Life After High School. Is It Scary? You Bet.
By Risty Maskell and Silver15
Disclaimer: Don't own anything.
Summary: Geez, whatever you reckon.
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(Damon's POV)
We arrived in Hobbiton the day before the wedding. We hadn't wanted to draw too much attention to ourselves, but luckily everyone was too busy talking about the next day. We managed to get two rooms in the inn, although with some difficulty since they were almost full. But when Lucas waved a handful of notes under the innkeepers nose, he set us up immediately. Benny and I were in one room and Lucas, Blaze and Forrest were in the other. They were quite nice rooms as well; Lucas always manages to get the best of everything.
"So what are you going to do?" Benny asked me as he kicked off his boots and stretched out on his bed. "You do have some sort of plan or something, right?"
"This evening" I told him. "Blaze found out that the guys are going out to celebrate and Emma and Jaime are having a few of their female friends round. You know, like Blue and Rosie and Arwen. I figure that would be a good time to go over there."
"You really think she'll let you see Emma?" Benny asked. I shook my head.
"I strongly doubt it," I told him. "But I have to try. And time is running out…but no matter what happens, I am not letting her get away this time. I can't."
"There are other girls, Damon" Benny said gently. "Maybe you should let go of her and move on."
"I can't believe that she'll marry Boromir tomorrow" I said, taking no notice of what he had just said. "I don't think she will be able to go through with it, no matter what the others say. But whether she does or does not, I have to try. I have to take one last shot."
"I understand" Benny got up and put a comforting hand on my shoulder. "And I wish you the best of luck, my friend. For her sake as well as yours."
That night, I crept to Bag End under the cover of darkness and hid in the bushes not far from the front door, waiting for my chance. I saw the other girls arriving with their partners and I saw the guys leave for their night out. I caught a brief glimpse of Emma as she came to the door with Kane to see Boromir off. She looked terrible, really depressed and really tired. I think she looked worried too, but it was quite hard to tell. One thing was certain though, she wasn't happy. I noticed, much to my satisfaction, that when Boromir went to kiss her, she turned her head away, just allowing his lips to brush her cheek. That proved that my suspicions were correct.
I waited for a few minutes until the girls had gone inside, and then went to the door. I paused for a moment, unsure of whether I was doing the right thing. But realising that there was nothing else I could do, I raised my hand and banged hard on the door.
"I'll get it" I heard Jaime call out, and a minute later the door was opened. As soon as she saw me, she tried to slam it shut, but I put my foot in the way and kept it held open.
"You are not welcome here," she hissed. "Get lost or there'll be trouble."
"Is something the matter, Jamie?" I heard Emma call from upstairs. Jamie glared at me for a moment and I knew then that she really did hate me. In her eyes, Emma and Boromir would still be happy if I hadn't come back. However, the hobbit girl covered up well.
"No, nothing is the matter" she called back, keeping her voice steady. "Don't you worry about it." That said she turned back to me. In the living room, one of the girls had turned the TV up so she knew that they wouldn't hear us.
"You aren't wanted here," she said angrily. "Why don't you just go away and leave us all alone? Emma would have been much better off it you had never come back. You are a loser, Damon and that is all you'll ever be. Boromir is worth ten of you."
I am not proud of what I did next, but I lost my temper. After so long of being without Emma, all my anger and frustration had come to the surface and Jamie's words pushed me over the edge. I picked her up by the collar and slammed her hard against the wall.
"You listen to me for a minute Jaime Shadow" I growled. "You are a selfish little bitch, that is all you are. A selfish little bitch that needs to damn well learn to stay out of other people's business. You have no right to keep Emma away from me, if she doesn't wish to see me then that is her decision, not yours."
Jaime was crying by then and that brought me back to reality. I let go of her and she collapsed in a heap on the hallway floor. As I backed away out of the front door, she looked up at me, her face streaked with tears. I could see both fear and hate in her eyes and I felt guilty. I hadn't meant to lose my temper and I hadn't meant to hurt her. She had just annoyed me so much, but that was no excuse, I knew that. Quickly, before she had the chance to call for anyone, I walked out and gently shut the front door behind me.
I had only walked a little way when I heard a very familiar voice calling my name. I stood up just as Emma came into view. She hesitated for a moment, then ran over to me and threw her arms around my neck. I hugged her tightly; I'd almost forgotten how right it felt to hold her in my arms.
"I heard you came to the house," she said after a minute. I nodded.
"I'm sorry about Jaime," I whispered. "I just lost my temper. Is she going to be okay?"
"She'll be fine" Emma said quickly. "Damon, there's something I have to tell you…"
"You're pregnant" I interrupted. "And it's my child."
"Yes" All the colour drained from her face as she untangled herself from my embrace. "How did you know?"
"Some mystery caller rang Benny and told him that the operation had failed," I said with a shrug. "We put two and two together and came up with four. What are you going to do?"
"I'm going to keep it" Emma took a deep breath. "And I'm going ahead with the wedding tomorrow. There's nothing I can do, it's far to late to back out now and it wouldn't be fair on Boromir or Kane if I did. I have no wish to lose my son. Honestly Damon, that is the only reason I am going through with this."
"There are other ways, Em," I told her. "Lucas has decided to go away from Gondor, set up a new thieving base somewhere where not many people know him. He's asked me and Benny to go with him. You could come too, you and Kane. It could be a new start for us, away from all this."
"I would come with you immediately if I could" Emma said sadly. "But things aren't that simple, are they?" Gently she kissed me on the cheek and stepped away. "I will always love you, Damon," she whispered. "Forever. Please forgive me."
"I love you too," I whispered, wiping away a single tear from my cheek with the back of my hand. "No one can take that away from me."
"I had better get back" Emma said, her voice shaking. "Jaime still thinks I'm upstairs putting Kane to bed. She's upset enough as it is and she will kill me if she finds out where I have been. Goodbye, my love."
I stood there and watched as the woman I loved walked away from me. I could think of nothing to say to stop her going. However, just once she looked back at me and she seemed to be pleading with me. 'I don't want to do this' she seemed to be saying. 'Help me Damon, give me the courage to tell everyone the truth'. And as she disappeared from sight, an idea began to form in my mind. Considering what I had done to Jaime and everything, I would be taking a huge risk, but it was the only thing left to do. All I needed to do was return to the inn and tell the others about my plan…
A/N: Hey Risty, sorry about that. But I figured that Damon was going to crack sooner or later and he and Jamie have never actually got on well, so it was bond to happen sooner or later. Anyway, my next chapter will be the wedding, okay? And of course weddings never run smoothly. I have a couple of major surprises in store for many of the characters.
