"I'm just scared that I'm going to walk in on a massacre in progress at this point." Jack mumbled, more confident in a distinct lack of moving life in the house then anything else. He despairingly realized that fearing the worst in his life had become second nature – even with Pitch spending so much time near him, helping him along and loving him he couldn't change his naturally cynical behavior when it came to his parents.

Recognizing this at the same time, Pitch decided that it'd be best if he stopped consciously trying to change Jack's opinion of his parents – the young man was already perfect in his eyes so why try to fix him? "If there's anything I'm afraid of personally, its your parents actually changing – for obvious reasons that I've already told you of." He knew that agreeing with his fears in someway without directly confirming them would help or it would at least make Jack feel like he wasn't going completely bat-shit insane.

"I keep telling you not to worry." Jack beamed in the most welcoming way he could and spoke in a calming tone of voice, not realizing the irony that came loaded with that statement. "I'm not gonna leave you because my parents are O.K. I was attracted to you for you Pitch. Getting to stay at your place to get away from my parents was just a bonus."

"My concerns are much deeper then that Jack – I'm not one who can be told not to worry and then just not worry." Pitch did however, wish that he was like that. Maybe he'd stop feeling so inclined to help people who he perceived were in trouble.

"Maybe I should show you then? Pay you little lip-service?" He teased, intentionally running his the very tips of his fingers against his puckered lips.

"You know that would've been nice about twenty minutes earlier – my boner's already gone."

"If you wanted to fuc-"

"You were still injured from last time, I didn't want to push it."

"But were your words not, 'But fucking isn't all we could do.'?" There's the lightest edge of humor that ran along a lining of lust that made Pitch think that for once – just this once – he could throw caution to the wind, pull Jack down to the crouch of his pants, hold him by the hair and watch the boy suck him off.

Against his own will to focus on the road, his head filled with flashes of Jack gagging on a hard, thick cock that was far too big for him to deepthroat – but making him just horny enough to try. Hot tears running down his cheeks but not in pain, rather in the difficulty of trying to please. Pitch swallowed hard and chanced a look at Jack, who took the opportunity presented to him and licked his finger, slow and sensual.

Pitch's voice sped up, became quicker and less 'polite'. Embarrassment was a feeling he despised - especially when less then an hour ago he was dying to fuck the same person currently embarrassing him. "No, actually, those were not my words. My words were 'We can do other things if you don't want sex in particular'." He turns again, this time past a corner store and into the more residential part of the town.

"Am I sensing a hint of...'need'? Oh, Pitch..." He places his hand on the inside of Pitch's legs, fingertips drifting against his hardening cock before releasing a moan too loud to be real but too sexual to ignore.

In a moment of annoyance – because driving with a boner and with the cause of said boner sitting next to you making the boner in question worse, something he hadn't intended to bring up or even fully thought through slipped out. "You sound like Jamie."

It took ten tense heartbeats for Pitch to see the foolishness of that statement and five more to realize how eerily hush the car had gotten. The awkward silence continued on, even as Pitch slowed down his driving and made a right turn onto Jack's house' street.

Jack's hands were balled up and placed still in his pockets while he stared ahead, face frighteningly blank as they drove up to his home.

"I'm sorry." Pitch explained, urgently wishing to be forgiven for his outburst so this would not become another problem on his plate. "I didn't mean that, I shouldn't have brought that up – horrible planning and bad self-control on my part. Forgive me."

Jack didn't respond but instead undid his seat belt and threw Pitch a familiar glare – the soul-crushingly brutal stare that rang similar to 'Mary's in danger' levels of intensity.

Pitch sighed aloud and propped his arms up and around the steering wheel, leaning his head to rest on them. "I know, I fucked up. I'm sorry. Don't look at me like you're going to murder me, please." His voice cracked lightly and Jack's expression immediately softened into a pout and a faint, momentary glance of pity.

Originally, he said nothing. Then after a few moments, when Pitch turned away because he couldn't help the aching feeling of guilt riddling his chest once again, Jack spoke. "I'm going to go inside now. I'll call you later, is that okay?"

"You don't need my permission to call me Jack..."

"Good afternoon Pitch, drive safe." Jack's sudden formalities stung Pitch's ears more then any insult he'd ever heard in his life – to the point of wincing. But Pitch stayed calm and remained in front of the house to ensure that Jack entered safely to a calm or relatively stable home and only upon Jack opening the front door, saying a few sparse words he couldn't hear and then turning back to Pitch and nodding before entering did he drive off.

Jack believed all comedy linked back, in some way, to relatable pain – so when someone begins to joke around with him he has an unwritten rule that almost nothing is off limits. In his opinion, you could wound and cut how you like with a joke as humor is a double edged sword – it hurts a little and it feels good.

But Jamie was a wound opened too soon in Jack's own opinion – too raw and too recent to be pressed into or pushed, assuming what Pitch said was supposed to be comical. It felt excruciating and forced in a way – but he took the brunt of the blame for that.

'Pitch does have this thing about driving – for good reason.' Jack reminded himself before pulling out of the entire train of thought to focus on the matter at hand – Mary.

She was seated on the sofa, looking no different then when he left. Auburn hair long and free, wearing denim blue overalls and a striped purple and violet undershirt. Her backpack dumped unceremoniously by the walkway that lead to her room and hazelnut eyes observing the front door with pupils that already seemed too big for her own face doubling in size.

"Hey Mary, how was school today?" Jack trudged into the house with the same broad grin he'd wear when Pitch would invite him into his, elated and calmed to see what at least resembled a blissful, healthy Mary bouncing up and down on the couch excitedly at his appearance from the outside world.

As far as it concerned him it had been far too long since their last meeting alone, their last conversation that involved nothing but them. He liked the connection they had post-Pitch and the jealousy that had shown its ugly head from seeing how quickly and how strongly the two bonded without any major interference on his part rapidly grew into an admiration of how felt they just fit together, but at the same time he'd be lying if he said he didn't enjoy getting some spare alone time with her.

The adorable ball of energy that she was, Mary was too concerned with tackling his legs and hugging him to acknowledge the question. "Oh my gosh!" She yelled, running at him high speed only to knock into his legs, causing only minor impact. "I missed you so much – were you and mister Pitch doing something important?"

The taste left Jack's mouth immediately – Mary bringing up Pitch brought back that same inkling of envy in the lower depths of his stomach.

"Umm...yeah." He decided he wouldn't rebuke her love for Pitch at the moment, he was clearly becoming something akin to a father to her and his comment about Jamie was nothing that involved her. He wanted to get lost in her for a while – before Pitch she was all that mattered and inwardly he felt a knife twist in his stomach at noticing how much seemed to change from his temporary separation from the family.

Sure he needed to get away, but perhaps he'd been gone too long?

Only a few days had passed and yet the house felt more welcoming and oddly alien then when he'd first left, like a place he'd seen years ago and forgotten the finer details of until now. It didn't hold the same presence of an abusive, violent cage that he remembered despairingly trying to escape from for years. It felt like he was in a new neighbor's house like he shouldn't touch or break anything – the walls pressed in on him and made him feel antsy, self-conscious.

'Absence makes the heart grow fonder.' Jack thinks before choosing to lose himself in Mary. He scoops her up into his arms and snuggles her, holding her close and enjoying the familiar touch of her soft, long brown hair against his face while she squeezes him with all the might her little form can muster. 'Fonder indeed...'

"So." Jack places her back on the floor, arms tiring after a few silent minutes. "Where's mom and dad?" It feels weird to call them that after so long of calling them 'William and Katherine' but he wants to use language that Mary can understand – he wants her to feel normal and bright and loved.

"They went shopping, I'm waiting til they come back so I can get help with my homework." Mary stated in a grown up, adult voice that Jack found himself cherishing.

"If you need help I can help you." Jack grins, happy to so quickly find a gap in Mary's life that he could place himself in, if William really was going to step up to the fathering role then Jack would gladly accept being there when he couldn't. He'd already spent the past few years doing just that.

"It's weird." Mary pouted, grabbing Jack by the hand and leading him to the couch. "I don't need help thou, Daddy asked if he could help."

'Oh. Okay. That's a shock.' Jack's eyebrows raised but he never made any other indication that the news shocked him. As he plopped down uselessly onto the sofa next to Mary and watched her watch her usual cartoons of Spongebob and reruns, he wondered exactly how much was changing now.

Jamie was acting erratic and insane and now his parents seemed to have gained Jamie's sanity through osmosis as soon as he lost it and Pitch-

'Is a problem to be thought of later.' Jack said as he rose from the couch, throwing Mary a quick and friendly smile then walking to the kitchen to prepare them both something edible. For right now, Mary was back in his life. He could focus his energy and love on her for right now while Pitch worked out whatever inner demons he needed to work out.

–

Pitch didn't believe in having 'inner demons', he didn't like the term, he preferred having personal emotional 'issues' that needed to be dealt with. So he figured his own inner demons didn't exist until he stepped back inside his office and discovered they lived and thrived, growing their own miniature hell like a fiery rash right beneath his skin.

Sanderson's information hunt hadn't continued after that faithful stack of papers that enlightened him to a good portion of the troubled life of the Bennett family. Time, however, had caught up with him and he discovered that Sanderson took it upon himself to search for Jamie's mother and her location...

Which resulted in a white pool of newly printed information, a threateningly large heap of white paper awaiting him as he came in despite him not looking to be more embroiled in the Bennett issues but just for something to do.

Against his better judgment, he leaned against the nearest wall and began the process of piling up the loose pages and organizing them into unsorted stacks. All the while his mind replayed what he said to Jack just before he left, the 'mom' gaze well burned into the back of his mind – meaning Jack still felt friendship or love for Jamie. The brunette hadn't entered 'William' territory, he hadn't become the absolute worst scum on Earth in Jack's life.

Jamie, the potentially dangerous stalker that had probably flirted with Jack at the cafe house while he was gone. Jamie who had continued his flirting after his arrival and only backed down once Jack had asked him to leave. Jamie who had an abusive family and worst of all was so soul-crushingly similar to Jack that Pitch had only realized after becoming embroiled in his life that Jamie too had family problems and immense amounts of emotional and probably mental 'inner demons' of his own to face.

'All it takes is a young boy with a cute face and some family problems and before you know it your at their beck and call, on a little leash for them like a bitch huh?' He mentally denounced himself as he sorted the papers out into different stacks – potential locations, past phone numbers, boyfriends and...current husband and his own background.

'And before I even have time to prepare to face the shitstorm I'm in I come across another.' A sardonic chuckle left his throat, dry and denigrating.

He found himself looking through and reading the information well into the night, having no other alternative of things to do, and made an interesting discovery – this wasn't the first time Selena had run away from an abusive relationship. She had at least four other ex's who either cheated on her, beat her or had additions to substances including heroine or crack cocaine.

At first Pitch thought she was just another unlucky soul until something else reared its ugly head.

Selena's own past.

Multiple arrests on possession of Heroine, public drunkenness, assault, the list went on and on. 'Pot attracts kettle.' Pitch supposed and rubbed his temple, unable to believe how much dirt this family had for him to sift through. It made Katherine and William look like perfectly normal and functional human beings. However after a moment of thought he decided that the definition of 'functional' was not something for him, a grown man who forced himself into the lives of young men who had numerous personal conflicts involving dysfunctional parents to decide.

After an hour had passed Pitch decided it was time for a break and reclined onto the sofa downstairs, randomly channel flipping until he saw a brief flash of a familiar show – Legends of the Hidden Temple.

Then more damnable condemnation pressed in on him and he found himself watching, unsure of whether or not he should dial up Jack or let the matter rest for the next few days. After all, Jack had returned to a, hopefully, safe environment with his parents and as much as Pitch was afraid to lose him due to no longer playing a crucial role in the younger man's life he knew that teens needed their breathing space, away from their lovers.

Still, occasionally his glance would turn to the phone and his heart would sink – in reality, he had harmed Jack by not seeing the fact that Jamie needed help sooner rather then later.

'Perhaps this was the consequence?' Pitch wondered as the television droned on in the background and a light rainless thunder storm occurred outside. Both went unnoticed and discarded, fading into the background as Pitch let himself be taken by a dreamless sleep for the night.

–

Jack decided he'd have to study up on insomnia and do a compare and contrast on his current lifestyle and the usual signs because by the time 1 A.M. rolled around on his phone's clock he caught himself still awake, staring blankly at his darkened ceiling, grasp his winter blue phone in hand with nothing to do with sleep refusing to visit him and all hope for a restful night lost.

He didn't do much in this house besides live in fear, take care of his sister or surf the web and now that it didn't seem like he needed to do that, after experiencing the comfort of Pitch's home, this house didn't feel like a real home to him. This wasn't to say that his life before Pitch was something he'd be pleased to return to but rather that the house now felt too different, too transformed to make him 'at home'.

"This is pathetic." Jack said aloud to no one in particular as the night continued on, the only other discernible sounds being the sound of his own off-beat breathing and the occasional ruffle of movement beneath the sheets when he could be bothered enough to move.

He couldn't explain it but there was a twisting in his gut, a gnawing lack of motivation to do something as simple as sleep and it only took him a few minutes to realize why. Until only just recently, he didn't have any real responsibilities that stood out to him and now he was coming back to a place with no other real responsibilities.

He'd have school work, people, parents, life to catch up to eventually though, wouldn't he? All that missing schoolwork, all those lost hours of time, all the explaining he'd have to do to his parents once the next day hit - that all had to be done soon now didn't it? He couldn't just push the world away again and focus his entire thoughts and life on Pitch, could he?

'Ohhhh Damnit.' Jack thought, now tapping the pointy edge of the phone to his bitten lip. Then there was Pitch, a whole other ball of emotion he'd come to know and now had mixed-feelings about. He didn't feel like he and Pitch were as close as they were just days prior – something had happened and whether or not it was because of Jamie...

'No...no scratch that it's because of Jamie.' Jack yawned and rolled onto his side, clutching the phone close to himself. Jamie complicated their relationship just by being there – Pitch felt more distant somehow. He wasn't sure whether this was a good thing or a bad or something that only he was feeling but there was a wedge between him and Pitch that was made this morning and needed to be fixed.

But at 1 A.M.? He knew Pitch probably didn't get much sleep but calling this early would probably only exacerbate the situation wouldn't it? He curled into a ball and shoved his head under the covers, keeping the phone close in case Pitch was going to be the more mature one of the two.

He'd call Pitch tomorrow and talk, try and smooth things over between them. He didn't like that Jamie wasn't a friend anymore and was forcefully trying to make himself into something else but he didn't like that Pitch had insulted him...

But even with their previous friendship and light relationship...he sure as hell wasn't going to let Jamie tear him away from Pitch. He wasn't even sure he'd allow Mary to do that. But Jamie? Not even in his own dreams.