Hey guys! I'm finally back with the real Chapter 11! I'm so sorry it took me this long but I won't bore you now with my reasons, also because you them already!
I just wanted to thank you for being this patient and now that summer's here, my updates will be almost regular like before.
This chapter is pretty full, feelings wise but I'm saying, the next one will be even more intense. That's the only 'spoiler' you get haha.
i hope you enjoy this!
Disclaimer: I don't own Kickin'it.
All Over The Place
Red.
Jack saw red.
In that very moment, his whole world had been dipped into a nauseating shade of deep scarlet that only faded a little in the main focus of his eyes.
His Kim and whoever the hell that was.
Right now, Jack couldn't see anyone but Kim as the girl who was currently locking lips with a total stranger, someone who Jack wanted to karate chop so bad until he was buried ten feet in the ground.
He didn't see her as Olivia or K or anyone else for that matter, he only saw her as his wife, Kim Brewer who was in that moment giving him the worst torture of his life.
He wanted to go there and rip them off eachother, create a world-wide distance between the two of them and most likely anhialate the brunet man.
But he couldn't. He felt like as if his feet were planted into the ground, and he couldn't even get any words out as his chest felt extremely heavy, much like his head.
He honestly felt like everything was crumbling, he could literally hear his heart breaking in two as his eyes couldn't look away from the scene.
He was stuck.
Rage, confusion, pain, hurt all washed over him in powerful and endless waves until he was left with nothing but a strong urge to cry.
He wanted to drop onto his knees and plead with her, ask her what he had done wrong and if he hadn't loved her enough for her to subject him to this kind of pain.
Why did he even wake up today?
Right now she was basically stomping on his already shattered heart through the simple act of kissing another man.
Any thoughts of how this wasn't Kim, and was Olivia, left his mind because there's only so much a man can take before he has to break.
You can take away his wife, bring back a look-alike a few years later, but making her kiss someone right in front of his eyes?
Wasn't there any other way of letting him know this was really his girl?
Did it really have to be pain, the way he would realize this was his Kim?
Was she even his Kim anymore?
To any outsider, the pair had only been engaged for 5 seconds, but to Jack it felt like 5 eternities before they finally pulled back and slowly, Jack's vision turned fair again.
He watched as Kim brought her head back and he could see the dude smiling.
Oh how he wanted to go there and punch his face right in.
"Mind telling me what you did all this while mister?" Kim asked the man and for the first time since he came to Camp and met her, Jack fully identified that voice as Kim's.
How had he not noticed it before? How had he been in such denial?
"Relaxing." The brunet shrugged, stepping back from Kim.
"I mean it Olivia, I was just saving my energies for later." He gave a crooked smile again and put his hands on her shoulders.
"Now it's your turn to relax while I do the rest of the work." He squeezed her shoulders and Kim finally turned around.
Her hair flew around her head and when she looked back directly at Jack and flashed him her signature wide smile, Jack scolded himself again for being so stupid, for not having seen Kim before.
But other than anger at himself, he felt nothing but numbness.
"Hey Jack! Come over here!" She waved him over but he couldn't move, so he just stood there with his mouth closed and a grim expression on his face.
Kim saw that he wasn't about to move, and still with a smile on, she tugged along the brunet man and made her way over to him.
Once she was standing in front of him, she moved aside, right in the middle of the two men.
"Nate, meet Jack Brewer, our new counselor. And I must say Jack, now that I saw with my own eyes what you can do, I can confirm you're exceptionally skilled."
Kim smiled at him, winking at him in the end but again, he stood cold and rigid while the the other man, Nate, gave him a smile.
Kim laughed and carried on, the woman clearly having no idea that the more she spoke, the more she was crushing a certain brunet.
"Jack, this is Nate, the moron I was telling your about earlier." She rolled her eyes but then, did the fatidic gesture that made Jack completely crumble inside. She hooked her arm around Nate's and clung herself to it.
"The moron who's my boyfriend."
That was it.
You know, Jack Brewer was a man known for his strength, for his leadership and for his ability to soak in and fight against every struggle life threw at him.
He had been tested lots of times and in every situation, no matter what it may be, he always emerged as the survivor, the one who would live to tell the tale and would build his world back up if needed.
He had done exactly that in the last years and was still going through the process.
But like everyone else, he was also a human.
A human being that had a heart, thus he had emotions and a brain, with which he reasoned with his feelings.
Being human, there's also just so much you can take before mind and heart go haywire and don't control eachother anymore.
That's when you break.
Jack Brewer was a man known for his strength, for his metal chest that took bullets and ricocheted them off.
But there's only so much he can take.
His mind had stopped working a long time ago, stopped trying to find rational explanations. His heart, that had been animatedly thumping due to mixed emotions, stilled and was bruised now.
Jack Brewer was a man who was known for his strength...A man who was now left with none of it as he was completely, utterly and irrevocably broken.
Shattered.
Lance wanted to cry.
He wanted to cry so bad, sit down and throw a tantrum and just not stop for any reason.
He wanted to forget everything he saw in the last half hour, right from the moment K and Nate...
Only the mere thought made him want to wail.
He couldn't believe his eyes, he wasn't meant to see any of that, any of that wasn't meant to happen!
And Uncle Jack...oh God, Uncle Jack.
Through his horrified eyes, Lance could see the devastated look in his uncle's eyes as he watched the scene unfold.
In a matter of five seconds, both their worlds had been turned upside down and along with crying, Lance felt the strong need to puke.
He felt so small and so alone, which he in fact was. All the other kids had gone into the lake with K and Nate, he had stayed behind and Uncle Jack was nowhere to be seen.
Lance wanted to see him though, sit down with him and seek comfort as well as to give some.
He was so scared, who knows where Uncle Jack could be in the state he was in and what he could be doing.
Lance felt hot tears begin to leak out and he didn't do anything to stop them. He kept them coming as he walked, his head hung low and a huge pout on his face.
He had absolutely no idea of where he was heading, all he knew was that the others' shrieks and yells were starting to sound more and more distant with every step.
The light was also dimming, huge shadows cluttered the grass beneath his feet and the air becalmed chiller by the second. The sun wasn't hitting him straight on anymore, so when he finally looked up, he saw the reason.
He had walked into the woods and was now surrounded by trees on all sides. Lance looked behind him but saw nothing but more trees and realized to his horror that he had walked to far in and had no idea of how to go back.
Petfect. Getting lost was just what he needed.
But Lance didn't let this faze him though, he didn't feel it in him to be scared about losing the path. He had other problems to be concerned about, as he still wanted nothing more than to cry, though nor for getting lost.
He needed to see Uncle Jack.
As if on cue, a loud grunt reached Lance's ears and he instantly snapped his head up, eyes wide and just knowing that it was his uncle. Who else would be here in the middle of the woods grunting?
He stood still and waited for the sound to come again and when it finally did, a grunt much louder than the first one, he followed it and went on farther into the forest, trees multiplying and shadows darkening.
While continuing to follow the occasional grunt, Lance began to wonder just what on earth Uncle Jack must be doing.
Was he punching a trunk?
Lance didn't have to wait any longer for an answer as he finally came upon the sight of his Uncle attaking a tree trunk like it were a dummy, though the trunk was putting up more of a solid fight as it didn't wobble.
As soon as his eyes landed on Jack, Lance froze in his spot, staring at the brunet who just then threw his last kick before stepping back. Lance had no idea what Jack was about to do until he saw him bringing his arms up and could only imagine how his face must be twisting up in rage.
Just then, Lance knew exactly what Uncle Jack was about to do. And he needed to stop him before the big bad words reached his innocent ears.
"Uncle Jack." So he whimpered softly and it was enough for Jack to snap his head in his direction so fast both of them were surprised the brunet didn't give himself a whiplash.
Jack's eyes widened and one could see it from miles away that his chocolate orbs were glossy. But Lance seemed to have cut in at the right moment, stopping him before he could do anymore damage to the trees or...himself.
Right moment or worst, though? Because honestly, right now Jack wanted nothing more than to have a simple break down. He was about to, kick and punch some more, yell some obscenities and then destroy his hands and feet until there was nothing left to do other than cry.
But he couldn't, not now anyway. He had Lance to comfort as the little kid had already began his own river of tears. Lance was priority right now.
Shaking his head in a desperate attempt to get rid of certain thoughts, he walked up to Lance and the kid looked up, a big pout on his face as tears silently flowed down his cheeks.
Jack quickly lifted him up into his arms and hugged him to himself, clasping the back of his head with his hand as Lance's legs went around his waist.
The little red head hugged Jack tighter as the tears refused to stop while Jack coped in his ear.
"Shh Lan, it's okay." Jack began rocking him slightly as he fought to keep himself at control for Lance's sake.
"I-I'm here." But still, his voice cracked. It didn't go unnoticed by the little one as he let out a small cry and clutched his tiny fists.
"It's gonna be okay buddy," Jack struggled to keep his voice stable and fought against every pore in his body not to let out a single tear.
It could wait til after.
"Don't worry." Jack shut his eyes tightly and slid down against a tree, holding Lance for dear life and then it was just two boys, sharing the same pain but on entirely different levels.
And the one who had it worse was still not crying.
Something wasn't right.
K stopped watching the kids and Nate play in the lake and turned to look around, her eyes swiftly scanning the clearing and finding nothing but dropped backpacks and mountain gear.
And she didn't need to look back the playing group to guess who was missing. Jack and Lance.
She frowned and wondered just for how long those two had been disappeared for and she couldn't believe how fast she let Lance escape from right under eyes. She was supposed to be watching over him!
But she didn't start freaking out just now, she knew he was with Jack as he too was nowhere to be seen and again, she wondered incredulously how distracted she had been to not notice their absence for...she didn't even know how long.
For how long had she, Nate and the kids been playing again?
K groaned loudly and face palmed, effectively attracting Nate's attention, who then swam over to her.
"What's wrong Olly?" The blonde was so distressed that she didn't even bother to roll her eyes or make some comment about the use of her rather weird nickname, something that Nate had always called her by and that left her exasperated.
But the man knew she didn't take it too badly, after all, she was going out with him, wasn't she?
"Look Nate, Jack and Lance are gone!" She exclaimed, gesturing towards the clearing.
Nate looked over shoulder and furrowed his eyebrows, confusion dawning upon him.
"What do you mean? They're right there!" He nodded his head towards something over her shoulder and K whipped around and sure enough, there were the boys standing near the entrance of the woods.
K was no idiot, she saw with her eyes that they weren't there before and frowned deeply again, wondering why they had gone in the woods instead of joining them in the water.
Caught up with this new mystery, she didn't bother correcting Nate by telling him that Jack and Lance hadn't been there before, and instead walked out of the water and onto the shore, getting goosebumps as the cool air hit her wet legs.
She walked up to Jack and Lance and tried to catch their eyes but neither of them seemed to be so keen on wanting the same as they both kept flickering their eyes anywhere but on her.
K moved her head around a bit to try and catch one of their gazes but to no avail, so she just huffed and put her hands on her hips, leaning forward slightly.
"Where have you two been?" She shot at them, narrowing her eyes and pursing her lips in a thin line.
Jack finally looked at her in the eye and for a moment, they both stared at eachother transfixed as K got a shock seeing Jack's red rimmed eyes.
What the...?
"Nowhere." The man shrugged and K snapped out of it, blinking and then sounding stern again.
"What do you mean nowhere? A couple of minutes ago you were nowhere to be seen!"
Lance looked up too and once again, interrupted Jack just before he did something he would regret later. Jack was just about to tell her off when his little peacemaker stepped in.
"Listen, why do you-"
"We were just in the woods K, I didn't want to go into the water so Uncle Jack took me for a walk." He explained in his small voice and when K looked down at him, she just then realized how much smaller he seemed to be than before.
Seriously, what had happened in the forest?
K looked back at Jack only to find him looking elsewhere again and sighed.
"Okay." She nodded and began to turn away, her eyes still trained on Jack.
"Well you just came back at the right moment. We're about to start practice." At that, Jack dared to meet her eyes, seeing as even though she was almost completely turned away from him, he eyes were still on him.
With a last glance, she walked off and towards the shore to call the kids out, who ran to their stuff in the middle of the grass.
Some of them, who had stripped down to their bathing suits, sat down to dry off before they could get in the action too, while others who had gone in, wetting or not wetting their clothes, looked just about ready to kick some even with water dripping from their bodies.
Jack led Lance to a spot near the forming audience to sit down and then, he himself prepared for the lesson.
He didn't know how this would end as he wasn't even sure whether he wanted to beat someone up or not.
Oh Who was he kidding, he knew just who he wanted to pummel today.
"Okay guys, line up!" K clapped her hands as Jack and Nate came up and stood next to her to lead the group.
Lining up opposite the students, they looked at eachother for a while, realizing just now that they would be leading not even that big of a group in three.
Teachers had always been in two so someone needed to step out or take turns. Not thinking much of it, K stepped out of their line up and turned to the men.
"You guys can have this, I'll do something later."
Recieving a nod from Nate and a shrug from Jack, K sat down too and no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't help but feel upset at the way Jack was acting.
What had she done? Just this morning he had seemed to be finally opening up!
K brought her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them, then lifted her gaze to look at Jack.
He looked tense, his every muscle was visibly contracted and she knew, she just knew that whatever he had pent up inside him would soon burst out through his sparrings.
And K was scared.
Jack got himself ready for the lesson and waited for Nate to break the ice. The latter waited until K was sat down before clearing his throat.
"First of all, welcome you guys." He teasingly smiled and bowed, making the regular campers chuckle as they bowed too.
Apparently they were way too used to his antics. The new campers went along with the flow as they eyed Nate curiously.
Meanwhile, Jack just stood there stiff as a board, his hands clasped behind his back and his face severe.
"I know it's a little late for a welcome since we have been spending all day with eachother but with this part of the activity, we reset everything." Everybody looked on amazed as the guy who had been so far goofy, took on a serious note and became rather professional for the time being. He now stood in the same posture as Jack and was talking with his head held high.
"It's safe to remind you that this is a karate camp and our main focus will be in fact, said sport so you already must know that every day we will be doing some different kinds of practices." The students nodded and Nate went on.
"Before starting, I have to ask if any of you hasn't got any experience in karate and don't be afraid to say so because it's not the first time people come here for a beginner's course." Nate looked around and smiled when nobody raised their hands. It seemed that this year they had a fresh batch of real karatekas.
"Perfect. Now let's get started!"
And so, began a rather interesting and action filled two hour practice that had even the ones on the sidelines wanting to go in at some point, whether to spar or do some kata, as in, practice individually.
In his own world, Jack had managed to completely clear his mind of all extra thoughts and for once, ignored whoever was near him that weren't his students. He broke his stoic attitude for the sake of the kids and let himself melt by the familiar flow of adrenaline in his veins before he fell into his natural habitat, a dojo.
Of course, this place on a mountain was by no means a real dojo but from all the times Jack had already been here and from the general atmosphere of a dojo, this place seemed like nothing else right now.
And so he became his sensei self again and taught new moves, set up sparring matches and even sparred with a 17 year old who just wanted a challenge.
No guessing in who won though.
It was almost evening by the time they were done and were just about ready to pack everything up when Jack stumbled upon a conversation between the younger kids that he really wasn't supposed to actually hear.
"This was a really good practice."
"I could get used to this all summer."
"Plus, we do have some pretty awesome senseis" Here they giggled and Jack rolled his eyes amused.
He really was too used to this, he figured that if he had been a heartthrob in his teenage years, his charm wouldn't go away for a long time.
"True that, they make quite some teacher crushes." The other one said, smiling.
"One of them is already taken though." At that, Jack scowled and made to walk away but the next words were what caught his major interest.
"It would be cool to see them sparring eachother."
"Who's you think would win?"
"Um...It's hard to choose! They both seem to be on the same level..."
"Well I'd go for Jack."
"What, you like him most?" The girl blushed and defended her case.
"No! Well okay, but he just seems to have that kind of aura around him."
All this while, Jack stood there stunned, his ears not letting anything go amiss. He could not believe that now he had 'that' kind of aura around him.
How different and mad did he seem to the world?
"Hmm, I get what you mean. At the start of practice he was all rigid and whatnot, but then even though he loosed up, he kind of gave off some intense waves of...darkness?"
"Exactly! So I'm not the only one! But anyway, I go for him."
"I'd go for Nate." The girl shrugged, "He seems like he can handle someone like Jack."
Jack finally had heard enough and quickly stomped away, not caring if the girls saw him waking away or not. This had to be settled now. For all of practice he had to hold back because he was either teaching or sparring with the kids. He thought he could've held it off a while longer until he was alone at camp but what the girls just said fueled him to create a dangerous fire.
This had to be settled down. He admitted that he may be giving off 'some kind of aura' but nowhere in hell would he accept the idea of being thrown off by some dude he just met and that he felt some deep deep -unreasonable he now says- hatred.
It had crossed his mind that he was being off for no reason, that he really shouldn't give a fuck about who K, Olivia, dated, but that was just the problem. He couldn't bring himself to admit that was the reason of his bad mood, of his anger.
Sure, when he first saw them kiss he had thought irrevocably that it was Kim and felt crushed, but in the woods he reminded himself that his Kim was dead and that she would never do such a thing to him. He didn't know when this transition of thoughts came to be by he guessed it was somewhere in the middle of him attacking that tree.
Jack also didn't want to admit that the more he acknowledged facts and later denied them, he was gradually losing his head. He still wondered just how long would this process of 'yes Kim - no Kim" go even though he now knew that it had ended.
Facts remained that this woman was just someone who looked like Kim but truth was that she led her own life.
So even after all this, why couldn't he just let it go? Why couldn't he feel light and cheerful again? Why did he still feel like he could never be happy again?
He thought he had made up his mind but when he saw Lance and how broken he looked, tears flowed from his own eyes too and he could do nothing to stop them. On that moment, he had forgottenhow he though this was not Kim and let himself believe it again, sharing his pain with Lance.
He wanted nothing more to just shout and die himself, he wanted to throw a tantrum like a little kid until he got answers but then, as soon as Lance had stopped crying, he had too and was back to believing this was Olivia and that was it.
What was he doing? He didn't know.
Jack sighed, wishing that he had his Livvy with him right now to remind him that his life wasn't over and that he was meant to do more than lose his mind.
Maybe, if Livvy had been therw she would've seen with her own eyes what he had seen to and taken it as the final proof that this was not her mommy. Then it would've been easier for Jack to accept the fact himself and comfort his daughter.
As he thought about K again -it came to his mind that he should stop calling her K too- he felt himself being pulled from the inside again and remembered what he had been silently challenged to do.
He could finally release some.
"Hey Nate, wait!" He shouted, spinning on his heels and beckoning the man over. Nate rose his eyebrows and walked over to him.
"What's up Jack?" He wearily asked and Jack found some sort of odd satisfaction in seeing that he may be intimidating the man in some way. He guessed that Nate had too picked up on his attitude and was either hesitant or deep down annoyed by him.
Jack didn't care as right now he just wanted a good spar to possibly prove himself.
"I just realized, of all people, we haven't gone against eachother." Jack said it as casually as he could, resting his hands on his hips.
Nate smirked and chuckled, "You're right Jack. How 'bout we take care of that now?" He walked a few feet back and and Jack followed him, the kids forming a circle around them and giving them their space.
"Just what I wanted to hear. You know my answer." Jack replied, rolling up the sleeves of his shirt and standing three feet from Nate.
From the sidelines, the two girls who had been taking earlier about just this, snapped their heads towards eachother with wide eyes, mentally thinking the same thing.
'Damn.'
Damn indeed.
And here you go! I hope it was worth the wait and stay tuned in for the next chapter that I promise won't take as long! I missed updating this story haha.
As always, please drop in a review and tell me what you thought :)
And one last thing on a completely unrelated note. I hope you guys all got the chance to see the 'One Love Manchester' concert and I just wanted to know if I wasn't the only one who got emotional while watching it on tv.
Artist after artist and the 50 thousand people all singing together as a whole to fill our hearts with love, hope and courage. That's what we need and Ariana is just a wonderful person who led this event to the end.
We need to stand together, simply give love and pray. We prayed for Manchester and now we pray for London, and we will always pray for the rest of the world.
For whoever stayed with me to the end of this note, thank you and even if you didn't, thanks anyway :)
See you at next chapter guys!
Until next time,
-Alex.
