was reason that I still got to see Jack every year. On each birthday I spent with my Maryland aunt and uncle he took me on a shopping trip to New York. We'd shop together for about a day, and spend the next watching all the interviews and such Mom, Dad, and Jack had done while I was gone. He cried with me when the news broke that Ryan had died, laughed with me when Jack got his first pet, and held me when the news of Jack's multiple incarcerations broke. As the years past, Uncle Logan helped me deal with the fact that I might never see Jack again. My parents weren't even my parents by that time, so all I had worried about was Jack's well being and whether or not the men that Mom and Dad had claimed to be after me would discover me or not. Jack had paid the price for me freedom, and for that, I owed him everything. I still loved my brother. He was my baby brother for Christ's sake. Nothing that time could do would ever change that.
Apparently, though, Mom and Dad had told him something about me-and from the looks of it, it wasn't something good.
Taking a shuddering breath I wiped the moisture away from the corners of my eyes, standing up straight and looking Kim straight in the eye, ignoring Jack's question all together.
"Kim, darling, I'm sorry but I can't-" I took another breath. "I can't help you with Jerry and Mika. I'm clearly unwelcome here and there are some things…things with Jack that can't be solved right now." I swallowed the heartbreak and confusion in Kim's tea brown eyes as I scooped up my suitcase. "I think I'll just leave."
"No."
Jack's voice, rough and deep as it was, caught me off guard once again as I turned to face him, sweeping back my band and giving him a halfhearted glare. "Why not, Jack? Why can't I just pick up this suitcase and get the hell out of your life once again."
"Because I want to know why." My little brothers voice broke on that last word, Kim finally turning away from me to gently brush the bottom of Jack's eye, concern written all over her face. "I want to know why you left me. Why Mom and Dad told me you wanted to leave me, why you couldn't have come back when Ryan died, why I had to tell everyone that you died in some freak offshore accident when you were really just living barely two states away."
I can't take it. I can't do this to him, not when they could still be out there, waiting to pounce on him and me-"Jack I can't risk it!" I almost shouted at him, the words echoing off the walls of the condo. Kim had barely had her profile turned towards me, still cradling Jack's face and cooing soothing words to him. I could sense that the fact that her best friend was actually her boyfriends brother had shocked her so much that she just blocked it out of her system, refusing to face it, concentrating on the one most important thing in the room to her-Jack.
Damn. She must really love him.
Before I could bring myself to turn around and leave, Jack's voice stopped me yet again.
"Stay, Shiloh." His voice was pleading, eyes wide and hurting with that kicked puppy dog look that brought back so many memories of him that it made my chest hurt; "Stay, and we'll fight whatever evil that you're hiding from together. Don't leave me again, Shi. Please don't leave."
Please Lilo? Will you stay with me?
"Jack," Any words that were to follow his name broke into pieces, the world coming to a dead stop around me as I crumpled to my knees, sobbing and holding my face in my hands. The fact that my parents selfish act of saving their favorite child had hurt Jack as much as his eyes told me it did, ripped me apart.
Jackson. My baby brother. When I left New York I changed my last name to Michaelson, just like his middle name. I always spoke of him in such a past tense way that even my friends knew that I'd lost a younger brother, I'd cried missing him so many nights it wasn't funny. He was my little cheese stick, my little brother, the spunky, funny, serious and dedicated little man that I had missed the chance of seeing grow up.
Oh, Jack, can you ever-
"Shhh." Warm, strong arms were around me as I cried, strong, and shaking as they cradled me to their chest. "You're here. I'm here. It's gonna be okay. It has to be okay." Keening in grief I let my little brother hold me as I finally let out years of hurt as he came to terms with the fact that I still loved him, that I was still his sister and I hadn't wanted to leave him. Clutching Jack's shirt I cried, and continued crying even as Kim wrapped us both in her arms as Jack rocked and I broke down.
You're here.
I'm here.
It's gonna be okay.
It. HAS. To be okay.
Milton
"A long as you're around, I'll follow you. You won't ever, be alone. As long as you're around-"
"Hey Kim,"
Grinning, the gangly ginger answered his phone, the hand not occupied with paying for Julie's undoubtedly loaded with sugar hotdog. He and his girlfriend were roaming the hub of their cities finest on a date, taking the opportunity to see who could ingest the most crap the fastest. Currently, Milton was winning-that Big Mac at McDonalds has really tipped the scales in his favor.
"Aslwowie3wnfiwneirr Milto nasiwqowqe you tertieiro two there?"
"Uh, Kim? I think there's static in your line."
"Oh awieahrwir shit witwit it mustve been Shi and Jacks stupid tears aworwheurnwouer."
"Call me back when you got it fixed, okay? Julie and I are on a date." His lady giggled at his goofy expression when the brilliant doctor shoved the iPhone in his pocket, lacing his twig like blazer clad arm with his girlfriends pale poof sleeved one. "So how was your job today? Did Vincent finally get his date with Cat?"
"No." Julie's face showed her disappointment as she bit into her not-a-blazing-canine-so-the-name-is-ridiculous, poofed pink, yet elegant accounting shirt and pencil skirt tugged on by the slight breeze, sprigs of not quite ponytail tamed light auburn hair breezing into her face.
"Vincent's second job is the only time that Cat can meet him, but its okay because-" and her eyes lit up at this "-because Cat decided that breakfast would be fine anyway." Her nose crinkled as she smiled and Milton felt a surge in his heart at just how beautiful his fiancée was.
"Do you ever find it funny that Jack and Kim actually helped us go on a date even though they'd never met at all?" Milton remarked, gazing at the passerby with a bored eye. "I mean they were fated to be together. The chances of something like this happening were extensively high for this kind of accidental occurrence."
"Yup," Julie agreed. "If Jack hadn't forced you to eat a café for once in your life, and if Kim hadn't stood me up by sleeping in, we never would've met, much let started dating."
"We owe a lot to those two." Milton concluded, kissing Julie on the cheek. "You're very special to me Julie, and without them, I wouldn't have met you."
"Meeting you was fate, becoming friends with you was destiny, and falling in love with you was accidental," Julie said with a quizzical smile on her face.
"That sounds like a quote," Milton supposed, brow crinkling. "Is that?"
Julie shrugged. "I think so, but I can't recall where I remember it from."
"No matter." The ginger curled his arm a little tighter around his girlfriends waist and pressed another chaste kiss to her forehead, fully aware of his abuse of the levels of PDA socially acceptable to New Yorkians. He didn't really care. This was Julie. They could, in cruder terms, suck it.
"As long as you're around, I'll follow you. You won't ever be alone. As long as you're-"
"Phone fixed, Kim?"
"Milton, do you remember Lea?"
"Yeah, Jack's dead twin sister. The only one who actually had the chance to meet her was Jerry-why, did something new come up about the circumstances of her death?"
"Milty is everything okay?"
"I think so. Give me a second, milady."
"She's alive."
"She's WHAT?"
"Yeah-apparently it had something to do with some people Jack's parents had gotten on their bad side-? I don't know. All I know is that Shiloh-LEA is here, and its not pretty. She's been crying on an off for the better part of an hour and Jack's just not saying anything. After Shi's first breakdown he hasn't been able to do anything. He's been walking around the apartment with a blank look on his face and she's been staring at the same spot on the window for who knows how long. Milton, I know them. And when I say I know them, I know them. Neither of them should act this way."
"Okay. We'll be there in five minutes, keep an eye on both of them."
"I'm trying. Jacks won't talk to me, and I'm worried that he's gonna escape and get stone cold fucking drunk somewhere. Shi might do something crazy like hurt herself, oh do get here soon, Milton!"
"Just keep an eye on both of them! Keep Lea in the bedroom because there are less things in her to hurt herself with and make sure Jack stays out of the kitchen and bathroom. Don't let them see each other for right now-I think they're in shock."
"Okay-okay-I'm gonna call Jerry and Eddie. Please get here soon."
Kim
"Jerry, thank God you're here,"
Jack's bestest friend looked serious for the first time since I'd seen him, black eyes determined, brushing past me without a thought, already looking for his adopted brother. "Where's Jack?" he demanded, and for once I was struck by the irony of myself being in the same situation he had been the last time Jack had gotten himself in trouble, damn him.
"Living room." I told him rushedly, ushering in the rest of our little family-Grace, Eddie, Julie, Milton, and Mika, the last persons actually being present at Jerry's side, a fact that I barely had time to process.
All of us were freaking out, worried to death over Jack and what Shiloh-Lea, Goddammit, LEA's presence meant. The fact that I was dating-that I'd had sex with-my best friends brother was nothing short of a punch in the face, but that wasn't my main fear at the moment.
It had all been my fault.
If I hadn't pushed so hard for Sh-LEA to come to help Mika and Jerry Jack would never have gotten the shock of his life and they both could have been happy without me-
Oh, gods. Mom was right. I do mess up everything.
Running a hand through my now out, frazzled hair I cast a crazed glance over the room-Jack, Jerry, and the rest were all congregated in the living room, Mika returning from the bedroom with a red eyed S-Lea in hand.
They don't need me.
JACK doesn't need me.
And with that heartbroken realization I grabbed the keys and busted out the door.
I am worthless. I ruin everyone's live, nobody needs me, Mom was right, she was so right-
I don't deserve to be loved.
KIM! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING!
Love y'all ;)