The Suffering

Disclaimer: Still broke. I still own nothing but the idea in my head. Panic! At The Disco owns the song for this chapter.

A/N: I've been slacking big time. I mean seriously, I wait until the very last day of my Christmas break to write some of this. What's wrong with me? Hah, well anyways, I hope I didn't keep you guys in suspense for too long. I promise this chapter will be good! Oh, and in this chapter, f-bombs are dropping faster than bombs are dropping in other parts of the world. Just to warn you guys.

Chapter VI: Camisado

October 20, 2007

The Del Rossi/Michalchuk/Nash Household

Jay sighed heavily and sat down on the front steps of the house. He didn't know who was calling him, or what she wanted, but he knew it was about Alex. The woman on the other end of the phone said he may be shocked, but it was Alex. She didn't know about their history. She didn't know that Alex could do anything and Jay wouldn't even flinch. Or so he thought.

"Alright, I'm sitting," he said smirking. "Now tell me whatever it is about Alex?"

"Well, I don't know how to say this, but she's in the hospital for the time being. However, as soon as the doctor's give us the okay we're taking her into police custody."

"What the hell, lady? You're telling me you're gonna arrest someone for being in the hospital?! What kinda shit is that?"

Angry, Jay started to jump up. However, that happened to be the exact same moment Paige decided to come running out of the house to look for Alex. She ran straight into him, and actually tripped over him. She flipped forward onto the grass and looked up at him. He was in an awkward half-standing position looking down at her.

"What the fuck, Hogart? Are you stalking me now? I thought you left!"

"The fuck's the matter with you? Are you fucking on crack or some shit?" Jay spat back at her.

"Excuse me?" The woman on the phone's voice was testy.

"Sorry, not you; that was… I was talking to my friend." Jay shot Paige a glare. "Anyway, what was this you were saying about Alex?"

"Who are you talking to?" Paige asked him. He silenced her.

"Your friend… we need to hold her for some questioning. Do you know a man named Andrew Flom?"

"Handy Andy," Jay said laughing. "Sure, that kid's a douche. What about him?"

"He's in the hospital too… the doctor's don't think he's going to make it. We know your friend Alex did this to him and that's why we need to talk to her. Any witness we tried to talk to couldn't give us any exact story on what was going on."

"Ok, let me get this straight- You wanna arrest Alex for beating up some kid who probably provoked her? Why the hell is she at the hospital, again?"

"There was a fight, from what we gathered. These witnesses just said there was a lot of yelling going on inside a van and Mr. Flom dragged her out of this van and she just started going at him."

"He had her in the fucking van? I swear if he touched her like that I'll fucking murder that kid myself. He deserves to be within an inch of his life…"

"So, you know what that van is about? Could you maybe come down here and answer a few questions for us?"

"Not without Alex, I won't. So I'll tell you what, I'll go down to the hospital and collect her, and then we'll pay you guys a visit at the station." He hung up without waiting for a response and then looked at Paige. "Your girlfriend is in the hospital; want to come with me to pay her a visit?"

Paige nodded, suddenly feeling numb. "What… what happened? She got into a fight? That is so like her… but what was that whole thing about the van?"

"I'll explain it to you later. I dunno if it's true or not yet."

October 20, 2007

Toronto General Hospital

Paige sat in the front seat of Jay's orange Honda staring straight out the window. This was probably the first time she had ever been somewhere alone with him without him having a comment or trying anything, but her mind was too preoccupied to even notice. She felt so numb. Alex was in the hospital. What if she dies? No, I can't think like that… But what if it happens? I never got to tell her how I feel. Ok, I gotta stop being so chicken shit and just tell her. That's what I'm going to do. I'm going to go right into her room and tell her everything. She jumped about a foot when Jay's cold hand touched her arm.

"Hey," he said in a tone much softer than his usual one. "Are you alright? We can get out the car and go in there any time you want…"

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine." Her tone definitely didn't have her convinced. "Let's just go in there and see her." She started to open her door when Jay spoke again.

"Don't say anything to Alex, you hear me? She definitely has other things on her mind and she won't want to hear anything from you. I know she won't. You say something now and you're sealing your fate."

She looked at him, speechless. How did he know what she was going to do? "You're so full of shit, Jay. What if she dies? It doesn't matter to you, she knows you love her. What about me, huh? I'll never get to tell her. She could be dead right now and she probably hates me!"

"Don't be so fucking selfish, Paige. You wanna know why you and Lexi are having this fight now and why it even started? It's all because your number one concern is yourself. It's always about you. It's never about Lexi or anyone else for that matter. Get the fuck over yourself. You wanna know about that van? I'll tell you about that van. People go in there to have sex. Alex was in that van with a boy and look where she is now. If he did anything to her, I swear to god… You just need to shut up and think about Alex. If you were her right now… If you ever had something like that happen to you I doubt you would want someone running to you crying about how stupid they were and how much they love you."

Paige was quiet. At first, she kept thinking Jay was full of shit. She definitely wasn't only into herself. She was pretty into Alex, if she said so herself. But then the mention of the van and what happened there made her start thinking that maybe Jay had a point. As much as she didn't want to think about it, her thoughts went to Dean and her rape. Spinner had been the last person she wanted to talk to. She didn't want to talk to him or her family or anyone who was going to tell her how great she was and how much they liked her. Jay was right; Alex wouldn't want to hear her. She probably wouldn't even want to see her.

"I'll just stay in the car then." She said quietly. "Alex probably won't even want to look at me.

"Come on, you're being selfish again." Jay's expression softened. He did feel a little bad for yelling at her, but something had to be said.

"No, you're completely right. Alex wouldn't want to hear me, and I know she won't want to see me."

"Yes she will. All you're doing right now is worrying about you. You're scared she's gonna yell at you. Maybe she will yell at you… maybe you deserve it. Either way though, I know she'll be happy you came to see her. She might not show it on the outside, but it'll mean something to her."

Jay got out of the car and shut his door. He walked around to the other side of the car and held the door open, waiting for Paige to get out. She took her time getting out of the car and the two walked into the hospital with an uncomfortable silence between them. Jay got two visitor passes from the front desk and they got on the elevator, the silence still hanging there. Jay got to Alex's room and stopped outside the door. He looked at Paige and nodded for her to go inside. She looked back at him questioningly and shook her head.

"You know her better than I do. I can wait. Besides, I need some time to think."

"Good for you, you're so selfless." Jay smirked and walked inside the room.

He looked at Alex and couldn't help but smile. Her face may have been scratched up, and there was a bandage just above her left eye but she still looked ready to kick someone's ass. She looked up at him, trying to maintain her tough look, and couldn't help but smirking at him. He walked over to the right side of her bed and rested his hands on the railing along the side. She raised her hand and rested it on top of his, and he noticed another bandage wrapped around her arm.

"Lexi," his voice grew full of concern. "How are you? Do I gotta go down the hallway and murder someone for you?"

She shook her head. "I'm fine, Jay, really. Don't look at me like that! Nothing happened. He tried something and I kicked his ass."

"So if you kicked his ass, what's all that for?" He nodded towards the bandages.

"A fight is a fight." She shrugged. "He thought he would be tough and slam my head against the van so I came right back at him. Can we get out of here? You know I hate hospitals."

Jay looked at her, still not convinced. "You promise me you're fine? And he didn't do anything to you at all?"

"Other than slam my head into a wall and give me a few scratches?" She grinned and then frowned when she saw how serious Jay's expression was. "Jay, you're my best friend. Of all people you know I would tell you if something had happened. He pulled me into the van and tried to make a move on me so I set him straight."

"Alex, you almost killed him. You don't almost kill a guy for standing too close to you. You don't almost kill a guy for kissing you or trying to pressure you into something. If you did that, I'd be a dead man right now." He smirked at her.

"He said he would kill me if I didn't go down on him-"

"Where is he? I'll kill him."

"Calm down, nothing happened. I mean, he threatened to kill me if I didn't do it, so I figured I could probably kill him before he would kill me. Relax, Jay. I promise you, if anything had happened, I would have told you. Now can we leave?"

"Not just yet. And we can't completely leave anyway. We gotta go see the police. Or I should say you gotta go see them. They wanna talk to you about what happened." He saw her eyes widen and he squeezed her hand. "It's gonna be fine, they don't got shit on you. If anything, it's self-defense. Hey though, someone else came to see you too. I'll give you guys some time." He smiled at her and left the room.

As soon as Paige saw Jay she ran up to him. "So what happened? Did anything happen? Is she alright? I called Marco; he's on his way up here to see her. Can I go see her?"

Jay sighed and then laughed. "You never shut up. Lexi's fine, she's perfect. Nothing happened to her at all. Go right in there and be selfish Paige. You tell her everything you're feeling. I know her better than anything and I know that's what she needs to hear."

"But earlier you said-"

"That was earlier; this is now. Just go in there."

Jay gave her a shove forward. She glared at him, but was secretly thankful, because there was no way she would have had the courage to go inside. Jay Hogart is an asshole. She told herself. But he really steps it up when he needs to. Okay, Paige, don't go in there being your usual self. Just tell Alex how you were wrong all those years ago and how much you liked her… No, how much you like her now… Tell her how you feel, but don't talk too much. Paige fixed her hair and adjusted her shirt and then turned around, giving Jay a 'how-do-I-look?' sort of look. He just rolled his eyes and fanned his hand towards the door. She carefully stepped inside the room and knocked on the wall, as if Alex didn't already see that she was there.

Paige's slightly red from crying eyes locked with Alex's bored looking ones and the two girls stared at each other. Paige took a few more steps forward, just waiting for a hail of insults to come flying at her. Alex may have been lying in a hospital bed all bandaged up, but she certainly didn't look too sick to still beat Paige's ass. Alex looked at Paige carefully. After the fiasco this morning, she wasn't looking to make any more waves. If anything, she just wanted Paige to sit on the bed, hold her and tell her that everything would be alright.

Damnit, Jay, you were right about everything. Alex thought to herself. She knew all along that Jay was right with what he was saying. Paige did like her. Hell, she might even love her. I need to calm down. I'm not gonna get arrested, and I can't take my stress out on Paige. She looked away from Paige, and then looked back at her, smiling slightly.

"Long time, no talk," Alex said, smirking.

"Yeah… listen, hon, we need to talk; really talk. I have to say something and I wanna just come out and say it, no interruptions."

"Yeah, we went through this earlier and if I remember right, you cried."

Paige frowned and Alex mentally kicked herself for snapping at her.

"Right," Paige struggled to compose herself. "This time is gonna be different because what I'm saying is completely different…" Her confidence was starting to falter.

"Well?" Alex looked at her expectantly.

Paige took a deep breath and finally approached Alex's bedside. She placed her hands on the railing, almost in the same spot as Jay. Now that she was standing so close, she could really take a good look at Alex. It made her upset to see how fragile and scared Alex looked lying in a hospital bed with bandages covering her. The only thing Paige wanted to do was to lean over and kiss her to make everything better, sort of like in a fairy tale. However, she knew this wasn't a fairy tale, and she had the growing feeling inside of her that they weren't going to have a happy ending. She took another breath.

"Alex," she started. "What I'm trying to tell you is… I was… maybe I was a little…" She stopped talking. She was rambling too much and she knew it. Why couldn't she just have some balls and say what she wanted to say.

"What is it already? Your suspense is gonna kill me faster than these cuts." Alex said in a half joking tone."

"I was so mean to you freshman year." Paige blurted out. She wanted to kick herself. This wasn't where she was trying to go. "I didn't mean to. I never should have. We were like this!" She crossed her fingers for emphasis. "I never should have thrown it away."

"You wanted to apologize for something that happened when we were 14? Paige, we're almost 20, come on now…"

"I'm sorry for everything. No! Well yeah, I am, but no that's not why I came here. Remember earlier when you asked me why it was such a big deal that you liked me if I never… you know? Yeah, well about that…" She was sweating. "You were absolutely-"

Before Paige could finish her confession, the door to Alex's room flew open, hitting the wall. Both girls looked up and Paige jumped nearly a foot away from Alex's bed.

A/N: Aw man, am I killing you guys with these cliffhangers or what? Hah, but I actually know what I want to happen next after this so the next chapter might come sooner then they have been lately. As always, comments are golden! Is there anything you wanna see happen? Shoot me suggestions. I may not use them, but I'll definitely consider them!