Hello, internet! Jess here, bringing you the fourth chapter in this story. This chapter's in Luke's POV, so it might be a little different. Disclaimer: I do not own JESSIE or anything affiliated with it. The only things I own are the plot of the story and my OC, Claire.

LUKE

When he woke up in the middle of the night, he didn't expect to hear anything but snoring. But, this night was different. There was a major thunderstorm outside, and once in a while, lightning would illuminate his room. He heard whimpering, like a dog, coming from one of the other rooms.

He shuffled out of his room into the hallway, aware of the people sleeping. He zoned in on the room where the crying was heard. Claire's room.

From the moment she spoke the first sentence to him, he knew she was different. He didn't know if it was in a good way or not, but hey, he only knew her for three months. That's only enough time to be accustomed to her habits.

He walked into the room, staring at the silhouette of the girl. It shook, just as lightning glowed up the room. Another whimper, and more thunder booms later, Luke called, "Claire? Are you okay?"

The sounds stopped. "Luke?"

He walked up to her bed, "What happened?"

"I'm fine, F-Freckles. J-just a nightmare. It was just a nightmare." She shivered.

He sighed, running his hands through his hair. He could just tell her to go to sleep, and he in turn would get more sleep; he could book it out of there and dream about Jessie at her bikini pageant; or he could ask her to explain her dream to him. The possibilities were only three, but with dire consequences. If he left her hanging, she'd keep doing this thing, whatever it was, until she'd get sent to a psychologist for therapy. But, if he stayed and listened, he'd lose some major dream time. And dream time is happy time. "Spill."

"What?" Claire asked incredulously.

"What was so bad that you woke up in the middle of the night shivering your ass off and whimpering like a puppy?"

"You really want to know?"

"…Yes, I do."

"Just promise not to tell anyone, okay? Cross your heart?" Claire urged. He crossed the area where his heart was. She sighed, "I dreamt about the night my parents died."

"You don't have to if you don't want-"

"Just listen, you made your end of the deal, it's my turn now." she stated.

"A few months ago… someone came into our house. I don't know how, since the base always has guards. It was pouring, maybe Jimmy was on night duty that night, who knows. Well, news of a breakout at the Rehab Center in the next town over spouted. The person was armed, and they decided to flee into the next town, which was after our base. Apparently, cutting through our base is easier than going around it," she said venomously, "So they did. Don't know why, don't know how, but they chose my family to kill. I knew this was gonna be a bad night the minute I went to bed…"

"When I heard the footsteps coming from the stairs, I took my taser-" she continued.

"Your parents let you have a taser?"

"Yes, they did! So I took it, and I hid under my bed. When I heard the footsteps coming into my room, I froze in place, under the safety of my bed. I could see their bare feet, all wet and bloody and scraped. Then, they dropped the gun into the hallway. I guess my dad heard something, because I saw him walk out into the hallway. That's when I saw it, I heard my dad screaming, "What are you doing in my house?! LEAVE,NOW!" the dude picked up the gun, and shot my dad, right in the heart. I knew he was dead, I could see the blood on his shirt. My mom was screaming, "John? JOHN?!" the killer went inside my parents' bedroom, and I heard about four or five shots ring through the air. Then, they just left… It was like the only purpose they came there, was to kill my parents." He looked at her, and he saw the tears streaming down her face. He didn't even notice Claire was crying, she was so quiet.

"Hey, hey, it's okay now. You're not there, you're here, in New York. You're far away from that place. Nobody's gonna hurt you, I'll make sure of it." He reassured her, rubbed her arms.

"Are you serious?" she said softly before looking at him.

"Positively serious." He nodded.

"Cross your heart?"

"And hope to die." He reassured.

"…Thanks Luke, it helped to talk about it."

"Nah, it's no problem." He scratched the back of his neck, "You should be getting to sleep. Second week of school tomorrow, right?"

"Oh, yeah… I swear your grade teacher taught better math than Ms. Hemingway, she doesn't even know how to explain the," she yawned, "The proper formulas for calculating the areas of three dimensional objects."

"Don't go all math on me now, or I'll be fast asleep before you are." He chuckled, walking towards the door.

"Wait, don't-!" she called.

"What?"

"…could you stay with me until the storm ends?" she asked oh-so innocently.

"Why not?" he said, lying down beside her. "So… watcha wanna do?"

"I don't know…" she yawned again, "What was your childhood like?"

"I don't remember anything before I got adopted, actually. It's better not to know what was in the past anyways." He stated, "When I was adopted, Emma didn't really like it. She never did, actually. She always wanted the attention on her. Then again, little girls needed attention on them for a few years."

"Wow, such a heart-warming story," Claire said sarcastically.

"Hey, that's how it was, you can't change the past." He put his hands up defensively.

She chuckled, "But you can change the future."

"Tell me, how so, oh mighty philosopher?"

"Oh, shut up!" she swatted him.

"Come on, you need sleep. How are you going to function in Dance Class tomorrow if you don't get some rest?"

"You should tell yourself the same thing." Claire stated, tucking herself under the blankets. After a few yawns, and a small "Thanks", she was out.

"I knew you could do it. You just needed the motivation…" Jessie said, leaning against the door frame.

"I didn't know you were awake." Luke stated.

"I heard her too. She knew someone would hear eventually, we're the same that way."

"Did you hear what happened with-?"

"Just the last few parts… it's nice to know she has people to depend on here, to know she'll be okay." Jessie said, leaning to get up from her position.

"Do you think-?"

She nodded, "Probably not. All she needed was a person to tell, now that she has, she should be fine."

He sighed, "That's good. Should I-?"

"Go back to your room, Luke… and don't go anywhere near her when she's unconscious."

"Why not? Think I might make a move on your little cousin?" he smirked.

"No, she senses more when she's sleeping. That's how she knew when that murderer came into her house."

"Then wouldn't she-?"

"No, she's in a deep, deep sleep. It's good to hear she's fine, but it's gonna be hard to wake her up tomorrow." Jessie sighed.

"Well, I'd like to see you try…" he walked back into his room, going into his dream state.

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"Good morning, bestie," Luke greeted the next morning, smirking. They were alone in the kitchen, eating breakfast. Claire was decked out in her pajamas, glaring at said boy, "Not one word, Freckles, or the koala gets it."

"I had a good sleep, thanks for asking." He said sarcastically.

"That's good for you, because I didn't." She said, munching on her Poptart.

Hello people of Earth, Jupiter and Wisconsin! This was one of the more serious chapters. Yeah, I needed to add some depth and a description on how Claire's parents died. A wee bit blunt, eh? Well, I suck at writing tragedies, or anything for that matter… Hoped you like this chapter, even though it was pretty short. I'll see you on the flip side! (-ᴥ-) (Well that was a failed emoticon… '-.- )