Hey guys just before I start here are all of them's ages : Anya 'Nymph'-19, Jack 'Fiary'20- Bec-21, Angel- 23, Jerry-24 Bobby- 26.

Hope y'all enjoy!

Chapter four

"No, Just A Life Time"

Bobby stood in the door way of Jack's blue room, lingering in the threshold watching as Jack lay sprawled out on his bed strumming his age defying guitar, an item Bobby fondly remembers hawking from a pawn shop many years ago.

"You been crying in here Fairy?" he said nestling down beside Jack's singe sized bed.

Jack sighed his deep voice grumbling "Leave it alone, man", leaning across he grabbed his paper's and tobacco.

"You still making a lot of racket on this thing?"

Jack licked his cigarette and rubbed at his dampened eye, smirking he replied "Yeh still making a lot of racket"

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"You got a car?" Anya asked.

"Nah, I hitched"

"Ok, well we'll catch a cab then."

"Sweet"

Anya and Bec exited the airport, "so, shit Anya what you been up to since the last time I saw you?"

"Umm, well it's been a year right?"

"Yeh"

"Shit a whole year since that whole fucked up mess happened, man, where does time fly?"

FLASHBACK: ONE YEAR AGO:

"Jack, Jack!" Anya hollered, running after him as he thundered out of the Mercer's living room, "Jackie!"

He turned, such anger plaster on his handsome face Anya wanted to vomit, "Don't call me that"

"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry it was a stupid, god awful mistake, I should never have done it!"

"No you're right you shouldn't have, but you did" he hissed, making to turn around and leave.

"No, don't go please talk to me!" she cried, gripping his coat sleeve. He merely sneered at her then shrugged her off, walking further and further away from her reach.

"Fine, go, you prick, you were the one who drove me into his bed, you were the one who told me you didn't love me, what'd you expect I'd wait for you forever?"

Jack turned at this "No, just for a life time"

END OF FLASHBACK

"I know, where does it go"

Anya hiked her bag higher onto her shoulder, "Well after I moved out of your guys house, I went into Chicago and stayed with Bobby for a good 5months."

"Yeh, he mentioned that."

"Then I went MIA for the other 7 months, y'know drifting here and there visiting old foster friends, getting to grips with life without my second wheel" Anya whispered sadly.

"If it makes you feel better, Jack hasn't gotten over you yet either. So there's still hope!" Bec smiled patting Anya good naturedly on the back.

"So you missed you older sister then?'

"Of course, I'm real sorry about the lose of contact man, y'know how you goes, when you take family for granted, I just…" she faltered "I just couldn't bare to be around anything that reminded me of Jack anymore, it just began to hurt so badly"

Bec nodded, knowingly "Sometimes, you gotta lose something to truly find it, y'know?"

"I know"

"Yeh, so let's go find it!" Bec laughed cheerfully.

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Jack had been playing for a good hour and a half and at this point his fingers began to throb with pain, a knock at the door prompted him to give up his tireless strumming.

"Who the hell, man?" he muttered, setting his guitar down and scrambling off his bed.

"BOBBY!" Anya roared, as she saw his hulking figure answer the door.

"Jesus, Anya!" he roared back, lifting her up into his arms "I've missed you, nymph!"

"Missed you too, troll!"

Bobby pecked her on the cheek before setting her down and clearing his view to find another member of the clan standing at the door.

"Becky, baby" he whispered.

Bec made to smile but instead her face collapsed her frame racked with mournful sobs "Baby Becky, c'mon" he opened out his arms for her and she shot into them, clinging to him as her strength faltered.

"Bec?" Anya's voice wobbled, as she watched her pillar of strength crumble, she reached out an arm as if to comfort her, but felt like she was the one who needed comforting.

"nymph" Bobby said, opening out his left arm for her. She nodded as she walked trying to wipe the tears from her face.

"My two favourite girls, back at last" he said into them, kissing their heads.

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Jack galloped down the stairs taking two at a time in normal fashion, not bothering to look up until he reached the front entrance.

"Hey, Bobby who's at the door man?"

Bobby looked up and moved away, giving a clear way of who was as the door, first Jack saw Bec and his face brightened, forest green eyes filling with hope, then Anya came into his view.

"fuck" .

Anya looked at him, a mask on her face so unreadable "Jack"

"No" was all he said, as he brushed past her and walked down the hall, "Jack, listen to me, for once hear me out!"

"Why?" he asked, not bothering to stop or turn around.

"Because you loved me, once, even if you never said it!"

By this time, the whole house was lingering close to the argument, every one of them not daring to move as they watched this crucial argument take place.

He shook his head and rested his fingers on a picture frame which contained photo of him an Anya at the tender age of 15 and 16. It had been the only photo of them that his mother refused to give up.

"Jackie?" she ventured.

"No" he said, flicking his fingers and cocking his head slightly as he watched it fall to the floor the glass smashing into hundreds of pieces, like she had done to his heart.

"Oh Jack" Jerry whispered.

Bec saw Anya break for a moment "No, be strong baby, for the both of you" she warned. Then like magic Anya stood tall and held her head high.

Jack stuffed his hand in his pocket and pulled out a cigarette, "I'm going for a smoke" he said as if she wasn't even there, but she could've sworn she heard his voice break.

He slammed the door as soon as he passed the doorway.

"Nymph?" Angel asked, wrapping his arms around her shoulders, "you know him, he's such a fairy you gota go get what you want ok?"

"ok."

"So go get" he urged, pushing her forward.

Jack didn't even bother to light a cigarette, he knew even that couldn't calm him down.

"Anya" he winced, hearing her footsteps pad down the hallway directly to him.

Her tall figure slinked through the door and she turned around to face him "Jack, now you listen to me, or so help me god!" she threatened.

"Don't waste your breath, I've heard everything your lying lips could say."

"No, you haven't even given me the time of day!"

"It was pretty clear what happened, you fucked James Soren, a person none of the Mercer's can stomach, then you tried to palm the blame of on me, saying I never said I loved you!"

Anya lost her temper with the last remark "YOU NEVER, ONCE SAID YOU LOVED ME, NEVER, I WAITED FOR THOSE WORDS FOR FOUR WHOLE YEARS!"

"YOU KNEW I LOVED YOU, IT WASN'T HARD TO PICK!" "I LOVED YOU FROM THE FIRST MOMENT I MET YOU!" he retorted.

"loved?" Anya whispered.

"Right, past tense" Anya grimaced her head falling in an act to mask the tears trickling down her face.

"Don't tell me you don't love me" she murmured.

"Don't tell me you don't love me" her voice rising with each syllable uttered

"DON'T TELL ME YOU DON'T LOVE ME!" Anya exploded again, running into him and repeatedly hitting furiously at his chest in a selfish act to make him feel what she felt at that very moment.

"You know I would die for you, and I'm sorry for what I did, god only knows how much."

He gripped at her arms, a deep throb starting to bump throughout his chest.

"I don't need this right now ok, in case you haven't noticed my mother's….." he stopped, a tear slid down his cheek, he'd finally done it, Jack Mercer had finally broken in front of her.

"Baby!" she eased, pulling away from his grip and trailing a finger down his angelic face, wiping away his tears and unknowingly his pain.

Jack too tired to hate looked at Anya, at her beautiful blue eyes, her porcelain white skin , her dark ebony locks that reached down to her hips. He remembered being tangled in those locks when he held her, he remembered.

FLASHBACK: FIVE YEARS AGO:

The bullet hit Jack directly in the shoulder, but to his horror he felt it rip out of him and collide with Anya's body which was pressed up against his in an order to block her from the blow.

"No!" he moaned, hitting the floor.

"Jack, Anya!" Bobby roared, rearing upwards and shooting, without batting an eyelid the armed attacker.

Bobby fell to his knees cradling both their convulsing bodies in his arms.

Anya was gripping Jack's hand so tightly it was turning an ugly purple and he hers.

"Anya?" Jack croaked out "Hold on, ok"

"Jack I…" she began but was silenced by another set of convulsions and to Bobby's horror a mouthful of blood which stained her lips a stunning maroon.

"I need and AMBULANCE, Bec call a fucking ambulance!"

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Jack was the first to wake from his slumber, looking around the stale hospital bedroom, he saw Angel and Bec sound asleep in either armchair.

"Anya!"

Without a moment of hesitation he leapt from the bed, ignoring the pain in his shoulder trying to forget the one in his heart.

"I'm coming" he said to himself as he marched down the hallway towards the nurse's station.

"Anya Mackenzie, what room is she in?" he ordered hoping with everything that she was ok, that he could look upon her one more time and hear her laugh. He watched unblinking as she typed in the name.

"I'm sorry sir, we have no one here under that name" the words hit him worse then the bullet had and he almost wished he had died that night. His legs buckled, and he had to hold on to the desk to stop him from falling, "Oh Anya, No!"

"Sir, Sir do you need a Nurse to escort you back to your room?" she asked gently.

"No, ok just try Anya Mercer" he whispered in a last ditch attempt for savior.

"Sir?"

"Just do it!" he screamed losing control. The nurse hurriedly typed in the letters then thumbed the key 'ENTER'.

"Ah yes, she's in room C25, just down the corridor."

Jack grinned so broad he got dimples in his cheeks "Oh thank god, thank you!" he laughed, gingerly running down the hall towards her room.

"Nymph?" he murmured as he entered room C25, she lay asleep beautiful in every form, to her left Bobby and Jerry lay asleep too on either armchair in the same fashion as Bobby and Angel.

He tiptoed over to her, running a hand up the length of her bed as he did so, "Your safe now."

Smiling he smoothed some of the hair away from her dampened forehead.

"I love you, Anya" he said, surprising himself. Bending down he placed his lips on to hers swearing he could feel her smile as he did so.

Bobby opened one eye, at first shocked at seeing someone other then a nurse in the room, then coming to his senses and realizing who it was.

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"I love you, Anya" he heard Jack say as he bent down to kiss her, Bobby grinned swearing he could see a smile play across Anya's face.

"That-a boy, Fairy."

END FLASHBACK

"I love you, Jack, even if you haven't realized it yet" she smiled sadly, kissing his eyes delicately she moved towards the door, and before Jack could say anything she was gone.

A/N: Well guys this is chapter four, hope there was no confusion about the last chapter!

Please enjoy and review, much appreciated.

Love Bex : )