A/N: Okay only about three more chapters to go after this one, which I'm not that thrilled with. However I'm going away for a week (Belfast, yay!) so won't be able to get anything done in that time. Might try and get a chapter out tomorrow but I wouldn't bet on it as my chapters seem to be getting longer. Or maybe I'm just getting more reluctant to split them up. Ah well. Oh and the little example of the woman and the mountain lion that Chris used in here actually happened.
The house looked normal. Typical suburban nirvana that had uniform rows of flowers lining up to welcome Jake home. He stared at the house for a while, breathing in the air that was slightly fresher away from the inner city. Jake just hoped that the new neighbours knew who he was, the last thing he needed was for the police to arrest him for loitering. He'd just about convinced himself that there was nothing particularly odd about his childhood home when the door to the house opened and his teenaged little sister barrelled through in a whirlwind of curled hair and lip gloss.
She froze on the porch apparently noticing Jake. She looked shocked for a second before her face split into a wide grin. "Jake!" she yelled and bounded down the steps to wrap her brother in an affectionate hug.
"Hey Jessica." said Jake, returning the embrace. "Mom and Dad around?" he asked, pulling back to admire her.
"Sure they're inside. I was just checking my car was locked." she said, gesturing to the Honda on the curb. He turned to glance at the car, feeling the familiar flicker of jealousy. Jessica smiled when she saw his expression. "Hey you got the ski vacation, I got the car." A smile graced his features for the first time.
"Yeah, yeah." he agreed grudgingly.
"What are you doing here anyway?" Jessica asked after checking the car, steering her brother by linked arm into the house. He shrugged in reply. "And how come you've not brought by that new girlfriend of yours? What was her name?"
"Dawn. And coming down here was kind of last minute." She stopped him just before they entered the house.
"Jake, you live maybe an hour away. I'm sure she wouldn't have minded." she watched him for a reaction, when none was forthcoming she ventured a guess; "Did you guys have a fight or something?"
Jake moved forward and pushed the door open for her, holding it back so he could turn and look into her concerned expression. "Just leave it, Jess, okay? Let's just go eat." She seemed reluctant to let it go but just then she heard her mother cry Jake's name and he moved into the house leaving her to grab the door.
"Fine." she muttered following him inside where her mother was already telling Jake he didn't come home enough.
Dinner had been the usual affair at the McAvery house. His mother had reprimanded him about the amount of food he ate, vehemently declaring he was 'nothing but skin and bone' whilst his father made bad jokes and Jessica kept trying to insinuate things about his new relationship. So why did he feel so disjointed? Jake sighed in annoyance, cradling his coffee as he leaned over the railing at the back of the house, admiring the perfectly manicured lawn. He might as well admit it. He'd been hoping that seeing his childhood home and his, how had Dawn put it? Ah, yes. His nice, normal family might make him feel normal again. Just the thought of Dawn made Jake cringe guiltily. He'd been avoiding her all week. It was strange he'd spent three years at UCLA and never seen her around and now that he didn't want to see her, he kept seeing her brunette head bobbing through crowds towards him. Chris wasn't to happy either. He'd declared that it was one thing keeping his amazing strength a secret when he knew that the coach would jump on Jake for the wrestling team but lying to his roommate's girlfriend? That wasn't in his repertoire.
Jake ran a hand through unruly hair and sighed deeply. Maybe he was going insane. Maybe he wasn't even seeing Dawn around. He was sure that there were lots of brunettes at UCLA. "Jake?" His mother's voice floated through the open patio door and Jake pulled himself back from the rail and his maudlin mood to walk inside.
"Yeah, mom?" he asked, groaning when he noticed she had out the old family albums. He opened his mouth to complain when he realised that looking at himself as an ordinary child might just be the way to convince himself he was just 'ordinary'. He dropped down next to her and noticed that his parents were shooting him furtive looks and Jessica was staring at him in unconcealed surprise. "Something wrong?" he asked.
"You're not complaining." Jessica said, wide-eyed shock. "Hell, that was the only reason we got them out!" His father grinned sitting on the couch next to his daughter.
"Maybe I'm just feeling sentimental." Jake shot at her. Jessica responded in the utterly mature manner of sticking her tongue out at him. His mother smiled and draped an arm over her son's shoulders before opening the album at the first page.
Jake found himself staring at myriad of smiling baby faces, all undoubtedly him, from the shaggy brown hair to the bright blue eyes. "You were so cute." his mother cooed, affectionately smiling at a picture of a young Jake standing proudly atop a slide.
"And normal." muttered Jake, it coming out more as a question.
"Yep, completely normal. I remember praying as you were being born that I'd get a little boy who had ten fingers and ten toes and was perfectly healthy. And you were. And still are." His father beamed, proudly. Jessica snorted and looked slightly surprised when Jake didn't respond with a sarcastic comment back.
Jake was to busy staring at the picture searching through his memory for anything that would explain the strange strength he'd experienced with the mugger. Nothing came to mind. Just like he'd told Dawn, he'd had a perfectly normal childhood with perfectly normal parents, a practically perfectly normal sister and him. A perfectly normal little boy. Except of course he'd never played sports. Or fought at all. Or ever even thrown a basketball at a solid wall.
"Why did I never play sport?" Jake's impulsive question interrupted his mother's story on the time Jake had ran around naked covered in paint. Jake wasn't particularly perturbed at having interrupted that. Both his parents looked shocked at the question; sharing a quick glance between them. Jessica simply looked bored, hefting one of the albums onto her lap and absent-mindedly flicking through it.
"Well, honey…" his mother started, carefully choosing her words. "You were just never interested." Jake looked at her, the truth settling on him. He never had been interested. Just like he never even considered other colleges. Contemplating it Jake realised that never wanting to try sport was not exactly normal behaviour. "You always loved your books and your computer games." His father leaned over to him, grasping his arm.
"We were always kind of worried that you would resent us one day for not making you play sport." Jake looked at him, upset at the implication.
"God, dad no!" He gripped his father's hand. "I don't resent you for it. I was just thinking about it that's all." His father's face relaxed into a smile.
"Good." he said as Jake's mother re-began her talk on Jake's naked paint adventure.
*
Tiredly pushing open the door to his dorm room Jake was met by a pile of Internet print-outs and record breaking books. Sat amongst this wreckage was Chris, his gangly body folded into a position Jake severely doubted he could move from and his dark haired head bent industriously over a heavy, brightly coloured book. He glanced up when he heard the door, a grin lighting up his worry-lined face.
"Guess what?" he started exuberantly.
"What?" Jake asked tiredly pulling off a sneaker as he collapsed on his bed, making a space for himself amid the piles of paper.
"There was this woman who managed to fight off a mountain lion for like hours so her kids could survive! I mean that's way more strength than you showed."
"So we're back to the adrenalin thing?" Chris shrugged, disappointed in his friend's lack of enthusiasm.
"I'm doing this for you, man." He looked up at Jake, and for the first time, he noticed the dark circles under his roommate's eyes, perfectly mirroring his own. "Where have you been anyway? Did you go see Dawn? Because she called again."
"I went to see my parents." Chris waited, when no more information was forthcoming he ploughed ahead.
"And?" Jake stood and started to stride from one end of the small room to the other, stepping on the mounds of paper with one sock-covered and one sneaker-covered foot.
"Nothing! I was a completely normal child," he paused to turn and point a finger at Chris. "apart from the fact I never played sport. And this whole thing with paint and nakedness." Jake waved a hand to dismiss this as Chris opened his mouth to query it and realised it probably wasn't the best time. "God, I don't know. Maybe it was just a fluke. In fact, it probably was." Chris knew that there was no way Jake believed this but he was saved from challenging him by a knock on the door.
After a few seconds Chris gathered that Jake had never even heard the door and pulled himself up off the floor, cursing at the cramp in his leg as he hobbled to the entrance. Yanking it open Chris found Dawn stood there, chewing her bottom lip anxiously, mid-knock. Chris turned to look at Jake, who was staring at Dawn with a horrified expression.
"Hey Chris." Dawn said, peering around him she added; "Hey Jake."
"Hey Dawn." said Chris. "I'll grab my jacket and leave you two alone." Chris could practically hear Jake screaming 'no' in his head.
"No," said Dawn, stilling Chris. "I was hoping we could go for a walk?" she asked, looking at Jake. Both Dawn and Chris saw the host of emotions passing over Jake's face before he started to gather himself together and headed for the door.
"Erm, man?" Chris said as Jake passed him. "You might want to get your other shoe." Jake looked down stupidly before replying.
"Right. Shoe." Chris turned and shrugged at Dawn as Jake wrenched his sneaker back on and walked Dawn out.
*
Dawn was beginning to regret having dragged him out. She'd been trying to catch his attention all week even though Buffy's advice kept ringing in her head. Everyone at Angel Investigations had been ridiculously cagey and she'd just wanted to talk to her boyfriend. If he even was her boyfriend anymore. The night air was surprisingly chilly and Dawn couldn't help but think that she maybe should have dragged her possibly evil boyfriend out in the middle of the day. She snuck a glance at the possibly evil boy as they walked along.
His hands were stuck deep in his pockets and his hair was delightfully mussed up. If anything he looked more like a lost little boy than a creature of pure evil. Then again, appearances didn't always count. Look at her. A second glance told her that there was no way he was going to initiate conversation so Dawn took a deep breath and spoke bluntly. "You've been avoiding me." Dawn wasn't sure whether it was the words or just the fact someone had finally spoken that shocked Jake so badly, but he jumped, his eyes round and wide.
"I've not been avoiding you." He was a terrible liar.
"You're a terrible liar." Jake's mouth quirked upwards. "Was that a smile? Yay me."
"I have been avoiding you." Jake admitted, stopping and shuffling his feet on the ground, his hand still deeply jammed in pockets.
"I think we established that." Dawn said, also stopping to face him. "The question we need to discuss is; why?"
"It's just that…" his eyes wouldn't meet her face.
"Is it something to do with the mugger?" Dawn ventured. She saw his flinch and took another deep breath. "And the way he must have flown ten feet all supernatural like?" His eyes shot up, shocked and confused to latch onto her concerned blue ones.
"How did you…" he seemed unable to finish a sentence. Just pulled his hands from his pockets and started to gesticulate wildly. Dawn smiled. His shock was real, that she was sure of, so even if there was something supernatural going on he obviously had no clue what was happening.
"Is that why you've been avoiding me?" she asked.
Jake nodded, wrapping his arms around himself. "I thought you'd think I was a freak." Dawn flinched at the word, one that had been directed at her and family and friends many times.
"God, no." Dawn said, stepping forward and wrapping her arms around him, regardless of how he was hugging himself. Jake untangled his arms and let them rest around her, breathing a sigh of relief. Dawn smiled over his shoulder until she caught sight of something that actually was evil heading towards them. "Oh, no." she murmured. Jake pulled back, worry again written on his face. Seeing Dawn's fearful gaze he turned around. And found himself facing a man with questionable hygiene and some sort of physical deformity.
"What do I have a big sign on my back saying; 'attack me?'" he asked, rhetorically.
"Tell me about it." muttered Dawn. "Okay, Jake, as we don't entirely understand your strength thing maybe you should stay behind me." Jake glanced at her, still surprised at her acceptance of his strength. And then the rest of her words hit him.
"Are you insane? Last time I let you attack a guy you got knocked out."
"Yeah, well. Last time I was unarmed." Jake watched as she reached into her bag expecting her to pull out pepper spray or something similar. He was disconcerted to say the least when what she actually withdrew was a short wooden stick which she then brandished like she was wielding an Uzi.
"What are you going to do with that? Splinter him to death?" Jake cried sounding a little too hysterical for his own liking.
"Stay there." And once again before he could say anything, Dawn had thrown herself at their attacker. Jake had just steeled himself to jump into the fray of high kicks and suspiciously pointy teeth when with a yelp from Dawn a cloud of ash occupied the space that their attacker had moments before been standing in.
Jake stared in shock as the cloud dissipated leaving a smug Dawn who still carried the small wooden stick, though Jake now had an inkling that it might be a registered weapon in his girlfriend's hands. If there was one good thing about all this, Jake was at least feeling like he was the normal one in the group, super strength or not.
Dawn looked up from her quick survey of the vampire's remains to find Jake staring at her with a really confused expression. Least he didn't looked horrified. She gestured to the pavement where ash was settling and said; "Guess you want an explanation?"
Jake just nodded dumbly.
