Skye came out of her conversation with Nick not knowing how she felt. He (like Tommy) believed Skye was making a mistake, but he (unlike Tommy) had experience physically hurting someone that he loved. It made Skye take him more seriously. That had been quite the shocking story. She made a mental note to talk to Tommy about it later when she was longer irritated with him. She wished that she wasn't. If anything, she should have been happy that he had been so quick to jump to Jeffrey's defense. She was a little bit, but mostly, she was mad.

But Nick had changed her perspective. In truth, he'd almost had her convinced. He probably would have if she had talked with him earlier in the day. Now, she was in too deep. She hadn't seen Jeffrey since she had left him with Jane that morning. She hadn't come up with a decent excuse for that yet, and she was outside of Jeffrey's door. She hesitated, her nerves stacking high. Already she was shaking.

She had to get it over with, and the longer she waited, the worse that she felt – the closer she got to listening to Nick and backing out. He had told her that she needed to let Jeffrey work through this; it wasn't her job to choose his battles for him. He would have to peace with what he had done. Nick had said that a secret like this would eat at her from the inside and affect their relationship. She needed to trust Jeffrey. That was where he had lost her, it wasn't about trust. Jeffrey kept secrets too. He wouldn't tell her whatever horrid, dehumanizing things Dexter had said about her. He never would, because it would only hurt her. It was the same for Skye now. Some lies had honorable intentions.

She opened the door before she had time to psych herself out enough to flee down the hall. Jane was still there. That surprised Skye, but it pleased her. Until she saw that they were watching Twilight. Jane was pelting Jeffrey with popcorn and demanding to know how he could possibly be Team Jacob.

Jeffrey shielded himself with a pillow. "Edward creeps me out," he laughed. He looked up when he heard Skye enter. "Hey, stran…" He trailed off when he saw her face. He realized he had stopped in the middle of a word and awkwardly added the "ger."

Skye knew she was flushing, but it wasn't because of the way Jeffrey was looking at her. She was embarrassed. It felt like there were pounds of makeup on her face. She thought she looked fake and ridiculous, like a pageant queen. Rosalind had not held back.

"Skye!" Jane squealed. Skye flipped her off, but Jane giggled.

Jeffrey was gaping like an idiot. "Wow," he finally said. It sounded like that was a struggle for him. "You look nice."

"Nice?" Jane threw several more handfuls of popcorn at him. Jeffrey ducked, but the flying snack rained down on his head. "She looks like a goddess!"

The corner of Jeffrey's mouth tugged up. "Yeah she does."

Skye glowered at both of them. They weren't making her feel any less foolish. She ignored both comments and attempted to sit with them.

"What are you doing?" Jane demanded.

"Uh, joining you?" Skye pointed at the TV where Bella was starting a baseball game with the Cullen family. "Reluctantly."

"No, no," said Jane. She indicated the chair behind them and up against the wall. "You're regal. You can't sit down here with mere peasants."

Jeffrey grinned, but Skye pushed Jane aside and squeezed herself between them. Luckily, the bruised side of her face was closer to Jane. Jeffrey wouldn't stop staring. Skye threw some popcorn at him herself.

"I hate this movie," she grumbled.

"You choose not to appreciate what it has to offer," said Jane.

"No, she's right," said Jeffrey. "It's awful."

That made Skye feel a little better. She was glad Jeffrey's opinions weren't entirely hopeless.

Jane sniffed and shut off the TV. "Fine. I will watch it myself. I know when I'm not wanted." She climbed to her feet and winked at them. "Have fun, kids."

"Someone needs to educate her. She has no taste," said Skye.

"None," Jeffrey agreed. He turned her face and kissed her. "I missed you today. Kind of thought you forgot about me."

"Impossible." Skye had to kiss him a little longer. Or for the rest of the night, whichever.

Jeffrey leaned away to stare at her again. "I'm trying really hard not to make a big deal out it, but what's the occasion?" He waved his hand over her face. "You look—"

"If you say beautiful, I'll knock you out," Skye warned.

Jeffrey smirked. "You're already a knockout."

Skye grimaced, but then she lost her tenacity and she laughed. "I set myself up for that one."

"Completely."

She was tempted to make out again, if any only to stop him from looking at her like that. It made her feel…what was it? Shy? How disconcerting.

"No occasion," she answered his previous question. "I thought I'd surprise you."

Jeffrey dragged his lip slowly between his teeth and smiled at her. "Well considered me stunned, stunner."

"I set myself up for that too, didn't I?"

"Sure did. Keep doing it, my compliment catalog is quite extensive."

Skye rolled her eyes. "That's because you're a flirt."

"I am not."

"It might not intentional, but that doesn't mean it isn't true."

"I'm not a flirt!" Jeffrey insisted.

"Please," Skye scoffed. "If you knew how many girls have DMed me questions about you."

Jeffrey drew back in surprise. "How many?"

Skye shoved him. "Like I'm going to tell you." At the time, each one had irritated her to no end. Right now, weirdly it satisfied her. The number was eight. Eight very pretty, musically gifted girls that Skye could now tell to back off.

"Who?" Jeffrey asked.

"Does it matter?"

"Only for my ego."

"Exactly, I'm not telling," said Skye smugly.

"Damn," said Jeffrey. He started snacking on all of the popcorn littered around him. "What did you tell them?"

With an impressively straight face, Skye said, "That you're gay."

"Skye!"

"I'm kidding, I blocked them."

Jeffrey raised his eyebrows. Skye hated the teasing grin on his face. He laughed when she glared at him. "Oh did they bother you?"

"Inexplicably," said Skye.

Jeffrey's grin grew wider and even more despicable. "You liked me."

Skye glared a while longer, then pursed her lips to hide her smile. "Maybe. I didn't want anyone else to have you."

"Very cliché of you," said Jeffrey. "You wanted me to pine forever, huh?"

"Just long enough for me to come to my senses." Skye wrapped her arms around his neck and brought Jeffrey's mouth down to hers.

That was her mistake. She didn't think to stop Jeffrey from putting his hands on her face. It wasn't immediate, but soon their kiss slowed as Jeffrey experimentally pressed his thumbs against both of her cheekbones. Skye felt a jab of fear. He noticed the difference. Skye deepened the kiss, hoping to distract him, but Jeffrey backed away.

"Are you okay?" He kept his hand on the left side of her face and traced his fingers around her eye. He found the edge of the bruise and his eyes darkened with worry.

"Great," said Skye, but she winced when he gently pushed down on the corner of her eyebrow with his index finger.

Jeffrey dropped his hand. "What is it?"

"What's what?" Skye feigned ignorance, but even she was unconvinced. She had truly started to believe that Tommy had been wrong. Her disguise had been working so well, it couldn't fail her now. Her heart knocked loudly against her ribs. Jeffrey could probably hear it, the traitor.

His eyes narrowed briefly. He licked his thumb, so Skye leaned away.

"Skye," Jeffrey said softly.

She nibbled her upper lip. She was trapped.

"What are you hiding from me?"

"Nothing," Skye whispered. Her fright was evident in her voice.

Jeffrey's mouth stretched into a grim line. With no excuse not to, Skye let him swipe his wet thumb under her eye.

He caught his breath and his hand trembled against her face. "You're hurt."

Skye shook her head, her panic rising. "No. That was already there."

Jeffrey took his hand back. "I see your face more than you do. That's new."

Idiotically, Skye knew, she shook her head again, faster this time. It made her look like more of a liar. "I'm fine."

Slowly, Jeffrey crossed his arms. He took a deep breath as he settled them over his chest. "Let me see it."

"It's nothing." Skye's voice shook.

His jaw clenched. "Skye. Let me see."

Skye opened her mouth to argue, but she had nothing to tell him. She exhaled, defeated and terrified. She should have told him that morning. Right when he woke up, she should have let him see her. Reluctantly, she dragged herself to her feet. Jeffrey's eyes bore into her back as she made her way to the bathroom.

When she saw her reflection, she wanted to sob. Only a very, very pale strip of her bruise was visible. It was passably a week old, but Jeffrey had memorized her injuries. When he saw it for what it really was… She scrubbed at her face, numb. She was so afraid that she felt nothing. This could not be happening. She washed her mask down the sink. Her eye, genuinely, was the color black. It should have swollen shut, but somehow (perhaps through sheer stubbornness) it had maintained its usual shape. That didn't make it any less grotesque. The bruise cascaded down her cheek, and where he'd kneed her jaw was no better. She looked like she'd been mugged. She was tempted to climb out the bathroom window and escape. That way Jeffrey wouldn't have to see it. Her face had never been this bad.

She hid behind the bathroom door and weakly called out, "Jeffrey, I'm okay. I promise."

He was quiet, so Skye slowly pushed open the door and stepped back into the room. At first, Jeffrey did nothing. He stared, his expression aggressively blank as he studied her. All color drained from his cheeks, but his eyes were stormy. Then his face broke. He tore his hands through his hair, gasping for breath. He struggled to his feet and leaned his full weight on only one of his crutches. He never took his eyes off of her.

Jeffrey was angry. Malice dripped from his words. "What did I do?"

"No, I – I fell up the stairs. I didn't want you to worry or think…or think that you did it." Her honor wasn't the only reason Skye shouldn't lie. Deceit made her an imbecile. She didn't know how to stop once she had obviously been exposed.

Jeffrey looked away from her and out the window. He swallowed. "I'm not an idiot, Skye. I know it was me."

Skye silently fumbled for words. She still desperately wanted to keep this from him, despite the fact that there was no longer anything she could do. She forgot the English language.

"This morning, right? That's why you were acting weird," said Jeffrey.

It pained her gently, but Skye finally surrendered. She nodded.

"I knew you were avoiding me." His voice broke into a hoarse whisper. "Do I scare you?"

"No!" She remembered that word immediately, and the rest of her vocabulary soon followed. "Not at all. At all."

Jeffrey returned his gaze to her, shock wiping his expression blank once more. "I should."

"That's stupid," said Skye. "Your dream – it was too much for me. I wanted to wake you up. It was my fault."

"We said we wouldn't do that," Jeffrey cried. "Look what I did to you." His mouth was open in horror. Tears had at last started to fall, and they fell fast. "That's…that's abuse."

Jeffrey didn't hear Skye's protest because he hurled his crutch into the window. The blinds clattered angrily against the glass. Several bent out of shape. Jeffrey lost his balance and crashed onto the floor. Skye surged forward, but he thrust out his arm, telling her to stay back. Skye froze mid-step.

Jeffrey was wheezing from the impact of his fall, but he forced out, "You shouldn't have lied to me."

"I didn't want you to see it," Skye somehow managed. She was dangerously close to sobbing.

"Do you really think I'm that dumb?" Jeffrey ground out through his teeth. He gasped harshly, coughing as he sat up. "That I pay that little attention to you?"

"No, I was desperate. It's me who is dumb. I'm an idiot, I'm sorry."

It was going exactly the way Tommy had said it would. Skye's anger toward him had been misplaced; she now, rightfully, turned it on herself.

"You think that after everything I went – no, after everything I saw you go through, I'm not capable of dealing with this." He stated that like it was a fact.

"I didn't want you to have to," Skye corrected him. Her sobs finally broke loose.

"So you spent the entire day trying to hide it." Jeffrey was getting difficult to understand. His emotion strangled his voice. "You shouldn't have to do that for me."

"I was trying to look out for you," said Skye. She caged her sobs, but they thrashed for freedom. "I was wrong, but that's all I was trying to do."

"I don't want you to do that!" Jeffrey's voice rose and cracked. "When are you going to realize that I'm not special?"

Skye knelt next to him and gathered his hands in her own. "That's a lie, Jeffrey. You're lying to my face."

He wasn't looking at her exactly, he was only looking at her bruise. "I thought we did that now."

That stung. She deserved it.

"But I'm actually telling the truth," Jeffrey finished.

That stung worse. Skye tried to pull him into her, but he resisted and jerked out of her grasp.

"I'm a problem, Skye. A burden on all of you. You shouldn't have to put up with this."

Again, Skye reached out, but he flinched. She dropped her hands. "It's not putting up with anything. We want to help you."

"I don't want your help."

"Why?" Skye whispered, afraid of the answer.

"Because of what it does to you!" Jeffrey shouted it so that he could be understood over his tears.

Skye didn't know what else to do, so she kissed him. She crawled into his lap and hugged him to her. He was frozen, shocked for a moment, and then blessedly, his hands rose to her neck and he kissed her back. She was just starting to think that the worst was behind them when Jeffrey jumped back. Skye instinctively stretched after him, but he slid away.

"I shouldn't touch you."

"Yes, you should," Skye argued; she pleaded. Perhaps stupidly, she kissed him again.

Jeffrey immediately broke away, shaking his head hard. "I can't do this." He looked frantically around the room to avoid Skye. "I can't do this, and I can't be here."

"Here? Where, Arundel?"

"Anywhere."

Skye's heart collided with her stomach as they both plummeted like a skydiver with a broken parachute.

"Dexter should have killed me. I want to be dead."

Now Skye's heart exploded, the skydiver had hit the ground and splattered. "What are you saying?" Her voice was so painfully high she sounded like a ten year old.

When Jeffrey looked at her again, Skye almost fainted. He was undaunted. "I think I was clear. I can't hurt anyone dead."

Skye was crying so hard that her tears didn't feel like tears. Her eyes were hot; it was like they were melting down her face and taking her vision with them. She was so dizzy; speaking was almost enough to send her into unconsciousness. "That would hurt everyone. It would kill me."

"No. You'd get over it. You all would, and then I wouldn't be around to make it worse again. You can move on."

"Can" was present tense. Skye was distraught. He couldn't be saying what it sounded like he was saying. He'd made a promise. He said he wouldn't hurt himself – that he wouldn't do that to her.

But that had been before he'd hit her, before he'd done something else. Jeffrey tried to stand, but he didn't have the strength for it. He collapsed back on the floor.

"Get out," he whispered. "Please."

He thought she would leave him by himself after he'd made an announcement like that?

"I'm staying."

"No," he said dully. "Get out, now."

"Jeffrey, I love you," said Skye. She was almost yelling at him. "You have to believe that. I still love you."

"That's a mistake."

"You can't tell m—"

"Skye!" Jeffrey shouted. "Go!"

Something about the way he said that, the heartbreak behind his words, made Skye's feet betray her. She was in the hallway before she realized what she was doing. When the door shut behind her, she could hear Jeffrey sob.

Skye hugged her stomach and cried. It was like her lungs were trying to crawl up her throat and out of her mouth, because they could only get enough air if they were free of her. Her chest was splitting. She needed to scream and wail, but she couldn't. She made no sound as the tears flooded out of her and she listened to Jeffrey crying on the other side of the door.

Skye took a few stumbling steps and tipped forward onto her hands and knees. She was disoriented, tumbling under ocean waves without a clue which direction would take her back to the surface. She braced her hand against the wall and guided herself back to her feet. Her knees buckled, but she remained upright.

She missed her old self. She used to never cry. That Skye would never have given up so easily, she would have fought with Jeffrey until he accepted that she wasn't going anywhere. That was what she had done in the trailer, but that strength was gone. Jeffrey told her to get out and she listened to him, when he so badly needed her not to. Past Skye would have ridiculed her for that relentlessly; she would have been disgusted with such selfish weakness. Dexter might not have stopped Skye's heart, but he had still killed her. Her old self was dead. New Skye wasn't so much as a shadow of who she had once been.

Skye had forgotten everything Nick had told her. He'd said she would have to let Jeffrey be angry with himself. She couldn't talk him out of that, so the best thing she could say was that she forgave him. Skye had planned on listening to every bit of his advice, but when the moment had come, that conversation had abandoned her memory. Not a single thing had stuck. It was too late now to go back and change it.

She staggered and tripped all the way to Jane's room. Her sister was lying on her stomach in bed, a book open in front of her.

"Jane," Skye whimpered. She fell into the door and gripped the handle to keep her footing.

Jane leaped from her bed, and before Skye could blink, she had her in a fierce hug. Jane didn't ask her to talk; she stood still as Skye bawled into her shoulder. She didn't say it, but the message was clear: take your time. It felt like Skye had cried for hours before it finally slowed to sniffling.

"He knows, he saw it," she said.

Jane didn't have to ask what that meant. She tightened her arms around Skye and murmured, "I'm sorry."

Skye pulled out of the hug. "He's not himself. He was talking about being a burden, and…and…" Sobs threatened her again. In almost a high-pitched squeal, she finished, "He said he wants to be dead."

Jane was white. She wasn't crying, but her eyes were turning pink. "Alright," she said slowly as she processed that information. Her breaths turned shallow, but she maintained a remarkable control over them. "Where is he now?"

Skye rocked repeatedly from the balls of her feet to her heels. "Still in the same room."

"Okay. That's good." Jane said that just as slowly. She was grasping at whatever positivity she could find.

"What do I do? I think…I really think he might hurt himself." Skye put her face in her hands. "I shouldn't have left him."

Jane stared at the corner of the room as her tears welled and receded back again. "I don't know much about this – I don't know anything, actually, but I think "I want to be dead" sounds more like a cry for help. If he was really going to do something, I'm not sure that is what he would say."

Skye was appalled. To her, "I want to be dead" was as clear as it got. Jane could not possibly be that stupid.

"You're saying I should ignore it?" She demanded, backing away from Jane as if the suggestion burned her.

"No! No, because if I'm wrong…" Jane shook her head and blinked about thirty times. "But I think he wants help, he just doesn't know how to get it, or…or how to accept it."

"What am I supposed to do with that? He told me to get out," said Skye. Her palms were sweating and her neck felt sticky and feverish.

"Someone needs to talk to him," said Jane. She sounded like she was figuring out her sentences as she said them. She was so unsure. "And I don't think it can be you."

"Because I can't help him?" Skye said angrily.

Jane's gaze was apologetic. "Not right now, with your face like that."

Skye badly wanted to argue, but Jane was correct. Jeffrey was too plagued by what had happened to look at her and see anything but the bruises on her face.

"Then you do it," she said dejectedly. "I don't want him to be alone."

Jane nodded. She took Skye's hand and together they rushed down the stairs.

Chaos greeted them in Arundel's entryway. Everyone was there. The front door was wide open. Skye couldn't see her, but she would hear Mrs. Tifton shouting outside (probably at Alec). The scene was swimming before her; she couldn't hear Mrs. Tifton's words. Rosalind was crying, Iantha was on the phone, Nick was kneeling next to Batty to explain something to her.

"What's going on?" Skye asked, weak in the knees all over again.

It was Mr. Penderwick who answered. His glasses were fogged up, and he took them off so he could look at her. His expression froze Skye's heart.

"Jeffrey left. He's gone."

A/N: I had to talk one of my friends off a ledge last week and I SHOULD NOT be channeling that into my writing but here I am. I quoted him. I hate myself.

I was super stressed afterwards and thinking about it like all night long so I just kind of wrote down what he said in my notes. And now it's in this chapter. Yikes. And Skye and Jane's conversation is almost word for word the conversation I had with my roommate at 2 am when he just vanished. Yikes again for me using that.

It was a rough night.

He's doing better now though, not perfect but better :)