A/N: Quick little heads up, next weekend's chapter(s) will probably be late. Also as of reading this you're about 2/3 of the way into this story. Oh wait, Rose also wrote a little bit of this chapter. I'm like 94% sure that's the last bit she wrote.

Dirk

About an hour later, we made it out of the really bad zombie crowd and found an abandoned house to rest in. Nobody had said a single word the whole way there except to give directions. We didn't really know what to say.

Once we got inside, everyone pretty much collapsed on whatever chair or couch they could find. I sat on the kitchen counter and looked around for Jake. He had been keeping a completely blank expression since I told him Jane was dead, and he looked like he needed his space, so I gave him some. But now I needed to know if he was okay. I couldn't stand just waiting for him to calm down when he could be completely freaking out.

But he was nowhere to be found. "Jake?!" I called.

"He went in there," Jade said quietly, pointing towards a door. I walked over to it and carefully stepped inside. It was a bedroom, and Jake was sitting on the side of the bed with his back to the door.

"Jake?"

I could hear him crying and it made me feel horrible. He must have been holding it in the whole time because he didn't want to cry in front of the others. I knew that feeling, but I didn't expect him to have it.

I sat next to him on the bed and put my arm around him. He wasn't looking at me; he was too busy staring at the floor and sobbing. I rested my head on his shoulder.

"Are you okay?" I asked, even though the answer was totally obvious.

"Sh- she… she's dead"

"It's gonna be okay," I whispered.

He didn't even respond. His eyes looked unfocused and I couldn't tell if he had even heard me. He was in total shock at this point, but I could tell that that wasn't stopping him from feeling the full force of his pain.

I shook him a bit and said, "Hey, Jake? I know you don't want to hear this right now, but I know how you feel. I've been there before, okay? And….it might not be okay. But that doesn't mean you can just give up. We've both got to keep going, for Jane."

At this point I'm pretty sure there were tears streaming down my face too, but I ignored them and kept staring at Jake who was finally looking me in the eyes.

Something in his eyes shattered as he said, "I…. I don't think I can deal with this Dirk. I…. I can't do this, I-"

I didn't even give him the chance to finish before I was practically tackling him in a hug. I was basically sobbing at this point and I could tell he was too because his shoulders were shaking from his own sobs.

"I know Jake, I know." I choked out, "I can't do this either. I didn't want to lose anyone else…"

All of a sudden my mind was back with Jane in that safe house we had stopped in. Back when I was being a stupid kid and she almost left. I…. I can't lose another friend…. I had choked, I can't lose you, too.

I lost her.

Jake squeezed harder as if sensing my own pain.

"I'm sorry," he murmured, "I didn't even think about how you must be feeling."

I almost laughed. Even when he's in this much pain he's still worrying about me.

I pulled back and took his shoulders as he had once done to me.

"No," I said, "You shouldn't be worrying about me right now. You've already done so much for me. You need to focus on fixing yourself now."

He hesitated, then said, "But I don't think I can fix this."

I managed to smirk and replied, "Well, that's what I'm here for. What Roxy's here for. We're all going to be there for each other from now on. No one is going anywhere, not if I have anything to say about it."

He broke out in a smile and nodded, wiping his eyes.

"You're right," he said with a shuddering deep breath, "Janey wouldn't want us to be like this."

I smiled bitterly and said, "Yeah. We're sticking together now. We are getting out of here. For Jane."

I could tell that even though he seemed mostly okay now, he was still crying.

I didn't know what else to say, but then suddenly I remembered what Jake had told me when I was upset about Eridan dying.

"Hey, the important thing is to keep moving forward, right? No matter what life throws at us," I said.

"Now you're getting it." he laughed half-heartedly.

"Come on" I said, taking him by the hand and leading him to the door. He had finally stopped crying and I wanted to check on Roxy.

When we got out there, she was sitting on the couch talking to the cat troll until she looked at us and ran over, face bright red from crying so much, and wrapped us both in a big hug.

"How are you doing?" I asked when she finally pulled away.

"Okay," she sighed, "I've been talking to Nepeta and she's been helping me feel better. She's really sweet, like… like Jane."

Her voice cracked when she said Jane's name, and her eyes were starting to water again.

"It's ok, Roxy, we're here for you," Jake said.

"Yeah, I'll be fine," she said, wiping away her tears and forcing a smile, "I'm already starting to feel a little better, I just need some time. At least you guys are here, right?"

I nodded "A while ago, Jane told me to focus on something good instead of all the bad things. She thought it would make everything better I guess, so that's what I tried when she died, and I think it's helping me cope," I said. "Maybe you should try that."

"Yeah, maybe I will," she said.

"Me too," Jake said, "What have you been thinking about?"

He looked up at me again with those big green eyes. He has no idea, I thought. He has no idea how important he is to me. But I could just tell him, could I?

"It's… personal," I said.

For a moment he looked crushed. Oh crap, what did I do?!

But he quickly went back to smiling. "That's alright, I suppose it's different for everyone," he said, and I swear the way he said it made me want to kiss him right then and there. I couldn't imagine how he could possibly be so blind to how much I liked him.

"Yeah I guess."

I turned back to Roxy. "How's everyone else doing?" I asked her.

She looked around the room. "Well most of the trolls don't really care that much… But John's pretty upset. Luckily he has Jade and Dave to cheer him up, and I think it's working,"

I was relieved that there weren't more people I would have to try to calm down. I had to admit I had no idea what the hell I was doing with this stuff. Honestly it was a miracle that whatever I was doing seemed to be working.

"It's okay, no matter what happened to Jane, she's still with us," Jake smiled, "even if we can't see her, I know she's here; inside our hearts."

Wow, I thought, he is such a dork.