Chapter 2
Jay's mind was reeling as he and Emma sat in their bunk room, processing the information that Commander Donaldson had just dropped on them. There was no way this was real. It had to be a coincidence. Some cruel joke is being played on them by the universe. There was no fucking way that after so long, and so much work towards healing and forgetting all of the hurt and drama from their pasts that one of the major players from that time in their lives was now going to be here with them. And not just a part of their team, but their boss, their leader. Jay did know what to make of it. Though he would never say it out loud, mainly for Emma's sake, a small part of him was excited and hopeful to be reunited with someone he had once thought of as a brother. But he knew it wouldn't be that simple for her. And while he was hurt by his words during that final confrontation that they had all of those years ago, he did miss his friend more than he was willing to admit, even to himself. Jay always had to find that line of what was acceptable when it came to Cameron. As much as he loved the guy, he also saw first hand how thoroughly he destroyed Emma. And there was nothing he wouldn't do to keep her from going through that kind of hurt again. Even if it meant missing out on the chance to bond with someone who had such an impact on his younger self. Jay looked over to where Emma was sitting, catatonic on her bed, and his heart cracked a little at the emptiness he saw in her eyes. She hadn't said a word out loud since hearing the news, and he was starting to get more than a little worried about her. He had only ever seen that look in her eyes a handful of times in all his years of knowing her, and the resulting break that almost always followed it scared the shit out of him. Out of his control, his mind began to go back to the first time he had ever seen that look on her face.
*6 Years Ago*
Never in all of his wildest and unimaginable dreams would he have ever thought that Emma Nelson, little miss save the world, would be down at the ravine of her own free will. He had seen her there a few times back when her and Sean were still together, but she usually insisted they leave long before any of the real partying started up. And yet, here she was, sitting on the top of a table with her knees pulled up to her chin, watching all the activity around her, not with a look of judgement or disgust, but with wonder and longing. Jay had not seen much of her since their trip to Wasaga to drop Sean off at his parents during the aftermath of the shooting, but he had heard from a few people that she had been skipping class a lot and hadn't started any new crusades at school since the event. Though he would never admit it to anyone, he felt horrible over the fact that Rick the psycho had pointed a gun at her and that she had to see him die. While they weren't even friends, him and Spinner were the ones responsible for Rick going off in the first place, and had anything happened to her because of their actions, he wasn't sure how that would have affected him, but he knew it wouldn't have been good. It wasn't until he saw her get up from her spot and make her way to the van with some creep who had walked up to her that he decided it was his job to look out for her. Jay never would have considered her as someone that he cared about, but that the urge to protect her hit him like a ton of bricks. Quickly, making sure that no one saw him following them, he got up and quietly followed them to the secluded van they were wandering towards. It wasn't until Emma's hand was on the door opening it, that he made his move. Emma looked up to see Jay standing there with a menacing look on his face, but she was a little startled when she realized that it wasn't aimed at her, but at the guy who had approached her, and led her out here. Not really caring who it was at this point, she proceeded to climb into the van, no bothering to look and see which one of the two got in after her. Emma had first started coming to the ravine about a month after the shooting. She was having a hard time sleeping, and one night, she had wandered here when thinking about Sean. At first, she would just sit somewhere secluded and watch the people who came here, and observe. It was interesting how much she hated this place back when Sean would attempt to get her here when they were together, but now, she kind of got the appeal. No one here cared who you were, where you came from, or what you did, as long as you didnt do anything to get the cops here, and the party busted up. It wasn't until recently that she began to speak to the random people who would come up to her to chat, or offer her a beer or some company. Last week was the first time that she accepted an offer to go off to the vans. While she was still somewhat sheltered and naive, she knew exactly what went down in there once a couple climbed there way out of it an hour after they had climbed in. She wasn't sure what made her agree to do some of the things she did there, other than it was the only time she could feel anything other than her anger or the hollowness that seemed to follow her around all the time now. It wasn't until the door to the van slammed closed that she looked up to see who it was that had finally joined her. Her and Jay stared at each other for some time, and the building tension in the air had them both on edge.
Jay wasn't sure what to do. Did he try lecturing her about how unsafe it was for her to be here, or wait her out and see precisely how far she had slipped down the hole she was digging herself into? Typically he would have found this extremely funny, seeing little miss green peace out here being anything but pure, but something about that thought made him sick to his stomach. She wasn't supposed to be here; she was better than all of them. She was just better. So if she couldn't find her way back from what she had been through, what kind of hope for any type of life did the rest of them have. Finally, Jay spoke up. " So, what exactly are you doing here, Greenpeace?" He asked. None of the ordinary malice that was usually present in his voice when he called her that was there. Emma rolled her eyes at him, and made to shove him out of the way and get out of the van. As she reached him, he put a hand out and placed it on her shoulder. Jay moved her so that their eyes met and spoke softly, as if speaking to a spooked animal. " Just tell me that you are ok, and I will let you out of here, but if you aren't, and you need someone to be here for you while you work through whatever it is that you are going through, then I'm here" The gentleness in his voice, and concern and care shining in his eyes were finally what broke her. One minute she was the picture of cold and closed off, and the next, she was collapsing into him and breaking into a million tiny pieces. Jay wasn't sure what to do, so he just held her and let her cry until she eventually fell asleep. That was the first night in over a month that she didn't wake up with gunshots and bloodshed nightmares.
When Emma woke up several hours later and found herself sleeping on a snoring Jay, she almost bolted. But as she made to move off of him, his arm around her tightened and he sleepily mumbled, " Just give me a few more minutes". Unsure what to do, Emma relaxed back down onto his chest, and attempted to match his slow easy breaths in an attempt to calm herself down. It was eerily silent for a few more minutes before he finally began to speak. " I couldn't sleep very well for a few weeks after it all happened," he admitted softly. " I kept seeing the tar and feathers falling on him over and over again, and usually when he started shooting everyone in sight, I would wake up in a cold sweat." Emma wasn't sure that to make of that information, so she let him continue to talk while she gathered her thoughts. " Sometimes, it would be Sean; other times, it would be Alex or Spinner, but the worst ones were the ones where he shot you. I know we have never been very close, mainly because, Let's face it, I'm an ass. But the thought of him doing that to you, and knowing it was my fault, it did something to me. " Emma, feeling the sincerity of his words, decided maybe, it would be the worst thing in the world to open up to someone, even if it was someone that she had once considered to be one of her greatest enemies. And so she began to tell him all about how her world was crumbling around her. They stayed in that van, holding onto each other like it was the only lifeline in a turbulent ocean, and an amazing friendship formed.
