~A.N~

Sorry bout the late update, school was being annoying this week plus last week. No worries though, brand-new chiff-hanger filled chapter just for you guys.

I bet none of you guys predicted this twist . . .

Hope you enjoy :D

Chapter 26

Jackson

They stayed like that, locked in each other's embrace for who knows how long.

They just stayed like that in each other's arms because they felt safe.

They couldn't survive without their other half.

Jack rubbed Kim's lower back to avoid hurting her as the blonde just clenched the back of the brunette's blood-stained shirt tighter. "Shh, shh," He cooed gently as Kim calmed herself down.

Safe, she felt safe.

After a few more quiet moments, Kim pulled away from the hug as they both repositioned, Kim leaning on Jack's shoulder. Jack spoke, breaking the silence.

"Nightmare?" Kim only nodded, not wanting to remember. "You know, sometimes it's better to talk about your problems . . ." He trailed off as Kim sighed almost inaudibly to herself.

"Sometimes it isn't," She replied back, sitting up. Jack was surprised at her answer.

Talk about mood change, he thought to himself as he looked at her; "But in this case," He actually allowed the cockiness to seep into his deep voice, "I think it is better to talk about your problems." Kim smiled, and Jack couldn't help but smile also.

"What if the problems are too painful to speak of?" Jack didn't need to think about his answer, he knew the perfect one.

"And that, my dear Kim, is why I am here. I'm your angel, remember?" Kim giggled for the first time in a while, she felt like everything was back to normal. After all of the disaster that had just happened in the past few months, her life was at a final point going back to some-what normal. She hit him in the arm lightly as a comeback and he winced, trying his best to hide it. But the blond wasn't letting him get away with anything else. She turned to him, her happiness gone and now replaced with worry, and softly grabbed his arm; trying to pull up the sleeve of his t-shirt a little. In a flash, locking his cockiness away again, Jack moved his arm and stood up so she couldn't reach him.

"Jack—"

"I'm fine, how are you feeling?" He answered quickly to try and cover up his limbs screaming at him. Kim stood up as well and tried to touch his arm again, Jack only yanking his arm away. She looked into his beautiful brown eyes and tried to look inside of him, she tried to see what she neededto see so she could help him. And she found it, the one thing she needed to see even if it hurt her as well.

Pain.

"Jack, you are hurt."

"No I'm not." He mumbled back as he took a step backwards. He prayed that Rudy and Jerry would come back from the store soon and save him from having to lie.

Kim took a step towards him, "Yes you are,"

"No I'm fin—"

"Jackson Brewer!" She cut him off with a shout and his eyes went wide in shock and anger at the use of his full name. "You are hurt so stop freaking denying it! You don't think I can't see you wince every time I try to touch you? I know what pain is Jackson! I know what it feels like, how to try to hide it, how to push through it but it doesn't work Jackson!" For some reason, Kim felt like she needed to call Jack by his full name to get him to listen to her. "So God help me Brewer if you say 'I'm fine' one more time when you really aren't! Got it Jack—"

"Don't say it." Jack's voice was steady, stern. Kim didn't realize this until it was too late.

"Don't say what? Your full name? Why not Jack? Why not Jackson?" Jack tried to hold himself back, he really did. But his body was stronger than his mind. In a flash he moved forward and had Kim against the wall, his right hand holding both of her wrists above her head.

She barely had time to figure out what was happening as his left hand came towards her face.

The slap echoed around the room.

"Damn it! Don't you understand what my full name brings me? It brings me pain and hellish memories that no matter what I do I can't escape from! Don't you understand why I hide the pain? I do it to protect you! You and only freakin' you Kim! I have no one else in my life besides Jerry and you so I do my best to save and protect you two from everything! Don't you understand anything?" He was breathing heavily and Kim's right cheek was a bright cherry red; but it wasn't over. Kim wasn't going to be weak any longer. She used all of her force to roughly push Jack off her, while he was still trying to calm down the raging beast inside of him, and hit him hard in the chest.

"Don't you understand what I've been through? What kind of hell I've had to ensure? My mother died, my father turned abusive, my ex-boyfriend hunted me down just to 'do me' and achieved it twice and I have no one who loves me anymore! And now you, the person I trusted and thought was my angel sent down from heaven to come and save me, you have turned into a demon sent from hell to make my life worse!"

Everything was on the table.

Jack walked towards Kim as she backed up against the lockers. "I'm from hell now huh?" His voice was pure venom; "The person who saved you is from hell?" He spat out his last sentence with hints of sarcasm but the blonde knew that was false; this was war, not a conversation with cockiness and sarcasm.

"Maybe you shouldn't have saved me! Maybe you broke a damn rule! My life would be ten times better without another player in it!" Jack's eyes darted to the bench where they were sitting and loving each other only mere minutes ago. But his mind couldn't do anything as his body still had full control.

"Maybe you are just a freakin' dumb blondie looking for a guy to hook-up with!" That hit her and it hit her hard. She snapped out of it. "W—"

"BITCH!" He interrupted her as he got in her face, Kim eyes down-casted to the ground; the word bouncing around her skull like a ball. Jack shoved Kim against the lockers. "You ungrateful freaking snob! I changed for your ass! And this is how you re-pay me?" Kim gulped but kept her eyes on the ground, ignoring the searing pain coming from her shoulder. "Answer me!" Jack roared as he shoved her again. Kim was lost now, she didn't know why but her mind had finally processed what was going on. Jack shoved her again, her back starting to bleed. "You re-pay me by doing this? By telling me I'm basically nothing?" Kim tried to stop him, to stop the fight; but they were too far in and there was no going back now.

"Jack—" Jack was suddenly pulled off of Kim by Rudy as Jerry pulled Kim over to the bench.

Rudy and Jack started to shout at each other as Jerry locked eyes with Kim and shook his head in worry, "What happened?" Kim explained how she started the fight by calling Jack by his full name and everything afterwards. Jerry's eyes were the size of saucers by the time Kim had finished talking. "Wow . . ." He mumbled as a crash was heard from behind them. The two teens turned around to see Jack a lump by the wall—just like Jerry was at Kim's house. Rudy walked over to the teenagers and his eyes held uneasiness.

"Kim, what happened? The last time Jack . . ." Rudy trailed off as Kim explained everything over to the sensei again. Rudy shook his head rapidly after she was finished. "Kim . . . oh Kim . . . I'm sorry. Jack . . . listen, Jack has no experience in how love works and stuff like that and since his father always told him it was bad well let's just say the 'bad boy side' of him and the 'new side' of him clashed when you called him 'Jackson'. Jack's full name connects to a lot of memories, all terrible. And since you have changed him so much, even made him fall in love with you, it is too much for him. Jack doesn't want to lose you Kim, he really doesn't. He doesn't hate you, he never could; I can tell he loves you way too much to do that."

Jerry cut in, "Ever wonder why Jack has kissed every girl in school? It is because he was trying to find something to grasp on to, some type of reassurance after all he has been through. He was looking for that spark you get when you meet your match."

Our spark, Kim thought as she felt tears fill her eyes.

Rudy nodded as he sat down next to Kim and sent Jerry to go and check on the brunette. The older man placed his hand on Kim's shoulder and she looked at him, some of her tears falling. "Jack doesn't know what to do when the person he loves deeply calls him out on something. So he lets his 'bad side' take over and do the job for him. I'm sorry Kim," Rudy finished as he wrapped his arms around the teenage girl in a tight hug.

Her second father, just like Jack.

Rudy released Kim from the hug and then smiled at her as the blonde felt a hand on her shoulder. She looked up expecting to see Jerry, but jumped away once she saw who it really was.

"Kim . . ."