So I think this is the longest chapter I have written for this story. I hope this answers your questions, I will go into more detail however in the next chapter.

Disclaimer-Nothing is mine

Please read and review.

Next Chapter-Helen Back Again-Tori and Andre attempt to rebuild their shattered relationship.

Ayden

Chapter 26-Locked Up

Tori confronts Cameron and Andre goes to Yerba.

Tori's Point of View.

Once I was told that everyone gets angry. It is natural to be angry, it is natural to be out for blood so much so that your hands shake with it, because when that happens then you know that you can use this anger as a weapon, you can mould it to your considerable strength. It can be your shield.

And God knows but Cameron does not that I had enough anger to go around. Hell I could make an impenetrable fortress around me when it came to my ex.

I didn't tell anyone what I was planning to do. The gang wanted to go to a place I have never heard of called Yerba and I refused but encouraged them to go along.

"What are you going to do here all alone?" Jade asked with a pointed eyebrow her head tilted to the side watching me from under her dark glitter eyeliner like she could read my thoughts. I rolled my eyes determined not to give away any idea over what I was doing. I knew instantly what my friends would say and I also knew that they wouldn't understand no matter how much they wanted to.

I managed a small smile decidedly not looking at anyone and focusing more on Ayden who was curled up in my lap sucking his pacifier with his eyes drooping shut. Even If I had wanted to go on holiday, I wouldn't have been able to deal with the lack of emotion or sometimes the full force of my anger that seemed to seep in and out of me with no warning whatsoever.

I shook my head more to myself than anything before finally managing an answer "I have more than enough to do here" there was a prolonged silence before Beck spoke his voice calm like he was thinking though every word in his head before he spoke them. "If this is about Cameron" he said carefully "Then you don't have to hide it, we understand but…Tori…he doesn't deserve anything from you"

I nodded at his earnest brown eyes "Oh I know that" I said derisively tugging Ayden closer "Believe me I have improved on my self-worth somewhat since he has graced me with his presence" I shook my head. "I don't plan on letting him near Ayden" that much was true, I didn't.

I could see that nobody believed me but thankfully Trina took that moment to slam through the door complaining that my parents wouldn't her the newest pair of shoes to impress the boys of Yerba with. I took that moment to make my escape.

It wasn't a deliberate choice me going to see Cameron, however I waited until the gang were out of town before I asked my Mom if she could look after him one morning, I claimed I had a huge paper to work on and needed to concentrate. My Mom took me at face value because I suspected that if she had asked me then she'd been able to see more of the lie on my face. This way she got to bury her head in the sand a little longer.

Therefore, that morning I brushed my hair before tying it on top of my head. I wore my best jeans and a warm jumper and boots. I wanted to look good but I somehow didn't want to give Cameron the impression that I was only there to show him how miserable I had been without him.

It took a long time to get out of the car.

The hotel was pricy. How he had afforded this when we had been sneaking into rooms and sometimes skipping meals in Arizona was amazing, it made me grit my teeth. Cameron had come from money and that was another thing that I suppose I had always loved. He had spoilt me. I climbed into the elevator.

We were in another nameless big state that I didn't know about when I woke up. We were in another shitty motel. I was naked and judging by the state of my body and my memories we had defiantly had sex the night before. And Cameron wasn't around.

I stretched feeling every bone in my body ache. Sitting on a bike behind my boyfriend had not done exactly wonders for my body. I really needed to sleep some more.

Thankfully, the motel room we were in had a bath and a decent amount of running water. I went through my things suddenly thankful that I had stocked up last time on shower supplies.

The hot water was like a dream. The bath was small but thankfully clean and I was fully prepared to sink under the water and never come up. I had just finished rising the last of the shampoo from my hair when the door opened and Cameron came in with what I supposed was the money he had managed to get. Cameron had several accounts I knew due to his parents being utterly rich but I didn't know much more. Money had never been something we talked about.

He paused by the door watching carefully his eyes twinkling. "Fuck you look hot" he said smirking reaching for his own shirt and toeing of his boots and shocks. I saw the tattoo tangled just underneath his ribs of the giant bird as he went for his belt.

"You think there's room enough for the two of us?" I asked even as he climbed in settling himself behind me. I paused as the water resettled around us. "What took you so long?" I asked carefully closing my eyes.

"I think someone recognised you" he said finally. I froze, my family was something that I also didn't want to think about, it was universally known between the both of us that the one thing we didn't discuss was my family because I knew that if I dwelled on that for too long then the selfish bubble I had wrapped them up in would burst.

"What?" I asked carefully but Cameron was already scooping water on my shoulders, he paused "I don't know what happened, only that the people at the cash register commented on how pretty you were" he shrugged, "But were not in California anymore and they don't have any way of tracking us so…" he shrugged turning on the water to add more hot in.

I nodded unsure of what to say. I didn't want to bring up anything that would open that dam inside of me and I didn't want to care.

"I got you something" Cameron muttered near my earlobe and I twisted to look at him. He was fingering a small envelope in his hands the paper still damp from his fingers. He reached out for my hand so that it was lying flat palm up and open before he opened the envelope. Falling out was a single silver chain with what looked like small stone on the end of it. I took a closer look. The stone was blue, dark and wrapped in silver.

I gasped sitting up so that I was sat even more tightly between his knees. "How the hell did you get this?" I asked carefully trying to contain my delight. "If he had done this illegally which wasn't outside of the realms of possibility considering Cameron's rather dubious moral intent I really didn't want to know.

"I got the money from my account don't worry it was offshore so they couldn't track it" he shook his head tying the necklace around me, "I just wanted to treat my girl" he shook his head kissing me softly before he turned me back around and wrapped his arms around me as the water swished around us. He shook his head, burying his nose in my hair before his hands moved lower.

And as his cleaver fingers went to work I tilted my head back closed my eyes and wished all moments were like this one.

I knocked on the door of the room he was in and then he opened it…

God he was still beautiful, he still had the high backed cheekbones and the dark hair and the dark eyes. He still had that look of a dangerous man that had first attracted me to him but he seemed skinner and paler. He smiled that genuine smile that he had always reserved for me, it took everything I had not to smile back.

"Wondered when you'd come" he said finally leaning back. "I guess you didn't bring him with you?" I ignored him sweeping past him and pushing back open the door. The hotel room was huge, clearly, I thought bitterly his parents had forked out the money for whatever this was. They had never been on board with me and it didn't surprise me that they didn't give me any money while spending it all on their son.

"Nice place" I said finally sitting on the edge of the grey couch. Cameron shut the door. The whole room seemed to be done in different shades of grey and white. "Much nicer than that one in Arizona"

Cameron didn't look fazed by my anger but tilted his head to the side almost like he was appraising me. "Yeah" he said finally reaching for the nearest bottle of water. "Yeah it is" he shook his head. "You didn't come here to tell me that I won't see the kid" he said finally shrugging "So tell me what you want to say and I'll give you the answers that you want" he turned back to look at me.

"You're sick" I said finally looking at him with new eyes. It seemed everything I had suspected was being brought to light. Cameron smirked but there was no humour around the smile. It seemed like he had been sapped of what made him…well…him.

"Dying" he corrected gently.

There was a second where I couldn't think, where everything went blank because…well this was Cameron…this…he couldn't be…

"Your what?" I croaked finally. Cameron reached behind him for what looked like an unopened bottle of vodka and passed it to me. I opened it too a swig and promptly spat it out. Cameron smiled fondly. "I forgot you didn't drink anything if it wasn't watered down" he said reaching for the bottle.

"Not true" I said wiping my eyes "I did drink tequila once"

Cameron snorted. "It's a brain tumour" he said finally. "It's called a butterfly one because it expands, it's near everything important so they don't think that they can operate" he shrugged. He took another look at my face before rolling his eyes "Oh don't look like that" he said bitterly "I'm the one that's dying" he shook his head.

"So why are you back?" I asked finally. Cameron shook his head "I…there was a lot of shit between you and me and I didn't want to die without seeing you" he said brutally honest. He shook his head. I almost smiled. He had always been honest, sometimes painfully so.

"So you're not here for your son?" I asked carefully. Cameron shook his head. "I could say I was" he said finally thinking hard. "I could say I was here to get involved with your boy but to what end? He would only lose me in the end and…well…it's not like I was there" he shrugged again and anger welled in me on Ayden's behalf.

"And whose fault was that" I said standing up "You left me three months pregnant with no money like It was nothing, and now you come back to make things right?" I shook my head. "I loved you, I left my family for you! I would have done anything for you" I shook my head "I destroyed my family because you told me that you loved me" I wiped my eyes furiously.

"Why the hell would you do that?" I asked biting my lip. "Why would you leave me there when I left everything for you? Was the thought of a baby that bad?"

Cameron stared for a long second before sighing. "It wasn't the baby" he said finally "It was more the fact that It was getting harder. You were so in love and I couldn't do it anymore…"he looked at me appraisingly. "I fell out of love with you" he said finally. I stared at him, the truth was finally out, and the one reason that had kept me up at night for so long was finally revealed.

"You ok?" Cameron asked eyeing me like I was going to faint. "Truth make you feel bad?" he asked still with that gaze that had swooped in and taken me hostage. I shook my head with what I knew was a twisted smile. "No" I said finally shrugging. "I don't feel anything"

And that was the truth. I didn't. There were too many tears and horrific memories and every second praying that there had been a mistake and worrying about bills and going to free clinics and hating every second of being pregnant. It hadn't been a happy time for me and I hated the fact that I had spent my pregnancy worrying myself stupid. All of those negative feelings had left little room for wondering about Cameron and why the hell he had done what he had done.

I had no feelings left for this man. Nothing other than the fact that I supposed I would always love him as the father of my child. Other than that there was nothing left in me to love him. Nothing left in me to love anyone or anything other than Ayden. Maybe I had some kind of long term damage. I mean, who wants to be with someone who is constantly asking wondering if that person is going to leave? Who wants to be with someone who has a kid at a young an age as I was.

Here I was seventeen years old with a two year old and a dying ex.

You couldn't make this shit up.

"What do you want me for?" I asked finally only to receive a shrug in return. "I just wanted to see you again, make sure that you weren't, lying in some ditch somewhere" he shrugged again. "I did love you once Tori, just because I fell out of love and realised that what I had put you through was stupid even by my standards doesn't mean that I didn't care" he shook his head. "And things at home…" he waved his hand like the very question was painful, "I didn't want to die alone" he said finally, he shrugged like it was nothing, like he had long ago lost the concept of being afraid of death, like he hadn't just once again stormed into my life and ruined it without a second thought for me or anyone else within radius.

I stared at him for a long second before breathing in and out again. I stood up straighter. "I don't need this" I said finally, "I don't need you, you wanna ring me when you're on your deathbed and I will come and say goodbye not before" I stiffened my spine. "Until then stay the hell away from me and mine"

And with that I turned to lead the way out of the room before he stopped me. "You still wear the necklace" he said finally still staring out the window. He grinned a sliver of the grin that had once seemed beautiful to me. I didn't take my eyes of the doorknob the necklace suddenly burning into my skin. I swallowed harshly. "Don't kid yourself" I forced out before slamming the door shut.

I made it back to the car with my hands shaking and it took me an hour before I managed to pull over safely near my own school and turned the engine off before I started crying.

It was a long time before I stopped.

Because Cameron Martin, the invincible bad boy who had once upon a time stolen my heart and had refused to give it back was dying.

And I couldn't help but love him still.

Andre's Point of View.

"Prison" Beck said flatly having managed to pry his hair away from the hands of the lacklustre headed Yerbian prison inmates. He was currently leaning against the bars waiting and watching for Jade to make an appearance from the mess hall on the other side. "Prison" he shook his head again, "I'm too pretty for prison, I'll be in a gang by the end of the week"

I snorted. "We'll be out by then" I predicted not taking my eyes of the bars "We'll be back in California" what I really wanted to say died but Beck seemed to catch it all the same.

"You worried about Tori?" he said finally, "Look" he sighed "I hate the scumbag as much as you do but she's a mother, she's a big girl, she's…well she's Tori, she's going to do what she wants"

"She's going to get answers" I said grimly and Beck to his credit nodded "What I would do" he said leaning back against the bars looking into the distance "He convinced her to run away, abandoned her and impregnated her, her life will never be the same thanks to him, course she needs to see him, course she needs to yell and scream and throw things" he shrugged "What was she supposed to do?"

"He's Ayden's father" I said hating the words and the picture they conjured. Beck stared before snorting. "He's Ayden's sperm donner" he said flatly. He shook his head layers of his hair sinfully shifting over his face so that half of the inmates looked on suddenly distracted. "He left her in another state and didn't bother to contact her, she was on his own for nine months of her pregnancy and then even when she came home she had to adapt to being a teenager and a single mother…you don't seriously think that she would take him back?" he shook his head. "Tori might still be broken but she's got some self-respect" he grinned and I turned to see Jade come out of the mess.

She sat down next to the slipping her fingers through the bars and Beck linked them bringing them as close to his lips as he could. It was a surprisingly intimate moment for them but the fact that we were in prison in a foreign country meant that everyone's cage was rattled and Jade being Jade seemed to have made an enemy of nearly everyone in the room.

"I wanna go home" she muttered nosing alongside Beck's hand so quiet that anyone who wasn't Beck or wasn't near him wouldn't have heard it. "I wanna go back to your RV" she shook her head dark curls falling in front of her face so unlike another set of dark curls I had come to love.

But really, I thought thinking about dark curls and chocolate eyes and tanned skin and a voice that could make any man fall in love, what was really waiting for us when we got home?

And let me know what you think