Theme: Angst/Tragedy

Pairing: None, Jake centric

Rating: K

He was still a child when it happened. This was his first real experience with death. He was too young to remember his grandmother, let alone mourn her. He remembered seeing his mom cry a lot. He went over to Sam's to see her, but she wouldn't come outside. She just stayed in her room. He knew she was sad then, he could hear her crying. He would write letters to her, telling her anything that he could think of just to cheer her up. It never really worked.

He couldn't remember the actual funeral, but he did remember going outside afterwards to sit on the swings with Sam. She had stopped crying, but the look of sadness on her face was devastating. They sat on the swings, silent for a long time, simply watching the clouds drift in the sky. It was a beautiful day, ironic in a way that normally would've made him laugh.

"Jake?" Sam's soft voice broke the silence.

"Yeah?"

"Why did she have to die?" He didn't have an answer for her.

"I don't know brat." She looked down at the ground, kicked the dirt without any real force. She didn't say anything more, and neither did Jake. He couldn't remember anything after that, but it was something he was happy about. He didn't like seeing her that sad, that broken. He vowed that day to do everything in his power to make sure she never looked like that again.