Hey, back again! You're probably getting bored by now but this is quite an explosive chapter so please keep reading.

All disclaimers apply.

Chapter 7: Divided

Jesse had been afraid that Kealy would say just that. He really wanted to be honest with his friends, but what if they didn't believe him? That was a big possibility, Steve, Mark and Amanda hated all things paranormal. He remembered one time that, under the influence of drugs, he had believed that aliens had kidnapped him, he knew that this was different, but would they see that?

Kealy was looking deep into his eyes, encouraging him without words. Her eyes said "I'll support you". She knew just how hard this was for him, to tell his friends a story, which quite frankly, nobody would believe. She hoped he'd have faith in them.

Until now, Jesse had been averting his gaze from that of his friends, but he realised that he would have to look at them. When he eventually raised his head, it was tentatively.

They were looking expectantly at him, with deep curiosity, and concern. It was this concern that finally made him do it. "Look guys" he said nervously, "Uh, this is not easy to say, uh, something happened tonight. . ."

"Is this to do with the stabbing?" Mark asked, already knowing the answer.

"Yeah, I uh, I really want you to remain open minded when you hear what I have to say. . ." He paused, sweeping his arm across the room, "All this damage, was caused by - I was attacked by a. . .uh, thing. I'm told it's called a demon, I was attacked the other night by one with a sword-," He stopped short when he saw what was written on their faces. "Look, it's true! I'm not lying!" The collective grimace that was cast upon his companions' face, was disheartening and demoralising.

A cloud of deep rage passed over Steve's face, "I can't believe you Jess" He shouted, "I can't believe that your jealousy of Jack would bring you to make up something like this! Especially under such serious circumstances!" his eyes flashed in the face of Jesse's innocent features. "That is really low! You know what? I thought you weren't telling us because you were genuinely scared, but now I realised that I underestimated you, you've been jealous of Jack all along!" Jack looked surprised at this, it was news to him, but Jesse couldn't hide the guilt that had settled in his eyes. Steve turned to look at his father, and then stormed out. He was promptly followed by an apoplectic Kealy. Mark looked at Jesse with disappointment in his eyes, and Amanda gave him a stern look. Jack stared at Jesse as though he was a stupid child making up stories to justify his actions.

As Jesse stood there, devastated, wishing the ground would swallow him up, the rest of his friends left. As soon as the swish of Mark's lab coat had disappeared, Jesse moved slowly and sadly towards his bed. He should never have told them, hadn't he known they would react like this? His wound really ached and he felt the urge to cry. He stopped himself when he realised he was acting like a baby. Had he just ruined his relationship with his best friend? But why should he feel guilty? He'd told Steve the truth! Exactly what had been asked of him! Yet he still felt ashamed.

A thought struck him as he surveyed the damaged room, and he reached over onto his bedside table and picked up the Angel Investigations card. He looked at it long and hard, before picking up the phone beside him that had somehow managed not to dislodge itself in the fight. There was only a second of hesitation, before he started to dial.

* * * *

Kealy followed Steve at a run. God he could be fast when he wanted to be! "Steve" she shouted, furious at the way he had treated Jesse. Every fibre of her being was charged with burning fury. She had to make him see sense.

"What?" He said sharply, turning around. He was shocked to see the murderous expression on her face, but he managed to maintain his own look of rage. "Come to plead Jesse's case? He should be capable of fighting his own battles! You really believe that he was attacked by demons? Or are you in on the whole thing?"

"In on what Steve?" Kealy couldn't believe that Steve was acting in this way, "You know Jesse would never make up something like this! Besides, if I ever had any doubts, they vanished as soon as I saw the demon! I was there when it attacked him!"

Steve looked sceptical, "You saw it? Yeah right Kealy! Sure it wasn't some kind of disguise, a costume maybe? Surely a CIA specially trained operative would be able to spot that!" He mocked her.

Kealy stepped back as if Steve had just slapped her, "I know you're angry, so I'll let that one slide" she said as calmly as she could, blowing up in Steve's face was not going to help Jesse, or herself for that matter. There was a heavy silence.

"I'm sorry Kealy, if you really believe Jess then that's up to you, but I prefer to go with the more realistic theory of him being jealous of Jack" Steve turned as if to leave, but that was when Kealy had had enough.

"Oh don't be so naïve!" She exploded "Jesse is not that shallow and you know it! I think you're just afraid to see the truth!" Steve turned again to face her, and then attempted to speak, but Kealy cut him off.

"Are you telling me that you have never had any unsolved murders in your time? Ones whose cause of death you could never rationalise? Or a murderer that just didn't exist?" She paused to let this sink in, "You're the cop Steve! Aren't you supposed to look for the truth instead of making up excuses for it? Jesse's your friend, and he told you the truth whether you're ready to believe it or not, but rather than being there for him, you've pushed him away" And with that, she whirled around and stalked back to Jesse's room. Steve watched her go, his mind jumbled up. Her words had really hit home.

* * * *

Years earlier, before Jesse and Jack ever appeared on the scene. . .

Rain pouring down in buckets - the worst storm LA had seen in years - Steve Sloan bent down over a dead body. Confusion was written all over his face. Beside him crouched Dr. Amanda Livingston (As she was at that time), horrified at what she saw. She ran a gloved hand over an unusual mark on the victim's neck: Two circular holes, with traces of blood. She'd never seen anything of the kind, nor had Steve. "Steve, I can't tell you the cause of death right now, I'm gonna have to do an autopsy"

"Okay, when can you have it done?"

"Hopefully in a couple of hours, I can prioritise it" She stood slowly, patted Steve on the arm, and then went of to tell the paramedics that they could remove the body.

Steve hadn't been in the force for that long, in fact, this was pretty much his first case as a Detective. His father liked to help Steve with any case that he had, he was close to being invited to become a Police Consultant. Somehow though, Steve felt that there was going to be something odd about this case, and he didn't know if he wanted his father involved in this.

Steve stared at the woman, her long auburn hair was fanned out on the wet ground. Her limbs were spread-eagled, and awkward looking. On her face, was a look of pure terror and desperation, her eyes were wide with shock and her mouth was open in a silent scream. Steve made a vow to her, and himself, there and then. He was going to catch the person that had done this.

A few hours later, a soaking wet Steve Sloan drove his way to Community General hospital. The rain battering down on the windscreen reflected his mood: dreary and depressed. Rain always affected him in this way, but this case was also really getting him down, in a way that he had never thought possible. He'd thought that this would just be a simple open and shut case, but who knew what was going on? Was it some kind of cult?

When he reached Amanda Livingston's Pathology Lab, he saw her sitting at her desk, poring over a large file. She looked completely stumped. "Hey Amanda" Steve said as enthusiastically as he could. Her head snapped upwards, she didn't look thrilled to see him.

"Oh, Steve" He looked enquiringly at her as she greeted him "Yes I did the autopsy" She answered knowingly, then became serious. "Steve, you're not gonna like what I have to tell you"

"And that is?"

Instead of answering him immediately, Amanda stood and went over to one of the examining tables and threw back the sheets covering the body that lay upon it. "Steve, the only reason for death that I can find - and this is so brutal - is that the victim, Sophie Rae, was completely drained of blood" Steve appeared stunned by this, he'd never heard of anything so disgusting. And he'd heard and seen a lot, working for the LAPD.

"How?" He asked, knowing that he really didn't want to hear the answer, but knowing that he had to.

"Through these two marks here" She said, pointing to the ugly feature on the girl's neck. "It's possible that they're teeth marks, although it's unlikely. I have to confess that I know of no way that someone can drain a person's blood through the neck"

Steve was inclined to agree, but he wanted to find the killer. The perpetrator of this heinous crime had to be brought to justice. "Listen, Amanda. . .I'd, uh, appreciate it if you didn't tell Dad about this, it would only upset him"

"Uh, okay. Look Steve, you've got to find this guy, I mean, what he did. . ."

"I know, and I will"

The LAPD worked on Sophie Rae's murder for months, with Steve at the head of the investigation. Eventually though, they had to admit defeat. There just was no murderer; it was as if the person didn't exist. Nobody knew anything, or had seen anything; no clues were available. Steve was reluctant to let the matter go, but he knew deep down that there were some murders that could never be solved, and this was one of them.

He never ended up telling his father about it, what was the point? Steve's sister had been causing family problems, with Mark at the centre of things. He just had too much on his mind, without Steve adding to his troubles. In the end, Steve resolved to bury it inside himself, learn from the experience and try to forget about it; and he had, until now. . .

* * * *

Jesse's room was very crowded that night, around his bed sat: Kealy, Vaughn, Doyle, Angel, Cordelia, Gunn and Wesley. Angel Investigations had responded immediately to Jesse's phone call and had come to him instantly. Kealy had called Vaughn, after all, Jesse had been attacked again, he needed protection, which was what they were now arguing over.

"Look Jesse, the CIA can provide you with protection. We have special programs set up for people in your position. You could stay with us until we get Seville" Vaughn suggested earnestly.

"Don't be ridiculous" Gunn interrupted, "What will the CIA do if a big bunch of demons pay a visit? We're experienced in handling and fighting demons, he will be much safer with us!"

The room went silent as everyone looked towards Jesse expectantly. "W-Well I, uh-," he spluttered, "I think I'd be better of with Angel, no offence to the CIA or anything, it's just that, well they did help me before and well. . ."

"So it's settled then?" Cordelia said excitedly, having Jess around was going to be so cool!

Vaughn looked slightly apprehensive, "Well, okay. But I'm gonna have a CIA team on surveillance"

This struck Angel as odd, "Agent Vaughn, why is the CIA so keen to protect Jesse?"

"Apart from just wanting to protect him, we also need to catch Seville, and so far Jesse is our only link" Vaughn conveniently left out the part about Delta 5 wanting to discover more about demons, he shot Kealy a glance, warning her not to tell them. She understood perfectly, giving him an almost imperceptible nod.

So it was decided, Jesse would check himself out early in the morning and he and Kealy would be picked up by Cordelia and Doyle. Hopefully this would all happen before anyone (meaning Mark, Steve, Amanda and Jack) discovered him missing. They had, after all, made their feelings perfectly clear the night before.

* * * *

Mark sat up late that night; Jack had gone to sleep long before, and Steve was out. He was very worried about Jesse, and disappointed that he felt he had to lie to them, especially such an obviously made-up story as demons.

With a little lamp providing a small amount of light, Mark read a newspaper. The words didn't really penetrate, as he realised that, subconsciously, he was waiting up on his son. He knew that his son could take care of himself, but it was just that niggling fatherly worry. The words on the page started to blur, before he once again rubbed his exhausted eyes. Maybe he should go to bed.

As this thought ran through his head, he heard his son come through the front door, and he quickly assumed a "reading the paper" pose.

Steve saw right through it. "Dad, it's two in the morning. I know you're waiting up for me"

Mark chuckled, but then was shocked as he discovered the scent of alcohol on Steve's breath. "Steve did you drive home after you'd been drinking?"

"No Dad! I got a cab! Look Dad, there's something that's been bothering me." Steve looked haggard and debilitated, but he also needed to get this off his chest. He'd been thinking about it ever since Kealy's outburst in the hospital corridor.

"What is it son?" Mark asked, concerned.

Steve sat down and rested his head back. "It's about something that happened in the past, that I didn't tell you about at the time, because you had problems of your own"

Mark was intrigued. "Go on. . ." he encouraged.

"Well, after we went to see Jesse, and he told us about the demons, Kealy shouted at me. She asked me if I'd ever had a murder that I couldn't solve, or a strange case, or a murderer that didn't exist. It really struck a chord, it made me remember one of my first cases"

Steve went on to tell his father the story of Sophie Rae's murder. Mark, who could never resist the allure of a case, was very absorbed in the story. It was very late by the time Steve had finished.

"And you never found the murderer?" Mark asked.

"No, and we worked on it for months, no leads, no witnesses. It was a hopeless case"

"Well why didn't you tell me? I could have helped!" Mark was incredulous.

"Dad, you had problems with Carol! I didn't want to add to your load"

Mark realised that Steve had a point, "Okay son, but what do you think now? About the case when you look back? Do you see it differently?"

"I don't know, it's just - that the way she was killed was so strange - almost like a vampire had done it, everybody knows how a vampire kills someone, and because of what Jesse said. . . I thought, two teeth marks, and blood sucked through the neck kinda sounded like a vampire. I think at the time, I just didn't want to know about any of those theories, I pushed them aside. But what if it's true Dad? What if Jesse's telling the truth?"

"I guess I never thought it could be true, I mean, after Perris Pharmaceuticals, and the fake abduction. . ."

"I know what you mean. Dad, I think we ought to go see him tomorrow, get the full story. I'm not saying I believe him, but let's just say I'll keep an open mind"

"Okay Steve. God! Look at what time it is! Bed Now!" Mark said firmly as he yawned and stretched.

"Awww Dad!" Steve said like a spoiled child, half-joking half-serious.

* * * *

Mark and Steve had slept poorly after their discussion, but nevertheless were eager to get to Jesse's room and talk to him. They had brought Amanda and Jack along with them, informing of them about Sophie Rae, who Amanda still remembered. She had also promised to pull out the autopsy records on Sophie Rae. Amanda wasn't really sure what to believe, but if Mark and Steve thought there was a chance that Jesse's story was true, then she was prepared to consider the possibility.

It was with raised hopes and an eagerness to get on with the case, that the four of them walked down the corridor to Jesse's room. It was mid-morning, so they reckoned that he should be awake. "I'll just go in silently" Mark whispered, pushing the door open slowly and carefully.

He got the shock of his life when he opened the door and discovered that Jesse had disappeared.

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