First off, let me just say that this is totally a Mary Sue, and I'm so sorry to those who hate them (I usually do if the girl is too perfect), but Four Brothers didn't have a lot of women that you can make a story like this with. I hope you guys give this story a chance anyway, it really took me a long time and a lot of tries to make a Four Brothers story (like this) that I actually liked.
Please remember to leave an honest review/flame when you're done reading!
Evelyn Mercer's funeral was quite possibly the worst one twenty year old Nina Adel had been to. It was crowded, and there wasn't a single dry eye in sight. The cold, frigid air sent shivers up everyone's spines as they sat back in their chairs and listened to the priest read from the Bible that was held tightly in his hand.
Nina was seated next to Jack, the friend whom she had come to the funeral with. When she heard his sniffs, she couldn't help but glance over to him. With no surprise, his hair was covering most of his face, preventing her from seeing that he was crying, although she really didn't need to see it to know he was. She hated when people she cared about cried, but there was nothing she could ever do about it, especially not at an event like this.
A few moments later, Jack, Jerry and his wife, and Bobby were standing up before their mother's grave as she was slowly lowered down into it. Nina wanted nothing more than to stand beside her friend and comfort him, but she wasn't family, or anything close to it. She didn't deserve to stand beside Evelyn's coffin. So she stayed in her chair, watching the backs of the three brothers as they stood side by side, saying their final goodbyes to their beloved mother.
After the funeral was over, the three brothers went their separate ways with intentions to meet soon after back at Jerry's place. Nina was walking beside Jack in silence as they made their way out of the cemetery, the numbing air causing Nina to dig her hands into her jacket pockets.
"Are you okay?" She finally asked, not daring to look up at Jack.
He didn't say anything, he only nodded. More silence followed the question, and Nina kept her head down towards the ground at all the snow. She couldn't help but think of how beautiful the cemetery had looked when they first arrived for the ceremony. All the tombstones had a thin layer of white on them, and the majority of the graveyard had still been untouched by human feet. If it wasn't a funeral they had been attending, Nina would have been a lot happier than she was feeling now.
"You're going to come with me to Jerry's, right?" Jack finally spoke up.
She looked at him, surprised by how sudden he had spoken out in the dead silence that was between then.
"Do you want me to?"
"Yeah." He said quietly.
Smiling faintly, she nodded and walking to the exit of the cemetery with him. Her friend needed her, so she had full intentions of staying with him until he was okay to be alone. Or at least until he told her to leave him alone.
Nina was never really all that good at meeting new people. She was nervous as hell when she and Jack walked over to Jerry, his brother, but his reassuring and kind smile helped her to relax.
"Jerry, this is my friend, Nina."
Jerry smiled as he shook her hand. She couldn't quite understand how he could pull off a smile so convincingly right after his mother's funeral, but he definitely did it. Nina figured he was just trying to be strong for his guests and his little brother, who would no doubt break down in tears if he saw Jerry crying as well.
"I'm sorry about your mother." Nina told him. She didn't know what else she was supposed to say, so she said the first thing you'll ever hear at a funeral.
He nodded and let go of her hand. He must have felt it shaking as he did, judging from his next statement. "You can go inside if you want, it's warmer in there."
"Thanks, I think I will." Nina chuckled as she took a few steps towards the front door. She glanced around at Jack, unsure whether he was going to follow her inside or not.
"I think I'm going to stay out here for a while. I'll be there in a bit." He told her, forcing a smile.
She nodded and walked into the house, closing the door tightly behind her.
Jerry smiled wildly as he looked at his little brother, who refused to make eye contact with him for a few moments after she left.
"Jackie has a girlfriend." He teased in a song like voice.
Smiling and forcing himself to hold back the swelling tears, he shook his head and turned his back to him, rummaging through his pockets for a cigarette and a lighter. He lit it and took in a deep puff of smoke while he walked over to the street to get away from the crowd of people that were around Jerry's house.
Jack felt tears burning at the back of his eyes. He hated that he'd never see his mother again, or hear her voice. He hated the idea of her lying in the cold ground. But he hated crying in front of people even more. All his life as a Mercer, he had always been the weak one, crying easily and depending on his older brothers to protect him. He wanted to be different. He wanted to be cocky and strong like Bobby, or smart and caring like Jerry, or even serious and protective like Angel, but that just wasn't him. No, he was weak and emotional Jack.
A strong arm around his shoulders woke him up from his thoughts. As he looked to his right, he saw a reassuring face that he had missed so much over the years, though he would probably never admit it to anyone.
"You alright?" Bobby asked, looking up at his little brother.
Jack nodded, only making eye contact with him for a second before looking down towards the ground again.
"You sure?"
Jack nodded once again; scared that if he spoke his big brother would hear the tears in his voice.
"You know I love you, man."
Jack's eyes tore away from the ground and looked at Bobby. He hadn't heard Bobby say that word in years. Hell, he hadn't heard from Bobby in years. Words couldn't describe how Jack was feeling about having his big brother by his side, finally.
"Let's go see Jerry."
When they had gotten to Jerry, they could hear him talking to a small group of women that their mother had worked with. After they saw his brothers standing there, they said their goodbyes and went inside his house.
Nina stood across the living room as she took a sip of the drink that Jerry's wife had given her. She found herself staring at the three reunited brothers as they stood by the window. They spoke with each other with smiles on their faces, but she could easily tell that Jack's was less than genuine. She watched him take another puff from his cigarette and found herself letting out an angered sigh. She hated when he smoked, and tried to convince him to stop, but that was the way he dealt with things, and there was nothing she could do to change that. Call her crazy, but she just wasn't ecstatic about the fact that he was slowly rotting himself away from those cancerous little sticks he seemed to like so much.
After a few moments of them walking out of her site, the front door opened, and all three of them walked in. Jack's eyes immediately scanned the room and found Nina standing against the wall alone, her eyes already on them. He nodded at her and waved his hand, motioning for him to come over to them.
Setting her drink down, she made her way across the crowed living room and stood by Jack's side nervously as Bobby and Jerry continued talking among themselves. Jerry looked away from Bobby and cocked his head towards Jack and Nina.
"Nina, this is my brother Bobby."
Nina watched as the man in question turned toward her, and she reached up to bat a strand hair from her eyes as she smiled at him.
"What, Jack has a girlfriend now?" Bobby joked as he shook the woman's hand.
"She's not my girlfriend, she's my friend."
Nina couldn't help but feel a little rejected by Jack. Sure, so she wasn't his actual girlfriend, but seemed so determined to dismiss the thought whenever his brothers came up with it. She wasn't asking him to be head over heels in love with her, but he didn't have to insist they were friends so eagerly.
"Alright, alright." Bobby said, looking away from her to his brother. "Don't be such a fairy."
Nina fought back a laugh as she stared at the ground, not wanting Jack to get upset with her incase she accidentally did laugh at Bobby's joke. She had no idea that teasing of Jack's sexuality would be a daily thing in the Mercer house.
When they had arrived at Evelyn's house, Nina had the pleasure of meeting the fourth and final Mercer brother, Angel. He was tall, almost as tall as Jack, but he looked a lot better built, something you could easily tell just by looking at him, despite the fact that he had on a large jacket. He seemed nice and happy to finally be reunited with his brothers. It was easy to see how surprised he was to see how much Jack had changed over the years, not to mention the fact that their little brother was now taller than all of them.
Soon after, everyone went their separate ways in the empty house, giving each other time to think about everything that had happened over the last few days. Nina suggested that she stay in the living room, to give Jack some space, but he insisted that it was okay, that he didn't need any.
Nina laid down at the foot of his bed while he strummed a soft song on his guitar, getting lost in his thoughts and the silence that filled the entire Mercer house. She stared at the ceiling above her, the song drifting her off into another place.
"You've been crying here you little fairy?" She sudden heard.
Her eyelids were getting heavy, she hadn't slept that well the night before, and it was definitely starting to take its toll on her. She heard Jack's deep voice faintly before she slipped away from them and let the darkness take over.
The bed moved, causing Nina to jerk awake, startled by the sudden movement. She opened her eyes to find Jack kneeling on his bed with one knee, reaching for something on the wall. She sat up and looked at him with tired eyes. Judging from the darkness that still ruled the sky, it was probably either really late or painfully early in the morning.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to wake you up, I just wanted to get something. Go back to sleep."
"No, its okay, you can sleep here." She said, noticing he had changed out of his street clothes and was probably in what he was planning on wearing to sleep. She caught a glimpse of a clock behind Jack and saw that it was 2:13 in the morning.
Nina got out of the bed, fixing her hair as she watched Jack sit down on his old bed.
"Where are you going to sleep?" He asked her.
"I'll sleep in the living room."
"The couch is uncomfortable. Why don't you sleep here?"
The second it came out of his mouth he realized that that wasn't the best thing to say. It just slipped out, was all. He tried to find words to fix what it sounded like, but his mind was unsurprisingly blank. He watched her smile at him.
"Because you are." She said simply.
Bobby fought back the urge to laugh as he stayed against the wall in the hallway, listening to their conversation. He was just passing by when he heard it start, and it seemed to get interesting, so he decided to stay and listen. There was no harm in that, right?
"That's cold, girl." Bobby thought to himself.
The moment she heard what she had said she knew that it sounded horribly wrong, and extremely cold. She didn't mean it as bad as it came out; she just meant that there was no room in his room for them both to sleep. His bed wasn't big enough for the both of them, or at least it didn't look it. She barely fit on it when they first came back to the house; she had to lie down across the bed.
"Sorry, that came out totally wrong. I just meant that I'm not sure if there'll be enough room." She explained quickly after.
Jack nodded, smiling slightly. "Do you need and clothes or anything to sleep in?"
She shook her head. "I'm fine."
He nodded again and stared up at her. "Goodnight."
"Night." She waved as she turned and walked out of his room, closing the door behind her.
She let out a quiet sigh in the hallway that only Bobby, who was back in his mother's room, could hear. Sitting on the bed with his fingers entangled with one another, he looked up and saw her for a second as she headed down the stairs.
No matter how hard Nina tried to sleep, she just couldn't. Jack was right, the couch wasn't comfortable. Turning over on her back, she let out a frustrated sigh and pushed some strands of hair away from her face. She was so smart she didn't even have a blanket to sleep with; she had to use her jacket.
She kept her eyes closed, but opened them suddenly when she felt something land on her legs. She looked up to see Bobby standing over the couch, looking down at her, and a blanket covering most of her legs.
"You looked cold." He said simply as he shrugged, walking over to the other side of the couch.
Nina sat up and put her jacket on the floor beside the couch, reaching down to pull the warm blanket up closer to her. She made room for Bobby as he sat down where her feet where.
"Thanks." She paused after seeing his head nod, and couldn't help but wonder if he was always up this late. "Why aren't you sleeping?"
He shrugged. "Same reason why you aren't?"
She didn't say anything else after that. She was going to tell him that the only reason why she was up at 4 in the morning was because she was cold, but after hearing him say that, she figured that there was something deeper that was troubling him, and he thought it was bothering her as well. Chances are it was something to do with his mom. There was silence in the living room until he decided to break it.
"Do you really like the fairy?"
Nina laughed quietly. "Number one, he's not gay. And number two, no, no I don't. He's like my best friend, that's all."
"I see."
It had been so horribly long since Bobby had been with a woman, it was killing him. And then he comes back home and finds this girl prancing around with Jack, his fairy of a brother nonetheless. He knew that now wasn't the time to be thinking of it, but he couldn't help himself. He reached out and put his hand on Nina's cheek, who stared at him with big eyes.
His hand was so warm and strong as he pulled her head closer to his, his lips hungrily seeking hers. She didn't fight back or protest for a second. After all why would she? She wasn't with Jack, and he didn't think of her in that way, so why should she have to worry?
Her hands found their way to his neck while his ventured down to her waist, pulling her closer to him. Jack didn't have to know about this, this would be their dirty little secret.
Okay, so it's kind of a crappy ending, so sue me. Okay, don't sue me. But review me! I hope you guys liked the first chapter. It was kind of long because I wanted to end it like this in hopes of having more people continue it to see what happens. I can't guarantee you that all the chapters will be this long, but I can assure you that they won't be like, one page long.
Oh, and don't think 'omg, everyone's going to fall in love with her, and they're going to be fighting over her, and she's going to break all their hearts to be with one!111' because that is not going to happen. I know exactly what I'm doing, and it is not a story like that. If you read the last part carefully, you'd know what I was planning.
Hope you liked it!
-Tera.