Chapter Seventy-Nine

Clarissa's head snapped up as she heard John's whimpers of pain. "Is everything okay?" She asked, walking from the kitchen to the entryway. "Oh my God." She took in John's freezing form, watching as Claire was trying to get him out of his soaked tank top, and get his flipflops off of his feet. "Is he hurt?" She asked, grabbing a blanket from the closet and draping it over John's shivering body.

Claire shook her head, rubbing her hands over his legs to try and get him warm. "No, we went for a swim and he got cold."

John whimpered as another pain hit him with the next round of shakes. "C-c-cold." He leaned toward Clarissa, knowing that she could take his pain away with her magical motherly touch.

Clarissa rubbed his back, pulling at the soaked wrappings around his torso to try and get them off so he could warm up a little better. "I know, Pumpkin." She unwrapped his chest, lifting him to his feet and walking him upstairs. "Let's get you in the shower."

Claire watched as they walked, noticing the long burns on the back of John's legs. She tilted her head, wondering what those had been from. They almost looked like he'd stood on a flaming log, but the fronts of his legs weren't burned at all. Maybe he'd gotten them from a hot pipe being held to his skin, or maybe something worse. Then she remembered something she'd seen in a movie once… the villain had poured alcohol onto his victims back, and used a blow torch to melt his skin from his body. John's legs looked a lot like something like that had happened to him. She shuddered at the thought of John's skin blistering and burning, the screams that she'd never heard filling his ears. She could practically smell John's blackened skin, taste the smoke that would have been there. She wondered if there had ever been a happy moment in his childhood, then remembered how he'd hidden the photo of he and Dominic as babies. Who was she kidding, he'd never had a happy moment until he met the Breakfast Club. He'd been a scared kid his whole life. The only thing he'd known was pain and fear. Maybe that's why he'd been such an ass to her that first day, he didn't want to be hurt or be scared of being hurt by her. She gasped, realization hitting her. "He had a crush on me from that first day."

Kaylie chuckled, coming to sit with her friend on the stairs. "He's had a crush on you since second grade." She smiled at Claire's reaction. "He just never thought someone like you would ever talk to someone like him."

She looked up at the balcony walkway above them, listening to the shower turn on in the enclosed part of the hallway. "He was right. I never would have given him a second glance until detention on March 24th."

Kaylie handed her a piece of chocolate, lifting the blanket that John had left at the base of the stairs onto their laps. "What changed?"

"I realized that we all have struggles, and that maybe mine aren't the worst of them." She listened to John shout that the water was too hot, knowing that it only felt that way because he was so cold. "I never would have thought that someone could hurt their kid like his parents did."

Kaylie nodded, taking a drink of tea. "He got the worst of it. My parents would hit me once in a while, or shove me into a wall or the furniture, but they never burned me and cut me like John's did."

"Did they burn John's legs?" She asked, afraid of the answer.

Kaylie shook her head, remembering how she and Sid had been on their second date at the diner, when they'd gotten a call from Dominic saying that John had been jumped and he needed help fixing him up. "He got jumped by the worst gang in town, they took everything from him; his shirt, pants, wallet, shoes, any weapon he had on him. They fucked him up pretty bad, he was lucky to escape with his life. I'm not sure exactly how they burned him so bad, but he doesn't remember a lot of it. He doesn't even remember dragging himself to Dom's house on his burned feet."

Claire looked at the floor, wiping her tears from her cheeks as she thought about what John had been through. "He never ceases to amaze me."

Kaylie smiled, pulling Claire into a sisterly hug. "He's pretty amazing."

"Do you think he wants kids?" Claire asked, knowing that some of the burners were against having kids.

Kaylie shrugged, taking another sip of her tea. "I know that I don't want kids. I'm to scared of being like my Mom. But John's different, I think he'd be a great dad. It's just a matter of getting him through detox and away from Medusa."

Claire nodded, smiling as Kaylie handed her another piece of chocolate. "We can do that."

Kaylie chuckled, brushing some of her blonde hair out of her face. "Damn right." She smiled, listening to the TV in the other room. "Come on, the guys are watching Star Wars, and I don't wanna miss it."